Terminus by Peter Cline (Amazon) is the fourth book in his Threshold series. It ups the stacks by shipwrecking its characters on a seemingly deserted island, as a deadly storm approaches.
The rain, winds, and high seas are the very least of that storm’s dangers.
The Threshold series started with a book called 14. The novel took place in an apartment building where strange things happened, and doorways to alternative (and very dangerous) universes existed in hidden places. The series has gone to some strange places (a research facility where the building stays the same, but people’s personalities change, seen in The Fold) and a graveyard on the moon (where an alien artifact ends up reanimating the dead, seen in Dead Moon).
There’s a common thread of otherworldly, Cthulhu-esque horror running through these novels, and it continues with this one. It draws heavily on H.P. Lovecraft’s Deep Ones mythology (Dagon, The Shadow Over Innsmouth) by establishing The Family, mutants who want to bring about the end of the world.
Naturally, they think ending the world will pave the way for a new Deep One-dominated planet.
Naturally, they are wrong.
A fast, fun summer read
I didn’t expect a lot from this book. After last summer’s Dead Moon, which took place in this universe’s future and featured the aforementioned lunar zombies, I hoped this book would advance the modern day story.
It does, extending the in-story background for the apartment complex, clearly articulating with the book’s alpha predators intend to do, and what (if anything) the heroes can do about it. I recommend reading 14 before reading this one, and if you already read it, re-reading it. The book carries forward characters and plots from that first book, and I’d forgotten a bunch of things.
Still, I knew the general gist, and wasn’t disappointed by what Cline delivered. Is it basically a weird, monster-of-the-week style adventure with cosmic horror added on?
Yep.
Is it still fun?
Yep.
I’d love to see the next book feature characters acting on their knowledge and doing something to deal with the multiverse-traveling alpha predators. Or, if I’m being honest … not. I also enjoy these books when they’re just trying to solve whatever weird problem they’ve been thrust into, with the larger plot hanging out on the fringes. Either way, I’ll be back for the next book, on another summer reading list.
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Cover art for the novel Terminus by Peter Clines. Credit: Kavach Press