written by John Farris
limited edition illustrated by Phil Parks
published by Tor Books
ISBN-10:
0812517865
ISBN-13:
978-0812517866
reviewed by Adam Armstrong
4.19.09
It’s not small; it’s just cold in here.
Arne Horsfall is a
child who finds a crate after a flood in 1906. Voices call to his mother
telling her to open the crate. After the crate is open, Arne and his father
have to stop what came out. In 1970 Arne is an old man in a mental institute.
Enid and Marjory Waller have Arne over for dinner as part of an outreach
program to help with rehabilitation. Now a call from over sixty years in the
past finds Arne and forces him to release what he and his father trapped so
many years ago. Weeks pass and the search is called
off for Arne Horsfall but the trouble is only
beginning.
A novel is a combination of overlapping
mysteries. A great novel is a
combination of mysteries that you can’t even began to figure out until the end.
This is one fantastic, fast-paced novel. We start of by jumping in between 1906
and 1970 seeing the story unfold at two separate times at once, before jumping
into all out action for the last two-hundred pages. There is not a scene in the
book that Farris doesn’t weave beautifully into the story at some point.
Unfortunately this book doesn’t appear to be in
print at the moment but isn’t too terribly hard to get a hold of yet. I had the
luck of getting my hands on the Dark Harvest Limited edition with some truly terrifying illustrations by Phil Parks.
5 out of 5