Imagen del autor

Nicholas Conley

Autor de Pale Highway

6 Obras 31 Miembros 13 Reseñas

Obras de Nicholas Conley

Pale Highway (2015) 12 copias
Knight in Paper Armor (2020) 7 copias
Intraterrestrial (2017) 6 copias
Clay Tongue: A Novelette (2016) 3 copias
Ending Forever (2022) 2 copias
The Cage Legacy (2012) 1 copia

Etiquetado

Conocimiento común

Nacionalidad
USA
Biografía breve
When not reading, traveling or indulging in his lifelong coffee habit, Nicholas Conley devotes himself to writing genre fiction. His novel Pale Highway, a slipstream meditation on Alzheimer's disease, will be released this fall by Red Adept Publishing.

Miembros

Reseñas

This review originally appeared on my blog at www.gimmethatbook.com.

Thanks to the author for gifting me this book in exchange for a review!

This book was suggested to me as a combination of science fiction, surreal fantasy, and a literary commentary on aging. I can confidently say it covers all these genres and more.

What struck me first was the author’s adeptness in bringing the reader into the mind of an Alzheimer’s sufferer. Gabriel Schist, the main character, is frustrated with his lack of ability to remember simple things and care for himself. The utter lack of dignity and sense of self is explained beautifully by Conley, with poignant episodes showing Schist how helpless and dependent he is. His painful legs, his incontinence (he tries to hide it out of embarrassment) and photographs with names underneath them (so he can remember who they are) illustrate what an insidious disease Alzheimer’s is. He has flashes of brilliance, followed by blank moments where he wonders where he is and what day it is. Schist calms himself during these episodes by reciting the Fibonacci sequence, something I found oddly endearing and apropos to his backstory as a Nobel Prize winner.

We learn more about the younger Schist through chapters that highlight his days before he got into the nursing home. He is a flawed man with a kind and generous, if not stubborn, nature. He persists in his field, immunology, and eventually discovers a cure for AIDS. Suddenly the residents in his nursing home become ill with a horrific virus and he takes it upon himself to find a cure.

This is where the book turns into science fiction and surreal fantasy. Talking slugs, mysterious new residents in the nursing home, and black vomit with creatures crawling out of it are the norm. Schist isn’t sure if he’s finally gone over the edge or not, and his kind and persistent personality demands that he try to save those who are suffering.

The old immunologist is a very sympathetic character. More than once he wishes for death to come and relieve his suffering. I couldn’t help but think of all the elderly in nursing homes, having the same thoughts, with no one to care for them or love them. The author has personal experience, having worked in a nursing home, and this is where he shines: showing younger people with healthy minds what it must be like to lose your sense of self and be betrayed by your mind.

As the talking slugs became more central to the story I cringed, hoping they were a hallucination. To me, it was a harsh transition from the familiarity of the nursing home. The final part of the story crashed full on into surrealness and wild action, with Schist willing to sacrifice his life to save the world. No spoilers here, as always – read the book!

Conley does an excellent job with elements from multiple genres, as I mentioned before. There is something for everyone in PALE HIGHWAY, and it will absolutely leave you with sadness and respect for those abandoned in nursing homes.

Curious about those talking slugs? Want to know why everyone was vomiting black stuff? You can pick up your copy of PALE HIGHWAY here.
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Denunciada
kwskultety | 4 reseñas más. | Jul 4, 2023 |
4.5
Book source ~ ARC. My review is voluntary and honest.

Axel Rivers is drowning. Metaphorically, in grief and debt. He needs money so he turns to a crazy solution. Kindred Eternal Solutions needs volunteers to be killed and resurrected again and again and they’re willing to pay. Axel signs on the dotted line. However, after his first death and resurrection he’s not so sure he wants to keep doing it. Because there’s something very weird about the afterlife. And it follows him back to the land of the living.

Wow. Axel’s grief is so overwhelming it even drowns the reader. Then he signs up to be killed and brought back just to get out of debt. Yikes. That’s crazy! But understandable. I love the characters (especially Axel) and the writing. I can’t even begin to describe the weirdness that is the afterlife. You just have to read it to find out. Strap yourself in then open the book. This is one wild ass ride!
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Denunciada
AVoraciousReader | otra reseña | Dec 4, 2022 |
WOW. I don't even know where to start with this book, I enjoyed it so much. The imagery is amazing, and the way Conley weaves in Axel's backstory to his present life is masterful. The way Kindred is run, and their facilities really bring to life the way corporate America feels if you aren't part of the elite, and highlights the class disparities between the rich ruling class and those below them. Axel feels so real. You can feel his emotions sliding off the page and surrounding you. His experiences on the other side of life, while lying there dead, are unique and fascinating. I loved this take on what happens when you die, and will probably be reading this again in the future!… (más)
 
Denunciada
LilyRoseShadowlyn | otra reseña | Aug 16, 2022 |
Book source ~ ARC. My review is voluntary and honest.

Billy Jakobek is a super powerful psychic who popped up on a super powerful egomaniac’s radar when he was only a child. Now 16, Billy is stuck in Heaven’s Hole, the latest and star guinea pig for Caleb Thorne’s evil enterprise and megacorporation, Thorne Century. Heaven’s Hole is where Billy meets Natalia Gonzalez, a fellow student and gifted herself. But not in a way that interests good ol’ Thorne. Lucky for her at the time. But after she meets Billy she’s suddenly front and center in Thorne’s sights. Trust me. That’s not a good thing. At all. *shudder* All Billy wants is to help people with his powers and to be with Natalia. But that’s not going to happen while Thorne controls everything around him. It’s up to Billy and Natalia to break the back of Caleb Thorne, but are they strong enough to do it?

This isn’t just Sci-Fi, Young Adult, and Dystopian. It’s also Horror. Yikes. The things that Caleb Throne is capable of are shudder-worthy. And then you add the Shape that stalks Billy and if that doesn’t give you nightmares then you are one tough SOB.

This is a future I would prefer not to see become reality. Caleb Thorne is completely unbalanced. And he runs a megacorporation that exploits his workers big time. Sound familiar? There are a lot of parallels to this world, but hopefully we can fix the mess before it gets to this point. Of course, I don’t know of anyone who has super powers, not even rumors of them, so we’d be on our own on that front.

Billy and Natalia’s POVs are the majority of the book, but there are chapters for Caleb and another character named Roseanna to give a well-rounded feel for this world. The plot is a bit murky, but gets clearer as the story flows along. The characters of Billy and Natalia are in-depth, Roseanna not as much, and while Caleb Thorne is also front and center he seems too evil and also a bit pathetic at the same time. I’m leaning towards the feeling that it’s deliberate, but I can’t say for sure.

This book is one hell of a gut-wrencher. If you seek out that type of book then don’t hesitate to pick this one up.
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Denunciada
AVoraciousReader | 2 reseñas más. | May 5, 2021 |

Estadísticas

Obras
6
Miembros
31
Popularidad
#440,253
Valoración
½ 4.3
Reseñas
13
ISBNs
7