Zraitor

–>I received a free copy of this in exchange for an honest review.
Two people dealing weed hire private security to hold their money, only for two of the guards to decide to start robbing the dealers, setting off an escalating tale of violence and greed.

So right away we're introduced to a character named Donnie Zeus Echo which caused me to groan and think oh boy what did I agree to review here .. I found the characters in this to be just awful, I'm sorry to be so blunt but seriously.

The dialogue was bad, everyone was talking like an edgy imitation of a stereotypical gang banger, just nothing but swears and annoying sexual innuendos, if not just being outright nasty. I simply could not get into a single character in this. I understand not all characters in a story are supposed to likable, but nothing could get me invested in people like this. I like outlaws and bad guy types in other stories, these just didn't work for me. Only LaDon reaches anything tolerable.

This follows these four characters and often has them doing similar things. All of them are separately at a bar, all of them are thinking about getting laid, etc. It felt repetitive at times. Again, I just couldn't get into their way of talking about what they were doing... One character thinks how oranges look like large juicy testicles hanging off the tree, and if I read another thing about “Eye-Rack”...

The setting of California wasn't done too bad, although every character they meet is pretty annoying just as them, and mostly just there for them to rob, use, or have sex with, or all three. The pimp side story was really frustrating, and it wasn't needed to show how LaDon wasn't a terrible person.

The author unquestionably knows how to write, and put together a story, I just didn't like this one. When you can't stand how the characters talk or act it just all ends up painful to get through.

A strange fog rolls over the town of Fogstow, turning everyone it touches into flesh-eating monsters...

Well, it does that, much, much later in the book anyways. This story suffers from a huge information dump in the first half. The author laboriously goes over every place in the town, and every citizen. It's very dry and boring. It takes forever to get into the actual meat of the story. This kind of upfront world-building is always frustrating, I prefer it paced against the advancement of the plot. I just don't care about the details of the lives of characters before they start being relevant.

Don't get me wrong, there are strong characters in this, or would be if told differently. This has a huge cast, but the main character is Police Chief Linton Derr, so most of the other character's stories intersect with him. The town is full of the usual good and bad types, and you'll be told about it. All of it.
There are just way too many side stories and plots going on, and the names started to blur together for me and it became too much.

When we hit around the halfway mark, right before some disgusting sex scenes for some reason, a fog rolls over the whole place and causes everyone it touches to be engulfed in pain and vomit and voids their bowels. It's really gruesome and finally gets the thing going. Errrr, eventually anyways. The story then goes back to a few side characters doing more disgusting sex stuff and then gets back to the horror story!

Yes, they all turn into zombies basically. The author makes his version of them and it's awesome the way they are. They drink from the river, finding it soothes the pain for a reason I'm sure you'll guess. They have long nails they get the urge to scratch and sharpen against things. They aren't mindless and don't lose their humanity and so suffer from the thoughts of needing to consume flesh. It's wonderful and almost worth the work it takes to get there.

There was a great horror story in here, it's just crushed under the weight of a huge information dump, unnecessary side stories, and it's just way too long for what the story it ends up finally telling is. This could have been an extremely effective short story or novella, it's just far too long as is.

Bring your patience with you if you decide to read this.

A great collection of thirteen horror stories...

Every story was well written and described, and every plot hit the mark. Doesn't suffer from too many repeating themes, save perhaps for tree-related monsters and/or violence and the Devil, but I suppose you get an evil version of him in one story and a fun one that I'd like to be friends within the other. Err. Anyways I'll do a few stories –

The Pit – A teenager finds himself in a hole in the ground with no idea how he got there. As he goes through his thoughts you find out he bullied another kid ... It's very atmospheric and the slow reveals are well done.

Knacker Man – Morris, who runs a diner and also cares for his wife with cancer, has one of his older regulars come in and tell him he is about to die. When asked how he knows this he said he heard the sound, signaling that he's about to die. This sets off Morris off to find out about the Knacker Man while both his wife and own mental health deteriorate...

The Children in the Meadow – A farmer learns that his son has gone out to a meadow where he has forbidden his family to go... The meadow is inhabited by some strange evil children who want them to stay there forever... The characters in this one are amazing.

There's also great original takes on both zombies and vampires, and a few shorter ones that are more psychological horror and you're never sure what's real...

One of those rare collections where I enjoyed every story. I was really surprised to see how good this was.

Fifty short stories by two authors, each beginning with the last sentence of the previous story... It's utterly and completely random, weird, creative, and imaginative. I never knew what was coming with each story, and it was such fun diving into each one and wondering what they came up with next.


The stories are mainly either sci-fi or horror and show a great variety of things, alien parasites, robots and androids, a strange creature that eats child predators, there's even a vampire story that begins with “I really hope these spinach smoothies will one day kill me.” Lots of sci-fi stories, with strange tech and on different planets .. the world building the authors pulled off in each new short story was amazing.

There's also plenty of gore, bad morals, and loads of uncomfortable sex stuff .. necrophilia anyone? Hope not... These two go all-in with each story and that they had something new each time was great. Fifty different ideas are a lot... but they pulled it off. Each story manages to tell something new and interesting and while of course some you'll either shrug at or maybe just not get like in any collection, the whole of this is just wonderful. This was a great idea and a great collection.

I've read quite a few short story collections now, and I've found this one to be original and refreshing. I valued the weird creativity running throughout this and couldn't get enough. If this really was an experiment between the authors, it's one they should be proud of. In the spirit of this collection, I'd like you to start your next “story” with the last sentence of this review. I obtained a copy of this collection, and I sat down to read it.

Duncan Criss is a reporter who struck out on his own but finds his funds running low, so he decides to become a night guard at a mausoleum.

After a strange and hurried interview with a higher up, he gets the job. I loved Duncan's inner thoughts about why he's getting the job so easily...

He believes he can get some reporting work done overnight, because what is there to guard against? Thinking he sees a light go on in one of the tombs he goes out to investigate...

Really creepy and weird tale. Why is there a company that does this? Well written and atmospheric. The beginning calls back to the author's first story, Land of the Hoosier Dawn.

Our narrator, a vampire, tells his tale of trying to turn a young woman he falls for...

Before and as he begins to stalk Lesley, he tells us all about how vampires really are. The author crafts his own version of the familiar creature, just as he did with zombies in his novel. I won't go much into myself, I'll only bring up that all the vampires get their own unique power along with the common ones, and the narrator's is that he can see, erase, and restore the memories of others at will because it's important to the plot. It also allows the author to get away with a lot of exposition, but he's quite good at that so I'll allow it.

The narrator's use of this power is quite horrific, he can utterly destroy lives with it at ease and seems to enjoy it. He is a great and unsettling character who fully accepts his dark life. Lesley, the girl he wishes to embrace, is quite the opposite, loving and full of compassion for others.

As he completely upends her life in an attempt to break her and force her into his arms, he may end up with more than he bargains for...

More great world building and characters from the author. His take on vampires is unique and the story, mostly built on the main character's inner dialogue gives you an uncomfortable look at a rather evil mind.

An extremely inconsistent horror collection with a hellish theme...

This one has just such insane highs - Face of An Angel, a husband and wife getaway on vacation while they slowly realize something is wrong with their daughter... The reader always knows, but the slow reveals are just so well done. It's extremely well written and the characters are great.

And the lows - Depraved Collective, it starts out well enough, but the main character dies quickly and goes to hell, and then has a weird sex scene with a nine-foot-tall Satan and yeah I'm done with that. It's just awkward and frustrating. It reads more like some erotic fantasy thing and I can't imagine anyone picked up a horror collection wanting that... But to each their own, of course.

Most of the rest just wildly throw out ideas and don't really hit the mark with writing that didn't always work and just generally reading more like fanfiction of better horror stories, or weird fantasy stories that didn't feel like actual horror. There's one other one I really liked, Icarus Ascending, and a few other OK ones but it's a big collection and I didn't find most of it to be very good. I also found plenty of typos, grammar issues, and missing punctuation. Only my stupid stubbornness saw me through this one.

If you have Kindle Unlimited then maybe borrow it to check out Face Like An Angel and Icarus Ascending, both good stories deserving of being in a better collection. Otherwise, stay out of this hell.

A man recounts the time he came face to face with a Native American legend...

