Ancient Horror History Unearthed: Soulstorm by Chet Williamson REVIEWED

I've been reading in slow motion lately. I admit it. Other aspects of my life have forced reading and thus, reviewing as regularly as I would like, to the back burner.

I'm hardly complaining, as most of these things are really cool, namely being in a hardcore punk band once again at age 32...haha... seriously though, on top of all of my other hobbies and obligations, I have taken on fronting a heavy band called Anxious Wave and it's a total blast. If that kind of thing interests you, check us out on Facebook or Bandcamp.

Anyway. A book. A review. Soulstorm. Focus...

Soulstorm is the 32 year old, Tor published debut of fairly prolific author, Chet Williamson, who is probably best know for the book that follows this, Ash Wednesday. I see many of his books in used shops pretty regularly, and if Soulstorm is any indication, are worth a look.

On the surface, it's a standard story of a small group of people locked in a house with a haunted history in hopes of a large monetary prize. Just beneath that surface, however, is a rich character study, namely around sexuality and classism...

The book excels in it's characterization, keeping it's cast thin, and taking the time to really delve each of them out. I was reminded quite a bit of a book I read a few months back, Randall Boyll's After Sundown which was very enjoyable, in it's taking the opportunity of horror in isolation to really delve into those segregated from society and trapped with a terrible entity.

Here, the terrible entity is the titular Soulstorm, as the house is a magnet of sorts for all evil souls, and it even implies that it may be responsible for historically horrendous acts of murder, with cameos of serial killer Albert Fish and dictator Hitler. It plays on the human wish for power, wealth and to belong, which makes for a thoroughly different motive for the villain...to exploit it's victims to get what it wants: world domination.

My qualms lie in a similar place, however. The book seems to lose focus on being a horror novel at times, and becomes preoccupied with the drama that unfolds between the characters. It gets a bit too soap-opery for my taste, while missing out on a whole lot of opportunity to become more vividly horrific throughout.

While the character study was always interesting enough to keep me reading, I do believe it was a misfire to not have the crew so deeply studied meet more gruesome demises...readers tend to care much more when those disposed of are so strongly developed.

That's not to say there aren't some really great horror moments.

One character is turned into what can be described as a more deformed version of The Incredible Hulk who squeezes a neck until the head it attaches to bursts like a tube of rolled up toothpaste...and that's exactly what the author describes it as. Another great and gross moment involves the malodorous qualities of a corpse that just won't stay put, and still feels the need to engage in the carnal joys of intercourse.

It's a decent debut, worth a read, and I certainly will be looking into more of Williamson's work, namely Dreamthorp, which seems to be the pulpy literary stepchild of the author's bibliography.

It's 3/5 for me.