'The sequel to the international bestseller (including #1 Sunday Times bestseller) Awakened, by one of the stars of TruTV’s Impractical Jokers and a bestselling science fiction author.
'Former NYC Mayor Tom Cafferty has been haunted by the horror of a single day. The opening of the brand new Z-train subway line beneath the Hudson River—the supposed shining moment of his tenure. But the ribbon-cutting ceremony turned deadly when the train carrying Cafferty’s wife and other citizens was attacked by a horde of hyper intelligent, bloodthirsty creatures previously unknown to humanity.
'Everything changed for Cafferty, ex-NYPD officer Sarah Bowcut, and tech-expert Diego Munoz that day. They had uncovered the deadly truth: the attack was no accident.
'And now the creatures that wreaked havoc underneath New York have spread worldwide, and with a massive cover-up—and a secret organisation holding nations hostage with the knowledge of how to kill them—Cafferty’s team must fight against impossible odds to save the entire planet from an apocalyptic scale disaster.'
The first book in the Awakened series is a tight and claustrophobic horror story that saw a group of people trapped underground, being slowly picked off by vicious creatures. The book was filled with dark tunnels, hidden caves, and a race for survival that played out over just a few hours. It didn't have time to really slow down and explain much, and relied on the increasing build up of tension to keep the reader going. The Brink, by comparison is a much more leisurely read, thanks in part to opening the world up in scope and allowing events to play out over a longer period. It also feels less like a horror film, and more like an international thriller.
The story picks up a while after the first book, and sees the survivors of that event, former New York mayor Tom Cafferty, his wife Ellen, tech guy Diego Muzo, and former SWAT officer Sarah Bowcut, having dedicated their lives to stopping the shadowy organisation that was responsible for unleashing the creatures into the tunnels below New York. They've spent months training themselves, engineering their own weapons to fight the creatures, and have been gathering intelligence on the Foundation For Human Advancement. By the time we meet up with them here they're ready to approach the leaders of Great Britain to try and get them to join in their private war.
Already the book feels bigger, and this doesn't stop here, the book jumps across the globe from chapter to chapter, following the leader of the Foundation, Albert Van Ness, in his secret headquarters in Paris, showing events in a number of US cities, and having a literal ticking clock that can spell doom for countries around the world. The first book very much felt like a personal story of survival, a small event that pushed a handful of people to their limits, this in some ways feels more like a James Bond story.
But, this isn't a bad thing, as I really enjoyed the expanded scope of this story, especially in how it explained more of the backstory that was only hinted at in Awakened. The first book didn't even tell us about the Foundation until half way through, and even then it was a vague description of who they were and how they were founded. Here, we not only got to see their operations across the globe, their advanced technology and secret bases, but also the very first encounter with the creatures. One of the early scenes in the book jumps back to World War Two, to show the story we were hinted at in the first novel, of Albert's father trying to escape the devastation of war and sneak Hitler out of the Fuhrer Bunker, only to discover the monsters that dwell beneath the earth. Any scene that builds upon he backstory is greatly appreciated, especially when we get to see Hitler ripped apart by monsters. It also showed that the series is capable of expanding it's scope to show other stories at other points of history, to tell tales of other encounters with the creatures in different eras. I'd love to see more done with this, perhaps a spin-off book or two that played with this idea. Why not have Roman soldiers fighting these monsters, or Vikings, or Samurai. Yes, it might be a little cheesy, but it's the kind of cheesy I'd be up for.
I think that some people might be shocked by some of the changes that this book makes to the formula from the first, and if you were expecting or hoping for another tense horror story you might be a bit let down, but if you're wanting to see more from these characters and learn more about this world it's definitely going to keep you happy.
What I found surprising, however, was how this book in some ways felt like a finale. I knew going into the first book that this was going to be a trilogy, so when (spoilers) come the end Cafferty and his team have essentially stopped Van Ness and saved the world I was a little shocked, as I'd have expected that in the third book. But perhaps this was intentional. I think Murray and Wearmouth knew that readers would be expecting something like that, and instead have decided to do something different.
This isn't a story where the hero beats the bad guy and saves the day, by the end of the story the Foundation is gone and the world knows about the creatures, but the monsters are still out there. The threat of this advanced, predatory race hasn't been stopped. And, they've also made the bold decision to have Cafferty so obsessed with this cause, so dedicated to saving the world that the second book ends with him beginning down a similar path to Van Ness. He's beginning to believe that the ends justify the means, that his mission is all that matters, and I honestly don't know if he's going to become a villainous figure in the third book; and that excites me.
Cafferty could become a monster himself to stop the creatures, or he could be forced to look at what he's doing and who he's becoming. I don't know what way it's going to play out, and I don't even know what I'd like to see more. Him being pushed to the brink and stopping himself from becoming a villain at the last minute would be great, but so would a story where the hero we've followed for two books becomes un-redeemable. The writers have taken what could have been a fairly one dimensional 'hero' character and made him so much more interesting.
That's really what this book does, it takes ideas and notions that the first book had, things that we've seen before, and twists them into something new and interesting. It's not just a tense fight for survival anymore, it's a global conspiracy. It's not just black and white heroes and villains, there's moral grey. This could have been a fairly standard sequel, it could have stuck with what it did in the first book and played it safe, but instead it makes some bold turns and leaves me genuinely excited to find out what could happen next, which is kind of a perfect middle chapter.
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