This is an effective horror short told after the events in the story took place, and allows the main character to give great detail to the town of Lucy and the people that inhabit it.

After his friend, George Green tells him a story involving Native Americans and demons, the narrator becomes obsessed and paranoid about it. Eventually, he and George set out to find it...

Big on atmosphere and action, this a great quick horror story that manages a lot of world detail too.

A man investigates a nonviolent zombie outbreak and plans what to do about it...

The world is now populated by zombies the narrator calls “Germs”. They don't hunger for flesh, and they still go about their daily lives as before they were infected. The main character eventually comes the decision they must all be destroyed...

Full of social commentary and great inner dialogue and more psychological than your usual zombie story. Not much gore, but it definitely gets gross!

There is a lot of sorcery and dark magic in this collection and the main characters are mostly evil or morally bad in some way. Plenty about Hell, demons, and psychopaths too. This led to some dark and violent stories. But there was a great variety of plots that kept it going along nicely and made it enjoyable to read.

Two werewolf stories are in here, and they are both done in clever and original ways, one being done partly from a wolf's point of view. It had sort of a dark comedy thing going on and was rather amusing. Three of the stories feature a sorcerer named Jack Thurston, who is a really well done evil sort of character and the best of the bunch in my opinion. The author methodically goes through his rather complicated and gross preparations for the spells and it adds a bit more weight to them then usually found in these kinds of stories.

The short stories section ends with a great Sci-Fi story that is a complete change of pace compared to the rest. The insect alien was given a lot of personality and the entire backstory created for the spacefaring humans and the alien planet was well done and detailed considering it's a short story.

The Flash fiction and Microfiction sections then take it back to the dark characters and/or wizardry and are quick, fun reads to end the collection.

A policeman on leave on a secluded island after shooting an unarmed man with a toy gun finds himself under siege by two criminals looking to use the place themselves...

A lot of detail goes into both the psychological aspects of the story as well as the action. This one is packed with every character's motives, inner dialogue, and very well thought out. When it gets to the action it keeps this up as well as adding a lot of excitement.

Smart, fast-paced, and full of action. The characters are well done and don't suffer from the usual boring tropes too much, and the two criminals are interesting as the author knows how to do ‘bad guys' rather well.

–>I received a free copy of this in exchange for an honest review.
A Christmas themed horror collection full of evil Santa Clauses, ghosts, and haunted dolls...

Even though a few things are repeated, Krampus is in there a lot, jealous husbands committing murder, lots and lots of creepy dolls, and being brought into an ‘other' world where snow and ice and other strange things happen, there is still a great variety of characters and plots and I found the whole collection enjoyable.

The stories range from bittersweet to just incredibly bleak and depressing, with a lot of gore thrown in for good measure. Plenty of naughty children are punished, as they should be. One funny story finds Santa, the rare actual nice and good guy one in this collection, delivering presents to a haunted house. The story is a rather upbeat one and ends happily, which made for a nice change of pace. My favorite was definitely In the Flesh Appearing... After a family moves into a new home they find their daughter's dolls begin to have parts go missing... An incredibly creepy story. Mostly though they are just well-done horror stories and the Christmas theme doesn't hurt them in any way if say you aren't reading them that time of year.

The author is quite good at the slow build of suspense, leading to an uncomfortable or terrible end. This is shown best in the title story, the novella The Thirteenth Day Of Christmas. After a mausoleum made entirely of snow appears in the town of Deer Park, other strange things start to happen. The power goes dead and phone calls are somehow made to people that begin with Christmas songs but end with odd threats of violence. Soon the town begins to be slowly torn apart... It's a great story to end a great collection.

A collection of short stories about love, relationships, and romance that are all dark, uncomfortable, and/or violent.

Most of the stories seemed more concerned with catching the mood and emotions of the characters than having much plot, but since they are very well written I still enjoyed them. The Scent does this the best, the main character is just longing to know what happened to the woman he was once with, and what would have become of them if they had stayed together.

Several of the others feature darker characters, whether it is hidden or not. Infidelity, violent acts, manipulation... The author's love of dark and twisted characters is all here, with a bit more subtlety to it.

The story Decision deals with some language that made me feel pretty uncomfortable, as one character's racism was on full display. It's a good tale of forbidden love although it pretty much goes how anyone reading it will think it goes.

The stories sometimes end abruptly so that may annoy some. Also, they aren't big on plot but focus instead on the character's thoughts and desires. But I feel they accomplish what the author set out to do.

So, while I'm no fan of poetry I decided to check this out to continue reading this author as I've enjoyed his other works.

In this, the author collects the poetry he had written when he was younger and traveling about and his flings with many women. It's accompanied by stock photos he chose that help further set the mood.

The whole thing is sad emotionally and very bittersweet and left me feeling rather melancholy when I was finished. With both the poems and the introduction this is a very personal look at part of the author's life. He comes across as a very real and interesting person.

While I won't pretend to have gained some newfound love of poetry, I was glad I read this. The author is very good with words whether it be horror, dark and twisted love stories, or poetry. So if you're like me and not much of a fan of this genre this is still worth taking a look at especially if you've enjoyed his other works.

This horror collection takes the device in the Lovecraft story From Beyond and looks at what the implications of that technology would be if it survived beyond that story...

From seeing the resonator be used as airport scanners, military weapons, health scams, and would be ‘wizards', the idea is thoroughly explored. In many the weird creatures seen in the original story show up once more, but several take the idea further. The stories greatly vary in tone as well, ranging from dark comedy to cosmic horror and everything in between.

Most of them were pretty good, or at least fun if not. The constant body horror on display as you'd imagine with this theme was awesome. With so many authors the writing goes up and down according to tastes, and some of the stories I felt were just trying WAY too hard.

And of course, since it is a themed collection, I have to mention the idea got old and wore on me towards the end. So many of them use the main character having some sort of relation with Tillinghast, so they often have the same setup.

There were a lot of fun ideas in here, as well as some that were just annoying. It has the mixed bag thing going against it, but overall I enjoyed it and would recommend it to one in the mood for something like this.

This horror collection has an impressive amount of variety, so each “course” is always something new. Ghosts, psychics, werewolves, vampires, serial killers, changelings, aliens, and a very Lovecraft feeling story... the author throws it all out there with a lot of real horrors, and some wonderfully dark humor.

He also has a lot of great action scenes and is really great at making the reader feel the tension of what is going on. The characters are well done and I found myself rooting for them to ‘win' instead of just going along with the story like I do in many other things I've read.

For example in RUTH, an abused wife is fed up with her husband and knocks him down the stairs and locks him into the basement. He's an absolutely horrible person, but the way his fate is described and his troubles written I empathized with him. That made me feel incredibly uncomfortable... There are of course other stories that have you rooting for more likable personalities but that one stood out to me. His ordeal is so awful I couldn't help but feel sorry for him even though he got his comeuppance.

There are several stories that possibly have an unreliable narrator... They left me a bit unsettled figuring out what is what, and I always like that. Then, on the other hand, one features a man who goes on a joy ride with aliens... maybe. It's so fun I didn't care what was real, but I would love to go on that joyride, too!

There is again, just so much variety in this thing. It's incredibly well written, the characters are all great, I was never bored and I enjoyed every story. Horror, action, dark humor... It's all here. Enjoy the meal.

–>I received a free copy of this in exchange for an honest review.
A horror collection that promises in its introduction to bring you to the dark side of the 50s, in contrast to the idealized perfect time of America that it's often thought of. Well, it does just that... and also throws in goofy, zany, and just generally fun over the top everything for good measure.

Not to worry though, there is plenty of horror still, it just clearly embraces the silliness of the era. Most of the stories all have great characters, and often I found I enjoyed them on their own, even without the horror elements thrown in. Is there a greater compliment from a horror junkie? Doubt it. I believe “Outlawed Ink” is the best example here, a gay man goes along with his estranged brother to his father's funeral whom they both despise. His inner dialogue thinking about his situation, and lifestyle in were so interesting, and then as the story moves along and it's nearly at the end I thought to myself, isn't this a horror story? Then, of course, it reminded me so, quite violently.

