"Operation: Masquerade" is Now "Infiltration"

I've been doing some work behind the scenes, including hiring out to design new covers for some of my books. Because I suck at cover design, period. I'm ready to unveil the biggest change, which is coming to what was formerly Operation: Masquerade. I always thought the title was a bit confusing, and never thought it was a good indicator of what the book is about. When I ordered the new cover, I also changed the title. Henceforth, the novel will be called...dun dun dun...Infiltration.

Here's the old cover:

And here's the new cover.

As always, you can order it at Amazon.com.

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The Most Feared Books of All Time [Infographic]

Works of art have always been met with harsh criticism. If a book is deemed controversial, it can be challenged, and if that challenge is successful, it can be banned. Books ranging from The Bible and “The Communist Manifesto” all the way to seemingly innocent stories like “Green Eggs and Ham” and the “Harry Potter” series have been met with challenges, or even been banned. Readers.com put together a list of the most feared books of all time in the infographic below.

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"Neuromancer" by William Gibson [Review]

Neuromancer by William Gibson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Neuromancer" is the classic novel that kickstarted the cyberpunk genre. It didn't invent cyberpunk, but it certainly set the tone for all the novels and movies that followed.

The novel is pretty much what we all thought computers would be like in 2016. Instead of clumsy keyboards and screens, users plug computers directly into their brains. "Neuromancer" tells the story of Case, a hacker who navigates cyberspace, a virtual reality representing all the computer networks of the world. After getting his hacking ability surgically removed by a double-cross, he jumps at the chance to recover his lost ability and pull off a new and dangerous job. But he soon discovers that the people he's working for have a hidden agenda, and he becomes embroiled in a conspiracy involving an ancient and powerful family and an evolving artificial intelligence.


The greatest achievement of "Neuromancer" is how Gibson makes the future feel real with what he calls "super-specificity." In our modern world, we don't just drive cars. We drive a Honda or a Ford, and the type of car can tell us a lot about a character in a story. In the same way, Gibson uses brand names for any products they use, even if he has to make one up. If Case sees a holographic projector, it's not just a projector. It's a Braun holographic projector. Case doesn't just use a cyberspace deck, he uses a high-end Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7. He doesn't just put on a spacesuit, it's a Sanyo suit. Details like this help flesh out the story, and make it deeper.

Gibson also pioneered a style that moved against the typical portrayal of the future as sleek, clean, and miraculous. In Gibson's world, futuristic technology can be broken, grimy, cheap, and malfunctions, just like in our world. A character with a cybernetic arm has a "Russian military prosthesis, a seven-function force-feedback manipulator, cased in grubby pink plastic." Molly relishes a steak made from a living animal instead of "vat grown."

Gibson's prose is incredibly dense, poetic to the point of distraction. Sometimes, I have to read over his sentences a few times to translate his analogies and flowery text into real visuals. But I respect his love of words, and he often creates amazing sentences that bring the scene to life. Like: "Lifeless neon spelled out METRO HOLOGRAFIX in dusty capitals of glass tubing."

Unlike most science fiction, "Neuromancer's" future isn't just populated with white males. Case meets a variety of races from Japanese gangsters to space-bound Rastafarians. The beauty of the novel is how it takes us through a dizzying cross-section of the future. We travel from the seedy slums of Tokyo to the luxurious hotels of a space station. Istanbul, Japan, and other countries are all described so we can see an entire world with different cultures, not just the United States like most scifi novels.

Even Gibson himself mocked the outdated technology, like pay phones. But in a sense, we're living in the world Gibson imagined, where we can jump in and out of a digital reality at will, go anywhere virtually, and have any fact at our fingertips. The mistake Gibson made was imagining that accessing cyberspace would require brain implants and virtual reality. The cyberspace concept now feels dated and kind of cheesy. But even though the computer technology that caused such a stir in the eighties has faded in glamour, the rest of his world has become more vivid. Gibson described a world where things like weapons, genetic engineering, space travel, and body modification had reached new heights, and those still hold up. The overall conflict between security and those who would try to violate it still resonates.

Related: Why William Gibson Confuses Me

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I'm Writing For ComicBookResources.com

I've joined a new team at Comic Book Resources, where I'll be writing lists and news articles. Here's a handful of the articles I've written.

