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Matt Costello, author of The 7th Guest and the upcoming (2002) Unidentified (Penguin Putnam).
With Fireworks, James Moore mixes a powerful blend of science fiction and horror that asks the question...what would you do when --overnight -- freedom was replaced by terror? Jim puts the people of Collier into that strange, frightening situation, and readers will hang on every step of the way for the exciting twists and turns of their fight against a faceless enemy.
Bentley Little, author of The Store and The WalkingWhat impresses me most about {Fireworks}, aside from the thought-provoking premise, is James A. Moore's remarkable ability to paint a detailed portrait of an entire town. Quite a few novelists are able to create memorable, believable characters, but the number of those who can do the same for an entire community, conjuring up the tactile sensations of a geographic location while peopling it with distinct personalities, is far fewer. It was that aspect of Stephen King's {'Salem's Lot} which first alerted me to the fact that here was a talent, here was someone to watch. I had the same feeling while reading {Fireworks}. Here is a talent. Here is someone to watch.
Christopher Golden, author of Strangewood and Of Saints And Shadows
James A. Moore's FIREWORKS is a masterful, cruelly ironic novel that somehow melds the folksy, small-town atmosphere of the best King and McCammon novels with an examination of the disturbing dichotomy that is 'the American way.' Moore grows increasingly assured with each new book, and FIREWORKS exhibits a confidence and skill that represents his own declaration of independence. Great things are to be expected of Jim Moore, ladies and gentlemen. Get your tickets early; you don't want to miss the FIREWORKS.
Michael Marano, author of Dawn SongThought for a minute I'd say Jim Moore's the future of horror. But he's not. Jim Moore's the bluesman of horror, standing at the crossroads. Jim knows all the great and classic horror riffs... all of 'em. His work's the dream jam session of every fan and reader. He's got King's riffs down (not B.B., the other guy). He's got Koontz's down. Morrell's and McCammon's, too. Somebody taught him all those riffs... don't know who. But what exactly does Jim do at the crossroads in the middle of the night?
P.D. Cacek, author of Canyons
James A. Moore has crafted a terrifyingly real scenario, a What If that could happen…and heaven help the common man if it does.
Mehitobel Wilson, Gothic Net
The cover art of this book, a striking piece by Kevin Murphy that, while gorgeous, screams science fiction, led me, at first, to set this book aside into the later stack. When I did start to read Fireworks, I only stopped when forced, and took early lunches for two days so I could come home and read more of it.
The premise is simple: a humongous spaceship crash-lands in the small town of Collier, Georgia, and a special military force takes control of the town. The faceless squad institutes harsh curfews, shoot-on-sight orders, and general martial law. Communications are severed and no one may enter or leave the town. The residents of Collier who survived the crash are not allowed to see their injured loved ones or to bury their dead, and they have very few freedoms left to them. The soldiers, meanwhile, must both control the citizens of Collier and investigate the downed craft.
So, that's the situation. The body of the book focuses on the dynamics of human emotion, reaction, and motivation under the stresses of the situation above. Moore delivers the story in sections. The opening establishes the premise: the craft crashes and the military arrives. Sounds simple, but holy crap, is the crash scene amazing. It just doesn't stop, and Moore's inventiveness and detail provides horrific images that I'll never forget.
The next section focuses on Frank Osborn, Collier's police chief, who believes that the best way to survive the situation and see a peaceful resolution is to do what the military tells the town to do. Frank's not a wimp by any means, but he has faith in America, he has faith in the military (he is himself a veteran), and he wants to do what's best for everyone. He's vilified by some townspeople for, in their view, siding with the bad guys; he's also used by the military to help control the town. He's in a bad spot. In Frank's story Moore examines the choices borne of loyalty versus those borne of necessity, and the repercussions of those choices. It's tough.
