The Blue Blazes

Mookie Pearl #1

by Chuck Wendig

Meet Mookie Pearl.
Criminal underworld? He runs it.
Supernatural underworld? He hunts in it.
Nothing stops Mookie when he’s on the job.
But when his daughter takes up arms and opposes him, something’s gotta give…

The Blue Blazes – the first in a new urban fantasy series in which lovable thug Mookie Pearl must contend with the criminal underworld, the supernatural underworld, a new drug that makes the invisible visible, and a rebellious teen daughter who opposes him at every turn.

Genres: Urban Fantasy, Fantasy, Horror, Fiction, Paranormal, Crime, Mystery

397 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Chuck Wendig is a novelist, a screenwriter, and a freelance penmonkey.
He has contributed over two million words to the roleplaying game industry, and was the developer of the popular Hunter: The Vigil game line (White Wolf Game Studios / CCP).

He, along with writing partner Lance Weiler, is a fellow of the Sundance Film Festival Screenwriter's Lab (2010). Their short film, Pandemic, will show at the Sundance Film Festival 2011, and their feature film HiM is in development with producer Ted Hope.

Chuck's novel Double Dead will be out in November, 2011.

He's written too much. He should probably stop. Give him a wide berth, as he might be drunk and untrustworthy. He currently lives in the wilds of Pennsyltucky with a wonderful wife and two very stupid dogs. He is represented by Stacia Decker of the Donald Maass Literary Agency.

You can find him at his website, terribleminds.com.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mookie Pearl has been working for the Organization for most of his adult life. When his boss reveals he has terminal cancer, who should show up just in time to exploit that than Mookie's own daughter? And who is the mysterious Candlefly that has shown up to help The Boss in his hour of need? And what do the creatures of the Underworld have to say about the situation?

It's hard to summarize a novel that packs so many great ideas between two covers. The easiest way I can think of to pitch The Blue Blazes to people is to say "Neverwhere Noir."

The Blue Blazes is the latest of Chuck Wendig's innovative urban fantasies. The main character, Mookie Pearl, is a thick-headed mountain of a man working for the Organization, the criminal syndicate that controls NYC at street level. Below the streets is another story entirely, for that is the Underworld, the territory of Gobbos, Roach-Rats, Snakefaces, and things a thousand times worse.

The Blue Blazes of the title is the street name for a drug that lets the user see beneath the veil, revealing half and halfs and other mystical creatures for what they are. It goes a long way toward explaining the usual urban fantasy conceit of monsters living among us more or less undetected.

This isn't your grandmother's urban fantasy. Instead of lightly flirting with the hardboiled noir genre, The Blue Blazes has it's way with it hard and rough in the filthy alley behind the porno theater. Mookie's no white knight. He's a thug and a murderer and does what he has to do. He actually reminds me of Richard Stark's Parker, only with more muscles and much less brain. The conflict between Mookie and Nora is what keeps the book rocketing forward, even when everyone's having a chat.

The situation looks like one of the standard criminal fiction plots at first: the boss is going down and a lot of people are wondering who is going to fill the void. Will it be Nora, Mookie's estranged daughter? Will it be the Boss's grandson? Will it be Candlefly?

The mythology of the world Wendig has created is unique: there are no vampires, werewolves, or women wanting to have sex with vampires or werewolves. There are cities of the dead in the Underworld but they aren't populated by zombies. I love the concept of the pigments and the powers they confer. I could go on for paragraphs about the Hungry Ones, the Naga, the gangs, soul cages, etc.

Mookie muscles his way through the plot like a meat-cleaver-wielding battering ram. Much like the fabled Timex, he takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'. By the time the Blue Blazes was over, I was simultaneously dismayed that the journey was completed but also somehow relieved.

4.5 stars. I want more Mookie!

[Ɗẳɳ 2.☊ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meet Mookie Pearl, a real mountain of a man with a head like a bowling ball, and hands that could crush stone. “Mookie the Mook. Mookie the Meat-Man. Mookie the Monster. Butcher. Bruiser. Breaker of legs. Some legs human. Most not. Some call him “Mook.” Most don’t call him anything.”

His Grampop, God love him, used to tell Little Mikey that he was, “Dumber than a truck full of broken toilets, slower than cold molasses, lazier than a car-struck cat, and uglier than the inside of a donkey’s asshole.” Whoa, that’s a little harsh there, Pops. So he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, more like a sledgehammer, but that’s still one hell of a weapon. Fact is, he’s merely a soldier for the Organization, who does what he’s told. “He’s not the man running the machine. He’s just a rubber belt fed through hungry gears.”

This isn’t your typical criminal organization mired in turf wars with rival gangs where battle lines are drawn and redrawn in blood. When those monsters came crawling up out of that broken mantle below NYC the game was forever changed, and it forced an evolution in the old ways of doing things. In order to survive this new reality, the gangs had to adapt and begin to collaborate with one another to build a true partnership and forge a tense but lasting peace. Now all the gangs of the city operate under one central authority, the Organization.

Most of the citizenry aren’t hip to the fact that these monsters exist—that some even walk among us appearing human. However, when the Great Below was cracked open, it brought with it a powerful new drug known as the Blue Blazes for the effect it triggers when dabbed on the temples. This drug not only produces a wicked adrenaline kick and bestows its user with preternatural strength and toughness, but it also rips open that third eye allowing mortals to see through the veil and see the monsters hiding in plain sight. Mookie’s job is to regulate the mining of the Blue and keep tabs on the Underworld.

Ever since the Deep Downstairs gained a foothold in our world the Organization has been there to keep things in check—a safeguard to prevent that Great Below from infringing too far into our territory. But with the boss facing a terminal cancer diagnosis and no clear-cut successor, the game’s about to change again. So why is it that Mookie’s own daughter, Nora, is out there plotting against him? What in the Blue Blazes is she up to . . . ?

This is dark and gritty urban fantasy. You won’t find any sparkly vampires or sexy werewolves within these pages, only a plethora of nasty creatures like goblins, snakefaces, trogbodies, roach-rats, milk spiders and countless other unimaginable horrors that go bump in the night.

The third-person narrative is broken up by brief journal entries from John Atticus Oakes, Cartographer of the Great Below, which serve to fill in some of the history and lore of the Deep Downstairs, and eventually become a bit of a side story in and of themselves. The point of view jumps around a bit, but Mookie’s the main protagonist.

I’ve been hearing great things about Chuck Wendig for a while now, but this was my first peek into his crazy mind. Color me impressed. The story had a great pulpy horror vibe to it, and all in all, it really was quite fun. Well worth seeking out, in my opinion, and currently available for free on the authors website.

Now, what say we crack open a tin of this Blue Cerulean here, dab a glob on the temples, and let’s blaze!

4 adrenaline-fueled stars.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This, then, is my review.

First, I have to say that the synopsis for this book is a bit misleading. Not that I read it before the book... but just now. I read it, and I'm like, "Nuh UH!"

What I'm referring to is this:

Meet Mookie Pearl.
Criminal underworld? He runs it.
Supernatural underworld? He hunts in it.

Now, maybe it's just nitpicky, but Mookie Pearl is repeatedly referred to as a thug and a soldier. One level above the "spray & pray" drive-by guys who don't give a shit if they kill a bus load of kids while taking out their target by throwing a bomb into a traffic jam. He's a bruiser, he's a pitbull, and he's smart and resilient and has a network of Mole-men who work for him. But I would not call that "running the criminal underworld".

Likewise, I wouldn't call what Mookie does in the underworld "hunting". That line conveys images of well... hunters. Mookie isn't so much a hunter as he's a bulldozer that just runs through and over everything in it's path to flatten the thing it's told to flatten. And flatten it he does.

But still, had I read that description before reading the book, I would have had all of these incorrect ideas of what the book is about, and I probably would have been... maybe not disappointed, but I'd have felt some kind of way about it. And that right there is why I trust my reviewer-friends' recommendations and don't bother reading blurbs or ad copy. (Well, plus a lot of it is just meaningless regurgitated superlatives and buzzwords. So there's also that.)

So anyway. Having gone into this with little but the knowledge that this was a gritty UF novel and that it was apparently a good one, I was pretty much a blank slate... but still I was surprised by a few things.

