Wesley Britton's Blog - Posts Tagged "vampires"

The Seventh Age: Dawn
Rick Heinz
Publisher: Inkshares (January 17, 2017)
ISBN-10: 1941758894
ISBN-13: 978-1941758892
https://www.amazon.com/Seventh-Age-Da...


Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton

In a way, I almost feel this review might be a tad redundant. That’s because I’m about to repeat and echo observations made by a number of other reviewers before me.

For example, I’m far from the first to tell you Rick Heinz immediately drops the reader into hot and heavy action in the very first paragraph of The Seventh Age and doesn’t slow down for the over 400 pages that follow. The book is dense, complex, and populated by a very strange cast of characters that include warlocks, vampires, demons, ghosts, shape shifters, sorcerers, mutant animals, as well as humans. In all this paranormal activity, earth as we know it is about to change as all these beings have different agendas about what they want to happen. There are apparently international rituals in the works to bring about a “Unification” and the resurrection of a super-entity named Lazarus to usher in a new age when magic will again rule.

In many ways, because of the layers of varying agendas and battles between the supernatural beings, trying to offer a useful and understandable synopsis isn’t really workable in a short review like this. Suffice it to say a human named Mike Auburn is our first point-of-view character in Chicago, a man who can see the dead. He meets beings who slowly reveal his important role in what is coming. Some of the supernaturals care nothing for humans and would be happy to wipe us out. Others see us as expendable inconveniences in the way as they invade earth from both Purgatory and Hell. Still others want to Shepard and protect as much humanity as they can in underground and street level battles. There’s a lot of blood, vampirism, and eating of souls. For those who enjoy conspiracy thrillers, there’s no shortage of secret societies who want to open or block the portals between the realms and keep their activities hidden from humanity as they plan a takeover of our planet.

One of my favorite aspects of this book is just how much Heinz is able to keep the reader guessing and surprised by what is going on, particularly as many of the characters you’d think are pure evil turn out to have far more mixed motives than you’d expect. While I can’t say my reading of urban fantasies is all that deep, I can’t recall a title in this genre with this much of an epic scope. This is especially true considering Dawn is obviously just volume one of this saga.

So, if you don’t mind your fantasy being on the grim and grisly side, the plot constantly challenging any preconceptions you might have as you go along, The Seventh Age is a chilling, engrossing read. Some books still prove literature can be very frightening indeed, even if everything is so fantastic that what happens can’t reflect real-world concerns.


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Jan. 16, 2016:
goo.gl/T2mGBv

Take 20% Off Any Script from the Crypt

Can your heart stand the shocking truth behind your favorite horror/sci-fi films? The Scripts from the Crypt series peals back the veil to give readers heretofore untold behind-the-scenes stories. Marvel at the detailed production histories of films like Dracula's Daughter, The Hideous Sun Demon, Bride of the Gorilla and more.
Take 20% off any Script from the Crypt title with the discount code SFTC20 at checkout until midnight on Halloween -- 12:00 AM E.T. Wednesday October 31, 2018.

How to order:
http://bearmanormedia.com/index.php?r...

On Tues., Dec. 8, wes Britton and Karina Kantas will be interviewed by Jasveena R Prabhagaran of International Book Promotions. The show will be streamed live via Facebook at 9:00 am Eastern time:

https://www.facebook.com/419892524804...

What will we be talking about? You can contribute to the conversation and ask questions yourself! Simply click
http://www.streamyard.com/facebook

That will allow Facebook to display your comments made or questions asked during the stream on screen for everyone else to see.

Looking forward to chatting with everyone--including you!

Speaking of Karina, a few days ago she stopped by my Amazon Author Central page and translated my profile in to French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese. My author page is now seen all over Amazon sites.

https://www.amazon.com/Wesley-Britton...

Now, for those of you who subscribe to my free newsletter, you were able to read some of my current thoughts on disability in sci-fi in our November edition . Here, I'm posting one response I got from a subscriber. I'm not including the writer's name here as I don't know if he'd like me to or not. Anyway, I thought some of y'll might find this of interest:

. . . thought you might be interested in knowing of a series by Tanya Huff. The Blood series is urban fantasy, and may not be the sort of thing that you like. Personally I think it's great. The reason for pointing it out is that one of the main characters has retinitis pigmentosa, but in an earlier stage. She had to retire from the police service due to effectively being blind at night. She has become a private investigator, but still has a volatile relationship with her old partner, who is still a police officer. The other main character is an illegitimate son of Henry the Eighth, and a vampire. He is also an author who writes bodice rippers. This may give you an idea of the humour to be found in stories that deal with the various horror genres.

Have fun

If you're curious to read the essay that inspired this response, you can subscribe to my newsletter and be on board for the December edition coming soon!

http://eepurl.com/dwvfQr


Till next time--