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Teddy London #1
The Things That Are Not There
Award winning author C.J. Henderson's greatest supernatural mystery series returns to print in an all new edition with outstanding cover art by Ben Fogletto. Private detective Teddy London ran the best one-man agency in New York, until a demon-driven storm trashed his office. Fate delivers a beautiful new client who is being pursued by an army of winged monsters determined to use her as the key to unlock a doorway that will lead the world into madness. London and a few souls capable of weathering the terror ahead battle for the fate of humanity-one they know they will not all survive.
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
5 people are currently reading
121 people want to read
About the author
C.J. Henderson
241 books57 followersThere is more than one author with this name
CJ Henderson is the creator of both the Jack Hagee hardboiled PI series and the Teddy London supernatural detective series. He is also the author of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies, several score novels, plus hundreds of short stories and thousands of non-fiction pieces. In the wonderful world of comics he has written everything from Batman and the Punisher to Archie and Cherry Poptart.
He also writes under the name Robert Morgan.
CJ Henderson is the creator of both the Jack Hagee hardboiled PI series and the Teddy London supernatural detective series. He is also the author of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies, several score novels, plus hundreds of short stories and thousands of non-fiction pieces. In the wonderful world of comics he has written everything from Batman and the Punisher to Archie and Cherry Poptart.
He also writes under the name Robert Morgan.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 9, 2009
In his introduction, C.J. Henderson expresses a disappointment that Lovecraft's heroes are never able to fight back, that they never just get a gun and start shooting at any otherworldly interdimensional beasts that show up. Perhaps he also feels a disappointment that more people don't fire their guns to fend off encroaching lightning bolts or tornadoes. Lovecraft's entire point is that there are some things larger than the human arsenal.
Beyond that, there are a multitude of stories featuring more stalwart heroes facing the horrors of the mythos. Firstly, there's Lovecraft's own 'The Case of Charles Dexter Ward' which features a remarkably complex protagonist surviving in the incomprehensible world of the elder gods. There are also Alan Moore's 'Yuggoth Cultures' and Neal Gaiman's 'Only The End of the World Again'. Lovecraft often corresponded with R.E. Howard, whose Conan the Barbarian provides an excellent example of a hero who faces the cyclopean horrors and comes away relatively unscathed.
Conan also provides many parallels with the classic hard boiled detective, the other genre from which Henderson draws inspiration. Conan's no-nonsense machismo and sense of self-preservation in the face of the unknown could have served as an excellent mold for a detective protagonist.
Hard boiled detective fiction meshes rather well with Lovecraft, as the protagonists must know not to get in too far. Private eyes know there is such a thing as knowing too much. That's why we have a witness protection program. Henderson could have created an interesting setting by pointing out the similarities of both genres, especially being 'drawn in too far' and 'losing one's humanity'.
However, despite wanting a strong hero, and drawing from a genre renowned for men who place survival above all else, Henderson instead creates the most cheery, incautious detective he can. While both Lovecraft and hard boiled fiction depend on mood to create a sense of depth and danger, Henderson's book has none.
Though claiming Detective fiction and the Mythos for inspiration, he instead writes a rompy adventure. While Douglas Adams was able to pull humor from detective fiction, and Joss Whedon managed it with otherworldly horror, Henderson is, unfortunately, neither funny or quirky, despite numerous attempts.
The book doesn't fit with either the horror or detective genre, it is almost pure monomyth adventure. The soft boiled protagonist is a literal 'chosen one' with magic powers, and the cast is filled out by a beautiful damsel-in-distress with zero personality, an 'average guy' and two 'magical minorities'.
The latter two are both apparently American-born, firstly a black voodoo weaponeer, and secondly a mystical Asian psychic with the requisite chilled emotions. Though she does not seem to be an actual foreigner, Henderson still describes her by the racist 19th-century epithet 'an oriental'.
The Mandingo is suitably oversized and laconic, and apparently able to get his hands on the most unlikely of weapons. They will certainly need them, if they want to shoot that hurricane before it has a chance to kill them. Besides land mines and rocket launchers, he gets the whole party a set of Pancor Jackhammers, which are fully automatic shotguns. Unfortunately, these weapons were never actually produced, except for two prototypes.
Only gun nuts and fans of certain classic VRPGs would know this fact, so it would only harm disbelief in a small percentage. But then, why add a small detail that will be meaningless to most of your readers, who won't get it, and faulty to the few who will?
