RANDOM SH*T FLYING THROUGH THE AIR by Jackson Ford – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air by Jackson Ford
Series: The Frost Files #2
Published by Orbit on July 7 2020
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 544
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Another fun entry into Ford’s Frost Files series, get ready for earthquakes, snarky characters, an evil genius child, and plenty of sh*t flying around.

I had a blast reading last year’s The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind, and I’ve been really looking forward to the sequel. Last week, when I found myself in a bit of a reading slump, I decided to pick it up, knowing it might do the trick. And it did, in spades! Jackson Ford delivers a high-octane sequel that’s just as much fun as the first book, and even now, having finished it, I’m a little sad that my time with these characters has come to an end—at least until the next book comes out. And even though this is book two in the series, I can safely assure new readers that you can easily pick this one up without having read the first book. Ford does a good job of inserting some of the more important backstory elements in an unobtrusive way, although I urge you to read the first book since it’s so much fun.

Teagan Frost has psychokinesis, or “PK” as she calls it. She has the uncanny ability to move inorganic objects with her mind, and after spending two years in a secret government testing facility in Waco, Texas, Teagan now works for a woman named Moira Tanner. Tanner rescued her from the Waco facility in exchange for joining a crack team of civilians who help take out threats to national security. It’s kept Teagan off the government’s radar—who would love to get their hands on her and use her unique abilities for nefarious purposes—but she’s not completely “free” since she has to follow rules and basically do whatever Tanner wants her to do.

When the story opens, Teagan and the rest of the crew—Reggie, Africa, Annie and Paul—have been tasked with stealing a top secret list from a German millionaire named Jonas Schmidt, before he sells the damaging information to the highest bidder. Schmidt’s private jet is waiting for him at the Van Nuys airport while he meets with his clients, and Teagan and her friends must break into the jet before he returns and steal the list from the plane’s safe. Unfortunately, in the middle of the operation, a devastating earthquake hits Los Angeles, sending the city into turmoil. Reggie, who is back at headquarters monitoring the event, has noticed some odd occurrences just prior to the quake and suspects that the earthquake may have been caused by a little boy who seems to be able to control soil and rocks with his mind.

Making their way through an apocalyptic landscape full of broken freeways, toppled skyscrapers and shell shocked, suddenly homeless people, Teagan and her friends set out to stop the boy before he strikes again.

Once again, Ford tackles another of California’s more potent fears, this time earthquakes. For anyone who has been through an earthquake of 6.0 or greater, you’ll be gritting your teeth while reading, because Ford does a great job of describing the chaos, uncertainty and despair of going through such an event. Because this book is, shall we say, over the top, Ford’s earthquakes seem bigger than life, but earthquakes over 8.0 are possible and have in fact occurred, and so everything about the earthquakes in this story rang true. The author claims that he’s never visited Los Angeles himself, but I have to applaud him for getting a lot of details right. The characters traverse the city by bicycle, ATV and on foot and we get to see some familiar landmarks like the Getty Center, downtown LA, Watts Towers, the Santa Monica Pier and many more. My favorite location was Dodger Stadium, where FEMA has set up a rescue operation to offer food and shelter to those displaced by the quake. Ford of course had no idea that Dodger Stadium would end up being used as a COVID-19 testing facility in real life, and I loved that eerie parallel. I also have to mention that Ford throws in a line about last year’s now famous Ridgecrest, CA earthquake, which was a magnitude of 7.1 and caused terrible damage to the residents of the small town. What’s notable about that fact is that I was born in Ridgecrest and my parents still live there. This might be the first time I’ve ever seen “Ridgecrest” in a published novel, and I have to admit I’m pretty thrilled about that!

Random Sh*t is a non-stop thrill ride full of chase scenes, airplane hijinks, assassination attempts and much more. Not to mention there is a psychotic four-year-old—who just happens to be scary smart—gleefully trying to bring California to its knees. Matthew—the little boy—is accompanied by his mother Amber, a weary and terrified young woman who is desperate to protect her child while coming to grips with the fact that he wants to destroy the Western Seaboard. I ended up really liking Amber, who goes through a lot of growth during the story and finally shows some backbone, despite the fact that her own son is manipulating and controlling her.

The downside of so much action is that the author is always trying to top himself, and the action sequences tend to get more unbelievable as the story goes along. There are also quite a few outrageous coincidences that made me roll my eyes, but because this is speculative fiction, and because I was having so much fun, I didn’t mind too much. 

While the action and coincidences may seem unbelievable and over the top, Jackson Ford’s characters and humor were spot on. I laughed out loud a lot while reading this book, and that’s pretty rare for me, I have to say. Teagan isn’t always the most pleasant person to be around—she’s dealing with several relationship issues in this story and they’re a bit tedious at times—but damn she’s funny! Some of my favorite scenes were the ones where Teagan, Annie, Africa and Reggie are bickering about one thing or another, and when Jonas Schmidt makes an appearance, there’s even more funny dialog when Teagan gets caught in the act of breaking into his safe. 

I did have a few issues with the book, however. Just like The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With her Mind, I spotted quite a few British spellings and terms in the ARC I read, although I suppose it’s possible those will be scrubbed in the final book. I have nothing against the British, mind you, but when the characters are Americans living in Los Angeles—my city—I get very picky about the details. We don’t say “Cali” for California, and we don’t say “move state” when we’re thinking about moving to another state. There was also a smattering of British spellings like “favourite” and “tyre” I’m pretty sure, which were mightily distracting alongside Ford’s excellent physical descriptions of Los Angeles. It might be petty and stupid, but hey, it’s something that bugged me and I wanted to mention it.

Ford wrangles a pretty big cast of characters, and he doesn’t spend enough time with all of them, unfortunately. Some only appear briefly, and the reader is left with lots of questions. One new character that I absolutely loved—Jonas Schmidt—is only given a few brief scenes, which was disappointing, since Ford gives the reader the impression that Schmidt is going to be an important part of the story. We do get a hint that he might be back in the next book, but I’m not going to hold my breath. The last chapter is a big teaser/lead-in to the sequel, where we meet several new characters who not only had an impact on Teagan’s past, but will probably be central to the plot of book three. If Ford was trying to drive his readers crazy by leaving us hanging at the end, then I have to say he succeeded!

But as far as sheer enjoyment goes, this book succeeds spectacularly, and that’s exactly what I needed this past week. Teagan and her motley but lovable crew of misfits are one of my favorite found families in current fiction, and I’ll be waiting impatiently for the next book in the series, Eye of the Sh*t Storm.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

Read my review of The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind