Shane Berryhill

Review copy

I don't often mention dedications when I do these reviews, but Shane Berryhill's dedication for Bad Mojo: A Zora Banks Novel is just so fitting for the book that follows, that I felt it was worth a quote. "To the people of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The good. The bad. And everyone In Between."

Imagine my delight when I found myself in a world filled with spooks of all types, vipers (vampires), werecreatures, hoodoo, zombies, and so much more. Plus, a subplot of a political hopeful with a dark secret. This is my kind of story.

Writer, Shane Berryhill, has an in-your-face style of writing that was well-suited for this particular tale. "...you can understand why the sight of a low-rent count and his bride standing outside my bar has my hackles up. Through the barred, Plexiglas door, it's obvious that the count is a Southern-fried Anne Rice reject--long and pale with the sharp, predatory features. The business end of his sandy mullet is greased to a quill-like perfection. The stringy party-in-the-back dangles unkempt over the up-turned collar of his dark brown duster. And where the hell did he find a lacey ruffle shirt in camo green?"

Ashley Owens (better call him Ash, unless you're family), isn't exactly normal himself. I believe he may be a werewolf, but it's all under control, thanks to some hoodoo from his partner Zora Banks. In Bad Mojo, Ash and Zora and their friends have to do battle a wide variety of spook and even pay a visit to the In Between.

Bad Mojo: A Zora Banks Novel turned out to be a lot of fun. There's plenty of room for a sequel, yet things are left pretty much resolved by book's end. Also, kudos to George C. Cotronis who did the cover art. Very nice indeed.

Look for Bad Mojo: A Zora Banks Novel to be available on Amazon on July 28th, 2014.… (plus d'informations)

Kid with no superpowers wants to go to a superhero school. Very Sky High-ish, but Sky High is better.This follows the same pattern I've been reading so far in that the kid is tutored first before going to the school. Though there's no spiritual/magical journey involved in this one.Typical school heirarchy, only the ones at the top are demigods -- children of gods. Next are 'mortals' which are superheroes with cool powers. Then 'adventurers' which are superheroes with less cool powers.Writing/Editing: The name 'Chance' appears in the text before it's supposed to, which is confusing. The story is mainly from Chance's point of view, but then the author takes the sneaky way out and uses different points of view for when the bad guy's doing stuff Chance doesn't know about and then in battle scenes, to get every member of the team a chance to see some action that Chance isn't an immediate part of. Which works if you're writing a comic book or a movie, but doesn't work so well when it's a novel. Also, there are lapses in the Chance POV when sadness can be seen in his eyes, or other things can be seen in his eyes. Yea, don't think Chance is looking at his own eyes, do you?Gender: In short, the gender sucks. Yea, okay, so there are superhero chicks and their powers aren't too stupid and too stereotypical, but the names are horrid! Psy-chick, Steel Valkyrie, Iron Maiden, Delilah. Yin (or is it Yang?) The names all clearly say 'I am female'. The only exception I found was 'Anime'.Race: The 'nerd' character seems to be black. I missed that 'til nearly the end. There's an Indian girl who seems to be the daughter of Shiva. And there's an entire 'Team Manga' made up of Asian kids. Seriously? Who's more likely to come up with a team name of 'Team Manga'? Some Asian kids or say.. white American kids?Homages: I don't mind homages. Name a kid Grayson if you want to. Name your space station Heinlein. Sure, that makes sense. But don't tell me the aliens are from Shazzbot, without at _least_ saying 'The planet you humans call Shazzbot'. Then there's Chihiro hanging out with a dragon. Randomly. And then a huuuuge, roll-your-eyes moment involving deep, secret, dark, magical language that I won't name specifically because OMC, it might be a spoiler.World: There's some cool stuff with the world. Superheroes have been around awhile. They have a whole island city they've created. Regular humans cook with atomic ovens. There's some silly comic book-esque swear words. That's all cool. I just wish we didn't also have the homage problems listed above that ruin the whole thing.Action scenes: The most boring. Thing. Ever. And just when you think we're finally past an action scene, there's another one. And another. Until the final climax when you're just ready for it to be over with already. And which, it turns out, was mercifully short. Angst: Over-the-top and out of nowhere. Chance has an angstful breakdown about being too much like his father, who we hadn't heard thing one about before that. Then he gets over it pretty quick with the help of a girl. But he also spends a lot of time second-guessing how much he really wanted to be in the school. Meh.And the last thing I wanted to mention, because it didn't fit anywhere else above, Chance seems spectacularly clueless and dumb about superhero things, given that he wanted to go to this school forever and ever and spent years getting ready for it. So we get a whole As You BLOODY WELL SHOULD KNOW, Bob conversation on the way to the school.Some good stuff buried in this book. I just wish it had been much better edited. Tor, you let me down.… (plus d'informations)

