I know who Chuck Wendig is. He’s a foul-mouthed writer who offers great writing advice with a weekly newsletter, books on the writing craft, and an NYT’s Bestselling fiction author – he practices what he fucking preaches.
Who’s Miriam Black?
Black is the protagonist in a series of books that would fall under the urban fantasy/horror category in which she possesses an ability to foresee someone’s death just by touching them – she can see the death no matter how horrific. Over the course of the series that has included the books Blackbirds (2012), Mockingbird (2012), and The Cormorant (2014), Black tries to do what she can to stop people from dying.
Wendig has just released the fourth book in the series titled THUNDERBIRD. In this tale, which is almost a relaunch of the series, Black has become addicted to seeing her own death visions. She heads out to the southwest in search of another psychic who might help her understand her ‘curse’. But she finds more than she was looking for and sees visions that she wasn’t prepared for.
Like I mentioned earlier, I know who Chuck Wendig is. I follow his website, I receive his newsletter emails, I try to follow his writing tips, however, I’ve never read any of his fiction work. Miriam Black and her whole world are new to me. I was apprehensive at jumping into book four and trying to play catch up to see who’s who and get the references of events from the past stories since Thunderbird is a culmination of everything that has gone before it, but with Wendig’s writing style, it was an easy jump.
Perhaps knowing Miriam Black’s past would have added a greater understanding and depth to the overall story of this book, but I don’t think it was absolutely necessary – this book could be its own stand-alone novel. Wendig does an amazing job of developing this character – all her faults, her personality, a badass with a big heart, a damaged person trying to help others all while living with a curse.
I was given a copy of THUNDERBIRD by Chuck Wendig in exchange for an honest review. Here’s my overall impression: I highly recommend this book. Wendig is an amazing author. His writing, not to sound cliche, makes you want to keep turning the pages. There’s an intriguing plot, humor, the imagery he portrays is graphic, the language is strong, there’s everything you need and want in a thriller – a lot of twists and turns with a great ending that will hopefully result in another book in the series. It’s a memorable story with characters that pop off the page and I look forward to the next one.
MORE ABOUT CHUCK WENDIG
Chuck Wendig is a novelist, screenwriter, and game designer. He’s the author of many published novels, including but not limited to: Blackbirds, The Blue Blazes, the YA Heartland series, and the New York Times bestselling series Star Wars: Aftermath; the third book in the trilogy, Empire’s End is available.
He is co-writer of the short film Pandemic and the Emmy Award-nominated digital narrative Collapsus. Wendig has contributed over two million words to the game industry. His collaborative comic book project, The Sovereign will be released from Dynamite in April 2017.
He is also well known for his profane-yet-practical advice to writers, which he dispenses at his blog, TerribleMinds.com, and through several popular ebooks, including The Kick-Ass Writer, published by Writers Digest.
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