The Narrows
Alex C Irvine
Del Rey (352 p)
$13.95. ISBN: 0345466985
(October 2005)
Alex Irvine's third novel is based in an alternate World War II-era supernatural
Detroit where golems are made with Kabalistic magic and American assembly line
ingenuity at the Ford factory. (The Nazis are rumored to have enlisted the Frost
Giants of Nordic myth and may be using werewolves in the Carpathians.) But the
supernatural here seems as "real" as the mundane and the focus is not on the
special effective monsters but on how individual humans (and the cities in which
they dwell) are affected by forces, historical or supernatural, beyond their
control. Jared Cleaves is a regular baseball-loving, beer-drinking joe, but his
entire life has been shaped by a sinister childhood encounter with Rouge Nain,
the mythic red dwarf whose appearances throughout history have presaged
catastrophes for Detroit. Unable to serve in the armed forces due to a childhood
hand injury, Jared works on the production line (the "frankenline") that
secretly manufactures golems for the war effort. He still frets he's not doing
enough to serve his country. To compensate, he naively becomes entangled in
espionage, plots, and counter-plots that place him and his family in jeopardy.
Irvine involves the reader by revealing only as much as his protagonist knows --
a riveting technique especially when combined with his smooth-yet-snappy style
-- but when everything falls into place as chaos erupts at the end one may
wonder if the author truly ties up all the interesting elements he's put into
play. Still, Irvine is a joy to read. And, really, isn't that enough?
-- (from
CFQ Jan/Feb 2006)