“The Demonologist” by Andrew Pyper (Simon & Schuster, 2013)

In this new dark thriller, along with elements of horror, Andrew Pyper, author of The Guardians and Los Girls, presents a tale that is perhaps best described as The Historian meets The Exorcist, blending a world of history and symbolism and meaning with one of demons and sheer terror.  If Dan Brown were to pen an outright horror novel, it might look something like The Demonologist.

David Ullman is a college professor who specializes in Christian religions, myths and symbolism; he is also one of the foremost scholars on Milton’s Paradise Lost.  With a failed marriage, apart from his teaching all he truly cares for in his life is his wonderful daughter.  When he is mysteriously offered a free flight and stay in Venice to attend a certain meeting employing his expertise as a “demonologist,” he is very reluctant at first, but then decides to go and give his daughter a short vacation in beautiful Venice.  At the meeting with a stranger he sees something that shouldn’t be possible, that isn’t possible he tells himself.  Fleeing in terror he finds his daughter speaking in the voice of one he has read about and studied in many books, before she jumps from the roof of a high building.  Now he begins his true quest, to hunt down the origin of this voice and creature and with hopes to get his daughter back somehow.

The Demonologist is a balance between an interesting professor waxing about the greatness of Milton with plenty of quotes throughout and thrilling, terrifying action scenes as Ullman confronts what can only be called a demon inhabiting a human form, and he is on the run.  The symbols and meanings seem a big stretch to reach at times, but ultimately lead the character to where he needs to go.  As the novel progresses, things get a little uncanny, which might lose some readers, but Pyper brings them back to home in the end with an intense but satisfying conclusion.

Originally written on July 15, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of The Demonologist from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“The Colony” by A. J. Colucci (Thomas Dunne Books, 2013)

The Colony, a debut novel from author A. J. Colucci, who has spent fifteen years working as a magazine editor and newspaper reporter, combines elements of styles of the horrific with the likes of Stephen King, along with the science and fast-paced thriller of a Michael Crichton novel.  Slap a catchy James Rollins quote on the cover, and you’ve got yourself a creepy, terrifying, addicting read.

With books about things like killer ants, you want the story to get started right away, and not involve too much build-up.  The Colony does just this with a contemplative prologue that sets up the story, and goes straight into some opening chapters of ordinary New Yorkers going about their daily lives, and then being attacked and overrun by millions of ants, as they are poisoned and eaten alive.

Our main characters are Kendra Hart, a brilliant entomologist working in the deserts of New Mexico, who is picked up by the US government and taken to New York to join the team, which includes her ex-husband, Paul O’Keefe who has become an international celebrity as “the ant guy” and made fortunes from it.  Kendra also finds her ex-boyfriend, Jeremy, on the team, using his entomological and computer skills.

But the bodies are piling up, and things are turning into a national catastrophe.  What all these talented scientists know is that the big invasion is coming too; trillions of ants of a new, murderous species have been growing and multiplying beneath New York City and will soon begin their attack.  It’s up to the ant scientists to come up with a plan to stop them, because they have the military breathing down their necks with the only sure and known way to kill these ants, but that will involve destroying Manhattan with a nuclear bomb.

The Colony is a gripping book that’s hard to put down.  While the quasi love-triangle gets a little heavy handed in the middle of everything going on, Colucci does a great job of mixing up action packed scenes with descriptively horrific moments involving a tiny, seemingly innocent insect.  The Colony gives you shivers and sets your heart racing; just what every good book should do.

Originally written on February 6, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of The Colony from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

For an exclusive interview with the author, A. J. Colucci, click HERE.

“The Twelve” by Justin Cronin (Ballantine Books, 2012) [BOOKBANTER BOOK REVIEW #700]

It is finally here: the anxiously awaited sequel to the bestselling The Passage.  Justin Cronin does a great job of not just presenting a number of different situations of survival in his post-apocalyptic world, but also goes back to pre-apocalypse times with some pivotal characters, exploring the roles they will play in this story.

In the present day, there are three characters who will play an important position in this world’s future: Lila, a doctor who is pregnant and due soon, even as the world is falling apart around her; a man known as the “Last Stand in Denver” who has been blogging and reporting about what is really happening; and April, a teenager fighting to keep both herself and her brother alive.  Then we cut to the post-apocalyptic world of groups trying to survive against these horrific vampires; the night is now a terrifying time.  But one little girl, Amy, has the hopes of many, and the ability to forge forward and give this world a chance.

While The Twelve at times becomes somewhat predictable, like many other dystopian books, it still takes one to interesting and new places, with its unusual characters, keeping one hooked until the end.

Originally written on December 4, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of The Twelve from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

You might also like . . .

“Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales” by Yoko Ogawa (Picador, 2013)

For Haruki Murakami fans who enjoy his unique blend of the dark and bizarre, Yoko Ogawa is definitely an author you’ll want to check out.  Revenge, a collection of eleven of her short stories, reveals that this is a genre of Japanese literature that will grab you with its claws and suck you in.

A young nurse in love with a brilliant surgeon threatens to kill him if he does not leave his wife.  A writer living in a strange apartment block learns that the landlady is a murderer.  In the most moving tale of the collection, a woman with the unique condition that her heart is on the outside of her body needs a special bag to contain and protect it; a unique bag tailor must create the perfect vessel for it and becomes obsessed with the project.

Each of the stories in this collection becomes linked with the next, whether through a minor detail, a character, or a related event, stringing the collection together into a beautiful and dark web.  While a short read, readers will nevertheless be spirited away with these creepy, unforgettable tales.

Originally written on December 4, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Revenge from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“Bad Glass” by Richard E. Gropp (Ballantine, 2012)

There’s something wrong with Spokane, Washington. Seriously wrong. The military has formed a protective cordon around the extreme outskirts of the city, not letting anyone in and anyone out. Strange things have started happening on the inside, people disappearing, unusual creatures being seen, as well as realities that just cannot be. But no new is getting out, and no one has any clue what is really going on.

Dean Walker has one last chance to pursue his passion and make it as a photographer, before his father makes him become part of the family business. After bribing one of the privates with a convincing story and some photos, Walker sneaks into Spokane to find out what’s really going on, seeing if he can help put a stop to it, as well as take some award-winning photos that he plans to release to the world, and become famous and incredibly rich. But on the inside, like everyone else, he sees things that simply shouldn’t be, things that cause the human mind to stop working properly. He also meets some special people that he learns to care about. Curiosity also grows in him, as he searches for an answer to what is going on in Spokane and why it’s getting worse.

A gripping kind of horror, Bad Glass uses an interesting device of describing photographs and video footage that are shocking and unbelievable, as well as drawing the reader deeper and deeper into the story. While the ending feels a little rushed, as the answers finally start to come, the story is well worth the wait.

Originally written on November 10, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Bad Glass from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus: A Breathers Christmas Carol” by S G Browne (Gallery Books, 2012)

The bestselling author of the hilariously entertaining zombie book, Breathers, has a Christmas treat for you: a zombie holiday novella featuring some of the characters you’ve come to love from Breathers.  It’s a Christmas miracle like no other; one you won’t soon forget.

Andy Warner is having problems.  Other than being a zombie, he’s also a test subject in a horrible lab, where the employees care nothing about their zombie guinea pigs and will poke and prod, burn and dismember, and do whatever they feel like with them.  But after the unfolding events of Breathers, this is what his life has become now.  Zombies no longer have any rights whatsoever; many have been put to rest permanently, while those still around are trapped in these labs across the country.  But Andy has a plan to spring him and his fellow zombies out of this prison, along with the help of a zombie support group.

Once on the outside, Andy does his best to keep his friends safe, but also make sure they have a regular supply of fresh human to keep them healthy and well.  Funnily enough, when people treat you like nothing more than a corpse in a lab, you don’t care that much when you want to eat them.  But the people from the lab are looking for them, scouring the city, and eventually they will be found.  Though Andy also knows he has an ally in one of the laboratory employees, but doesn’t know why.

And in the middle of all this, Andy meets a lonely nine year-old girl who believes he’s Santa, because he was dressed as Santa (the perfect disguise at Christmas) and wants just one gift in the whole world: to have her bad parent of a mother pay more attention to her and love her.  So now Andy has a guilt problem to deal with, as well as to save all his zombie friends and himself from getting caught and thrown back in the lab.  He knows if he gets caught, he’ll end up on the body farm this time.

Browne does a great job of replicating the voice and tone of Breathers, putting you right back in the world he created and making you realize how much you missed it.  Andy even comes up with a few haikus to entertain you.  Readers will be thrilled with this Christmas present, and be left wondering if Browne will be writing any more adventures of Andy and his unusual gang.

Originally written on December 4, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

You might also like . . .
   

“Little Star” by John Ajvide Lindqvist (Thomas Dunne Books, 2012)

From the international bestselling author of the chilling and horrific Let the Right One, Handling the Undead and Harbor comes a new novel that appears innocent and charming at first, but eventually leads the reader down a long dark path, covered in blood and filled with bodies.  Little Star will lull you into enjoyment and then terrify you all the way to the end.

