Gothic Journey — John Argo

GOTHIC JOURNEY: Run For Your Life is a modern classic that begins with the same deceptively quiet (but slightly unnerving) pace as other John Argo stories. When the hammer comes down, you won't be ready - but that's the fun about suspense. John Argo knows how to sock it to you when you least expect it. This novel will take you on a wild ride beyond anything you can imagine. This Gothic Journey as an apt subtitle: Run For Your Life. In Gothic Journey, a simple boy meets girl romance turns into a nightmare ride. Martin Brown, 21, is a handsome young UC Berkeley student home in easy-going, sunny San Diego for the summer. While hunting for a writing job in Los Angeles with a media giant (YANAPOP) he falls in love with a gorgeous young (21) production assistant named Chloë Setreal. A few days later, Chloë calls to tell him she's been in an accident, is laid up with her leg in a cast, and wants him to drive two leisurely hours north to hold her hand in L.A. Martin gallantly hops in his car and heads north, just as a tremendous Pacific Ocean storm begins to pelt San Diego. That's the start of a hair-raising adventure, a nightmare of epic proportions, as courageous Martin Brown strives to reach Los Angeles (or Lost Alienopolis) at any cost. What should be a quick, easy drive turns into an Odyssey lasting over 24 insane hours, each minute crazier than the next. No spoilers -- you'll be glad you read the novel. Martin becomes Odysseus in search of Chloë as he pursues the goddess of his dreams. He's on a quest like Pynchon's Oedipa Maas in pursuit of the nightmare secreted in the engine that drives Amerika -- and the universe. Or whatever. More popcorn, please. Take nothing seriously, but (seriously) wear a seatbelt. And a diaper, because you're going to need it when the hammer comes down. Gothic Journey makes your teeth rattle as the author takes your imagination out for a spin on the dark side. A simple two-hour drive from San Diego to Los Angeles takes on galactic proportions with zombies, vampires, conspiracy theorists, and the occasional alien taxi driver (just for starters). You've never been on a ride like this, so don't miss the spectacular fun and fantasy. Deeper philosophical monsters swim under the surface, but we only glimpse their dimly glowing scales as our Gothic Journey takes us through uncharted waters. It's the Southern California you always suspected, but never actually dared to find amid the sunshine, balmy breezes, sugary beaches, and rustling palm trees. John Argo has invented a new subgenre of speculative fiction called DarkSF. He calls it “The Dark Chocolate of Speculative Fiction.” Gothic Journey is a prime exemplar, a worthy inheritor to centuries of Gothic tradition. DarkSF calls for a luxurious and masterful blending of rich atmosphere, story texture, murky suspense, and always that ray of human hope amid our own propensity for evil and darkness. The gripping element of great fiction is not cheap thrills or cardboard monsters -- but when we glimpse something of ourselves in that dark, shadowy, lumbering figure in the alley at night, and we run in fear from our own shadow. DarkSF includes movie masterpieces like Blade Runner, Dark City, or After Hours. That's what Gothic Journey is all about, among the famous, artisan classics of film and fiction. There is so much to say, and so little room here, so please: read the book, visit the site, look for other gripping atmospherics from John Argo. Think of DarkSF as Goth SF if you wish. Or just SF (meaning Subversive Fiction, the literature of ideas). DarkSF combines centuries of Gothic tradition (Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and the rest of the best). DarkSF is the new dark literature. It's fun, hair-raising, and thought provoking all at the same time. Take a Gothic Journey and you'll see why.