Book Review of a Modern Cosmic Horror Novella; Sci Fi & Sci Fact

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I hope everyone had a great week. Mine was great especially with the state holiday that I got off from my day job on Thursday. I spent the majority of that day finishing up and releasing the newsletter for February and March but it’s something I love doing so it wasn’t work that much to me. If you haven't done so, you can sign up for my author's newsletter here. It's free! In this post, I have a mini book review of a modern cosmic horror novella. I’ll also tell you about a science fiction story that I’ll be including in my upcoming collection of short fiction, “Bad Apps”. Along with that, I’ll talk about a science fact of a technology similar to the one in the short story. So, read on! 

Mini Book Review: 'The Ballad of Black Tom', by Victor LaValle

Lately, Lovecraftian themes in horror fiction have been very popular. These themes that originated with early 20th century horror author H.P. Lovecraft, who was notorious for his racism and bigotry, are so popular that even authors of colour use them in their speculative fiction. Even so, these authors often use elements from Lovecraft’s work as criticism against racism. This is the case with Victor LaValle’s 2016 novella, “The Ballad of Black Tom”. 

I read “Ballad of Black Tom” about a month ago and really enjoyed it. It’s one of the best modern cosmic horror novels that I've read and that includes novellas. I liked it so much that I almost wished it was a full-length novel. The story is about Charles Thomas Tester, who goes by “Tommy”, a young black man in the 1920s who takes an odd job that’s as odd as an odd job can get: deliver an occult book to a witch in Queens, New York. This leads him to another job, one that is far beyond odd. He is hired by a wealthy white man to give a guitar performance at a party where both guests and host have an evil scheme that Tommy isn’t aware of. The scheme: open a portal to another universe to allow a monstrous ruler to come into our own world and destroy all humanity. 

Although nothing is explicitly said about Lovecraft or his Cthullu Mythos, there are a lot of elements of his stories that run through this novella. Some of these are occultic conspiracies, unearthly monsters including a leviathanic creature, and an ending of existential horror. 

The book is structured really good. It’s divided between two characters' points of view: Tommy's and that of a detective named Malone. The two points of view are windows into the reality of racism of the story’s time, much of that reality which is unfortunately still with us today. The characterisation is believable and so the main characters are well-rounded with both positive and negative traits. The writing is clean and well-paced which this latter creates good suspense making a person want to continue reading. 

What I like most about "Ballad of Black Tom" is that the story is both realistic in its social issues and fantastical in its setting and events. It's entertaining cosmic horror yet with an important message. I definitely recommend reading this book.

Sci Fi & Sci Fact: My Short Story & Techno Textile

My short story, "Chameleon", is one of the stories that will be included in my upcoming collection, "Bad Apps". "Chameleon" is about a young man who does a test run on a suit that has the limitless capability of taking the form of any clothes style by downloading an image of that style. Besides ethical and legal implications of the technology, there's also a potential to it dangerous to the user/wearer. Perhaps this kind of clothing is something that may not come until the distant future the story takes place in. However, there are advancements toward techno clothing. 

One of the most recent advancements in techno textile is acoustic fiber. This fiber can enable two-way communication in clothing and therefore turn clothes into microphones and speakers. Seem a little too bizarre? An IEEE article talks about the details of it, how it works and its uses. It’s really fascinating! 

If you want more details about my fiction such as the short story above and updates about "Bad Apps", subscribe to my author newsletter. You’ll also get behind-the-scenes and maybe even free books! Also, look out this Wednesday for another the Insecure Writers' Support Group blog post! Have you read any modern cosmic horror novels or short stories lately? If so which ones? I'm always looking for more to read!

Until next time . . .