The Bloodstained Man (Netherworld Book 2) by Christopher Rowley – review

You’ve read (and salivated over) the slick magazine. You’ve seen (and ditto) the movie. Get ready, because now there’s the latest offering from the folks at Heavy Metal and Tor, Heavy Metal Pulp. Yes, that’s what I said, you heard right–so, how well does the Heavy Metal magazine translate to paperback pulp form? Let’s say not too bad–in fact, fairly good–but it has the potential to be so much better.

That’s largely because The Bloodstained Man by Christopher Rowley (book 2 of the Netherworld series; the first book was called Pleasure Model) is illustrated in black-and-white. The illustrations are by Justin Norman, and the quite nice and eye-catching cover artwork (in color) is by Gregory Manchess. You’ve got a talented author and illustrator, but much of the appeal of the Heavy Metal magazines lies in their beautiful, pop-off-the-page color graphics, which make the illustrations come to life. I would really have liked to see color illustrations also used in The Bloodstained Man, and I’m hoping that future books in the series will have color illustrations.

Also, the black-and-white illustrations aren’t on every page, so I’d categorize this book as not exactly a graphic novel, but more an illustrated one. The illustrations are confined to rectangles that are approximately an inch and a half wide (I didn’t actually measure them; this is a guess), and the size of these story frames doesn’t vary. Justin Norman does a good job with the restricted space he has, but in my opinion, it’s difficult to truly bring to life art in such a confined and unvarying story frame format.  Especially if you’re restricted to black and white to try to make your characters memorable ones. I’d really like seeing the size of the story frames varied in future novels in the series, as well, and possibly have a half-page or even a full-page color illustration every once and a while throughout the novels.

How is the plot and the world-building done by the author, Christopher Rowley? I’d say pretty good. The paragraphs are short, the action is frequent and often bloody, and the dystopian future that Rowley paints with his words is, by and large, a bleak one.

The setting is America in the relatively near future. The war in the Middle East has been going on for over sixty years. Like now, there are slums in the major cities, places you don’t want to go, where doing so would risk your life. These are fenced-off areas, where the poor and uninsured are kept apart from the rest of the population. Hispanic and black street gangs have risen to power in these areas, becoming the unruly law of the land, both the protectors of one’s life and property–if the price is right–as well as the ruthless, blood-thirsty thugs, thieves, rapists, and murderers they are most of the rest of the time. Cars are electric-powered and run on magnetic rails.

Politically speaking, America is and has been for four decades in the control of war-mongering politicians from the Sable Ranch. If you don’t agree with their political point of view, you’d likely wind up in a camp for political dissidents. The detective Rook Venner and the pleasure model, a Pammie or Pam Anderson look-alike, Plesur, are still the two main characters, as in the first book; but, among the other characters in the novel are two Democrats, Vice Presidential candidate Lydia Trenchard and her running mate, Presidential candidate Paula Perez, who want to take America back and restore rights the government has taken away from its people in the name of protecting them from terrorism.

Detective Rook Venner, Plesur, and another character–the dominatrix Mistress Julia–are on the run from government troops trying to kill them and from a shadowy group, the Overlords, who want to capture Plesur alive and obtain the information she has.  There are lots of suspenseful, dramatic and breathless chase scenes, where government drones try to shoot guided rockets at the various cars Rook, Julia, Lydia, and Plesur are riding in their attempts to evade capture and death. They switch off and trade one car for another at different locations, but they can’t shake off their pursuers.  The action really picks up, though, once they head into one of the uninsured areas to hide out….

Looking for a book with lots of bloody and violent heart-pounding action? Then Christopher Rowley’s The Bloodstained Man is the book for you, hombre! Though there are ways I’ve mentioned that I feel the novel could have been improved, and which will hopefully be addressed in future books in the Netherworld series, The Bloodstained Man definitely delivers on the action front, and fans of the Heavy Metal magazine and anyone who likes to read action-packed novels should add this book to their reading list today!