Review of “Into The Dark” over at Doubleshot reviews.
Heather Faville was kind enough to keep on checking out my trilogy with her review of the second book (and she referenced her review of Comes The Dark as well on it), when she posted a review of Into The Dark last night. I am definitely happy with the review and can’t wait to see what she thinks of Beyond The Dark as well.
Thanks again to Heather and Doubleshot reviews for checking out my trilogy. You can find the review here: http://doubleshotreviews.com/2011/04/26/into-the-dark-by-patrick-dorazio/
Coming soon…I hope…well, whenever it does, I think you will crack up at it!
I wanted to post the cover of an anthology that I am proud to have a story in. The challenge with the premise of this antho was to use two different monster archetypes and mash them up and make it into a comedy story about them. It is entitled Groanology: Amusing Monster Mash-Ups Unleashed!
My short story, “Hell in the Family” will appear on its pages. Shocking tidbit about it: there are NO zombies in this one! So you see, I can actually write a horror tale without the undead in it. But of course, there have been others I’ve written. But of course, by now, you all know I love writing about the undead buggers, heh.
Anyway, here is the cover, and I think it will give you a great idea of how amusing this book will end up being. More details to come as the book gets closer to release.
Beyond The Dark is now on Amazon!
Well, that didn’t take long. Beyond The Dark has now appeared on Amazon, so if you were waiting for the opportunity to check it out there, it is ready to go!
Just hit the picture and it will take you to where it is on Amazon.
Woo hoo!
Beyond the Dark is now on Createspace!
I am excited to announce that Beyond the Dark has made its way over to Createspace! That means that in about a week or so, it will be up and running on Amazon. I don’t have a locked down date on the trilogy coming out on Kindle and Smashwords, but that too will be occurring soon.
So if you are anxious to snag the last book of my trilogy in paperback, head on over to Createspace and check it out. Just click on the picture below and it will take you right over there. Of course, if you want to wait for it to hit Amazon, I will be posting here as soon as it is up and running over there as well.
Review of David Dunwoody’s “Empire’s End”
I read David Dunwoody’s Empire nearly three years ago, and it has stuck with me as one of the standouts in zombie fiction because of its unique approach to the genre. Dave wrote a book filled with an element that seems to make perfect sense although no one that I am aware of has utilized it before or since. The Grim Reaper, Death, decides to take a stand against the undead, tired and angered by their defiance to the natural order of things. It is his job to transport those from this life into the next, and the undead resist that. So in Empire, death relinquished his responsibilities and became something not quite human, but not quite immortal. With his scythe, he laid waste to the undead. At the same time, he saved a little girl named Lily, who made him feel something human, something he’d never felt before: love.
Empire’s End continues the story of Death’s journey, along with that of Vorhees, the cop that was one of the last survivors out of Jefferson Harbor, Louisiana, a town in the badlands of the United States. Essentially, outside of the “Great Cities” to the north, which hide behind massive walls, the rest of the country is the badlands. A century has passed since the plague that released the zombie plague upon mankind swept the world. Before that, there were sources of power on this planet that allowed the dead to rise. They could not infect the living, just devour them, at least until the United States Government decided to tamper with this supernatural power. It was turned into a virus that could infect others and the rest, as they say, is history.
Much of Empire’s End takes place within one of the cities inside the walls that keep the undead out. Lily and Vorhees both are there now, and trying to adapt to a life of civility, or whatever approximates civility in this new world where the populous is convinced they are safe from the dangers beyond their gates. But while the undead are indeed not inside the walls, a group of traveling performers that have embraced the idea of an existence after life that is far more intoxicating, are building an army of the undead whose intent is to come north for a great feast of those hidden behind those walls.
Death, who has taken on the human name of Adam, is searching for Lily while he is being pursued by an undead vessel known as the Omega. I call it a vessel because this creature is filled with the vengeful spirits of many who Death has taken over the countless centuries where he fulfilled his duties. After having given up his mantle of responsibility, he has become vulnerable, and those who he sent to hell crave revenge.
Empire’s End is more than just a solid sequel to an excellent zombie novel; it surpasses its predecessor with a deeper look into a world filled with dark magic and vivid characters, both living and dead. Dunwoody somehow manages to make Death a sympathetic character and his zombies are some of the scariest around.
