Reviewed by Author C.V. Hunt

3 out of 5

ABOUT:

Virulent pockets of plague, first reported in China, break out worldwide and spread with mind-boggling speed. CIA black ops agent Chad Halverson flies to Los Angeles to visit his brother after receiving a call that his brother has been hospitalized after a car accident. Halverson’s Boeing 737 crash-lands in an eerie Los Angeles shrouded with an impenetrable haze of smog. But that is only the tip of the iceberg of Halverson’s nightmare. Lurking in this mist are legions of plague-infected living dead who are driven by an all-consuming lust for human flesh. Halverson’s reunion with his brother must take second place to his own struggle to stay alive.

As civilization crumbles into chaos, it will take all the skills and wits Halverson and his fellow passengers possess for their hunted party to survive in a world overrun with hordes of flesh-craving zombies. Which will pose a bigger threat to Halverson and his ever-dwindling band–their own bickering as they try to organize and defend themselves, their enemies the living dead, or the new “civilization” of men that is superseding the old?

REVIEW:

Zombie Maelstrom is filled with the repetition of killing the virus riddled dead. It tells the story of a group of survivors trying to make it through the zombie apocalypse with limited information.

Chad Halverson knows that something is amiss with the so-called plague, because he works for the CIA. Chad keeps what information that he has to himself, as he, and a group of plane crash survivors try to make heads or tails of what is happening. The action keeps rolling as the group is devastated over and over by the onslaught of the undead.

The story reminded me of Night Of The Living Dead, but in a bug out scenario. My biggest complaint about the story is that I couldn’t find anything that hasn’t been portrayed in every zombie movie or book in the last 40 plus years: A couple of leaders, an over opinionated jerk (that everyone wants to see get offed), a girl that seems to lose her marbles, some one that flips out under the pressure, a group of renegades that want to build their own government, and then a few stragglers that just seem to waste space and resources.

There are a two things I consider when I read a zombie book.

ONE: What makes this different from every other one that I’ve read?

With Zombie Maelstrom I couldn’t seem to find anything that struck me as different. But with that said, there are quite a few zombie fans that love the repetition of the zombie ‘slash and dash’ story. They want the gore and carnage, and they aren’t looking for anything but the overflow of an all-consuming virus. For those people I would suggest this book.

TWO: Being a zombie coinsure, I look for whether or not I would have stayed with this group if I were there.

I’m sorry Bryan Cassiday, I would have cut and run from this group as soon as possible. The inevitability of my death would have had me hightailing it out of there as soon as I was able to obtain a weapon. With this group they took too much time overanalyzing their every move, and bickered amongst themselves under the siege of zombies.

If you like the tried and true zombies of 1964 then Zombie Maelstrom is for you.

Reviewed by Author C.V. Hunt

5 out of 5 Stars

ABOUT:

A young disabled woman in a wheelchair protects an unaware world from demons and monsters.

Ester Vasquez, born with arthrogryposis, hunts the monsters and demons that hide from the unsuspecting masses along with her 6’8, 360lbs Samoan care provider, Sammy. In episode one – ‘Pilot’ – Ester and Sammy travel just over the Mexican border from their home in Arizona to help a little boy possessed by a demon, but what awaits them when they return home is far worse than anything they’ve ever faced. It will take all of Ester’s brains and Sammy’s brawn to repel an attack that threatens not just years of hard work, but their lives as well.

Hellwatch is planned to be an ongoing serial fiction series told in 9 monthly ‘episode’ novellas per ‘season’. This is the pilot episode, and if well received, 8 more will follow each month starting in January 2012.

REVIEW:

The opening of Hellwatch had me hooked:

Ester Vasquez was not a big fan of the Man Upstairs. As she saw things, He was a quitter, just like the father that she never knew. She eventually came to the conclusion that the deist belief in a clockmaker God that created the universe and simply walked away was pretty much on the money. He had long ago lost interest in His creation, or maybe He hand never been interested at all. Praying to an invisible man in the sky seemed, as the late George Carlin once said, just as effective as praying to Joe Pesci. She wasn’t an atheist, however – she knew He existed, at some point in time. He just didn’t care anymore. How did she know this?

Ester hunted demons and monsters.

