BOOK REVIEW + INTERVIEW / Double Shadow by Andrew Ludington

Matt and Jenny welcome author Andrew Ludington to discuss his April 21st, 2026 release of his 2nd book to the Splinter Effect series - DOUBLE SHADOW.

Join the conversation in the comments and on social media.

For a recap of our previous coverage of Splinter Effect visit AG Book Club.

And give the author a follow at andrewludington.com and on socials at @andrewludington

For audio, please check out the Atomic Geekdom Podcast to listen in.

Double Shadow by Andrew Ludington

Release Date: 04/21/2026

Published by St.Martin’s Press/ Macmillan

By Matt Spaulding

Andrew Ludington’s new novel, Double Shadow, is the exciting sequel to his incredible time-traveling adventure, Splinter Effect. So I will start off this review telling you to go check out that novel first. It’s well worth your time. Think Indiana Jones and Back to the Future combined. Yeah. It’s amazing.

In Double Shadow, we once again join time-traveling archeologist Rabbit Ward (known as a chrono-archeologist in the language of the book) as he travels into ancient history. Unlike the last time, he isn’t going back to find some lost artifact. This time, he’s trying to find a specific person in hopes of aiding his friend, co-adventurer, the illegal time traveler, Helen.

Writing a novel set in ancient Jerusalem is a task I commend Ludington for. Splinter Effect was set in ancient Rome, and was incredibly detailed and well researched. Double Shadow is no different. I never gave too much thought to what ancient times were like beyond “more primitive than now”, but Ludington wonderfully describes bustling cities that, while definitely not modern, still seem familiar. It’s so interesting to learn that, even though so much has changed, some things about human life have been the same for a very, very long time. Ludington has done a bunch of research and it pays off. If you’re like me, you’ll leave the novel wanting to learn more about the time and place.

The novel has a mystery element that is very intriguing. Early in the novel, Rabbit bumps into a modern person in the past, something that is not supposed to happen. In this world, time travel is heavily regulated and multiple modern people aren’t supposed to travel to the same time. This rogue modern person is committing a horrendous, gruesome murder. Rabbit initially believes he has found someone illegally traveling through time to commit serial murder for pleasure. However, when his friend Helen is implicated in an illegal time travel ring, he goes back in time to help her. He is also pulled into a criminal plot that he did not expect.

Ludington has created a rather interesting protagonist in Dr. Rabbit Ward. He’s not a character we have a whole lot of history on through these first two novels, but is easy to root for and clearly moving in an interesting direction. I definitely look forward to future novels set in this world, especially after the events of this book.

A little bit sci-fi, a little bit action/adventure, a little bit historical fiction, Double Shadow is a novel that scratches several itches and is sure to entertain fans of any and all of those genres.

BOOK REVIEW/ "These Familiar Walls" by C.J. Dotson

These Familiar Walls by C.J. Dotson

Release Date: 4/14/26

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

By Matt Spaulding

In her sophomore novel, These Familiar Walls, C.J. Dotson crafts an eerie, tense, mysterious haunted house story that I had trouble putting down when it was time to be a responsible adult and get some sleep.

Set mostly during the COVID lockdown of 2020, the story focuses on Amber, her husband, Ben, and their two children, Xander and Marigold. Amber’s entire family is dead, her sister having died in a house fire three years prior, and her parents having been murdered the year before. Amber and her family move into her parents’ old home after their death to get out of their cramped apartment and have more space to be in lockdown.

But, once in the home, things start to get spooky, and strange things start to occur. Amber’s reflection never look right. Everyone starts experiencing strange (and potentially deadly) trance-like states. Amber hears strange whispers.

Interspersed throughout the novel are flashbacks to Amber’s childhood and the friendship she had with the person who eventually murdered her parents, as well as her relationship with her family. I feel that saying much more about this part of the book may give some hints as to the mystery of the haunting, so all I will say is this is where Dotson begins to give us much more insight into Amber as a person than the “all is well” front adult Amber puts on.

The story is compelling and incredibly readable. Dotson’s prose is excellent: modern and smooth but also filled with incredible descriptive language, similes, and metaphors. The characters she presents here are well-crafted, believable, and certain to bring a lot of feelings up in the reader.

Any fan of haunted house tales is certain to enjoy These Familiar Walls. It’s perfectly creepy and mysterious, and, as I said earlier, hard to put down.

