ReviewStack: McAllister's Mates Twelve
Hi all
Hmm Late again - although this one is significantly longer - I do believe my review skills may be growing but Mark Kermode I am not. Going forward I’ll post these in batches of two to make the posts easier to read and the delays significantly shorter!
These reviews are part of Reviewstack run by the great writer and pillar of the Substack Community :
An ongoing series of reviews of some of the wonderful articles, poems, and stories I’ve discovered on Substack (and other places) and more importantly the beautiful souls behind the works.
Please take a few moments to read the works of these authors and if you find their work as life-affirming and life changing as I do, then please let them know. We need to support and cherish these voices.
You can meet some of my other friends in the previous instalments: 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
If you want to keep me in caffeine (and keep the ghostly voices whispering for the poetry side of things) - consider clicking below. For any who do so, you have my deepest gratitude.
Scott Atkins
Warhammer 40K figurine painting has become a huge cultural movement. While I don't participate, I completely see the appeal, and I love seeing how people express themselves through this intriguing medium. These figurines have a rich lore and backstory, but they arrive blank and grey, ready to be painted by the imagination both physically and psychologically. I've been following this online, and I love how Warhammer combines a communal experience with personal expression. Scott Atkins’ work, however, takes this art to an entirely different level.
The first thing that stands out is the neon paint effects. They really bring the pieces to life - fires blaze, computer readouts strobe, and radioactive slime glows menacingly. Not only does Scott achieve a magical effect with these energy elements, but he also creates the illusion of light sources. Fires reflect off polished armour or send gently diffusing light across stone. The attention to detail is staggering. There is a palpable sense of movement within the pieces. You can almost feel the heat of the laser rifles and hear the urgent chattering of the blinking computer terminals. There is no question as to seeing them move - you did.
My personal favourites are the sapphire and gold pieces. These are incredibly rich and opulent and certainly deliver the feeling of a king's or emperor's imperial warriors. Marching columns of glittering sentinels created by a society obsessed with projecting wealth, power, and heraldic symbolism. One can almost imagine their armour being the work of Carl Faberge or Tutankhamen's artisans (we're in science fiction territory, so there may have been some time travel involved). Returning to the Faberge comparison, the incredible scale of these miniatures standing just a few centimetres tall can not be emphasised enough. This is work on a level with the fabulous surprises within his jewelled eggs.
Of course, these intergalactic warriors exist within a world of eternal combat and danger. Layers of grime, mud, and rust tarnish those glittering uniforms. Scott excels in the arguably more difficult task of distressing those beautiful yet terrifying armours. If the rich gold eagles and sapphire breastplates sell the narrative and propaganda. The grime and decay convey the reality. Like the flame effects, the rust patterns move naturally through the scene. Patches of dirt and grime spread out into fading patterns in an act of truly impressive brushwork. If you’re a warhammer veteran, or you're interested in figurine painting, or the visual arts in general- you need to check out Scott's work. It is truly inspiring.
https://www.instagram.com/skynes1/
This is a wonderful series that continues to grow from strength to strength. Combining the raw psychedelic energy of Phillip K Dick’s sharpest work with rich era spanning sagas like Asimov's Foundation or The Wheel of Time. I have a deep love for existential and psychological thrillers but they can suffer from limited oxygen. Phillip K Dick got in, blew your mind, and got out with novels rarely hitting 250 pages. This isn't criticism, I adore the man, he truly changed my life.
Derek, however, has accomplished something quite remarkable. Chains of a Demigod has spawned an engrossing series that continues apace. Partly this is due to great character development - Nyl, Arcade, and Garuna have fascinating interwoven relationships that ebb and flow with rage, passion, envy, and empathy with each strange new world they're thrown into.
The layers of simulation and virtual reality are beautifully realised. A combination of historical and mythological details pull you into the moment with the characters, odd moments like glitching character dialogue or Nyl's vividly described transmogrifications reminding both her and you that all is illusion.
Perhaps though, it's the mature and subtle shifts of the writing that make this special. The narrative starts on the premise of Nyl being the most aware and “awake” participant in the simulation. The story, though, becomes ever more intriguing and philosophically complex. We see her make very rash, very human decisions and the perceived narrative of her gaining ever higher ranks and rewards for victories in combat starts coming into question. Is this really a combat testing ground? Perhaps these tests are ones of compassion and diplomacy. Maybe she’s failing? Maybe the overseers aren’t monstrous controllers, could they be angelic beings or higher elements of her own consciousness trying to help her evolve? Are the glitches snatches of higher beings having conversations she’s not ready to hear? Unlike “the Matrix” which boils down to a juvenile power fantasy about being a chosen one and teaching the “NPCs” who “don’t get you” a lesson (lazy AND dangerous in its implications), this is a psychological thriller in the truest sense where even the hero may be as unreliable as their surroundings.
I've been contemplating this story over the past few days and a thought struck me. I've consistently identified with Nyl, as we're all prone to doing when we fall in love with a story. The problem being I’d squarely placed myself in Righteous Knight Nyl's shoes - the only one able to see the truth, the only “real” thing in the bardo. On the edge of metaphysical escape if only I could get past the bothersome fools and systems in my way. Like Nyl though, perhaps I need to dwell on the fact that realising there's a deeper psychological and metaphysical level to the world does NOT make you special nor your current Karmic situation beneath “wonderful you”! If a work of literature forces you to pause, reflect, maybe even evolve a little then it has truly done its job.
We have a fair few surreal metaphysical novels and TV shows these days. We've lots of long-running sagas. We have very few combinations of the two. David Lynch is gone, we're not getting any more Twin Peaks. Support and treasure Derek James Kritzberg!
This story takes an interesting approach - it starts with a thing. Not a person, event, or location but an object - A brave and interesting choice (even Tolkien didn’t try this approach - despite The Ring being arguably a central character, it could have been interesting). The object in this case being a “Telejam”, a security device that prevents one’s brain from being scanned, hacked, or even controlled remotely. Rather than opening with a scene of a Cronenberg scanner-esque psychic battle, we’re given an immediate sense of the ubiquitous fear and paranoia around cognitive sieges through exposure to the entire industry surrounding them.
What sort of society feels the need to mass produce these mental defence devices? How secure are they? Does their use have long-term psychological or physical effects? How expensive are they - has Telejam ownership become the new class divide, with a downtrodden working glass left at the mercy of mindhackers and psychic vampires? This approach to storytelling immediately floods the mind with complex and interesting questions that wouldn’t necessarily be achieved by opening with John the anti-psychic detective’s apartment or announcing that the year is 2134.
The other interesting approach to this piece is that once we have established the facts concerning principles and appearance of the device, we are bombarded with in-story conspiracy theories, tabloid headlines, and rumours around how these devices are manufactured and how the psychic vampires (telegnosoi) arose. Does this break the rules of “good exposition” or actually raise the art to new heights? I firmly lean towards the latter. Rather than being given a useful tourist guide to the world of the story, we are firmly planted into the shoes of a helpless citizen overloaded with information but poor in real knowledge.
The first real scene in the story happens quite far into the piece, and again is delivered with a focus on details and actions rather than the characters’ thoughts and feelings. Dialogue is almost entirely absent. It's an interesting almost journalistic approach that works well and makes the story feel like a recovered historical record.
Perhaps building a story around an object rather than a central cast of characters is something far beyond mere novelty or a literary experiment. Of course we like to build stories around characters, people are infinitely interesting BUT this also feeds into the comforting notion that we shape our environment, and not vice-versa. This world belongs to the Telejam and it looms large in the lives of its inhabitants whether they defend it or fight it. While I'm a deep believer in personal agency and have an internal locus of control, I think we need to be aware of our own Telejams. Mobile Phones, netflix, our careers, newspapers. What forces are we allowing to shape our actions, even our personalities? There is of course the obvious parallel between the Telejam and our technological obsessions but this story invites deeper reflection on how easily we as individuals and a society can surrender control.
Theo Priestley may just be Substack's answer to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. I say that without any irony and it is VERY much a compliment. Sharp, funny, genuinely unnerving at times, and absolutely with a .finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist (for Buffy the hopes, fears, and daily struggles of Generation X, for Theo those of the Substack community).
We've all seen the “Drop Your Substack” meme. We've all obeyed in our weaker moments, we've all been tempted to post it - (maybe I'll get extra views), and we've all had a rant about it. However, it takes a special sort of mad genius to build a good comic horror story around it.
The observations are brutal and astute. The endless copy and paste AI writing blogs with ‘technical advice’ about a genre, but without one single word of a story, poem or real article. Oh and the notes, the notes, and more notes! You know those profiles that post nineteen notes per day, cluttering up your feed with variations on “check out my work”, of course not a hint of a real article on the entire profile. As I said, finger on the pulse of Substack’s more irksome places.
Of course the story hɓas a lot more to offer than a few sharply observed and well crafted laughs, it maintains an intricate and dynamic dance between satire and dread. The narrator’s humorous monologue is punctuated by moments of fearful paranoia - enhanced, not diminished by the contrast with the previous levity. The best horror stories give just enough information for you to build the scene in your mind, and leave you to fill in the blanks. This story is no exception. The fates of the other Substack users are teased through tense and evocative descriptions of the narrator's growing anxiety. This leaves your imagination to run wild and create terrifying scenes to feed into your own particular anxieties. First rule of horror writing - Let the reader scare themselves, they're better at it.
The story climaxes in a scene that's surprisingly grisly and haunting, given the humorous opening. I don't want to spoil the plot but I will say the tone of the writing and the details of the scene are both masterfully executed. We’re given a shocking depiction of just what the secret forces ruling Substack do to their victims before the story hits you with its wickedest joke of all.
Biting satire, thrills, scares, and even some astute commentary on this (mostly) wonderful platform we express ourselves on. Check this one out!
I hope you enjoy these beautiful works as much as I enjoyed reading them and writing about them.
You can meet some of my other friends in the previous instalments: 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Substack has proven to be a treasure trove and I already have a few more gifted writers lined up for my next review newsletter.