ISBN: 159374907
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Whiskey Creek Press, LLC
Pub. Date: September 2007
Dark Lullaby is the kind of novel that you will want to read in one sitting. As the tension builds, as the characters fall into their own personal hells, you are compelled to keep reading.
When Gabriel Diaz meets a mysterious woman he shoves all thoughts of his ex-girlfriend Liz, a bohemian librarian, from his mind. Even though she happens to be sitting next to him when Kamilah introduces herself at a bar and invites herself into their conversation about good and evil. Liz seems to recognize that there is something odd about Kamilah but Gabriel is blinded.
Gabriel is an intelligent introspective man, he had a difficult childhood and is struggling to work out who he is. Soon Gabriel infatuated with Kamilah, her beauty and mind draw him to her. When Kamilah invites Gabriel to visit her in her homeland in Turkey. But Gabriel’s sister Elena, his twin and close friend, is waiting for him in Belgium where she is expecting a child. Gabriel had promised to be there for the birth but Kamilah’s invitation drives it from his mind.
Once he is away from everything familiar, deep in Kamilah’s territory, Gabriel becomes sick and loses his cell phone. All communication is cut with Liz, who is extremely worried about him and his sister Elena, who has become frantic with worry over her brother. With her due date coming closer and Gabriel still missing she begins to wonder if he too will disappoint her, just as everyone else in her life has.
Meanwhile Kamilah, beautiful and strange, is acting oddly around Gabriel. She always seems to be hot to the touch and she seems oddly fascinated by the nature of good and evil. When Gabriel begins to suspect that Kamilah is somehow making him sick with hallucinations he struggles to find a way to escape her. But it could be too late for himself as well as for his sisters unborn baby.
Part horror and thriller with a touch of romance Dark Lullaby is a quick read that will keep you glued to the pages. Thoughtful, entertaining, and chilling the characters and the exotic settings will sweep you away.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
'Dark Lullaby' by Mayra Calvani
Thursday, October 4, 2007
'Blood Magic' by Matthew Cook
Blood Magic is Matthew Cook’s debut and I have to admit that for a first book I am more than a little impressed. Once I started reading I found myself unable to put the book down as Kirin’s past and present rushed toward each other in a story that simply demands to be read. Not only does Cook tell a strong story, he gives us a strong convincing female protagonist, something not all male writers can pull off.
Blood Magic is divided into two parts, the chapters alternating between Kirin’s present and past. From her childhood and young adult life ruled by her twin sister to the years she spent as a necromancer and then a scout, her tale is full of pain and suffering. Made strong through the choices she was forced to make she becomes something that even she does not fully understand.
When Kirin’s twin is savagely murdered, Kirin avenges her death. In the process she transforms herself from a green-eyed beauty to a black eyed necromancer with powerful blood magic. Kirin runs from the small town she had called home and lives for years in the wilderness before becoming a scout for the Imperial Army. When the Mor, an army of creatures that have lived for generations under the earth, start to attack human settlements once again, Kirin joins the fight against them.
Along the way Kirin meets Lia Cho, a sorceress able to call lightening from the sky. Lia has left her school in the mountains and is headed for her father in the capital city, knowing that he needs her help. A priest by the name of Ato travels with Lia and knows Kirin for what she is by her black eyes. He tries to warn Lia away, but Lia and Kirin are drawn together. One light and one dark, the characters play off each other perfectly.
While Kirin does come to find love in the form of Lia, this is not your traditional romance. This is the story of Kirin - witch, necromancer, user of dark blood magic and the people who have come into her life, Lia being one of them. Cook also puts a nice spin on the idea of necromancy. Kirin can call souls back to their bodies, but the bodies do not rise whole; instead, what Kirin calls her ‘sweetlings’ are birthed from the cocoon of flesh. Short and made of exposed muscle and tendon, they are lethal warriors she uses to defend herself.
The world is pure fantasy, a medieval-feeling place that lacks all modern technology. There are odd six-legged beasts but other than that it feels like a long lost Earth. I would have liked to know more about the deadly Mor -- why are they attacking the humans after so many years? But since Blood Magic is the first in a trilogy (the second book has a working title of Nights of Sin and a release date is set for July of 2008), I’m sure that all will be revealed in time. The characters are solid, Kirin exceptional, and the story is perfectly balanced between the past and the present.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
'Agents of Light and Darkness' by Simon R. Green
ISBN: 0441011136
ISBN-13: 9780441011131
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 233pp
Publisher: Ace /Penguin Group (USA)
Price: $6.99
John Taylor has a new case in Agents of Light and Darkness, the second book in the Nightside series by Simon R. Green. When the Unholy Grail turns up it’s only a matter of time before the people living in the Nightside think of John Taylor and his gift for finding things. But it isn’t only the major and minor players who are looking for this evil object; the forces of light and dark are after it as well. Heaven and Hell will turn the Nightside into a battleground looking for the Unholy Grail unless John can find it first.
Contracted by a mysterious priest by the name of Jude, John sets out to recruit some help. He finds Suzie Shooter vegetating on her couch, her apartment a mess, but when he mentions work she brightens up and suits up in her signature studded black leather. Suzie, by the way, has a poster of Emma Peel on her wall with ‘My Hero’ scrolled in lipstick underneath it. I just love that.
So with Suzie by his side, John sets out to find the Unholy Grail. But things aren’t always what they seem, this is the Nightside after all, and nothing is going to be easy. When it is always 3am and the bad guys don’t have to wait for dark you never know what you might find around the corner. But he’s John Taylor, I mean come on, they know better than to take him on. That doesn’t stop them from trying though.
Besides the gruesome, graphic, utterly wonderful horror, there is a lot of humor here: dark, bitter, twisted smiles that curve the corners of broken lips as the grin-wearing fool wipes blood out of his eyes. I guess the phrase would be darkly comic. Well, Simon R. Green has mastered it and makes it seem effortless.
Razor Eddie, the Punk God of the Straight Razor, is back as well. From John and Suzie to Cathy, The Collector, and the gang at Strangefellows, how can you not love these characters? And with details like The Little Sisters of the Immaculate Chain Saw and Nasty Johnny Starlight, you have something that is so far beyond amazing it borders on insane. Yes, insane.
I read a lot, I think I read more than is good for my brain sometimes, and these books stand out like a decapitated body in a church. Read them.
You can purchase an electronic version of Agents of Light and Darkness straight from the publisher here. While you are at it check out the tribute site to Simon R. Green, Blue Moon Rising.
Monday, September 10, 2007
'Something from the Nightside' by Simon R. Green
ISBN: 0441010652
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 230pp
Publisher: Ace
Price: $6.99
Something from the Nightside is the first in Simon R. Green’s Nightside Series, a group of books based around John Taylor, a private detective that has a gift for finding lost things.
John has been living in London for five years when Joanna Barett, a rich business woman, asks him to find her missing daughter Cathy. She has one clue, Nightside. John left the Nightside, swearing never to go back, but he’s a sucker for someone in need and agrees to find the girl for a hefty price. The one condition Joanna has is that she gets to go along.
The Nightside is a square mile in the middle of London, except that it’s bigger than that, and it’s always three in the morning. All kinds live there: myths, monsters, dreams, and a few seemingly normal people just passing through. It’s where you go to find the things that can only live in the dead of night.
John, who’s name is still spoken of in the Nightside, goes back to one of his old haunts to collect some information on the missing girl. In Strangefellows, a bar that has been open since the beginning of time, John runs into one of his old friends, Razor Eddie, the Punk God of the Straight Razor. Except that in the Nightside things are not always what they seem and friends are not always friends. From there, it’s a wild ride through the dark streets in search of Cathy.
Simon R. Green fills the book with characters that really stand out. From Razor Eddie to Suzie Shooter, better known as Shotgun Suzie, and even John himself; these characters are never quite what they seem, just like the Nightside. John’s past is hinted at, but nothing really solid comes through. I’m hoping in the future books you learn more about his past and why his name is remembered, for one reason or another, by everyone in the Nightside.
Something from the Nightside is a quick horrific novel. From insects exploding out of a man’s body to faceless men with hypodermic needles for fingers, this novel is filled with images straight from your darkest nightmares. Throw in a little noir style and dark rich atmosphere, and you have one heck of a read.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
'Subterranean' by James Rollins
ISBN: 0380792648
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 410pp
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Price: $7.99
Subterranean was Jurassic Park meets Journey to the Center of the Earth, but with a lost tribe of marsupial humanoids. It was just great. Great action, great adventure, great suspense, great mystery, and even some great romance — this book had it all.
It starts with some great characters: Ashley, an American anthropologist with her son Jason; Ben, the Australian cave diver; Linda, an American biologist; Khalid, a Egyptian geologist; and Michaelson, the Army man with a hand full of SEALS backing him up. These people form a team that Doctor Blakely has put together to search a cave under the Antarctic continent. There are other characters that come and go, some a little more unexpectedly than others.
In the main cavern, Alpha Base, dwellings have been carved all along one wall. Thousands of years old, maybe millions, these small homes belong to an extinct humanoid creature, or so the scientists believe. There are worm holes leading off the main cavern and the team has been put together to search the worm holes. They discover right before their departure that they are not the first to go down — a team went before them but never returned. They are not only on a discovery mission but also a rescue mission.
What they find in the bowels of the earth is like nothing else. Ben, the man with all the cave experience, claims that it is unlike anything else on the entire planet. They encounter living dinosaurs, species thought to be extinct long ago. All sorts of creatures block their path and obstacles are constantly being overcome, as they move farther and farther down. Alliances are formed and broken as the darkness presses close and they become lost in the maze of caves.
Some of the descriptions were a little light. You get a pretty good feel for the caverns and the different caves but it wasn’t always a clear picture. Sometimes you forget the characters are in a cave but that didn’t happen very often.
The thrill and the action take the front seat and are the driving forces for the book. The action never lets up, leaving you gripping the edges of your book and turning pages at a frantic pace. At every turn something new has happened and you hate to put it down.
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
'Creepers' by David Morrell
ISBN: 1593153570
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 384pp
Publisher: Vanguard Press
Price: $7.99
Creepers are the people who explore abandoned houses, hotels, subway tunnels, factories, and old department stores. It is highly illegal and there are a lot of fines and penalties out there for those people that get caught, not to mention the danger that an abandoned building poses; have the floors rotted away, will there be homeless people hiding in the corners, and what wild animals have found a way in out of the weather?
At some point in time, mostly in the teenage years, I’m sure a lot of you have wandered into an old building, maybe in the middle of the night with a flashlight and a friend. I must have spent countless hours exploring an abandoned hotel in the city I live in. I could never make myself look in all the closed hotel rooms. I would clutch a shaking flashlight and hurry to the roof, twelve floors up, and then hurry back down. In one of the rooms I did explore I found a copy of a 1960s Playboy in the nightstand next to a copy of the Bible.
Creepers is a book about the people who have the guts to take a look at it all. Open every door, take a look in the basement, and even thoughtful enough to bring a camera to take some pictures. But the abandoned buildings aren’t always truly abandoned and evil never truly leaves a place it has left its mark on.
Frank Balenger is a reporter doing a story on urban explorers for his newspaper. He is invited to join a group of five preparing to explore The Paragon Hotel on the Jersey Shore. The Paragon has a sad history, being built and owned by a man who feared people and the world. It is scheduled to be demolished in a week’s time.
Through tunnels infested with deformed rats and a cat with three hind legs, the group breaks through a metal door and into the hotel. What they find inside is the hotel as it looked in the Victorian era. Lush furnishings and marble that have been slowly rotting all these years. Carefully exploring rooms, they find evidence of the hotel’s brutal and horribly evil past. What they aren’t expecting is that the evil is still alive and waiting just around the corner.
Parts of this book almost made me jump out of my skin. The tension skyrockets and you just can't put down the book until you find out what happens next. Before you know it's 4 o'clock in the morning on a work day.
