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Wychman Road
“Normal people don’t have control over anything. And they only affect some things. We affect everything, and we have control over most things. But it comes with a price.”
Peter Alexson is an average high school student—until he wakes up in a ditch surrounded by the dead bodies of his friends and his head filled with voices, so very many voices. So Peter does the only thing he can do. He runs.
He runs right into the path of Joshua Jones, who looks twenty-two but was born in 1899, who can dissolve the windows in a high-rise with the touch of his hand, who can disarm a bank robber with a single thought, who can bend the whole world to his will if he chooses. Joshua can teach Peter what the voices mean and how to use the energy that comes with them, but Joshua has spent more than three decades running from the evil in his own past.
Together, Joshua and Peter must find how to harness their powers to defeat their darker natures, and discover dangers they cannot outrun.
Peter Alexson is an average high school student—until he wakes up in a ditch surrounded by the dead bodies of his friends and his head filled with voices, so very many voices. So Peter does the only thing he can do. He runs.
He runs right into the path of Joshua Jones, who looks twenty-two but was born in 1899, who can dissolve the windows in a high-rise with the touch of his hand, who can disarm a bank robber with a single thought, who can bend the whole world to his will if he chooses. Joshua can teach Peter what the voices mean and how to use the energy that comes with them, but Joshua has spent more than three decades running from the evil in his own past.
Together, Joshua and Peter must find how to harness their powers to defeat their darker natures, and discover dangers they cannot outrun.
- GenresCanada
338 pages, Paperback
First published January 7, 2016
2 people are currently reading
115 people want to read
About the author
Ben Berman Ghan
10 books31 followersBen Berman Ghan is a PhD Candidate in English and creative writing at the University of Calgary. His debut collection of fiction, What We See in the Smoke, was published by Crowsnest Books in May 2019, his novella Visitation Seeds was published by 845 Press in December 2020, and his novel The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits was published with Buckrider Books in May 2024. He is the editor of Bruce Meyer: Essays on His Works, to be published in March 2025 with Guernica Editions. His second collection of Fiction, The Library Cosmic, is forthcoming with Buckrider Books for Spring 2026. His prose, poetry, and essays have previously been published in Clarkesworld Magazine, Strange Horizons, Filling Station Magazine, The Blasted Tree Publishing Co., Pinhole Poetry, and The Ancilliary Review of Books
find him at inkstainedwreck.ca
find him at inkstainedwreck.ca
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 8, 2016
If you were the kind of kid who ran around your yard with a towel tucked into the back of your shirt as a makeshift “cape” and find yourself longing for those days and wishing you could have special powers, Wychman Road might be the book for you. Yes, I know the superhero thing has been overdone lately, but there are so many twists on the genre going in this book that it really turns the genre on its ear. Starting with this fundamental question: what if you got this thing you’ve wished for all your life—superpowers—and they turn out to be as much a curse as a gift? Or maybe more curse than gift?
Because that’s basically what happens to both of the main characters in this novel. Joshua Jones started out his life as a prodigy of sorts—mainly, but not entirely, musical—and for his first twenty-odd years everyone told him how special he was. Then he gains these new abilities as a “Thought Walker”, to read thoughts and harness the energies of other humans, and he’s able to harness his potential in life-destroying ways. On the one hand, he can do really cool stuff. On the other hand, he nearly loses the ability to truly connect with others.
And for years life is a misery for Joshua, until he meets Peter, a fledgling Thought Walker. Peter gains his powers through a harrowing experience that I don’t want to spoil here, and having these powers means he can’t ever see his family or friends again. And the conflict is much clearer for Peter because, again, he thinks it’s cool that he can do all these new things but he’s also lost so much in the process. Seeing both of these characters side-by-side—one at the beginning of this path and one deeply immersed in it—you begin to wonder if those childhood fantasies inspired by so many novels and movies and comics are really all they’re cracked up to be.