As an added bonus, at the end of the book the reader gets “Grinning Samuel” and “AfterDead”, two additional stories that explain the origin of the undead plague. I had read Grinning Samuel before, but AfterDead was new to me, and a very intriguing story that gives the reader a genuine understanding of how this all came about.
You can find Empire’s End here: http://www.amazon.com/Empires-End-ebook/dp/B004W9BXJW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1303068127&sr=1-4
Review of Daniel H. Wilson’s “Robopocalypse”
Robopocalypse tells the story of the war between mankind and robots fought in the near future, when a super-intelligent AI goes live and realizes that humanity has served its purpose and is no longer needed in the big scheme of things, and as such is a threat to the rest of creation. The story is told in flashback, with the war already being won by humanity when we read the briefing at the beginning of the book. The story is narrated by Cormac “Bright Boy” Wallace, one of the humans at the final victory of the human race against the AI that tried to do humanity in. The story unfolds in brief vignettes, leading us from the point where Archos, the AI, goes live, takes control of various robots that are a part of our every day lives, and then declares all out war against us. Steven Spielberg will be making a movie of the book in 2013.
This was a fun, easy read that seems like the ideal fit for a Spielberg big budget action movie, and I mean that both in the best and worst ways. Despite being the story of a war-likely the most important war that humanity has ever faced, the cast of characters is extremely limited. Other reviewers have commented that this story reminds them of World War Z from Max Brooks and I see the similarities. That book interviews dozens of survivors of the war against zombies as they tell their tales of the war from start to finish. Robopocalypse shares in that we are given a recounting of the robot war, though the scope here is much more narrow, with perhaps only a handful of characters stepping into the spotlight. In fact, there are some amazing coincidences that keep the cast smaller than it could have been, with a hero of the war in Oklahoma being the father of another major hero of the war who is in Afghanistan. A senator that is a key character just so happens to be the mother of yet another hero in the story. So this story is one that has a very narrow, limited perspective on this particular war. I would have loved to seen a book that was willing to take more of the war and more of the people who experienced it. In addition, I thought there was a lost opportunity when Archos, the diabolical AI we are introduced to at the beginning of the story seems to disappear, for the most part, until the very end of the tale. It was the most intriguing and fun character of them all, a worthy and interesting villain that is woefully underutilized here.
Still, this was a fun, rock ’em, sock ’em tale of humans doing battle with robots that was a quick, easy read. No new ground was broken here, even though the author is a robotics expert. His knowledge added to the quality of the tale, but he challenged none of my expectations when it comes to robots. Instead, this story reminded me of the back story to the Terminator (super military AI wakes up and decides to destroy the human race) or The Matrix (humanity is enslaved by the same machines who they had treated like slaves). Nothing too taxing mentally, but still an entertaining tale.
Robopocalypse can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Robopocalypse-Novel-Daniel-H-Wilson/dp/0385533853/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302919659&sr=1-1
Beyond the Dark is up on Smashwords!
The paperback version of Beyond The Dark, as well as the entire trilogy on Kindle and Smashwords, is coming soon, but the final book of my trilogy is up and running over on Smashwords now for $2.99! So please check it out.
The proof has been ordered for the paperback, so as long as it looks good, that version will be up and available very soon. I will keep everyone posted on it as details unfold. The entire trilogy in ebook form will follow shortly thereafter, and details on that will also be forthcoming.
Until then, here is the description on Beyond The Dark. Just click on the picture to be sent over to the link on Smashwords to pick up your copy now!
The dead have risen, and their hunger for the flesh of the living is insatiable …
It has been six weeks since the virus engulfed the world. Everyone who was infected died, and then rose again. Governments collapsed, armies fell, and civilizations turned to dust as the human race tore itself to pieces.
The living are in danger of becoming extinct …
Jeff Blaine has witnessed the annihilation of his family and everything that mattered to him. When he steps outside his home for the first time since the world died, he meets Megan, George, and Jason, three other survivors who force him to accept that there may still be a reason to fight and live to see another day.
It doesn’t take long for the quartet to stumble into a trap set by a group led by the charismatic Michael. While he promises a safe haven from the undead behind the walls of his makeshift fortress, the loyalty he and his cronies demand may be too high a price for Jeff and the others to pay.
Daylight is fading for humanity …
When a routine supply run to a nearby town turns deadly and the ghouls walking the street track the living back to their hideout, the mettle of the meager band of survivors will be tested as they are forced to face the onslaught of the undead.