There are more great character moments, mostly dealing with people not fitting into a world that so clearly tells you what you must be. From a girl believing she's a communist because she doesn't want the ‘American Way of Life' that is being forced on her to many stories dealing with minorities and their horrible treatment in the times. But now that the serious stuff has been paid its due... time for the craziness!

Multiple stories deal with the old black and white B monster movies quite lovingly. The drag racing and greasers are in full display in many of them. Rockabilly music, all the cool lingo, it's all here. A story features mermaids, that when people look at them they become instantly aroused. Yep.

A fish man experiment roams around trying to fit in, two competing mad scientists creations duke it out in a turf war, a cheerleading squad made up of a vampire and all kinds of other “monsters” ... It was just a lot of fun and I didn't want it to end.

Every story even has a cool picture drawn for them, and a line picked out and bolded. It gives the effect of introducing them all as little B movies of their own, and I thought that was a nice touch.

This is just a well written, and well done, well everything in fact collection. I read a lot of these things, this was excellent. It felt authentic and it was clear to see the work and attention put into it. Fun from beginning to end, and worth it for all horror fans, whether you are into the 50s theme or not, cause these are just good stories period.

When a stone cover of a Native American rock formation is stolen, strange forces begin to emerge...

Another good horror short, the author brings the island to life with his usual attention to detail and characters. The island having only one police officer quickly falls to the chaos. A father dealing with his thieving son, and a grieving widow who visits her dead husband every day, fearing he and others are trying to claw their way back up... There's a lot packed into the short story.

While there certainly was a lot of creepiness in this one, the main “monster” stuff wasn't super interesting, it was so vague and otherwise reminiscent of IT, unless I read the deadlights thing wrong. Also with the Native American reveal at the very end, it just felt like an odd mix of not explaining enough of one thing and too much of another, I don't know.

However, I enjoyed the plot and the mounting disaster that took place. The ending sequence brought forth a rather terrifying image in my mind... It was quite a fun read and the author's continued world-building is great.

Two men who while snooping on State Island accidentally find one of themselves turned into a werewolf, seek the cure...

Our second Metallica named story in a row brings the author's take on werewolves into his continued connected storyline... They aren't changed as much compared to the usual take on them compared to his others, but they offer one horrible downside... If you don't allow the change to occur, it will eventually force it's way out, leaving you with every single bone in your body broken should you turn back into a human... Ouch.

The two men are great friends and their relationship is tested as they deal with this, causing great tension in them and possible betrayals. They are both interested in finding out what all the weirdness around the area is, leading them into their current predicament...

This also isn't simply a werewolf story, it continues the larger narrative being told in the previous stories, offering a look into the going on's in modern-day State Island as well as bringing back Duncan Criss from all the way back in Legacy Mausoleums. Kind of. It also touches again on the strange force imprisoned in State Island, and while I still stand by my feelings towards it in the context of the State Island story, clearly it's more interesting then was presented there and I have hopes for a great reveal.

An activist unwittingly unleashes a supernatural plague on the world and then roams quarantine zones, euthanizing infected people until he comes across a little girl...

This takes place in a post-apocalyptic world after a plague is set loose that makes people sick, boils develop on their bodies, and then they finally lose their mind and self cannibalize themselves. Evan is consumed by his guilt so he tries his best to help the suffering.

The plague has a voice and it speaks to him and takes the form of a goth rock star from the author's first story, as apparently, that's the woman Evan finds most desirable. It taunts and uses him throughout, and he is powerless to resist it at times.

When he finds Tuli, an abandoned little girl who is also infected, he decides to stay with her in hopes of buying her more time before a cure is found, as he is also connected with FEMA who delivers him supplies from time to time. Her story is very heartbreaking and she's a great character.

The plague typically kills quickly, but she's been infected for a while but yet only showing a few symptoms. Eventually, another man shows up with something that he claims slows it down as well.. Weed. Gave me quite the laugh. Even as dark and as gory as the story can be there is a lot of humor to be found in it, as well as just a lot of feel-good moments as the three become a family and spend quality time together inside a quarantine zone left for dead by a supernatural plague that makes people eat themselves...

The whole thing is rather emotional really, and the author throws in a heavy dose of social commentary that worked well. Taking shots at the Trump administration, corporations, big pharma, and corrupt politicians in general, this one doesn't hold back. It certainly delivers quite a satisfying ending. Big league.

A woman in fear of the way the country transforms under the Trump administration goes in search of vampires...

Unfortunately, I found this one to be a bit of miss, which is a shame because of how much I've been enjoyed the short stories from the author so far. It just seemed he wanted to use this political setup and just shoehorned in it one that leads to a vampire tale. Everything about that subject was done so well in Don't Bury Me, and here it doesn't lead to anything or feel authentic, even though I do agree with the message and worries.

The Pods are found extremely quickly, I know it's a short story but it didn't seem conveyed well that it took months of searching online to find them to me, I only know that from the description on the store page.

What I did like was her character outside the politics stuff, and her dealing with her brother. It's a poorly kept secret they aren't blood-related, and he has fallen in love with her. It's not reciprocated by her, but she does use him to get by. It's an interesting dynamic and keeps the story from being too bad.

And lastly, she is in search of vampires for the reason you'd expect. She's worried about rape culture, but yet seeks out a creature that's often used in literature and other entertainment as the ultimate rapist? Is this the point of the story or did I miss something? Oh well...

A horror short collection of ten stories, taking place around Southern Indiana and connected through a shared universe.

Continuing with the story and themes started in the novel Land of the Hoosier Dawn, this further brings in reimagined horror monsters such as werewolves, vampires, and several Native American myths. While each short is self-contained, there is an overarching story of strange happenings in the area and the why of that is touched on a little more in most of the stories, creating a larger narrative that you only get bits and pieces of, which retains the mystery and its power. Even when you learn of the place it is possibly coming from, it is never truly revealed and left to your imagination.

The author is absolutely amazing at world-building and loves to fill in the details on everything. It brings every short story to life and is never done to the point of irritation. His characters are simply great, each story is filled with unique and interesting characters, there isn't a repeating archetype that begins to get old. I found this to be done best in Don't Bury Me.

Evan, a guilt-ridden man working to fix some of the damage he's caused to the world by releasing a deadly supernatural plague, comes across a little girl named Tuli. His battle to keep her alive in time so that a cure may be found is emotional and heartbreaking and her character is so wonderfully done. This one became my favorite and I thought about it the most.

On the other hand, Cry Little Sister features a vampire who is a complete sociopath and loves to hurt people to get what he wants. The story is mostly done through his inner dialogue, and seeing how he thinks is unnerving. It also features the author's take on vampires and their lore in his universe here. He balances showing the reader that and telling the actual tale, and it's done so well. This is the same case in the werewolf story, Ride the Lightning. In this collection he always keeps the stories moving along and doesn't bog the reader down with a huge upfront information dump like in Land of the Hoosier Dawn, which was my biggest complaint with that.

The collection stays high in quality throughout, save for one story that didn't work for me, and I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it now. Nocturnal Pods returns to the vampires but brings with it a political message as a setup, and even though I agree with that message I don't feel it added anything to the story, leaving only a little character work that I did enjoy, but wasn't enough. It's not terrible by any means! Probably just me not getting something, maybe not an issue for others.

As a little warning to potential buyers, nine of these stories were released by themselves, only Raw Nerves at the time of me writing this is unique to this collection, so if you enjoy the author make sure to watch out you don't double buy if that would bother you. This wasn't a problem for me as I'm reading through Kindle Unlimited and them being released separately gave me the chance to review each one.

The world-building is just so good as well as the attention to detail, and I've come to seriously enjoy the author. So many unique takes on old legends and monsters, and I love the connected universe, making the stories feel more meaningful and giving the reader things to pick up on and old characters to root for. This is a must-read for all horror fans.

Basically this a short companion piece to There and NEVER, EVER BACK AGAIN featuring much of the same kind of humor. It's a really quick read with cute little drawings in it.

It begins with a poem by the Big Bad Wolf saying things not too unlike the Dark Lord, I guess villains get it bad everywhere. Then it goes off to his VILLAINLY Alphabet, his advice to the little would-be villains one day.

If you're in the mood for a simpler version of his satire and like the writing of the author it's worth a look. Obviously, it's for fans of his other book, we don't really want children reading this now do we?

Wink wink.