Ester Vasquez has a straight forward character that peppers her conversations with sarcasm and humor. With a warmhearted Samuel as her care provider, she fights more than just her inner demons of doubt, life, and creation, but the real demons rising up from hell.

Jacob used to work for the Catholic Church as a priest, but he left after trying to convince the church that there are cracks in their foundation. He taught Ester how to exercise the possessed using faith, but she abandoned it for a more scientific approach.

Ester and Samuel work as a team using her method of demon removal. In this story they head to Mexico to help a boy that has been possessed, but once the incantation starts they find out that they may be in over the heads. Ester’s strong headedness keeps her from backing out of the ritual. She more than proves that being disabled by arthrogryposis is not going to stop her. Ester takes down the strong demon with little fight as the creature bellows about her darkest secrets.

It was easier than she had first feared… too easy.

Things just don’t sit right with Ester about the incident. The things that demon spoke about, the branch of hierarchy that the creature came from, and the ease of its removable have her worried. She plans on recuperating at home before they set out again, but other forces have different plans for her.

Larime Taylor has written an addictive pilot for Hellwatch. I flew through this episode, and was left with a feeling of wanting more. This is just the start of serial fiction series, which is getting harder and harder to find. I look forward to reading the rest of them. I would suggest this to anyone that likes to read about the battles between good and evil, or for someone that is looking for a strong-willed protagonist that can overcome anything that life throws at them.

Reviewed by Author C.V. Hunt

5 out of 5

ABOUT:

In the first installment of Mischief Mayhem Want and Woe, Brent Michael Kelley unleashes the horrors of Desecration on Stagwater. 

Norchug Mot Losiat, Chuggie to his friends, is Brother Drought. When, in his rambling, he stumbles upon the remote city of Stagwater, he finds love, temptation, and treachery. He fights against men, demons, and his own nature to battle the sinister forces threatening the city. But Chuggie? All he wants is a boat.

REVIEW:

There is a town called Stagewater that has a river running through it. It would seem normal by comparison to any other town, but there are things brewing that most of its citizens don’t know about.

The town is under the protections of Steel Jacks (robot aliens from another planet), and run by the magistrate, Haste, and his lackeys. Haste and his tight group of counsel use a method call tourgery to collect the sorrow from Stagewater’s citizens. By drinking in the sorrow, they enter into the Pheonal Trance, which allows Haste to predict the future of Stagwater. It’s deemed a necessary evil for the greater good of the city.

One of Haste’s trances induces the vision of a traveler that will bring the destruction of the town. The word is spread to send any strangers north of the city walls.

Disease, Fire, Flood, and Drought were all born somewhere around the beginning of time. Norchug Mot Losiat, better known as Chuggie, is the incarnation of Drought. His goals aren’t by any means hard; he just wants to make it to the ocean with his anchor and chain, which is attached to his ribs.

FROM THE BOOK:

“I’m want. It means I thirst. It means I’m poor. It means something’s missing. It means I fall short.” Chuggie spat at a mossy log. His eyes pointed at the ground, but his gaze pointed inward.

“That sounds like you get the losing end of the stick. If that’s really true, why would you keep on trying.”

“It’s just true enough.” Chuggie squinted. “Result is I don’t waste a lot of time makin’ plans. Usually just go. Livin’ like that can really shake the confidence if you aren’t as amazing as ol’ Chuggers.” His smile returned.

On his way to the ocean his anchor gets snagged in a tree outside of Stagwater. Gaurds are sent to direct him north, and by all means, keep him out of the city.

Chuggie grows upset with the way that he has been treated and suspects that the guards have used a spell on him. So he defies their request to head north and wanders south. South of Stagwater he finds a witch that has been banished from Stagwater and bound to the place that she lives. Chuggie has to free her, but first he needs to bring her some items, and this involves entering Stagwater… and heading north. What lies to the north? No one knows, because no one ever comes back.

Brent Michael Kelley did an excellent job of creating a colorful cast of characters for Chuggie and the Desecration of Stagwater. Demons, alien robots, incarnates, witches, and animated objects all come together to create a great dark fantasy that will stick with me. I loved it, and I’m glad that I had a chance to read it.

Reviewed by Author C.V. Hunt

4 out of 5

ABOUT:

Britannia, 61 A.D. For ten years, Taras has lived in the young city of Londinium, feeding off the city’s underbelly. But now Theron, his old enemy, has come looking for revenge, and Taras’ nights of living in relative peace are about to end.