The next section features Karen, a Collier citizen: in this section we see the situation through the eyes of someone who has to abide by the choices of others, rather than make any of her own. During the period of time that Karen's story covers, too, the townspeople are starting to recover from the shock of the crash and of the military occupation, and are starting to get pissed, and to make plans to retaliate. The final section focuses on Jack, one of the occupying soldiers. I can't tell you much about this part. Moore also provides interludes in which he can again change perspective and show the thoughts and activities of other characters.
During the main sections, Moore does an incredible job of characterizing others through the eyes of the focal person through gestures, posture, and speech. (He couldn't use facial expressions to characterize the soldiers, because they are helmeted, unnamed, and barely distinguishable from one another at first.)
The soldiers have as much moral trouble with the situation as the citizens do, by the way. There are no inhuman characters in Fireworks. Moore's writing is smooth and his description is sharp, but the real coup here is the depth of the characters. Incredible book, this one.
Continued in the review of Stephen King's Dreamcatcher, same article.
Dig it: the premise here is that a big ol' spaceship crash-lands in the woods of Maine, and the military arrives, sets the perimeter, makes camp, and treats everyone like shit. (See Fireworks.) Basically. There are also infection-spreading aliens, mind control, anally-birthed shit-weasels (that's what they are called, leave me alone), telepathy, explosive farting, and a psychotic military commander named...Kurtz. Childhood friends, now adults, end up having to go to Derry to find a way to fight the evil. Yep. There is even psychic travel along the web of a dreamcatcher-remember when, in It, Bill faces down the Chud and bites its tongue? It was like that.
Steve, sweet thing, what are you doing? Did you just put everything you could think of into the kitty? Kurtz-are you kidding me? Sure, there's a line that suggests that this guy chose to call himself Kurtz, but you're the one who really chose to call him that, and it's stupid. There's way too much going on in this book, and you know it. Tell your editor to come back from wherever he's vacationing with the cash you earned him, and remind him that editing's a job, and even Kings need their services.
There are about eighteen plots and three hundred shifts in viewpoint, so I can't tell you what's going on. Aliens are gunking up the works with shitweasels and fungus, and the military is a bigger threat than they are. There are some nice guys in the book that get weaseled and beset with fungus. There are some crazy folks. There is a kid with Down's Syndrome that has great psychic powers that rubbed off on his friends to some extent, and the kid is important. (The best parts of this book were the flashbacks to when the four main characters were boys, and to their remembrances of this kid Duddits. That was some good storytelling.)
There were good ideas here, and good elements-and they should have been turned into about seven different books. Jeez. That's the most frustrating thing about this book, the fact that a good cleaning could have left us with a good story. The long opening chunk, during which nasty stuff happens but the characters don't yet know what's going on, is fun, and the characterization is handled well. But then King goes berserk and the book falls apart. Oh, well. King can get away with a dud now and then. Interviews and articles suggested that King was concerned about his ability to gather writing steam again; Dreamcatchers suggests that he definitely has the steam, so we can be happy about that. Next time he'll aim it in one direction and burn us, I hope, instead of just releasing obfuscative clouds of it. Spend your money on Moore's Fireworks instead, and if you're just dying for a fat and creepy King book, just re-read The Talisman (even though that's cheating, since it's half Straub.)
Garrett Peck - Cinescape Online
James A. Moore, a former secretary and vice-president of the Horror Writers Association, penned one of the ten best horror/dark fantasy novels of last year with Over the Undertree. This character-driven story full of mainstream sensibilities proved he was ready to join the big leagues. Indeed, this novel has been picked up by Leisure and will see mass-market release this year. In the meantime, Meisha Merlin Publishing is launching his follow-up, Fireworks. This novel is further proof that Moore is no longer just a writer to watch, but has graduated to must - read status.
