Order CONJURER'S OATH here
"How much would you charge? Five bucks, same as the whorehouse?"
"You callin' me a whore, boy?"
"No, sir."
"Well, I hope you're not. I'm in the noble business of easing human suffering same's any doctor."
So is a whore, Dennis thought.
Malachi Stone wears a Wal-Mart bag on his head to conceal his identity. I'm not even convinced his real name is Malachi Stone. A pseudonym like that enables him to keep being a model citizen by day and let loose on the internet by night. He once re-enacted Casey Anthony's videolog to test his web cam, something which has sadly disappeared from the web since then. Stone also writes wild, ambitious novels operating on a grand ideological scheme. CONJURER'S OATH is one of the little pieces of anthology that make Malachi Stone one of the lost poets of the internet age. In fact, it could have made him a poet of multiple eras. He is both a difficult and awesome author.
The kids of Hades, Illinois were entering puberty in their own quiet, idiosyncratic way when the town blew up. Young Dennis Krause and his family happened to be in a family outing that weekend, so instead of cursing heavens and falling prey to depression, they join Possle Strong's religious commune and go on with their lives. Strong takes Dennis and his new friend Rahab under his wing after they find out he has paranormal power (time travel, amongst others) and gives them private lessons he calls "catty chism".Under the tutelage of this bizarre man, Dennis and Rahab will attempt to right the wrongs and make everything like it used to be.
I have to tell you a secret. Child/Teen protagonists usually are a huge pet peeve of mine. Most times, they're a cheap, manipulative way to make your story didactic and stories that willingly attempt to teach me something rub me the wrong way. CONJURER'S OATH isn't that kind of story, though. Malachi Stone's kids are a rare breed, they feel real. Stone knows the intrinsic logic and the vernacular of a growing human being and the dialogs involving his kid protagonists were often so vivid with candor, they made me laugh out loud. The kids of Malachi Stone's novels are kids, not the voice of wisdom or philosophers wearing a kid suit.
"Zeit-Reisender said there's no such thing as time. It's an illusion based on the limits of our minds. Because time is a distortion in our minds, if we can find a way to alter the way our minds look at things, we can travel backwards and forwards in time."
"That last is kind of hard to swallow."
"He did swallow something in order to do it-something he called the Nile Royal Purple Lotus. It was some kind of a plant he'd discovered, a plant that once he chewed it up and swallowed it, unhinged his mind and let him loose to travel in time."
So what's CONJURER'S OATH about, exactly? It's about the biggest demon humanity ever had to wrestle with, nothing less. Fear. That powerful, driving fear of the unknown that has been driving the American people for the major part of last century. But since Malachi Stone is a brilliant guy, he doesn't expose frightened characters losing control over their existence to his reader's judgement. No, instead, he confronts his protagonists that don't understand too well the reach of what's going on, to that fear grownups have and puts it in perspective. In its crazy excesses (and the term isn't used lightly here. There is crazy shit happening), CONJURER'S OATH is a powerful meditation on the definition of normalcy, a subject that seems to obsess Mr. Stone.
I'll be honest. I don't expect you to read that book. I think you'll scan over this review at best. It's a hard reflex to have to pick up a book about an author you know nothing about and who offers you very little frame of reference to understand what he's doing. So I'll try my best to make the most concise and accurate pitch possible. CONJURER'S OATH is Wes Anderson meets early David Foster Wallace meets the FALLOUT video game franchise. It's also an exercise in intellectual power lifting. Malachi Stone is one of the gems, lost in the Kindle Store sea, that you won't be able to appreciate if you make the effort to pick it up and pry it open.
FOUR STARS