Darkness on the Edge of Town by Brian Keene

Darkness on the Edge of Town by Brian Keene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love the premise for this one. A town wakes up to find itself covered in darkness. Literally, there is a dark barrier around the edges of the town that no one ever returns from. Everything falls apart of course, but the meat here for me was less the relentless destruction of the township of Walden, but the origin of the darkness and how this book connects to his other works. I am fascinated by the Labyrinth and the 13 and I hope he delves further into them in future works.

What's especially fun to me about Keene's universe is the constant theme of human incompetence. The world usually ends in his books because people think they know enough to mess with powerful magic (or powerful science) and turn out to be unprepared to deal with the forces they unleash. There are basically very few magic practitioners in his worlds that aren't always a botched spell away from worldwide destruction through sheer incompetence, and they all seem blissfully unaware of the danger. Which generally ends up poorly for everyone. I find this state of affairs entertaining.

Anyway, nothing ground-breaking here but as always his relentless pessimism and imaginative monsters make for a fun read.

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