Let's say I'm faithlessness made flesh, the modern age's leap of faith stopped dead in its tracks, fucking around with apocalypse and chaos only because in some broken part of me, among any wreckage of honor or altruism or commitment of compassion, or the bits and pieces of moral vanity, I really believed the abyss was always just the playground of my imagination, and I was its bully.The errant effects and disputed origins of the drugs would have been more central; however such causal chains wer...

Though I thoroughly enjoyed this book I will be the first to say that it's not for everyone...however for fans of China Mieville or David Mitchell you are likely going to find something to enjoy here. A mix of magical realism and an incredibly gritty version of present day Erickson covers the lives (and often the deaths) of a number of constantly intertwining characters (in fact sometimes I felt I needed a flow chart to keep up with the relationships) - Kristen, the Occupant, Louise, Angie, Carl...

I had hoped to write a little something about how incredible this book is, but it’s hopeless, my powers of articulation are not nearly up to the task, and besides, I’m too busy walking around with a silly grin on my face in the throes of the after-glow of finishing a really, really great book. Almost as great as These Dreams of You (but not quite).

“…and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps…” Revelation 14:2Apocalypse and mankind: some are waiting for it impatiently, some are terrified by it and some just don’t care. The Sea Came in at Midnight is an apocalyptic mystery rich in the elements of magic realism: “She understood, after all, that a dream is a memory of the future,” and it is sardonically dark.There is no apocalypse without violence and atrocity. And there is no apocalypse without weirdoes and freaks.Well, Kristi...

i started reading this book for two reasons. first, i'd already read another of erickson's novels (tours of the black clock), and thought it was great, and second, i know it's one of karen's favorite books.i have always read a lot. in fact my mother tells people that when i was born, i came out reading a book. i have no idea how many books i've read, but it's definitely over 5000. i read mostly fiction, mostly novels. i like the vast majority of the books that i read, because i know what kinds o...

Naked:UndisguisedHonestAloneTo my regret, although not great regret because I despised this book within the first ten pages, Steve Erickson is:point-misser:Seventeen year old girl Kristin is described as precocious...Precocious:The author just tells you that they are special.Oh yeah, so point-misser, as she tells it is missing the point of the thing and this is distinguished from not being able to see that there's a picture at all. (Kristin is not a point-misser because she misses the view. I st...

I expected the book to be about “In the final seconds of the old millennium, 1,999 women and children march off the edge of a cliff in Northern California, urged on by a cult of silent men in white robes. Kristin was meant to be the two-thousandth to fall. But when at the last moment she flees, she exchanges one dark destiny for a future that will unravel the present.” I mean, since I copied and pasted that from the “blurb,” it’s a reasonable assumption, right? Let me spoil the first 25 pages fo...

Steve Erickson is not in my inner circle. I mean, I have a strong warmth for him, but he's not an author whom I slaver for, whose works I read again and again. He's more someone I read and very much enjoy (with reservations: more on that later) and kind of forget about until someone or something jolts me into recall. Zeroville is the one I loved the most, but again, with reservations — although, as often happens, my memory of how much I loved it (TONS) differs by a good degree from what I myself...

On the final day of 999, an entire village of Armorican peasants awaited the imminent millennial ocean flood in dozens of wooden boats perched atop poles - an entire village but one. One thousand years later, another congerie of dazed believers march, lemming-like, to embrace the dawn of the third millenium by way of free-fall off of a thousand foot cliff on the California coast. In both cases, the chiliastic fever burned itself out unrealized: it will take a different sort - those with no faith...

Like House of Leaves, but NOT good. Well, it's pretty accomplished, I guess. But I had serious problems with it. Where to begin?When you have several different narrators, they're usually different characters with distinct voices. In this, Erickson has three female narrators (Kristin, Angie, and Louise) who are all pretty similar: they're hardened, secretive, empowered loners who can take care of themselves except when there's literally any guy around. When there's a guy around, they all have a w...

this is the kind of book i'm going to come back to years and years later, when i have thrice the experience i hold in my memories right now. even now, having scratched only the surface of it, this book is just so fucking... ugh i don't know, it just is. you'll know when you read it, okay? in that sense, it's like silently and very fast. so this is basically what i have to say of this book.also, don't read this in one go, is my advice.

3.5

The Sea Came in at Midnight is the type of book that isn't great, but that could be the subject of an interesting lit grad paper. It has lots of recurring imagery (calendars, maps, dreams, pregnancy, the apocalypse), it references a plethora of other writers as well as numerous historical tragedies, its world is strange and full of sleaze with some minor elements of the fantastic, and all the various characters & incidents intersect and connect into one big web like a lunatic's conspiracy corkbo...

I wasn't sure what to expect when I ventured into this web that Erickson created… but Wow! I am pleasantly surprised! I thoroughly enjoyed this and desire more from this author! I was brought here after reading a review that stated if I enjoyed Kathe Koja's writing, that I would probably enjoy Erickson, they were absolutely right! But mind you: they are both unique to their own style and really shouldn't be compared. Honestly, I normally wouldn’t have reached for a novel of this genre, had it no...