Matt Forbeck

Novels:

Amortals — (2009) Publisher: Today you die. Today you are reborn. Today you hunt the man who killed you. It's Lee Child vs. Altered Carbon in a high-tech blast of tough-as-nails future thrills. Matt Forbeck arrives as the new king of high-concept — with a blockbuster action movie in a book. In the near future, scientists solve the problem of mortality by learning how to backup and restore a persons memories into a vat-bred clone. When Secret Service agent Ronan "Methusaleh" Dooley is brutally murdered, he's brought back from the dead to hunt his killer, and in doing so uncover a terrible conspiracy. FILE UNDER: Science Fiction [Future Thriller / Cheat Death / Rogue Agent]

Amortals

It’s year 2168, and Secret Service agent Ronan Dooley is investigating a savage homicide, of which he happens to be the victim. In fact, this is the eighth time Agent Dooley has died in the service of his country.

Several of Ronan’s lifetimes ago, he took a bullet meant for the president. His heroic death won him the honor of becoming the first participant in Project Amortal: a medical procedure where the deceased’s mind and memories are downloaded into the brain of an exact clone. The project was initially intended for heads-of-state or those whose public service had proven exceptional, but of course the few with the means to afford it could sign-up too.

When I started this book, it seemed apparent that the character of Ronan Dooley is somewhere between the likes of James Bond and Dirty Harry: a typical action hero, easily found in any number of 70’s/80’s action movies or TV shows, with no few of them still around today. He’s a lone wolf, a cowboy, whose refusal to play by the rules causes constant friction with authority — and he’s obsessed with stopping the bad guy.

It just so happens that I love that type of character. I know many will groan “Not another one,” but you have to admit: there’s something appealing about the combination of coolness, bad-@$$-ness, and flippant disregard of danger or authority.

However, that’s just the first impression. Well, admittedly not just the first impression, because Agent Dooley is that type of character, albeit with a unique twist. And I must state, the plot really didn’t seem all that original to me either. Nonetheless, in the span of few chapters, I went from only slightly interested, to thinking, “Hey, this isn’t half bad,” to being genuinely sucked in.

Matt Forbeck does an excellent job creating depth in what is essentially the stated “typical action hero”. Plus, Ronan Dooley isn’t like the usual immortal character. He’s not a wise old sage or all powerful. Instead, he seems to be stumbling through his predicament of having lived several lives like he’s just as lost as the rest of us, maybe even more so.

I have a tendency to shy away from most near-futuristic science fiction, probably because I have to deal with technology on a daily basis to make a living. Still, I’ve always been interested in immortal or near-immortal characters living in the world of mortals, which is what this story is about. Mix that theme with the dark conspiracy surrounding the amortals’ existence and with two-fisted shoot-outs and chase scenes, and Amortals makes for one helluva sci-fi thriller. —Greg Hersom

Vegas Knights — (2011) Publisher: The two magicians came to take Vegas. Now Vegas is taking them back. When two college freshman decide to use Spring Break to wage a magic assault on the gambling tables of Las Vegas, little can they imagine that Vegas harbours a dark magical secret of its own! the whole place is run by magic, and an undead Harry Houdini's in charge. Action-packed fantasy adventure from the new king of High-Concept, Matt Forbeck.

Vegas Knights

The cover of Matt Forbeck’s Vegas Knights describes the novel as “Harry Potter meets Ocean’s Eleven,” but it may be slightly more accurate (if not quite as effective, marketing-wise) to replace Harry Potter with Lev Grossman’s The Magicians. Vegas Knights’ main characters, Bill and Jackson, are two college students on Spring Break in Las Vegas. Sounds fairly normal — except the topic of their studies is magic, and they’re not just in Vegas to party. Instead, they’re planning to use their magic skills to become rich by cheating at the gambling tables. However, they quickly find out that this is easier said than done, because Vegas is very different from what they expected...

Vegas Knights is a fun, entertaining urban fantasy novel that starts off with a bang and rarely slows down. Matt Forbeck gives the reader a great feel for what it’s like to gamble and party in Vegas, and combines this with an exciting and action-packed plot. As someone who’s spent a good amount of time in the “City of Lost Wages,” I felt that Matt Forbeck recreated the atmosphere of the place very effectively, even while adding a few fictional casinos (and of course, well, magic) on the Strip.

A large part of the first half of Vegas Knights is one long and excellent action scene that’s genuinely exciting and impossible to put down. Starting from Bill and Jackson’s second gambling adventure and running through their first meeting with the primary antagonist (whose identity is one of the best surprises of the novel), the story rarely slows down and is jam-packed with action and excitement. The pacing is so hectic that it occasionally feels as if this could have been turned into a much longer novel, but on the plus side, this also means there’s not a dull moment to be found. (And how rare is it nowadays to find a fantasy novel that could have used more padding?)

Unfortunately things take a turn for the worse in the second half of Vegas Knights. The novel starts out as a fun, somewhat shallow but very entertaining magic-in-Vegas caper, but it turns just a bit too silly and frankly verging on the ridiculous towards the end. Saying exactly where and how this happens would spoil the story, but there’s one specific moment where I just couldn’t take the novel seriously anymore. Early on, it’s easy to ignore the flat characters and occasionally clunky dialogue because the plot moves so quickly and offers lots of action and several surprising twists along the way, but after the turning point the book unfortunately strays into pure cartoon territory.

Still, if you don’t take it too seriously, you’ll have a blast with this novel. Vegas Knights is far from perfect, especially towards the end, but it’s hard to imagine a more appropriate book to bring along and read by the pool if you’re planning a Vegas trip. —Stefan Raets

Carpathia — (2012) Publisher: It's Titanic meets 30 Days of Night. When the survivors of the Titanic are picked up by the passenger steamship Carpathia, they thought their problems were over. But something's sleeping in the darkest recesses of the ship. Something old. Something hungry. File Under: Fantasy [ Bump In The Night | Unthinkable | Rescue Remedy | 1912 Overture ]

Carpathia

So it's April 1912, and here I am aboard R.M.S. Titanic, on her maiden voyage. By heaven, she's a lovely ship! Big, too. But I'm a little worried we're getting rather close to that iceberg. Oh I say, we've struck it! Not to worry, old man, everyone knows this ship is unsinkable. What's that? We're sinking anyway? Dash the luck! Off to the lifeboats then. What do you mean, there's no more room? Blimey. Rest assured I'll write a strongly worded letter to the White Star Line about this! Alas, I suppose there's nothing for it but to dress in my evening best, order a brandy, and prepare to die like a sir. Could be worse, I suppose. At least we aren't being attacked by vampires. What's that? We are being attacked by vampires! Of all the bloody cheek!

You could read Matt Forbeck's Carpathia a lot like this: as an extended sketch rather than a novel. Forbeck is a writer with a background in comics and games, and he writes books with a sensibility straight from the movies, which makes him easy reading for people who don't usually read for entertainment.

Of all horror's subgenres, I must confess I like vampire fiction the least. Writers of vampire fiction, it seems, limit themselves to one of two very basic story ideas: Lawful Good Battles Chaotic Evil, or Bad Romance. The former was the ball that Bram Stoker started rolling all these years ago, while the latter is what's hot for a lot of audiences right now. While I suppose it's good to see writers like Forbeck coming along in the post-Twilight era to save vampire fiction from emo sparkle-boys and reclaim it for the gorehounds among us, the fact remains that I draw a blank when it comes to examples of vampire fiction that offer anything in the way of satisfying, lasting storytelling depth. Vampire fiction has produced a lot of splatterific entertainment, but rarely any real literary achievement.

Well, so what. As long as the arterial spray is flowing freely, screw art, let's dance. Forbeck's lightning-paced novel — an unusual example of alternate-history horror — follows three fictitious survivors of Titanic, Quin Harker, Lucy Seward, and her fiancée Abe Holmwood, as they are snatched from certain death in the icy waters of the north Atlantic and into the safety and warmth of Carpathia, the ship that saved the doomed liner's 710 survivors. Sharp readers will note that those character names are swiped directly from Stoker's Dracula itself, and while that's undeniably on-the-nose to the point of self-parody, Forbeck's contrived explanation for it just makes it all the more hilarious.

Unfortunately for the survivors, Carpathia's own passenger list includes an entire colony of vampires, led by suave Slavic metrosexual Dushko Dragomir. If you ever meet anyone with a name that awesome, and he isn't a vampire, call him a poser, kick him in the junk, and walk off.

Dragomir has convinced his fellow vamps that things are getting a little too hot for them in America, what with all its emerging science and technology and stuff. So in order to survive, they must flee to the old country. But not all of them are eager to go — for one thing, Croatia (Carpathia's original destination before it diverted to rescue survivors) is Dragomir's "old country," not theirs — and in Irish thug Brody Murtagh, Dragomir has a total loose cannon who wants nothing more than to chomp neck, take names, and feed feed feed on this bounty of human blood pulled from the sea. Everything gets titanic when Lucy, Quin and Abe persuade the crew to confront the vamps, and carnage ensues.

Forbeck keeps everything flying along, and the action scenes have energy. But I found myself casting a little side-eye at one plausibility problem after another. How did all of these vampires (said to be "dozens") get aboard Carpathia in the first place? Are we asked to believe that no eyebrows were raised when the cargo manifest required several dozen coffins, each containing a body, to be stored in the aft hold? (There's a reveal later on involving Dragomir's relationship with the Cunard Line, but that only raises more questions.) Wouldn't the stewards have thought it strange to be asked to deliver a coffin to the first-class stateroom of seductive vampiress Elisabetta Ecsed? And here's one horror geeks have been wondering for decades: how is it that when a vampire changes into a bat or cloud of mist, its clothing changes with it?

Lucy is presented as a tough, proto-feminist suffragette, because we can't have women being shrinking violets in modern fiction. But even with all her self-assurance, she still seems a little too rash and fearlessly eager to rush into the dank bowels of the lower decks to fight rampaging vampires, like she's some Edwardian Buffy. Forbeck also establishes vampire fiction's current cliché du jour, the love triangle, between our three human friends, and then does nothing with it you don't predict from the first page. Carpathia ultimately relies solely on the gimmick of its premise — it's 30 Days of Night starring Jack and Rose! — to do all the story's heavy lifting. But while there's some reasonably good gory action, the final boss battle is anticlimactic, and far too many sloppy storytelling choices send the whole affair to the bottom. —Thomas Wagner
Thomas M. Wagner has been reviewing literary science fiction and fantasy at his website SFReviews.net since 2001. Join him on Facebook and Twitter.