Deep Down, a Book Review

Posted on May 22, 2013 by DLKeur

I just finished this last week, and it’s the first time I’ve read the author. What do I think? I think the author methodically delivers a good story that follows a linearly sequenced plot. There’s not a lot of depth of character and this is not great literature, but, rather, a short, good read for folks who just want the story and don’t want to dwell on ‘what-ifs’.

What I most liked about the book was the setting–rural, farm–and the down-home country folk who prove secondary and tertiary characters in the story. For those want a tense-filled read, though, this isn’t your book. In fact, that’s why I liked it. My fingers weren’t digging into the cover as I read; I didn’t miss dinner or doing my chores on time. But I did keep picking it up.

I’d say this work is on the level with Heather Graham’s work for tension and story delivery, but with the plus that the syntax and voice are snappier and more modern. Where Heather’s work has more depth of character and perhaps a stronger mystery to the paranormal elements, Deborah’s work is fresher and less formulaic, a real plus.

G. J. Berger’s Historical Novel is a Finalist for the San Diego Book Awards

Posted on May 21, 2013 by DLKeur

Just received notice that author G. J. Berger’s South of Burnt Rocks, West of the Moon, a historical novel about the struggles of the Iberian Celts against the Romans, is a finalist in the San Diego Book Awards. High praise, indeed. And very welcome news for a book and an author who definitely deserves it.

A powerful and historically well-researched saga, Mr. Berger’s efforts have received numerous accolades from reviewers and readers and is well worth your time to read if you enjoy strong stories set in early centuries.

Kingdom of Strangers by Zoe Ferraris

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Clayton Bye

‘Kingdom of Strangers’
Zoe Ferraris
Little, Brown and Company, 2012
ISBN-10: 1408703653
ISBN-13: 978-1408703656
Paperback
320 pages
Crime/Detective

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Now this was a novel which made me sit up and say ‘Wow!’ It is a novel women should read if only for the purely educational reason of understanding what living in a Moslem country, Saudi Arabia, is like. There is more to the book than that, but it is a slap in the face to those of us females who fought for equal rights. How do these Saudi women stand their treatment?

‘Kingdom of Strangers’ is the third novel in a series of crime novels set in Jedda, Saudi Arabia. The first two are ‘The Night of the Mi’raj’ and ‘City of Veils’. It does help to have read the first two novels simply because the setting is so different, yet integral to the stories, and character names are not the usual western ones most readers are used to.

Katya is a rare bird in her country. She is a forensic scientist, and actually works for the police. She is mainly kept inside her lab, but longs to be an active part of investigations.

Her opportunity comes when 19 dead bodies are discovered by accident in the desert. This means there is a serial killer in Saudi Arabia and forensic work shows this killer has been at work for ten years. The victims are runaway immigrants not missed by anyone .

The new inspector, Inspector Ibrahim Zahrani, is heading the investigation, but he has another problem. He has been committing adultery, a punishable crime in Saudi Arabia. His affair with a charming young woman has ended abruptly. He went to her flat as usual but she has disappeared. The inspector’s situation, his guilty conscience, the challenges, and the threats hanging over his head because he had committed adultery, make for real tension throughout the story. The serial killer mystery is minor in comparison, so the novel is not just another serial killer story. The inspector cannot openly hunt for his lover, but Katya can. This gets her out and active, something her fiancé does not approve of, nor do her mostly male colleagues. She is under pressure to conform and yet perform.

Much information has to be explained, but Zoe Ferraris does it well, mainly through her characters’ thoughts which allow readers to see how the Moslem society’s strict laws pressure and demand patterns of behaviour, and how people are in conflict between society’s expectations and their own.

This is what makes the novels such a good read. The stories are excellent detective thrillers but go beyond that to show that the many crimes committed against women actually have their roots in the interpretation and misinterpretation of religion in a society with a different culture and values from ours. This applies to more countries than Saudi Arabia and reading the novel makes what is happening to women in India more understandable though no less unforgivable.

