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Reviewed by Divine Zape for Readers' Favorite
Thirty-year-old Alex Harper seeks a new start after losing his mother and is pulled into an unexpected adventure in The Sudden Adventure by D. Michael Hewlett. He leaves Chattanooga, Tennessee, for Clarksdale, Virginia, where he buys a historic house rumored to have a century-old treasure. At first, he laughs at the idea that the house has a treasure, but along with Martin Tucker, the lawyer whose family handled transactions related to the property since the 1800s, Alex uncovers a gold pocket watch buried in the yard. When he accidentally activates the watch, he and Martin are transported to another dimension, a tropical mountain where a “mist monster,” a fog pocket that drifts and teleports prey, haunts them. Separated, Alex must survive alone, navigating the predatory fog, a hostile ecosystem with violent, screaming flowers, and a benevolent sea creature known as Blue Eyes. In an isolated island village, he meets other telepathic humans, Susan and Kwy. Can they find their way back home, and what will go wrong when they do?
D. Michael Hewlett’s novel was a delightful story. I was invested in the characters from start to finish. The author presents Alex Harper as a complex character thrust into unfamiliar terrain; he deals with predators stalking his every move. Particularly striking for me was his experience with the fog. It never seemed to leave him alone. This portal fantasy is a perfect story of survivalism. The prose is descriptive, and the author skillfully captures the world Alex navigates while showing how it affects him: the fears, the desperation, the unanswered questions. One thing that intrigued me about the setting is how time works differently in this world of adventure and the familiar world in which Alex grew up. The Sudden Adventure has plenty of action and suspense, scenes that are focused, and a world that absorbs readers with its intricate ecosystem.