BOOK REVIEW/ "Lucky Day" by Chuck Tingle

Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle

Release date: 8/12/25

Published by Tor Publishing Group

By Matt Spaulding

Lucky Day is the third mainstream horror novel by internet sensation Chuck Tingle, and it’s easily his most bonkers. Though not as scary as Camp Damascus and last year’s incredible Bury Your Gays, this novel is still packed with plenty of strange and gross moments while still exploring the more existential horrors of the meaning (or meaninglessness) of life and the randomness of the universe, all while ultimately proving Chuck’s mantra: “love is real.”

The book opens with Vera, a statistics and probability professor, living through the horrors of a worldwide disaster of ridiculous events that comes to be known as The-Low Probability Event. It’s one of the most bizarre scenes I have ever read. Fish rain from the sky. A monkey attacks people. It’s like the part in Ghostbusters where Venkman yells “dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!” It’s a wild ride.

Jumping ahead in time, we find Vera has decided everything is meaningless. She’s practically shut into her apartment waiting to die. That’s when Special Agent Layne enters her life. Layne works for an unchecked government agency investigating the LPE, and he’s maybe tracked its cause to a casino in Las Vegas where the odds are, somehow, in the players’ favor. Yet the house somehow still makes money. That shouldn’t be possible. And the casino is owned by a shady organization that Vera had been working to bring down before the LPE. With her fire (kind of) relit, Vera and Layne head off to Vegas.

Tingle’s imagination has yet to fail to amaze me. The Low-Probability Event, the events that take place later, and the reasons behind all of it, are all incredibly creative and entertaining. On top of that, the attention to statistics, probability, and other things I can’t reveal because they give away certain things, it’s all so well researched and thought out. I don’t know if Tingle was interested in these topics before writing this novel or if he dove into them just for this, but, either way, I commend him. I always love and appreciate when an author knows (or at least seems to know) their stuff when tackling deep subjects.

Lucky Day also explores what it means to live and love in a world that exists in a godless universe full of pain (my words, not Tingle’s). Vera’s crisis after living through the LPE when she thought everything in the universe was based on rules and order is something I think a lot of people go through, especially in the modern age when everything we see on the news and on social media seems to be awful all the time. But, Tingle believes that love is real. It’s written on the pink sack he wears to stay anonymous. And, personally, I agree with him. And that belief comes through by the end of the novel, leading to a very satisfying character arc.

Lucky Day is yet another winning read from Tingle. And I can’t wait to read it again while I wait for what he puts out next.

BOOK REVIEW/ "Felony Juggler" by Penn Jillette

Felony Juggler by Penn Jillette

Release Date: 5/6/25

Publisher: Akashic Books

By Matt Spaulding

Felony Juggler, the third novel by Penn Jillette, the bigger, louder half of famed magic duo Penn & Teller, is a funny, semi-autobiographical novel in which Jillette images what his life would have been like had he fallen prey to peer pressure and made a choice that would have altered his path forever.

I have been a big fan of Penn & Teller, specifically Penn, for a huge chunk of my life. I have been a weekly listener to Penn’s podcast, Penn’s Sunday School, since it first debuted in 2012. Because of that, I recognized the first several chapters of this book as being absolutely true, having heard Penn recount these same stories multiple times over the past thirteen years. It’s told exactly in his own voice, just as if he were really writing a straight autobiography. And that alone is incredibly entertaining, given the life Jillette lead from the time he “got out of high school on a plea deal” through his years hitchhiking around the country and street performing.

But, at a certain point, the “crime novel” part kicks in. The fictional Penn, named Poe in this story, makes a choice to get involved in a bank heist, and that changes his life forever. The rest of the novel is Poe on the run, he moves to Hibbing, Minnesota (because that’s where Bob Dylan is from) and begins a new life as “Tiny”. From here, we get to spend time with Tiny as he starts a new life and falls in love. That is, until his past catches up with him.

The fun part of the book is picking out what parts of the novel are being made up vs what parts of the story probably still reflect the life and thoughts of the real life Penn Jillette. As a Penn fan, I managed it pretty easily. But folks not as familiar with the man himself can still enjoy the meta, faux autobiographical nature of this tale.

