Suvudu Universe

Well, it was bound to happen eventually. After a solid string of hits, I'm sorry to say Marrow's Pit was the first DarkFuse title to miss the mark with me. Not so much an issue with Keith Deininger's writing, the problem was definitely more one of expectations.

The way the cover blurb plays up the Machine and Marrow's Pit, I was really expecting more on what they are, where they came from, and what their purpose might be. I expected them to be a central force in the novel, but they're really nothing more than background and scenery. Yes, there are some interesting tidbits about the religion that's grown up around the Machine, and a final twist revelation about Marrow's Pit at the end (that, I must add, didn't really make sense to me), but I really expected more.

Similarly, the cover blurb suggests a 1984 type scenario, with a hero who questions everything, and who journeys outside the norm in search of answers. Instead, we get a cold, submissive, unlikable protagonist, one who is defined by his harpy of a wife, and who spends most of the story trying to hide his crime. I just wasn't invested in him or his plight, and kept waiting for the 'real story' to begin.

My first thought on turning the final page was, "That's it?" I actually had to check online to ensure I'd downloaded the full book. The story itself wasn't bad, and the writing was solid, but Marrow's Pit just wasn't the book I expected to be reading, and I could never get my head past that fact.

ebook, 126 pages
Published 2014 by DarkFuse