First was the style of this book. Chuck Wendig is, according to what I can see by the extensive research I've done of his Goodreads Author page, an American. The book is set in New York City, which is also in America. Yet, this book has a very British feel. From the very first line, it was like I could hear it in a kind of Cockney accent as I was reading. Not so much Mookie himself, or any of the characters, but the writing itself, and some of the slang. Part of this is the "This, then, is..." sentence structure that was peppered throughout the book, and another part is the way that certain bits were written in a British way ('Mr Pearl' instead of 'Mr. Pearl'), and the term "gobbos" as slang for "goblins". It just sounds British to me in my head. I feel like someone from NYC would just call them "gobs" or something. Short and harsh sounding.

The book's publisher does list a UK address, so maybe that explains some of the editing, like the "Mr" vs "Mr." thing, but still, the rest just feels to me like it was written with a UK audience in mind, perhaps. I could be wrong... and that's not really a complaint, just an observation. *shrug*

The second thing that surprised me is just how uhh, descriptive, this was. There are few things that squick me out in terms of violence or injury. I feel that Chuck Wendig sent the Vollrath to find out what those were, and then used them against me. Broken bones? CHECK. Hyperextended joints? CHECK. Hyperextended joints that include broken bones poking through the skin like sharp white teeth? MOTHERFUCKING CHECK. :X

It's... been a while since I've winced so much while reading a book. I would like to say, for the record: Owwie. *shudder*

And then the third thing that surprised me is the sound effects. This one kinda snuck up on me, actually. I'd been reading them, hearing them, for about half the book before I realized that they were there. LOL. What surprised me is that I liked them. It added a little something extra to reinforce the sound that the text is telling you to hear, but it's not so overused or inappropriately used that every noise has a soundtrack. It worked for me, and I figured that I was one of those people who would be annoyed by that kind of thing. Go figure.

Other than that, I actually kind of loved the story. I enjoyed the blending of everyday NYC and a Lovecraftian underworld, with an alternate world feel of all the almost-cartoonish gangs and characters who don't seem all that cartoonish at all when they're right up close.

I loved the interaction and chaotic chemistry between Mookie and his daughter, and how they both are kind of dancing circles around the other trying to get what they need out of the relationship... but never quite intersecting. Nora's anger was one that I could definitely identify with... and one that I thought was both justified and unfair at the same time. I think that Wendig did a great job at showing the jagged edges of their relationship and making me feel for both of them.

I also really liked the "magic" system, as well as the drug-underworld depicted, and liked how the history of the underworld was given in little snippets of journal entries from Oakes. (I really hope that he makes an appearance at some point in the series!) I liked the way that the underworld was populated by people in a kind of monstrous mythology, and that there's not a werewolf or vampire (sparkly or non) in sight. It's all just underbelly creepy crawlies and things that have evolved to the darkness but greedily aspire to the light just because it's something they don't (or can't) have. I liked it. :D

I'll definitely be looking for the next book in the series, as well as moving Blackbirds up the list.

*thinks about the bones...*

You know, I think I'll give myself a little buffer, actually. O_o

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars


I love Chuck Wendig and I will always put his books on the top of my queue to buy and to read. I love his Blackbird series as Miriam is one tough bitch that lives a tough life and one that is worth reading. Here Wendig introduces us to the larger than life Mookie Pearl. He is a father, a bruiser, a tougher than rocks man, that has a head on his shoulders that is used for more than just bashing in the faces of people and of monsters. This book is a mix of many genres and styles, kind of a cross between a Sandman Slim novel, a John Dies at the End novel and all other books written by Wendig.


The story covers a lot of ground and underground as Hell and the Underworld are real places that can be accessed from our world. Blue Blazing is the key, the key to opening your eyes, to the plot of this story, and to that which makes it so fun to read. I was very much reminded of “Soy Sauce” from the Wong novels when reading this, not only from the direct result of these products, but also from what they do to those that dip into them…AWESOME!!!!


“Cerulean. The bright blue mineral vein shot through the prehistoric schist of the Great Below. Equal parts pigment and drug. It goes by many names: Peacock Powder, Truth Talc, the Straight Dope, Blue Jay (or just, “Jay”), Bluebird or Blue Butterfly (or simply “BB”), Blue Mascara, Cobalt, Azure. But many just call it – and the effects it engenders – the Blue Blazes. Users smudge some of the blue powder on the temples to bring on effects that include: preternatural strength, preternatural toughness, as well as a wiping away of the illusions that keep mortal men from seeing the truth of the denizens of the Underworld”


Mookie Pearl “Mikey”, “the Meat Man” He is the main protagonist and one of the coolest heroes that I have read in a long time…


“This, then, is Mookie Pearl.
He’s a high wall of flesh stuffed into a white wife-beater stained with brown (once red), a man whose big bones are wreathed in fat and gristle and muscle and sealed tight in a final layer of scar-tissue skin. At the top of his ox-yoke shoulders sits a head like a wrecking ball with black eyes and shorn scalp and a mouth full of teeth that look like white pebbles fished from a dark river. He’s got hands that could break a horse’s neck. He’s got Frankenstein feet and a Godzilla hunch.
He’s built like a brick shithouse made of a hundred smaller brick shithouses.”


As I have said, I have a very large soft spot for all types of fiction that blend Christian beliefs into their tales. This book openly describes the Underworld, the Levels of Hell, and also the sleeping Gods!!! This urban fantasy is blended perfectly adding real life and a real feel to the drama within. Wendig opens the doors of possibilities in ways that make it easy to comprehend and to buy in to. He does this through his gift of writing action, making his heroes larger than life, and through a great deal of satire and comedy.


“Skelly’s not sure what to do.
The two men – one living, one dead, one a human bulldozer, the other a microwaved chimpanzee – kick king hell out of one another on the stone thoroughfare of Daisypusher.”


Blue Blazes is enhanced and made better by the opening sequences of each chapter written by John Atticus Oakes, Cartographer of the Great Below. As the book progresses, so does the adventure of Oakes as he progresses to the bottom of the Underworld. I loved all these pauses in the story and the way that through Oakes writing we learned a great deal about Mookies world and situations.


This is a fast paced Urban Fantasy that leans more to the adult side of things than the YA crowd as it is graphically violent, and filled with exclusively bad people. I loved this book. Mookie is an incredible protagonist that will be impossible to forget. I cannot wait for more from this series. My highest recommendations!!!!

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever walked into a party and seen someone just command everyone’s attention? Maybe they're telling a joke, a captivating story or performing some ridiculous feat, you're not sure. You lean over and ask someone what's going on. They either shush you or they calmly say, "Oh, that's just , he's/she's awesome." That's Chuck Wendig.

Chuck is that guy that everyone is talking about that somehow you don't know. He's been building his reputation over the years with some critically acclaimed work but unfortunately, I've had my blinders on preferring to narrow my reading material to a select few genres and authors. It wasn't until this year that I've really started to broaden my horizons and Chuck Wendig is one of my latest discoveries.

I first stumbled across Chuck when I was prepping for an interview with Adam Christopher. I wanted to avoid asking Adam anything that he'd already been asked a thousand times (a difficult task) when I came across an interview he did with the website, Terrible Minds. Terrible Minds is a blog created by Mr. Wendig where he interviews other authors and muses about anything that crosses his mind. Not only did I become a fan, I saw that he was also an author. Not only is he an author but an author that had a book scheduled to be released by Angry Robot – a publisher that I've become enthralled with over the past few months. When I saw that the ARC (advanced reader copy) became available, I snagged it as quickly as possible.

The Blue Blazes is an urban fantasy tale that mixes the criminal underworld with the spiritual underworld. When combined, it produces a hard hitting and brutal exercise in awesome. Mookie Pearl works for The Organization, a gang that holds great power and influence over the majority of the organized crime within New York City. When its leader becomes stricken with terminal cancer, Mookie is sent to retrieve a cure that may or may not even exist. The prospect of traveling within the local underworld is not something Mookie is looking forward to but seeing as his loyalty is unwavering, he sees no other option.