Inspector Ibrahim and Katya struggle to do the right thing. The end results of their investigations are dramatic and sad. The struggle to live in their society leaves both of them at sea although they do find solutions for themselves. This is a novel, part of a series of novels, is well worth reading and rereading and leaves the reader with plenty to think about.

p.d.r. lindsay

Sherlock Holmes: The Quality of Mercy and other stories by William Meikle

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Clayton Bye

Sherlock Holmes: The Quality of Mercy and other stories
Dark Renaissance Books, 2013
William Meikle
ISBN: 978-1-937128-91-3
Trade Paperback
300 pages
Mystery/Detective-Crime/Adventure

The Quality of Mercy
An old friend of Watson’s asks Holmes to investigate the possibility that he might be haunted by his recently departed wife. The conclusion of their investigation, while merciful, may have wrecked their friend.

The Case of the Walrus Tusk
Invited to solve a rash of thefts on a ship that has just returned from the Arctic. Holmes quickly determines there’s more to a beautiful, scrimshaw walrus tusk than meets the eye. The captain of the ship doesn’t believe in the other worldliness of the object until it is far, far too late.

The Color that Came to Chiswick
Called in to investigate a possible case of sabotage at a brewery, Holmes and Watson are soon fighting a never before seen form of life, something that may not be of this world at all, a contagion that may be the end both Holmes and Watson.

Call Of The Dance
Holmes and Watson partake in a dangerous dance with a creature from another dimension.

The Case of the Highland Fiddle
A fiddle that plays itself and a code that can’t be cracked. Is this the case that finally beats Holmes and his deductive reasoning?

The Case of the Lost Overcoat
A coat that can take over the mind of its wearer, one that mayhap have a life of its own. Will Holmes and Watson discover its secret before it’s too late?

The Yellow Peril
A ship returning from a successful voyage to find a new Northwest Passage has brought something back with it. The alien substance or life form is so contagious that to be in the same room with it is to become infected. Holmes and Watson battle to contain this aggressive life form but they must first survive it themselves.

The Case of the Jade Pendant
Four Jade teeth contain the secret to a horrible murder and the nature of its killer. But Holmes is prepared this time. For he knows that “when facing a loup garou one must have the appropriate weapon.”

Revenant
A strange sickness affecting the members of the House of Lords starts a new adventure for Holmes and Watson, one that will see them on the run, accused of murder and pursued by both the police and a deadly gang of assassins.

The case takes them up and down the country, from Scotland to the Houses of Parliament and leads them down arcane paths, following their relentless foe in pursuit of the lost secret of immortality.

Their adversary seems hell-bent, not only on their destruction but on an act of terrorism that will shake London to its foundations.

Holmes must catch and unmask the revenant, and only by confronting his own past will he be able to prevail.

The Review
The greatest praise I can heap upon this collection of stories by William Meikle is that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would be proud. The feel of each story brings me back to those old tales of Sherlock Holmes, and one can easily believe that Meikle has unearthed some forgotten tome that contains all of the supernatural, extraterrestrial and just plain old unnatural adventures of Holmes and his trusty companion, Dr. Watson. The mysteries have that special flavour, that feel of another age.

Yes, Meikle’s words sing of an age forgotten, of a time when deductive reasoning was preferable, if not necessary. His writing is impeccable, his descriptions uncanny and his stories unique—including a fresh look at the werewolf’s tale. For the lover of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, The Quality of Mercy is a must have. In fact, if you love mystery and action but have not sampled Doyle’s own stories, I suggest you try Meikle’s tales of Sherlock Holmes. You won’t be disappointed.

Sherlock Holmes: The Quality of Mercy and other stories by William Meikle is another small press jewel. It’s also a 5 star collection, and a deserving winner of the Recommended Award.

Dark Roads by Bruce Boston

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Clayton Bye

Dark Roads
Bruce Boston
Dark Renaissance Books, 2013
ISBN: 978-937128-90-6
Trade Paperback
158 pages
Poetry

Blurb
Considered one of the leading genre/speculative poets for more than a quarter-century, Bruce Boston has received the Bram Stoker Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Asimov’s Readers Award, the Rhysling Award, and the first Grandmaster Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Dark Roads collects the best of his long dark poems from more than forty years of publishing. Strikingly illustrated by acclaimed artist M. Wayne Miller, these poems range from direct narratives to surreal explorations of time, memory, obsession and transformation. Includes two Rhysling Winners and three Rhysling Finalists.