"Surge Order" Sends Fans on a Comic-con Scavenger Hunt For Rare Comics
New "Star Trek Beyond" Clip Sees Scotty's Introduction to Jaylah
Report: "Divergent" Finale Could Move to TV, Spawn Spinoff Series

"My name is Timothy McGill, and I'm a time travel addict..." Time Junkie, only 99-cents for a limited time!

"The Ruins" by Scott B. Smith [Review]

The Ruins by Scott B. Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Holy crap.

That could be my entire review, but I'll expand on it a little.


There's a blurb on the back of the book which I think is very descriptive. It says this book does for plants what "Jaws" did for sharks. That's a fair assessment. I never thought a simple plant could be so terrifying and horrifying and spine-chilling as the one in this novel. I'll never see flowers the same way again.

"The Ruins" is about a group of four college students on a vacation in South America who decide to investigate some ruins. It's an archaeological dig where a friend's brother is supposed to be waiting. When they arrive at the ruins, they discover to their horror that everyone at the ruins is dead, and a local Mayan tribe won't let them leave. But besides their fear, hunger, thirst, and attempts to escape, they discover a mysterious and malevolent vine is stalking them. To say more would ruin a lot of the surprises, so let's break that down.

The thing about this novel is that it's really a very well-written B-movie. I wasn't surprised this actually was made into a cheap B-movie, because it reads like one. Dumb kids on vacation? Check. Stereotypical characters like the jock, the bimbo, the good girl, and the jerk? Check. Monster hunting and killing them? Check. Characters getting picked off, one by one? Check. But the novel takes that format and expands it considerably.

The characters in the book are extremely well-defined in surprising ways. For one thing, we don't even learn their names until page two. I don't think the novel ever revealed their last names. But they all feel like real people. They start out as the aforementioned cliches, but their internal monologue and actions reveal much more complex personalities. Stacy (the bimbo) knows she's stupid, and struggles against her own limited imagination and libido. Jeff (the jock) seems like the boy scout who knows what he's doing and will save them all. Eric (the jerk) is always trying to find the funny side of things while secretly knowing they're in more danger than he lets on. Amy (the good girl) is frustrated with how no one listens to her because of her constant negativity. But over time, they begin to unravel and become deeper characters. Jeff turns out to be so focused on their survival that he loses his humanity. Eric becomes more and more panicked as he sees their plight before anyone else. Amy's desperation to escape turns her against the others. By about halfway through the story, I was fully invested in all of them and was fascinated with how they clashed and struggled against their own misconceptions. They all have secrets and make emotional journeys that change them. Their inner struggle was just as compelling as their external struggle for survival.

The descriptions in this book are sparing, but extremely powerful. Reading this book truly transported me into the plight of the heroes. I felt their thirst as they tried to ration out their meager water, their hunger as they shared a handful of scraps, and their exhaustion from the burning heat. When the vine began its work, I felt panicked and frightened, sharing their horror at what miseries they endured. When I would put the book down and pick it up, I was always surprised how quickly I was carried back into their world.

I haven't gotten into the vine, but I really don't want to say too much. I knew the story was about an evil vine, which baffled me, because I couldn't imagine a plant being a threat. I was wrong. Man, I was wrong. The things the vine does to the heroes in this novel are almost unbearable to read. I cringed at times just reading the descriptions. Other times, I would read the same passage over and over, because I couldn't or didn't want to accept what had happened. The vine isn't just bloodthirsty. It isn't just frighteningly intelligent. It's also sadistic. That makes it much, much worse. It's like the vine spends the entire story just thinking of ways to make the survivors suffer more than they already are. And it does. By the end, the deaths of many of the characters seems like a relief.

Another thing I loved about the book is that there is very little exposition, but it delivers just what we need. What is the vine? Is it an alien creature? Is it a prehistoric creature unearthed by the dig? Why do the Mayan villagers not allow the survivors to leave? What have they been doing with this vine and how? What happened to the archaeologists? There are signs and hints to answer all these questions and more, but some are left as mysteries. Which works. Sometimes, the unknown is scarier than the known.

I could go on, but I'll leave it at this. This is truly one of the scariest books that I've ever read. And I loved it.

One nitpick, though. As far as I could tell, there are no actual ruins. Just a big hill with a shaft dug in the ground. Minor, but significant, considering the title.

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