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Aetherchrist
The digital Analog is all but dead, but the rusted towers still strobe on the evening horizon. They project a conflicting myriad of hope, despair and eyeless ghouls who claim to see the world in gigahertz.
A small town in Vermont broadcasts prophecies of its residents deaths. Rey, a cutlery salesman, seems to flicker at the center of every murder on screen. He thinks the town is rigged with cameras, or the locals are trying to set him up. But as the broadcasts grow increasingly surreal, and maniacs start showing up in town to remove his sensory organs, Rey starts to realize that the images pulsing beneath the static-riddled airwaves have woven him into a battle between people who believe that analog is the frequency of the gods.
A small town in Vermont broadcasts prophecies of its residents deaths. Rey, a cutlery salesman, seems to flicker at the center of every murder on screen. He thinks the town is rigged with cameras, or the locals are trying to set him up. But as the broadcasts grow increasingly surreal, and maniacs start showing up in town to remove his sensory organs, Rey starts to realize that the images pulsing beneath the static-riddled airwaves have woven him into a battle between people who believe that analog is the frequency of the gods.
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First published May 22, 2018
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About the author
Kirk Jones
32 books105 followersKirk Jones (k3rk Dʒoʊnz): 1. English Director of Nanny McPhee 2. "Sticky Fingaz," rap artist and actor who played Blade for the television series 3. Canadian who survived a dive over Niagara Falls . . . only to return and pass upon his second attempt. 4. Boring white author of Uncle Sam's Carnival of Copulating Inanimals (Eraserhead Press, 2010), Journey to Abortosphere (Rooster Republic, 2014), and Die Empty (Atlatl, 2017) who often gets mistaken for the other, arguably more notable, Kirk Jones fellows. 5. Also not Kirk Byron Jones.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
March 30, 2018
When a knife salesman named Rey stumbles upon a man with numerous TVs in his garage, all tuned to static on analog signals, his world is turned upside down forever. Now, his thoughts are showing up on TV screens and showing him things he'd rather not see...
Even though my Review Request Guidlines get harsher by the week, I'm really a big softie so I was happy to take Kirk Jones up on an ARC of his latest. This shit is pretty fucked up. I mean that in the best possible way.
"Part horror, part nutso conspiracy thriller" would be the best way to describe Aetherchrist. Much like he mined the Philadephia Experiment for Journey to Abortosphere, this time Kirk Jones takes on the ultimate question: Why did the government keep using analog towers long after cable was introduced?
Rey's kind of a loser, secretly lusting after his boss. When he starts seeing weird things in the analog static, shit quickly gets out of hand. The true scope of the book is reveal when Rey meets other people with the same ability. I'd say it's Kirk's most ambitious book to date and he did a great job weaving the various ideas together.
Bill's notebooks are used to do a little of the world building at the beginning of each chapter, which I liked. It sidestepped a lot of infodumping that way and gave hints of things to come. Once Rey met Aero, things really got going. The whole package reminded me of lost Twilight Zone episode that was too bizarre to air. Also, I couldn't get that Doctor Who episode where the video of the Weeping Angel is played on a loop out of my head while I was reading it.
Aetherchrist was one bizarre experience. Not for the faint of heart but ultimately an engaging read. Four out of five stars.
Even though my Review Request Guidlines get harsher by the week, I'm really a big softie so I was happy to take Kirk Jones up on an ARC of his latest. This shit is pretty fucked up. I mean that in the best possible way.
"Part horror, part nutso conspiracy thriller" would be the best way to describe Aetherchrist. Much like he mined the Philadephia Experiment for Journey to Abortosphere, this time Kirk Jones takes on the ultimate question: Why did the government keep using analog towers long after cable was introduced?
Rey's kind of a loser, secretly lusting after his boss. When he starts seeing weird things in the analog static, shit quickly gets out of hand. The true scope of the book is reveal when Rey meets other people with the same ability. I'd say it's Kirk's most ambitious book to date and he did a great job weaving the various ideas together.
Bill's notebooks are used to do a little of the world building at the beginning of each chapter, which I liked. It sidestepped a lot of infodumping that way and gave hints of things to come. Once Rey met Aero, things really got going. The whole package reminded me of lost Twilight Zone episode that was too bizarre to air. Also, I couldn't get that Doctor Who episode where the video of the Weeping Angel is played on a loop out of my head while I was reading it.
Aetherchrist was one bizarre experience. Not for the faint of heart but ultimately an engaging read. Four out of five stars.
March 26, 2018
Five flashes from a tower.
This is a novel that probes our thought processes, delving into our primal subconscious. It is a call for us to unify as a collective conscious and to communicate without being told how to think. Paranoia builds with tension as analog transmissions are fed through blood and wire. Images infuse the static of a myriad of television sets that predict murder. Radio towers flash in the night, alive with a stream of signals that might come from someone who has touched you. Sensory receptors deny us true sight. Eyeless, we receive the primal code to internal reception. "The one lucky enough to share the aether ... might be able to transmit to the entire world, a Christ figure of the airwaves." Can there only be one true leader? Keep switching channels. A pattern will emerge.
Many thanks to the author, who provided me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Mind...blown. Again.
This is a novel that probes our thought processes, delving into our primal subconscious. It is a call for us to unify as a collective conscious and to communicate without being told how to think. Paranoia builds with tension as analog transmissions are fed through blood and wire. Images infuse the static of a myriad of television sets that predict murder. Radio towers flash in the night, alive with a stream of signals that might come from someone who has touched you. Sensory receptors deny us true sight. Eyeless, we receive the primal code to internal reception. "The one lucky enough to share the aether ... might be able to transmit to the entire world, a Christ figure of the airwaves." Can there only be one true leader? Keep switching channels. A pattern will emerge.
Many thanks to the author, who provided me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Mind...blown. Again.
May 16, 2021
3.5 Stars
This was a fantastic piece of short fiction that wove old technology into a fresh, compelling narrative. Set int the modern day, the analog broadcast transmissions felt ominous and creepy with the government conspiracy theories feeding into my growing paranoia.
Written as a novella, this was just about the perfect length., Short and concise, the story was continually moving forward. Each chapter was represented by a television channel, which built a sense of dead as the numbers slowly counted upwards towards the impending doom. At the same time, the entry logs provided an interesting backstory to the main events. Incorporating elements of science fiction and classic horror, this weird story took some unexpected twists and turns, which kept me invested the entire time.
I recommend this suspenseful novella to any horror fans who enjoy compulsive narratives that blend together old and new technologies into a horrific story.
I received an e-copy from the publisher Apex Book Company.
This was a fantastic piece of short fiction that wove old technology into a fresh, compelling narrative. Set int the modern day, the analog broadcast transmissions felt ominous and creepy with the government conspiracy theories feeding into my growing paranoia.
Written as a novella, this was just about the perfect length., Short and concise, the story was continually moving forward. Each chapter was represented by a television channel, which built a sense of dead as the numbers slowly counted upwards towards the impending doom. At the same time, the entry logs provided an interesting backstory to the main events. Incorporating elements of science fiction and classic horror, this weird story took some unexpected twists and turns, which kept me invested the entire time.
I recommend this suspenseful novella to any horror fans who enjoy compulsive narratives that blend together old and new technologies into a horrific story.
I received an e-copy from the publisher Apex Book Company.
March 28, 2019
"I watch the channel 12 reruns on my disassembled television....Through a cracked screen, I stare back at myself, wide-eyed, mouth agape."
I had zero expectations when I started this novella. There are just a few words on the back cover, I did not seek out the synopsis, and I read zero reviews. What did I find? An imaginative, inventive, unique sci-fi horror tale that absolutely delighted me. Side note: if you just saw "sci-fi" and went NOPE, trust me, I feel you. I don't normally like it, but I loved this.