The Review
Containing 31 long poems, Dark Roads is a meaty offering. And one need not read the numerous accolades of other critics to understand you are in the hands of an unusual wordsmith. Bruce Boston’s imagery is strong and complicated. His stories stretch the imagination and challenge your reading skills.

Note that I said stories.

Boston’s “poetry” is a collision of the lyrical, the poetic, poetic prose and storytelling. Because of this, do not expect to find poems as you know them. The beats, when you can find them, deviate to suit the turn of a phrase or the expression of an idea. His poems are structured in bewildering passages that often seem to have no rhyme or reason save that of being lyrical. This is difficult for a poet like myself who believes a poem must have an identifiable structure. The words need to find a beat or rhythm to hold them together and help form a crystal-clear understanding of what the poet is attempting to communicate. This does not happen in Boston’s poetry. No, to have any hope of understanding Dark Roads, I believe one must think in terms of non-traditional poetry that tells a story. Challenging, to say the least.

Out of 31 poems, I understood 10 poems well enough to say that I enjoyed them. All the rest tripped me up to some extent. Most times it was the language. Boston loves to use rare words; he loves to create phrases unheard of in this world; and, as his genre would indicate, he loves to speculate—about past and future, emotions and thoughts, strange worlds and inner worlds—anything from which he can eke an emotion in some new way.

Of course Bruce Boston is brilliant. One cannot read his poems and fail to understand this. But I also suggest his “poetry” is not easily accessible. And this is unfortunate. If we do not understand his words and ideas, then we miss the lyrical. If we do not understand the structure of his work, then the chances are great that we will become lost. As a book I would recommend to my readers, I think it is a shame they will probably not understand the bulk of the author’s work. And since poetry is supposed to be about creating the most perfect vision we can, then writing that vision down in a way it can be understood as the author understands it, I wonder if poetry is the right definition for Boston’s work. Maybe we need to coin a new term… Poetic story? Lyrical Storytelling? Why not? I think that to call what Bruce Boston creates for us “poetry” or even “speculative poetry” is to misunderstand the work and force an injustice upon the man.

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Clayton Bye

The Dovekeepers
Alice Hoffman
Scribner, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1748-1
528 pages
Historical Fiction

Buy Now

Biography
Alice Hoffman was born in New York City on March 16, 1952 and grew up on Long Island. Graduating from high school in 1969, she attended Adelphi University, from which she received a BA, and then received a Mirrellees Fellowship to the Stanford University Creative Writing Center, which she attended in 1973 and 74, receiving an MA in creative writing. She currently lives in Boston and New York.

Hoffman’s first novel, Property Of, was written at the age of twenty-one, while she was studying at Stanford, and published shortly thereafter by Farrar Straus and Giroux. She credits her mentor, professor and writer Albert J. Guerard, and his wife, the writer Maclin Bocock Guerard, for helping her to publish her first short story in the magazine Fiction. Editor Ted Solotaroff then contacted her to ask if she had a novel, at which point she quickly began to write what was to become Property Of, a section of which was published in Mr. Solotaroff’s magazine, American Review.

Since that remarkable beginning, Alice Hoffman has become one of our most distinguished novelists. She has published a total of eighteen novels, two books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults. Her novel, Here on Earth, an Oprah Book Club choice, was a modern reworking of some of the themes of Emily Bronte’s masterpiece Wuthering Heights. Practical Magic was made into a Warner film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Her novel, At Risk, which concerns a family dealing with AIDS, can be found on the reading lists of many universities, colleges and secondary schools. Her advance from Local Girls, a collection of inter-related fictions about love and loss on Long Island, was donated to help create the Hoffman (Women’s Cancer) Center at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA. Blackbird House is a book of stories centering around an old farm on Cape Cod. Hoffman’s recent books include Aquamarine and Indigo, novels for pre-teens, and The New York Times bestsellers The River King, Blue Diary, The Probable Future, and The Ice Queen. Green Angel, a post-apocalyptic fairy tale about loss and love, was published by Scholastic and The Foretelling, a book about an Amazon girl in the Bronze Age, was published by Little Brown. In 2007 Little Brown published the teen novel Incantation, a story about hidden Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, which Publishers Weekly has chosen as one of the best books of the year. In January 2007, Skylight Confessions, a novel about one family’s secret history, was released on the 30th anniversary of the publication of Her first novel. Her most recent novel is The Story Sisters (2009), published by Shaye Areheart Books.