Fireworks is the story of a town-Collier, Georgia - that's in the wrong place at the wrong time. During the annual Fourth of July fireworks celebration, an enormous alien craft crashes into Oldman's Lake. This results in well over a hundred deaths and just as many severe injuries. Unfortunately for the citizens of Collier, this UFO has been tracked by the ultra-secret government agency Project Onyx. Soldiers, armored with black suits, helmets that hide their faces, breathing apparatuses and heavy weaponry, descend on the town and put it under quarantine. Nobody comes in, nobody goes out. Not even the severely injured or tourists just in town for the show. All become prisoners, subject to marshal law. Their constitutional rights are suspended. The government concocts a cover story involving a nonexistent terrorist to keep the media at bay. Completely cut off from the outside world, the rage of the patriotic citizens grows as more and more of their freedoms are taken away, all in the name of National Security. Soon the people of Collier begin to question if they'll ever be allowed to leave, or if they'll all be slaughtered to keep the government's secret.
Moore tells his story through three viewpoints, allowing him to examine the situation he's created from various perspectives. A prelude familiarizes the reader with Collier and some of the characters they'll be meeting, as well as giving us the dope on the folks with Project Onyx. Book One tells the story through the eyes of Police Chief Frank Osborn. His authority mostly usurped by the soldiers, he becomes the liaison between the occupying army and the citizens he is sworn to protect. In this segment Moore explores the often tense relations between federal and local authorities. His sleepy Georgia town becomes a microcosm of the battle over States' Rights. Book Two tells us Karen's story, giving us the civilian perspective. Book Three: Jack's story gives us the view of one of the Project Onyx soldiers, who lived in Collier many years before and is forced to question his orders when he sees what his unit is doing to the town he once called home. In between these segments are several Interludes, giving us the omniscient take. This narrative structure allows Moore to examine the many issues his story raises in a more focused way then simply switching tense throughout the story.
And he certainly does raise plenty of topical concerns, ranging from conspiracy theories about black ops to race and class relations, gun rights and the true meaning of patriotism. In these days where our constitutional rights are slowly being eroded and we become less of a democracy and more of a National Security state, these are all issues that deserve a great deal more thoughtful attention than they're getting from corporate media and an apathetic public. Moore digs his claws in deep into the readers' minds, forcing them to think even as he entertains them. Stephen King touches on a lot of these same themes in his latest novel, Dreamcatcher, but Moore's more tightly focused novel does a far better job in exploring them.
Despite the science fictional device of the alien spacecraft, this is much more of horror-novel-cum-political-thriller. The aliens themselves are not revealed and the purpose of their visits to earth is not among Moore's concerns. The spacecraft is simply the McGuffin that creates the real conflicts of his story. Man's inhumanity to man is a far more interesting theme than xenophobia ever was. If you're looking for yet another aliens-invade-the-earth novel, this isn't it. If you want an involving and intelligent novel about serious sociological, political and interpersonal issues, however, you couldn't do much better. Highly recommended.
The inhabitants of Collier, Ga., are watching a fireworks display when something falls from the sky that changes their lives forever. Cut off from communication with the world and mourning the loss of dozens of people, the townsfolk summon the courage to face top-secret government forces, alien visitors and the constant threat of imprisonment and death in James A. Moore's (Under the Overtree) Fireworks.
On the Fourth of July, the town of Collier, GA, changes forever as an unidentified object from space crashes into a nearby lake. This cataclysmic event, however, only heralds the beginning of bigger disasters, as the town's residents are taken hostage by their own government in the interest of national security. This latest novel by the author of Under the Overtree depicts the eerie aftermath of an alien visitation and government occupation in chillingly graphic detail. Not for the squeamish, this belongs in most horror or sf collections.
Barry Hunter. Baryon Magazine
This is the latest from Moore who wrote the well-received UNDER THE OVERTREE and now presents us with a picture of another small town that will end up fighting for its life against forces from too close to home. It looks like it's going to be another typical 4th of July. Everyone is preparing for the fireworks show that draws visitors from all around. Collier, Georgia is a small southern town that takes care of its own. Neighbors care for each other in sickness. The town mill makes sure everyone who wants to work has a job, and all that is about to change.