Because the thing is, a Thought Walker is really more of a predator than a hero, as we see when Joshua’s “Family” comes fully into play. Of course Joshua wants to leave the Family and live on his own terms, and the Family doesn’t want him to do that. It’s a conflict that had me hearing Al Pacino’s voice in my head, yelling “Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in!” I’m not sure if this connection between fantasy and mob-based crime fiction is deliberate, but it’s an interesting mashup. That one family uses supernatural powers and the other uses tommy guns seems like a small detail to me. Both story arcs revolve around an anti-hero trying to do better than he’s done in the past, trying to get away from the circumstances of birth (or re-birth as the case may be), and forge his own identity as an independent being. I think these kinds of stories appeal because that’s what most of us are trying to do, in smaller ways, on a day-to-day basis—once we put our “capes” away.
Because that’s basically what happens to both of the main characters in this novel. Joshua Jones started out his life as a prodigy of sorts—mainly, but not entirely, musical—and for his first twenty-odd years everyone told him how special he was. Then he gains these new abilities as a “Thought Walker”, to read thoughts and harness the energies of other humans, and he’s able to harness his potential in life-destroying ways. On the one hand, he can do really cool stuff. On the other hand, he nearly loses the ability to truly connect with others.
And for years life is a misery for Joshua, until he meets Peter, a fledgling Thought Walker. Peter gains his powers through a harrowing experience that I don’t want to spoil here, and having these powers means he can’t ever see his family or friends again. And the conflict is much clearer for Peter because, again, he thinks it’s cool that he can do all these new things but he’s also lost so much in the process. Seeing both of these characters side-by-side—one at the beginning of this path and one deeply immersed in it—you begin to wonder if those childhood fantasies inspired by so many novels and movies and comics are really all they’re cracked up to be.
Because the thing is, a Thought Walker is really more of a predator than a hero, as we see when Joshua’s “Family” comes fully into play. Of course Joshua wants to leave the Family and live on his own terms, and the Family doesn’t want him to do that. It’s a conflict that had me hearing Al Pacino’s voice in my head, yelling “Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in!” I’m not sure if this connection between fantasy and mob-based crime fiction is deliberate, but it’s an interesting mashup. That one family uses supernatural powers and the other uses tommy guns seems like a small detail to me. Both story arcs revolve around an anti-hero trying to do better than he’s done in the past, trying to get away from the circumstances of birth (or re-birth as the case may be), and forge his own identity as an independent being. I think these kinds of stories appeal because that’s what most of us are trying to do, in smaller ways, on a day-to-day basis—once we put our “capes” away.
January 17, 2016
I feel incredibly lucky to know the author personally and consider him to be a good friend of mine. And because of this, the process of reading the book was even more exciting as it revealed elements of his personality in his characters, as well as other aspects that I suspect I still haven’t discovered about him.
“Wychman Road” breathes new life into the genre of superheroes and immortality, but does so in a way that is well planned out and gripping. Each chapter is comparable to an episode for a TV show, their endings always leaving you wondering what would happen next. As I told Ben myself recently, I found myself relating more to Joshua than Peter, and I personally love books where the “villain” has a very blurred line, where their decisions and past feel very tangible as you’re reading, making you want to slip in between the words and exclaim you understand why they’re acting the way they are. Each character was well developed, engaging, and a pleasure to follow along with. I also have been privileged to a few spoilers for later on in the series, and can’t wait to finally read my predictions as part of the actual story.
I can’t wait to see what the next installment will bring, and to return to the beautifully constructed world of the Thought Walkers. My next big hope is to learn more about the other families, as well as to see more of what seems like a ‘niche’ setting in the world of fiction, Toronto. “Wychman Road” was wonderful.
“Wychman Road” breathes new life into the genre of superheroes and immortality, but does so in a way that is well planned out and gripping. Each chapter is comparable to an episode for a TV show, their endings always leaving you wondering what would happen next. As I told Ben myself recently, I found myself relating more to Joshua than Peter, and I personally love books where the “villain” has a very blurred line, where their decisions and past feel very tangible as you’re reading, making you want to slip in between the words and exclaim you understand why they’re acting the way they are. Each character was well developed, engaging, and a pleasure to follow along with. I also have been privileged to a few spoilers for later on in the series, and can’t wait to finally read my predictions as part of the actual story.
I can’t wait to see what the next installment will bring, and to return to the beautifully constructed world of the Thought Walkers. My next big hope is to learn more about the other families, as well as to see more of what seems like a ‘niche’ setting in the world of fiction, Toronto. “Wychman Road” was wonderful.
May 1, 2016
A totally engrossing page turner. Creepy, cool and suspenseful. I am really looking forward to the next book in this series!!
January 12, 2016
a fast paced fun read! i devoured it; i can't wait for the next one in the series to see what happens next!!!!
March 1, 2016
FTC disclosure: I received a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
Notes on Diversity:
So, one of the main characters mentions in passing that he's slept with men and women both. Given that this character is from a different era, and given what I know of the men from his era, I'm honestly unsure as to whether he would accept the label of bisexuality, but there is a mention of queer sexual practice.*
The landlord of the two main characters is named Claire Kamal. She's described as dark-skinned, brown-haired, and brown-eyed. Y'all, it seems pretty safe to say we have a canonically brown woman in the book. Very little is revealed about her other than this description; for instance I can't tell you if she is Muslim or Hindu or anything else.** Just that she is very probably brown.
[caption id="attachment_3742" align="aligncenter" width="150"]
diversity meter says 'meh'[/caption]
It's not a very diverse book. It's the story, essentially, of how two white, cis (super)abled young men process very different kinds of masculinities in the frame of a friendship they both need. If you really don't want to read a book about two white dudes palling around with superpowers and having friend-feelings they can't hide from each other, then this is probably a pass for you. And that's ok. That's why I put the diversity thingie right up front.
But that's not to say this is a bad book at all.
Review:
The world of Ben Berman Ghan's WYCHMAN ROAD is like ours, except it has a secret. There is a hidden society of Thought Walkers who live among us: they can read our minds and change them. They don't age, and they're incredibly hard to kill. They are stronger than us, faster than us, telekinetic, and most of them no longer consider themselves bound by human law.
[caption id="attachment_3769" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
they are coming to crush all our junkyard cars[/caption]
Joshua Jones is one such Thought Walker: a man who's been using his abilities to slip along the fringes of regular human society unnoticed, using his compelling/persuasive power (think Kilgrave) to gently coax a bed for the night or a muffin from a coffee house when he needs it.
Peter Axelson starts the book as a normal kid, a teenager in Toronto about to embark on his senior year of high school. A celebratory night out on the town with his friends turns grisly when they cross paths the man hunting for Joshua Jones. The chance encounter leaves Peter's friends dead and Peter with the same bizarre abilities as Joshua. Peter finds himself drawn to Joshua, and from there, the plot thickens.
On the surface, this is a story about how Joshua must come to a reckoning with his past and how Peter must come to a reckoning with his future. The abilities they both have come with a price: while incredible, the other Thought Walkers know about them. The Thought Walkers have their own code of conduct and honor (I'd love to see this built out more in the next installment) but its clear from Peter's introduction that winding up on their radar is Bad News. The plot hinges on these choices: will Joshua succumb to the things he's done in the past to survive? Are these things that Peter will have to do to survive himself?
But at a deeper level, I think, this book serves as an interesting exploration of male friendship. The central theme is not running, but staying. It's a book about a creating a safe place and a home--the title refers to the street where they rent an apartment, something Peter insists on for stability's sake, and something that Joshua hasn't done for a long time. It's a book about found family, and rooting yourself in people who accept you, and it does so very openly, and is about two men having Feelings On The Page in a way that is, frankly, refreshing.