Hoffman’s work has been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Her novels have received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People Magazine. She has also worked as a screenwriter and is the author of the original screenplay “Independence Day” a film starring Kathleen Quinlan and Diane Wiest. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, Redbook, Architectural Digest, Gourmet, Self, and other magazines. Her teen novel Aquamarine was recently made into a film starring Emma Roberts.

From The Back Cover
Nearly two thousand years ago, nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman’s novel is a spellbinding tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path. Yael’s mother died in childbirth, and her father, an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death. Revka, a village baker’s wife, watched the murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers; she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute by what they have witnessed. Aziza is a warrior’s daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow soldier. Shirah, born in Alexandria, is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power.

The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege. All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets—about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love.

The Review
Open up The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman and you’ll find 6 pages of short reviews, all proclaiming the brilliance and importance of this heavily researched portrayal of Rome’s bloody capture of Judea.

Judea was located approximately where the present day country of Israel is. In the east, the Jordan flows south into the Dead Sea. To the West lies the Mediterranean Sea. The territory usually ran from the Mediterranean Sea to the River Jordan, in the east-west direction, and from the southern tip of the Dead Sea and the Gaza Valley in the south to the Plain of the Esdraelon (Jezreel) in the north. These boundaries changed quite often, but they always remained in this general vicinity.

The book takes place after the Jews have returned from 40 years in the desert, reclaiming the city of Jerusalem as their own. In fact it opens with the Roman sacking of Jerusalem and the mass evacuation the Jews. Anyone who stayed was either put to death or taken as a slave.

The focus of the story is the lives of 4 women during these times—their exodus into the desert and their lives after arriving in King Herod’s City in the sky, an ancient, fortified city on Mount Masada and the last holdout of the Jews against the Romans.

All four of these women are assigned to buildings called dovecotes, structures intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain cubbies or pigeonholes for the birds to use as nests. Pigeons and doves were an important food source in those times and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung (as a fertilizer). These women care for (in this case doves) the birds, collect eggs, capture those to be eaten and not only collect the dung, but mix it with the earth in the city’s orchards.

The doves come to symbolize all manner of things, depending on the past and the characters of each of the women. To Yael, a woman who can be so silent and still that the doves she cares for will come to her the moment she spreads her arms, their constant singing becomes a part of her, drawing her unwilling into the work and into a sisterhood of amazing women. Why is Yael always so still in repose? Why does she prefer to be alone and not to speak? These things are a great part of the story and should not be given away.

Revvka is the wife of a Baker. During her exodus with her daughter and two grandchildren, they are set upon by other “travelers.” Her daughter is raped and killed in front of her and the children. The three escape, but Revka now carries a terrible secret. But such things do not matter when, in his grief, the boy’s father (one of the reasons they are at Masada) will not recognize them. No, it is the Dovekeepers who become their family; the Dovekeepers who hold the knowledge which might just return Revka’s grandchildren’s voices.

Aziza, brought up as a boy and trained in the art of warfare, is definitely out of place in the Dovecotes, but her destiny lies with them and the soldiers who protect their city and forage for food and medicines. What will happen to her and her secrets when the end finally comes?

And, finally, the Witch of Moab. Her secrets are the greatest of them all, her wisdom and knowledge just as strong as any of the priests of their mountain city and her compassion, though unspoken, runs through her life like a great river.

Which brings us to my thoughts about this historical gem. First of all, none of the women mentioned are simple. In fact, they are so complex that each is given about one quarter of the book. And as we learn about them, the true gift of The Dovekeepers becomes apparent: Alice Hoffman transports us back to a time that was. Not to a time that might have been, but a defining of a terrible place and time that was real, that was populated with a people of extreme devotion to God and to their ways and that Hoffman brings to a life as real as the one you and I live in today.

