"...a political, psychological and philosophical allegory of remarkable depth and ambition: the most intellectually provocative horror novel of the twenty-first century."
That is a pull-quote, from Alex Good's review of VOLK: A Novel of Radiant Abomination (read the full review here) that went live at The Toronto Star on Sept. 29. It is more specifically, a hell of a pull-quote. I saw that very early in the morning it appeared, a week ago as of this writing, and it is one of four very good reviews for the book that've come out since its publication in September. So far, there have been no bad reviews. Of course, that could change at any moment, but for the time being, please let a happy and very relieved old hack bask, and pitch his new novel in the best possible light.
Here's a run-down of the other three reviews.
- A starred review in Publishers Weekly says of VOLK: "It is a dazzling horror novel that's unafraid to ask questions and leave some of them unanswered." (The full review's here)
- Hellnotes.com reviewer Gordon B. White writes: "With multiple engaging protagonists, a unique antagonist, and a well-realized pre-WWII European setting, Volk picks up the story of Juke but shifts its focus away from the literal monsters to the humans that try to control them. It’s a bold, but natural progression for the story, with an ending that hints at much more to come." (Here's the full review)
- Paul StJohn Mackintosh says of Volk, at the wonderfully-named See The Elephant Magazine: "Volk is technically and intellectually very ambitious, and it succeeds on almost every level, including as good, intelligent entertainment." (Read it here)
These are all very good, and get my heart-rate and respiration back to normal in the nicest possible way. The reviews, and the fact that coterminously, Amazon seems to have copies in warehouse in both its U.S. and Canada iterations (here, and here).