Jones takes us on a journey with his main character, Rey. We follow him along, we experience things as he does, and when he is disoriented and confused, so are we. And it WORKS. I've read other things done in this manner, but it is often hard for me to truly follow along. I clicked with this one and it was wonderful.
As far as the content goes? I'll just say it has a bit to do with communications, conspiracy theory, paranoia, and how fragile our precepts of the world around us might be. The details? Those are for you to discover.
I had zero expectations when I started this novella. There are just a few words on the back cover, I did not seek out the synopsis, and I read zero reviews. What did I find? An imaginative, inventive, unique sci-fi horror tale that absolutely delighted me. Side note: if you just saw "sci-fi" and went NOPE, trust me, I feel you. I don't normally like it, but I loved this.
Jones takes us on a journey with his main character, Rey. We follow him along, we experience things as he does, and when he is disoriented and confused, so are we. And it WORKS. I've read other things done in this manner, but it is often hard for me to truly follow along. I clicked with this one and it was wonderful.
As far as the content goes? I'll just say it has a bit to do with communications, conspiracy theory, paranoia, and how fragile our precepts of the world around us might be. The details? Those are for you to discover.
June 1, 2019
A short, fun, well-written dark sci-fi novella that presents a unique take on the potentially sinister nature of analog signal transmission. My favorite Kirk Jones book to date.
May 10, 2018
Rey is a door-to-door knives salesman, meandering through life as much as the neighborhoods he wanders selling cheap cutlery, hoping to bed his boss and to get his coworker to stop showing him his penis. While attempting to make a sale in the backwoods of Vermont, he comes to a home filled with analog televisions. On the screens is Rey - Rey walking down the street, Rey standing before the television, Rey laying dead on channel 13. Initially he suspects the townspeople of recording him, but as strange occurrences, and murder victims, begin to stack up, Rey quickly finds himself in way over his head, caught up in a chain of events he could have never imagined.
Aetherchrist is my first trip through the surreal mind of Kirk Jones, an author of weird fiction whose bibliography includes titles such as Uncle Sam’s Carnival of Copulating Inanimals and Masturbatory Entropy. If you ever wondered how The Matrix might have turned out if written and directed by David Cronenberg and David Lynch, with maybe a touch or two of uncredited, off-screen Act I consultation from Chuck Palahniuk, Aetherchrist may be the answer. Filled with surrealism, hints of conspiracy and secret worlds, moments of science fiction-fueled body horror, and the power of analog signals, this one's a bit of a head trip.
Jones plunges readers straight into his weird little world filled with oddball characters. For being less than 150 pages, Aetherchrist feels quite a bit denser thanks the big and bizarre ideas taking center stage following America's move from analog broadcasts to digital television. We're given hints and peeks into hidden subcultures and rogue movements who possess startling power, but much of it is a sideways glance, filtered through Rey's own ignorance and paranoia - he's an Everyman narrator who knows about as much as we do and is oftentimes just as lost and confused. Although the narrative is straightforward, the topics of discussion and peculiar details of the story itself are strangely oblique and mysterious nonetheless. To his credit, Rey at least seems to understand this on one level, noting that not only does everything in his life go wrong, it goes wrong in the most absurd ways possible.
Aetherchrist is a high-concept read, with philosophical questions of fate and destiny and how much control we really have over the events in our lives kind of lurking around the margins, touched upon but never deeply explored. In between the strange happenings occurring from page to page, there's plenty of ancillary fodder left to mentally chew on, like collectivism versus individuality. Readers who need a strong, definitive finale may be a bit disappointed at the abrupt conclusion and the niggling threads of story left unanswered (threads that are perhaps, more accurately, unanswerable), but Jones's narrative is more about the trip itself and not the destination. This is the story of a journey, a wandering through some strange, dark, and abruptly violent corners, and it isn't really important where Rey ends up, but how he gets there.
Aetherchrist is a bizarre work, but also bizarrely engaging. It's one of those books that I'm pretty sure I understood, even if I can't properly and sanely articulate all the ins and outs about it. What I do know for sure, though, is that it completely captivated me, held my interest, and made me feel completely invested in my brief journey alongside Rey and his briefcase of knives. I'm also pretty sure Kirk Jones just earned himself a new reader with this book, one who is curious what other oddities he's put to the page.
Aetherchrist is my first trip through the surreal mind of Kirk Jones, an author of weird fiction whose bibliography includes titles such as Uncle Sam’s Carnival of Copulating Inanimals and Masturbatory Entropy. If you ever wondered how The Matrix might have turned out if written and directed by David Cronenberg and David Lynch, with maybe a touch or two of uncredited, off-screen Act I consultation from Chuck Palahniuk, Aetherchrist may be the answer. Filled with surrealism, hints of conspiracy and secret worlds, moments of science fiction-fueled body horror, and the power of analog signals, this one's a bit of a head trip.
Jones plunges readers straight into his weird little world filled with oddball characters. For being less than 150 pages, Aetherchrist feels quite a bit denser thanks the big and bizarre ideas taking center stage following America's move from analog broadcasts to digital television. We're given hints and peeks into hidden subcultures and rogue movements who possess startling power, but much of it is a sideways glance, filtered through Rey's own ignorance and paranoia - he's an Everyman narrator who knows about as much as we do and is oftentimes just as lost and confused. Although the narrative is straightforward, the topics of discussion and peculiar details of the story itself are strangely oblique and mysterious nonetheless. To his credit, Rey at least seems to understand this on one level, noting that not only does everything in his life go wrong, it goes wrong in the most absurd ways possible.
Aetherchrist is a high-concept read, with philosophical questions of fate and destiny and how much control we really have over the events in our lives kind of lurking around the margins, touched upon but never deeply explored. In between the strange happenings occurring from page to page, there's plenty of ancillary fodder left to mentally chew on, like collectivism versus individuality. Readers who need a strong, definitive finale may be a bit disappointed at the abrupt conclusion and the niggling threads of story left unanswered (threads that are perhaps, more accurately, unanswerable), but Jones's narrative is more about the trip itself and not the destination. This is the story of a journey, a wandering through some strange, dark, and abruptly violent corners, and it isn't really important where Rey ends up, but how he gets there.
Aetherchrist is a bizarre work, but also bizarrely engaging. It's one of those books that I'm pretty sure I understood, even if I can't properly and sanely articulate all the ins and outs about it. What I do know for sure, though, is that it completely captivated me, held my interest, and made me feel completely invested in my brief journey alongside Rey and his briefcase of knives. I'm also pretty sure Kirk Jones just earned himself a new reader with this book, one who is curious what other oddities he's put to the page.
September 2, 2018
The meshing of ideas here is fascinating. Could transmissions sent through analog frequencies thought to be dead and gone be the catalyst for a type of governmental control? Yeah, great stuff. White noise is interrupted by intermittent images of past present and future. Wires and veins are combined with stunning results. Are you one of the special ones? The eyeless one wants you to be like him, he is only trying to help you really see. Don’t be afraid of the knife.
As Rey gradually learns more about Bill and his research, the story unfolds at just the right pace. The horror and conspiracy elements work well together, but there is also enough humor and weird elements to really keep the story moving along. At novella length, Aetherchrist feels like much more.
Now that I can say I have read all of the Kirk Jones books, I am impressed by the range of what he has done. This may be my favorite of all.
As Rey gradually learns more about Bill and his research, the story unfolds at just the right pace. The horror and conspiracy elements work well together, but there is also enough humor and weird elements to really keep the story moving along. At novella length, Aetherchrist feels like much more.
