Blood Skies by Steven Montano

In Blood Skies the world as we know it has been smashed together with other worlds by an apocalyptic event known only as "The Black".  Cities that never were have appeared over night and cities that once were have been laid waste as the world shifted - and the things from our nightmares have returned.

That means vampires, zombies, and other horrors that like to eat or enslave people.  The only positive?  Magic has also returned.  It just comes with a price most of the time.

Mad Max with Magic and Real Vampires.  Hell Yeah!

The story is set 22 years after The Black as an organised faction of humanity, the Southern Claw Alliance, is locked in a stalemate in their war with the vampires of the Ebon Cities.  The vampires can't win any gains due to the bravery and growing powers of the human witches and warlocks, however, a powerful member of the Southern Claw, the witch Red, has stolen information which would give the vampires all of this knowledge and the power to destroy the Southern Claw as a result.

Enter the main character; Eric Cross.  Eric is a warlock in the service of the Southern Claw.  That means that he has a sort of guardian spirit that he can use to lash out in combat or shield himself from harm as well as perform other magics.  Of course there is a price to pay and using the spirit basically means he is guaranteed a short lifespan but when the only other option is being a vampires meal it seems reasonable...

Cross and his unit are tasked with finding and stopping Red at all costs before she can doom them all.

This book made me stop putting a rough genre guide at the top of my posts.  It was too hard to classify it neatly.  Its not a pure fantasy book because the setting has so many science fiction elements to it and overlaying the lot is a strong horror theme.  

Blood Skies has such a strong horror theme because of the atmosphere the book maintains throughout, something that the writer does really well through use of a dark visual imagery system.    As an example the very first paragraph of the book: 

He sees the city. It stands beyond fields of broken sand and salt estuaries, at the edge of a frozen sea, opposite a forlorn tower of black metal and razor protrusions. It is a city of the living.

It looks unnatural, like it doesn't belong.

Nothing in the world of Blood Skies is clean, it is always cold, broken, diseased. References to the world before The Black, by contract, are clean and bright but vague and soon to be forgotten memories.  Where ice, ash and darkness aren't the prevailing colors its sickly blood red or necrotic black.  This constant use of dark imagery really draws you in and reinforces the fact that the world in which Cross lives is a shattered and dying one.

The writer also takes his time revealing the rules and background of his setting to you.  This is something that I would normally be annoyed by, however, it fit in this setting as it helped to enhance the sense of dislocation that The Black seemed to be all about.  A risky strategy to use as it could have lost me but it was well enough done that it actually piqued my interest rather than leaving me confused.

Imagery and atmosphere are definitely the major strengths of the book.  

The adventure itself is exciting and sees Cross and his companions traverse a significant amount of the Blood Skies world including an undead city and a human town that has surrendered to the Ebon Cities.  There is plenty of action and those scenes are well written but the book is definitely not just about the combat. I say this despite the fact that the author refers to the book (series) as a "dystopian military dark epic fantasy. with real vampires." on his blog.

So where does it fail? 

Cross is an interesting character and develops as the book goes on, however, a lot of the other characters in the book aren't as well developed and don't grow much.  To be fair, this is often because life expectancy in the  Blood Skies world appears to be quite brief.

There are a number of spelling and grammatical errors.  Yes.  Pot.  Kettle.  Black.  I realize.  My work is just a blog not a book though and improving all the time (yeah that's what I tell myself...).  The errors in the end weren't enough to put me off or disrupt the flow of reading but if removed would leave the work feeling polished.

Also there is one scene in the book that left me going WTF.  The characters until then had made smart choices that tied in with their mission but at that one point they just sort of went off the reservation. It may have been in character but given the importance of what they were trying to achieve (stopping Red and saving mankind) it was bizarre.  I cant say more than that without spoilers but if you read the book you will get me.  

Despite those failings I have to be honest and say I loved Blood Skies (I made myself sit down and think of some negatives - I haven't pushed myself to do that until now).  It drew me in and I finished it in a matter of days.  

I loved it so much in fact that having read Blood Skies I knocked over Black Scars, the second book in the series, last night and will probably start Soulrazor (book 3) tonight.  The spelling errors persist (at one point yield is used instead of wield) but Cross keeps growing as a character and new ones come on board.

Oh, and the vampires in Blood Skies don't sparkle (possibly why the author refers to them as Real Vampires.  They are truly monstrous in this series - becoming one means losing yourself not just getting super powers in exchange for wanting to drink blood and they definitely aren't pretty.  

Steven Montano has his own blog here.

Fantasy Ebook: Death's Angels by William King

Fantasy is a genre that is so dominated by Tolkien and spin offs from Middle Earth much of the time that it really is refreshing to read something a bit different.  Something without Elves, Dwarves and a Medieval setting.

Something with guns!

Guns and no armor?  This cant be a fantasy book!
Dude on the cover could be an elf though so maybe...

The setting for Death's Angels is a world in which humans were barbarians enslaved by demon gods and monsters until the Terrarchs arrived.  The Terrarchs came with dragons and powerful magic and conquered the humans, driving out the demons and stamping out their worship as well as any human sorcerers they could find.

The Terrarchs themselves are tall and elegant and came through a  portal fleeing a war that they were losing.   The Terrarchs have pointy ears but definitely aren't elves.  Magical, long lived, elegant.  Pointy ears.  Definitely not elves.  Yeah, I struggled there too but stick with me.

The actual book is set some time after the Terrarchs arrived and their Empire has split - the major kingdoms left now being Talorea and Sardea.  The Taloreans view humans as second class citizens but with rights, whereas the Sardeans consider them at best slaves.  Of course the two sides are at war and, you guessed it, they both use humans as their foot troops because the humans are so populous and keep expanding in numbers.

Rik is the main character in Death's Angels, a half breed soldier in the Talorean army.  Rik doesn't know who his father is, his mother was murdered when he was young, and prior to joining up he was a thief who worked closely with an old witch (magic being banned for humans this was particularly dangerous).  As a member of the Talorean army Rik is a Forager -  light infantry tasked with scouting and raiding the enemy rather than going into battle as a line infantryman -  so his past and skills make him a natural.

At the beginning of Death's Angels Rik and his unit are tasked with going into the mountains on the border of Talorea and capturing some hill tribesmen who have been raiding the local area.  These hill tribesmen are in league with a group of  sorcerers who have made a pact with demons in some mad attempt to overthrow the Terrarchs - even if it means bringing back the good old days of human sacrifice and subjugation by demons and monsters.

Whilst in the hills Rik finds the books of a powerful sorcerer which he steals, convincing his companions of their value if they can fence them to an underground human sorcerer whilst secretly wanting to read them himself.

This all leads to Rik gaining the attention of a powerful Terrarch sorcerer and beginning a series of adventures as she recruits him to be her agent...

I really enjoyed Death's Angels.

When I initially got the book from Amazon it was free - which was great - and I enjoyed it enough to buy the other books in the series.

Definitely worth checking out if you want something with a lot of action in a unique fantasy setting to read.

William King also has quite an interesting blog of his own that I have been reading for some time.  Check it out.

Good Horror Ebook: House of Corruption by Erik Tavares

Vampires, werewolves,a priestly professor who hunts them and the close of the 19th century. Its a classic combination when you think about it.

House of Corruption brings a new twist to it though.

Yeah, there are Werewolves in there.
Cover art is by Aaron Sims check out his stuff.  Its even more awesome than the cover art.

Set as it is from 1886 onward the world that Erik Tavares creates in House of Corruption is one reminiscent of those Gothic horror classics like Dracula and Frankenstein.  Its a world where technology and science are new and so full of promise providing a stark contrast to the strong religious beliefs and dark superstitions that continue from earlier times.

Against this setting Artemius Savoy is a professor and secular member of the Catholic church who studies the paranormal.  Laughed at by other academics for his fascination with physical manifestations of the supernatural like vampires and werewolves at a time when Seances and the spirit world are all the rage and appropriate for academics to discuss he is an expert almost without peer - having had a loved one turn into a Vampire and almost claim his life.

The story opens with Savoy attempting to slay a beast that has been terrorizing a monastery in Portugal,  slaughtering livestock and avoiding snares and traps laid for it.  A monster that is a horrific beast and yet cunning as a man - a Werewolf.

The character of Savoy left me thinking of none other than Van Helsing himself, the archetypical vampire slaying doctor, but with a bit more humanity.

No, not this Van Helsing.  The old fuddy duddy one.

Thats more like it.  Classic Van Helsing.  Sorry Hugh Jackman your Van Helsing was cool too.

The Werewolf of course is no simple beast, but the other main character of the book.  

A young man named Reynard LaCroix who is cursed by his bloodline to turn into a werewolf.  Until, as we learn later, the silver and wolfs bane laced bullet that Savoy shoots him with keeps him from turning into the beast.

Savoy shoots him, then tries to save him and fight the curse.  That's is where he differs from the classic Van Helsing who would have just offed Reynard not tried to save him and risk him reverting to a monster in the future.

Reynard is a family oriented man who returns to Louisiana, America once the curse is (at least temporarily) under control to renew and expand his dead fathers business and look after his young sister Lasha LaCroix.  The one person in the world you get the feeling he cares for more than anything.

Lasha, who loves her brother dearly, has seen the beast and is terrified of it (possibly because her parents are now dead...) but doesn't know that it was / is her brother .

Of course then a stranger arrives leaving a note for Reynard with his sister letting him know that they know about his "condition".  This occurs at around the same time that Savoy arrives in town because of a series of gruesome murders that could be attributed to a Werewolf occur...

Not long after the note is received Lasha is kidnapped instigating a journey which sees Reynard and his compansions chase her abductors almost across the world encountering horrors along the way - and especially at the end of the journey.

Reynard is not overly like-able but as a major character is really interesting in terms of his constant battle with the beast within, the guilt over things he has done when he lost control in the past and his fears of what he is capable of in the future. 

The other characters in the book are all very three dimensional and most are equally as interesting, including

Mahonrie Grant who is wanted for murder of his wife Emily and has been on the run for some time but falls in with Savoy and Reynard after being arrested for the grisly murders that occur in Louisiana (which he witnesses).

Kiria Carlovec, a young girl who has been sent to find Reynard because her father also suffers from an affliction.  Kiria is innocent, and provides balance to Reynard who is clearly not innocent most of the time, but there is something dark about her as well.

It was particularly refreshing to come across a very different form of Vampire in this book as one of the majoor characters - one much more terrible than the usual blood sucking sort.  The Penanggalan.

A Penanggalan.  Definitely not sparkly and not a Vampire you want to meet.

A Penanggalan is an alternative form of Vampire myth that's based in Malaysia and surrounding countries.  Basically its a woman who has died and come back as a head and organs that float about and feed on people, stealing the bodies of its victims so that it can blend in...  

Its a pretty horrible myth and if I had my choice I would really really prefer not to have my head eaten off and internal organs consumed so that some Penanggalan can puppet the rest of me around.  Yuk.  

Awesome as a creature in a horror book though - especially as it could be almost anyone once its shelled them out.

House of Corruption is well written -  I picked it up to run over in preparation for this post and have managed to get to Chapter 7 in one day and will likely finish it for the second time in a day or so - and enjoyable.   The setting and characters are believable (yes, even the Vampires and Werewolves) and well fleshed out and I cant remember any inconsistencies in either the character or setting.  

As a horror tale the book is effective.  Throughout I was left with a sense of dread. The writer has done this well not only through description and a general buildup but also because you spend the whole book worried if Reynard will lose control as well as about what will become of his sister.

Definitely a book worth picking up.  A great horror book really that is clearly inspired by the classics - and  was self published on Amazon which makes it even cooler.

There is a blog and website for Erik here.  There is not much to it and House of Corruption seems to be the only horror book he has written at this point - but hopefully there will be another like it.