Yet not even Theron can slip into town unnoticed, and the Council of Thirteen sends Ramah to deal with the two renegades once and for all. But unknown to the Council, a much older enemy is also in Londinium, and this time even the great Ramah might not be safe.

Set against the backdrop of the Iceni uprising in Roman-era Britannia, 61 A.D. continues the story of Taras, Theron, and Ramah, as they fight their way through history.

REVIEW:

61 A.D. is the sequel to 31 A.D. and is written by David McAfee. I found the first book very inventive and well researched, and I was gladly given the chance to read the sequel.

The Iceni and Trinovante tribes have band together in an attempt to overthrow the Romans for transgressions they’ve suffered. Their plan is to destroy all the Romans in a coordinated a siege on the city of Londinium. This all happened in the year 61 A.D., and thus is the backdrop for this book.

Taras, a Roman, was accidentally turned into a Bachiyr (the term for vampire used through this series), and Theron has vowed to hunt him down to kill him. Taras’ transformation was a mistake, and it has cost Theron dearly. Theron is no longer in the good graces of The Counsel of Thirteen, and has become what he always sought to slaughter – a renegade vampire.

Now Ramah, the Blood Letter, and second in command of The Counsel of Thirteen, is sent to hunt down Theron and being him back alive for his punishment. Theron is chasing Taras, and Ramah is chasing Theron, and now Ramah is being chased by a phantom that the Counsel has long sought after. All of this is happening amongst the slaughter of Londinium.

The conspiracy still lingers in the world of vampires, and no one can be trusted.

FROM THE BOOK:

“I should like to know what I am agreeing to before I agree to it.”

“That is not the deal,” she said, jangling the keys for effect. “Agree to my terms or die with the sun. You choose.”

The Bachiyr turned his head toward the eastern horizon. The sky had begun to lighten slightly. It had not turned pink yet, but the black of night no longer reached the ground. Sunrise was an hour away at most. He turned his face back to her, his thin lips tightened into a grin.

“It would seem I have little choice,” he said.

The story of David McAfee’s vampires is well written. The research is phenomenal in order to place the vampires in a race across time. I love how David has brought the vampire back to his basics – being a monster. This book was good compilation to first book, but I found some of the backstory slightly repetitive. Overall I would definitely recommend this series for the reader that’s looking for murderous vampires.

ABOUT:

I first became a fan of author C.V. Hunt after reading and reviewing her Endlessly vampire series.  I was delighted to read her new novella, Danse Macabre, when she inquired.   The description above leads you to believe it would fall in the genre of zombie fiction, of which I know C.V. reads a lot of so it’s easy to guess she would be inspired by such.  I myself am not a big fan, though I love watching AMC’s The Walking Dead, but I was willing to give her new book a try since I was already familiar with her writing style.

Instead of a cookie cutter undead novella, Hunt treats her readers to an almost whimsical and frightening little story with characters as fragile as Tennessee Williams’ own Glass Menagerie but with a twisted plot right out of the mind of Tim Burton.  When I wasn’t thinking about how much this made me want to reread Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, I was wanting to watch Edward Scissorhands or the Nightmare Before Christmas again.

We start by meeting Raven, a thirty-something young woman who has just lost her mother. Raven has been blind since birth and has now had to relocate to Ohio to live with her aunt and uncle.  She feels out of place and thinks she is a burden on her aunt’s family.  When Raven befriends Spencer, the local funeral home director, things start to look up for her.  Spencer takes Raven out for regular walks to get her out of the house and the two become close.

But Spencer has a dark secret.  He’s discovered a way to keep the dead alive, starting with his very own brother Chris who he keeps locked in the funeral home basement. Chris is kept alive by eating road kill or the entrails of the deceased who come into the funeral home. His soul still inhabits his body thanks to Spencer’s practice of VooDoo, but his heartbeat is fed by the pulsing beat of indie rock bands like Blink 182. He moves to the bass like a puppet on a string doing a dance of death, hence where the novella gets its name.

The story switches between Spencer, Chris, and Raven’s point of view, evenly presenting each of their story lines.  The most surprising was Chris’s chapters as he reveals the sad childhood that he and Spencer shared at the hands of an abusive aunt and suffering from bullying in school.  Chris was always quick to defend his brother whose Norman Bates-like timidity was often caused by a massive birthmark on his face, which of course Raven cannot see now.

