"Quirky and creepy by turn … the blend of genres, from science fiction to cosmic horror, is masterfully executed. Readers will be riveted by this clever, unsettling adventure." —Publishers Weekly
"A wonderful book—funny, strange, perpetually surprising, aglow with insight and fierce compassion. Keith Rosson is one of my favorite writers; I'd follow him through the haunted woods any day." —Ben Loory, author of Tales of Falling and Flying
“When was the last time I had this much fun reading a novel? Keith Rosson is a mixologist of fiction, and Road Seven, with its cryptozoology, Icelandic mysticism, science fiction-ey conspiracy-laden horror, is his craft cocktail. With the forward momentum of a T.C. Boyle novel but a vision wholly his own, Rosson emerges as one of fiction’s most exciting voices with a novel unlike any I’ve read.” —John McNally, author of The Fear of Everything and The Book of Ralph
"With his unique, preternatural skills, Keith Rosson is back with Road Seven. Deeply dimensional characters struggle at their wits' end with the emotional truths of their utterly flawed, conflicted, hapless selves. Dialogue vibrates with subtext in vividly imagined scenes described in always surprising, always apt words. He achieves the goal of so many writers: a style all his own that signifies in all the ways—from the subtlest touches to quick jabs, gut punches, and spin kicks that will floor you. Give yourself time to catch your breath, recover, and reread." —Roy Freirich, author of Deprivation and Winged Creatures
"As in his Smoke City (2017), Rosson offers crisp characterization and surprising twists. Here he maps a magical journey through the wilds of rural Iceland and into a kaleidoscopic terrain filled with secretly active military bases, and muddied body parts that sully what began as an innocent expedition into the supernatural. … Rosson’s clever, swiftly paced story has more than enough to keep readers turning the pages and wanting to believe. …An engrossing and creative story of the wonders of the unknown with an Icelandic accent." —Kirkus Reviews
5 stars: "This book is drool worthy … The story has so many moving parts, as you read it’s hard to see how they will ever fit together, or who might be hallucinating, but they magically piece together in a terrifying yet mystifying way. By the end you’re left wondering if you’re living your best life, if you’ve made the right choices, and what you can do to start doing so. If you love books that are deep yet fantastical, light but heavy- you’re going to want to pick up Road Seven." —Aconite Cafe
"Inventive and empathetic, the novel is populated by broken people with deep flaws whose relationships are troubled … Cross-genre elements— including personalized, existential horror; noir threats; and the unsettling unknown—result in a disconcerting adventure whose dark humor prevails. Darkly comic and brimming with flawed characters, Road Seven examines the price of knowledge as the unknown becomes horrific." —Foreword Reviews
2020-04-02
An anthropologist and his sidekick investigate a mysterious video that may show a unicorn in this novel that blends an Icelandic adventure with magical realism.
Mark Sandoval’s alien abduction memoir was made into a Hollywood blockbuster starring Brad Pitt, and he plans to study otherworldly beings further on a site visit to Iceland. Without revealing all of his aims, the self-described “renowned cultural anthropologist” and “famed cryptozoologist” enlists as his research assistant Brian Schutt, a headache-prone academic with a doctoral dissertation that's stuck in creative limbo back in Portland, Oregon. Schutt is mystified by the geometric scarring that covers his boss’s body—a “cosmic roadmap” or perhaps “warning or prophecy,” Sandoval’s memoir had suggested. Once both men trek to the Icelandic town of Hvíldarland, they bond over their shared fascination with mythical entities, cryptic creatures, and historical lore. Sandoval soon reveals the expedition’s true purpose: to investigate a grainy video sent to Sandoval of what looks like a unicorn on a pumpkin farm. Though Schutt is more skeptical, the trip provides a timely escape from his messy family melodrama and a dire health diagnosis. As they dig deeper into the area’s mystical folklore and haunted forest, all of it becomes a terrific thrill for Schutt, a man “still doggy-paddling through his academic career,” and Sandoval, hoping to lay claim to discovering the elusive creature with droppings that consist of “a gleaming coruscation of granulated glitter.” As in his Smoke City (2017), Rosson offers crisp characterization and surprising twists. Here he maps a magical journey through the wilds of rural Iceland and into a kaleidoscopic terrain filled with secretly active military bases and muddied body parts that sully what began as an innocent expedition into the supernatural. While the conclusion is disappointingly hokey and doesn’t quite measure up to the narrative mysticism and preternatural wonder preceding it, Rosson’s clever, swiftly paced story has more than enough to keep readers turning the pages and wanting to believe.
An engrossing and creative story of the wonders of the unknown with an Icelandic accent.
