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Prismatic
Jacqueline Cooper is a history student with a stalled thesis and a less than admirable past. When she and biologist Daniel O'Connor uncover what appears to be a hundred-year-old murder site, it might be the break she needs. But the cache contains medical records, detailing outbreaks of madness and violence dating back to 1789, and news of the discovery is quickly covered up. As deaths start multiplying, she starts putting the pieces together—a dangerous ambition. For Daniel O'Connor may not be what he seems, and there are parties who do not want the truth to come out. They want Sydney locked down, terrorised and starving... and what happens then will be far, far worse.
Of course, plague is nothing new to Sydney. Cutting back and forth from Jackie's present to previous epidemics, Prismatic covers a lot of ground. We also meet Adam Waters, a doctor who has seen too much death in World War I, and John Tunks, shipped across the world to the penal colony of New South Wales. With the current international climate, amid fears of terrorism and the spread of SARS and Bird Flu, Prismatic's themes have an especial resonance. But Edwina aims above all to tell a good story. "It's a thriller, it's about these characters and how they fight to survive the disease in their own culture and time. They're ordinary people, but if they fail the consequences could be global. I wanted to take some of our old, human fears and really twist them."
Of course, plague is nothing new to Sydney. Cutting back and forth from Jackie's present to previous epidemics, Prismatic covers a lot of ground. We also meet Adam Waters, a doctor who has seen too much death in World War I, and John Tunks, shipped across the world to the penal colony of New South Wales. With the current international climate, amid fears of terrorism and the spread of SARS and Bird Flu, Prismatic's themes have an especial resonance. But Edwina aims above all to tell a good story. "It's a thriller, it's about these characters and how they fight to survive the disease in their own culture and time. They're ordinary people, but if they fail the consequences could be global. I wanted to take some of our old, human fears and really twist them."
- GenresHorror
362 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
12 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 22, 2014
"And to think... I hesitated."
Channard Cenobite, HELLRAISER 2
PRISMATIC is the sister book to my own CARNIES, both being released about the same time in the already-defunct Lothian horror series. The following year, it beat my book to the Aurealis Award for Best Horror Novel (tied with Wil Elliot's PILO FAMILY CIRCUS). I bought the book, but somehow never got around to reading it. Perhaps I was scared that it actually WAS better than CARNIES. At any rate, seven or eight years went by, and PRISMATIC remained on my to-read pile, until just over a week ago, when I decided that I'd waited long enough. So I dove in.
And to think... I hesitated.
PRISMATIC was absolutely bloody fantastic. Even though it was written by three different people under the nom de plume of Edwina Grey, and set in three different time periods, the whole book flowed together so beautifully that you'd never know it wasn't a single author unless someone told you. The triple stories of colonial, post-WWI and present day Sydneys were all excellent, and kept you gripped. It actually had that advantage, that if any story started to lag at all, it could just jump to another one. All the characters were complex and believable, and the body (and mind) horror of it was chilling. Apart from maybe getting bogged down a little in the middle (and, let's face it, how many novels don't do that???), I'm finding it really hard to find any fault in PRISMATIC, however desperately my fragile ego wants me to. I can absolutely understand it winning the AA over CARNIES now. This is a book that deserves a second run, like all the Lothian books that didn't quite reach the heights they should have. If you can find a copy, grab it! It's infectious.
Channard Cenobite, HELLRAISER 2
PRISMATIC is the sister book to my own CARNIES, both being released about the same time in the already-defunct Lothian horror series. The following year, it beat my book to the Aurealis Award for Best Horror Novel (tied with Wil Elliot's PILO FAMILY CIRCUS). I bought the book, but somehow never got around to reading it. Perhaps I was scared that it actually WAS better than CARNIES. At any rate, seven or eight years went by, and PRISMATIC remained on my to-read pile, until just over a week ago, when I decided that I'd waited long enough. So I dove in.
And to think... I hesitated.
PRISMATIC was absolutely bloody fantastic. Even though it was written by three different people under the nom de plume of Edwina Grey, and set in three different time periods, the whole book flowed together so beautifully that you'd never know it wasn't a single author unless someone told you. The triple stories of colonial, post-WWI and present day Sydneys were all excellent, and kept you gripped. It actually had that advantage, that if any story started to lag at all, it could just jump to another one. All the characters were complex and believable, and the body (and mind) horror of it was chilling. Apart from maybe getting bogged down a little in the middle (and, let's face it, how many novels don't do that???), I'm finding it really hard to find any fault in PRISMATIC, however desperately my fragile ego wants me to. I can absolutely understand it winning the AA over CARNIES now. This is a book that deserves a second run, like all the Lothian books that didn't quite reach the heights they should have. If you can find a copy, grab it! It's infectious.
August 16, 2017
I liked this one to start with - the multiple historical points worked reasonably well. Unfortunately, the story slowly dissolved. Unlike other books with this kind of slow disintegration, it did not feel like this was deliberate on the author's part - yes the situation was confusing, yes the protagaonist(s) didn't really know what was going on. But this, it was just confused. And the last four paragraphs were just annoying. Twists I like. This wasn't a twist, this was just wrong. Or badly written. Or both.
February 17, 2023
A visceral horror story with more power now that covid has reached us. A solid read for fans of dark, mysterious horror.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews