Gilbert M. Stack's Blog, page 80
October 18, 2020
My Review Becomes the Text of a War Eagles Trailer
Here's a quick break from Occultober to share some exciting news. Last December I reviewed a really fun audio book called War Eagles and now the author, Debbie Bishop, has used my review as the text of a trailer for the story. Wish she had credited me for the text, but heck, it's still a fun story. Here's the link: to the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY1Ob...
Occultober Day 17 Legion of the Undead by Michael Whitehead
Occultober Day 17 Legion of the Undead by Michael Whitehead
As we’ve noted before, zombies are an important part of horror novels. What makes this series fascinating is that the zombies arrive—not today—but at the height of the Roman Empire. In many ways, other than the setting, it’s typical zombie fare—a single source point of infection is vectoring across the planet—but it just doesn’t feel typical when you’re watching Roman legionnaires respond to the threat. The whole novel feels highly authentic as the legions struggle to come to grips with the walking dead. Then things get even more interesting as politics intersects the zombie crisis to make saving civilization—no, saving all of humanity—even more difficult. Strong and memorable characters that the author is not afraid to kill populate an unusual apocalyptic tale.
If you’re interested in Legion of the Undead, why not join the discussion on my author page at Facebook? https://www.facebook.com/GilbertStack...
Occultober Day 18 Night of the Hidden Fang by T. James Logan
Occultober Day 18 Night of the Hidden Fang by T. James Logan
Werewolves are one of the legs of the tripod that comprises modern urban fantasy (together with vampires and zombies) but it’s really difficult to write a good werewolf story focused on high school kids—at least it looked that way before I discovered Night of the Hidden Fang. The problem isn’t that the high school kids often live a very separate life from their out of touch parents, they do. It also isn’t a problem that no one would believe the high school kids if they started talking about werewolves prowling the neighborhood, they wouldn’t. No, the break down usually comes when the high school kids insist on solving the whole problem by themselves and somehow get away with doing it without the adults ever finding out. That isn’t the way T. James Logan handles this problem in Night of the Hidden Fang and as a result he was able to surprise me again and again throughout the novel. At times it felt like he was “breaking the rules” and that was very good for his story.
Mia is a believable high school girl who never feels like she fits in. Because her dad was in the military before he joined the FBI, she hasn’t lived in any one place very long and she doesn’t have many good friends. She’s bullied by some of the more popular girls and suffers endless amounts of teen angst over the boy she likes but feels like she could never have. Then strange things start happening—disappearances, body parts appearing, unsettling men, some mysterious boys—and suddenly we’re not in high school anymore. (Except, Mia is, of course, and manages to never lose all her angst no matter what terrible things are happening around her.)
After a slightly slow beginning, the plot starts charging forward and never stops until the end of the novel. There were a couple of very big surprises for me—shocks that I just never believed would occur—and one very obvious plot line that fortunately never happened. Both the shock and the author’s restraint greatly enhanced the novel.
If you’re looking for a new take on the werewolf story, you should give Night of the Hidden Fang a try.
If you’re interested in Night of the Hidden Fang, why not join the discussion on my author page at Facebook? https://www.facebook.com/GilbertStack...
October 16, 2020
Occultober Day 16 Wolf Hunt by Jeff Strand
Occultober Day 16 Wolf Hunt by Jeff Strand
Wolf Hunt is one of the best werewolf series on the market today because it manages to make the horror genre very, very funny—even while totally freaking the reader out. Jeff Strand’s bad guys really are horrible people, while his good guys are—well, let’s face it, the heroes, George and Lou, are bad guys too—they’re just not as bad as the true villains. In fact, they are two of my all-time favorite characters in fiction. They have me laughing right from the beginning of the series and I’m still laughing on the last page of book 3. They’re a little bit dumb, seriously stubborn, and surprisingly heroic and human as they try to make up for the admittedly stupid mistakes they make in every book. Things happen to them, and around them, and, unfortunately, to anyone in the vicinity.
There is a lot to love about this series—but three things stand out in particular. First, the villains are phenomenal. They are so clever in their sadism that Jeff Stand’s family might want to have him checked out by a mental health professional. It’s sick, but that’s what makes a great villain so fun to hate, isn’t it?
The second absolutely amazing thing about these book is the creative—but pretty untraditional—ways in which George and Lou continue to go after the werewolves they encounter. It turns out that silver bullets just aren’t that plentiful and that forces them to get clever—not A-Team clever by any means, but creative none the less. I was astounded by the myriad ways they managed to hurt the basically unkillable-by-conventional-means creatures. All the while soaking up tremendous amounts of damage themselves.
