James Curcio

Table of Contents:

Join My Cult! - Reviewed by Psyche
Join My Cult! - Reviewed by Chris Arkenberg
Fallen Nation - Reviewed by Psyche

Title:	Join My Cult!
Sub-title:	A Novel
Author:	James Curcio
Publisher:	New Falcon
ISBN:	1561841730
Pages:	284 pp.
Copyright:	2004
Reviewer:	Psyche
Contact Information:	psyche[at]spiralnature[dot]com
Category:	Fiction, Occult
Review:	I’m on the subway, there’s a guy across from me reading Illuminatus!, a girl standing by the door is reading Carlos Castenada and I'm sitting there with a glowing green copy of Join My Cult! and reading bits of it to my husband on the ride to work and my mind is humming with synchronicity and the effort required to attempt to make sense of all this to my dear husband, sitting patiently, eyebrows raised incredulously. Even as I’m reading it, I can tell, this is a book to be read at least twice. The novel opens with the introduction of Gabrael, one of the most realistic portrayals of an illuminated adept or ‘Invisible Master’ that I’ve read in a while. Shortly after we are introduced to the hero, Alexi, constantly tossing flashes of insight over his shoulder, and his best mate Ken. There is large cast of other characters, most of which seem to be direct reflections of Alexi and Ken in various shades, deliberately giving it a sort of kaleidoscope effect. Any attempt to summarize the plot would be futile: there isn’t one. At least not in the traditional sense. There are bits of story, and each scene is layered with characters and images with often profound occult significance, and it moves from one to another with no obvious thread to tie them together. Densely packed with occult, philosophic and paranoid conspiratorial references this is not a book to be rushed through. It barely makes sense as it is. It’s a kind of Cosmic Banditos meets The Illuminatus! Trilogy meets disillusioned teen angst lit, and none of these. Join My Cult! is a clever, insightful and daring adventure into the surreal depths of the subconscious mind, and, if you’ll forgive the pun, it has all the makings of a cult classic.
Review submitted:	21 January 2005

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Title:	Join My Cult!
Sub-title:	A Novel
Author:	James Curcio
Publisher:	New Falcon Publications
ISBN:	1561841730
Pages:	256 pages
Copyright:	November 2004
Reviewer:	Lvx23
Contact Information:	lvx23xvl[at]gmail.com
Category:	Fiction, Metaphysics, Occult
Review:	When confronted with disorder the brain will attempt to overlay some form or pattern to make sense of the chaos. The meticulous geometries often accompanying psychedelic hallucination are one example of this phenomena. The brain, it seems, is an organizing device that recoils at disorder and attempts to subdue it with it’s own imposed sensibilities. Such is the experience of reading James Curcio’s mindwarping novel, Join My Cult! Alexi and Ken are two teenagers in suburbia trying to cut through all the normalcy and order of their lives by investigating the arcane and occult. Their deepening investigations into the nature of reality and the hive mind begins to reveal the seeming existence of an enigmatic cult: The Mother Hive Brain Syndicate. Johny, another teen trying to sort his way through a world increasingly inconsistent with what he’s been raised to believe, also discovers the fiendish machinations of MHBS. Meanwhile, Agent 139 and Jesus (and later, Agent 506) are clearly agents of MHBS hell-bent on completely eradicating the status quo consensual reality through an increasingly severe rash of pranks and thoughtcrimes, culminating in the destruction of a Lenny’s diner. Behind them all looms the mysterious mystic Aleonus de Gabrael - sort of a younger, more vital Alan Moore, or a more overtly revolutionary Aleister Crowley - guiding and educating the whole lot, possibly as the head of MHBS and it’s affiliates. What are the aims of this counter cultural eso-terror organization? Cuciro never makes it quite clear and it’s uncertain whether or not they even exist, but that’s all part of the game. The narrative is fractured and hallucinogenic, veering from coherent tales of Alexi and Ken’s experiences guiding their group into uncharted waters, then diving into unhinged dreams, alien/entity encounters, psychedelic journeys, schizophrenic agitprop confrontations by Jesus and Agent 139, and then swinging back into deeply revealing and compelling thoughts on magick and reality. Indeed, the most astounding current within Curcio’s work is the depth and practicality of his understanding of those technologies commonly referred to as The Occult. Within the more sober dialogues Curcio presents an ontology that reaches into the soul and reveals to the reader the error of history and the path to its redemption. These insights are the unshakable foundation of a house that’s quickly falling into the ground. The work above all is Abyssal. It’s fractured like the mirror of Self that recurs throughout the novel, plunging into the depths of madness. The sober voice of Aleonis is the only light through the dark night, impelling us to break the mirror but also telling us how to put it back together again. Solve et coagula. The characters are at once illusory and amorphous, difficult to pin down and understand, then suddenly and surprisingly rich with inner turmoil and suffering, deeply human and alive against the howling wind. Amidst the chaos, the heartfelt moments of confession and intimacy anchor the characters and remind us that they’re human too, in spite of the extremity of their divorce from the consensus. And it’s this intimacy, this thirst for community and a sense of one’s tribe, that Curcio is begging us to acknowledge within ourselves and to make manifest in an increasingly lonely and fragmented world. At times the story hints at science fiction or some alien technology wielded with possibly sinister motives by the Mother Hive Brain. As all visions do, the narrative continuously fades from dreamscape to hallucination to schizophrenia, so any real attempt to follow some of these literary devices ultimately fails. In other words, don’t expect Join My Cult! to answer as many questions as it raises. Seemingly important elements of the story that are introduced early on are completely abandoned in the later half. Diverse characters begin to overlap and appear to be the same, possibly all of them only a single being reflected through multiple selves. Maybe it all happened, or maybe it was all a hallucination of Alexi’s. Like Wilson & Shea’s epic Illuminatus! (to which Curcio’s work has already been compared by Peter Carroll) the journey is more important than the destination. Join My Cult! will surely baffle many readers and annoy others, but it should nevertheless be standard reading for anyone questioning the world they’ve been told is real when their experiences plainly contradict it. Consume it like a drug or a hypersigil. Just take it in, don’t get too caught up in finding patterns, and let it seep into your blood and work it’s magick. Join the cult, but know that, as Gabrael says, “the real order that doles out initiation, that creates the kind of synchronicities that brought you here and will carry you on to the next step of your mission, is the Universe itself.”
Review submitted:	19 May 2005

