The Insane God (Water Dragon Publishing)
by Jay Hartlove
Sarah’s been institutionalized for years with schizophrenia. A healing meteorite crystal necklace not only cured her–immediately–but intrigued her psych grad student brother Nate to the point where he tracked its origins, and the cult it was associated with, and discovered there were also meteorite necklaces that could make people mentally ill and violent.
It was all too improbable to be true, but when the probable choices were proved wrong only the improbable choices remained. And when one of the meteorite samples that had driven a college student mad was available to study, Nate learned that there was a personality and a history behind both. They only interacted with those with a previous history of mental illness, for good or for ill. And so far the effects had been rare and isolated.
Sarah starts to be able to affect reality as if her schizophrenia were able to manifest into the real world. But she’s only one person. When these two dangerous beautific and horrific celestial beings had collided in the past their essences were presently embedded in a meteor swarm that earth was about to pass through. Talk about time pressure! The chaos that could result…
Let me give you a taste of the dialog:
“Let’s take a look,” Nate said reaching into the box.
“Oh, don’t get that thing near me. I took the necklace off cause
I don’t want the power this stuff gives me. That’s a whole fucking
meteorite of it.”
“Fair enough. You don’t have to touch it.”
“What about you?”
“Oh, no problem. I handled one of the devourer stones in
Kansas and it had no effect on me. Well, no negative effect.” He
pulled it out, unwrapped it, and set it down on the nest of paper.
It was the size of a grapefruit, lumpy but spherical, brown and
black, with smooth melted patches over most of its surface. “Yep,
it’s a meteorite.”
Sarah: “Great. Now I own one of an ancient god’s balls.”
Hartlove is a great writer (loved the Forbidden Planet reference!) And he keeps you on the edge of your seat, believing the unbelievable and rooting for his protagonists.
It’s a great read.
