'White Fire' – Brian Keene (Deadite Press)

I'm a big fan of Brian Keene's work (just thought I'd clear that one up now before we get into the review proper) but I let a lot of things slide, when I was seriously depressed a couple of years ago, and staying abreast of his books was unfortunately one of them. Things are looking brighter these days and my re-read of the 'Clickers' books (currently working my way through 'Clickers Forever' and then it's all about waiting for the reboot series) reminded me that there was a lot more quality horror waiting to be re-read.

Being me, I promptly decided to give 'White Fire' a shot, a book that I'd never read until now. I'm not going to lie, I'm still enjoying having my Kindle back and have pumped it full of books over the last couple of days, 'White Fire' was one of them. A quiet evening in, last night, seemed like the ideal time to settle down, pour myself a glass of Baileys and read about an outbreak of something really nasty. And what a read it was, Keen has done it again.

When a freak storm hits, time is the enemy as a government-created super virus gets loose and spreads through the quiet little town of Godfrey, Illinois. But the virus isn't the only threat. There are mysterious forces at play and disease is just one instrument of fear.

At only 110 pages long, I can pretty much guarantee that you'll look at 'White Fire' and think something along the lines of, 'well, the army clearly got that under control quickly.' Then, once you're maybe halfway through the book you'll start to realise that the outbreak is only a small part of the story. 'White Fire' is a thriller, a morality tale and a semi-Lovecraftian look into a whole world previously unknown to our protagonist (one that he will wish he had never seen by the time the book ends). That's a lot of story for a relatively slim novel to carry but carry it all the novel does and to good effect.

When you take into account that the thriller part of the book is there mostly as the foundation for the other two chunks of the story, you can forgive it for dialling back on the thrills a little. Shit happens but shit also gets locked down pretty quickly and dealt with in a fairly straightforward manner. The real surprise seems to be that government agencies and local emergency services are able to work together. People die but that's what happens when a vial of weaponised meningitis is broken. It's a bit of a break from how you'd normally see this situation treated, in a novel etc, but you can appreciate the approach here as you'd like to think this is how it would be dealt with in real life... wouldn't it?

The real fun comes later on when Captain Tom Collins finally figures out who the mysterious stranger, lurking on the edge of the outbreak, is. Actions have consequences and Collins is not only forced to face his part in the outbreak but deal with these consequences in a way that will make you wince at the very least. Keene knows that while you may not want to take responsibility, the world has a way of forcing it on you; by the end of the book Collins is left in no doubt what he must do to try and make things right (and it is explosive).

While Collins is having his life laid bare, in front of him, Keene weaves his Labyrinth Mythos into 'White Fire' in a way that not only did I not see coming but adds another layer, to the mythos, that is real food for thought. What hope is there for humanity if every interested extra dimensional party is looking to destroy the earth, even the ones you'd think would want to save it? When you find out just why this group want to destroy the world, you'll wonder why Keene's characters bother to get out of bed in the morning. It's because Keene really believes in humanity as a force that can really affect change for the better, if and when it can get its act together. That's what the ending said to me anyway.

'White Fire' starts off as a simple thriller but ends up being so much more and is a book that I'm really glad I took the time to sit down and read. Perfect reading for long term readers as well as those getting to grips with Keene for the first time. This 'Authors Preferred Edition' was published back in 2018 so I'm a bit behind everyone else but if you haven't read 'White Fire' yet, do something about it.