The weapon also brings up both the question of how the guy got a hold of them in the first place and why he would give unique weapons to some guy for free. The answer to the latter point is that everyone in this book intuitively knows whether anyone else is telling the truth. It's never explained whether that's a characteristic of this particular magical world, or whether Henderson thinks that's actually how human beings interact, but it certainly saves him from having to write multi-syllabic dialogue or portray human conflicts.
Our weaponeer (who Henderson once describes as shushing the hero with 'a thick black finger') also bores out the middle of the shotgun slugs and puts nitroglycerin inside of them. Nitro is the most unstable explosive we have, meaning these slugs would explode if you dropped them on the floor. Let's all imagine what would happen if you suddenly set off a firing pin next to one. That's right, exploding gun. Now lets imagine you have a whole clip full of these things. Take that, you damned flash floods!
Our Celestial psychic serves the purpose of introducing us to the main mover of this books' plot: the intuitive message from beyond. Nearly every problem Henderson sets before his characters is solved within the next half page, and usually by some sudden epiphany from out of the blue. Whether it's simple mistrust or the secret location of the bad guys, nothing is too small or too large for the author to simply put directly into his characters' brains.
Ironically, this bypasses any thought or emotional strength that would make the characters 'strong in the face of overwhelming odds', as he originally envisioned them. By removing any purpose or will, he ensures that the characters can have no personality, growth, or ability to actually overcome challenges.
At one point, the protagonist begins to doubt, falling into an uncharacteristic moment of introspection, which is then rudely interrupted by a magical voice in his head saying 'believe' and removing all his doubts in one fell swoop. Apparently, Henderson has to personally enter his books and bully his characters back on track, because not even they can believe how poorly-written their world is.
This book also gives an opportunity for him to represent his lack of understanding in the areas of science and mathematics when he begins to explain all about the world of the elder gods. While explaining that the evil only comes at times of grand syzygy (no cliche left behind) he suggests that planets are kept in motion by their own gravitational wells, which is the opposite of true. Gravity saps away energy.
His original suggestion that the placement of planets allows the otherworldly creatures to enter our world is likewise fraught, since the effect of gravity quickly diminishes over distance For example: the gravitational pull of Jupiter on you at its greatest is about equal with the television set across the room. If you really want to stop the elder gods, just rearrange the furniture.
He then misquotes 'A Brief History of Time' concerning the expansion and contraction of the universe. Between that and the Pancor reference, I expected this book to have been written circa 1987, not 2006.
As a sort of final insult, Henderson indicates that Lovecraft's own works were the result of him psychically connecting to the coming horrors which occur in this book. This is like saying that the Bible was only written so it could eventually be a footnote in the Da Vinci Code (not that Dan Brown actually cited references).
The title of the book really says a lot more than it means to. It evokes the Lovecraft story "The Things That Should Not Be", except Lovecraft's title is frightening. We are naturally afraid of things that should not exist, but things which don't exist are understandably less threatening.
The title clearly doesn't refer to the monsters themselves, which show up early and often, and leave their very corporeal body parts all over. Rather, it refers to the fact that this book is without many things, including mood, tone, character, humor, suspense, fear, conflict, research, or editing. Henderson misuses numerous words and metaphors throughout. One example is using 'sweating bullets' to indicate lots of hard work, instead of anxiety over the fast approach of death.
Finally, the book bears as much resemblance to Lovecraft's work as a Michael Bay film. The hero even talks to 'Cthulhu' at length, showing that Henderson has never come close to comprehending Lovecraft's style or philosophy. The very thoughts of these creatures are too complex for the human mind to comprehend. Just as no single person could memorize all the books that have been written, so too we could not comprehend such complex, alien minds.
Instead of blasting the hero's brain with unbelievable thoughts, 'Cthulhu' prattles on about death, sounding like a child paraphrasing Sauron from Lord of the Rings. Then Henderson puts into effect the threat from the introduction of taking on incomprehensible forces of nature with blazing pistols.
It's much easier to shoot them once Henderson makes the naive mistake of creating a theological pseudoscientific explanation to make the creatures small, simple, and understandable. At which point, nothing remains at all which ties this book to Lovecraft's legacy.
In the end, Henderson is not creative enough or experienced enough to produce anything new or interesting, even when mixing two such promising and interesting genres. One comes away with the sense that his personal experiences with fear, human conflict, and the insurmountable are so limited that he couldn't imagine anything that would create more than a half-page's difficulty for his characters.
This book achieves about the same level of horror, plot, and character depth as your average made-for-TV sci fi channel movie. His monsters even feel rubber-suited, which is odd, since books don't have limited CGI budgets. I hope Henderson's Kolchak novelizations are better than this, because one man shouldn't make fodder out of two previously enjoyable worlds.
