Myopia

Rust Chronicles #2

by Morgan Quaid

Two bodies lay dead in a dark alley—one savaged by some unnatural predator, the other lying serenely like a fallen angel. The only significant clue is a pair of newly-minted contact lenses worn by the shredded victim at the time of death. In an effort to see through the victim’s eyes and unveil a killer, Detective Nick Holden dons one of those lenses. But the world which reveals itself to his left eye is brimming with dark specters and impossibilities.
Myopia is the second of the Rust Chronicles spin-off novels. It is an origin story which details the rise of Nick Holden; a legendarily crass, unconventional, Hawaiian shirt wearing, lactose intolerant detective with a nasty habit of closing impossible cases.
The book features an early glimpse into the Rust Chronicles universe, through the perspective of the foul-mouthed detective and his somewhat rude introduction to the preternatural cosmos.

203 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 8, 2016

About the author

Morgan Quaid is an Australian writer of urban fantasy and horror, specializing in fast-paced page turners set against expansive fantasy backdrops. When Morgan isn’t writing novels, comics, graphic novels, or short stories, he’s usually composing or producing music, or staring with longing and regret at a bar of chocolate.

Published works include: Whiplash Book 1 (Markosia), The Script Rebellion (Markosia), Shadow’s Daughter (Markosia), Idle Thuggery (Markosia).
Upcoming works include: Rust Chronicles (Markosia 2022), The Blood Below (Markosia 2022), A Blade in the Dark (Black Caravan/Scout 2022).

Reviews

[Morgan Quaid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nick Holden (the protagonist of Myopia) is hands down my favorite character to write. Partly because he says whatever he wants regardless of the consequences but also because the universe loves a bastard. Holden isn’t an ex-marine with extraordinary fighting skills or a genius who can smell crime or see the future. He’s a scruffy, scrappy, hard-drinking detective with an unusually high level of blind luck. Whatever monstrously bizarre circumstances life throws in his direction, somehow Holden always seems to come out on top; or, at least, back where he started.

As the plot of Myopia unfolds, Holden finds himself surrounded by superhuman forces, stumbling into a supernatural war of cosmic proportions. Rather than making shrewd strategic manoeuvres, or fleeing for safety, Holden charges in like a mad man going to war against the sea. But isn’t that the appealing thing about the hard-boiled detective—the fact that they always seem to scrape through, no matter how outgunned they are?
If you’re looking for the typical crime/noir detective novel, then Myopia probably isn’t the place to look. It might start off in that vein, but it quickly moves into realms of weirdness and oddity (partly because the author gets bored if things aren’t moving along, and partly because weird is cool). If you want something a little more unexpected, then I’d say go for it.

I leave you with one of my favorite little bits of dialogue between Daisy and Holden:

Daisy folded the pages of her book and slid off the veranda handrail with practised ease. She was short, standing almost a full head below Holden, but, as she walked up to face the man, she still managed to look down on him.
“Has anyone ever told you, that your mustache makes you look like a pedophile?” she asked.
“Anyone ever told you your tits are on backwards?” Holden countered dryly.

MQ