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Title:	Fallen Nation
Sub-title:	Babylon Burning
Author:	James Curcio
Publisher:	Mythos Media
ISBN:	9781419672651
Pages:	271 pp.
Copyright:	2007
Reviewer:	Psyche
Contact Information:	psyche[at]spiralnature[dot]com
Category:	Fiction, Occult
Review:	Fallen Nation, James Curcio’s second book, takes up where Join My Cult! left off. Agent 139 and Jesus are in a maximum security mental institution held as suspected terrorists after a restaurant was blown up in the previous novel. Agent 139 wryly comments: “Bottom line: ideas don’t count for a whole lot in this world, but on their own, they’re mostly benign. Ideals on the other hand can get you a special jacket with one sleeve. Ideals can get you shot.” Agent 506 breaks them out via mysterious means, and, after a brief visit with Agent 140 fits them with a van tailored with all the tricks and tools they’ll need, the three of them set off on their way to new adventures. They soon pick up a hitchhiking guitarist and decide to form a band, Babalon. The van serves as a tour bus as they pick up groupies and collect followers, making waves wherever they go. “I like the sentiment of anarchy, but you’re idealizing it. In a world of so many conflicting cultural signals, each person’s idea of what social responsibility is, and how it should be enacted differs. When there is differing opinion, there is conflict. When there is no difference of opinion, there is absolute fascism. Take your pick. The freedom of this ideal turns quickly into the lowest common denominator, the law of the jungle, as people’s priorities and ideals clash with one another. This is exactly how the world is right now, and how it has always been – the war of all against all…You want anarchy? You already have it. In disguise. Anarchy’s always been, and always will be.” A government agent is charged with the task of eliminating Babalon, perceived as a threat to the status quo by Those In Charge. Cultural warfare becomes more than abstract theorizing when things escalate in a desert battle pitting agent against agent. Similar to Jack Kerouac’s fictionalized account of adventures with his friends under various pseudonyms in On the Road, both Join My Cult! and Fallen Nation are partially autobiographical, featuring many of Curcio’s friends and bandmates (yes, Babalon was a real band). Fallen Nation is also reminiscient of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, rich with drug-induced energy, combined with the occultism of Aleister Crowley. It’s true, Fallen Nation would have benefited from a professional edit, but you won’t mind the plot holes, the rapid switch from first person to third, characters that appear and drop off the scene without word or explanation - the rapid pace of the novel carries the plot forward, too furious to be concerned with the particulars. It’s an enticing story apt to electrify occultism’s disenfranchised youth who rarely seem to concern themselves with such trivialities. “Ok, so you’ve been having dreams. So have I, guess we have something in common. You, me, and six billion other brain damaged monkeys. Do you really expect me to believe that a book…is going to have an effect on anyone? I mean, do people even read anymore?” While Join My Cult! has been described as a prologue to Fallen Nation, the latter can be read as a stand-alone - and far more easily, as Fallen Nation is a more lucid book. They’re bound to become classics in occult fiction.
Review submitted:	05 April 2008

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