I've got an idea. Let's take Harry Potter and instead of making him a half-breed wizard lets turn him into a wannabe superhero without any powers. We'll put him in a superhero academy, a world-within-a-world, a parallel Earth where the twenty-first century looks exactly the way it was imagined in 1950's comic books. And let's surround him with a misfit bunch of superhero friends -- we'll call them the Outlaws -- who find themselves at odds with another group of mean and nasty superhero nemises -- we'll call them The Invincibles. Oh! Let's not forget to infuse the school with superhero professors who all seem to have their own agendas, and who may or may not be under the spell of a dark force from beyond. And instead of an aerial football-type game lets make the different superhero training teams do battles with each other, where they can pick their battlefields like a video game! Yow!

Wait, that's too easy. We need to work the comic book angle some more. Got it: name all the buildings on campus after big names in the comic book realm. Kirby Coliseum after Jack Kirby. Waid, MacFarlane and Buscema Halls after Mark Waid, Todd MacFarlane and John Buscema. Don't forget Stan Lee for the Lee Old Main building ('nuff said). But stay away from using Steve Ditko's name because that guy is likely to make a stink and his politics are a little iffy. Hmm, let's see, what else. Okay, so for the teachers, how can I make them vaguely resemble characters from Marvel comic books without getting sued? I could turn Thor into a female character, that could work. Make one of the teens like Mr. Fantastic from the Fantastic Four but I'll give him a name like another character... call him Private Justice and give him traits from Captain America. Throw in some X-Men- or New Mutant-like characters, add a goth girl to make it hip, toss in a kid that becomes Hulk-like, find a variation on The Thing. Yeah, this is coming together nicely.

Let's throw everyone off their track a bit by calling comics 'funny books.' That's archaic enough that it'll sound like it's from another world! I could also have the kids say things like 'holy schnikees!' because I doubt any of them remembers Chris Farley, much less have seen Tommy Boy. Wouldn't it be great to have kids going around saying that? Kinda like a code word! I could also use that Babylon 5 word flarn like a cuss word!

Now, what else do kids like these days? Video games and anime. No problem. Make one of the battle teams a group of anime characters, that's easy. Make sure all the battle scenes play out like video games where players choose their battles and match skills. Or like those card games kids play, what are they called? Warhammer? This is too easy. Fish in a barrel.

I'm feeling like I need to toss in some more details. I know, every time I talk about the guys who are physically developed I'll make sure to mention that their muscle ripple like iron beneath their outfits. (Does it sound like a romance novel to say that? Say, maybe that will keep the girls interested!) It sounds too fay to mention leotards or unitards -- tards just has a different meaning to kids these days -- so I'll just call everything tights. For the girls all I need to do is describe their hair and what their clothes look like. I wonder if anyone has ever used a redhead as a fiery personality?

A funny thought just came to me: what if when they're in the cafeteria the food dispensers only issue soylent! Not green, because that's too obvious, but what about soylent red or soylent yellow? Yeah, that breakfast scene in The Island just reminded me of that. It's like two movie references in one! What are some other movies I liked... Gattaca? Already got that I-cheated-my-way-into-the-academy thing going. Ooo! This is funny! I'll have an alien named Orson from the planet Shazzbot! No kid's going to get a Mork and Mindy reference! And speaking of Orson, I think I'll throw in a reference to that War of the Worlds radio broadcast and mention Grovers Mill, New Jersey. Yeah. Gotta work in some of those old sci-fi serials from the 30s and 40s... but how?

You know, I understand that kids these days don't read as much so maybe I better help them out. I think that whenever I can I'm going to either have them describe what just happened or explain what they just said. I know the rule is 'show, don't tell' but a little show-and-tell doesn't hurt, does it? I want them to understand that they're in a different world, that these things are unusual. It isn't that I don't trust them to understand on their own, it's just that I want it to be real to them, and everyone knows that repetition helps you remember things better. It may read a little clunky but, hey! it's from another dimension, right?

It would have been easier if my agent just could have sold the manuscript directly to the movie studios and jumped the book publishing step, but everyone knows that if you want to get a movie made these days it's easier to have it published than to sell the screenplay first. I'm sure that some snarky reviewer out there is going to try and nail me to a tree for all my pop culture references, but so what? It's my book and if he wants to shut up and show me how it's done then he can go right ahead. It isn't like anything he -- or any other adult -- says is going to matter once the kids get hold of the book. Those kids aren't going to read reviews of books, they're just going to pick them up and start reading. And once they see what I've jammed into this sucker, well, they'll be impressed.… (plus d'informations)