Books: The Way Up is Death By Dan Hanks (2025)

“When a mysterious tower appears in the skies over England, thirteen strangers are pulled from their lives to stand before it as a countdown begins. Above the doorway is one word: ASCEND. As they try to understand why they’ve been chosen and what the tower is, it soon becomes clear the only way out of this for everyone is…up. And so begins a race to the top with the group fighting to hold on to its humanity, through sinking ships, haunted houses and other waking nightmares. Can they each overcome their differences and learn to work together or does the winner take it all? What does the tower want of them and what is the price to escape?”

Despite what feels like an alternate take on the Netflix series Squid Game, The Way Up is Death is a leap forward for author Dan Hanks, from his scrappy, pulp-ish first novel, Captain Moxley and the Embers of the Empire, and the delightfully goofy Swashbucklers. At turns brutal, soul-stirring, and funny, it’s a tale of survival for thirteen people from different backgrounds who must struggle to survive an acid test of a game, which is probably the best way to explain the premise. It’s like the famous (or infamous) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode Move Along Home. Aired early in the series run, the plot was about a visiting delegation from the Gamma Quadrant who turns four crew members into "pieces" for a bizarre game. That too has the threat of death over the crew of DS9, especially Quark, when he has to figure which one of the four he must sacrifice to move forward.

All the characters get back stories, which somehow tie-in to each level the groups ascends, but we mainly see  a handful, like Alden, who mourns the loss of his dog Leia, who is also teacher by day/singer by night. Nia a angry concept artist foe indie films who’s grown weary of the industries lack of acknowledgement about the below-the-line talent. Then there is Dirk, the American jackass (I suppose US based writers have been making fun of the British for so long, so Hanks makes Dirk an almost poster child for corporate greed, “influencers”, and probably (though never mentioned) a Right Wing clown.

The others get a bit interchangeable along the way, though young Rakie stands out in the end.

I sometimes found it hard to visual increasingly weirdness of the tower, sometimes, but Hanks gave most of the characters a strong voice, so I didn’t get lost there. It’s a thrilling piece of speculative fiction, brought down only by the ending. It’s been said Stephen King has never really written a great ending, so The Way Up is Death is brought down Hanks philosophical and optimistic approach to dealing with grief and finding ability to move on.

I mean, it’s lackluster and too abrupt. While I was fine with no real explanation of anything here, its sudden ending was a bit jarring. But as I said, a good leap forward for the writer, and I look forward to more of his work.

Books: Swashbucklers By Dan Hanks (2021)

 

"When Cisco Collins returns to his home town thirty years after saving it from being swallowed by a hell mouth opened by an ancient pirate ghost, he realises that being a childhood hero isn’t like it was in the movies. Especially when nobody remembers the heroic bits – even the friends who once fought alongside him. Struggling with single parenting and treated as bit of a joke, Cisco isn’t really in the Christmas spirit like everyone else. A fact that’s made worse by the tendrils of the pirate’s powers creeping back into our world and people beginning to die in bizarre ways. With the help of a talking fox, an enchanted forest, a long-lost friend haunting his dreams, and some 80s video game consoles turned into weapons, Cisco must now convince his friends to once again help him save the day. Yet they quickly discover that being a ghostbusting hero is so much easier when you don’t have schools runs, parent evenings, and nativity plays to attend. And even in the middle of a supernatural battle, you always need to bring snacks and wipes"

Author Dan Hanks describes Swashbucklers as “Ghostbusters meets Goonies meets Stranger Things meets IT.” Indeed, this book plays homage to many things 80s, which often reminded me of Ready Player One –except less complex and smug. It plays out like a sequel to a previous novel, where the kids, now adults with lives, with their own children, and worries more grounded in reality than magic, must return back to their small town and confront the evil that they thought once stopped, only to discover the villain clings to the skin of the world –or worlds, as the idea of the multiverse is included here. It’s packed with a lot of charm, nostalgia, witty dialogue, and weird things. Dark Peak is right out of Stephen King’s Derry, a town that exists in ether, ignoring the dangers that surround them, and quietly passing them off as “gas leaks” or with other lies.

The book is fun, not necessarily too dark –most of it leans into the idea of adults (some who have never grown up) being too old to confront the magical evils of the world. The trope works here most of the time, but because Hanks is borrowing a lot from these 80s pop culture media and he’s having fun. The reader will have fun as well, even if they were not born or lived through the 1980s.

Hanks does one last 1980s homage here –the ending: a little Back to the Future and Quantum Leap, as someone “leaps” into their younger self and then goes off to right what once went wrong. I’m unsure if Hanks will write a sequel or just figured out a neat way to end the tale. It’s frustrating, if only because there is no real resolve, but also daring as well. I mean, not everything has to be a franchise. 

Books: Captain Moxley and the Embers of the Empire By Dan Hanks (2020)

"An ex-Spitfire pilot is dragged into a race against a shadowy government agency to unlock the secrets of the lost empire of Atlantis. In post-war 1952, the good guys are supposed to have won. But not everything is as it seems when ex-Spitfire pilot Captain Samantha Moxley is dragged into a fight against the shadowy US government agency she used to work for. Now, with former Nazis and otherworldly monsters on her trail, Captain Samantha Moxley is forced into protecting her archaeologist sister in a race to retrieve two ancient keys that will unlock the secrets of a long-lost empire - to ensure a civilization-destroying weapon doesn't fall into the wrong hands. But what will she have to sacrifice to save the world?

Much like S.A. Sidor’s The Institute for Singular Antiquities series, Captain Moxley and the Embers of the Empire plays off the same themes as the Indiana Jones, The Mummy, Hellboy, and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow films have done for the last forty years. I enjoyed this book a bit more than Sidor’s, but they certainly have a lot of similarities. I was a bit surprised that author Dan Hanks opened the book in 1945 with the super secret government organization seeking out Sam Moxley, and then jump to 1952 and we hear only tidbits of her time with The Nine. I’m curious if a follow-up book (no cliffhanger, but it does set up a sequel) or prequel will deal with her seven years she spent with this clandestine establishment. Yes, hints are dropped throughout, but now I kind of want to hear that story.