Dominion / Greg F. Gifune
Delirium Books / March 2008
Reviewed by: Shannon Riley
The death of a loved one is never easy, and for Daniel Cicero, the sudden and violent accidental hit and run death of his beloved wife, Lindsey, is shattering. Trapped in a prison of unrelenting grief, unable to move forward with his life, he clings to the comfort of established routine, driving each day to the radio station from which he was fired, spending his nights in the company of his best friend or wandering the streets, living always in the shadow of his loss.
Then strange things began to happen. A stranger calls and taunts him with the message that Lindsey is still alive and he begins seeing private photographs of his wife as well as other disturbing images on the computer. As the malevolent stranger draws nearer, dreams and premonitions make it difficult to distinguish fact from illusion, and when Daniel goes in search of the truth, he finds himself confronting the possibility of alternate realities and evil that uses technology and our secret sins as bridges between worlds.
Delving deeply into the theory of quantum physics, the story presents the possibility of multiple physical manifestations of the same individuals existing, not in separate spheres, but here on earth at the same time.
Multi-layered and veined with subplots, the novel questions aspects of how society labels persons different than the norm and whether the accepted means of determining intelligence is actually a means of discrimination.
Greg F. Gifune has been called “the thinking person’s horror writer,” and he is that. He is also a master storyteller. Associate editor at Delirium Books, he is author of such novels as Deep Night, The Bleeding Season and A View from the Lake.
Compelling and beautifully written, Dominion is at once a disturbing story of loss, guilt, and the triumph of darkness as well as a dissertation on human existence that questions the very foundations of our beliefs about God, life and the hereafter.
Purchase Greg F. Gifune’s Dominion.