The fireworks are almost over when a gigantic craft crashes into the lake turning it into steam, green lightning danced around the park and the wail of a banshee turned out to be the last thing around 200 people every saw. The next thing the survivors remember are helicopters filled with masked armored soldiers that have cut the town off from the rest of civilization. Project Onyx has now taken over the town with the intent to recover the mysterious disc shaped object at any costs.
Moore has written a tale where the government suspends the Constitution and tells the townspeople to cooperate or be wiped off the face of the Earth. Moore knows his background and shows how a small Southern town would react to being forced into aiding an occupation force until pushed to the limits. This is a marvelous novel of suspense as we watch the characters fight for their freedoms against a superior force. Moore has done it again; pick this one up for sure.
Harriet Klausner, Midwest Book Review
Collier, Georgia is a quiet little town, typical of rural America in composition and attitudes. Although it is populated mostly by plain, simple folk, it still has its share of colorful characters and bad apples. There is, however, very little about the town to distinguish it from its neighbors. At least that is the case until the Fourth of July, when an enormous alien spacecraft crashes in a local lake, vaporizing its contents and killing dozens of locals. That's the day the lives of the citizens of Collier change forever, in ways you might not expect. This is not a novel of alien conquest, or even of alien contact.
Eschewing predictable plot lines, Moore instead poses two simple questions, namely, How would the federal government react in such a situation? and, Given that reaction, how would it affect the lives of the local populace? Moore provides a suitably chilling answer to these queries, positing a special branch of the armed forces created to handle just such a task, a grim cadre of soldiers dressed in high-tech body armor, their faces concealed by black visors. Immediately after the crash landing, these soldiers descend on Collier, cutting it off from the rest of the world under the pretext of battling terrorist activity. Their main objective: to secure the apparently inert craft. Their secondary objective: to maintain secrecy, even if it means killing everyone in the town. This then is the focus of Moore's narrative, as he chronicles the reactions of everyday people to the invasion of their town by their own country.
Although at first they are cooperative, the townspeople come to realize that they are in fact prisoners. Their resentment and anger grow by the day, building to a surprising crescendo. Moore populates his book with living, breathing characters, human beings on both sides of the conflict who, despite their fears, are only doing their best to cope with a stressful situation. Moore is more in control of this narrative than he was of his prior effort, the flawed but highly readable Under the Overtree. The writing here is crisp and clear, the pacing is almost flawless, and, with the exception of the appearance of the spacecraft which triggers these events (its origins and purpose remain a mystery throughout), the subject matter is utterly believable and involving. Moore effectively milks the situation for all it's worth, filling the novel with telling incidents and detail, forcing readers to confront the brutal reality that true horror may lie in something as simple as losing the simple freedoms that Americans take for granted. A twisted combination of Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here and Thornton Wilder's Our Town, Fireworks is a great read, a book that merits your attention.
Henry Wagner - Hellnotes Book Review
The people of Collier, Georgia are patriots with everyone looking forward to the evening fireworks celebrating the Fourth of July. Everyone enjoys the festivities until a flying saucer the size of three football field lands in the middle of the lake, killing hundreds of people and injuring hundreds more.
Soldiers from Arizona's the Durango Military Installation, Sector 17 arrive under the command and control of a secret intelligence organization that plan to recover the saucer. The soldiers wear special safety suits as they enforce martial law. No one can enter or leave the perimeter established to contain the townsfolk and the saucer occupants. Communications to the outside world is also severed, further isolating the residents of Collier. As the excavation goes slowly, the military invaders trample even more on the civil liberties of the locals. Hostilities are becoming so commonplace outright war is a distinct possibility.
If a person were asked to describe the works of James A. Moore, one could easily respond that the author combines the best of Koontz and Little in a unique style of his own. FIREWORKS is another one of Mr. Moore's usual cross genre appeal tale that will more than enthrall horror and conspiracy buffs with its out of this world story line.
