Synopsis:
Cynthia Rhodes is part of a team that shuts down interdimensional emergencies. A normal day for her would be pretty unusual for us, and this mission is unusual even for her.
Every “Bleed Zone” is different. Every mission is a leap into the unknown. This one is all that and then some, because not long into it, Rhodes finds herself completely isolated from the rest of her team.
Even before she knows about her problem, things are weird. The abrasion point between realities is not where her readings said it would be. When she finds it, she sees it is turning in upon itself. After some difficulty. She manages to close the gateway, but when she tries to update her team, her databox can’t reach them.
The databox is only giving her readings for a five mile circle. Her team isn’t within its confines. Nothing registers outside the five mile mark at all. According to her device, nothing else exists.
Strange, but in the distance, Cynthia can hear people screaming, a multitude.
The mission won’t wait.
She will have to do what she can — alone.
Review:
*I read this novella as part the judging group The Secret Scribes for the Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship (SFINCS). The following review is strictly my personal thoughts as each novella will be reviewed by two judges to be as objective as possible.*
Thrill Kings: Madre Diem is part of a greater series of stories, and thus, this novella sets out to do what Rik Ty intended: give readers some thrilling action in a short package.
Because this story takes place in a set world, we don’t get a ton of character growth, nor do we get a lot of stakes other than what is presented. On the whole, this novella does one thing, and that’s taking us on a rollercoaster of dumb fun. Seriously, not trying to be demeaning or pompous here, this story is chock full of dumb fun. It had me turning the pages, gripping my kindle tighter (mostly at the beginning because it was supppppper tense), and had me wanting to see how this story ends. That’s it, no frills, no sandbagging character arcs, none of that jazz. Just excellent alien (or Inter-Ds as the story calls them as aliens are a different thing altogether in-world) invasion fun!
The plot and style of this story really reminded me of World War Z (the book, not the mediocre movie) as these “Bleed Zones” happen and sometimes Inter-Ds come over to our dimension, and in Madre Diem‘s case, some gnarly parasites. Our story starts off in this really intense, really scary (it’s felt in the prose) invasion as we follow a number of different POVs. Each POV is a woman (which fits in with the intended ‘Mother’ theme) and we witness through their eyes this invasion, hopping breathtakingly fast from character to character as they are overrun by the parasites. Now, there are two types of parasites, small ones (kids kinda) and these flying Medusa-looking creatures (the mothers). And it’s not until Cynthia “Skyde” Rhodes shows up does the action change from invasion to extermination.
As far as characters go, we don’t get much more than surface level, which is fine because the entire point is the frightened feeling of an alien invasion. Even with Skyde, we don’t learn much about her, but that’s due to this story being one of many in this world with these characters. I will say, it was interesting to have an all female cast ranging from 7 to middle aged. Before the ‘Mother’ theme became prevalent, I noted there were no male characters and I kinda liked that, and then the theme took over and it all made sense. Really cool stuff.
But since I am judging this for a competition, I have to be a tad nitpicky here. While the prose was excellent and I felt all the emotional beats necessary, some of the grammar and punctuation was off. It wasn’t overly terrible, but still there. The biggest thing is the worldbuilding. Because this story is part of a larger series, a lot of the worldbuilding is either missing or we are left to our own devices. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but for a competition, it probably would’ve been better with a little more description. And the climax/resolution with the Inter-Ds felt a little underwhelming, but that could just be me.
I will say, and I thought this was neat but not necessarily tied to this story, is these 100-word mini stories at the beginning and the end. These snippets are fun and great ways to introduce the world/characters without getting too deep. I actually enjoyed this concept.
Overall, I’d say Thrill Kings: Madre Diem fulfilled the promise Rik Ty set out to give us. It was full of action, full of tense alien invasion drama, and had a Sunday morning cartoon vibe to it that made it so much fun.
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