It is these such character nuances, and their severe emotional prostrations, that give Hunt’s novella the type of sagacity  I haven’t read since Faulkner’s own short “A Rose For Emily.”  She reels you in with a heartfelt story, only to punch you hard in the face, making you wonder if you yourself are sick and twisted just for reading it!  Pure brilliance at best!

Reviewed by Author C.V. Hunt

4 out of 5 stars.

ABOUT:

What happens when resources become scarce and society starts to crumble? As the competition for resources pulls America’s previous stable society apart, the “New Normal” is a Soft Apocalypse. This is how our world ends; with a whimper instead of a bang.

REVIEW:

Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh isn’t a book that I normal read. There were no zombies, vampires, werewolves, or even a ghost that went bump in the night within its pages. The story is scary for reasons that monsters cannot compete with. The horror that lays in wait in this book is so close to reality, it’s scary.

The story starts in the year 2023, and follows a single male named Jasper just over the course of ten years, as the economy tanks, society falls apart, and the unemployment rate jumps to over sixty percent. His journey trudged through life, love, murder, and what it takes to survive in a crumbling world.

This is just the beginning of the story.

FROM THE BOOK:

And for the past ten years things had only gotten worse. Blackouts, war, fifty-seven varieties of terrorists, water shortages, plagues. It reminded me of a story about frogs: if you put them in an open pot of water and turn on the burner, they just sit there and boil to death, because they’re not equipped to recognize and respond to gradual changes in water temperature. They could jump out at any time, but there never comes a time when their little brains judge it’s time to jump. So they cook.

Imagine a world where middle-class no longer exists. There are the rich, and the homeless, and then there are those who are fed up. People with college degrees and no jobs for them. It’s a world full of scientists, doctors, researchers, and chemists… all shunned, and living in the streets. They have nothing left to lose and nothing to provide but their knowledge.

While the world is at war with its self, the citizens have decided to turn the terror that is their lives, into special kinds of terrorism to sooth themselves. Now there is a breed of eco-terrorism, bio-terrorism and even viral-terrorism spreading, as groups of vigilante citizens blame the rich, the government, and even fellow citizens for the world falling apart.

One group has invented a virus that won’t cure the world that is falling apart, but to help you forget the hell that the world has become. Homeless tribes must decide between starving to death as world falls apart, or join a group of cultist in their ignorant bliss as the world burns.

If you want to read something truly terrifying, find something that could very easily become reality.

Isaac

Reviewed by Author C.V. Hunt

ABOUT:

Should an angel kill an innocent human, he or she is cast out of Heaven forever and forced to roam the Earth as a vampire. Isaac is one such creature, and the most powerful of his kind. Aside from the far-from-angelic life he now has to deal with, and the sudden return of his ex-lover Ashara, he is also handed the burden of saving the world. When a rebel group of vampires concocts a scheme to free the angel Lucifer from Hell, so they can get back into Heaven, it is up to Isaac to stop them. If he can’t, does he have what it takes to kill the devil?

REVIEW:

There is an ancient myth about the how Satan, Satan-Sataniel, Samael, Iblis, Morning Star, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Belial, or just the plain old Devil came into existence. Satan-Sataniel was determined to build a throne high above the clouds, and god found this to resemble his own powers, so he cast Satan out along with his followers, and god cursed them to continually fly above the abyss. Along with this story, in the book of Enoch, god sent angels to earth to help mankind. While the angels were there, they were corrupted by the men of clay, and god cast many of these angels out of heaven. Some of them were damned to walk the earth, and others were cast into the abyss.

P.H. Dillard took inspiration from these stories when he wrote Isaac. In Dillard’s book, Isaac was the second angel god created, just after Morning Star. For an eternity, Isaac and Lucy (Morning Star) were the only two angels, and the love that grew between them was like no other.

Over time, god created a league of angels with the purpose to help mankind. Since man is born into sin – and sin is in his blood – angles where sent to earth to filter the evil from humans – by drinking it. Yes, you read that right, angels drink blood.

