Malice, a brilliant tale of the cutting edge.

A word of introduction: A fascinating fashion that I hope catches on in other author's styles is exemplified in this novel. Simply put - it is a book that intersperses graphic novel bits into the main narrative. This technique has been best used in the Doppleganger Series by G.P. Taylor, which I may review later on in a future blog post...

Malice is a chilling tale set in England. It concerns a comic book whose very existence is shrouded in rumor and mystery. There are whispers of a ritual that allows you to enter into the realm of Malice. Each issue is sealed in black wax paper, written in ink that fades a few days after exposure to air. Grendel is the artist, his style is abrupt, chaotic, and disturbing. Luke is a daring tween who procures a copy and reads it with his friend Heather. She leaves, shaken; and to reassure Heather that it is merely a story, Luke performs the ritual and asks that "Tall Jake take him away". Darkness falls upon the house, and a few days later, Luke disappears without a trace. Heather tells two of Luke's friends, Seth and Kady, that he invoked the ruler of Malice and that she thought he was taken. Seth and Kady find Luke's copy of Malice full of blank panels. When they obtain a newer copy, they see Luke inside the magazine, being pursued by malignant shadows. Seth also calls upon Tall Jake to take him to Malice - he has to know whether his friend was really kidnapped into another world. He wakes up inside the world of Malice, where the rules of our world do not apply. There are three types of children in the realm: the learners, who adapt and survive; the inexperienced who fail and die; and the mysterious group called Havok, who are determined to make Tall Jake pay for taking them into Malice in the first place. Kady and the reader watch issue by issue the progress of Seth and his new friend Justin, who read the comic a year before entering Malice. A black ticket gets you anywhere in the area of Malice, a white ticket will get you anywhere as well as being valid for a ride home. Will Seth's determination and Justin's streetwise knowledge be enough to defeat T.J. and return to everyday reality?We will have to wait until Chris Wooding runs out of mind games to play with his readers: It will be the first of a series - Havok is yet to come out as the second book, but it ends promisingly and only slightly discomforting. Not a total cliffhanger, but also not enough to let the reader off his hook easily.