The Independence Day celebration in Collier, Georgia, is disrupted by the crash landing of a gigantic UFO. A quarter of the population are killed or maimed, and worse follows, as the forces of the secret agency Onyx descend, appropriately enough in black helicopters, not to mention black combat gear, weapons, Hummers and everything else an elite special-operations unit uses. The Onyx troopers' security oriented paranoia elicits a similar response form the townsfolk, who aren't fond of the government to begin with and grow less fond with each passing hour, day, and incident. Chief of Police Frank Osborn and Onyx's Colonel Anderson try to cool the hotheads and remember that Americans constitute both sides. But incomprehension and violence (willful on the part of some white supremacists)escalate to a gruesome climax that erases Collier from the map, just in time to see the UFO go back to wherever it came from. Irony, tragedy, regional color, memorable character sketches and literate paranoia mix together in Moore's disturbing, absorbing novel. -Roland Green {Exploding with action, the story's tension will captivate even nongenre fans. KS}
Kevin Kovelant - Danger Media 212 Degrees Book ReviewsLet's pretend for a moment that you are a writer. You have an idea for a book. You work long and hard over the manuscript, and just as you finish it, Hollywood (Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin of all people) releases a summer blockbuster with the same basic premise as your book. Even worse, they manage to use the same title you originally had in mind. Now of course, you could sue... but realistically what's the point? They never saw your manuscript, and you never saw their screenplay. Its a simple case of two people coming up with a similar idea at the same time. Such is the case with James Moore's book Fireworks. Original title? Independence Day.
The starting point of the two stories is remarkably similar. UFO's show up on our doorstep on the fourth of July. What happens next is where the Moore's book, and Emmerich and Devlin's film veer off into two completely different stories. While I have mixed feelings about ID4, the movie, I have very strong feelings about the book Fireworks.
ID4 is a rah-rah patriotic feelgood fun shoot-em-up movie about the United States saving the world from alien invasion. Fireworks, on the other hand is a deep study in character and group dynamics when confronted with the unthinkable. Needless to say, I find Moore's book to be the more realistic of the two, and ultimately more satisfying.
Collier, Georgia is getting ready for its annual July 4th fireworks celebration. Unfortunately, the show gets the ultimate finale as a large UFO crash lands in the local lake. While Emmerich and Devlin decided to show the destructive force of the invading aliens from a safe distance, Jim brings the utter horror of a lone impact in almost painful detail. People suffer radiation burns. People die. People are trapped in superheated glass as the sand from the beach around the lake fuses around them. Children bleed to death, or are orphaned. Or both.
(Very) Shortly after the crash, government forces block off the town, and no one is allowed to leave. Gradually, the townspeople's rights are stripped from them, along with their weapons, their communication with the outside world, and their property. Martial law is declared as the troops set up shop to salvage the UFO. Some of the townsfolk are cooperative, others try to revolt against the armed invasion of their town. Some are torn between the two options. Some realize that the only way the government will ever keep the townspeople quiet once the UFO has been removed, is to kill them all.
What makes this book particularly good is that the characters are all too human. It would be very easy and tempting to put them in certain molds: The hard-ass military commander, the local chief-of-police who ultimately saves the day, the minister who loses his faith, the strong heroine, the local ruthless tycoon. But Jim avoids this. Each of his characters has a depth and complexity that makes them real. This is reinforced in the way that he breaks the novel up into sections told from the points of view of the chief of police, one of the townsfolk, and one of the occupying soldiers. These are people. People who sometimes make wrong decisions, or don't think through the consequences of their actions. As such, we are able to identify with them, and feel very strongly for them. What could have easily been a quick mindless sci-fi read, now becomes an engrossing look at how people act and react under stress. Not just hard day at the office stress, but life-changing stress.
The UFO in the lake is the least of the town's worries. In fact, the UFO serves only as a catalyst for the story that Moore tells. Aliens are never actually seen or heard from. The UFO is almost secondary to the complex interactions of the occupying forces and the town. This ultimately makes the story more realistic than Hollywood could ever hope for, and as such, far more engrossing.
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