The language is seductive. Hoffman’s words are like songs drifting on the wind. She paints love, birth and death with the same bold sureness as all other aspects of the novel. We hurt and feel joy when the characters of her novel are hurt or find joy. Her metaphor of the Lion is just one of the storylines, but you won’t notice; you’ll be so drawn into the lives of the people of Masada you will not consciously assimilate Hoffman’s symbolism.

To be truthful and correct, I would have to say this wonderful achievement is so rich and so real that you’ll only be able to take it in small bites. The Dovekeepers is overwhelming, yet the reader will be drawn back as soon as he or she has caught their breath.

Haunting, wondrous, spellbinding, striking, unforgettable, brilliant—these are just a few of the words this novel has brought to the lips of critics everywhere. In fact, one critic claims this enthralling book is an important piece of modern literature: I couldn’t agree more. If you would like to know how it was to live in ancient Israel during the most horrible time in their history, go no further.

What an amazing piece of fiction!

Book Review of “Vampyric Variations” by Nancy Kilpatrick

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Clayton Bye

Vampyric Variations
By Nancy Kilpatrick
EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing
October 2012
1-894063-94-5
239 pages

Buy Now

“Vampyric Variations” is a collection of short stories penned by Nancy Kilpatrick. The reader who is a hardcore fan of the vampire genre may have already stumbled across one or more of these stories in other works. Even so, the purchase of this collection is highly recommended. This book will become an essential part of any horror fan’s library.

For the reader who is slow to part with hard-earned money, consider that Kilpatrick truly excels at the art of “setting the scene.” More than just blood and guts, these vampire novels thrive on scenery, artistic methods of setting a mood and clever literary devices that envelop you into the action. While the movie plays in your head, the author carefully orchestrates the appearances of the characters. Only you can decide to which extent they are good, bad or in between. Try finding this type of literary genius with your run-of-the mill vampire novel. (Good luck!)

Topics covered run the gamut from the criminally insane to the romantic. No, these vampires do not sparkle. Even in love, there is death, destruction and the underlying understanding that “happily ever after” does not usually come for the undead and their conquests. The stories are also unique. There is no variation on the same theme, save the vampire character. While this character features front and center in its various incarnations, it is far from formulaic and actually gives the reader a bit of a start at times.

Consider “Vampyric Variations” as a sampler of all that the vampire genre holds in store for the reader who knows how to choose wisely among authors. There are tales of fable, future societies and historic fiction. Try out a modern-day housekeeper who awakens to her vampiric heritage or the vampire-to-vampire romance that does not read like the sparkly nonsense, which has taken teen lit by storm.

If you are ready to meet vampires on their own turf, get to know the genre at its depth and accept a guide whose stroke of the pen is masterful in every way, then Nancy Kilpatrick is your author and “Vampyric Variations” is your book. Buy it today and pick up 10 copies for your closest friends.

by Sylvia Cochran, reviewer at The Deepening World of Books

Lori’s Song by Lori Foroozandeh

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Clayton Bye

Lori’s Song
Outskirts Press, 2009
Lori Foroozandeh
ISBN: 978-1-4327-3829-7
Trade Paperback
229 Pages
Non-Fiction

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Meet Lori… Sexually abused as a child; unfortunate enough to have a mother who seems to be emotionally shut down, who abandons Lori to terror on more than one instance over the course of her lifetime; Lori, whose choices lead her to an abusive, drug using husband who just might be a terrorist; and a girl whose own drug use put her on the wrong side of the law, leaving her more than ready to try a new life in Iran.

But this is only the beginning. Pick up the book. It will take you places you’ll want to forget, that you’ll pray don’t exist, even as your heart tells you there’s no way this story didn’t happen. One can’t help but believe that American or American-linked people living in Iran were captured immediately following 9/11 and taken to camps that, in their own way, rank up there with the German Death Camps of World War II.

The horrors Lori faces during her captivity are described in a voice that rings true. These things that happened to her and to others like her are far worse than anything Stephen King has ever put to paper.

Daily rapes, starvation, physical torture and abuse. Such treatment as to leave Lori with permanent boot marks on her head. And I’m barely scratching the surface of the horrendous tale that lies within the pages of Lori’s Song.

This self-effacing story, written in Lori’s own words (don’t expect literary prowess) draws you in, makes you look, then hooks you so that while you might have to turn away from time to time, you’ll always come back. This is human depravity and evil—as real as it gets.

