Spooks on Dream Street centers on the perilous adventure of Montgomery, a well-meaning thief fleeing persecution for stealing and selling matter from crashed alien ships. Betrayed by his addict brother, Montgomery is arrested and struggles in captivity to reconcile devotion to his brother with his own awakening desire to survive in a harrowing future rife with primitive warfare and alien drugsâa dilemma increasingly precarious against a strange, radical coming that might lay waste to mankind yet.
Spooks on Dream Street centers on the perilous adventure of Montgomery, a well-meaning thief fleeing persecution for stealing and selling matter from crashed alien ships. Betrayed by his addict brother, Montgomery is arrested and struggles in captivity to reconcile devotion to his brother with his own awakening desire to survive in a harrowing future rife with primitive warfare and alien drugsâa dilemma increasingly precarious against a strange, radical coming that might lay waste to mankind yet.
Colorless days
beneath the dour sun
and the tanagerâs call
before the womb in the hill
in the live winds of fall
summon Them from above
using language unknownÂ
using language unspoken
with the darkest of tone
Come Victor and Vanquisher
from scars on the sky
gray in the sun
bleak in my eye
Flee you who see Them
Flee anyway
They come
They come
I found the childish refrain among other prophetic memorabilia at Lila Hunterâs safe house on the coast in New Iberia, the dank lowland city where used to be Louisiana. The words were scrawled in ink inside the cover of a notebook in which I knew her to record her nightmares. The handwriting was not hers but my brotherâs. The safe house was empty. Lila was long gone.
* * *
Part 1
Every alien ship crashed and every spook pilot died and everyone knew it, so no one was afraid. No one knew they were crashing at first, when the leading few dropped from the sky like great balls of lead and sent everyone on their toes shouting about an invasion and crying at the sky. But after tens of thousands of supple frames shaped by the cosmos splashed on earthly dirt and the hulls began to rot, which took quite some time, everyone knew, and then everyone said that they knew from the beginning and that from the beginning they were never afraid. My brother Roberto said to me about their bravado, âSelf-deception is the worst kind of sickness. Donât forget that.âÂ
Roberto did know from the very beginning that the ships were crashing. He always knew everything first. Knowing things first was his best skill. Books were cheap so he read books, and not a lot of people read books but me and him, so sometimes he knew things first because of books and other times he tossed the book back where he found it and complained that whoever wrote the book didnât know hell from breakfast. He learned everything else he knew on his own. He wasnât taught by anyone. We hadnât been schooled. He looked at something, thought about it soundlessly, maybe shook it down aloud after being quiet about it, then said something smart which turned out to be true. I would ask him how he knew what he knew and he would say, âI thought about it.â It went about that way when the spooks crashed.
A few or more miles from where the ships came down, Roberto had climbed to the top of the big, chalkwhite bluff with the wormhole caves that the turkey vultures lorded over and watched the atmosphere burn the ships down the starless sky and said with a familiar ridicule, âThatâs not an invasion. Theyâre crashing. The dumb spooks canât hit the landing. We arenât being conquered. Theyâre nicking themselves off on account of pisspoor pilotship.âÂ
Iâd followed him up the bluff. He said a lot more. I never listened too closely, but I followed him everywhere. I didnât want to speculate. I wanted only to watch. The ships pulled tails of spiraling flames violently down into the distant lights behind the massive wall that encased the midwestern satellite cities of the Common Government of North America. A rapid sequence of concussive bursts vibrated the night air. The brilliant, incendiary spectacle transfixed me. Roberto had a way of rubbing brilliance dull by giving his insight. He couldnât simply watch. He called his unsolicited insight perspective. His insight that night was a stunted laugh in uncharacteristic falsetto and the words, said again and again with delight:Â
âTheyâre crashing.â
âHow do you know?â I asked. I remember being unafraid but shaking so severely I pocketed my hands in embarrassment. I didnât listen much to Roberto, but he demanded respect without any effort, and Iâd have sooner jumped off that bluff than let him see me shaking.
âI can see,â Roberto had said. He was as calm as the dark settled in the south behind us. âI can see them crashing. Thatâs how I know. I can see. Canât you?â
I saw the ships catch fire on the way down. I saw the chaos of color. Hell knew what it meant. I never thought Roberto so invincible as I did then and never have since. I like to remember him standing defiantly atop that bluff with his arrogant smile lighted by the distant orange glow of fire.
âIt does look like theyâre crashing,â I said.
âYouâve got to believe what you see,â Roberto told me.Â
Most everyone else had fled. We stayed.
Spooks on Dream Street is set in a brutal and merciless world where a failed alien invasion has left the central United States in ruins. Alien ships, crashed and rotting away, are harvested for their mind altering drug they contain called spooksop. Veteran thief Montgomery Cisco now wants a lifestyle on the straight and narrow. However, after his capture and forced return into the world of crime, he must confront sibling conflicts and the demise of human morality on the planet Earth.Â
Author Jefferson Lewis Jewel has done a remarkable job in constructing a convincing and unique story. Both the originality of the story and his distinct language style are impressive. The confidence and conviction in which the story is told is akin to seasoned writers who have crafted their voice over many years. Every sentence is engaging and immensely descriptive, sparking imagery that adds layer after layer to this world. The characters and relationships are compelling and complex; each offers aspects of darkness, humour, courage and wit throughout. The authenticity of the characters dialogue offers a realistic and natural flow to the story, as well as further convincing the reader that the world exists. The most enjoyable feature of Spooks on Dream Street is the unpredictability of the authorâs writing style. His voice, unique and distinctive, offers a refreshing take on the dystopian genre.Â
It is rare to come across a book that is captivating from start to finish. Whether you are a fan of the dystopian genre or not, Spooks on Dream Street has something to offer for all readers. Jewel is currently in the process of a sequel, and although the release date is not yet noted, it is fair to say that the next instalment will be hugely anticipated and welcomed after reading Spooks on Dream Street.