Part of it is because they are mindreaders, sure. But a lot of this is because of the characters themselves. Peter is just a sweet, open guy. Joshua is not, at first, but he opens himself up to Peter bit by bit. I love books about immensely important friendships, and this book definitely qualifies.
[caption id="attachment_3794" align="aligncenter" width="408"]
SUPERHERO BROMANCE LOVERS REJOICE![/caption]
Again, diversity is not the book's strong suit. And the book is not particularly great with it's woman characters, either. It features an event I would consider to be a fridging. Claire Kamal has some depth and shading, but honestly, a woman that clumsy probably has an inner-ear medical issue she probably would have gotten checked out by now. I was intrigued by Joshua's paramour, Alice/Allison, but she was in and out of the book so fast that I didn't know what to make of her. Here's to getting more of a glimpse of her in the next book.
I'm hoping for better-defined woman characters in book 2 of the Wychmen Saga, but I'll definitely be picking up book 2. Ghan may have put all his eggs into a relationship between two white men, but, hell, at least he made them care deeply about each other. And they let each other know that more than once. And that made me care about them, too.
___
*Good god that sounds clinical. Ok. What I mean to say is that Joshua, our lover-of-both-genders was born and came of age in the early 1900s. He's been alive this whole time since, "dancing" (as he puts it) with his partners, but there's no real guessing how he does or does not apply more modern queer lingo/labels to himself. I have SO MANY QUESTIONS about this (mostly because I just love queer characters so much). Like, did he not pursue men until after he got those weird powers and was talked into seeing himself as superhuman/above human morality? Or did it predate? We do see him on a date with a young woman before the powers thing, means it's possible, but doesn't confirm or deny anything, I guess. Anyway. All I'm saying is that without more in-text interrogation I'm really unsure about how Joshua would actually self-identify regardless of the glimpse of sexual history he's disclosed to Peter. NO YOU ARE OVERTHINKING THIS.
**We learn a little about Claire's relationship to her mother, but that doesn't shed any light on this. And this doesn't have to be important at all! Brown people are not defined by their religion, their parent's religion, anything like that. But I am saying that for two mindreaders to live with Claire in a mostly white city [eta: apparently Toronto is quite multi-culti; this has been brought to my attention!] and not accidentally eavesdrop on her experiencing any racial tension, or not to overhear any traces of, say a different culture she may have ties to, leaves me feeling very much that she is brown only skin deep. They are mindreaders who are literally messing around in her brainmeats. I don't know a single brown person who doesn't think about the fact that they are a brown person every day. They never heard anything?
Notes on Diversity:
So, one of the main characters mentions in passing that he's slept with men and women both. Given that this character is from a different era, and given what I know of the men from his era, I'm honestly unsure as to whether he would accept the label of bisexuality, but there is a mention of queer sexual practice.*
The landlord of the two main characters is named Claire Kamal. She's described as dark-skinned, brown-haired, and brown-eyed. Y'all, it seems pretty safe to say we have a canonically brown woman in the book. Very little is revealed about her other than this description; for instance I can't tell you if she is Muslim or Hindu or anything else.** Just that she is very probably brown.
[caption id="attachment_3742" align="aligncenter" width="150"]
diversity meter says 'meh'[/caption]It's not a very diverse book. It's the story, essentially, of how two white, cis (super)abled young men process very different kinds of masculinities in the frame of a friendship they both need. If you really don't want to read a book about two white dudes palling around with superpowers and having friend-feelings they can't hide from each other, then this is probably a pass for you. And that's ok. That's why I put the diversity thingie right up front.
But that's not to say this is a bad book at all.
Review:
The world of Ben Berman Ghan's WYCHMAN ROAD is like ours, except it has a secret. There is a hidden society of Thought Walkers who live among us: they can read our minds and change them. They don't age, and they're incredibly hard to kill. They are stronger than us, faster than us, telekinetic, and most of them no longer consider themselves bound by human law.