Beyond that, there are a multitude of stories featuring more stalwart heroes facing the horrors of the mythos. Firstly, there's Lovecraft's own 'The Case of Charles Dexter Ward' which features a remarkably complex protagonist surviving in the incomprehensible world of the elder gods. There are also Alan Moore's 'Yuggoth Cultures' and Neal Gaiman's 'Only The End of the World Again'. Lovecraft often corresponded with R.E. Howard, whose Conan the Barbarian provides an excellent example of a hero who faces the cyclopean horrors and comes away relatively unscathed.
Conan also provides many parallels with the classic hard boiled detective, the other genre from which Henderson draws inspiration. Conan's no-nonsense machismo and sense of self-preservation in the face of the unknown could have served as an excellent mold for a detective protagonist.
Hard boiled detective fiction meshes rather well with Lovecraft, as the protagonists must know not to get in too far. Private eyes know there is such a thing as knowing too much. That's why we have a witness protection program. Henderson could have created an interesting setting by pointing out the similarities of both genres, especially being 'drawn in too far' and 'losing one's humanity'.
However, despite wanting a strong hero, and drawing from a genre renowned for men who place survival above all else, Henderson instead creates the most cheery, incautious detective he can. While both Lovecraft and hard boiled fiction depend on mood to create a sense of depth and danger, Henderson's book has none.
Though claiming Detective fiction and the Mythos for inspiration, he instead writes a rompy adventure. While Douglas Adams was able to pull humor from detective fiction, and Joss Whedon managed it with otherworldly horror, Henderson is, unfortunately, neither funny or quirky, despite numerous attempts.
The book doesn't fit with either the horror or detective genre, it is almost pure monomyth adventure. The soft boiled protagonist is a literal 'chosen one' with magic powers, and the cast is filled out by a beautiful damsel-in-distress with zero personality, an 'average guy' and two 'magical minorities'.
The latter two are both apparently American-born, firstly a black voodoo weaponeer, and secondly a mystical Asian psychic with the requisite chilled emotions. Though she does not seem to be an actual foreigner, Henderson still describes her by the racist 19th-century epithet 'an oriental'.
The Mandingo is suitably oversized and laconic, and apparently able to get his hands on the most unlikely of weapons. They will certainly need them, if they want to shoot that hurricane before it has a chance to kill them. Besides land mines and rocket launchers, he gets the whole party a set of Pancor Jackhammers, which are fully automatic shotguns. Unfortunately, these weapons were never actually produced, except for two prototypes.
Only gun nuts and fans of certain classic VRPGs would know this fact, so it would only harm disbelief in a small percentage. But then, why add a small detail that will be meaningless to most of your readers, who won't get it, and faulty to the few who will?
The weapon also brings up both the question of how the guy got a hold of them in the first place and why he would give unique weapons to some guy for free. The answer to the latter point is that everyone in this book intuitively knows whether anyone else is telling the truth. It's never explained whether that's a characteristic of this particular magical world, or whether Henderson thinks that's actually how human beings interact, but it certainly saves him from having to write multi-syllabic dialogue or portray human conflicts.
Our weaponeer (who Henderson once describes as shushing the hero with 'a thick black finger') also bores out the middle of the shotgun slugs and puts nitroglycerin inside of them. Nitro is the most unstable explosive we have, meaning these slugs would explode if you dropped them on the floor. Let's all imagine what would happen if you suddenly set off a firing pin next to one. That's right, exploding gun. Now lets imagine you have a whole clip full of these things. Take that, you damned flash floods!
Our Celestial psychic serves the purpose of introducing us to the main mover of this books' plot: the intuitive message from beyond. Nearly every problem Henderson sets before his characters is solved within the next half page, and usually by some sudden epiphany from out of the blue. Whether it's simple mistrust or the secret location of the bad guys, nothing is too small or too large for the author to simply put directly into his characters' brains.
Ironically, this bypasses any thought or emotional strength that would make the characters 'strong in the face of overwhelming odds', as he originally envisioned them. By removing any purpose or will, he ensures that the characters can have no personality, growth, or ability to actually overcome challenges.
At one point, the protagonist begins to doubt, falling into an uncharacteristic moment of introspection, which is then rudely interrupted by a magical voice in his head saying 'believe' and removing all his doubts in one fell swoop. Apparently, Henderson has to personally enter his books and bully his characters back on track, because not even they can believe how poorly-written their world is.
