Evan. T. says
Intense!
I think I've found my new favorite writer. There are so many things to say about Torsten Tomas's "Machines of Kali," that it's hard to know where to start. It's complex and intense, both hyper-real and startlingly original.
To begin, I have a simple criterion for new writers: are they doing anything that I haven't read anywhere else? Mr. Tomas is. This "cross-genre" novel really does combine different genres. Like the blurb promises, "a detective mystery inside a techno-thriller wrapped inside a psychodrama," Mr. Tomas's debut novel is a polyglot of different elements - suspense, action, hard-boiled mystery, science fiction, and science fact, all woven together in a tightly driven plot.
The characters were incredibly real; their personal journeys had a "literary" element that I found wholly absorbing. Unlike other thrillers that jerk you around from character to character for a page or two at a time, "Machines" let you spend a long time with each before you went to the next. Through the course of the story, as they interacted in a week of real-time, the hero and the heroine, the villain and the stooge, all found their way to different places - some for the better, and some, of course, for the much, much worse.
But it was never forced. The dialogue was so well-written, the reactions so believable, that each exchange came off the page like a screenplay. Many times I wanted to scream at the characters, "Don't do that! That's not how you're supposed to act!" Then I realized that was the author's intention, to inject the reality of their questionable decision-making into the surreal circumstances of their situation.
The pacing was sublime. Remember Clive Barker's stories? They were astonishing, the way they would begin with one fantastic event and become more and more appalling with each page. Most writers wouldn't - or couldn't - do that. Mr. Tomas escalated the spectacle like Mr. Barker, pumping it up with each chapter until the final climactic pinnacle.
Along the way, the characters were so intense, so much more interesting than you usually find in these kinds of stories. The square-jawed detective had a desperation rooted in his past, driving his every move. The beautiful scientist had a refreshingly modern life outside of her work, playing her piano in a local rock-n-roll band. There was even a high school kid at the middle of the mystery, with his own agenda. And did I mention there was a C.I.A. agent? And that the President of the United States got significant page time?
Swimming through all of it, like a great white shark, was the villain, Zahir Marata. He was an evil and twisted update on the on the already evil and twisted Thuggee Cult of Old India. Most people have forgotten about the Thuggee, if they ever knew of them, but Mr. Tomas, with some history lessons and myth-telling, does a commendable job of bringing them into the modern era.
As you may have guessed, there was a lot of stuff going on here. But even at an estimated 480 pages, "Machines of Kali" didn't seem long at all. Mr. Tomas's slavish dedication to tying together multiple storylines gripped my attention, and the constant plot twists and fast pacing propelled the story at breakneck speed to the very end.
Will there be a sequel? Even a series? Hard to imagine, but I'm hoping that Mr. Tomas can find a way to continue the world he's created in "Machines of Kali". After all, he's my new favorite writer. (back)
Josh S. says
To duel a mad goddess
Newbie novelist Tomas doesn't merely hang a gun on the wall of his first chapter, he hangs the USA's entire military-industrial complex. He likes his goodies twisted and his baddies psychopathic. As the former chase the latter, the action flags only for the most lurid descriptions of various characters' demises. And the body count is high. (Skull rating: 3.14159 skulls.) (back)
