Review: Chromatophobia by W.D. County

It feels like a struggle these days to find sci-fi or horror novels that don’t regurgitate old plot lines and rely on classic tropes to snag a bit of attention, but Chromatophobia, the new novel by author W.D. County, will cause fans of these genres to sit up and take notice.

After a childhood living on the edges, isolated by his grey vision of the world, Miles Reardon has found his sweet spot in the military, where he turns tragedy into triumph as a precise and renowned sniper. From the very first scene, readers are given an intense dive into his character, and his well-defined moral compass becomes a critical part of the plot as the story progresses.

Given his unique skill set and colorblindness, he is tasked with a truly bizarre mission, one that the military could never train him for. Acting as the security force for a man in Antarctica infected by a strangely alien rash, Reardon is the best man for the job, as this mysterious malady sucks the color out of its surroundings.

From this initially weird premise, the book could have moved in any number of ways, from military action and suspense to a horror thriller, and County was patient in his execution of the format. Instead of a grand, sweeping thriller about some apocalyptic alien disease, he angled for a more psychological font of terror. Keeping much of the book confined to the narrow, colorless vision of Reardon, existential quandaries abound, as do deep debates surrounding belief, religion and powers beyond what we can see. Spiraling down into governmental conspiracies, shadow bureaucracy, and the mysteries behind the curtain, County draws on his personal military experience to create a compelling and threatening tone from start to finish.

This book taps into many modern-day fears of bioterrorism, black sites, fringe science, and human annihilation. However, for County to so cleverly tie all of these subjects into a neat box (quite literally, at times) and still maintain spine-tingling tension is a testament to his storytelling skill. Reardon is an excellent figure to follow around this nightmare world, giving out his nicknames to characters and swaggering through uncertainty with undeniable style. However, he is not an untouchable hero, and his own demons rear up plenty in the dark, giving him complexity and keeping readers invested in how his fate inevitably plays out.

Some of the science fiction elements of the plot, such as a language being spoken through color and the concept of the tesseract, just to name a few, are weakly supported and feel like obligatory glue holding the whole story together. A bit more exploration of the fantastical elements could give the story even more of an impact. The writing is clean and well chosen, for the most part, although some of the narrative and exposition feels unnecessarily long-winded.

These faults can easily be forgiven, however, as the story itself is gripping, like a maze one can’t help but explore. With a bold and colorblind sniper as the imperfect protagonist and a nameless threat that stretches both the imagination and the potential for this novel, County has delivered a deeply engaging and fascinating read.