Book Review - Hearers of the Constant Hum by William Pauley III

Hearers of the Constant Hum
-William Pauley III

4 Stars


Ashok burn right hand of men. To Neptune, rebirth in blue fire.

This is the phrase the ultimately brought my attention to this book.  As a fan of bizarro, surrealism, and the just plain strange, things like this catch my eye and draw me in.  Add that with an amazing cover and you've got my money. 

Bill Krang records insect conversations onto cassette tapes and labels them THE CONSTANT HUM. Others cannot hear insects in the same way, so he has dedicated his life to discovering how to share their message with others.

Years pass and now Krang notices the peculiar phrase graffitied on the sides of buildings and written on mysterious tiles half-buried in asphalt. What does it mean? Are the insects trying to warn him? Is it a threat? Are there other hearers of the constant hum? Where are they?

In his search for answers, he manages to dismantle all he ever thought he knew about everything.

Collapsing disease, drugs created from dead, poisoned insects, half human/half robot scientists, and of course the constant hum.  Add in William Pauley III's carryover characters, The Crunk Brothers, and you've got a peculiar tale that's as weird and out of place as it is completely relevant to today's world.

At times the message gets a little preachy, but the storyline and characters are strong enough to balance it out.  I highly recommend checking this book out.