In mixing the surface dwellers with the underground, the underground have an advantage in assuming a physical appearance akin to ours. The only way to see them for who they really are is to smear a clay like substance often dubbed, "Peacock Powder" on each of their temples (think Roddy Piper's shades in They Live!). As the novel progresses, Mookie hears of another drug similar to the blue called "The Red", in which an acquaintance explains:

"..that shit's like bath salts had a baby with steroids or something, man. Makes you go crazy. He went nuts. Tore up his mother’s house. Ate her dog."

The underworld is filled with these select pigmentations that can alter one's perception, strength or even cure diseases. The one Mookie is after is labeled Death’s Head, or sometimes known as "The Purple". Long considered to be an urban legend, Death's Head is believed to cure the incurable and bring those back to life that had passed on.

Not only does Mookie have a hell of a challenge ahead of him (mind the pun) but he also has to deal with his rebellious daughter, Nora. Nora was more than a little tired of living in her father's shadow and playing a background character to his duties with the mob. So she chose to hit him where it hurts, his father figure boss. Despite his frustration following her actions, his love for her never falls to the wayside. Given his career choice, what option did he have? In order to function like the hard-ass that he was, he had to push his family to the back burner.

"Mookie's not a man given over to much guilt. In his line of work, guilt is a boat anchor around the ankle, a too-full colostomy bag hanging from the hip. It's a burden. A does-nothing-for-you-but-slow-your-ass-down burden. Guilt will make you hesitate. Shame makes you weak. And Mookie's tough. Tough like an anvil."

Chuck's got some excellent writing chops. Like the above, there are more than a few lines that had me laughing out loud. Aside from both the action and intensity that Chuck writes with, he isn't above throwing in some abrasive comedy to boot.

"He wants to know who did this. So he can break a baseball bat off in their bowels."

"..And it's then and there that Mookie decides he's going to steal a fucking city bus and hit the Holland Tunnel and find this guy’s house and drive the bus over his head".

I was seriously hooked on this. The Blue Blazes feels like it should exist in the same realm as Frank Miller's Sin City, both have lovable oafs in Mookie Pearl and Marv respectively and a similar level of extremely stylized violence. Wendig crafted a world here that could produce an endless number of stories. Possibly a prequel or spin-off in regards to the brief introductions for each chapter from an early underworld explorer attempting to map out its environment.

It should be worth noting that Angry Robot is kicking out some fantastic cover art and The Blue Blazes is no exception. Working with Joey Hi-Fi, the same artist as his previous novels, Chuck has some great eye-grabbing artwork to grace the cover. The smaller shot I have at the top of this review seriously does not do it justice. Head over to Terrible Minds to see a hi-res shot.

I'll be checking out some more Wendig going forward. His Miriam Black series has received a great deal of praise and I doubt it'll be long before I catch up.

Cross Posted @ Every Read Thing

[Ms. Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it, but it wore me so.
Too many folks messing up the show.
The story was dark, the story was grim,
but I like this author, you should try him.
The writing was solid.
Had a nice flow.
Incomplete sentences are a go.
There were snake people who bit,
and licked and spit.
Touch their venom and you are hit.
Mookie is the muscle man.
Loyal to a fault. Keep to the plan.
He's bad and badder when he's blazing.
The action scenes were quite amazin'.
Nora hated her daddy so,
the chip on her shoulder just had to go.
Even though the war was won.
The ending wasn't a happy one.

by Nikki

The story started out a wee bit slow (first 30%). I guess it was the new series? syndrome, where you have to educate the reader of the goings on and whatnot. It picked up and had a steady flow (sometimes breakneck) and I wonder why I felt the story went on too long(stumped). Some characters were more interesting than others. Mookie, seemed like he should have been a secondary as he wasn't very likeable, or maybe he was just seriously flawed (all muscle, no brains) and I like my characters more Alpha and less Forrest Gump. Still a good read for all its originality (even though I kept thinking Harry Potter for the snake people and blazes. Didn't they have to put some gook on their eyes to see--Whatever.)

[Kristin (MyBookishWays Reviews) · Rating 5 out of 5]

You may also read my review here: http://www.mybookishways.com/2013/05/...

Below New York City, among other places, is the Great Below. Is it Hell? Who knows, but what certain people do know is it’s filled with some of the most evil, vile creatures one could ever encounter. For a while, they stayed below, then a door opened up. Now they want what we have above, and they aren’t afraid to take it. The criminals and lowlifes of our society aren’t averse to using what the denizens of the Great Below have to offer, but there’s always a price. In fact, one of the most profitable things to come out of the Great Below is a blue powder that can make a person faster, stronger, and suddenly not blind to the throngs of “others” that roam the streets of New York above. Gangs run the city and Blazeheads roam the streets, which brings us to one of the most fearsome enforcers for the Organization (the central authority for all of the gangs), Mookie Pearl. Don’t let the name fool you. Mookie isn’t a cuddly guy. In fact, he’s a hulking brute of a man, a meat lovin’, head smashin’ guy that breaks legs for a living. He’s not particularly proud of his profession, but he’s awfully good at what he does, and it is what it is. However, when his daughter Nora approaches him with the news that Zoladski, Mookie’s boss, the Big Boss, is dying, and she plans to take over, at any cost, he’s shocked and begins to see his already crumbling world start to topple. He never wanted his daughter to be a part of this world, but she is, and it turns out that she’s much more entrenched than he ever could have imagined.

Mookie soon finds out that the old man’s grandson, Casimir, is to take over when the old man dies, but he’s not ready, and it’s pretty obvious, not only to Mookie, but to others that would love to step in and take over. Weaknesses in the Organization are a bad, bad thing. In hopes of healing the boss, therefore avoiding having to take over, Casimir asks Mookie to head into the great below to find Death’s Head, a pigment that could heal the boss. Mookie is dubious, since its existence is a rumor at best and a fairy tale at worst. In fact, there are supposed to be five pigments in addition to the Blue, and they all do different things. Supposedly. Mookie doesn’t like those odds, but he really doesn’t have a choice. So, into the Great Below he goes.

If you’ve read anything by Chuck Wendig, you know how wonderfully twisted his imagination is, and it’s certainly on fine display in The Blue Blazes. The Great Below is a dark, vast, terrifying place, with things that slither and hiss and goblins, or gobbos, a plenty. And these are NOT your momma’s goblins. They’re nasty, brutal suckers, and you don’t want to see a hoard of them coming your way. Luckily, Mookie won’t be alone in his quest. He teams up with Skelly, the tough as nails head of an all-girl gang The Get-Em Girls, who take roller derby and rockabilly very seriously, and aren’t afraid to smash a few heads. He also finds some very odd, very dead, and very unlikely allies down below, and he’ll need ‘em, because the quest for Death’s Head soon becomes a quest to save his daughter. There’s more action and goo that you can shake a stick at in The Blue Blazes, but at it’s core is the story of a father’s love for his daughter and the lengths he’ll go to in order to save her. Don’t worry, there’s nothing mushy here, but it is rather poignant in Chuck Wendig’s rough way, and as brutish as Mookie is, I kinda fell for the big guy, and hope you will too. You’ll blaze through this one (sorry, couldn’t help it), and I can’t help but hope that we’ll see Mookie again in future novels. The Blue Blazes is something very different, very twisted and very, very good. You’ll have lots of fun-I know I did!

[All Things Urban Fantasy · Rating 5 out of 5]

REVIEW COURTESY OF ALL THINGS URBAN FANTASY

Every once in awhile you come across a book that hits every sweet spot you have when it comes to fiction. THE BLUE BLAZES by Chuck Wendig is such a book.

Seriously, folks, this book has everything I love. Mobsters! Monsters! Violence! Gratuitous swearing! In all honesty I’m certain that Wendig wrote this book especially for me. From page one to the very end I enjoyed every single word. Between THE BLUE BLAZES and TRICKSTER, 2013 is becoming an excellent year for gritty, awesome urban fantasy.

Oh, yeah, so what’s it about, you ask? The book centers (for the most part) on Mookie Pearl. Mookie works for the Organization. They’re ones that control the supply of the titular “Blue Blazes” – a drug that gives you increased strength, endurance and the ability to see the denizens of the Underworld.

In the first few chapters we find out that Mookie’s daughter Nora has also been getting involved in the criminal underworld and that the Boss of the Organization is dying of cancer. The Boss tasks Mookie with finding the mythical drug known as Death’s Head or The Purple. This one is believed to cure everything and quite possibly bring the dead back to life. This sets of a story that moves at break-neck speed as Mookie finds himself in the caverns and tunnels below New York as he searches for the Death’s Head. He’ll fight goblins, ghosts and a multitude of other creatures.

