Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: An ancient Babylonian god is trapped in an opium addict’s body in 1928’s Paris and has to stop an elite circle of gods from using the Eiffel Tower as a mind-controlling radio to take over the world. I love everything about that premise, which—along with the gorgeous cover—had me more than a little excited to dive into this book.
Rushing has created a vibrant, breathing world with RADIO. He’s obviously intimately familiar with Paris and he’s done the research to make it feel authentically like 1928. Specific slang and references to pop culture went a long way toward immersing me in the setting.
The first few chapters felt a little rocky. We’re told the story from the perspective of Marduk, an ancient god who ruled the city of Babylon, and he’s far from a sympathetic character. The gods in RADIO casually use and throw away human lives—their followers are called Eunuchs due to their mental castration into ideal servants, they regularly kill their hosts when they grow bored of their current bodies, and every few years they murder children who may one day grow powerful enough to hurt them.
Murder is a term used by the consumed. The consumer deems it part of survival.
For me to be properly invested in an unlikable character’s point of view, I need to see them play off the characters around them. And the way the story was structured for the first few chapters, there was very little dialogue with other characters to take us out of Marduk’s head.
Thankfully, that changed when Marduk became trapped in an opium addict’s body and had to learn to work with his host’s roommate, Bernie. Bernie is easily the heart and soul of this novel, and I devoured the story in a couple sittings once he was introduced. RADIO feels a bit like a buddy cop noir mystery, with the friendly and charismatic Bernie playing off the surly and borderline sociopathic Marduk. Adding a fun wrench in the works is the fact that Marduk’s host body, Del, is still alive and kicking inside his head.
The plot is full of several twists and turns—some I could predict, and others took me completely by surprise. Opium addiction is taken very seriously and plays a major role in the plot, which is something I’d love to see explored more often in fantasy. I’d say the ending was a little too abrupt for my taste, but it managed to hit all the right emotional notes to leave me satisfied.
RADIO by J. Rushing is a book that will pull you in with the spectacular worldbuilding and keep you invested with the wonderful character arcs. Overall, it was a damn fun read. I’ve never read another book where an ancient opium-addicted god gets a guitar solo in a jazz club while an immortal demon mind controls the crowd… and somehow I suspect I never will again.
This book is also a contender for one of the Fantasy Inn’s SPFBO semifinalists. More about the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off here.
2 thoughts on “RADIO by J. Rushing”