This book also gives an opportunity for him to represent his lack of understanding in the areas of science and mathematics when he begins to explain all about the world of the elder gods. While explaining that the evil only comes at times of grand syzygy (no cliche left behind) he suggests that planets are kept in motion by their own gravitational wells, which is the opposite of true. Gravity saps away energy.
His original suggestion that the placement of planets allows the otherworldly creatures to enter our world is likewise fraught, since the effect of gravity quickly diminishes over distance For example: the gravitational pull of Jupiter on you at its greatest is about equal with the television set across the room. If you really want to stop the elder gods, just rearrange the furniture.
He then misquotes 'A Brief History of Time' concerning the expansion and contraction of the universe. Between that and the Pancor reference, I expected this book to have been written circa 1987, not 2006.
As a sort of final insult, Henderson indicates that Lovecraft's own works were the result of him psychically connecting to the coming horrors which occur in this book. This is like saying that the Bible was only written so it could eventually be a footnote in the Da Vinci Code (not that Dan Brown actually cited references).
The title of the book really says a lot more than it means to. It evokes the Lovecraft story "The Things That Should Not Be", except Lovecraft's title is frightening. We are naturally afraid of things that should not exist, but things which don't exist are understandably less threatening.
The title clearly doesn't refer to the monsters themselves, which show up early and often, and leave their very corporeal body parts all over. Rather, it refers to the fact that this book is without many things, including mood, tone, character, humor, suspense, fear, conflict, research, or editing. Henderson misuses numerous words and metaphors throughout. One example is using 'sweating bullets' to indicate lots of hard work, instead of anxiety over the fast approach of death.
Finally, the book bears as much resemblance to Lovecraft's work as a Michael Bay film. The hero even talks to 'Cthulhu' at length, showing that Henderson has never come close to comprehending Lovecraft's style or philosophy. The very thoughts of these creatures are too complex for the human mind to comprehend. Just as no single person could memorize all the books that have been written, so too we could not comprehend such complex, alien minds.
Instead of blasting the hero's brain with unbelievable thoughts, 'Cthulhu' prattles on about death, sounding like a child paraphrasing Sauron from Lord of the Rings. Then Henderson puts into effect the threat from the introduction of taking on incomprehensible forces of nature with blazing pistols.
It's much easier to shoot them once Henderson makes the naive mistake of creating a theological pseudoscientific explanation to make the creatures small, simple, and understandable. At which point, nothing remains at all which ties this book to Lovecraft's legacy.
In the end, Henderson is not creative enough or experienced enough to produce anything new or interesting, even when mixing two such promising and interesting genres. One comes away with the sense that his personal experiences with fear, human conflict, and the insurmountable are so limited that he couldn't imagine anything that would create more than a half-page's difficulty for his characters.
This book achieves about the same level of horror, plot, and character depth as your average made-for-TV sci fi channel movie. His monsters even feel rubber-suited, which is odd, since books don't have limited CGI budgets. I hope Henderson's Kolchak novelizations are better than this, because one man shouldn't make fodder out of two previously enjoyable worlds.
November 14, 2014
-¿Para qué vamos a investigar si podemos liarnos a tiros y hacer volar cualquier cosa?.-
Género. Narrativa fantástica.
Lo que nos cuenta. Theodore London está al frente de una agencia de detectives privados en Nueva York cuya sede se ve afectada por los efectos de una fuerte tormenta. Los destrozos causados por la furia de los elementos le hacen plantearse la viabilidad del negocio, pero la llegada de una bella clienta llamada Lisa Hutchinson con una increíble historia que contar desatarán una serie de inquietantes acontecimientos de carácter sobrenatural. Primer libro de la serie de Teddy London.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Narrativa fantástica.
Lo que nos cuenta. Theodore London está al frente de una agencia de detectives privados en Nueva York cuya sede se ve afectada por los efectos de una fuerte tormenta. Los destrozos causados por la furia de los elementos le hacen plantearse la viabilidad del negocio, pero la llegada de una bella clienta llamada Lisa Hutchinson con una increíble historia que contar desatarán una serie de inquietantes acontecimientos de carácter sobrenatural. Primer libro de la serie de Teddy London.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
March 13, 2016
While many of the various sub-genres of horror are getting saturated the expansion of the Lovecraft mythos has remained mostly a underground sensation. That is not to say that Cthulu plushies don't exist, they do. Just like vampires, werewolves and zombies there are authors who do it right and some who well don't quite get it. CJ Henderson is an author I only have one earlier experience. In 2011 I reviewed his short story collection "Degrees of Fear." At the time I reviewed that collection one thing I was critical of was the author's dependence on Lovecraft tropes as almost a crutch. Several authors have been heavily influenced by Lovecraft but didn't cut as close to the bone. I think authors like Thomas Liggoti and Laird Barron are great examples. Certainly Cody Goodfellow is a author who orbits closer to Lovecraft while maintaining his own voice and ideas.
