Bracken MacLeod

Badly battered by an apocalyptic storm, the crew of the Arctic Promise find themselves in increasingly dire circumstances as they sail blindly into unfamiliar waters and an ominously thickening fog. Without functioning navigation or communication equipment, they are lost and completely alone. One by one, the men fall prey to a mysterious illness. Deckhand Noah Cabot is the only person unaffected by the strange force plaguing the ship and her crew, which does little to ease their growing show more distrust of him. Dismissing Noah's warnings of worsening conditions, the captain of the ship presses on until the sea freezes into ice, and they can go no farther. When the men are ordered overboard in an attempt to break the ship free by hand, the fog clears, revealing a faint shape in the distance that may or may not be their destination. Noah leads the last of the able-bodied crew on a journey across the ice and into an uncertain future where they must fight for their lives against the elements, the ghosts of the past and, ultimately, themselves.

It seems to be my month for ice, snow, and lost expeditions. if I'm going to stay in this frozen land I 'm going to have to start building an igloo:) More people tramping around ice, snow and freezing temperatures. I ask you; how can supposedly smart men be some dumb???

The ship Arctic Promise contains a motley crew of characters, drawn in vivid strokes. Noah, the main character, is on what he hopes to be his last mission, before heading home to his daughter. The captain of the Promise is also Noah’s father-in-law and blames Noah for the death of his own daughter, Noah’s wife. The captain has no reservations about his thoughts of his son-in-law departing this world as soon as possible.

En route to a rig, the ship runs into a dense fog and is soon stuck in ice. The ice quickly surrounds them, trapping them, and sentencing them to a frozen death if they cannot find a way out. One by one, the ship’s crew falls ill with a mysterious illness. Problems are further compounded by the loss of all communications with the outside world. Finally, Noah and a team leave the ship, and head to a strange structure barely visible in the distance. What they discover there might have them wishing the weather had already killed them.

To deliver further details would only ruin the many surprises and twists that hide within the pages. Each time the story seems to settle in, the author wrenches readers into a deeper, darker world that is nothing like what is expected, but results in a plot that is nearly impossible to steer away from.

Bracken MacLeod has written a novel that undoubtedly will garner him a wide base of readers. Part thriller, part horror, part sci-fi, and all a great story. This tale will stick with those who are brave enough to fall into the chilled, claustrophobic, world MacLeod has transported them to. show less

Mitch never really wanted to be a parent after his trouble childhood, but his sister Violette simply dropped little Sophie in his lap and left with her band. He takes the responsibility seriously and doesn't tell any government entities to keep getting Violette's benefits. A year later, Lianna finally asks Mitch out and he has a very rare night without Sophie to go on a date. A neighbor acts as a last minute babysitter, but she's obviously drunk when he comes home. Mitch spends the night show more with Lianna and doesn't realize until the next day that Sophie died. This event happens to coincide with some dead children rising from the grave, which includes Sophie. She's changed, but he cares for her like the same girl. Most others fear the returned children, their deathly pallor, and strange powers.

Come to Dust is a different zombie story than most. It starts with Mitch (real name Michel), who is an ex-con getting his life back together. He spent years in jail figuring out how to better cope with his anger. I enjoyed reading from his perspective because he was genuinely happy taking care of Sophie even though he wouldn't have chosen that path. He also has perfectly natural thoughts like thinking daycare worker Khadija looks like a model or Liana wears too much makeup, but then he follows up those thoughts with realizations like Khadija wears a hijab to be modest and Liana can wear as much makeup as she likes. Mitch is also good at sizing people up and assessing how dangerous they really are from a guy who wants to talk a big game but won't follow through to another who would shoot someone out of fear. Outwardly, his demeanor is a bit awkward, nervous, and fairly passive but still charming. Sophie's death breaks him because she was his fresh start and gave him motivation to move forward. They didn't have a lot of money or anything, but they had each other. I found him sympathetic and a good vehicle for the story.

This zombie book that many (especially parents) might find it hard to read. Child death in fiction holds a taboo more than any other type because they are the most vulnerable and innocent of humanity and in our lives. When four year old Sophie is found dead, the discovery is harrowing. The culprits leave town and lie through their teeth when found. Mitch's life falls apart around him from losing his job due to absence to losing all of Violette's government assistance. His whole life melts around him, but he and Liana have grown to love and support each other. The grief is accurately portrayed with moments of happiness and then guilt at being happy along with the waxing and waning pain of loss. Liana herself is also a pretty awesome character. She is much more assertive and sure of herself. In their relationship, she is an equal partner, not someone to be commanded. When Sophie came back, Liana was understandably disturbed and uncomfortable, eventually deciding to end their relationship when Sophie steals some her lifeforce and ages her. Apparently, an alternate effect of that power is affection and love? I found it disturbing that the only main female character has her agency taken away from her and has her making decisions against her own interest to help the male protagonist.