God only bestowed on them one rule: never kill a human. If an angel were to kill a human – regardless if by accident – they would be cast out of heaven, and force to roam the earth with an insatiable hunger. They would become vampires, lose their celestial powers, and be unable to contact or communicate with other angels.

Some of these fallen have seemed to accepted their new fate, other are desperately trying to find a way for god to forgive them, and then there is coven that believes that they have a loophole that will allow them back in. This loophole could prove to be disastrous for heaven, earth, the abyss, and Issac.

I thought the pacing of Isaac was fast, but it fit the story, which is action-packed from beginning to end. I only wished the story was longer, and it ended with what made me think there may be more. Overall I think P.H. Dillard did a fine job of taking this legend and making it his own.

Synopsis:

Normal young women go on dates on Saturday nights. Betty “Boo” Boorman goes on ghost hunts. The paranormal investigator is more comfortable around ghosts than guys, anyway. A violent haunting forces Betty to team up with her rival ghost hunter, the arrogant Carter Lansford. When the violence is turned toward her, though, Betty enlists the help of a handsome stranger, who introduces himself simply as Maxwell, Demon. Her ghost hunting is cut short when she’s threatened and, finally, attacked. Either someone wants her to stay away from a paranormal investigation or Maxwell is more trouble than she realizes. As Betty begins to fall for Maxwell’s mysterious charm, she starts to wonder if her life—and her soul—are worth the risk.

Review:

I’m not a fan of the “romance” genre, but I have enjoyed a few modern women’s lit pieces like Debora Geary’s Matchmaker 2.0. What I mean by modern is that we have a stronger, more dominant, female character in the lead.  She’s not the delicate daughter of some rich rancher who is about to be ravaged by an outlaw or hunky Indian that looks like Fabio. And our female author has an obvious interest in driving the storyline with a strong plot rather than steamy make-out sessions.

I have to admit I almost turned down Beth Dolgner’s Ghost of a Threat simply because of its cover.  Sure, there are no massive male pecs or shaded breasts, no pouty lips or looks of ecstasy, but even this image of the shirtless male embracing a woman almost  pigeon holed the book for me. That is until I read the sample.

We open with a man named Sam who has mysterious things happening in his home one night.  We later learn he’s even been scratched.  He contacts Betty Boorman for help. She’s the  leader of The Savannah Spirit Seekers, a local paranormal investigation group. Unfortunately, he also contacts her rival, Carter Lansford, who runs his own group.  Carter has written a book and is more about the publicity and show rather than the actual investigating.  He’s even known to call press conferences for some of his larger investigations.

Betty bites her tongue, but Carter is so impressed with her work that he invites her to assist him with a huge investigation he’s landed at the Everett-Tattnall House. Betty accepts because she knows the house’s history and wants the chance to investigate it, but when a bizarre stranger named Maxwell shows up at the press conference, things are about to get interesting.  Especially when Maxwell’s business card says he’s a demon.

I thought Betty was a likable character.  There’s a lot of humor here which really kept the dialogue interesting. I’m also have a huge interest in ghosts and paranormal investigation, so I enjoyed that part of the story very much and its probably what kept the pages turning for me. The book takes place in Savannah, Georgia – the perfect setting for ghost hunting.  I had the pleasure of visiting there in 1997, so I was familiar with a lot of the real places mentioned in the book. That also made it a great read for me because I could connect with where the action was taking place.

These aspects of the story definitely outweigh the romance.  Sure, there’s Betty falling for Maxwell while her friends are encouraging her to date, but the other story lines going on here were much more entertaining for me. Interesting characters and interesting places definitely make this paranormal read worth a look!

Reviewed by Author C.V. Hunt

5 out of 5 stars.

ABOUT:

In the future, humans trigger a nuclear winter that lasts for hundreds of years. Water levels rise. The shape of the world changes. When the world recovers, vampires emerge from the darkness. For a millennium, humans and vampires fight for supremacy… until synthetic human blood is created, ushering in a period of peace and prosperity.

And the world changes yet again. Vampires begin morphing into væmpires, warm-blooded creatures with an insatiable hunger for cold vampire blood. There is no rhyme or reason as to who morphs–male or female, old or young, from one end of the world to another–no vampire is safe. And no human is safe, either, because these væmpires aren’t interested in coexistence. They want three things: the eradication of humanity, the enslavement of vampires, and their ascension as the dominant species on the planet.

