Blog Tour Review: The Rush

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the THE RUSH by Si Spurrier & Nathan C. Gooden Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: THE RUSH: This Hungry Earth Reddens Under Snowclad Hills (The Rush #1-5)

Author: Si Spurrier, Addison Duke (Colorist), Nathan C. Gooden (Illustrations), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (Letterer), Adrian F. Wassel (Editor)

Pub. Date: August 9, 2022

Publisher: Vault Comics

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 136

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org

Historical horror that chills to the bone, The RUSH. is for fans of Dan Simmons’, The Terror mined with a Northwestern Yukon gold rush edge. Answer the call of the wild north and stampede to the Klondike…

ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD. ALL THAT HUNGERS IS NOT HOLY. ALL THAT LIVE ARE NOT ALIVE.

This Hungry Earth Reddens Under Snowclad Hills.

1899, Yukon Territory. A frozen frontier, bloodied and bruised by the last great Gold Rush. But in the lawless wastes to the North, something whispers in the hindbrains of men, drawing them to a blighted valley, where giant spidertracks mark the snow and impossible guns roar in the night.

To Brokehoof, where gold and blood are mined alike. Now, stumbling towards its haunted forests comes a woman gripped not by greed -- but the snarling rage of a mother in search of her child...

From Si Spurrier (Way of X, Hellblazer) and Nathan C. Gooden (Barbaric, Dark One) comes THE RUSH, a dark, lyrical delve into the horror and madness of the wild Yukon.

Collects the entire series. For fans of The Terror, Fortitude, Coda, and Moonshine.

Reviews:

"The book strikes a wealthy mixed vein of sophisticated psychological chills and monstrous horror."― Publishers Weekly

"Gritty historical drama meets supernatural horror in this sumptuously drawn tale set during the Yukon Gold Rush." ― PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"The Rush is a chilling bit of historical horror. Rugged and raw and thoroughly researched. It's got such a wonderfully creepy sense of menace but most of all it's the moving story of a mother searching for her child, that's its beating heart. Wonderful work."  -- Victor Lavalle (best-selling and award-winning author of he anthology, Slapboxing with Jesus and four novels, The Ecstatic, Big Machine, The Devil in Silver, and The Changeling, the fantasy-horror novella The Ballad of Black Tom, and the comics series Destroyer and Eve)

"The Rush is a splendidly savage tale of frontier scum and the doom they’ve brought down upon themselves, and the innocents cursed to suffer alongside them. I for one can’t wait to see more."  -- Garth Ennis (best-selling and award-winning writer, Preacher, and writer/co-creator of The Boys)

My Review:

The Rush is a horror story involving greed, gold, and a mother's search for her son. Like other comics and stories before it, there are a lot of familiar tropes: gold frenzy, the strength of a mother's love, and the expectations on women from society. What it does differently is blend them with what initially appears to be a rather standard historical fiction horror story. There is a bizarre man, a spider creature, and many other peculiar occurrences and creatures. It would've been highly possible for this to be a run-of-the-mill ghost or creature story, with little depth to it. 

Instead, The Rush is an intricately layered tale of a mother, her son, and the greed of others in a non-traditional setting. While everything at its base appears typical, it is actually very far from it. The threads weave thicker and thicker as each issue goes on. I wasn't expecting it to reach the depths that it did, but I was very pleasantly surprised. So many aspects of this story have been told before, yet Spurrier, Gooden, Duke, Otsmane-Elhaou, and Wassel have created a fresh blend of these elements. 

I enjoyed the art, I enjoyed the story, and I enjoyed the way both played off of each other. I'm still not fully sure what fully went down in some ways, but I'm definitely thinking of re-reading it more slowly to experience it again from a new perspective. This is a mature comic with swearing, some violence, a bit of gore, and a dash of sexual elements towards the end. This is a note for readers who prefer to shy away from one or all of those things. Comic readers who don't mind one way or the other, this might be a solid read. It isn't incredibly creepy, but the setting creates eerie moments within the world and the mystery lends itself to this aspect very well. 

Overall, I enjoyed this comic series and I would recommend it to fans of historical fiction who want something familiar, yet different enough from standard fare. It's also a great illustration of how a community can develop when it is based upon greed. I give The Rush from Vault Comics a Lone Star rating of ✯✯✯✯ stars.  

About Si Spurrier:

His work in the latter field stretches from award winning creator-owned books such as Numbercruncher, Six-Gun Gorilla and The Spire to projects in the U.S. mainstream like Hellblazer, The Dreaming, and X-Men. It all began with a series of twist-in-the-tail stories for the UK’s beloved 2000AD, which ignited an enduring love for genre fiction. His latest book, Coda, is being published by Boom! Studios at present.

His prose works range from the beatnik neurosis-noir of Contract to the occult whodunnit A Serpent Uncoiled via various franchise and genre-transgressing titles. In 2016 he took a foray into experimental fiction with the e-novella Unusual Concentrations: a tale of coffee, crime and overhead conversations.

He lives in Margate, regards sushi as part of the plotting process, and has the fluffiest of cats.

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

 

About Nathan C. Gooden:

An award-winning illustrator and sequential artist, Nathan C. Gooden is Art Director at Vault Comics. Nathan studied animation at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and worked in film production, before co-founding Vault Comics. Nathan’s previous works include Brandon Sanderson’s Dark One (Vault), Barbaric (Vault), Zojaqan (Vault), and  Killbox (from American Gothic Press). He lives in Southern California, where he plays a lot of basketball and hikes constantly with his wife. 

Website |  Instagram | Goodreads

 

Giveaway Details:

2 winners will receive a finished copy of THE RUSH, US Only.

Ends August 23^rd, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

7/25/2022	Writer of Wrongs	Guest Post
7/26/2022	BookHounds	Guest Post/IG Post
7/27/2022	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Excerpt
7/28/2022	Two Chicks on Books	Guest Post
7/29/2022	@jaimerockstarbooktours	IG Post
7/30/2022	Bookdreamr	Review/IG Post/TikTok Post

 Week Two:

7/31/2022	Sadie's Spotlight	Guest Post/IG Post
8/1/2022	Rajiv's Reviews	Review/IG Post
8/2/2022	The Girl Who Reads	Review/IG Post
8/3/2022	Fire and Ice	Review
8/4/2022	The Real World According To Sam	Review/IG Post
8/5/2022	@allyluvsbooksalatte	IG Post
8/6/2022	See Sadie Read	Review/IG Post

 Week Three:

8/7/2022	The Momma Spot	Review/IG Post
8/8/2022	Lifestyle of Me	Review
8/9/2022	Two Points of Interest	Review
8/10/2022	The Chatty Bookworm	Tik Tok Review/IG Post
8/11/2022	One More Exclamation	Review/IG Post
8/12/2022	Nerdophiles	Review
8/13/2022	@just_another_mother_with_books	IG Review

 Week Four:

8/14/2022	The Underground	Review
8/15/2022	@thebookishfoxwitch	IG Review
8/16/2022	Brandi Danielle Davis	Review/IG Post
8/17/2022	More Books Please blog	Spotlight
8/18/2022	Lady Hawkeye	Excerpt/IG Post
8/19/2022	@lexijava	Review/IG Post