[caption id="attachment_3769" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
they are coming to crush all our junkyard cars[/caption]Joshua Jones is one such Thought Walker: a man who's been using his abilities to slip along the fringes of regular human society unnoticed, using his compelling/persuasive power (think Kilgrave) to gently coax a bed for the night or a muffin from a coffee house when he needs it.
Peter Axelson starts the book as a normal kid, a teenager in Toronto about to embark on his senior year of high school. A celebratory night out on the town with his friends turns grisly when they cross paths the man hunting for Joshua Jones. The chance encounter leaves Peter's friends dead and Peter with the same bizarre abilities as Joshua. Peter finds himself drawn to Joshua, and from there, the plot thickens.
On the surface, this is a story about how Joshua must come to a reckoning with his past and how Peter must come to a reckoning with his future. The abilities they both have come with a price: while incredible, the other Thought Walkers know about them. The Thought Walkers have their own code of conduct and honor (I'd love to see this built out more in the next installment) but its clear from Peter's introduction that winding up on their radar is Bad News. The plot hinges on these choices: will Joshua succumb to the things he's done in the past to survive? Are these things that Peter will have to do to survive himself?
But at a deeper level, I think, this book serves as an interesting exploration of male friendship. The central theme is not running, but staying. It's a book about a creating a safe place and a home--the title refers to the street where they rent an apartment, something Peter insists on for stability's sake, and something that Joshua hasn't done for a long time. It's a book about found family, and rooting yourself in people who accept you, and it does so very openly, and is about two men having Feelings On The Page in a way that is, frankly, refreshing.
Part of it is because they are mindreaders, sure. But a lot of this is because of the characters themselves. Peter is just a sweet, open guy. Joshua is not, at first, but he opens himself up to Peter bit by bit. I love books about immensely important friendships, and this book definitely qualifies.
[caption id="attachment_3794" align="aligncenter" width="408"]
SUPERHERO BROMANCE LOVERS REJOICE![/caption]Again, diversity is not the book's strong suit. And the book is not particularly great with it's woman characters, either. It features an event I would consider to be a fridging. Claire Kamal has some depth and shading, but honestly, a woman that clumsy probably has an inner-ear medical issue she probably would have gotten checked out by now. I was intrigued by Joshua's paramour, Alice/Allison, but she was in and out of the book so fast that I didn't know what to make of her. Here's to getting more of a glimpse of her in the next book.
I'm hoping for better-defined woman characters in book 2 of the Wychmen Saga, but I'll definitely be picking up book 2. Ghan may have put all his eggs into a relationship between two white men, but, hell, at least he made them care deeply about each other. And they let each other know that more than once. And that made me care about them, too.
___
*Good god that sounds clinical. Ok. What I mean to say is that Joshua, our lover-of-both-genders was born and came of age in the early 1900s. He's been alive this whole time since, "dancing" (as he puts it) with his partners, but there's no real guessing how he does or does not apply more modern queer lingo/labels to himself. I have SO MANY QUESTIONS about this (mostly because I just love queer characters so much). Like, did he not pursue men until after he got those weird powers and was talked into seeing himself as superhuman/above human morality? Or did it predate? We do see him on a date with a young woman before the powers thing, means it's possible, but doesn't confirm or deny anything, I guess. Anyway. All I'm saying is that without more in-text interrogation I'm really unsure about how Joshua would actually self-identify regardless of the glimpse of sexual history he's disclosed to Peter. NO YOU ARE OVERTHINKING THIS.