Jillette’s voice is funny, unique, philosophical, and raunchy. He delights with stories about juggling, sex, hitchhiking, music, and clown college. He often takes tangents to poke fun at himself and at the reader. The novel is written almost, but not quite, stream of consciousness, like it was dictated as a bunch of stories and thoughts taken down word for word and not edited. Almost. It’s more readable than that. But it gives that vibe, and that’s part of the entertainment and charm. It also makes the pacing very brisk, as Jillette doesn’t get bogged down in language and descriptions. He’s telling a story on the page as if he’s telling it orally. He shares only the necessary details. And as much as I love rich, descriptive, incredibly detailed writing like in a Stephen King novel, there’s something wonderful about a story that’s in the vein of the oral tradition of storytelling. You can practically hear Jillette in the room with you telling this instead of you reading words on the page. It makes me want to revisit it with the audiobook (which Jillette reads himself).

If you thought a magician couldn’t be a good novelist, guess again. Pick up Felony Juggler and enjoy.

BOOK REVIEW/ "The Buffalo Hunter Hunter" by Stephen Graham Jones

By Matt Spaulding

In his most recent novel, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones has crafted a chilling vampire story only he could tell. Set in the old west in the Blackfeet Nation, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a deeply American tale of Native American culture and pride, and its struggle to survive the encroachment of white settlers.

Jones has become one of my favorite horror authors in the last few years because of his ability to weave captivating narratives full of bone-chilling horror. And, Jones, a Blackfeet Native himself, also brings his culture into all of his work, which is a welcoming thing in the horror genre, which is, historically, painfully white. I’ve said a whole lot over the years that, as a straight, cis-het, white male, I know the story of people like me so well it’s boring. People like me is all I have ever seen in art and it’s so uninteresting to me at this point. Jones’ characters and their views of the world are so interesting and enriching and, dare I say, educational.

This is no less true in this book. Set mostly in the years between roughly 1862 and 1912 (with wrap-arounds at the beginning and end set in 2013), The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is the story of Good Stab, a Blackfeet who, in a tussle with white soldiers, encounters a vampire and ultimately becomes one himself. Good Stab, in the year 1912, comes to the church of Arthur Beaucarne, a Lutheran preacher Good Stab calls “Three Persons” after the Holy Trinity, to “confess” to him, to tell the story of his life. Through Good Stab, we get an incredible, beautifully written, often sad tale of a man desperate to maintain his identity despite what he has become.

Ultimately, that is what the story is about, identity. Good Stab wants to stay Blackfeet, Pikuni in his native language, but he also wants to try to save his people from settlers. We follow the story of Good Stab as he struggles not just with being a vampire, but with a world that is becoming more and more the property of white settlers and less the world of the Native People. Drawing attention to Native culture and its place in the modern world is something Jones has done so well in other novels of his like Mongrels and The Only Good Indians, but the historical nature of this novel really elevates it to another level.

In Good Stab and the vampire that created him, The Cat Man, Jones has also created a type of vampire entirely his own, introducing powers and weaknesses never before seen in vampire lore to great effect. He creates a whole new breed of monster, one that is incredibly cinematic and sparks the imagination. That’s really all I can say without giving it away.

As for Arthur Beaucarne, the second lead character, he is mostly uninteresting, that is until we learn why Good Stab has chosen to tell his story to this specific preacher. It’s an amazing twist. For most of the novel, Beaucarne is the vessel through which we experience Good Stab’s story and little else. Not that he’s a bad character, just a rather plain one. But when the twist comes, suddenly the entire story takes another turn. It’s pretty brilliant on Jone's’ part.

My only complaint with the novel, and it’s a small one, is that I reached a point where I felt like it was too long. The length of a book is a criticism I typically hate, be it to say “it’s too long” or “it’s too short.” But, unfortunately, I have to say it here. And it’s made worse because I honestly don’t know what I would take out of the story to change that. But, around 75% through, I started to feel myself going “I can’t believe there’s so much left.” I didn’t even not enjoy the final 25%. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that it could have been a bit shorter. In the end, though, that didn’t change the fact that I found the book incredible.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a vampire story for the ages and deserves to sit up there with Dracula and Interview With The Vampire as a defining novel of the vampire genre.

BOOK REVIEW/ "The Haunting of Room 904"

By Matt Spaulding

The Haunting of Room 904 is a tale of generational trauma that is focused on one room in one hotel. It’s an interesting look at how the sins of the past still affect the world decades and decades later.

Olivia Becente is a paranormal investigator with a gift for seeing spirits, a gift that previously belonged to her sister, Naiche. But, a few years back, Naiche died by suicide in the notorious Room 904, a room in which deaths happen every five years. Always a woman. Always in 904. Whether that woman was checked into 904 or not. Spooky, right?