Now that I can say I have read all of the Kirk Jones books, I am impressed by the range of what he has done. This may be my favorite of all.
Read
March 26, 2018As always, no star review, but I like to chronicle the history of my work, especially since I sometimes tend to get my chronology mixed up when it comes to this book and Die Empty.
2014 was a good year in many ways. Journey to Abortosphere had come out. I believe that was the year I was working acquisitions for Rooster as well. But I was having a rough time coming up with something new to write. I was burned out on writing bizarro. I had Masturbatory Entropy from 2009, a book with a terrible legacy of being accepted by several small-press publishers before they inevitably collapsed. My publisher, Shamus, was only vaguely interested in Masturbatory Entropy. I can't fault him for that. Better books were coming out. Masturbatory Entropy barely qualified as bizarro. It definitely didn't align with what Rooster was pushing out at the time.
I kept pitching ideas to Kevin Donihe, my editor over at Eraserhead Press. I was met with similar reactions there. He was interested in looking at completed manuscripts, but nothing was particularly captivating to him.
I wrote 50 pages of two manuscripts, the latter of which he was interested in looking at . . . but none of it was particularly captivating to me either.
I still remember the night that I sought additional affirmation from Kevin for the second manuscript. I wanted to know if he was still willing to take a look at it. Of course he was. Why would this change?
I knew it wouldn't. Though I was unaware of it at the time, what I wanted was an immediate acceptance, to know that finishing this book I didn't want to write would result in publication. But some part of me knew it was irrational to ask such a thing.
So I gave up on the book.
Up to that point, I had grown rather accustomed to writing books I didn't want to write. I had grown accustomed to making them work. To shoehorning elements of story I wanted to write into concepts I didn't want to write.
It's how Uncle Sam was born. It's how Journey to Abortosphere was written.
Journey wasn't a labor of love. It was labor, like giving birth. I pushed like hell to get that thing out of me . . . then and only then did I learn to love that book. When Matt Revert added his cover art, and Art and Shamus added their enthusiasm to the process, that's when I learned to love Journey.
Anyway.
It had been at that point five years since I had written a book I genuinely loved writing from page one to finish. I stopped writing what I wanted to and tried to tailor my ideas to what I thought had the best chance of being published. But I had reached the breaking point.
I cut ties with all of my avenues of publication. Rooster switched hands . . . if you're reading this you likely know the story.
For a short while, I just stopped writing. Didn't want to do it anymore. I had a goddamned dissertation to write anyway. So I headed to the library . . . and began my foray into the world of constructive procrastination.
Did you know that the FCC's broadcasting regulations were held in place long after the advent of cable? I didn't, and so I kept reading these books on analog, radio towers, broadcasting, anything that didn't relate to my dissertation.
By the end of the week, I had a developed idea for Aetherchrist.
The first book in five years that I actually wanted to write.
I had a few ideas as to where I might be able to submit it, but I tried not to think about that too much. Because I didn't know exactly where the book would lead me. I just wanted to let it take me wherever that might be.
Aetherchrist was written from late 2014 to 2015. I submitted it to Shock Totem in August of 2015. By November, I got an e-mail. My e-mail account always shows the first few words of an inbound e-mail. This one read "Dear Kirk, We've received 187 submissio"
. . . I didn't want to open it. It looked like your standard rejection letter:
We had a lot of submissions.
Yours didn't make the cut.
Due to the number of submissions, we can't elaborate.
I took a deep breath, prepared myself for the inevitable rejection, and opened the e-mail:
Dear Kirk,
We've received 187 submissions since we opened to novels/novellas. "Aetherchrist" is the first we've wanted to accept.
Personally, I dug it right from the start and edited as I went. I've never done that before. I was really hoping it didn't turn out to be a waste of time! Haha.
Anyway, if you're still interested, let's talk. =)
Stay well,
Ken
Holy shit!
Writing what I wanted to had paid off.
That's when I realized why I had not been as successful with my previous endeavors: my heart wasn't 100% into it.
So I set out to write Die Empty, except I upped the ante for that one. For Die Empty I didn't know what genre I was dealing with, nor did I know where I was going to submit.
The fate of the book was completely formless.
In many ways, these two books are a bit self indulgent in that they were written with the intent of helping me grow as an author.
The big difference between Aetherchrist and Die Empty is that Die Empty was a story designed with the intent of expressing some message. Theme didn't come first with Die Empty, but it rises to the top rather early on and sustains its presence throughout.
Aetherchrist, on the other hand, is a story. Themes emerge organically. But concept comes first.
Aetherchrist is a psychodrama about a rapid descent into paranoid delusion, and the blurred line between madness and collective surreality. It endeavors to tap into nostalgia for a time when a quick adjustment to the television antenna might yield some new result, a time when you caught some obscure television show late at night or early in the morning on a station that never worked again.
Shock Totem planned on releasing the book in 2016, I believe. The release was delayed, and inevitably my publisher at Shock Totem, K Allen Wood, offered to pass Shock Totem's future releases to Apex, who would take the helm to ensure the books saw the light of day.
Once Aetherchrist found itself in the arms of Apex, some scheduling adjustments were made, with the inevitable delay until 2018.
It worked perfectly. It gave me time to put Die Empty out with Atlatl. It gave me time to plan out what I wanted to do for 2019 (which is right around the corner, mind you!).
I'm really excited for what's coming out then, but this entry has meandered enough already.
Thank you for reading through this.
And as always, thank you, all of you, for your support.
2014 was a good year in many ways. Journey to Abortosphere had come out. I believe that was the year I was working acquisitions for Rooster as well. But I was having a rough time coming up with something new to write. I was burned out on writing bizarro. I had Masturbatory Entropy from 2009, a book with a terrible legacy of being accepted by several small-press publishers before they inevitably collapsed. My publisher, Shamus, was only vaguely interested in Masturbatory Entropy. I can't fault him for that. Better books were coming out. Masturbatory Entropy barely qualified as bizarro. It definitely didn't align with what Rooster was pushing out at the time.
I kept pitching ideas to Kevin Donihe, my editor over at Eraserhead Press. I was met with similar reactions there. He was interested in looking at completed manuscripts, but nothing was particularly captivating to him.
I wrote 50 pages of two manuscripts, the latter of which he was interested in looking at . . . but none of it was particularly captivating to me either.
I still remember the night that I sought additional affirmation from Kevin for the second manuscript. I wanted to know if he was still willing to take a look at it. Of course he was. Why would this change?
I knew it wouldn't. Though I was unaware of it at the time, what I wanted was an immediate acceptance, to know that finishing this book I didn't want to write would result in publication. But some part of me knew it was irrational to ask such a thing.
So I gave up on the book.
Up to that point, I had grown rather accustomed to writing books I didn't want to write. I had grown accustomed to making them work. To shoehorning elements of story I wanted to write into concepts I didn't want to write.
It's how Uncle Sam was born. It's how Journey to Abortosphere was written.
Journey wasn't a labor of love. It was labor, like giving birth. I pushed like hell to get that thing out of me . . . then and only then did I learn to love that book. When Matt Revert added his cover art, and Art and Shamus added their enthusiasm to the process, that's when I learned to love Journey.
Anyway.
It had been at that point five years since I had written a book I genuinely loved writing from page one to finish. I stopped writing what I wanted to and tried to tailor my ideas to what I thought had the best chance of being published. But I had reached the breaking point.
I cut ties with all of my avenues of publication. Rooster switched hands . . . if you're reading this you likely know the story.
For a short while, I just stopped writing. Didn't want to do it anymore. I had a goddamned dissertation to write anyway. So I headed to the library . . . and began my foray into the world of constructive procrastination.
