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[This review can also be found on my BLOG]
**I read this book as a judge for the third annual Self Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC), this review is solely my own and does not reflect the opinions of the whole team**
CW: graphic violence, gun violence, blood, gore, murder, death, kidnapping, drug use / addiction, cannibalism, swearing
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Any Minor World is a fantastic clash of crime noir and superhero fiction that well and truly pulls you in for the ride.
A freelance personal investigator, Roy Mackey gets hired to find a lost manuscript. It’s a job that suspiciously pays too much and where all the details don’t add up. Roy follows the breadcrumbs to Lucy Langenkamp, the young author of a discontinued comic book series – The Midnight Jury – that has links to the mysterious manuscript but which she is clueless about. After saving her from being kidnapped and all but putting a bigger target on his back with the sketchy client who initially hired him, Roy soon finds that he may have more pressing concerns when characters from the actual Midnight Jury comic book start showing up trying to get their hands on Lucy too.
If I was to choose one word to describe this book it would be cinematic. From the first chapter the snappy pacing flows so well, you’re immersed right into the world and the characters fly off the page. Honestly Shaefer’s characterisation is phenomenal, each and every one of the characters fells well fleshed out and you get a real sense of their personalities within a few pages.
There is fair bit of violence in this one but the action is SO GOOD and alongside all the suspense there is this adventurous undertone that makes the book such a page turner.
The story has a very DC Comics feel to it, the setting was giving me flashes of Gotham for sure and I also found my mind drawing parallels to Watchmen and The Sandman too. Though I have to say that as a whole it leans much more towards gritty urban fantasy than science fiction for me and this is probably because when it comes to the more speculative elements there is a lot more magic/black magic involved than science.
As someone who loves it when SFF in paired with mystery/crime I still had such a fun time with it though.
Whilst the direction of the plot is unique there are some very cliché, classic comic book-esque moments along the way too. By the end the events that take place over this one book are concluded really nicely however, there are also some loose threads left early on which hint at a series continuation and I’ll definitely be keeping my eye out for that in the future!
**I read this book as a judge for the third annual Self Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC), this review is solely my own and does not reflect the opinions of the whole team**
CW: graphic violence, gun violence, blood, gore, murder, death, kidnapping, drug use / addiction, cannibalism, swearing
--
Any Minor World is a fantastic clash of crime noir and superhero fiction that well and truly pulls you in for the ride.
A freelance personal investigator, Roy Mackey gets hired to find a lost manuscript. It’s a job that suspiciously pays too much and where all the details don’t add up. Roy follows the breadcrumbs to Lucy Langenkamp, the young author of a discontinued comic book series – The Midnight Jury – that has links to the mysterious manuscript but which she is clueless about. After saving her from being kidnapped and all but putting a bigger target on his back with the sketchy client who initially hired him, Roy soon finds that he may have more pressing concerns when characters from the actual Midnight Jury comic book start showing up trying to get their hands on Lucy too.
If I was to choose one word to describe this book it would be cinematic. From the first chapter the snappy pacing flows so well, you’re immersed right into the world and the characters fly off the page. Honestly Shaefer’s characterisation is phenomenal, each and every one of the characters fells well fleshed out and you get a real sense of their personalities within a few pages.
There is fair bit of violence in this one but the action is SO GOOD and alongside all the suspense there is this adventurous undertone that makes the book such a page turner.
The story has a very DC Comics feel to it, the setting was giving me flashes of Gotham for sure and I also found my mind drawing parallels to Watchmen and The Sandman too. Though I have to say that as a whole it leans much more towards gritty urban fantasy than science fiction for me and this is probably because when it comes to the more speculative elements there is a lot more magic/black magic involved than science.
As someone who loves it when SFF in paired with mystery/crime I still had such a fun time with it though.
Whilst the direction of the plot is unique there are some very cliché, classic comic book-esque moments along the way too. By the end the events that take place over this one book are concluded really nicely however, there are also some loose threads left early on which hint at a series continuation and I’ll definitely be keeping my eye out for that in the future!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder
I wasn't exactly sure what to expect when I started this book, but it wasn't what I got. I was expecting more science fantasy, since this can be described as a multi-world superhero book. Instead, the book felt more like a gritty crime noir story, with the first half of the book only barely touching on the superhero (or, more accurately, supervillain) aspects. The book always felt more focused on the detective angle than any SFF or superhero angle.
