'Terminal: Author's Preferred Edition' – Brian Keene

This is the third book of Brian Keene's that I'll have covered in the last three weeks and doubtless you all know the score by now. In case you don't though... Keene is making a selected ebook of his available for 99c (or whatever your equivalent is) each week, as it's tough times out there, and I'm reading them as the discount hits. This post should have gone up a few days ago but it was my turn to take a week off and hang out with my kids and I'll be honest, I was having far too much fun to get any reading done. Turns out that I needed that burst of fun to get me through 'Terminal'; it's been a while since I've read it (and I've never read this edition) and I forgot just how intense this one can get. It's not quite as intense as 'The Girl on the Glider' but damn it gets close.

Tommy O’Brien once hoped to leave his run-down industrial hometown. But marriage and fatherhood have kept him running in place, working a job that doesn’t even pay the bills. And now he seems fated to stay for the rest of his life. Tommy has just learned he’s going to die young — and soon. But he refuses to leave his family with less than nothing–especially now that he has nothing to lose. Over a couple of beers with his best friends, John and Sherm, Tommy launches a bold scheme to provide for his family’s future. And though his plan will spin shockingly out of control, it will throw him together with a child whose touch can heal — and whose ultimate lesson is that there are far worse things than dying. Now, one man’s war with God may impact us all.

It has been years since I last read 'Terminal' and over the last couple of days, I've remembered why I'd left it so long. As much as 'Terminal' is a superb read, and it really is, it's also a read that makes absolutely no compromises for it's readers and given the subject matter, that's absolutely the way that it should be. Some stuff has to be laid out on the page if you're ever going to have any real idea of what a character is going through and Keene does just that. The end result...? Well I don't think I've ever had such an insight into a character as I have with Tommy O'Brien and you can't help but wonder if Keene is working out some of his own fears on the page as well. I know that it really made me think about how it would be if I was in Tommy's situation and that's what gets you rooting for him. You may not agree with his actions (I didn't) but you sure as hell understand why he's doing it (I did).

The other end result though is that, if you're anything like me, watching Tommy hide things from his wife and child is just heartbreaking and really difficult to read. That's as it should be though, how do you think Tommy was feeling while he was doing it? Well, that's kind of the point, you know how Tommy is feeling.

The first half of 'Terminal' is a tough read then but for all the right reasons. The only question is whether you can handle it. I struggled and once again, a Brian Keene book has left me wanting to see my daughters and just spend some more quality time with them. But anyway...

Moving on to the second half of the book and Keene switches gears on us; suddenly we're in the middle of a bank robbery gone wrong, the ripples of which are coming up against the Mythos that Keene. The result is a scenario that unsettles on two levels with the tenseness of the hostage situation getting a little more so as one of the hostages can see a wider picture that could change everything. This is where the Author's Preferred Edition really comes into it's own with the Mythos, and it's interaction with Christianity, really able to spread it's wings and take the story where it always needed to go (and for reasons laid out in the introduction, couldn't). Considering that they're all cooped up in a bank for a large chunk of the book, Keene does a brilliant job of keeping things ticking over; whether it's Sherm's negotiations with the police (amongst other things) or what is going on with Tommy and the hostages, Keene keeps things moving and there is always something happening that you can't help but stick around and see what happens next. It's perfect stuff, reminiscent of 'Reservoir Dogs' but with a hint of the supernatural that makes it all Brian Keene.

And that ending, make sure that you stick around for that ending.

'Terminal' came close to leaving me a sobbing wreck on the floor so yep, it's an intense read in those early stages. It's also all your favourite bank robbery movies wrapped up in a book that serves as a reminder (amongst other things) that God does answer prayers, just not on your schedule. If you haven't read 'Terminal' then you really need to do something about that, like right now.