Did you know that the FCC's broadcasting regulations were held in place long after the advent of cable? I didn't, and so I kept reading these books on analog, radio towers, broadcasting, anything that didn't relate to my dissertation.
By the end of the week, I had a developed idea for Aetherchrist.
The first book in five years that I actually wanted to write.
I had a few ideas as to where I might be able to submit it, but I tried not to think about that too much. Because I didn't know exactly where the book would lead me. I just wanted to let it take me wherever that might be.
Aetherchrist was written from late 2014 to 2015. I submitted it to Shock Totem in August of 2015. By November, I got an e-mail. My e-mail account always shows the first few words of an inbound e-mail. This one read "Dear Kirk, We've received 187 submissio"
. . . I didn't want to open it. It looked like your standard rejection letter:
We had a lot of submissions.
Yours didn't make the cut.
Due to the number of submissions, we can't elaborate.
I took a deep breath, prepared myself for the inevitable rejection, and opened the e-mail:
Dear Kirk,
We've received 187 submissions since we opened to novels/novellas. "Aetherchrist" is the first we've wanted to accept.
Personally, I dug it right from the start and edited as I went. I've never done that before. I was really hoping it didn't turn out to be a waste of time! Haha.
Anyway, if you're still interested, let's talk. =)
Stay well,
Ken
Holy shit!
Writing what I wanted to had paid off.
That's when I realized why I had not been as successful with my previous endeavors: my heart wasn't 100% into it.
So I set out to write Die Empty, except I upped the ante for that one. For Die Empty I didn't know what genre I was dealing with, nor did I know where I was going to submit.
The fate of the book was completely formless.
In many ways, these two books are a bit self indulgent in that they were written with the intent of helping me grow as an author.
The big difference between Aetherchrist and Die Empty is that Die Empty was a story designed with the intent of expressing some message. Theme didn't come first with Die Empty, but it rises to the top rather early on and sustains its presence throughout.
Aetherchrist, on the other hand, is a story. Themes emerge organically. But concept comes first.
Aetherchrist is a psychodrama about a rapid descent into paranoid delusion, and the blurred line between madness and collective surreality. It endeavors to tap into nostalgia for a time when a quick adjustment to the television antenna might yield some new result, a time when you caught some obscure television show late at night or early in the morning on a station that never worked again.
Shock Totem planned on releasing the book in 2016, I believe. The release was delayed, and inevitably my publisher at Shock Totem, K Allen Wood, offered to pass Shock Totem's future releases to Apex, who would take the helm to ensure the books saw the light of day.
Once Aetherchrist found itself in the arms of Apex, some scheduling adjustments were made, with the inevitable delay until 2018.
It worked perfectly. It gave me time to put Die Empty out with Atlatl. It gave me time to plan out what I wanted to do for 2019 (which is right around the corner, mind you!).
I'm really excited for what's coming out then, but this entry has meandered enough already.
Thank you for reading through this.
And as always, thank you, all of you, for your support.
May 28, 2018
Click here to read my full review at Signal Horizon Aetherchrist has a whole lot of what makes the modern horror genre great: paranoia, bleak and off center characters, a touch of the weird, and a load of dread right around the corner. It is really fun to read an author that has such clear skill in the Bizarro genre use some of those themes and techniques to create horror. Definitely not for the faint of heart, if you can stand a little bit of gore and body horror Aetherchrist will not disappoint.
October 9, 2020
Something odd’s happening in a small town in Vermont, broadcast transmissions seeming to forecast its residents’ deaths like graphic serials. Rey, a cutlery salesman that only wishes to do his job, is at the centre of it all, images of murder and his own death following him through static airwaves. Fearful that the locals are spying on him with hidden cameras, he attempts to escape the range of their schemes, yet it’s not as easy as he thinks.
(WARNING: This review contains minor spoilers.)
I received this book in exchange for an honest review. I thank Kirk Jones for giving me the opportunity.
I found Aetherchrist to be non-stop madness from start to finish, a lot crammed into its small package (as a novella it stands at around a hundred and fifty pages). I was totally there for the beginning, with its introduction of Rey and his creepy experience with some residents as a door-to-door salesman, it certainly got my interest as bizarre as it was. As events escalated, and they did rapidly, it was disappointing that my enjoyment devolved just as quickly. As it turns out, I really, really didn’t like the story. It wasn’t just the constant state of befuddlement I found myself in, even though that was notable in itself, but the overall lack of connection to anything that happened; the characters didn’t make sense to me – going on a killing spree of all things when paranoid of being under surveillance – and the plot rushed along with little room for development. Don’t get me wrong, the whole concept that connected the human consciousness to analog was imaginative, and I wished the execution worked for me, but it didn’t. Another prime example where I’m in the minority from those that found a lot to love.
In conclusion: Aetherchrist was full of insanity and grimness, with a neat idea behind it that I tried to attach myself to; a marriage of science fiction and body horror. Unfortunately, due to it being rather short and therefore hasty in plot, I couldn’t quite resonate with any of it – events turned from believable to nonsensical in no time at all, with characters whose actions annoyed me more than thrilled me. Naturally, this opinion is entirely my own, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this title to anyone I think would enjoy it.
It just wasn’t for me, I’m afraid.
© Red Lace 2020
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(WARNING: This review contains minor spoilers.)
I received this book in exchange for an honest review. I thank Kirk Jones for giving me the opportunity.
I found Aetherchrist to be non-stop madness from start to finish, a lot crammed into its small package (as a novella it stands at around a hundred and fifty pages). I was totally there for the beginning, with its introduction of Rey and his creepy experience with some residents as a door-to-door salesman, it certainly got my interest as bizarre as it was. As events escalated, and they did rapidly, it was disappointing that my enjoyment devolved just as quickly. As it turns out, I really, really didn’t like the story. It wasn’t just the constant state of befuddlement I found myself in, even though that was notable in itself, but the overall lack of connection to anything that happened; the characters didn’t make sense to me – going on a killing spree of all things when paranoid of being under surveillance – and the plot rushed along with little room for development. Don’t get me wrong, the whole concept that connected the human consciousness to analog was imaginative, and I wished the execution worked for me, but it didn’t. Another prime example where I’m in the minority from those that found a lot to love.
In conclusion: Aetherchrist was full of insanity and grimness, with a neat idea behind it that I tried to attach myself to; a marriage of science fiction and body horror. Unfortunately, due to it being rather short and therefore hasty in plot, I couldn’t quite resonate with any of it – events turned from believable to nonsensical in no time at all, with characters whose actions annoyed me more than thrilled me. Naturally, this opinion is entirely my own, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this title to anyone I think would enjoy it.
It just wasn’t for me, I’m afraid.
© Red Lace 2020
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November 3, 2021
Bizarre and one of a kind!
A story about a knife salesman who arrives in a town called Springfield, and the weird things that start to occur. He soon finds out that the town appears to be keeping him under surveillance. Or are they?...
A cocktail of Lynch, Tetsuo, Burroughs, and The Twilight Zone would be a good way to describe the story.
Dark Sci-Fi, Weird-Fiction & Comedy. Great job! 4.5*
A story about a knife salesman who arrives in a town called Springfield, and the weird things that start to occur. He soon finds out that the town appears to be keeping him under surveillance. Or are they?...
A cocktail of Lynch, Tetsuo, Burroughs, and The Twilight Zone would be a good way to describe the story.
Dark Sci-Fi, Weird-Fiction & Comedy. Great job! 4.5*
June 12, 2018
What if it was no accident broadcast television took off so quickly, and it was still in use long after the technology was obsolete? What if it was a plan by the government to jam the transmissions human beings give off naturally in order to create a homogeneous society?
The broadcast towers around the country are there for a reason...