That’s what I was expecting when I went into this book. Unfortunately, I wasn’t greeted with as much horror as I felt I was promised. Though there are certainly horror elements like ghosts and cults and, of course, the curse of the titular room. But this is much less horrific than I was expecting. Instead, this is more of a mystery. What’s going on with the room? Why? How is it tied to the historical Sand Creek Massacre? Why is this random bitchy, vindictive journalist trying to take down our protagonist?

This isn’t to say that the story is bad. It’s just not at all what I was expecting. And maybe it’s because my horror sensibilities are so hardened, but I did find the spooky elements lacking. This may be for someone who is horror-curious rather than die-hards like myself.

I also, unfortunately, did not connect to any of these characters, so I found it hard to care what happened to them. This has nothing to do with the way they are written, I just found them all to be not to my taste. Which is a hard thing to write about now that I’m here trying to do it, because it’s not something concrete. I can just as easily see other people liking them a lot.

But that doesn’t mean Wurth is a bad writer. Indeed, her descriptions are vivid and her mystery was compelling. And, as a fan of horror, I’m a big fan of any writer that’s bringing diversity into the genre. Wurth includes Native American elements that I was super into. I’ve said many times in the past that, as a cis-het white male, I’m SO tired of stories about people exactly like me. I know that story inside and out. There are so many more stories out there that are worth telling, and Wurth is bringing that to the table.

Ultimately, Room 904 fell flat for me. It’s difficult for me to articulate exactly why it did, though, because everything that didn’t work for me is so subjective. As I said before, the horror wasn’t there for me. The characters were not interesting to me. But if you’re not a super horror fan but appreciate it fine, or if you’re horror-curious, then this book is a great launch pad.

COMIC REVIEW: Godzilla X Kong: The Hunted

By Brandon T. McClure

The Monsterverse is no stranger to tie-in comics. It's a staple of Legendary Pictures to publish prequel graphic novels through their publishing arm Legendary Comics. So it should come as no surprise that they’ve done it again with Godzilla X Kong: The Hunted by Brian Buccellato, Dario Formisani, Drew Johnson, and Zid, a graphic novel that sets up the events of Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire. Previous Monsterverse graphic novels have ranged from solid entries in the multimedia saga, to rather disappointing ones, and this one falls right in the middle.

The story follows Raymond Martin, notably named for Raymond Bur’s character Steve Martin from the 1954 original film, as he builds a large mech suit in order to hunt Titans in the Hollow Earth. He hates Titans and wants to level the playing field, much like Apex Cybernetics tried with MechaGodzilla. While he’s going through this, Godzilla is pursuing Skylla, who is attacking various nuclear power plants for some unknown reason. Skylla is upsetting the natural order, and most likely trying to make a play for the title of King of the Monsters, so Godzilla will not take that threat lying down. Elsewhere, Kong is surveying his new kingdom in the Hollow Earth, until his story links up with Raymond Martin towards the end

Prequel comics come with perceived limitations. They can’t do anything that alters the status quo and the ending has to set up the film. They exist as marketing for the “more important” medium of film. So it’s hard, as a comic book fan, to get overly excited and expect more from these comics. Writer Brian Buccellato delivers exactly what he was meant to. There are some really interesting aspects to the story but it’s pretty anticlimactic. Nowhere is this personified more than in the Godzilla segments. Just as Godzilla catches up with Skylla, the comic literally stops the story to say “To Be Continued In Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire.” As a marketing tool, it’s fine, but as a standalone story, it’s lacking.

The most interesting part of the story is Raymond Martin, who would actually have made a good antagonist for a feature film. Martin is a wealthy man who’s turned into a big game hunter, and that’s meant literally. He was in San Francisco during the events of the 2014 film Godzilla and lost his entire family to that attack. This has given him a personal vendetta against Titans, but he’s not ready to go after the alphas just yet. It’s through him that we’re introduced to a new Monsterverse Titan called Spineprowler, who’s basically just a giant jaguar (not the first giant cat Titan that Zid has designed). It’s honestly a shame that he’s killed at the end because there’s some potential here, especially with that name.

The Monsterverse comics have come under fire due to tracing allegations. Some of the images from Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong were clearly traced from screenshots of the various Titans. You would hope that when translating the Titans to a comic book, the artist could take some artistic liberties with the designs. Godzilla: Awakening by Max & Greg Borenstein was able to allow their artist team of Eric Battle, Yvel Guichet, Alan Quah, and Lee Loughridge the ability to take these liberties due to there having been no film at the time. But there doesn’t seem to be any obvious tracing in this book.

