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morganquaid's review
5.0
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
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
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