Still The collection of Henderson's work was good enough that I picked up a signed copy of this book at a local book store shortly after the author passed away in 2014.
The Things That are Not There is A Lovecraftian hard boiled detective cross-over novel that spawned two sequels. The story of Teddy London a corny Carbon copy private eye that feels yanked straight out of a black and white noir movie. That may sound insulting but one positive for me is I picked this novel happening in black and white. Every once in a awhile some modern aspect of life or the New York setting pulled me out of it. I actually think this novel would have been better served in the 50's. The end of the world is threatened here and think that is why Hederson went ahead and set it in our time.
This novel started strong with a atmospheric opening 50 pages. The set-up of the case was spooky and weird. As with lots of Lovecraftian horror things get a little less interesting when it is revealed. This is a mythos problem how can the reveal ever equal the build up of something so mind-bendingly fear inducing it can't be described.
Looking at CJ Henderson's career it is clear he loves hard-boiled private eye stories as much as Lovecraft. The two styles crossed more effectively early but I did like an exchange on page 85:
"Spooky ain't she?"
"Well, what ain't these days."
I was entertained by this novel, but I am not sure I was excited enough to read the second or third book in the series.
Still The collection of Henderson's work was good enough that I picked up a signed copy of this book at a local book store shortly after the author passed away in 2014.
The Things That are Not There is A Lovecraftian hard boiled detective cross-over novel that spawned two sequels. The story of Teddy London a corny Carbon copy private eye that feels yanked straight out of a black and white noir movie. That may sound insulting but one positive for me is I picked this novel happening in black and white. Every once in a awhile some modern aspect of life or the New York setting pulled me out of it. I actually think this novel would have been better served in the 50's. The end of the world is threatened here and think that is why Hederson went ahead and set it in our time.
This novel started strong with a atmospheric opening 50 pages. The set-up of the case was spooky and weird. As with lots of Lovecraftian horror things get a little less interesting when it is revealed. This is a mythos problem how can the reveal ever equal the build up of something so mind-bendingly fear inducing it can't be described.
Looking at CJ Henderson's career it is clear he loves hard-boiled private eye stories as much as Lovecraft. The two styles crossed more effectively early but I did like an exchange on page 85:
"Spooky ain't she?"
"Well, what ain't these days."
I was entertained by this novel, but I am not sure I was excited enough to read the second or third book in the series.
February 17, 2022
DNF'd @ p. 40
This just wasn't for me.
This just wasn't for me.
June 21, 2013
C.J. Henderson has written a tale about the end of the world (zombies not included). The novel starts out as a typical detective novel. Theodore London, our hero, is greeted by an attractive blonde looking to hire him. We are then thrust into the world of supernature occurrences. There are flying creatures unseen at first. Then they get a little more brave. The story unfolds quickly with each chapter revealing more of the plot. There isn't much to the plot (the end of the world is coming, will the humans be able to stop it?) but this is more of an introduction to Teddy London and his team of supernatural investigators.
This was my first introduction to C.J. Henderson's writing. I met him at the Wizard Comic Con in Philadelphia in 2012. He recommended this book. He's written many novels both independently published and through publishers. This novel was well written and I look forward to checking out more of his books. You can check out this book and more of his writings at www.cjhenderson.com.
This was my first introduction to C.J. Henderson's writing. I met him at the Wizard Comic Con in Philadelphia in 2012. He recommended this book. He's written many novels both independently published and through publishers. This novel was well written and I look forward to checking out more of his books. You can check out this book and more of his writings at www.cjhenderson.com.
July 18, 2007
This is the first in the Teddy London series. Pretty high in the Lovecraft mythos, this solidified my addiction to Robert Morgan/CJ Henderson stories.
October 21, 2017
I've been looking forward to reading this series for some time. I'm an insane fanatic (sadly, I mean this literally...) when it comes to HPL Mythos fiction, and Henderson has written some impressive short stories in the genre. However... this is a pretty terrible book. I think this is due to 2 reasons: 1) Henderson created this novel by expanding a (mediocre) short story, and he obviously didn't have enough good ideas to support the greater number of characters and more complex plot of a novel based on that earlier, shorter idea; and 2) Henderson clearly had not written a "hardboiled detective" novel before. The pacing, the way the characterization is handled, the themes: all are slightly off what a good hardboiled genre novel should be.