Some people give off stronger transmissions than others...
A pretty cool concept, and one hell of a trip around the northeast quadrant of the country as these people find and kill each other. Why are they trying to kill each other? Analog broadcast television has ended. It’s the perfect opportunity to take control.
The buildup is well-done. Our main character, Rey, has a good transition from not believing in the impossible to getting onboard with this new reality he has entered. He is characterized just enough to care about but not so much that the reader gets bogged down in backstory. This impossible reality is delivered gradually in tantalizing glimpses, and it’s just enough to pull the reader forward.
A good story made out of a thought-provoking concept.
The broadcast towers around the country are there for a reason...
Some people give off stronger transmissions than others...
A pretty cool concept, and one hell of a trip around the northeast quadrant of the country as these people find and kill each other. Why are they trying to kill each other? Analog broadcast television has ended. It’s the perfect opportunity to take control.
The buildup is well-done. Our main character, Rey, has a good transition from not believing in the impossible to getting onboard with this new reality he has entered. He is characterized just enough to care about but not so much that the reader gets bogged down in backstory. This impossible reality is delivered gradually in tantalizing glimpses, and it’s just enough to pull the reader forward.
A good story made out of a thought-provoking concept.
September 16, 2019
This book was like nothing I’ve ever read before. It’s a sci-fi tale in essence, but there’s enough strange and weird shit for the fear-loving horror fan to devour. For such a fast-paced novella there’s so much going on and I really needed to concentrate to work out what in the hell just happened.
Rey’s a knife salesman. When he goes to a small town to try and sell some knives he stumbles across the best-kept secret in, well, the world probably.
On one such sales call he encounters a series of TVs in a redneck’s home that seem to be showing snapshots of Rey’s life with a CCTV/snuff movie kinda vibe. I told you it was weird. As the story progresses Rey discovers that flicking through the channels on a bust-up old TV he bought shows him his future, recent past, and present.
But it seems it’s not only Rey who possesses this gift?
This is one book that you really don’t want to know too much about going in, because it would take away from the mind-bending journey Rey sets off on. On one TV channel he sees himself lying in a pool of his own blood, so it’s not spoilery to say he’s going to die. But when will this happen?
Told in the first person this novella really takes you through this journey of self-discovery along with our guy, Rey. He ends up doing a few really horrific things, but you’re with him every step. The premise is so bizarre there’s no smug ‘well I wouldn’t have done that‘ going on.
Eventually he makes sense (kind of) of this whole situation – a little better than I did – and the closing portion of the book races along towards the riveting climax.
There was a very welcome dark humour throughout, one that never felt forced or out of place. There were genuine funny moments, quickly turned into terrifying ordeals at the flick of an old TV switch.
This is certainly one that will require a re-read, because you really need to think. I was having so much fun with it that I may have missed a few things. Or perhaps my tiny mind isn’t as finely-tuned with the airwaves to fully appreciate it.
Either way, Aetherchrist is a book that should be on many people’s TBR pile.
Rey’s a knife salesman. When he goes to a small town to try and sell some knives he stumbles across the best-kept secret in, well, the world probably.
On one such sales call he encounters a series of TVs in a redneck’s home that seem to be showing snapshots of Rey’s life with a CCTV/snuff movie kinda vibe. I told you it was weird. As the story progresses Rey discovers that flicking through the channels on a bust-up old TV he bought shows him his future, recent past, and present.
But it seems it’s not only Rey who possesses this gift?
This is one book that you really don’t want to know too much about going in, because it would take away from the mind-bending journey Rey sets off on. On one TV channel he sees himself lying in a pool of his own blood, so it’s not spoilery to say he’s going to die. But when will this happen?
Told in the first person this novella really takes you through this journey of self-discovery along with our guy, Rey. He ends up doing a few really horrific things, but you’re with him every step. The premise is so bizarre there’s no smug ‘well I wouldn’t have done that‘ going on.
Eventually he makes sense (kind of) of this whole situation – a little better than I did – and the closing portion of the book races along towards the riveting climax.
There was a very welcome dark humour throughout, one that never felt forced or out of place. There were genuine funny moments, quickly turned into terrifying ordeals at the flick of an old TV switch.
This is certainly one that will require a re-read, because you really need to think. I was having so much fun with it that I may have missed a few things. Or perhaps my tiny mind isn’t as finely-tuned with the airwaves to fully appreciate it.
Either way, Aetherchrist is a book that should be on many people’s TBR pile.
May 14, 2019
“I swear to God, if I trip over an eight-pound weight on the way out of here or someone tries to show me their dick, I’m going to fucking lose it.”
One of the several memorable lines from this absurdist horror show. With echoes of Davids Lynch and Cronenberg (especially “Videodrome”), Phil Dick and William Burroughs, as well as more recent fare such as the podcast Archive 81, this manages to be an original and entertaining read. The plot combines elements of horror, science fiction, Gnosticism and working-class realism to form what was for me a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts. As someone who grew up on the analog signal, it also called that vanished era to mind. A quick read and worth the $3.99 and more.
One of the several memorable lines from this absurdist horror show. With echoes of Davids Lynch and Cronenberg (especially “Videodrome”), Phil Dick and William Burroughs, as well as more recent fare such as the podcast Archive 81, this manages to be an original and entertaining read. The plot combines elements of horror, science fiction, Gnosticism and working-class realism to form what was for me a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts. As someone who grew up on the analog signal, it also called that vanished era to mind. A quick read and worth the $3.99 and more.
June 16, 2020
Originality and execution, that's what kept coming to mind, reading this.
Fantastic from start to finish.
Go check the synopsis and tell me you aren't intrigued.
Buy it.
Five stars.
Fantastic from start to finish.
Go check the synopsis and tell me you aren't intrigued.
Buy it.
Five stars.
August 11, 2018
Analog is all but dead. The digital era reigns supreme. However there are still people who can broadcast analog through their body. What is it they want? What is there end goal? How can they do this? Did Rey, a knife salesmen have a choice at all about all this? Why is he on almost every channel of the TV in some spots? This was a well written fun read. Looking forward to reading other books by Kirk Jones.
June 21, 2018
I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.The nitty-gritty: A disturbing and atmospheric story that had some cool ideas but didn’t quite deliver overall.
When I saw the cover of Aetherchrist I just knew I had to read it. I mean, come on! It’s such a cool cover. And after reading this VERY dark novella, I can say that the cover perfectly suits the story. The question is, how do I feel about Aetherchrist ? On one hand, it satisfied my love of horror and ended up surprising me at every turn. However, this isn’t an easy read, and if you’re looking for something light and entertaining, you definitely won’t find it here. This book is grim and depressing and horrific, but I have to give the author credit for coming up with an original idea that really made me think.
Reymond, a door-to-door knife salesman, arrives in a small Vermont town to try his luck with the locals. But something is very wrong with the town. At the first house he visits, he notices a wall of old, stacked up televisions, broadcasting nothing but static. But later when he returns to the house, his image is on every TV. Reymond sees himself wearing clothes he hasn’t worn yet, in places he’s never been. The TVs seem to be broadcasting the future, because the next day, Reymond realizes he’s doing exactly what he saw on TV the day before.
It doesn’t take long before the images on the screen depict a horrifying future, which ultimately comes to pass. And someone is stalking Reymond, a man with no eyes who is determined to blind Reymond as well. As Reymond’s life starts to unravel, he finds himself trying to escape a violent and bloody future. But the images on the TV don’t lie, and Reymond has nowhere to run.
