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beastreader's review against another edition
3.0
Gabriel Bleak is a very powerful individual. His paranormal skills are off the charts. He can manipulate supernatural energies and even communicate with other paranormals inhabiting the Hidden. The Hidden is a place that stores all the energy of life forms on planet, Earth. Bleak has learned to control his powers and put them to good use. He works as a bounty hunter or “skip tracer”. Bleaks abilities don’t go unnoticed.
The CCA considers him dangerous and he has appeared on their radar. The CCA’s mission is to capture him and take advantage of him for their own needs. The CCA hopes to tap into Bleak’s powers, so that they may access the Hidden.
Bleak has a plan of his own to fight the CCA. It will require the assistance of the population of an underground paranormal group known as the Shadow Community. This is one battle that will have sci-fi, paranormal, and urban fans everywhere cheering for. Bleak is the new face of superheroes.
I valued the fact that Bleak History had a darker, edgier, techno feel that it. Mr. Shirley did a good job infusing all of these elements into this book. Bleak may not be your typical guy h makes for an interesting character, even his name is unique. While Bleak could hold his own, there were other characters in this story as well and they unfortunately could not do the same. This was a bummer because I was hoping the enemies that Bleak took on would be as equal a match. Though I do hope to see Bleak again.
The CCA considers him dangerous and he has appeared on their radar. The CCA’s mission is to capture him and take advantage of him for their own needs. The CCA hopes to tap into Bleak’s powers, so that they may access the Hidden.
Bleak has a plan of his own to fight the CCA. It will require the assistance of the population of an underground paranormal group known as the Shadow Community. This is one battle that will have sci-fi, paranormal, and urban fans everywhere cheering for. Bleak is the new face of superheroes.
I valued the fact that Bleak History had a darker, edgier, techno feel that it. Mr. Shirley did a good job infusing all of these elements into this book. Bleak may not be your typical guy h makes for an interesting character, even his name is unique. While Bleak could hold his own, there were other characters in this story as well and they unfortunately could not do the same. This was a bummer because I was hoping the enemies that Bleak took on would be as equal a match. Though I do hope to see Bleak again.
david_agranoff's review against another edition
3.0
Anyone who has read my blog knows that John Shirley (Co- Screenwriter of the crow) is one of my all time favorite authors. An underrated trailblazer in both science fiction and horror, Shirley's cyperpunk pre-dates William Gibson and his psycho-sexual splat punk horror pre-dates Clive Barker. While Shirley doesn’t have the sales they do he has the respect and blurbs of his peers. I suspect in this culture where TV and movies carry more weight than cult novels, one great adapatation is all it will take for Shirley to get discovered out of the genre ghetto.
The project that is most likely to do just that is Bleak History. Shirley’s most mainstream novel BH is more easily tagged in the popular highly marketable genre of Urban Fantasy. In the first 100 pages I was worried this would be my first negative review of a John Shirley novel. The idea seemed simple and almost designed to be marketed in the urban fantasy thing.
The plot sounds simple on the surface. The thin line between the world of the living and the dead is breaking down. Certain people like Gabriel Bleak the main character have powers over the supernatural. There is agency that is monitoring the magic outbreak and recruiting people. I’ve heard reactions to the plot as it sounds kinda like X-men, no not really but I admit I was yawning a bit in the early pages. It is the extremely weird and original plots of Shirley's novels (check out City come a walking or Three Ring Pychus for out their plots) that set his work apart from standard Science Fiction or horror.
I should have trusted Shirley to rise above and make a very original piece. Once the details of the story start to unfold amazing things happen. I dog eared page 159 as the page where my imagination started cooking with the novel. It's not that exciting stuff didn't happen before that, it's just that's when the story really took flight. The hard part for me as a reviewer is that a reader deserves to discover these details as the book unfolds. As the thin line between the natural and supernatural falls apart the thin line between our rights and tyranny also falls.
In many ways Bleak History is about how we as a society or a country deal with threats. What if the threat was not terrorists, but magic? Would the same country that has two political parties supporting the patriot act and one defending it's use of torture do to protect it's self from a world where the power of the supernatural was really in the hands of the people.
Shirley is the master of the horror novel as political allegory. These are not beat you over the head - in your face allegory, and despite the obvious statements on rendition and torture there is deeper message. His novel Demons may be his more biting socio-political satire, but I am hoping that Bleak history will be a bridge that will bring new readers to his long chain of brilliant novels. Read it!
shelleyrae's review against another edition
3.0
There is a lot going on in Bleak History and there is no gentle introduction to the characters or the world itself, between the conspiracies, the Hidden and the Shadow Community it's pretty complex and as it races along its hard to catch your breath and figure out exactly what is going on. Initially I felt a bit lost in the action and could't find a way to identify with the story or Bleak but that changed gradually.
I think that Shirley has created a unique world with an interesting cast of characters but I couldn't get wrapped up in in the way I would have liked ahd I found some way to find an emotional connection. I think Bleak History is probably more appealing to a masculine than feminine audience.
I think that Shirley has created a unique world with an interesting cast of characters but I couldn't get wrapped up in in the way I would have liked ahd I found some way to find an emotional connection. I think Bleak History is probably more appealing to a masculine than feminine audience.
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