Anymore, it’s rare for me to get so pulled into a book that I forget to check social media. Just watching a movie is enough of a struggle, so for me to sit and read for hours is downright remarkable. But recently I was privileged to get my hands on an advance reading copy of Tenure by Blaine Pardoe and Mike Baron, and it turned out to be one of those rare experiences.
“Gripping” is an overused word on cover blurbs. This time, it’s appropriate.
This isn’t a book for everyone, as will become clearly apparent. It’s the story of Braxton Knox, an average guy who could be your neighbor. After an unremarkable stint in the military, he started a small family and found work as a philosophy professor at a school in Portland. He has an idea for a novel that he’ll probably never start, but only because he’s busy enjoying his simple, quiet, academic life.
Until he uses the wrong pronoun in the classroom.
A they/them student objects to being called “miss” so strongly that she torpedoes Knox’s academic career. Of course, she feels justified, seeing as he’s part of the patriarchy. When Knox refuses to apologize the university moves to fire him and the local ANTIFA mob targets his family with devastating results. What’s a man to do when he has nothing left to lose? He can curl up and die. He can try to work within the corrupt justice system.
Or he can extract pure justice.
Being the bigger bad guy comes at a cost, and Tenure doesn’t shy away from that. Knox doesn’t want to become a ruthless vigilante. Just, you know, an ethical vigilante with a personal vendetta. Pardoe and Baron make sure that he never loses his humanity or becomes psychotic, even as they allow him to justify some truly cold-blooded killings. Not that we’re inclined to quibble, as his targets are so brainwashed in their evil ideology that they’re beyond redemption and will only continue ruining and taking lives.
And taking a life is something that should never be done lightly.
We love a good revenge story. From The Count of Monte Cristo, to The Terminal List, to John Wick, there’s something cathartic in watching the villains get their due. What sets Tenure apart is that it feels like something that could happen in our own backyards. I’ve heard this book pitched as The Punisher vs the Woke, but if anything it’s Death Wish in suburbs. I almost wish it was more like a comic book and not so grounded in uncomfortable reality.
Not that Tenure is perfectly plausible.
Should this continue as a series, I could see Pardoe and Baron leaning into the story’s pulp influences and going bigger. If you still haven’t read The Spider VS. The Empire State, I highly encourage you to do so. By modern standards it’s wildly implausible, building to an epic crescendo. But both novels feature heroes gathering allies to fight against the human embodiment of the threats of their day. Even if that means going around the law, or the law turning a blind eye to their activities.
And the groundwork has been laid.
Without getting into major spoilers, by the end Knox has a major financial warchest and a mysterious benefactor. If they want to, the authors could slowly raise the stakes until, like The Spider, Knox is leading a major war on US soil. If not, should they hold closer to reality, that’s fine too. There’s enough variety in the action and themes in this story to prove that they have no shortage of ideas to explore with other victims of the woke mob in other cities.
However…
Unlike Andrew Klavan’s A Woman Underground, which deals in similar themes but in a more literary manner, Tenure won’t be as timeless. Like The Spider, in a few years it will be a dated pulp adventure, though still wildly entertaining. It will never not be entertaining indulging in a revenge fantasy where the wronged man gets payback. So don’t hesitate to add this to your library. It’s something I’ll definitely want to read again.