The world of THE BLUE BLAZES is fantastic – think Neil Gaiman’s NEVERWHERE written as a mob book – and as Wendig slowly reveals more and more of the demonic underbelly of New York you can’t help but go along for the ride. At turns creepy and horrifying (but always entertaining), THE BLUE BLAZES is a must-read. I’m kicking myself for not checking out Wendig’s work before now. Don’t make the same mistake I did.

[Fangs for the Fantasy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mookie Pearl is a thug. He knows he’s a thug. He has always been a thug, working for the Organisation to ensure the supply of Blue – the mystical substance that brings an incredible high but also opens your eyes to the real… things out there – keeps flowing while the denizens of the underworld remain down where they are.

It’s a hard life and not a happy life – not getting easier or happier with his daughter makes a play against the very Organisation he works for; and organised crime isn’t kind to those who mess with it.

Her upsetting things is adding to more trouble – the boss is getting old, his heir isn’t ready to take over, there are new players in town and there are things stirring in the depths – among the snakemen and the goblins and the dead that walk.

This book is, perhaps, the hardest review I've ever written.

Because so much of this book is stunning. The writing is a true work of art. The structure, the description, the sentence length, the word choice all telling as much about the scene as much as the actual description. I’ve rarely seen writing that is so expertly crafted

And the theme and setting come through extremely well. The grittiness, the grimness are all well portrayed. The land without laws or order, where life is cheap, the sense that anyone could die at any time, nothing is pretty or shiny or beautiful and no-one can really be trusted. The otherness of the underworld, of the down below, how dark and terrifying and alien the underworld is. The weird eye opening power of the Cerulean. Even the surreal violence of the gangs and their odd themes and looks. All of the themes are excellently maintained to give a powerful atmosphere you rarely if ever find in books.


And the world is incredibly well designed. The underworld, the dark places under New York filled with layers and layers of creatures and monsters, creatures from the dark infiltrating to the surface, the different supernatural Pigments, a version of undeath that is deeply horrific – in fact a version of everything that is deeply horrific. In a genre where a lot of staples of horror movies are made into friendly sexy people, it’s interesting to see a book where just about everything is a monster, everything is horrific and no-one is truly good.

The whole premise of the world is an underworld – both literally and figuratively. The monsters of the dark rub shoulders with those who lurk in the corners of humanity’s own underworld. After all who is more likely to come into contact to the hidden monster’s in the deeps? It won’t be the wealthy and privileged in their penthouses and mansions. It’s the poorest, the homeless, the addicts, the people forced to seek shelter in the corners and the shadows, the underground and the underworld. And, of course the criminals, the organised criminals and the gangs who are forced to organise more in the face of threats – and opportunities with the drug cerulean – from the depths. With that you can see the bleed over of culture back and further, how the gangs are just a bit stranger than they are elsewhere and how the Organisation has had to be a little more organised than most syndicates in the face of the threat. Ironically, while there are some legitimate interests in the cities who delve into the darkness, it is often the criminal element that stands as the line of defence between the underworld and the civilised world up top. It’s a really interesting and different premise I’ve never seen represented in quite this way – certainly never so darkly, because the organised crime may be the last line of defence for humanity, but they are still organised criminals. They are still thugs running protection rackets and selling drugs and enslaving addicts

The very nature of enemy’s plot, when fully revealed is something that is both horrifying and imaginable – epic on a scale of the most cartoonish of supervillains but with a dire realism and a fully implementable capability that adds a horrifying reality to the fantastic. And yes, as they progress on this story people die – horrifically quite often. People get badly injured. This isn’t a fluffy book where people recover or healing magic patches people up nor is it a book where no-one dies. There are often losses and pain and brutal executions and a need to get up and keep going.

Which brings us to the characters. they’re all extremely real – not necessarily human, far from that, but definitely real. From Nora with her epic daddy issues, to Skelly (who is several kinds of fun) to relatively minor characters like the Burned man and Werth the goat and Karyn the butcher are all real characters with real motivations and thoughts and goals and motives. Frequently dark and menacing motives, definitely skewed motives in the dark and evil world they live in –but still their own motives and their own lives.

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[Kat Hooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally posted at FanLit:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

Mookie Pearl is a big ugly brute who works for the boss of New York City’s criminal underworld. Mostly he’s called on to be a thug — it’s the thing he does best. One of his specific jobs is to manage (i.e., cajole, threaten, beat up) a team of workers who descend into the underground to collect the blue powdery drug that allows its users to see the supernatural creatures who have lived among us ever since some New York City miners accidentally blew open a portal to Hell while tunneling under the streets.

Things are never really safe in Mookie’s line of work, but everything suddenly comes to a head when the boss announces that he’s dying and leaving his son Casimir in charge of his criminal empire. When all the gangs in the city sense an imminent power void, and when his own immature teenage daughter makes a play designed to get revenge on the daddy who was never there for her, Mookie’s normally dangerous life gets even deadlier.

Even though he’s a big scary thug, you just can’t help but love Mookie Pearl. He’s got a soft spot for his daughter, his ex-wife and his friends, and he’ll absolutely melt over a plate of perfectly executed charcuterie. You get the feeling that in another world Mookie might have made a good accountant or IT technician if, because of his size, he hadn’t caught the eye of a crime boss. You get the feeling that Mookie regrets what he’s become and realizes it was all his own fault. I was surprised to find myself rooting for Mookie, even against his own daughter. Wendig also made me care for some of his other colorful characters, particularly Mookie’s lesbian butcher and a gang of 1980’s style roller derby girls. Nora, Mookie’s daughter, is a little too emo, but this works well with the story and I’m guessing that she’ll be more tolerable in future installments of the MOOKIE PEARL series.

I tend to enjoy stories that are set underground, so it’s not surprising that I found Wendig’s supernatural world fun to explore. The portal-to-hell device is certainly not original, but it’s still fun, especially when it’s located directly under the streets of New York City where evil monsters can find their way to the surface. Necessary information about the underworld is relayed with chapter-opening journal entries written by a deceased “cartographer” of the underworld. This serves to keep Mookie’s story moving quickly. At a couple of points the plot goes a little over-the-top, bordering on farcical, but Wendig always brings it back under control.

What I liked best about The Blue Blazes was Chuck Wendig’s writing style. His sentences are short and razor sharp, his imagery is vivid, his dialogue is spot-on, his occasional use of humor is pleasing, and he writes the most wonderful metaphors and similes. I actually heard myself sigh in pleasure at a couple of his gruesome similes, just like Mookie moaning over his charcuterie. Here’s what Mookie sees when, under the influence of the Blue Blazes, he visits Mr. Smiley:

What he sees instead, what the Blue Blazes shows him, is a man whose face is a nearly perfect mix of serpent and human… The eyes are wide coppery diamonds whose irises shift and warp like you’re staring through a child’s kaleidoscope. The mouth, still smiling for he is always oh, so very happy, ill conceals not just a pair of curved fangs but rather a whole maw of them. A wet pink tongue, not forked but thin and prehensile, slides over them like a slug over piano keys.

That’s so bad it’s good!

The Blue Blazes is fast-moving, violent, and dark, but Wendig’s style and the feeling that Mookie Pearl might really be a softie gives this novel a spark that makes it feel less grim than it is. I listened to Patrick Lawlor read the audio version produced by Brilliance Audio. This was a great way to read The Blue Blazes and I look forward to listening to the second MOOKIE PEARL book, too.

[Milo · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://thefoundingfields.com/2013/06/...

“Wow. Wendig keeps impressing with every book he puts out. The Blue Blazes is superb.” ~The Founding Fields

I’ve read all of Chuck Wendig’s books for Angry Robot so far so I was really looking forward to see where he would take the reader with The Blue Blazes, and he didn’t disappoint. I loved every second of this book, and was unable to put it down, having polished it off in a couple of sittings. The way that Wendig draws you into the world with his narrative is stunning, and once you’re in, you won’t be able to let go – he’s got the pacing factor sorted, for this book is one of those “One More Chapter” type reads as I quickly found out.

