7th SON by J.C. Hutchins

7th SON COVERRATING: Five out of five Sigs.

Like I even need to include this one. Every fucker on
the planet listens to this ridiculous illegal audio herion that has us
all strung out. 7th Son, Book Three. J.C. Hutchins is a motherfucker, okay? It's just that simple. Muh-ther-fah-ker.

7th Son Book One will be out in print from St. Martin's Press in 2009. That publisher is smart enough to see the addictive nature of 7th Son and the storytelling of Hutchins. The book reads very long, however, and needs a ruthless edit to cut down some redundancies and make it punchier - that's what St. Martin's is going to do, and it's going to make 7th Son a total knockout.

Content-wise, Hutchins and I play in very similar spaces. There's a ton of science, both real and pseudo, to keep your brain involved. He creates excellent foreshadowing -- most plot devices and character actions are justified, nothing comes out of left field. There is no magic, no undead, no unexplained contrivances. This book is hardcore, disciplined storytelling. You can see that Hutch put in the wrench-time on this series.