Many moons ago—predating this Substack, and even the Wordpress edition of Upstream Reviews (RIP)—I was part of an active Conservative Writer Facebook group. I got long with one of the authors, and I decided, sure, why not? Back then, I went out of my way to review the books of almost anyone if I could.
Now, my memories of this book are a decade old, so pardon me if I’m not as in-depth as I usually am.
The Story
Maggie is a bored housewife. She feels neglected by her husband the homicide detective as he falls down the rabbit hole of a murder investigation. Her new boss is the school nerd who grew up to be Henry Cavill. So she decides to fill her free time with daydreams about her employer.
What’s the harm, right? What’s the worst that could happen?
As the murder case and her fantasy life spiral out of control, Maggie realizes that harmless little fantasies aren’t that harmless.
Strangely enough, Night Machines is a character-driven Urban Fantasy novel, so I’ll touch on some of those elements more in the next section. But what looks like a dime store romance novel turns into something more out of a Dean Koontz
I always thought the Rod Serling meets Robin Cook equaled F. Paul Wilson. Nope. This is chocked-full with more of the irony found in the Twilight Zone. Especially since it starts with Maggie dreaming, and dreaming about what her life could be or should have been ... and oh, boy, does it go the way of Nightmare on Elm Street.
No, it's not terrifying, I’d even suggest it could be given to Young Adults, but beware the fact that there are sexual situations, but nothing graphic.
Along the way, Night Machines explores the concepts of family, of love versus lust, and what happens when you live too much in your head. Because there are some times things in the dark that will eat you.
By the start of “act three” of the book ... well, not to give too much away, but there was the scene with Maggie's priest, where I had fully expected the line “What part of thou shalt not covet did you not understand?”
I did not expect the sudden turn that the novel made, but it addressed every last point I had considered as I read through the book. That chapter alone made it more deeply philosophical and faithful than most books I read when I was part of the “Catholic Writer's Guild.”
At the end of the day, it's a romance book that can even be read by people who hate romance novels.
The Characters
This has three interesting character studies. Maggie is the bored housewife married to the "boring" cop, and her brand new boss is the nerdy kid from high school who grew up to be a billionaire with the looks of a guy on the cover of a romance novel.
The new boss, Cambien, is a specialist in medication of dreams (which makes me wonder if his name is supposed to rhyme with Ambien).
It's also three stories of obsession. Maggie's husband is consumed by the case of a dead girl. Cambien has had thoughts of Maggie since high school, and his thoughts start sweet and cute, and something darker starts to take shape. And then there's Maggie herself, who decides to have her "non-affair" with Cambien, and it starts to eat her up inside.
I would tell you what it made me think of, but it turns out to be a spoiler.
The World
This is very much our world… as much as any Dean Koontz novel is “our world.”
Politics
Depends, do you think that monogamy is a political issue? If not, then there are no politics here.
Content Warning
While there is a lot of what broadcast television would call “sexual situations,” they were more medications about sex than anything graphic. Call it PG-13 at most.
Who is it for?
For readers of early Dean Koontz. There’s a lot of the same character driven fantasy aspects, a bit of horror, and some great writing.
Why buy it
If Dean Koontz wrote a romance novel, this would be it.
Interesting. I'll have to take a long.
And of course monogamy is a politicial issue. All issues are, in the end. Ask any liberal.
Koontz could have....he started his career writing all sorts of weird things under pseudonyms.