Jones takes the idea of a collective consciousness and envisions a world where those people who are sensitive to receiving certain radio transmissions can communicate with each other, even when they are miles apart. Reymond meets a man named Bill who has figured out a very gruesome way to fuse his body with a transmitter in order to become one with these transmissions. This idea is (sort of) explained at the beginning of each chapter with short paragraphs from Bill’s copious notebooks full of research on the subject. I liked this idea, which gives the reader a little more information in an honestly confusing story.
I enjoyed the first half of the novella the most, in which Reymond commits a terrible crime and then watches his life spiral out of control, as one crime leads to another. But when he meets an unhinged woman named Aero and follows her on a quest to a nearby radio tower, the story takes a weird turn and never quite recovers. I loved the idea of Reymond being able to see his future play out on TV screens, but the resolution didn’t quite work for me.
This is a blood-soaked, depressing story with absolutely no glimmer of hope, and the only reason I’m rating it as high as I am is because I appreciate the overall package. I received a digital review copy from the publisher, but I also purchased a finished paperback, which is simply beautiful. Apex is a fantastic small publisher, and just because this wasn’t my favorite of their books doesn’t mean I won’t keep reading and supporting them. Oh, and Kirk Jones is an excellent writer, even though I didn’t care for the story.
Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.
This review originally appeared on Books, Bones & Buffy
When I saw the cover of Aetherchrist I just knew I had to read it. I mean, come on! It’s such a cool cover. And after reading this VERY dark novella, I can say that the cover perfectly suits the story. The question is, how do I feel about Aetherchrist ? On one hand, it satisfied my love of horror and ended up surprising me at every turn. However, this isn’t an easy read, and if you’re looking for something light and entertaining, you definitely won’t find it here. This book is grim and depressing and horrific, but I have to give the author credit for coming up with an original idea that really made me think.
Reymond, a door-to-door knife salesman, arrives in a small Vermont town to try his luck with the locals. But something is very wrong with the town. At the first house he visits, he notices a wall of old, stacked up televisions, broadcasting nothing but static. But later when he returns to the house, his image is on every TV. Reymond sees himself wearing clothes he hasn’t worn yet, in places he’s never been. The TVs seem to be broadcasting the future, because the next day, Reymond realizes he’s doing exactly what he saw on TV the day before.
It doesn’t take long before the images on the screen depict a horrifying future, which ultimately comes to pass. And someone is stalking Reymond, a man with no eyes who is determined to blind Reymond as well. As Reymond’s life starts to unravel, he finds himself trying to escape a violent and bloody future. But the images on the TV don’t lie, and Reymond has nowhere to run.
Jones takes the idea of a collective consciousness and envisions a world where those people who are sensitive to receiving certain radio transmissions can communicate with each other, even when they are miles apart. Reymond meets a man named Bill who has figured out a very gruesome way to fuse his body with a transmitter in order to become one with these transmissions. This idea is (sort of) explained at the beginning of each chapter with short paragraphs from Bill’s copious notebooks full of research on the subject. I liked this idea, which gives the reader a little more information in an honestly confusing story.
I enjoyed the first half of the novella the most, in which Reymond commits a terrible crime and then watches his life spiral out of control, as one crime leads to another. But when he meets an unhinged woman named Aero and follows her on a quest to a nearby radio tower, the story takes a weird turn and never quite recovers. I loved the idea of Reymond being able to see his future play out on TV screens, but the resolution didn’t quite work for me.
This is a blood-soaked, depressing story with absolutely no glimmer of hope, and the only reason I’m rating it as high as I am is because I appreciate the overall package. I received a digital review copy from the publisher, but I also purchased a finished paperback, which is simply beautiful. Apex is a fantastic small publisher, and just because this wasn’t my favorite of their books doesn’t mean I won’t keep reading and supporting them. Oh, and Kirk Jones is an excellent writer, even though I didn’t care for the story.
Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.
This review originally appeared on Books, Bones & Buffy
May 7, 2019
For a book reviewer, there is truly nothing more satisfying than being unexpectedly blown away by the next item up for review, and Aetherchrist, the latest novella from Kirk Jones, certainly did that and then some. In some ways, I’m still trying to get my head around what this strange little tale is all about. It’s exceptionally odd, beguiling, highly original and probably more science fiction than horror. However, do not let that put you off, this is dark fiction at its finest and a worthwhile addition to the world of weird modern fiction.
You can read Tony's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here
You can read Tony's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here
July 19, 2018
For a book reviewer there is truly nothing more satisfying than being unexpectedly knocked out by the next item up for review and “Aetherchrist” the latest novella from Kirk Jones certainly did that, and then some. To be honest, I’m still trying to get my head around what this strange tale was all about? It’s exceptionally odd, beguiling, highly original and probably more science fiction than horror. However, do not let that put you off, this is dark fiction at its finest, and a fine addition to the world of weird fiction.
It’s very hard to describe what this short novel is all about. I reckon you could give “Aetherchrist” to a bunch of college students studying English Literature, add this to their prescribed reading list, and then get them to write a 2000-word paper on what it was about. Man, I 100% guarantee those dudes would struggle! But I love books which have totally unique voices which is the product of very cleverly constructed fiction. Ultimately it does not matter whether “Aetherchrist” is horror, science fiction or fantasy, it’s probably all three. The bottom line is a simple one: you’ll be scratching your head along with those English grad-students, but you’ll love it.
I am going to be deliberately vague on plot details, so read it yourself and submerge yourself in the analogue jigsaw. It opens with Reymond, a down at heel, door to door cutlery salesman turning up at the latest in a long line of backwater town to sell his junk. After a couple of days, he notices everybody has their televisions on, but they seem to be watching nothing but static. It’s also old analogue television, nobody has cable. Bizarrely, then Reymond starts notices himself on one of the televisions in a house he visits. How is this possible? It looks like a recording of him doing day to day stuff from the previous morning. He can’t understand why anybody would bother spy on him, weirdly, all the different channels then seem to have him involved in other activities, but all from different time periods. If he flicks from channel one to channel two he sees a different version of himself. Even more troubling, the final channel shows him lying dead on the street. Can he change the future? He hopes so, but whenever he flicks back to this particular channel it never changes, he is always dead. Having to idea what is going on, a murderous incident with a work colleague forces him to investigate.
I loved this quirky little gem which featured the spirit of both novelists William Burroughs and William Gibson, but also the cult classic films “Repo Man” by Alex Cox, John Carpenter’s “They Live” some David Cronenberg, a smattering of David Lynch, and the much more obscure “Static” (1985) directed by Mark Romanek. The latter is an oddity about a guy who claims to see heaven in the static of a busted television set. “Aetherchrist” is not about that, but it does feature a lot of television static and in its own way heaven. Like Burroughs and Gibson this novella is brimming with crazy ideas and although it has a contemporary setting, sort of uses science, it has a weirdly retro feel which adds considerably to the atmosphere. It might nod to these classics but is most certainly its own beast and copies nobody.
Right from the start we peg Reymond as a loser. Sales are non-existent, he has a crush on his boss who doesn’t realise he exists, and even a blind date turns out to be with a man. The guy has no luck, but as he tries to figure out why he keeps appearing on these old analogue TVs it turns into a fascinating journey of discovery into hidden powers shrouded behind analogue TV signals which may have the power to subliminally influence people, perhaps the whole population. It’s as captivating as it is hypnotic and I suppose poses the question: “If you had the power to make everyone watch you on TV would you?”
The author gives off a large whiff of nostalgia for a TV system which no longer exists, he yearns for the static of changing channels, trying to catch a programme which may have a stronger signal at certain points of the day, or moving your external antennae to improve the picture. In the digital world these days are long gone, and author Kirk Jones finds a clever use for all the massive defunct analogue aerials which are now effectively technological graveyards. I wonder whether these huge analogue radio antennae really do exist? He had me searching on Wikipedia!