Having said all that, the _conceptual idea_ of the book is terrific, and the consequences arising from the climax are awesome. Because of that (and my insane fanaticism) I will continue on to read the other books in the series. They can only get better, right? (Plus, the edition I read contained the "sequel" short story, "Idiot Savant," the piece that got me interested in this series to begin with, and that story, on its own, is worth reading this book if you have never read it.)
Having said all that, the _conceptual idea_ of the book is terrific, and the consequences arising from the climax are awesome. Because of that (and my insane fanaticism) I will continue on to read the other books in the series. They can only get better, right? (Plus, the edition I read contained the "sequel" short story, "Idiot Savant," the piece that got me interested in this series to begin with, and that story, on its own, is worth reading this book if you have never read it.)
December 17, 2018
Interesante thriller sobrenatural con elementos de acciòn fantasìa. Es de una lectura muy àgil y debido a sus pocas pàginas se puede leer tranquilamente en un fin de semana. Tenemos un detective privado a punto de tirar la toalla en su profesiòn cuàndo una misteriosa mujer pide sus servicios para resolver un caso de lo màs extraño. Con referencias muy marcada a SK y Lovecraft, "Enemigos de la luz" es un recomendado para llevar de viaje o como puente con lecturas màs pesadas que tengan. 3/5 Estrellas, saludos !
May 7, 2014
Do not buy this book.
There, I said it.
Normally that kind of statement would bother me, but not here.
This book fails as a hard-boiled detective story first, and a mythos tale second.
I really wish I had read Keely's extremely well put together review before purchasing this book. (found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) Sadly, I did not. It says in extremely eloquent form what is entirely wrong with this novel, so I highly suggest you go and read it, maybe give it a like or two.
There were a few other things about this work that bothered me, beyond the liquid nitroglycerin in shotgun shells, massive gun battles in a church that don't wake the people in the apartments to either side, or .
There were two things that bothered me in regards to the way the novel was written and immediately stand out. One is Henderson's use of the semicolon in dialogue.
Here's an example:
And then suddenly, Lisa threw herself into London's arms, holding him with a fierce strength born from too many years of being alone. Hugging him to herself, she told him;
"Oh, Teddy, oh I love you so much. Don't die. Please don't leave me by myself. Oh, Teddy..."
This stylistic choice is throughout the entire novel, pretty much anytime a character talks. I read a lot, and have been for a long time, and I have never seen this usage before. It actually bothered me enough that I ended up asking nineteen editors and writers (including one publisher) if it was in fact, correct usage. None of them have seen it before, many said it was incorrect usage or in a grey area, and seven of them suggested better ways it could have been handled.
The reason it bothers me so much, beyond the fact that I have never experienced it before, is visually on the page it's abrasive and ugly. It chops up paragraphs that otherwise would have flowed naturally and been pleasing to the reading eye.
The second is the slathering of EN and EM dashes throughout each and every page of this book. Used once or twice, these can be a great writer's tool, but Henderson lays them on thick, sometimes multiple times in a paragraph. I'm surprised that his beta readers and editor didn't catch this, more so that they let it through. (with the above questionable semicolon usage)
One thing Henderson did extremely well in this book was when he spelled out human horrors, such as the baby being cooked like a turkey and the treatment of Lisa by her parents. Each of them were heart wrenchingly handled and elicited a score of emotional responses from me, often leaving me having to look away from the pages. If Henderson had played those off against the horrors of the coming cosmic monster, it would have worked as a beautiful juxtaposition. However, he does not. Instead, they are placed within the pages of this novel and nothing is done with them other than to show Lisa's tragic past and to show that the psychic is what she says she is.
Sadly, that one shining diamond among the rest of the novel is not enough to save it. Certain things just keep dragging the storyline down. Take London and Lisa falling in love at first sight. Yes, he saves her life, but suddenly they decide to become engaged?
Then there's the in depth description of the altered human beings, giving a lot of detail to their biological make up, yet not seeming to think it through. Yes, large animals can have hollow bones, like the Ostrich. However, only SOME of their bones are hollow, so that they can carry around the weight of their muscle mass. The creatures Henderson created have all hollow bones (to allow them to fly) as well as denser, heavier muscle mass compared to humans. (we need solid bones to support our weight) They can also turn aside bullets with 'knobby knots of flesh', which somehow makes them immune to bullets. (but apparently not knives)
Let's also take into consideration that the creatures have a built in self-destruct button. When killed, their brain releases a signal to the cells of the body to begin their decay. Yet SOMEHOW, after it being dead for hours, cutting the lower body off stops said signal (which would travel as fast a any other neurological signal) from reaching the rest of the body. I'm sorry, but no.