**We learn a little about Claire's relationship to her mother, but that doesn't shed any light on this. And this doesn't have to be important at all! Brown people are not defined by their religion, their parent's religion, anything like that. But I am saying that for two mindreaders to live with Claire in a mostly white city [eta: apparently Toronto is quite multi-culti; this has been brought to my attention!] and not accidentally eavesdrop on her experiencing any racial tension, or not to overhear any traces of, say a different culture she may have ties to, leaves me feeling very much that she is brown only skin deep. They are mindreaders who are literally messing around in her brainmeats. I don't know a single brown person who doesn't think about the fact that they are a brown person every day. They never heard anything?
March 6, 2016
A well written page-turner with a good balance of character development and plot. The narrative is fast-paced and has a good flow as it delicately balances between the voices of the main characters. Centered around two characters with paranormal abilities, Peter and Joshua, it would be easy to fall into the hero/villain tropes we've become all too familiar with in comic books. But this story skillfully navigates the grey area of good vs. evil in clever and exciting ways. I really felt sorry for how their powers affected and transformed these characters and I look forward to seeing where they go from here in future installments of this series.
February 18, 2016
The general gist of the story is there are people who can control other people, oftentimes causing irreparable damage to the people being controlled. The reaction to the damage their powers cause is what starts to define the Thought Walkers.and separate them into basically okay and probably pretty bad camps.
Wychman Road is partly a superhero yarn, but it’s also musings on what it means to be human and what regular people will do when suddenly granted amazing abilities. Now, if normal people would go off the rails when they found they had the ability to control others, those who’ve had the ability for a long time would have very different outlook on what’s okay and what’s not.
If I have one complaint about Wychman Road it’s the large amount of telling instead of showing. There are scenes that could have been extremely fun to explore but were simply told. The telling drug the story down in some places, but when Ghan rolls in the action Wychman really shines.
Wychman Road is partly a superhero yarn, but it’s also musings on what it means to be human and what regular people will do when suddenly granted amazing abilities. Now, if normal people would go off the rails when they found they had the ability to control others, those who’ve had the ability for a long time would have very different outlook on what’s okay and what’s not.
If I have one complaint about Wychman Road it’s the large amount of telling instead of showing. There are scenes that could have been extremely fun to explore but were simply told. The telling drug the story down in some places, but when Ghan rolls in the action Wychman really shines.
February 14, 2016
4.5 stars
On the surface this looks like another super hero novel. It's not. As well as exploring the bonds of friendship and necessity, of what it means to be super-human and thoroughly outcast because of it, this book looks at what it means to be created in the image of the super-villain, and the refusal to give in to ones base nature.
This is a tightly plotted, sharp and engaging novel with two likeable and strange main characters who form an unlikely friendship. If you like sci-fi and super hero/villain novels then you'll enjoy Wychman Road. This was fun but asked deep questions on just how much humanity you'd be willing to sacrifice for power. Great stuff. It's probably personal but it missed out on half a star with me because of a few minor dips in pace however this didn't spoil my overall enjoyment of the book. I loved it and highly recommend it.
On the surface this looks like another super hero novel. It's not. As well as exploring the bonds of friendship and necessity, of what it means to be super-human and thoroughly outcast because of it, this book looks at what it means to be created in the image of the super-villain, and the refusal to give in to ones base nature.
This is a tightly plotted, sharp and engaging novel with two likeable and strange main characters who form an unlikely friendship. If you like sci-fi and super hero/villain novels then you'll enjoy Wychman Road. This was fun but asked deep questions on just how much humanity you'd be willing to sacrifice for power. Great stuff. It's probably personal but it missed out on half a star with me because of a few minor dips in pace however this didn't spoil my overall enjoyment of the book. I loved it and highly recommend it.
February 10, 2016
This was a great story. It was extremely suspenseful, and a true joy to read. I didn't want to put it down!
Read
April 13, 2016A truly captivating adventure and a gratifying read. While the storyline is a work of marvelous imagination, the author is able to make subtle references to real daily difficulties faced by people like us, “humans”. A must read for everyone - regardless of age, genre preference or anything else. Eagerly awaiting the sequel!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews