Review: The Mansion

The Mansion by Ezekiel Boone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: THE MANSION by Ezekiel Boone

Readers who have read Ezekiel Boone's HATCHING Trilogy know this author cranks up tense suspense and delivers the scares. I venture to predict: "you ain't seen nothing yet." THE MANSION scared the living daylights out of me, a Haunted House story like no other. Oh, a time or too writers or filmmakers have taken a run at the "Smart House" concept, but THE MANSION goes far beyond. (And yes, I also predict this one will be optioned for film.)

THE MANSION draws in many different threads of Themes, and extends to concepts that stretch my imagination, and is comparable to Neal Stephenson's REAMDE in its exploration of computing. Yet the novel also reaches into the realms of Arthur C. Clarke and Peter F. Hamilton as it explores the ramifications of Artificial Intelligence. Indeed, as it discusses the evolution of computerized "personal assistants," the potentials become frightening, and of course, THE MANSION focuses on a beyond-next-generation computerized "assistant." Beware in whose control you place your safety.

This alone would be sufficient to create an exceptional novel. But Mr. Boone doesn't pause at that. He delivers characterization peeled down to the core; he allows character evolution (and devolution); and he delivers a family line so evil that I can only compare it to the family sequence in LINEAGE by Joe Hart. Many sleepless memories will plague me when I remember.

THE MANSION is the novel for which you set aside a block of time and turn off all distractions. Get a comfortable armchair and settle in, for you won't be surfacing until the end.

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