Lennart finds an abandoned baby in the woods, left for dead.  He brings it home, feeds and looks after it, much to the reluctance of his wife, Laila.  A musical duo who have essentially disappeared into obscurity, Lennart finds a new lease of life with this baby who grows to become a beautiful young girl with a unique singing voice.  Jerry, the son, eventually looks after the girl, moving to Stockholm, after his parents suffer a gruesome end, and the child enters a national singing contest and becomes a celebrity, renowned throughout Sweden.  But she also has plans of her own, viewed through her fractured, distorted lens of a psyche, with an idea of what is good and right not shared by many others.

Lindqvist’s novel is an addictive read, much like his others, with a seemingly simple story that turns into something dark and sinister, combined with the harsh geology of Sweden, and his own unusual characters.  Little Star will keep you up late, and by then you’ll be too scared to go to bed.

Originally written on November 10, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Little Star from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“When Will Your Rise: Stories to End the World” by Mira Grant (Subterranean Press, 2012)

Mira Grant is the author of the popular and bestselling Newsflesh zombie trilogy consisting of Feed, Deadline, and Blackout.  The stories in When Will You Rise: Stories to End the World were originally published on Grant’s blog leading up to the release of Deadline in 2011, with a new story posted each day.  They are now collected in their entirety in When Will You Rise from Subterranean Press.

Anyone who has read the trilogy is familiar with the state of the world after the zombie uprising and how the main characters, Georgia and Shaun, lived through it and continued to survive.  Readers have had hints here and there and some explanation of the past and when the uprising began in the summer of 2014.  When Will You Rise tells those stories, of Shaun and Georgia’s parents, of the scientists working on a cure for the common cold, and those working on a cure for cancer and how the two ended up comingling in the atmosphere to turn everyone into ticking zombie time bombs: once you die you come back a zombie hungry for human flesh.

When Will You Rise is an excellent compendium to the trilogy, filling in gaps and histories that the original three books all but gloss over.  Fans of the series will not be disappointed, and for those wanting a small taste of what the series has to offer, to whet their appetite, When Will You Rise is a perfect start.

Originally written on September 25, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of When Will You Rise from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“V Wars” by Jonathan Maberry (IDW, 2012)

V Wars is an interesting effort edited by Jonathan Maberry, bestselling author of Patient X and The Dragon Factory, bringing together a number of authors writing their own stories set in the same world where there are vampires.  Sometimes characters cross over, and occasional plot lines are intertwined, but for the most part each author is writing their own, individual story.  The result is a book that while not as cohesive as a complete novel written by a single author, features a number of interesting viewpoints in a world where vampires begin to take over.

Maberry’s own story, “Junk,” which continues in a number of parts, sets the stage for V Wars with the first of the infected from his perspective as he deal s with the changes of becoming a vampire and the growing lust and hunger that can only be satiated by fresh blood.  It is unclear how or why certain people first turned, but it is thought to be a virus affecting “junk DNA.”  In this world your heritage matters when you become a vampire, as all the folklore and history of vampires is true in a sense; the vampires we are all familiar with from Bram Stoker are for those with a Romanian heritage, while people of Russian descent are their own kind of vampire, and Native Americans yet another.

V Wars features stories from the likes of Nancy Holder, Yvonne Navarro, Keith Decandido, Scott Nicholson, and more.  It is a book that is certainly an interesting experiment with some impressive ideas and aspects that will leave you chilled to the bone.

Originally written on September 25, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of VWars from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“A Book of Horrors” Edited by Stephen Jones (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2012)

When British author Stephen Jones set out to bring the anthology that would become A Book of Horrors together, his goal was to make the world realize that the concept of the horror story and the ability to frighten and terrify readers in a number of ways is still alive and well, contrary to what the likes of sparkling vampires, hunky werewolves, and all the other former denizens of the world of terror that have now been romanticized have shown.  Jones does just this in A Book of Horrors.

The collection opens with a new story from Stephen King, “The Little Green God of Agony,” about a man who has suffered much and continues to be in constant agony from a debilitating accident he had some time ago and is still recovering from.  His physical therapist believes he just isn’t working hard enough to recover fully.  But another man believes otherwise, and he plans to bring this little green god of agony out of him.  “The Man in the Ditch” from Lisa Tuttle begins with a woman in a car sighting a dead man by the side of the road and goes from there.  The book also features a new and original tale from John Ajvide Lindqvist , bestselling Swedish horror author of Let the Right One In.  “The Music of Bengt Karlsson, Murderer” has the same feel of many of his other works, with the hard, cold landscape of Sweden, the importance of family and how it deals with loss, and what it means to live in the house where a murderer killed himself.

A Book of Horrors will be enjoyed by any horror fan, and by anyone looking to give the genre a try, as the stories range from monster to ghost to psychological; all kinds of horror are available for the reader in this collection.

Originally written on September 27, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of A Book of Horrors from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.