Signalz, the new novel from F. Paul Wilson, is the latest in his very long-running Adversary Cycle. Almost everything he has published fits into this long, epic saga to some degree.

I don't see a whole lot of talk about Wilson from newer readers. I sort of get it. His work isn't necessarily horror (though it isn't necessarily not horror either). It's intimidating to figure out where to start on such a vast body of interconnected work.

So why should you read F. Paul Wilson?

Well, you read Stephen King. Robert McCammon. Joe R. Lansdale. Richard Matheson. F. Paul Wilson belongs on that same list. If anything, he has been more consistently readable and successful at his craft than most other genre writers.

Signalz takes place just before Night World, which makes it the penultimate novel in the cycle. F. Paul Wilson introduces new characters, and picks up on previous ones. Signalz particularly follows recent books like The Last Christmas and Wardenclyffe.

The endgame of the Adversary struggle is upon us, and darkness is about to befall the Earth. A teenage tourist girl is overcome by signals only she can hear. An industrial investigator seeks information about a shadowy organization. And a "hack writer" named P. Frank Winslow has innocently written about events he has no right to know about. These disparate elements converge and play a critical role in the cosmic battle. Our planet is on the verge of becoming a night world.

This novel contains some of the most nightmarish imagery and situations of Wilson's long and storied career. And if it kept most of the violence to a minimum, well, the shit was/is about to hit the fan in the next book.

Yes, you can read Signalz on its own, and I am positive you'll enjoy it. You have to jump in at some point if you want to discover the wonder of Wilson's work. I'd suggest beginning with The Keep, which is surely one of the very few milestone masterpieces of the horror genre. Forget the lousy movie that was made from it. If you are mostly interested in the celebrated Repairman Jack series, consider going with The Tomb.

I loved Signalz, and I read the whole thing in nearly one sitting. My only complain is that F. Paul Wilson deserves a hell of a lot better than POD publication. I read and collect hardcovers, and thirty dollars is too expensive for a cheaply made book like the one I got from Amazon. Aside from that, Signalz is a strong entry in one of the most astonishing and entertaining bodies of work in all of imaginative fiction.

Written by Mark Sieber

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