In the end, this book fails as a hard-boiled detective novel (for reasons mentioned in the other review I linked to), and as a mythos novel. Henderson has created exactly the opposite of what his introduction states he set off to do. Coupled with a borderline Mary-Sue character and a deus ex machina ending, this was a hard book to slog through and I often found myself falling asleep while reading it.
If you are a fan of either genre, this book will most likely disappoint you. Yes, there are a number of higher ratings, so there are those out there that enjoyed the book. If you are looking for a full out action novel, this might work for you. But for what it's advertised as, it does not work in the slightest. As stated at the beginning, don't buy this book.
Or at least read the other reviews and know what you are getting into.
There, I said it.
Normally that kind of statement would bother me, but not here.
This book fails as a hard-boiled detective story first, and a mythos tale second.
I really wish I had read Keely's extremely well put together review before purchasing this book. (found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) Sadly, I did not. It says in extremely eloquent form what is entirely wrong with this novel, so I highly suggest you go and read it, maybe give it a like or two.
There were a few other things about this work that bothered me, beyond the liquid nitroglycerin in shotgun shells, massive gun battles in a church that don't wake the people in the apartments to either side, or .
There were two things that bothered me in regards to the way the novel was written and immediately stand out. One is Henderson's use of the semicolon in dialogue.
Here's an example:
And then suddenly, Lisa threw herself into London's arms, holding him with a fierce strength born from too many years of being alone. Hugging him to herself, she told him;
"Oh, Teddy, oh I love you so much. Don't die. Please don't leave me by myself. Oh, Teddy..."
This stylistic choice is throughout the entire novel, pretty much anytime a character talks. I read a lot, and have been for a long time, and I have never seen this usage before. It actually bothered me enough that I ended up asking nineteen editors and writers (including one publisher) if it was in fact, correct usage. None of them have seen it before, many said it was incorrect usage or in a grey area, and seven of them suggested better ways it could have been handled.
The reason it bothers me so much, beyond the fact that I have never experienced it before, is visually on the page it's abrasive and ugly. It chops up paragraphs that otherwise would have flowed naturally and been pleasing to the reading eye.
The second is the slathering of EN and EM dashes throughout each and every page of this book. Used once or twice, these can be a great writer's tool, but Henderson lays them on thick, sometimes multiple times in a paragraph. I'm surprised that his beta readers and editor didn't catch this, more so that they let it through. (with the above questionable semicolon usage)
One thing Henderson did extremely well in this book was when he spelled out human horrors, such as the baby being cooked like a turkey and the treatment of Lisa by her parents. Each of them were heart wrenchingly handled and elicited a score of emotional responses from me, often leaving me having to look away from the pages. If Henderson had played those off against the horrors of the coming cosmic monster, it would have worked as a beautiful juxtaposition. However, he does not. Instead, they are placed within the pages of this novel and nothing is done with them other than to show Lisa's tragic past and to show that the psychic is what she says she is.
Sadly, that one shining diamond among the rest of the novel is not enough to save it. Certain things just keep dragging the storyline down. Take London and Lisa falling in love at first sight. Yes, he saves her life, but suddenly they decide to become engaged?
Then there's the in depth description of the altered human beings, giving a lot of detail to their biological make up, yet not seeming to think it through. Yes, large animals can have hollow bones, like the Ostrich. However, only SOME of their bones are hollow, so that they can carry around the weight of their muscle mass. The creatures Henderson created have all hollow bones (to allow them to fly) as well as denser, heavier muscle mass compared to humans. (we need solid bones to support our weight) They can also turn aside bullets with 'knobby knots of flesh', which somehow makes them immune to bullets. (but apparently not knives)
Let's also take into consideration that the creatures have a built in self-destruct button. When killed, their brain releases a signal to the cells of the body to begin their decay. Yet SOMEHOW, after it being dead for hours, cutting the lower body off stops said signal (which would travel as fast a any other neurological signal) from reaching the rest of the body. I'm sorry, but no.
In the end, this book fails as a hard-boiled detective novel (for reasons mentioned in the other review I linked to), and as a mythos novel. Henderson has created exactly the opposite of what his introduction states he set off to do. Coupled with a borderline Mary-Sue character and a deus ex machina ending, this was a hard book to slog through and I often found myself falling asleep while reading it.