It is the morning of Princess Cassandra’s sixteenth birthday. With the world’s attention focused on the heir to the vampire throne, væmpires revolt. In their initial attack, they kill the vampire and human leaders and take over the capital. As Cassandra, her boyfriend, Daniel, and the rest of the world fight for survival, væmpires unleash their secret weapons.

REVIEW:

With a strange twist, and a creative imagination, Thomas Winship has taken the vampire and turned it into his own creature.

The story starts with an action sequence and is nonstop action through the rest of the book. Væmpires opens with a war being waged on the capital of what is left of the world. Daniel, a fifteen year-old vampire, and the son of the captain of the guard, finds himself amongst a battle for his life against an even more terrifying group of vampires referred to as væmpires. With most of the royal family dead, he must try to rescue one of the few survivors of the family – Princess Cassandra.

Væmpires used to be regular vampires, but evolution has put a change to that. These vampires are warm-blooded, their hearts beat, they are stronger, have grown an extra set of thumbs, and their humanity is slowly slipping back to an animal instinct of survival. They have been shunned by the humans and vampire race. Vielyn, a former vampire, and former friend of the royal family states it best:

FROM THE BOOK:

“Vampires – our former people – rejected us. The world at large ignored us. The medical community failed us. The government abandoned us. What else was left but to forge our own path?”

Vampires are able to survive on a synthetic blood, and have gain a peaceful resolution with humans. The synth-blood allows them to walk in the daylight, and it quenches there never ending thirst for human blood. But væmpires are unable to produce the synthetic dead blood of a vampire, and with the feeling of being dejected by their own people, and uprising has been boiling below the surface.

Now the hunters have become the hunted, and vampires are discovering that væmpires are more powerful that what they appear.

Væmpires was extremely original and inventive. It took an apocalyptic world, added vampires, some X-men-like mutants, and added some futurist sci-fi elements. I know there are a lot of people that still like their old-school vampires, with the sunlight and holy relics, but I certainly liking these new and improved vampires that have been emerging. It’s time for the vampire to evolve into something more terrifying, and I can’t wait to see the sequel to this book.

Reviewed by Author C.V. Hunt

ABOUT:

The vampires of the era have long sought to gain a foothold into Israel, but the faith of the local Jewish population has held them in check for centuries.

When one of their own betrays them to follow a strange young rabbi from Galilee, the elders of the vampire race send Theron, a nine hundred year old assassin, to kill them both.

The rabbi’s name is Jesus. Killing him should be easy

REVIEW:

33 A.D. was one of the most creative and well researched books that I have read in a long time. The book is based in the timeline that the title states, with the back drop of Jerusalem, in the days leading up to Christ’s crucifixion.

The Counsel of Thirteen is a small underground government invented and ruled by vampires. They have long wanted a stake in Jerusalem, but there is a young rabbi that is teaching the Jewish population about love and forgiveness.

Theron, a nine-hundred year old vampire, and the Lead Enforcer working for the counsel, has been sent to stop the spread of rabbi’s sermons, and to dispose of a renegade vampire that has chosen to side with the proclaimed ‘son of god’. Failure is not an option if you are part of the Bachiyr race (the term used for vampire), and it is punishable by death or a fate worse yet. The Bachiyr that cannot stand the tests of the counsel are left wondering the world as a festering corpse that serves as slaves to the vampire race.

The vampires in this book are powerful and ruthless – exactly how I like them. They feed off of humans to survive, but there is only one small problem, people who have faith in god seem to have a strange glowing ward that surrounds them. The essence that shines from these people proves to be a problem for the vampires. The closer the vampire comes to a person that is protected by their faith in god, the weaker they become, and they are unable to feed from the faithful.

The human rabbi named Jesus of Nazareth would be an easy kill, if Theron could get close to him.

FROM THE BOOK:

It was not unheard of, of course, for a human to possess such a strong faith as to ward off one of his kind, but it was rare. Theron had been surprised to see the strong glow around Jesus, who’d been only the third such person the vampire had encountered in his nine centuries.

In a strange twist of events, and a monumental amount of ‘what ifs’, the author wove a great web of lies, murder, deceit and conspiracy among the vampire race and Christ’s crucifixion.  I look forward to read the sequel 61 A.D. Well done David McAfee.