Recently finished prose reading! Exciting every time!
I finally got around to finishing this one on Kindle, and it was a pretty great chapter in the "Steel Ring" series, which makes use of various characters from golden age publisher "Centaur Comics" that have long since fallen into the Public Domain. Author R.A. Jones previously used versions of these characters in the 1990s in a series from Malibu Comics called "The Protectors" and its various spin-offs, but this novel series represents a completely different take on those properties. The comic book series set the characters in what was then the modern world, but the prose series takes place in their "native" 1940s or so. This book, minimal spoilers aside, starts with our heroes suffering a major defeat and getting scattered through time and space. Along the way, we meet new heroes and villains from various time periods, possibly based on more Public Domain figures (or not), followed by the heroes reassembling and meeting in an other-dimensional nexus in scene very much like the one depicted on the cover above. The cast returns to Earth to find they've missed two years of WWII, it's now 1944, and the President has a new assignment for them called "Operation Overlord." Unfortunately, this seems to be where the series itself rather mysteriously ends. There's a cryptic note out there from the publisher about how the series would be "discontinued" in early 2025, and I can find no evidence that the fifth entry was ever actually published. It's too bad, because even though I felt this series had its flaws, it was obviously engaging enough for me to read 4 of its full-length-novel-length offerings. If anyone knows if/when/where the 5th entry is available, I would love to know.
This is an excellent self-contained "tale of western horror" by Barry Gregory, a man who runs the pretty great "IndyPlanet" print-on-demand independent comic book service, and who also authors grizzled crime fiction under the name "Barry Kithe" besides other works under this name. I had started reading this one on Kindle Vella, and then Vella was shut down before I could finish it. I likely could have still finished the book in that format, but I figured I'd toss Barry a few bucks for the regular Kindle version as well. I'm pretty sure he's using AI for his cover art, and normally that's a full stop for me, but I'm making an exception for him as he's done so much for the indie comic/artist community with IndyPlanet. Maybe that's why I should hold him MORE accountable instead, but here we are. The text of the book itself is fantastic. Probably one of my favorite adventure/horror novels I've ever read, in fact. It largely follows three characters, through chapter bearing their titles "The Manhunter, The Gunslinger, and the Wing-Thief," and before it's al said and done, this trio will have taken you on a journey that involves Native American magic (known as "medicine" throughout), serial resurrection, gods dead, alive, and of death itself, as well as some pretty mind-bending time travel. That being said, the story is very engaging and not confusing to follow, and the chapters are just the right length to keep you bouncing from character to character until their stories intertwine. This is marketed and described as a "horror" story, and there are certainly very gory and grim elements to the proceedings, and a lot of them, but at no point did I feel like I did when I read the first "Necroscope" book, which is my watermark for "books that feature patently impossible elements that kind of had me scared anyway." STILL: I absolutely recommend this book, and I intend read more prose fiction by Mr. Gregory as soon as my ADD-addled brain can get 'round to it.
That's it for December! Up next in my prose queue (and in PRINT, even) are:
and:
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