If you are a fan of either genre, this book will most likely disappoint you. Yes, there are a number of higher ratings, so there are those out there that enjoyed the book. If you are looking for a full out action novel, this might work for you. But for what it's advertised as, it does not work in the slightest. As stated at the beginning, don't buy this book.
Or at least read the other reviews and know what you are getting into.
February 2, 2019
Expanded from his short story. This new version has better character development and a lot more details. I couldn't put it down
November 18, 2016
Me parecio una novela ágil y facíl de digerir. Entretenida por su corte Lovecraftniano.
March 20, 2008
I bought this from the author at Stellarcon, in High Point. It combines hardboiled fiction with a horror mythology much like the Cthulhu mythos.
What i liked: The lead character, Theodore London, his sidekick Paul, and his weapons supplier, Pa'cha. I might like reading another story with those guys. Also, Lai Wan was cool. I think she was in a comic from Moonstone?
What i didn't like: I wanted a lot more atmosphere and sense of place. I wasn't sure at first if this story was taking place in the past or the present. Since both hardboiled and Lovecraftian stories often take place in the 20s/30s, that was the setting i assumed. It becomes clear, however, that the setting is actually the present day. (The weapons and the whole foods restaurant clinched it.) The lovecraftian elements made me expect more mood.
Give this one a try if you're a fan of fantastic horror or modern private detective tales.
What i liked: The lead character, Theodore London, his sidekick Paul, and his weapons supplier, Pa'cha. I might like reading another story with those guys. Also, Lai Wan was cool. I think she was in a comic from Moonstone?
What i didn't like: I wanted a lot more atmosphere and sense of place. I wasn't sure at first if this story was taking place in the past or the present. Since both hardboiled and Lovecraftian stories often take place in the 20s/30s, that was the setting i assumed. It becomes clear, however, that the setting is actually the present day. (The weapons and the whole foods restaurant clinched it.) The lovecraftian elements made me expect more mood.
Give this one a try if you're a fan of fantastic horror or modern private detective tales.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 6, 2012
This book was a travesty in all regards. Terrible prose, flat, stereotypical characters, and an unimaginative plot stolen and then mutilated from an H.P. Lovecraft novel. I thought for a while that the audiobook narrator was at fault, but after listening in more detail for what was bothering me it is clearly the author and editor who need to be flogged. Author for all of the above mentioned reasons and the editor for allowing the words suddenly and instantly to be used in every third paragraph. You could almost automate a check for that type of thing and I can't believe the blatant failure to apply such a basic editing technique to this work. Save yourself a headache and read something else.
July 31, 2013
Pretty good. Reading other peoples reviews I realize they just don't get it...
This book is a hard boiled detective story with a dash of the supernatural. That dash happens to be Mythos/ Cosmic in flavor. Anyone approaching this book thinking it is a Lovecraftian novel... doesn't know what they are reading. Crime/ Detective book FIRST... mythos horror thematically... for spice.
That all said it meandered a little and it did have a lot of typos still in the text. If I were CJ I would discuss with my editor about giving the text a better copy editor.
I will be picking up the next in the series... though CJ's new series is calling to me a bit more right now...
This book is a hard boiled detective story with a dash of the supernatural. That dash happens to be Mythos/ Cosmic in flavor. Anyone approaching this book thinking it is a Lovecraftian novel... doesn't know what they are reading. Crime/ Detective book FIRST... mythos horror thematically... for spice.
That all said it meandered a little and it did have a lot of typos still in the text. If I were CJ I would discuss with my editor about giving the text a better copy editor.
I will be picking up the next in the series... though CJ's new series is calling to me a bit more right now...
July 1, 2009
Somebody else already reviewed this book with like a 3 page review, which is more than this book deserves, and ill second that review. Yeah, in the intro he says he wants to do a lovecraftian book where the characters fight back. Yep, thats the book, except its a one line joke delivered completely flat for 200 pages. Painfully bad. Worse sterotypes than a 1950s pulp sci-fi, the only thing it has going for it is that they blew up half of new jersey.
July 8, 2008
While this wasn't as bad as I expected, lord, it wasn't good either. Hard boiled cthulu fantasy detective fiction, ends with the east coast blowing up all die-hard 4 style... Man, this was a lousy book.
March 28, 2009
I like CJ and have enjoyed a number of other works by him. This did not do it for me. Main character was stock hard-boiled detective and was uninteresting.
December 27, 2015
2.5
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