Even as they flee, and their world falls deeper into despair, Jeff and the others must find a way to defeat not only the undead, but the hatred that threatens to cripple their souls. Because the only way anyone will survive is if they can find their way beyond the dark.
Review of Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall’s “Night of the Living Trekkies”
I won Night of the Living Trekkies through a website and held on to it for a couple of months before deciding to take a stab at it. My first recollection of the book, before I received it, was the book trailer I saw on the internet. It struck me more as a movie trailer than one for a book, and I was joking with my friends that I wanted to go see the movie and not bother with the book because it was so well done. But after checking the book out, I have to admit, it was a lot of fun and I’m glad I gave it a chance. For the purposes of full disclosure, I am both a sci-fi and a zombie geek (with leanings toward the zombie side of things), and while I haven’t been to any sci-fi conventions, I’ve been to a few horror conventions over the past year, which has given me an appreciation to the dedication some fans have to their favorite characters, movies, and TV series. So that experience has probably shaped my appreciation for this book, though I think any fan of either Trek or of the zombie genre will enjoy this send up, whether casual or dedicated.
The basic plot centers around Jim, an Afghanistan war vet who comes back home in Houston shattered and unwilling to take on any responsibilities more crucial than that of being a bell hop in a mediocre hotel due to the guilt he feels at watching some of his fellow soldiers die. He is a “reformed” trekkie, or trekker, as it were, and now has to deal with Gulf Con, a Star Trek convention that has landed at his hotel, which is conveniently called the Botany Bay. His sister and over a thousand fans of Trek will be in attendance, but so will a ton of zombies, who crash the party after a alien virus escapes the confines of the Johnson Spaceflight Center bunker where it has been housed since it touched down via some meteors that hitched a ride on a downed NASA space probe.
I wouldn’t call this one a parody, because the characters may be dressed up as different Trek characters for the convention, but they are not the characters themselves. Instead, this is an opportunity for the authors to express a love for Star Trek, zombies, and even Star Wars. I was able to pick up on most of the references, though perhaps I may have missed one here or there in the mix. Regardless, this was a fun and funny book that gave its characters enough depth and realism to make me appreciate them while not disrupting the comedic overtones of the story based on the idea of a convention for one sort of imaginary creation being overrun by another imaginary creation. The adventure is fast paced and Jim is forced to once again embrace his inner nerd, along with embracing the suck of the situation he finds himself in with a small group of surviving convention goers. The zombies have some interesting, alien twists to them, but overall, the book pays reverence to its benefactors: Rodenberry, Romero, and even Lucas, with ample references to what each man created and appreciation for them as well.
For a easy and fun read, this one was hard to beat. There was some high drama on the pages at certain points, and overall, that aspect of the story was well done, but again, none of it distracts from the comedy value of this engaging zombie-Trek send up.
Night of the Living Trekkies can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Night-Living-Trekkies-Quirk-Fiction/dp/1594744637/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302357196&sr=8-1
Review of “From Beyond The Mist” by Elizabeth LaFond
I am not a huge poetry aficionado, but on occasion I will check out poetry from a few different sources out there that are related to my interests. From Beyond the Mist is from the Library of Horror, but most of the poems written here are not of traditional horror, at least not of the supernatural, though there are a few poems of that bent. Much of what the author provides us with is tastes of reality, seen through the eyes of someone who has experienced despair in their existence. A poem of something as simple as a leaf growing green and vibrant, only to die in time with no one left interested in the beauty that was once there and others that speak of the death of a loved one, the grief of leaving someone behind, and much more. Tales of abuse, anger, dreams, nightmares…there is much here that dips into the darkness of the soul. As I said, some of this is of a supernatural, or horror bent, with a substantial sprinkling of tales of angels, both those from above and those that have fallen, but I think all of us who have dealt with tragedy and hardships will find at least a few different poems here that will touch you personally.
In some spots, I tried to discern the deeper meanings of certain poems, while with others the meaning seemed more clear to me. I believe there is layers to every one of these tales and each reader has to determine for themselves what meaning they can take from them. While there is sadness and grim, harsh realities spoken of here, there is also light, and a hope that sparkles through on many pages. If you are looking for something that speaks of the darker side of reality, and also of the dreams that we try to hide from, check out this book of poems.
You can find From Beyond The Mist here: http://www.amazon.com/Poetry-Beyond-Mist-Elizabeth-LaFond/dp/1460937465/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301972541&sr=8-1
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