Review: Liminal States - Zack Parsons

Title: Liminal States
Author: Zack Parsons
Release Date: March 27 2012
Publisher: Kensington
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: 4 Hoots
Reviewer: April
Buy From: Amazon/ Barnes and Noble

Sum It Up!  This was an amazing book and even thought it was tough at times...it was well worth it!

Liminal States is the debut novel from SomethingAwful editor Zack Parsons, and it's extraordinary. It begins as a grim, relentless western novel that describes a doomed love triangle between a simple lawman, the twisted scion of an land-baron, and a woman who has married one but thinks she might belong with the other. After a botched train robbery and an epic battle, Gideon (the rich man's son) finds himself gutshot in the desert, led by a mysterious spirit animal to a mystical pool that dissolves him and then reincarnates him, young and whole and vital and immortal. Gideon goes back for the woman he loves, only to discover that she has died in childbirth, and, enraged, he kidnaps the lawman who was her husband and throws him into the pool, too. And now they are both immortal. Every time they die, they are reborn in the pool, over and over, locked in orbit around each other like twin suns being drawn into a destructive nova. This first third of the novel is dark and bloody and remorseless, a story of revenge and tragedy that doesn't let up, until...  (Goodreads)

Review:

Liminal States was quite the adventure! It is like three novels in one and they all compliment and build on each other. Three different perspectives and times periods really adds to this amazing and thought inspiring novel. I have not read a lot of science fiction so I do not have a lot to compare this novel to, but it was a ride like no other! Liminal Statesis not an easy read and will not give anything up to you, but if you read on (and sometimes go back a few pages to see what happened again) you will be rewarded.

The story starts out in New Mexico with as a western, then moves into a 1950's murder mystery, and finally takes you into the present. The book mainly revolves around two men; Warren Groves, a Wild West officer with evil in him, and Gideon Long, desperate man who was emotionally abused by his father. The two men cross paths and end up finding what they think is a Fountain of Youth that can revive them every time they die. This 'Fountain' also begins producing duplicates of their past selves. When these duplicates begin to cause problems the true nature of the 'Fountain' is revealed. This was an amazing book and even thought it was tough at times...it was well worth it!