When a message appears on the onboard computer – Proceeding to Point A – the group agrees to work together to survive whatever is coming.
But as the boat moves through the mist-shrouded waters, divisions begin to form. Who is directing them and to what purpose? Why can’t they remember anything?
And what are the screams they can hear beyond the mist?
I read the bulk of RED RIVER SEVEN in an airport, and then read a large chunk of it via audio while on a plane. I think for sure the usual airport/flying anxiety gave this book an added layer of tension for me, so that was kinda cool!
This is the first novel by A. J. Ryan, but hey! A. J. Ryan is actually Anthony Ryan, and he’s written some of my favorite fantasy novels! I know there’s any number of reasons an author might choose to publish something under a pen name, and I certainly can’t speculate as to the exact reason why Ryan chose to do so here. But for sure, this is unlike any Anthony Ryan book I have ever read. And after reading it, it makes a certain kind of sense that Ryan would want to distinguish this book from his epic fantasy books.
I’ve always found Anthony Ryan’s prose to be incredibly lean & precise, and it’s one of my favorite things about his books. This is true of RED RIVER SEVEN, for sure. This is a brisk read, with a lot of dialogue that makes the pages just fly by.
The story is deliberately disorienting in the early going. You feel totally off balance as you meet a ship full of strangers, all of whom are dealing with a form of amnesia, as they all wake up to find themselves floating downriver on a large ship. There’s a relentless fog covering everything, which adds to the creepy, suffocating atmosphere.
Each of the characters has the name of a famous author tattooed on them, and they adopt these names as their own. They all have some…vague sense of what they did in their previous life. Some trace elements of their skill sets remain. Muscle memory, almost. They know what they’re capable of, even if they don’t know who they are.
They begin to receive a series of instructions via a robotic voice transmitting to a radio in the ship’s wheelhouse.
Things get increasingly more tense & horrific as we see what is left of London, as the crew make stops along the way to complete their “missions.”
There’s no shortage of bloody, gruesome action in Anthony Ryan’s fantasy novels, but dang. This one goes to eleven as far as the gory bits are concerned. This is a dark, dangerous, and violent world. I’m such a sucker for post-apocalyptic stuff & RED RIVER SEVEN put me in a similar mindset to some of my favorites, like THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS (the book & the movie!) and The Last of Us (the show).
This book is relatively short (under 300 pages), at least compared to Ryan’s epic fantasy novels. Between that & just the nature of this story, there’s not a ton of character development. But it works. You know exactly as much about these people as you need to in order to advance the story. I certainly didn’t feel very attached to any of these characters, which um…works out for the best. I mention all this only because it’s just another aspect of this book that made it feel so completely different from Anthony Ryan’s other books…the character work he does in his fantasy novels is fucking outstanding!
This was really cool! A gripping, action-packed, and occasionally SUPER gnarly apocalyptic thriller! I’m really curious to see if Anthony Ryan will publish more under the A. J. Ryan name! I’ll be reading any of his books going forward, regardless of the name on the cover!
Big thanks to Orbit for sending a copy my way!
Grimdark Dad 