Drew Magary’s new novel, The Hike, follows Ben, a dad trying to get home after wandering into a parallel universe on a business trip. . . . Buy it for all your friends—everyone loves a good dad odyssey.”
—GQ
“The Hike just works. It’s like early, good Chuck Palahniuk leeched of all bitterness and class warfare—back when Chuck was still weird and tired and furious. It’s like a story you tell yourself on a long drive alone in the dark. It’s fun and fast and bizarre, familiar yet completely other. But the real kicker? Magary underhands a twist in at the end that hits you like a sharp jab at the bell. You'll see stars, I promise, but I don't want to come within a million miles of spoiling for you. It’s just that good.”
—NPR.org
“A page-turner. . . . A successful work of contemporary fantasy. It displays a writer in command of his voice and experimenting with more traditional forms of narrative, while being inventive, funny, and, by the end of the work, quietly profound and touching.”
—BoingBoing
“It’s kind of a more cynical version of The Phantom Tollbooth mixed with a game of Dungeons & Dragons from Community creator Dan Harmon’s podcast Harmontown.”
—Wired, chosen as one of “This Summer’s 14 Must-Read Books”
“At once heartfelt, nerve-wracking, and soul-searching, The Hike is an emotional punch to the gut draped in the trappings of fantasy and psychological horror. It’s a beautifully written novel with thoughtful characters, crunchy descriptions, and crisp action. I loved every single ounce of this book. I’m already looking forward to re-reading it and I only finished it a few days ago. Easily a contender for a slot in my top five favorite books of 2016.”
—Tor.com
“Often hilarious, as you would expect any book by Magary to be, but like The Postmortal there is a real darkness and thoughtfulness to Ben’s journey that will keep you engrossed.”
—i09.com’s Summer Reading Guide
“A gonzo fantasy adventure with a simple premise: a guy gets lost in the woods. Yet with Magary, getting lost means being chased by dog-faced murderers, crashing into an iceberg, almost getting eaten by a giant, and being forced to build a castle for the undead. In short, things get weird.”
—Men's Journal
“The Hike does for casual hiking what Jaws did for swimming in the ocean. . . . An existential, metaphysical journey into what would happen if you ended up in an alternate universe that challenged everything you thought you knew about yourself.”
—GeekDad.com
“A fun and funny book.”
—PopMatters.com
“The Hike reads like a mix of The Odyssey and The Phantom Tollbooth, with the same humor Magary uses on Deadspin. . . . Along the way, Magary’s hero hunts for an enigmatic mastermind, encounters man-eating giants and monsters, and teams up with a talking crab. What starts out as a saga of suburban ennui quickly turns into gripping tale of survival.”
—Washington City Paper
“Among the strangest books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. . . . True to its nature, the story stays unpredictable and weird right up to the climax. Magary’s book is a love letter to fans of gaming, fantasy and adventure, but above all, to open minded readers who can relax and hang on for the ride.”
—BookPage
“A road novel, a psychedelic Pilgrim’s Progress for the 21st Century, Cormac McCarthy after three scotches. . . . I loved every single page of it. . . . [This book] is very good. Tell your friends.”
—The Free Lance-Star
“Magary’s second novel (after The Postmortal) features elements reminiscent of Homer’s Odyssey, Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” series, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, and the PC game King’s Quest. Mostly, it is a reminder of not only how easy it is to get lost but also how difficult it can be to find one’s way back. Fast-paced and immensely entertaining, this is highly recommended for sf fans and adventurous literary readers.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
“In this literary odyssey, Magary combines fascinating dream imagery, assorted video game tropes, and a story structure that’s deliberately predictable (with nods to many other tales of wandering through strange lands before returning home) but still surprising.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Creepy. . . . Magary isn't shy about getting weird fast. . . . [He] even nails the ending with a Twilight Zone twist that would have Rod Serling nodding with approval. An eerie odyssey that would be right at home in the pages of the pulpy Warren comics.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“The Hike is Cormac McCarthy’s Alice in Wonderland—gritty and terrifying but with deliriously surreal twists and turns. There’s not a chapter that doesn’t shock and surprise, and underneath it all is the levity and wit I’ve come to expect of Drew Magary’s writing.”
—Jeffrey Cranor, New York Times bestselling cowriter of Welcome to Night Vale
“The Hike is so much fun, has so much pure velocity, that I didn't realize until it was too late—what I thought was a drumbeat of excitement was actually the novel’s secret, powerful heart. Magary’s new book is a metaphysical thrill ride that will stay with me.”
—Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
Praise for The Postmortal
“An exciting page turner . . . Drew Magary is an excellent writer. This is his first novel but he tells the story masterfully. . . . The most frightening thing about The Postmortal is that this could really happen—it’s not a supernatural story, but it’s even more terrifying than zombie apocalypse.”
—Mark Frauenfelder, BoingBoing
“Unnerving. . . . An absorbing picture of dawning apocalypse . . . The Postmortal is a suitably chilling entry into the ‘it’s-the-end-of-the-world’ canon.”
—The Austin Chronicle
“The first novel from a popular sports blogger and humorist puts a darkly comic spin on a science fiction premise and hits the sweet spot between Margaret Atwood and Kurt Vonnegut.”
—Ron Hogan, Shelf Awareness
“The Postmortal surprised me in a good way.”
—Michelle West, Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine
“Magary’s vision of future technology and science is eerily realistic.”
—The New York Press
05/23/2016
In this peculiar literary odyssey, Magary reexamines some of the same themes he covered in The Postmortal while throwing in some fascinating dream imagery, assorted video game tropes, and a story structure that’s deliberately predictable (with nods to many other tales of wandering through strange lands before returning home) but still surprising. A man named Ben wanders from a hotel for a hike, gets attacked by a bizarre man wearing the skinned head of a rottweiler, and soon gets lost in the woods. As he wanders, he slips into dreams where he relives missed opportunities from his life. In his waking hours he meets various fantastical creatures, including a talking crab and a gorgeous, polite, human-eating giant. Magary throws plenty of humor into the tale—the giant has a “death matrix” that measures how painful or slow Ben’s death at her hands will be—but keeps the focus on Ben’s efforts to get home to his family and confront his own demons. Magary smartly doesn’t answer every question Ben’s journey raises, and the story is more satisfying as a result. The sense of disjointedness doesn’t always feel intentional, and the journey is occasionally uneven, but it’s always fascinating and worthwhile. (Aug.)
★ 07/01/2016
While on a routine business trip to a hotel in the Pocono Mountains, Ben decides to go for a walk in the woods before his meeting. Along the way, he encounters two men wearing masks who appear to have killed a little girl. In his desperate attempt to avoid the same fate, Ben becomes lost and unwittingly enters an alternate world complete with talking animals, giants, monsters, and apparitions that test the limits of his sanity. There is only one rule: Ben must stay on the path if he ever hopes to make it home. Magary's second novel (after The Postmortal) features elements reminiscent of Homer's Odyssey, Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, and the PC game King's Quest. Mostly, it is a reminder of not only how easy it is to get lost but also how difficult it can be to find one's way back. VERDICT Fast-paced and immensely entertaining, this is highly recommended for sf fans and adventurous literary readers. [See Prepub Alert, 2/21/16.]—Elisabeth Clark, West Florida P.L., Pensacola
2016-05-18
The second, equally creepy novel from Deadspin columnist Magary (Someone Could Get Hurt, 2013, etc.).Magary channeled postmodern horror-comedy in his first novel, The Postmortal, and here taps into a similar vein that posits an Everyman in a video game-like setting, with a Kafka-esque transformation thrown in for good measure. We meet Ben as the suburban family man has left his family in Maryland and arrives at a hotel in rural Pennsylvania for a business meeting the next day. He decides to go for a hike. And then all hell breaks loose. For starting out with such a grounded setup, Magary isn't shy about getting weird fast. Ben is soon pursued by a pair of killers who wear the disembodied faces of skinned Rottweilers.He's left messages with his name on them that read, "Stay on the path, or you will die." He's kidnapped by a cannibal giantess named Fermona who forces him to fight a man to death in her arena, and that's before she sics the dwarves on him. Along the way, Ben is told his only solution is to find a demigodlike character called only "The Producer." "I don't even know if I'm still on Earth, or if I ate some kind of bad mushroom or something," Ben tells his only companion, a talking crab named Crab. "I don't know anything. But this path opened up and any time I leave it, something tries to kill me." It seems that Ben is in an alternate dimension, one with two moons, death clouds, and time travel. It all unfolds much like a video game does, so readers who don't enter this weird world with a lot of preconceived notions should have a blast. It's worth noting that Magary even nails the ending with a Twilight Zone twist that would have Rod Serling nodding with approval.An eerie odyssey that would be right at home in the pages of the pulpy Warren comics.
