Looking For a Good Book

I like reading Tim Waggoner books.  I’m never quite sure what I’m going to get, other than something that’s bound to be a wild ride, unexpected turns, completely gruesome moments, and humor both bright and dark.

Curious, I looked through some of the other reviews of this particular book and I see a real variety of ratings – from one star ‘what is this crap’ to five star ‘this is fun’ reviews, and I think that, more than most authors/books, Waggoner is an acquired taste. You really have to be in the right mood or the right frame of mind to dig in and enjoy. So I guess I’m always in the right mood for Waggoner.

In The Atrocity Engine, the first book in a new series (yay!), Neal Hudson is a long-time employee of Maintenance – the secret organization dedicated to battling demons, creatures from all the different dark dimensions, and/or aliens trying to destroy the universe.  Whatever needs doing.  Neal has been with the organization for more than 20 years and has been working as a lone wolf ever since his partner was killed.

Now Neal has been assigned to work alongside a rookie – the daughter of the man who served as Neal’s mentor when he first joined. Although the partnership starts off a bit rocky, the pair come to trust one another – which is good, because they’ll need to in order to prevent the earth from being destroyed.

This is not the most original of stories, but what makes it work is Waggoner’s writing – which can sometimes be completely off the wall. Even the ‘grizzled, male veteran, paired with the young, rookie female officer’ is an old trope, but Waggoner makes Neal just off-kilter enough to keep us (and his partner) guessing what he’ll do next.

It is a bit disappointing that Gina Sandoval (Neal’s new partner) is a relatively stock character with nothing new to add to the relationship, really, other than giving Neal more opportunities to grouse. Fortunately they ultimately work well together (no surprise there) and (this IS a surprise) they don’t develop into a romantic relationship.  Of course any of this could change through the course of the series.

Something Waggoner manages to do often is keep the stakes of the book high. The potential for the end of everything as we know it is pretty high, I’d say. Again, not the newest of concepts, but I like the Men In Black idea of it being the lower-level employee working to solve the problems and not the ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ type.

Overall, to repeat myself once again – not the most original of stories, but entertaining for those of us who like our entertainment to be a little gruesome and absurd. I will look forward to the next installment (which is clearly suggested at the very end of this volume).

Looking for a good book? Tim Waggoner’s work isn’t for everyone, but if you’re interested in a little ‘wacky’ horror for your commute read, give The Atrocity Engine a try.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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The Atrocity Engine

author: Tim Waggoner

series: Custodians of the Cosmos #1

publisher: Aethon Books, LLC

ISBN: 9781949890891

hardcover, 314 pages