This is a very surreal read. But then you throw in body horror, defunct technology, rioting, subliminal messages, conspiracy theories and other weird and wonderful stuff and the end result is a real mind bender of a novel which has much to love and cause confusion. Highly recommended.
It’s very hard to describe what this short novel is all about. I reckon you could give “Aetherchrist” to a bunch of college students studying English Literature, add this to their prescribed reading list, and then get them to write a 2000-word paper on what it was about. Man, I 100% guarantee those dudes would struggle! But I love books which have totally unique voices which is the product of very cleverly constructed fiction. Ultimately it does not matter whether “Aetherchrist” is horror, science fiction or fantasy, it’s probably all three. The bottom line is a simple one: you’ll be scratching your head along with those English grad-students, but you’ll love it.
I am going to be deliberately vague on plot details, so read it yourself and submerge yourself in the analogue jigsaw. It opens with Reymond, a down at heel, door to door cutlery salesman turning up at the latest in a long line of backwater town to sell his junk. After a couple of days, he notices everybody has their televisions on, but they seem to be watching nothing but static. It’s also old analogue television, nobody has cable. Bizarrely, then Reymond starts notices himself on one of the televisions in a house he visits. How is this possible? It looks like a recording of him doing day to day stuff from the previous morning. He can’t understand why anybody would bother spy on him, weirdly, all the different channels then seem to have him involved in other activities, but all from different time periods. If he flicks from channel one to channel two he sees a different version of himself. Even more troubling, the final channel shows him lying dead on the street. Can he change the future? He hopes so, but whenever he flicks back to this particular channel it never changes, he is always dead. Having to idea what is going on, a murderous incident with a work colleague forces him to investigate.
I loved this quirky little gem which featured the spirit of both novelists William Burroughs and William Gibson, but also the cult classic films “Repo Man” by Alex Cox, John Carpenter’s “They Live” some David Cronenberg, a smattering of David Lynch, and the much more obscure “Static” (1985) directed by Mark Romanek. The latter is an oddity about a guy who claims to see heaven in the static of a busted television set. “Aetherchrist” is not about that, but it does feature a lot of television static and in its own way heaven. Like Burroughs and Gibson this novella is brimming with crazy ideas and although it has a contemporary setting, sort of uses science, it has a weirdly retro feel which adds considerably to the atmosphere. It might nod to these classics but is most certainly its own beast and copies nobody.
Right from the start we peg Reymond as a loser. Sales are non-existent, he has a crush on his boss who doesn’t realise he exists, and even a blind date turns out to be with a man. The guy has no luck, but as he tries to figure out why he keeps appearing on these old analogue TVs it turns into a fascinating journey of discovery into hidden powers shrouded behind analogue TV signals which may have the power to subliminally influence people, perhaps the whole population. It’s as captivating as it is hypnotic and I suppose poses the question: “If you had the power to make everyone watch you on TV would you?”
The author gives off a large whiff of nostalgia for a TV system which no longer exists, he yearns for the static of changing channels, trying to catch a programme which may have a stronger signal at certain points of the day, or moving your external antennae to improve the picture. In the digital world these days are long gone, and author Kirk Jones finds a clever use for all the massive defunct analogue aerials which are now effectively technological graveyards. I wonder whether these huge analogue radio antennae really do exist? He had me searching on Wikipedia!
This is a very surreal read. But then you throw in body horror, defunct technology, rioting, subliminal messages, conspiracy theories and other weird and wonderful stuff and the end result is a real mind bender of a novel which has much to love and cause confusion. Highly recommended.
December 11, 2019
**Note: I received a free copy of this e-book from the publisher for an honest review.**
Aetherchrist is a very strange little mindtwister of a book. Rey is a recovering addict who is also a travelling salesman. He sells kitchen knives, and he is trying to sell his wares in a tiny, backwater town. The reader is fully invested in Rey - we only know/understand what he knows/understands - which in the beginning isn't much. As Rey begins to be aware of the aether and analog transmissions, things begin to get exceedingly strange. He begins to see himself killing and also being dead on channels 2-13 of analog televisions. He begins learning of human transmitters and receivers, and of the collective.
There is a lot that happens in this story that I don't really understand. I only know that it is a bleak look at humanity and our penchant for destruction. I found it to be both fascinating and frustrating. I give it between 3 and 4 stars and will definitely revisit this to see if more of it will make sense the 2nd time around.
Aetherchrist is a very strange little mindtwister of a book. Rey is a recovering addict who is also a travelling salesman. He sells kitchen knives, and he is trying to sell his wares in a tiny, backwater town. The reader is fully invested in Rey - we only know/understand what he knows/understands - which in the beginning isn't much. As Rey begins to be aware of the aether and analog transmissions, things begin to get exceedingly strange. He begins to see himself killing and also being dead on channels 2-13 of analog televisions. He begins learning of human transmitters and receivers, and of the collective.
There is a lot that happens in this story that I don't really understand. I only know that it is a bleak look at humanity and our penchant for destruction. I found it to be both fascinating and frustrating. I give it between 3 and 4 stars and will definitely revisit this to see if more of it will make sense the 2nd time around.
July 10, 2018
It's been a while since I've read a book from start to finish in a manner of hours. I think this is in no small part due to Jones's mastery of pacing. Aetherchrist was an engaging read all the way through. The story teases familiarity to our world while drawing us farther into the fantastical as our protagonist, Rey, is thrown into the hidden world of analog transmissions and learns of the ability to tap into the aether using these transmissions. Jones expertly builds a world influenced by the mysterious aether, exploring brutal consequenses for both the users and communities, while maintaining a sense of suspense that carries the reader to the novel's thrilling and inventive conclusion. It's hard to say much more without spoiling the charm of the novel, but there is plenty of charm to be found here. I highly recommend Aetherchrist to fans of both the horror and science fiction genres.
April 22, 2018
A town in Vermont broadcasts prophecies about deaths of the town's residents, and, as you can imagine, there's not much good news after that.
This one is a tense thriller that has brutal things to say about technology and society. It reminded me in some ways of the tone of "Blade Runner," dark and violent, but for a reason. The story cranks up the pressure to critical mass and I had no idea where the story was going until it went there.
In other words, it's good, edge-of-your-seat stuff. Give it a shot.
This one is a tense thriller that has brutal things to say about technology and society. It reminded me in some ways of the tone of "Blade Runner," dark and violent, but for a reason. The story cranks up the pressure to critical mass and I had no idea where the story was going until it went there.
In other words, it's good, edge-of-your-seat stuff. Give it a shot.
Read
November 30, 2022DNF @ 24%
I don't usually like to DNF novellas since they're such quick reads, but I'm really not a fan of this writing or these characters, so I'm gonna go ahead and say this one isn't for me.
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I don't usually like to DNF novellas since they're such quick reads, but I'm really not a fan of this writing or these characters, so I'm gonna go ahead and say this one isn't for me.
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January 28, 2019
There are plenty of SF stories about digitizing human consciousness, but why doesn't anybody ever try the analog route anymore?
Aetherchrist starts with Ray, a down-on-his-luck salesman in backwoods Vermont, and doesn't waste any time uncovering a seedy underbelly of portentous broadcasts and ad-hoc man-machine interfaces. Though it could have easily gone full Cronenberg, the novel spends most of its time circling the edges of the conspiracy Ray stumbled in to. It's ultimately the more satisfying route, following the sort of odd characters you'd expect to find in obscure hobbies and teasing conflicting theories about the broadcasting phenomenon. It just may be the most interesting thing that ham radio has ever produced.
