John Jantunen

I loved having a Canadian take on an apocalypse. What happens when the nuclear power plants malfunctions? When the power fails? When there's a new drug guaranteed to thin the herd? When criminals are sent to mega prisons up north? When the doors are opened...

Gerry is one of those who is released when The Sons of Adam MC takes down the walls. And what they want - is what they want. Power, anarchy and more. Savage Gerry has earned some respect for his crimes, but doesn't want to stick around to find out what The Sons going to do, so he heads out through the wilderness to try and find his son.

When we meet Gerry, we don't know the details of his background, his crimes and his purpose. As he moves forward, the details are slowly drawn. Initially I found him to be an anti hero, a deeply flawed persona. But my opinion changed with every new situation he found himself in - and his actions and reactions. He's not perfect, but...

Gentle readers, this one's definitely not for you. Violence abounds and the prose are visceral. Grit lit if you will. But it was impossible to put down. Will he make it? Find his son? Find redemption? This is perhaps the biggest piece of the plot - a man trying to make peace with what he's done and picking up the pieces to find the next chapter.

I had expected a bit more 'apocalypse'. It's there but just in the beginning stages. But, Mad Max and Rick Grimes would be right at home here.

I found an interview of John Jantunen that was really interesting. There's a bit of John in Gerry - some of his own story lives with Savage Gerry.… (mais)

A Desolate Splendor by John Jantunen is a so-so survival tale told in a western patois.

The opening has a band of some kind of child warrior/savages accompanied by dogs arriving at the front door of a rural homestead. Then the narrative switches to a different homestead, with Pa, Ma, the boy, and their pack of hounds. Then the narrative switches to two different groups, at which point some plot begins to take a vague shape and form as it jumps between the groups of people. Touted as a post-apocalyptic novel, you aren't going to really know/understand this right away. It could just as easily be historical fiction or alternate history from the dialect of the characters and the rural life they are living.

The collapse of civilization, the apocalypse, and really most of the description of the novel are spoiler-ish. I'm of two minds over this novel. There is no question that Jantunen is technically a good writer and had a plan for this story. I'm just not sure the story, as it is told, is successful for me. The description is what kept me reading past my usual cut-off for a novel that isn't working for me. I kept thinking it would get better. It is a dark, violent tale of survival and brutality. There is no real explanation of what happened and why the unnamed event turned the clock and the vernacular language of the characters back to reflecting a rural western language pattern. And to be honest, this dialect quickly became tiring and then annoying for me. It is also worth noting that there are no quotation marks to denote dialogue.

Disclosure: My advanced reading copy was courtesy of the publisher/author.… (mais)