Don’t want to say too much about this one, as it could easily be spoiled. In short, while the science is likely laughable, the story was engaging and a lot of fun. This is a perfect airplane book - entertaining and fast-paced.
Amazing and entertaining! The story keep you glued to it and the characters are very well written. I want a sequel!
Content warning Spoiler at the end!
This was an enjoyable read. It starts with a mystery, the main character has to uncover what is going on with this secret DARPA project involving a teleportation device. But nobody tells him how it works so we follow along his exceptional visual memory skills trying to find patterns and explanations for some odd phenomena. It's all very sci-fi / mystery and then the book turns into a sort of horror tale with monsters from other dimensions. Entertaining!
An excellent book in its own right and a great addition to the mythos of the Threshold series. I love the main character, almost the perfect protagonist for me to view this world through.
Liked it better in previous edition "14"
some what predictable but ending was good. I look forward to any other books with these main characters or a series
Full disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book from Net Galley.
My first exposure to Peter Clines' work was thanks to Audible, which recommended his earlier novel, 14. I rarely buy books without existing knowledge or recommendations to go on, but the summary sounded really interesting - a man moves into a Los Angeles apartment building and starts experiencing mysterious and possibly supernatural events - and the narrator, Ray Porter, was excellent. I ended up really enjoying that book, and added Clines to the short list of authors I plan on reading as thoroughly as possible. Accordingly, when I saw that he had a new novel coming out this year, I immediately wanted to get my hands on it.
In The Fold, teleportation is a reality... but it's not quite ready for public consumption. Enter Mike Erikson, a man with an eidetic memory hired to find out …
Full disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book from Net Galley.
My first exposure to Peter Clines' work was thanks to Audible, which recommended his earlier novel, 14. I rarely buy books without existing knowledge or recommendations to go on, but the summary sounded really interesting - a man moves into a Los Angeles apartment building and starts experiencing mysterious and possibly supernatural events - and the narrator, Ray Porter, was excellent. I ended up really enjoying that book, and added Clines to the short list of authors I plan on reading as thoroughly as possible. Accordingly, when I saw that he had a new novel coming out this year, I immediately wanted to get my hands on it.
In The Fold, teleportation is a reality... but it's not quite ready for public consumption. Enter Mike Erikson, a man with an eidetic memory hired to find out why the scientists involved refuse to share their invention with the world. Thanks to his observational skills and analytical mind, he soon discovers that things are not what they seem and that "the fold" is far more dangerous than anyone imagined.
The Fold's strongest points are its plotting and sheer readability. I tore through the book in a matter of days, and I was definitely hooked throughout, forgoing sleep and important chores so that I could continue reading. Clines is skilled at subtly injecting creeping horror into his stories, and I loved that feeling of being slowly drawn into something horribly doomed. Clines also injects timely pop culture references throughout, which makes the book feel grounded in the here and now
Anyone who has read Clines' previous work knows that he has a fondness for a certain brand of cosmic horror. When hints of a connection to the world of 14 started cropping up in The Fold, I immediately had a guess where the story might be going. Although this did make the book slightly more predictable for me, I was also excited to know that Clines was continue to play in a setting that I throughly enjoyed.
Unfortunately, the characterization in The Fold isn't quite up to snuff. Mike isn't given much depth other than his stated discomfort with using his intellectual abilities, and we are only provided the barest glimpse into his life before this story begins. Most of the time it felt like his function in the plot was more important than who he was as a person, and ultimately he became a kind of Holmes pastiche without the humanizing flaws or down-to-earth partner.
The other characters don't fare better. The supporting cast is a bit one-note, and Jamie, the love interest, reads like such a wish-fulfillment cliché that Clines hangs a lantern on it:
She sighed. “All that brain power and it never occurred to you why a cheerleader turned into a computer geek?”
“I just figured you were some Internet male fantasy come to life.”