I hesitate to know how to talk about this book. If I had been at a bookstore and skimmed the first few chapters trying to decide whether to pick it up, I probably wouldn't have gone any further than that. This book is much darker and grittier than my usual fare. It's just not the kind of book that I will usually pick for myself. However, since someone else picked it for me, I did keep reading and I was fascinated by the concept. You could tell that there was a lot of depth to this book beyond what was shown on the page, and I found myself wondering more than once whether Schaefer had written / commissioned the actual Midnight Jury comic books to have as a visual reference.
The characters, for the most part, felt like comic book characters. (Which makes sense, all things considered.) Honestly, even the two main characters from the "real" world felt very frequently like comic book characters. And yet, for me, there wasn't much of a visual picture of the characters. The images that stuck with me were more about the characters' accessories than their appearance. (Except for Mr. Smith, who I couldn't help but picture as Agent Smith from the Matrix movies.) Roach had his homemade flamethrower. The Duke is a canvas for tattoos. Rumblebones has her teddy bear. But what do they look like? I'm not sure. (Though honestly, that feels very "comic book" to me, too, where the artists change periodically and the character appearances change with them but the accessories stay the same.)
I really enjoyed the (all too brief) discussion of the way authors create stories and some of the stories linger and create their own worlds that are populated by their characters. We got just enough of the creation stuff to move the main plot forward, though, and no more. I would have loved to see more of it, but that would have made for a slower book. This one was more focused on action, and that meant leaving the philosophical "what happens when we dream up other worlds" stuff for another time. We got enough of it in this book to understand why it was a plot point, but it stopped there.
When I got to "The End," I found that I had enjoyed my time with this book more than I expected to based on the opening. I don't know how many of my regular blog readers I can recommend this to, though, since I know that, like me, many of my regulars enjoy cozy books (which this is NOT). However, there are also some readers of this blog who like darker stuff than I do, and those of you who are looking for something interesting with great worldbuilding and more grit than is present in the kind of books I typically review might enjoy this book.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~
I read this book as part of the judging process for the 3rd Self Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC3), and I was provided a review copy for judging purposes. My opinions are my own and do not reflect the thoughts of my SPSFC3 team or the competition as a whole.
I hesitate to know how to talk about this book. If I had been at a bookstore and skimmed the first few chapters trying to decide whether to pick it up, I probably wouldn't have gone any further than that. This book is much darker and grittier than my usual fare. It's just not the kind of book that I will usually pick for myself. However, since someone else picked it for me, I did keep reading and I was fascinated by the concept. You could tell that there was a lot of depth to this book beyond what was shown on the page, and I found myself wondering more than once whether Schaefer had written / commissioned the actual Midnight Jury comic books to have as a visual reference.
The characters, for the most part, felt like comic book characters. (Which makes sense, all things considered.) Honestly, even the two main characters from the "real" world felt very frequently like comic book characters. And yet, for me, there wasn't much of a visual picture of the characters. The images that stuck with me were more about the characters' accessories than their appearance. (Except for Mr. Smith, who I couldn't help but picture as Agent Smith from the Matrix movies.) Roach had his homemade flamethrower. The Duke is a canvas for tattoos. Rumblebones has her teddy bear. But what do they look like? I'm not sure. (Though honestly, that feels very "comic book" to me, too, where the artists change periodically and the character appearances change with them but the accessories stay the same.)
I really enjoyed the (all too brief) discussion of the way authors create stories and some of the stories linger and create their own worlds that are populated by their characters. We got just enough of the creation stuff to move the main plot forward, though, and no more. I would have loved to see more of it, but that would have made for a slower book. This one was more focused on action, and that meant leaving the philosophical "what happens when we dream up other worlds" stuff for another time. We got enough of it in this book to understand why it was a plot point, but it stopped there.
When I got to "The End," I found that I had enjoyed my time with this book more than I expected to based on the opening. I don't know how many of my regular blog readers I can recommend this to, though, since I know that, like me, many of my regulars enjoy cozy books (which this is NOT). However, there are also some readers of this blog who like darker stuff than I do, and those of you who are looking for something interesting with great worldbuilding and more grit than is present in the kind of books I typically review might enjoy this book.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~
I read this book as part of the judging process for the 3rd Self Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC3), and I was provided a review copy for judging purposes. My opinions are my own and do not reflect the thoughts of my SPSFC3 team or the competition as a whole.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Death, Drug use, Gore, Cannibalism