"Meet Mookie Pearl.
Criminal underworld? He runs it.
Supernatural underworld? He hunts in it.
Nothing stops Mookie when he’s on the job.
But when his daughter takes up arms and opposes him, something’s gotta give…"

Mookie Pearl is far from your stereotypical urban fantasy hero. He’s foul mouthed, as is Wendig’s writing style, and whilst he might not be one of the most likeable characters ever, it doesn’t stop him from being a damn good main character, and we’re sympathising with him from the start, with pretty much everything falling into pieces around him. You know you haven’t got the best of family relations when your own daughter tries to overthrow your criminal underworld, and it certainly isn’t helped with an increase in odd supernatural happenings. Nora, Mookie’s daughter, also gets a fair chunk of the POV and is another great addition to the book, providing a very important role to the plot. Both characters, among others, also are given various motives, flaws, weaknesses and development to show that they’re human. Looking for perfect characters in The Blue Blazes? You won’t find anyone that fits the Mary Sue description commonly associated with fanfiction, but can also be applied to creator-owned work here, let me tell you that now.

The book itself is, as per the Miriam Black series, very dark and gritty. It’s a horror show of the best kind, pulpy – pageturningly fun. The world is explored in such a way where you’re given enough to keep you going and not get too confused. Fans of Wendig can expect more of the same, although his writing style has changed a bit from his previous Angry Robot books. Shorter sentances are more common, with one sentence paragraphs allowing for a greater, more intense atmosphere in action sequences. It’s a technique that works incredibly well, and really helps add to make the book more page-turning. Another thing that should be taken into account here is that the imagination on display here is wonderful. Those of you who haven’t read Wendig’s work before – expect something that will completely surprise you, drawing you in and leaving you begging for more.

The theme and the setting come across incredibly well. All the dark places under New York City are filled with all kinds of things, painting a vision of the underworld City that Never Sleeps as truly horrific, with everything becoming monster-ized here. Nothing is predictable about this book, and that makes its creation even more mind blowing.

Especially if you’re an urban fantasy fan who is convinced that you’ve seen everything. Trust me. The Blue Blazes is different, fun, engrossing and one of the best urban fantasy books that I’ve read yet. It certainly currently holds the titles for the darkest. I can’t wait for the Miriam Black book, which I’m really looking forward to, and I think Gods & Monsters: Unclean Spirits, his work for Abaddon - might have just been moved higher up my To Read list, especially as a Goodreads reviewer has described it as Neil Gaiman’s American Gods meets Supernatural, both of which I’m a massive fan of.

VERDICT: 4/5

[Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chuck Wendig is a very rare case for me. He’s one of only two authors who have hooked me into buying their books solely based on their blog writing (John Scalzi was the other one). He first snagged me with Blackbirds (which I mentioned in Cursing as an Art Form ) and that of course led to Mockingbird which guaranteed I would pre-order THE BLUE BLAZES.

Reading this book was like watching a brilliantly played game of chess. You followed the opening moves understanding the foundation they laid for the rest of the game. A couple of feints and jabs passed between the accomplished players. Then a few surprises quickly raised the stakes. You’re on the edge of your seat as the players hit the accelerator and don’t let up. Just as you reach the crescendo a series of twists leave you slack-jawed as the entire game is wrapped up beautifully. You’re left deliciously exhausted, but craving an encore performance.

THE BLUE BLAZES was a magnificent start to a new series and executed with a level of skill that you don’t typically see in first entries. I’d put this series up there with Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files in terms of pure reading enjoyment and compelling characters. I may have bought it on my Kindle, but I’ll be picking up a physical copy as well just so I can write in the margins and highlight the bejesus out of it.

[Gregor Xane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is filled with larger-than-life characters, over-the-top action, and massive ‘Hollywood’ set pieces. It’s like reading a comic book in novel format (and sometimes like reading a cartoon). Mookie Pearl is a great character. I pictured an old, grisly Lawrence Tierney crossed with the Incredible Hulk. And it’s rare to see a book cover that so perfectly matches the material inside the book. Man, that cover is so good. I've read several books by Mr. Wendig, and this is by far his best effort.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Blue Blazes is hard-boiled Lovecraftian fun. It is violent and vulgar--and if you have never read Chuck Wendig before you should know that that is meant as praise, not condemnation. If you have read Wendig before, you already have an idea of what to expect. This is more epic in scope than his Miriam Black series, which means that it gets grander world-building, cool monsters, and more characters, but which also means that it doesn't have such a strong focus on one central character. I think I prefer Miriam Black, but this is definitely worth reading.

[Kaleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of The Blue Blazes by Chuck Wendig

After reading this book, I‘ve realized how amazing Chuck Wendig is. Somehow he manages to write great books and give out even greater writing advice through his blog at www.terribleminds.com , which you should definitely check out after reading this review.
Deep down, under the streets of New York City, lies the Great Below, the Descent, or the Underworld. It is a great expanse of deadly denizens, monstrous cults, and even the Gods themselves who are trapped in the eternal hell. That is until the humans, accidentally, open the gates to hell; allowing said creatures into the infinite above to rape and kill any and all the humans who reside there; to feed on their pain and make the world for humans a living hell. And these deadly creatures don’t care if they used us up completely; they only want to cause chaos on the world above them.
Then there is The Organization. A variety of different gangs, formed together in order to keep control of prostitution, crime, and drug trade in the city of New York. The main drug being Cerulean, or otherwise known as The Blue Blazes. One of the Five Occulted Pigments originating from the Great Below; it gives the user enhanced strength and allows them to strip away the veil the monsters use to hide themselves from anyone who hunts them. One of whom happens to be one of the strongest, most vicious thug of The Organization.
And he goes by the name of Mookie Pearl. Butcher, bar owner, breaker of bones (both human and demon). Don’t let the name fool you. He’s an intimidating, hulking figure who is only good at bashing the heads of anyone who trifles with The Organization. Or his estranged daughter, Nora, who comes to Mookie , telling him she plans to change the game and become the next big crime boss of New York. And right after that Mookie learns the Boss of The Organizaton , Konrad Zoladski, has terminal lung cancer. The Boss knows he doesn’t have much time left on this earth, so he decides that his Grandson, Casimir, will become his successor and take control of The Organzation and all that comes with it. But Casimir is not ready and he knows it. It’s then that Casimir comes to Mookie for help. He asks Mookie to find another one of the Five Occulted pigments, a purple substance, known as Death’s Head, which is said to cure any disease or even bring the user back to life. The fact that no one has even seen this Pigment makes Mookie skeptical, but when he starts searching for it he finds more than he’s looking for and chaos ensues.
The Blue Blazes was a spectacular book. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but after I continued reading it I feel in love with it. The world building in the book was good. We learn the origin of the Organization, the monsters that inhabit the Great Below and the Five Occulted Pigments from Mookie as he goes around the city, searching for something that might not even exist. Most of the information is given to us through the means of a journal entry by a man named John Atticus Oakes, a man who delved into the Great Below and never returned, at the beginning of every chapter. I found it helpful and felt eager to read John’s story as he slowly goes mad in the Great Below. With those we could move on in the story rather than have most of it introducing the world and more time was spent developing the characters.
Another thing I loved about the book was action scenes. I felt they were fast paced and well executed. It felt like I was actually there to witness the battle between Mookie and all the creatures of the night. My favorite thing about The Blue Blazes was the family dynamic between Mookie and his daughter Nora who is constantly at her Dad’s throat for abandoning her and her mother. I don’t believe Nora’s character was as fleshed out as I’d liked it. She acts like a spoiled brat throughout most of the novel and even admits it from time to time. But even with that I still enjoyed how Mookie was always willing to save his daughter even with all the things she’d done. Some Father’s wouldn’t go through that much trouble to help their children when they are in dire need of help. It made my heart warm when reading it. Mookie isn’t the big bad monster everyone makes him out to be. In truth, he’s a man who loves his family and friends. I sympathized with him whenever something went wrong with him on his journey.
Honestly, I have nothing to gripe about. This was a great book and when I try to think of any negatives, my mind draws a blank.
Final Verdict: Why are you still here?! Stop reading this review and go out to buy The Blue Blazes this minute! It’s an amazing book and you’d have to be doped up on the Blue not to see it.
And please let me know if you found this review helpful as well as what you feel like I need to work on. Thank you for reading.

[Mogsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Okay, my first thought after reading this book: Chuck Wendig is awesome! Then, my second thought: Why on earth haven't I heard about or read anything from this author before now? So, my thanks to Angry Robot for rectifying this, by providing me with an e-ARC of The Blue Blazes via NetGalley. The book's expected publication date is May 28, 2013.

So what are the "Blue Blazes" anyway? In the book it's one of the many slang names for a type of drug, a cerulean powder that when rubbed onto your temples will not only give you one hell of a buzz, but it'll also allow you to see through the "glamor" of monsters living amongst the populace. The book is a tale of two Underworlds -- a literal Underworld located beneath the depths of New York City where the Blue Blazes are actually mined, as well as a criminal underworld run by a cabal called the Organization which controls the drug.

Mookie Pearl is our main protagonist, a hulk of a man who used to work down in the mines but is now a loyal member of the Organization. Working for the mob is just a way of life, that is until a big secret about "The Boss" comes to light, leading to a power struggle which shakes up the foundations of all the gangs in the city. And as if that wasn't bad enough, Mookie's estranged daughter also becomes involved. Now, criminals and thugs he can handle. Same goes for the goblins and other dangerous creatures of the Underworld. But Nora Pearl can definitely give Mookie a run for his money.

The book is like your favorite action movie meets paranormal urban fantasy. It seriously doesn't stop. Just when you think things are winding down, you get more. Mookie Pearl is all muscle and brawn, preferring to use his fists over his brains whenever he's in a tight situation. I can't really say he's my type when it comes to fictional characters, but if you enjoy non-stop thrills and lots of brawling action, then he's definitely your man.

I also have to say that I love Chuck Wendig's wit and punchy writing style. Its almost staccato-like rhythm is perfect for the gritty nature of the story, and I was hooked within the first few minutes of reading. When it comes to dealing with points-of-view, however, I felt the book could have done with less jumping around from perspective to perspective. The scene changes seemed to occur very frequently. As with the prose, I feel that this was quite appropriate for the overall tone of the story, but it also made for some confusing moments where I had to figure out where I was.

Still, the best thing about this book has to be the world-building. Not something I would have expected AT ALL from an action-oriented urban fantasy novel like this, but I do love it when I'm surprised. What Chuck Wendig has created is just simply amazing. Through detailed descriptions, he's painted an original and convincing picture of the secret Underworld below. For example, I loved the addition of "excerpts" from Underworld expert and cartographer John Atticus Oakes' journal at the beginning of every chapter. The plot mostly drove me to keep reading, but admittedly, I was also motivated knowing I would be rewarded with more from Oakes. These little tidbits provided background information, complementing the storytelling by filling in the gaps or going into more detail about the life and lore of the Underworld.


The collection of horrifying creatures the author has created also bears mentioning. From the Gobbos to Snakefaces, each are described in such creative detail. Granted, I would not want to meet any of these in a dark alley at night, but I have to admire the imagination and ingenuity that went into coming up with these monsters and the places in which they live. The paranormal aspects, everything from the pigments and their, er, curious drug effects to the supernatural and magical ways of The Blue Blazes universe are unlike anything I've ever encountered in the genre.

Bottom line: despite my lack of connection to the main character and some issues I had with the constant scene shifts, these are just personal preferences. I think more important are the book's strengths, such as the world-building which is exceptionally well done, rivaling some of my favorite epic fantasies. I really can't praise this part of the book enough. Truly a surprising treasure trove of fresh and interesting ideas.

[Sunil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Within the first few pages, I knew I would love the fuck out of this book for two reasons. One, it deals with the underworld and gives it a mythic quality, using journal entries from a lost explorer to provide the exposition and worldbuilding. Two, the vibrancy of the fucking language, holy shit. Chuck Wendig is a master of metaphor, and his imagery leaps off the page. The staccato descriptions, sentences frequently dispensing with needless subjects and getting right to the verbs, pull you into the action and give the book a pulpy noir feel, appropriate for a book about the criminal underworld.

The Blue Blazes is built on that pun, really, melding together the supernatural underworld and the criminal underworld. The man who straddles that line is Mookie Pearl, a big, burly hulk of a man. He's the tank in your raid team; he's not on the Brute Squad, he is the Brute Squad; and so on. This tough enforcer dabbles in the delicate culinary art of charcuterie, finding peace in tiny meat. And peace is what he needs when his daughter, Nora, declares that she is going to take down his boss and rule the city of New York. The complicated, conflicted relationship between Mookie and his daughter is easily one of the best parts of the book.

Wendig constructs a world with fearsome monsters and dark magic, only able to be seen with a drug harvested from the underworld. Guess what color it is. I loved the cosmology of the book, the nature of the underworld and its denizens, the effects of the Blue. We learn about the world bit by bit, sometimes from a journal entry and sometimes from a character. To my utter delight, we get multiple POVs throughout the book, as Wendig gives us a glimpse into the heads of the good guys, the bad guys, and everyone in between. It made me positively giddy each time we got a new perspective, especially because some scenes were not told from the perspectives I expected, and I could tell whose head we were in simply from the language. The language in this book, good God. I may love Miriam Black more as a character, but I really love the way this book is written. It's got a sick pizzazz.

The Blue Blazes is filed under urban fantasy, but it's really supernatural crime noir. With a strong relationship at the center, exciting action scenes, and interesting and conflicted characters, it's a promising start to a new series that tells a satisfying story on its own. "Please let Mookie Pearl punch his way into your heart," wrote Chuck when he signed my book. He has. Oh, he has.

[Kacey4kc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like at least one of the other reviewers I thought this was a really well written and crafted book but I have given it a lower rating as I just am not that fond of it. It was well paced and I found Mookie and the world interesting.
I think the major thing for me is that I didn't really care that much about what happened to the main character. At one point I realized I was looking forward more to finding out what the cartographer guy was doing in the short blurb at the chapter start then what was going to happen to Mookie. I also know I was more interested at one point at what was happening with Skelly as a secondary character than Mookie.
I do think the short blurbs at the beginning of the chapter were interesting, added to your understanding of the world and the story, and were well paced with the rest of the book.

Also as a note to Angry Robot. You need to give a little bit more book description on your paperback versions, whether it is on the back or inside the cover. You do have very good covers visually in terms of attracting attention but I definitely wouldn't have bought this book or read it if I hadn't happened to read the description on Goodreads.

[Kdawg91 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a bit skeptical to read this to start with. I really dug the idea, and Mr. Wendig is a hell of a writer, but the last book of his I read just didn't click with me, more of a personal issue than a story issue.

The Blue Blazes...however, thats a whole other kettle of fish. As you can plainly see by the stars, I loved this book. Great concept, wonderful characters, cracking action, whip smart dialogue, and most importantly, I wanted MORE.

I don't know much, but I at least know when a writer starts a potential new series, that's the ticket they want to punch. They should make the reader want more of the world they have in their head.

Mr. Wendig, you succeeded.

Buy this book, you wont be disappointed.

[Lynda Lippin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Great Gritty Urban Fantasy

My husband I introduced me to Double Dead, which I didn't expect to like as much as I do. Wendig manages to write gritty, violent urban fantasy that is full of darkness (hell, demons, monsters, arcane gods, goblins, and zombie vampires) and is laugh-out-loud funny all at the same time. Rubbing blue on your forehead, or blazing, allows you to see the actual monsters in our midst. Blue is an ore from hell, and there are others that can do much more, like possibly avert death. Organized criminals, monsters, and drugs. A winning combination!

[carol. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars. Give or take. Very hard to sustain interest. Broken family/mobster story in a UF setting.

[Elizabeth Love · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blue Blazes

Cerulean, Vermilion, Veridian, Ochre, and Caput Mortuum. These are the Five Occulted Pigments of THE BLUE BLAZES; each contains unique properties and have a multitude of street slang monikers. Cerulean blue, the Peacock Powder is the central focus of drug trafficking in the supernatural urban world envisioned by Chuck Wendig. Cerulean produces a PCP style high that makes a user ignore pain and feel overall good vibrations until of course it starts to wear off and makes a person feel like hardened crap. The blue also opens up the eyes of a human to see what’s really going on and notice the nuances that people thought to be ordinary are really demons, monsters, hybrid creatures or subterranean elder gods.

