“Dark Matters” is the story of Jynx and ChoCho, alone in their truck, in a devastated world looking for supplies and other survivors.  It’s the story of their day to day existence, driving through the desert near Phoenix, Arizona, trying to survive.  So far it is sort of reminiscent of “The Road Warrior”, except there is no villain. 

It’s an interesting premise, but by Chapter 5 (they’re long chapters) I still didn’t see much being done with it.  Not much happens for the first chapter or so.  After that we start to meet other survivors and get some background story for the characters.  Unfortunately, I still didn’t feel any real tension or any hint as to where this story is going other than driving down another empty road.

The story is written in the present tense, third person.  I’m not used to that “voice” and I found it a bit awkward.  There were a couple of times I’m pretty sure the author slipped up on the tense used.  The writing is gritty, a bit dark, and rather frank when dealing with bodily functions.  There is a lot of detail, some might call it minutiae, about how they survive.  There were lists of supplies, complete with brand names and the necessary trademark symbols, and descriptions of how the supplies were stowed on the truck.  Water is a concern of course.  I have to admit I’d never thought about the many uses of rainwater in a desert before.  The actions taken to survive are necessary but the amount of detail makes the pace of the writing quite slow.  Some of the imagery used in the first few parts was a bit distracting – not quite purple prose, but a bit colourful and/or awkward against the other, mostly monotone, writing.  That said, it does improve in later chapters.

A larger problem for me is that I never really cared about any of the characters.  They seemed numb, which probably isn’t surprising given the circumstances, but it doesn’t make for absorbing reading.  There wasn’t a lot of character development and I never felt that I got to know them.  The relationship between the two main characters seemed very superficial.  They seemed to be together because they both survived, but nothing seemed to develop between them, other than sex.  This may have changed later in the story but I couldn’t get interested enough to continue.

“Dark Matters” is the story of the survivors of some kind of devastating event.  There isn’t a lot of action except for driving and sex.  If you like post-apocalyptic stories, you might want to check it out.

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I had a very hard time getting past the first five chapters in this story:  I’m not particularly fond of present tense and its use in Dark Matters jarred me.  The extensive use of passive was also a factor, but I found that easier to overlook. 

But what kept me from [more . . .]

Dark Matters is a styled post-apocalyptic yarn that stretches from hither-to-thither with a great deal of emotions and sex to tension the line. The main characters, Jynx and ChoCho, thrust the reader into a new world, not just the ultimately changed one that has fallen into strange shards around them, but worlds born entirely from their psyches.

The survival-technology aspect of these stories is certainly interesting. And while it’s not my forte—nor what I’m looking for in a story—it certainly drives it forward in a Mad Max near-end-of-the-world sort of hayride. And it was worth the read. I’ve certainly gleaned some wacky trivia about surviving the fall of civilization from Jynx’s balls-to-the-wall independent streak.

The tense psychological fires drag out the inner worlds of our two characters with stunning proficiency. Some sections are steeped in the deep damage or dark adorations of the characters by dipping into past abuses and relationships that have forged them into the creatures they are today.

Between learning to love the characters and wondering what the hell happened to the Earth during its apocalyptic throes, it is enough to keep me reading. Or at least, coming back for more.

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