True Dark

Ultrahumans #6

by Niall Teasdale

Twilight is missing. Her darkest personality has taken control, and no one knows where she is or what she might do. Across the globe, the cosmic energy pulse from two dying spaceships has unleashed a new wave of Ultrahumans, often stronger than has ever been seen before. In America, a hero thought lost returns, but with him comes a danger everyone thought had died beneath the ruins of New York. Cygnus, the Guardian of Earth, has her work cut out for her if she’s ever to bring her lost friend home.

Genres: Science Fiction, Superheroes, Urban Fantasy, Lesbian

436 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 3, 2018

About the author

I was born in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall so perhaps a bit of history rubbed off. Ancient history obviously, and border history, right on the edge of the Empire. I always preferred the Dark Ages anyway; there’s so much more room for imagination when people aren’t writing down every last detail. So my idea of a good fantasy novel involved dirt and leather, not shining plate armour and Hollywood-medieval manners. The same applies to my sci-fi, really; I prefer gritty over shiny.

Oddly, then, one of the first fantasy novels I remember reading was The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper (later made into a terrible juvenile movie). These days we would call Cooper’s series Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy and looking back on it, it influenced me a lot. It has that mix of modern day life, hidden history, and magic which failed to hit popular culture until the early days of Buffy and Anne Rice. Of course, Cooper’s characters spend their time around places I could actually visit in Cornwall, and South East England, and mid-Wales. In fact, when I went to university in Aberystwyth, it was partially because some of Cooper’s books were set a few miles to the north around Tywyn.

I got into writing through roleplaying, however, so my early work was related to the kind of roleplaying game I was interested in. I wrote “high fantasy” when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons. I wrote a lot of superhero fiction when I was playing City of Heroes. I still loved the idea of a modern world with magic in it and I’ve been trying to write a novel based on this for a long time. As with any form of expression, practice is the key and I can look back on all the aborted attempts at books, and the more successful short stories, as steps along the path to the Thaumatology Series.

As of 2015, I have thrown in my lot with writing. After thirty years of being a computer programmer I am making enough money to quit the day job and write full time. Dreams, occasionally, come true. My favourite authors are Terry Pratchett, Susan Cooper, and (recently) Kim Harrison. Kim’s Hollows books were what finally spurred me to publish something, even if the trail to here came by way of Susan, back in school, several decades ago.

Reviews

[Ryan Mangrum · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tl;DR: frenetic, unfocused, trite, sexist (against men), predictable, and too political while at the same time not understanding American politics or the political system. In short: "MEN BAD, WOMEN GOOD. REPUBLICANS BAD, DEMOCRATS GOOD"

I think I'm done with Teasdale. He's becoming increasingly predictable and it's obvious he's trying to produce a quantity of books, not quality books.

1) The sexist drivel is WAAAAY past getting old. Every female character that isn't obviously set up as a villain is a paragon of virtue and every male character that isn't obviously set up as supporting character are stupid, sadistic, misogynistic, and corrupt. The moment Captain Freedom made his appearance early in the book I said to myself "This guy is going to be a villain in the end, just like Ultranova." And lo and behold, I was right. When The Chinese Dragon avatar showed up, I knew he wasn't going to be on the up and up either. Right again. When Captain Freedom lost his power and thought "the next American Avatar is going to be a female", and again I was right.

Teasdale has become predictable in that you KNOW everything about a character just by their gender.

2) The story is all over the place. There are entire subplots that just don't belong. The Red Queen's taking over San Fransico's crime, The love story between Fleet and Zap, Jacob and Heather finding the dehydrator dude in the beginning, and June's agent troubles just to name a few. It reeked of the author trying to inflate the word count.

3) Then there's the politics. The last 3rd of the book is Teasdale creating strawman arguments for the republicans so he can have his democrat characters easily tear them down while appearing intelligent. The irony is that Teasdale obviously doesn't understand the parties (as the registration thing would have been a democrat talking point, not republican) or how a republic works.

[Charles Dillon · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a rush!!!

Dang, this is definitely one of the best super-hero series I've read in a long time. I really think that if you're going to read one of the book's, you might as well go ahead and get the entire series so you don't have to waste good reading time going back to the bookstore to buy the next. Enjoy😀

[Derek Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one the best superhero series that I have read.

[Vincent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great!

Another great Ultrahumains books! Great story, good continuing plot from the last one and interesting beginning to he next one!

[Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great!