These zombies are a bit different than usual. These are all children and their condition when they come back is how they looked in the grave. Sophie was not very decomposed, but she comes back with a deathly pale skin, grey hair, dark veins, a slowly beating heart, no appetite, a muted personality, and eyes with white cataracts. She's obviously not a living child and everyone who helped them before rejects them now from the day care to the library. Between forward moving chapters are vignettes of other resurrections such as three boys walking out of an apparent child murderer's porch. These gave me a chill down my spine and showed what is happening outside of Mitch's story. As the story moves forward, more zombie abilities are revealed. They can weaponize rot, which in turn rots themselves, and alternatively, they can consume other's lifeforce to make themselves appear more human. If they consume enough, no one would know the difference between them and another child in any way. The different zombie abilities are interesting and mostly make sense except for the forcing some sort of emotion (examples in the book include positive and negative). It just doesn't make sense to me and has problematic implications.

The real villains of this piece are a religious extremist group. They view these children as demons from hell, sent by the devil to destroy people. The group operates as a cult, taking in those down on their luck, changing their lives, and then forcing them to commit atrocities in god's name, including imprisoning or killing anyone that gets in their way and setting fire to returned children. Mitch gets all mixed up in this because his sister comes back born again with this cult and her equally trouble boyfriend to collect Sophie. When they find out Sophie returned, the boyfriend shoves them in his truck and forces them to go to the cult compound. Mitch and other parents forced there break out and attempt to rescue their children, resulting in cars crashed into buildings and many dead and injured. The church disgustingly spins it as violence against them and uses the widespread media coverage to their advantage while the actual good people have to stay silent or risk being painted as terrorists. This is particularly relevant now where people prop up their religious beliefs as reasons to justify hatred, bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, assault, murder, and child molestation just to name a few and cry discrimination or intolerance the minute anyone is against them.

Come to Dust took me almost no time to read because I was so sucked into the story. The characters are all compelling in some way and the lore is unique compared the rest of the genre. There were also small Lovecraftian references like Miskatonic University and the city of Dunwich. I thought this might play into the story a bit more, but I think it was included just to add some little easter eggs. Overall, the book moves quickly, packs an emotional punch, and features relatable and realistic characters even if the ending stretches the logic of the world. show less

We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Noah is traveling aboard the ship Arctic Promise, the toxic domain filled with a crew who hates him. but the money is worth the effort. Every time Noah goes out on the sea he risks not returning to his daughter who is the light of his life and wants something better for both of them. In that spirit, this will be his final voyage with he Arctic Promise. The Promise ends up mired in a especially thick fog rife with secrets to be revealed, lives to be lost an show more surprising mysteries to be uncovered.

The fog also brings a mysterious illness that both terrifies and incapacitates the crew. Then the Arctic Promise becomes stuck in the ice..but they are stuck in a place they shouldn't be, and time is running out.

From the get-go this novel is eerie, with a story that doesn't make sense altogether: why does the crew hate him and the captain especially? Why does Noah feel a sense of foreboding and feel overpowering guilt? Over time, we learn bit by bit about the crew, their history creating a rich and full world heavy with shame, guilt, terror and sorrow. Its the slow unveiling of the deep secrets of the crew in tandem with the strange, creeping illness to which each man is succumbing that really makes this a fantastic read.

I loved Noah for his bravery and strength as well as his deep sensitivity. He is our every man, attempting to get home to his family but not at the expense of his crew. Yet, he is deeply scarred and throughout his journey learns to not only forgive himself, but also others.

Without giving anything away, there's a bit of time travel, a bit of fantasy and a definite HMS Erebus and HMS Terror flair.

Also, its a slow burn horror novel on the sea written by an exceptional writer. Whats not to love?

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for a copy of this book to review. show less

The Terrorizing of Hipstas
Review of the Mariner Books hardcover (July 20, 2021)

It will seem a bit counter intuitive, but after reading Mai's hilarious and entertaining 2-star "live-tweeting-reaction" style review of this book, I couldn't resist trying it out for myself. Partly just to see if I had similar reactions and/or others.

This is a domestic invasion thriller where a married couple who have moved into an isolated home which is apparently beyond their means are terrorized at first by show more one assailant and then later by another pair as well. The mystery elements are who is the first invader (who is unidentified for quite some time), where did Nelle & Evan get the money to buy the house, & what are the additional assailants after? The domestic terror aspect is amped up considerably and all the villains are of a sufficiently cartoonish evil nature that you will not mourn them when karma comes calling.

Mai was certainly spot on with her reactions and my only further thoughts were along the nature of Chekhov's gun, in that what seemed like interesting and quirky plot elements were introduced, but which apparently had no purpose. The couple Nelle & Evan have a Portuguese last name and speak some Portuguese for no apparent reason (it is never used as 'secret' language to deceive their assailants). They are regularly described as "rockabilly hipsters" which aside from sounding anachronistic (an old-time music that is hip?) did nothing further in the plot except perhaps dictate their music choices. So it was just quirkiness introduced for its own sake. The authorities are apparently clueless and have no access to modern forensics, allowing for a tidy wrap-up with no questions asked.

Anyway, the domestic terror aspects here are often quite repellent so steer clear if that is not to your taste. show less