Book Review: The Hotel at the End of Time by Michael James

 

The Hotel at the End of Time: Book 1 of The Hotel

by Michael James

This book reminds me a bit of one of my current favorite shows, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., with their inhuman characters, who are humans that have gone through something called terrigenesis and therefore have powers. In this story, people who have gone through some kind of transformation can either store energy or draw it from the other person they are linked up with. Unfortunately, being able to do this makes them targets for Arthur. He uses them like human batteries to power a place called the Hotel.

“Life, since the Hotel, came in heartbeats.”

People who are taken to the Hotel to be used in this way, have their memories wiped. They can remember nothing of their life before. They are beaten and kept in line by Trick and The Wyatts. Wyatts are multiple instances of the same person. Trick is middle management, an enforcer for Arthur, and the Wyatts are the goons, the hitmen.

Somehow, a pair have escaped from the Hotel, Vain and Roman.

Vain is very impulsive and tends to lie to herself as much as anyone else. It seems like she either had some problems before she went into the Hotel, or it messed her up a bit. She’s not stupid, far from it, but rather hyperactive and has trouble focusing on just one thing. She stole something from Arthur when she escaped, a Padlock, and Arthur wants it back.

Roman is very quiet, methodical, and intelligent. It seems clear to Vain that he went to college.

“No matter how much time he spent with Vain, he’d never understand that twisted brain of hers. There were entire sections of her thought process he couldn’t even begin to unravel.”

Roman and Vain are friends, but it seems clear that they are more attached than that. Roman is more or less a human battery for Vain to draw on in supplying power to The Hotel.

Roman and Vain always seem to be on the run, just trying to survive, hunted by the Wyatts.

Then they become separated, and Vain finds Emma.

Emma is quiet, studious, at least upper middle class, a student. Based on her speech and opinions, I expect her clothes to be well put together.

Vain can tell Emma is like her, though only newly so. Vain attempts to warn her that the Wyatts are after her, to take her to the Hotel, but Emma doesn’t listen. Vain can’t stand to walk away and let Emma be treated the way Vain was.

“Emma sighed at her, but Vain was getting used to that. She suspected Emma has undiagnosed asthma and made a mental note talk to her about it.”

That’s my kind of humor.

“Impulsively, Vain made a promise. ‘He will not get you.’ She left out the part about how they might need to run right at him to stop him. Minor details.”

For a first book in a series, and self-published, I was very impressed. There were only a few punctuation or grammatical errors that I noticed, very minimal, no more than some big name traditionally published books that I’ve read in the past year which I could name, but won’t.

It’s a fast-paced intrigue and the characterization is very strong, each one well differentiated in their dialogue and expressions.

I’m looking forward to more from this author.