Sunday, October 19, 2014

14, by Peter Clines


"Nate has a new apartment.  #14 is not fancy but it's cheap.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that 
every apartment in this old building has its secret.  Dark deep secrets.  The combination of these secrets 
could mean the end. The end of Nate, the end of his neighbors, the end of everything."

Teaser from the back of the novel. I just read it, and I am simply mystified* by the glowing reviews that act like it's the best damned SciFi book EVER FREAKING WRITTEN OMG.

Let's get one thing straight: I liked it. But I liked it as in "it's a simple, no-brainer, easy-to-read junk SciFi/Horror novel." Not because it blew my mind or anything. Are we really getting that silly that something written so simply and with so many junk food book cliches is "super awesome" nowadays? I shudder to think of that. And to compare it to a crap TV series? It's not "Lost" in any way except that it's 4th grade level entertainment with a twist at the end. Again, yes, I loved it. But I love junk food. I like to eat my steak, but I also like chips and crap like that. I love these little gems that are quick and satisfying in their own way, different from digesting as huge piece of "meat", so to speak. I'm just upset that readers are screaming about it in the fashion that they are. This book isn't on par with Koontz, King or Straub - hell, even Piers Anthony** wrote a SciFi book that was close enough to horror that was very in-depth and (yeah, yeah it actually was) mind-blowing.

If this book 'blows your mind'... what the heck, man. You need to read more.



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* read as: "pissed off"
** the book is titled "Macroscope"

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