Lori’s Song, by Lori Foroozandeh, is an important book. It’s a testament to human strength and is a true depiction of courage. This permanently traumatized woman lived through something that did kill others, yet she came back and rebuilt her life. And then she wrote Lori’s Song, not to terrify people but to warn them that countries outside America can be so different as to be beyond imagining. And that governments won’t or may not be able to help you should you find trouble. And, finally, that what you see at first glance may hide things far beyond your understanding.

But in that final message there comes a plea that may help you to understand this incredible person: May we all live in peace!

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Clayton Bye

The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: 18/06/2013
Author: Neil Gaiman
ISBN: 978-0-06-225565-5
Format: Hardcover (also available in Paperback, Large Print, eBook & Audio Book)
Length: 192 pages
Genre: Fiction

An adult narrator takes us back to when he was seven, to something that almost destroyed he and his family. The setting is the English countryside. He’s there for a funeral but he finds himself with some time to kill. So he goes for a drive…

And thus the narrator finds himself back at a place he remembers: the Hempstocks—a grandmother, mother and a daughter—except the daughter is gone, and the women are actually witches, guardians set in place to keep out things that would seek to destroy the earth. And he has much more to remember…

There have been many starred ratings for this novel, yet it won’t be out until June 18, 2013. Even without the stars, given the background of Gaiman, who has been called the “New Face of Horror” and has been praised by the likes of Stephen King for his storytelling abilities, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is bound to find readers of all ages and fill them with a sense of wonder and unease.

Here’s an example of what other critics are saying… From Booklist, as taken from the author’s website:

In Gaiman’s first novel for adults since Anansi Boys(2005), the never-named fiftyish narrator is back in his childhood homeland, rural Sussex, England, where he’s just delivered the eulogy at a funeral. With “an hour or so to kill” afterward, he drives about—aimlessly, he thinks—until he’s at the crucible of his consciousness: a farmhouse with a duck pond. There, when he was seven, lived the Hempstocks, a crone, a housewife, and an 11-year-old girl, who said they were grandmother, mother, and daughter. Now, he finds the crone and, eventually, the housewife—the same ones, unchanged—while the girl is still gone, just as she was at the end of the childhood adventure he recalls in a reverie that lasts all afternoon. He remembers how he became the vector for a malign force attempting to invade and waste our world. The three Hempstocks are guardians, from time almost immemorial, situated to block such forces and, should that fail, fight them. Gaiman mines mythological typology—the three-fold goddess, the water of life (the pond, actually an ocean)—and his own childhood milieu to build the cosmology and the theater of a story he tells more gracefully than any he’s told since Stardust(1999). And don’t worry about that “for adults” designation: it’s a matter of tone. This lovely yarn is good for anyone who can read it.

The Harmony Society by Tim Waggoner

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Clayton Bye

The Harmony Society
Tim Waggoner
Dark Regions Press
ISBN: 978-1-937128-29-6
Trade Paperback
278 pages
Horror

A surreal trip through the dreams, the past, the present and the future of a man who can’t tell which is which. His only clue? Find the Dark Angel.

The Harmony Society is the story of one man trying to find himself as his life descends into total madness. With more than a nod to the novel Roadmarks by Roger Zelazny, Tim Waggoner writes the reader and his lead character through dreams and time, right to the edge, then pulls them back again—time and time again, until no one is sure what is what and, more importantly, why things are the way they are.

With characters like Mr. Bone, Brother Nothing and the eccentric Pennyman; an old friend who lives on drugs and rides a strange highway called the Nightway; a lover and a doctor who may not be what they seem and an increasing list of people who are vanishing from his life and memory, our hero Nathan is sure of only one thing—the Harmony Society isn’t going to get what they want. They aren’t going to get him, and, By God, they aren’t going to keep the Dark Angel.

The Harmony Society is an experience more than it is a novel. It is visceral. It is surreal. And it will mess with your mind. But when you reach the end and see what Tim Waggoner has been heading for and what he has done to you, well you’ll just shake your head. If you’ve got a temperament of steel you might grin. Either way, I think you’ll agree with me that The Harmony Society is a book worth 5 stars, and the TD Recommended Award.