Aetherchrist starts with Ray, a down-on-his-luck salesman in backwoods Vermont, and doesn't waste any time uncovering a seedy underbelly of portentous broadcasts and ad-hoc man-machine interfaces. Though it could have easily gone full Cronenberg, the novel spends most of its time circling the edges of the conspiracy Ray stumbled in to. It's ultimately the more satisfying route, following the sort of odd characters you'd expect to find in obscure hobbies and teasing conflicting theories about the broadcasting phenomenon. It just may be the most interesting thing that ham radio has ever produced.
June 6, 2018
So… where to start with this one?
Rey is a door-to-door cutlery salesman. He roams from home to home in a small town in Vermont, attempting to sell cheap knives to backwoods locals and hoping it all culminates in a bedfest with his boss. That is until he stumbles upon a home that is covered in analog television sets, all which appear to feature Rey in various predicaments: Rey walking up the street, Rey laying dead in a pool of blood, Rey murdering the homeowner’s wife. Believing that the town is recording his every move, Rey attempts to find the source. What unfolds is more than he could’ve imagined and leads him down a very dark road, full of analog analog towers and eyeless creeps with powers beyond comprehension.
Man, what a freaking weird novella but absolutely engaging. It is lude, crude, gory, and a mindf^*k of a book but I couldn’t seem to put it down. The first few pages give you only a glimpse of the thrill-ride you are in for and the seat belt buckle is broken.
Rey is in the same boat as the reader, having absolutely no idea what is going on, why it is going on, or where he needs to turn to find a solution. I think that is what kept me so engaged: I had no idea where the heck this book was going and I couldn’t wait to get to the climax, much like Rey. But when I got there, it was a little abrupt and answered none of my questions; it only left more drifting into the ether.
Jones may have hooked me as a reader with this one, even though this is just my first foray into his mind. The cover alone gave me, and my buddy Michael Patrick Hicks, the itch to purchase and we are both glad we did. Just don’t blame me when you look at a tower differently the next time you pass one on the interstate.
Rey is a door-to-door cutlery salesman. He roams from home to home in a small town in Vermont, attempting to sell cheap knives to backwoods locals and hoping it all culminates in a bedfest with his boss. That is until he stumbles upon a home that is covered in analog television sets, all which appear to feature Rey in various predicaments: Rey walking up the street, Rey laying dead in a pool of blood, Rey murdering the homeowner’s wife. Believing that the town is recording his every move, Rey attempts to find the source. What unfolds is more than he could’ve imagined and leads him down a very dark road, full of analog analog towers and eyeless creeps with powers beyond comprehension.
Man, what a freaking weird novella but absolutely engaging. It is lude, crude, gory, and a mindf^*k of a book but I couldn’t seem to put it down. The first few pages give you only a glimpse of the thrill-ride you are in for and the seat belt buckle is broken.
Rey is in the same boat as the reader, having absolutely no idea what is going on, why it is going on, or where he needs to turn to find a solution. I think that is what kept me so engaged: I had no idea where the heck this book was going and I couldn’t wait to get to the climax, much like Rey. But when I got there, it was a little abrupt and answered none of my questions; it only left more drifting into the ether.
Jones may have hooked me as a reader with this one, even though this is just my first foray into his mind. The cover alone gave me, and my buddy Michael Patrick Hicks, the itch to purchase and we are both glad we did. Just don’t blame me when you look at a tower differently the next time you pass one on the interstate.
August 10, 2018
AETHERCHRIST is a very intriguging look into humans and their connections, with thoughts and emotions and ideas projected as frequencis across an analog airwave...a true dialogue of communication, some might say. Does it sound like a mouthful? Well, the story is a handful, and a well-crafted dark sci-fi at that.
Rey starts off quite the boring fella, just a door-to-door knife salesman with a crush on his boss and a dick of a friend/co-worker. They arrive at a backwoods sort of town, and upon some strange meetings and circumstances, Rey begins to believe that not only is he being watched by someone in the town, but he's being broadcasted. This is the bread crumb to lead him down a labynrinth of technology and sources in an attempt to discover what's happening to him, and as strangers begin to recognize him, how he can stop it.
The pacing is hot and heavy, the narration ripe with paranoia and Kirk Jones does a great job of not only delivering you the main tale in a straightforward way, but he provides little pieces and information throughout the novel to better help you understand not only what's going on, but how it's changing the world around it. I don't want to give too much away, but the articles at the beginning of the chapters in particular were fascinating and provided me more insight into a generally mysterious idea.
This novella sheds some new light on the man/tech discussion as well as an interesting premise into how humans organically communicate with one another. I definitely recommend AETHERCHRIST to any sci-fi/horror fan, and I myself will be checking out some more Kirk Jones tales shortly.
Rey starts off quite the boring fella, just a door-to-door knife salesman with a crush on his boss and a dick of a friend/co-worker. They arrive at a backwoods sort of town, and upon some strange meetings and circumstances, Rey begins to believe that not only is he being watched by someone in the town, but he's being broadcasted. This is the bread crumb to lead him down a labynrinth of technology and sources in an attempt to discover what's happening to him, and as strangers begin to recognize him, how he can stop it.
The pacing is hot and heavy, the narration ripe with paranoia and Kirk Jones does a great job of not only delivering you the main tale in a straightforward way, but he provides little pieces and information throughout the novel to better help you understand not only what's going on, but how it's changing the world around it. I don't want to give too much away, but the articles at the beginning of the chapters in particular were fascinating and provided me more insight into a generally mysterious idea.
This novella sheds some new light on the man/tech discussion as well as an interesting premise into how humans organically communicate with one another. I definitely recommend AETHERCHRIST to any sci-fi/horror fan, and I myself will be checking out some more Kirk Jones tales shortly.
August 14, 2018
Right off the bat, I have to note that I received a copy of this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program, and I'm grateful to the publisher for the opportunity to read this.
More like 2.5, though that's more because it wasn't wholly my thing? The world building was pretty cool, but confusing (which was probably intentional!) and there was a lot of violence that was pretty graphic and fairly brutal, but the story MOVED along at a click, and was definitely engaging. The ending came kind of out of the blue and tbh I was expecting a longer build to the conclusion, but that's probably a personal taste thing.
If fast-paced action is your thing, this is definitely up your alley!
More like 2.5, though that's more because it wasn't wholly my thing? The world building was pretty cool, but confusing (which was probably intentional!) and there was a lot of violence that was pretty graphic and fairly brutal, but the story MOVED along at a click, and was definitely engaging. The ending came kind of out of the blue and tbh I was expecting a longer build to the conclusion, but that's probably a personal taste thing.
If fast-paced action is your thing, this is definitely up your alley!
November 16, 2018
This is an original premise executed cleanly and quickly. A very creepy and entertaining novella. The concept is super weird but actually cohesive and allows for a pretty easy suspension of disbelief. I would actually love to see another iteration of the concept. Not necessarily a sequel but a serial. Super fun read and thought provoking. Fan of jones now.
June 11, 2018
This well crafted novella suggests that the conspiracy nuts who suggest that 'they' are using radio waves to control us are actually right. It took me a bit to get into the story, but once I did it was fun and dark ride.
December 30, 2021
A weird, creepy, inventive little story about analog frequencies being used to control or influence the population, and those rare individuals who can naturally resist/control these frequencies. The novella had a strong start, with our main character, Rey, noticing himself appearing on analog TVs in a backwoods town. His paranoia drives him to start killing people. Once he makes contact with other people who can control these analog frequencies, the story kind of fell apart for me. These other people's motivations didn't quite make sense and I felt that the conclusion was unsatisfying and rushed.
Jones is a good writer and I'll keep my eyes open for more by him.
Jones is a good writer and I'll keep my eyes open for more by him.
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