Mostly, the art is pretty good in Godzilla X Kong: The Hunted. It’s very dynamic and the design of the Titan Hunter is interesting. Fans of the Skull Island: The Birth of Kong comic will no doubt recognize a familiar style as Zid has been the artist on many Monsterverse books. He’s not alone here, of course. The artist team consists of Zid as well as Dario Formisani and Drew Johnson. The three of them mix their styles well since there doesn’t seem to be a clear division of pages between them.

Those looking for an exciting entry in the Monsterverse might be disappointed, but that’s not to say that there is no value in this comic. Raymond Martin is a cool character and there is plenty of Titan action. The major issue is that it doesn’t operate as anything more than a marketing tool for Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire. It doesn’t reach the heights of the best of them, but it doesn’t hit the lows of the worst of them. It’s a perfectly fine and fun entry in the franchise. If you’re already a fan, then you likely won’t regret picking this one up.

6.5/10

Godzilla X Kong: The Hunted is available at your local comic shop, bookstore, or here and the latest entry in the Monsterverse, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire is in theaters every started March 29th.

BOOK REVIEW + INTERVIEW / Empire of the Damned (Empire of the Vampire Volume 2)

Jenny sits down with fantasy & science fiction author Jay Kristoff to discuss his March 12th, 2024 release of his 2nd book in the Empire of the Vampire series . Watch/Listen to our interview to get an inside look at what to expect next for Gabriel de León.

Join the conversation in the comments and on social media.

For audio, please check out the Atomic Geekdom Podcast to listen in.

Empire of the Damned - Empire of the Vampire (Volume 2) by Jay Kristoff

Release Date: 03/12/2024

Published by St.Martin’s Press/ Macmillan

By Jenny Robinson

A lot happened at the end of Empire of the Vampire (Book 1). A LOT.

In a world that has not seen a sunrise for decades, vampires are set to destroy humanity. Our protagonist (or in some cases, our antagonist), Gabriel de León tells his story as the last of the Silver Saints (protectors against the vampires).

The first book in this series sets up a colorful cast of characters. The story is told through Gabe’s perspective but includes such insight to those we meet through it’s pages. In attempt to avoid spoilers in both books, I’ll generically say that Empire of the Vampire has a WTF?!? OH NO!!! traumatic ending.

Empire of the Damned dives quickly into the aftermath of the brutality found in the first volume. Gabriel is still imprisoned, reluctantly (and drunkenly) continuing his tale to the vampire Jean-François. In this, we are starting to really see the toll Gabe has paid in this war. His character is becoming a noteworthy study of endurance despite all of his blatant flaws. The pipe and bottle are becoming more frequent in both his stories and present situation. His love and loyalty constantly being tested.

I had struggled with the writing style a bit during the first book. The story Gabe is telling Jean-François is written as if it is happening right then, instead of in the past. There are moments when mid-story, Jean-François taps into the conversation with a critique or question. This felt very abrupt as I was getting to know the characters and the plot. By the time I got a few chapter into this new book, the relationship between the two made those time line jumps feel more naturally. I began to really enjoy Jean-François’s interruptions. It feels a bit like breaking the fourth wall in cinematography. I was surprised how much I looked forward to those moments in this book.

This volume of the series also added a lot of context towards the vampires. I was delighted to learn more about the various histories, beliefs and abilities of each. Belief is a prominent word for this series as a whole. It’s a tale of faith, regret, worship, hope and sacrifice. It allows this second chapter in the series to grow and find it’s footing that was only beginning to take shape in it’s predecessor.

I am not going to lie, this is a beefy read. It’s violent, traumatic, and an exciting chase to see where Gabriel and Dior’s travels lead them. Clocking in at 752 pages, it’s easy to miss place a few hours (days, months) of your life as you speed through page by page. And I gasped a bit at the last sentence. Book 3 is set up spectacularly.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JAY KRISTOFF is a #1 international, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of fantasy and science fiction, including Empire of the Vampire. He is the winner of eight Aurealis Awards, an ABIA, has over half a million books in print and is published in over thirty five countries, most of which he has never visited. He is as surprised about all of this as you are. He is 6’7 and has approximately 11,500 days to live.

He does not believe in happy endings.