There are familiar tropes of paranormal fiction that fans of HELLBOY/BPRD or HARRY POTTER can recognize in BLUE BLAZES and it’s all mixed with the action, fighting, escaping, and personalities of an 80s Bruce Willis film. This is a world where there are humans who are blind to the monsters and the supernatural unless of course they get high on the blue pigment which gives them the blue blazes.

John Atticus Oakes, a cartographer of the Great Below provides the narrative of each chapter until the final one to cleverly educate the reader on all of the details about the cultures and subcultures of the classist rule of the underworld. He’s not even mentioned as a character by anyone else until halfway through the book. Oakes is a narrator that has enough insight to seem omniscient but his journal entries are brief and feel natural.

The monsters read from a DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS manual with plenty of their own races and classes. Some stay up top with the humans in regular interactions of life and crime; if they aren’t up top, these monster breeds and even some half-breeds have neighborhoods in the three realms of the underworld as well. The half-breeds aren’t welcome much like the “squibs” of J.K. Rowling’s Potter. Wendig provided an answer to a question that was in my mind: What are the breeding rules of the monsters, humans and half-breeds? Cartographer Oakes eventually tells it: since monsters appear in human form, they are capable of impregnating human women but it’s unlikely the human would survive the birth. These details are vital to any storytelling as comic book readers can tell you. There are great debates about how Lois Lane could possibly carry Superman’s baby or whether the Thing can get an erection and have sex with his non-mutated girlfriend. Readers are curious, especially when they walk into a massive world that so easily immerses them like Wendig’s supernatural New York City metro area.

Wendig doesn’t mask influences like the world of Mignola’s Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense which is based in Newark, New Jersey and features a hulking brute protagonist going up against a variety of legendary creatures. At times, BLUE BLAZES did feel too derivative, almost like BPRD fan fiction, but the secondary characters and the criminal underbelly pull it out of that mire. Wendig doesn’t use government conspiracies or bank on fictionalized versions of real historical figures. He places his star, Mookie Pearl, a human tank, not a monster, into the supernatural Mafia where people might be humanoid snake breeds of Naga or the working class and is always under threat of goblin attacks. One of my favorite storytelling mechanisms is that Wendig created several different gangs including monster gangs and human gangs and he explained the quirky theme of each one.

One thing is certain about the way Wendig describes a scene: he can show the perspective of any character in an environment and point out how what is grungy and dank to one person like bits of broken glass and twisted metals placed, piled, and mortared, is what others use to create beauty in the surroundings. He bops around the points of view without using chapter breaks if every perspective is the same scene. I never once felt lost when he did.

In one of Wendig’s previous successful series, the cover to BLACKBIRDS was pitted against Seanan McGuire’s DISCOUNT ARMAGEDDON in a fun cover design contest. When you see the cover for DISCOUNT ARMAGEDDON and then read Wendig’s descriptions of the all female rockabilly gang, The Get-Em-Girls, you can spot the similarities particularly in the main female lead of BLUE BLAZES Nora Pearl, Mookie’s rebellious lethal daughter who dons a streetwalker version of a schoolgirl uniform. The Wendig/McGuire camaraderie is easily spotted on their Twitter interactions.

Other than BLUE BLAZES feeling unusually long for a rapid-fire action book, I actually had only one major gripe. Wendig is a writer who can easily come up with 80 different ways to describe testicles or the smell of rancid meats so it’s with the knowledge of his super-wordslinging abilities that I am bothered by the banal use of the word to describe Mookie Pearl’s shirt as a “wifebeater” in the opening pages. I realize this word came into regular American usage to connote the trashy mobile home fashion of a Budweiser drunk who would find no other way to fester through life unless he is abusing weaker human beings. Knowing Wendig’s work as I do, I am completely confident that he could have taken a higher road to describe the shirt of Mookie Pearl rather than choosing consciously to use a word that is the “N-word” of domestic abuse survivors. Wendig doesn’t throw around the N-word or “gay” or any other slur unless it comes from the dialog of a character who would use it. In his narratives, I expect better consideration because it comes from him not Mookie nor the cartographer nor a bottom-dwelling Hell pig of the underworld. Mookie is a huge brawny man described as a Paul Bunyon who is quiet, enjoys certain fine quality eccentricities in food, can’t rebound from his failed family life, and is content being the muscle for the people who make decisions. Somewhere in there, Wendig could describe the white sleeveless shirt that exudes the odors of sweat, salt and salami to give readers the visual they would want to imagine Mookie Pearl in their heads.

[Jax · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked the writing, as per usual with Wendig, but this story just wasn't for me.

[Gef · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mookie Pearl is built like a brick outhouse--with a brain to match. He's hired muscle for the mob in New York City, an alternate version in which the criminal underworld oversees the actual underworld, exploiting its supernatural resources, not to mention keeping at bay the really nasty critters that live down there. That's kind of Mookie's specialty: curbstomping demons and overseeing the extraction of the addictive powder lovingly nicknamed Blue Blazes. Rub a bit of that stuff on your temples, and not only do you feel like a million bucks, but you get the curtain on reality pulled back so you can see all the monsters walking the streets disguised as humans.

The boss is sick though--lung cancer is the word--and Mookie's estranged daughter, Nora, has returned to the city to exact her revenge on the mob, orchestrating a plan with Mookie as her prized pawn, which threatens to have all the rival gangs back at each other's throats. Talk about daddy issues. Mookie is not a tactician, no good with strategy, but he's strong as an ox and will not quit. Where so many urban fantasy novels feature protagonists that ultimately rely more on wit and cunning and adaptability, Chuck Wendig's latest novel goes in a different direction. When the shit hits the fan, Mookie hits back--hard.

Mookie is a brute and a breath of fresh air. The heroes in books so rarely are the hired muscle, the guys never sought for their intellect or ingenuity. Hell, in any other book, Mookie would be a bit player. Someone other than Wendig might have written the book strictly through Nora's PoV or maybe one of the mob's lieutenants with a better position of influence. In The Blue Blazes, Mookie is continually played for a fool, led on one dead-end chase after another, as he tries to figure out what his daughter's plans are and whether the Death Hand actually exists--the rumored element deep in the underworld that can save his boss' life. Some other character might take a more analytical approach, piecing clues together, but all Mookie has is a thick skull well-suited for banging against the skulls of his enemies. And because he isn't a math whiz, he gets outfoxed at nearly every turn. If not for being able to withstand ungodly beatings, he wouldn't have made it past the first act of this novel.

It was pretty hard reading this book and not picking up little vibes reminding me of The Warriors and Sin City and other urban fables that show the underbelly of the city. I didn't get a great sense of New York City in this novel, but everything underneath was presented in incredible fashion, like Hell's version of Alice in Wonderland or something. The characters come off far more vibrant than the settings, which is to be expected, as Wendig is like a mad scientist when it comes to crafting these hard-bitten, hard-livin' characters that practically leap off the page and throttle you. God only knows where the series goes from here, but I'll be sure to check the second book whenever it comes out. If you're a fan of Wendig already, this book will merely preach to the converted. If you're not a fan yet, this book will likely fix that.

[Francesca · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5-4/5

The Blue Blazes, l’ultimo romanzo di Chuck Wendig, ci catapulta in una New York simile a quella odierna, ma decisamente più cupa e caotica. Sotto di essa si estende “The Great Below”, una sorta di Neverwhere infernale, popolato da goblin, folletti, demoni e dominato da caos e follia.

Mookie Pearl è un osso duro, un omaccione che incute timore al solo sguardo, benché in fondo abbia un buon cuore e sia roso dai rimpianti.
Egli lavora per l’Organizzazione, una struttura criminale di stampo mafioso, che controlla, tra l’altro, la distribuzione di una droga, chiamata “Blue”, che si ricava da un minerale presente proprio nei tenebrosi tunnel sotterranei.
Quando il boss dell’Organizzazione giace sul letto di morte a causa del cancro, Mookie è chiamato ad inoltrarsi nel mondo sotterraneo per cercare una enigmatica sostanza chiamata Death’s Head (o The Purple), che si dice capace di curare ogni malattia e forse persino resuscitare i morti.

In quest’impresa Mookie non solo si scontrerà con orde di mostruose e malvage creature, ma anche con esseri umani avidi ed efferati – ma incontrerà anche qualche “amico” disposto ad aiutarlo.
A complicare la situazione c’è Nora, la figlia ribelle, ostinata e indomita proprio di Mookie, che si mette contro il padre e l’Organizzazione stessa, iniziando una distribuzione parallela e alternativa di Blue.

Wendig si dimostra nuovamente un maestro della scrittura, riuscendo a costruire una storia originale, coinvolgente, un’ottima combinazione di schietto realismo e inedito e ricco immaginario fantastico, di thriller, urban fantasy e spunti hard boiled.

Tuttavia, il libro mi è piaciuto fino a un certo punto.
Innanzitutto, per me è stato naturale il confronto con i primi due romanzi del ciclo di Miriam Black, sempre di Wendig, che ho davvero adorato, e questo, a mio personalissimo gusto, si colloca decisamente qualche gradino al di sotto.
Inoltre, la costruzione della trama talvolta è difficile da seguire (senza contare l’inizio che lascia del tutto disorientati), e troppo forte è il contrasto tra attimi di azione dinamica e i momenti incentrati sul rapporto di Mookie con Nora, che si sviluppano lentamente.
"The Great Below" è un mondo sinistro ma affascinante; le sue creature, i suoi cupi abissi, vogliono echeggiare alcuni tratti delle migliori pagine lovecraftiane, ma secondo me ci riescono solo parzialmente.
Alcune scene di azione, inoltre, somigliano troppo a scenari di scontri da videogioco – nulla contro quest’ultimi, anzi, ma sono un’altra cosa dalla narrativa.

Wendig senza dubbio promosso, così come un romanzo interessante e accattivante, benché con qualche perplessità.

Leggi la recensione su The Omega Outpost

[Burgoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

By now you’re probably aware of how the bog standard urban fantasy steals its bones from Detective novels. The protagonist is in the role of the classic private eye, trying to unravel some sort of mystery, and the cast is populated with an assortment of vampires/werewolves/whathaveyou. In The Blue Blazes, Wendig sidesteps this generic setup, borrowing instead from the crime novel.

The protagonist, Mookie Pearl, works for the mob (or The Organization, in Wendig’s world). He runs crews who mine Blue Blazes, a powder that makes you feel invincible and lets you see the terrible things that live deep in the Earth below New York City. Unfortunately for Mookie, the head of The Organization is dying, and there’s a succession problem. And oh yeah, his teenage daughter is working on the outside to seize control of the whole thing.

The Blue Blazes was my first experience reading one of Wendig’s books. I was delighted to discover his lean and mean style. Short sharp sentences combined with a propulsive plot push the reader along making the book harder and harder to put down. Great worldbuilding combined with selective usage of tropes from crime and urban fantasy novels make this a unique, fun read.

But what really sets The Blue Blazes apart from the competition is its heart. Sure Mookie is a big lug who does bad things to bad people. That’s not so uncommon to read about. What makes Mookie a great character is the great big heart inside this big scary guy. His loyalty to The Organization and his boss; his love for his daughter; his desire to protect the innocents who get caught in the crossfire of this whole mess; these things give Mookie a depth that make him sympathetic and the story engaging on an emotional level.

It’s not all hugs and kisses, however. Be prepared. If you have problems with offensive language, or violence, this won’t be a book you’ll enjoy. It’s big and bold and profane. But if you can handle that, Mookie will take you on a ride to hell and back.

[Jaki · Rating 5 out of 5]

How I adore Chuck Wendig! There’s no flowers and unicorns and pretty rainbows and goodness in his worlds. His characters aren’t sweet and righteous and full of morals and ethics. Miriam Black, the “heroine” of his Miriam Black series (Blackbirds & Mockingbirds) is a strong female character…who is also not a particularly nice person. I certainly wouldn’t want to know her. Yet she is absolutely fascinating to read about.

And now we have Mookie Pearl – a thug, a criminal, a drug addict, an enforcer for a Mafia-type organization. And also a fairly crappy father.

Yet I want Mookie to win. I want to see Mookie come out on top, have a happy ending, repair his relationship with his angry late-teens daughter, Nora. Wendig has created this unlikeable character, and then made me like him. Go figure. Dunno how Wendig does it, but he’s a superstar at doing it. :D He’s a writer, someone who creates these horrible characters and sucks you in so deeply, you don’t want to come up for air.

Each chapter of The Blue Blazes has a passage by John Atticus Oakes – a character that we never meet, but the excerpts from his journals about his travels Below tell us a lot about the world Mookie Pearl inhabits. The Underground, the Below, the Beneath, the Underworld – that dark place where the demons and goblins live, and where you don’t want to go.

This is the third book by Chuck Wendig that I’ve read – and every one of them has been a 5 star for me. I love his writing, I love his broken characters, I love his style. Dark and gritty, with flashes of humour, there are still times when I shudder. You won’t find your cookie-cutter kick-arse heroine, saving the world, stuck in an InstaLuv love triangle here. You’ll find broken damaged people, who do things that aren’t nice, yet still feel yourself rooting for them to come out on top.

Only thing left to say – Mr Wendig, when’s the next Mookie Pearl adventure coming out???

[The Girl with the Sagittarius Tattoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great surprise! This was really fun and I'll be continuing with this trilogy.

The Blue Blazes is the story of Mookie Pearl, a mountain of muscle working for the mob. But in Wendig's vision of NYC, the Water Management Agency dug too deeply and greedily (like the dwarves of Khazad-dûm) in its effort to build a new tunnel, and it inadvertently opened a hole to Hell complete with goblins, Snakefaces and a host of other nightmares.

So what's a 7-ft, 350-lb side of beef to do? Like any gamer will tell you, there's ALWAYS treasure in a cave full of monsters so Mookie's mining for Cerulean, a blue ore that allows mundane humans the ability to see the minions of Hell while boosting your strength, agility and healing. Oh yeah, and it's becoming the No. 1 Hollywood party drug. Cha-ching!

The cool thing about this story is how Mookie works to save his wanna-be thug daughter from herself, his "organization" from its enemies, and the whole City from a supernatural apocalypse. Pearl's a tough guy you root for - not the smartest guy in the room, but definitely the most determined. It's hard to believe this book isn't more popular, and I recommend it highly. The Blue Blazes is a super fun read - a very entertaining way to distract yourself for a few hours from the real world.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE BLUE BLAZES reminds me a lot of the Joe Pitt casebooks by Charlie Huston in terms of its otherworldly atmospheric quality and the subtle supernatural elements that creep into underworld society. The gangs of Wendig’s New York are far more sinister than mere mortals with low morals and high body counts. Affiliated with, or controlled by monsters of deep, these gangs are more than a threat to the average Joe with the entire city resting on the outcome of a murderous plot to bring those that dwell in the dark to feast in the light above ground. Standing in the way of this is Mookie Pearl and by extension, his wayward and seemingly power hungry daughter Nora. Operating on both sides of the Organisation, this family dynamic is explosive to say the least.

Drugs, sexual undertones, violence, and a cult hero in the making, THE BLUE BLAZES has it all. From the dark and violent corners of noir to the fantastical elements of hell and back, Mookie’s story is one fans of all genres will be hard pressed not to enjoy.

Wendig knows how to write cool characters that aren’t the norm. Like Miriam Black, Mookie has a certain charisma and tough yet touching façade which forces the care about their plight. I look forward to reading the next instalment.

[Stefan · Rating 3 out of 5]

If, like me, you were introduced to the wonderful and somewhat insane world of Chuck Wendig via Blackbirds, eagerly lapped up its sequel Mockingbird, and then found yourself desperately looking for more, well, there’s good news and bad news.

The bad news—I’m just going to go ahead and say it—is that The Blue Blazes is not the new Miriam Black novel. That would be Cormorant, due out at the end of this year from Angry Robot.

The good news is that, if you liked the Miriam Black novels (which I reviewed here and here), The Blue Blazesshould be right up your alley: a dark contemporary fantasy that somehow manages to be fun and unnerving at the same time. (Bonus good news: another gorgeous cover by Joey Hi-Fi!)

Read the entire review on my site Far Beyond Reality!