A group searching for a hidden place believed to have gold hire two guides and find a place lost to time where prehistoric animals still roam...

Unfortunately, this one isn't very original. I mean even from the author himself. He already did most of this plot in Operation: Siberia (S-Squad Book 3). Featuring almost the same giant creatures to battle, and in almost the same environment. Only this time instead of being brought back by foolish scientists there's no explanation for why this area is there.

It really did feel like another S-Squad installment, only with the people needing rescuing doing it themselves and those characters just being one-offs and not very interesting.

The beginning with introducing all the characters and the trek through the snowy mountains were the best parts to me, once it gets into the Lost Valley it becomes just another giant creature feature with characters you don't care about getting picked off because they are given personalities that force them to do stupid things to keep the plot moving.

It also has that found journal thing, where the information is slowly revealed to match what is going on in the current plot like anyone wouldn't just read the whole thing at once. I hate that. He tries to get around it by having the characters already read the whole thing before the journey but just not believing it, but it's still the same in effect as it's still revealed bit by bit to the reader to match what is going on in the current plot anyways.

Of course, he knows how to do action and make just about anything fun, and he does so here. He's also a great writer so that still shines through. I just would have liked something new from him.

It's certainly not terrible by any means, just another quick action romp with giant beasties from the author. The journey to get to the place was well done and there's loads of gore to enjoy at least.

So after looking at the goofy cover, and reading the description that didn't really make me understand what this was about, I passed over this a few times. Finally, curiosity got the better of me, as it always does, and I checked this out to find an amazing fantasy tale with great characters and a deep world with loads of rules and lore of its own.

My worries of it just having the weirdness factor cranked up to eleven all the time with nothing to ground it was unfounded thankfully, although the beginning almost makes it seem that way. The story opens with a festival where giant creatures named Horvu that can look like all sorts of things eat one another and birth others at the same time. It was pretty odd. Then all sorts of strange words and things are introduced to the reader that just don't make a whole lot of sense. But after a while, it all began to click for me, and I got into it. Needs some time to ease into it, all the great character stuff comes after the weird introduction.

Not that the story doesn't retain that weirdness. To give you the major example that still sticks out to me... a demon is summoned in the book by his sphincter first appearing, then from it his pink flesh comes forth and he begins to form in the world. So yeah, a demon basically craps itself into existence. There's loads more of this kind of crazy in here, it's always fun and makes you think... what the heck!?

So basically the story is as follows. Helz, a sorcerer longs for the companionship of her Aunt Lona, who was once as close as a sister to her, once again. Holneby, Lona's rather manipulative husband keeps her under his control and doesn't let her see Helz anymore. They all three come to an arrangement that allows Lona to see Helz on the weekends, Holneby needs an invention of hers to assist him. While this is great for Helz at first, things go awry and sets off a tale of revenge and adventure across this crazy and fun fantasy world with lots of strange places and encounters. Her story of course eventually intersects with Tuckle and the wizard Monfro, who are in the introduction, the story is told out of order at first.

I understand why the store description didn't tell me what this was about after reading the story... It's a deeply layered tale that is hard to tell potential readers about because it's hard not to spoil it, hopefully, I explained it a little better without ruining it for anyone.

The three main characters are all great, Helz, Tuckle, and Monfro. They have a lot of great moments and despite the zaniness of the story they all somehow manage to ground it and keep it from spiraling into that weirdness always cranked up to eleven thing I was worried about. Helz especially has a great character arc, and she was pretty much the stand out character to me. (And to think she doesn't even get a spot on the cover!)

I mean there is just so much to talk about here and this is already way too long, I know. Blottick stones, how they cast spells in this, all the strange and fun little creatures... I just can't get into it all, I'd write a novel-length thing myself. There is simply a lot to this, and it made for great reading.

Does it have problems? Yep. The pacing is weird, it goes a long time between the sets of main characters and all the terms and weird words and spell work were hard to follow and understand sometimes. In the end, it didn't truly affect my enjoyment of it though, I loved this book.

A very complex fantasy world, layered storytelling, incredibly weird things that are grounded by great character work... If you only pay attention to one thing I have written in this stupidly long review, make it be this... This is worth reading.