Previous SFF Author: Lauren Oliver
Dan O’Malley graduated from Michigan State University and earned a Master’s Degree in medieval history from Ohio State University. He then returned to his childhoom home, Australia. He now works for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, writing press releases for government investigations of plane crashes and runaway boats.
As Daniel O’Malley’s 2012 supernatural thriller The Rook (book one of THE CHECQUY FILES) begins, Myfanwy Thomas comes to herself with complete amnesia. She’s standing in a London park at night. Surrounding her is a ring of motionless bodies. They are all wearing latex gloves.
Myfanwy (“rhymes with Tiffany”) finds two letters in her jacket pocket from her former self:
Dear You, The body you are wearing used to be mine… I’m writing this letter for you to read in the future.
Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4.5 | Daniel O'Malley | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Note: This review contains some minor spoilers for The Rook, the first book in THE CHECQUY FILES series.
The Checquy, a top secret British agency of people with supernatural powers, are contemplating a peace accord and merger with their hereditary enemies, the Belgian Wetenschappelijk Broederschap van Natuurkundigen (the “Scientific Brotherhood of Physicists”), whom the Checquy dismissively call the “Grafters.” While Checquy members are born with superpowers (some of them very odd, like the ability to implode another person until their whole body is about the size of a head,
Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3.5 | Daniel O'Malley | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Daniel O’Malley’s amnesiac, paranoiac, chess-themed super-powered-human novel got lots of good buzz when it was published in 2012. Tadiana reviewed it here. STARZ has taken the story and given it a polished adaptation that reminds me a bit of both the film production of The Children of Men, and STARZ’s own too-soon-cancelled SF/alternate world/spy drama Counterpart. And, yes, there’s a little bit of Total Recall in there. Here are my thoughts on the first two episodes.
Myfwanwy Thomas wakens in the rain on London’s Millennium Bridge,
Marion Deeds | Daniel O'Malley | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Previous SFF Author: Lauren Oliver
Pretty challenging book. Cut by half, speed up the cadence. Trying to figure out the plot, the main point of…
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…