Finally, Jeff Strand’s ability to surprise me is absolutely amazing, and he keeps upping the ante with each successive book. I always think I know where things are going, and I’m always wrong. Strand just thinks so far outside the box that he is constantly coming up with amazing ways to advance his stories.
I suspect that this would be a great series in paper or electronic format, but it was my good fortune to encounter the audio version, so let me just add a few words of praise for the performance of narrator, Scott Thomas. All of the key figures in this book have totally unique voices that make them easy to identify. More importantly, Thomas really draws out the humor in the banter. I am really impressed that he did this without once breaking down into peals of laughter himself, as I did consistently while listening to it.
If you’re interested in Wolf Hunt, why not join the discussion on my author page at Facebook? https://www.facebook.com/GilbertStack...
October 15, 2020
Occultober Day 15 Oktoberfeast by Gilbert M. Stack
Occultober Day 15 Oktoberfeast by Gilbert M. Stack
This morning, on the fifteenth day of Occultober, the third book in my Preternatural series, Oktoberfeast, went live. You can find it on Amazon and FREE on Kindle Unlimited.
The vast majority of urban fantasies follow women who find themselves enmeshed in the world of the supernatural that force them to discover or develop special abilities that they possess (often not knowing about them as the opening novel begins). They might be shape changers, witches, vampires, or have the power to raise the dead. I decided to go another route in Preternatural. The stories are told almost completely from the perspective of two individuals without any magical powers. One is Joanna Donovan, a tough as nails, extremely smart, police officers who was kicked out of Chicago for showing bias against vampires when she survived their attempt to murder her by shooting them with blessed ammunition. The other is Sam Winter, a nineteen-year-old girl who’s trying to raise money for college by taking photographs of the all-too-frequent preternatural incidents that happen in her small town. So, unlike most series, the heroines of Preternatural don’t have any special advantages when it comes to surviving the wide array of dangers they face in each book.
The first clue that nobody should be living in the town of Hadrian’s Well are place names like Dead Man’s Field and Widow’s Creek. There’s just something different about the territory—something that attracts abnormal numbers of preternatural creatures toward the town. If long term residents know what that something is, they aren’t talking.
By the time Oktoberfeast begins, Hadrian’s Well hasn’t has been rocked quite badly by previous preternatural incidents. Half of the town’s deputies are either dead or incapacitated and now, Undersheriff Joanna Donovan learns she has to police the annual Oktoberfest celebration with town volunteers rather than hiring trained law enforcement professionals to stand in for her injured force. Yet happy beer-guzzling tourists aren’t the only visitors coming to Hadrian’s Well this season. Can Joanna and her small team protect the town, or will Hadrian’s Well be overrun when the happy October festival turns into an unholy Oktoberfeast?
If you’re interested in Oktoberfeast, why not join the discussion on my author page at Facebook? https://www.facebook.com/GilbertStack...
October 14, 2020
Occultober Day 14 Trapped by Michael James
Occultober Day 14 Trapped by Michael James
For Day 14 we return to alien invasions, but I doubt you’ve seen one that looks like this. On the surface, this is a rather straightforward novel about alien drones that blanket the earth killing anyone who steps outside of a structure like a house or an automobile. The death toll quickly mounts upwards of one billion as humanity hunkers down and tries to figure out what they will do when the food and water runs out in their homes. At the same time, this is a story about people and how they will respond to being shut up with each other after terrible tragedy. Their fears and their insecurities bring out the absolute worst in some while others find the courage to face their circumstances and help others. It’s this latter story, handled with subtle sophistication by the author, Michael James, that makes this novel so powerful.
James sets the stage by introducing a fairly large cast of people planning a neighborhood barbecue. As with any street in America, there are a lot of tensions underlying the relationships on this street. An alcoholic mother is abusing her teenaged daughter. An adulterous affair is on the verge of rocking two marriages. And the usual macho BS dominates the interactions of the male parents. None of these problems seem important when the sky opens up spawning thousands of drones that immediately begin firing lasers at anyone caught out in the open, but when the survivors find themselves trapped in small groups wondering what they are going to do next, these tensions will threaten their ultimate survival.
Focusing mostly on four locations—three houses and a tree fort with three kids inside—the novel examines how different personality types deal with what could well be the end of the world. The ones who have the most difficulty coping with their sudden helplessness are the most assertive and controlling of the neighbors. Strangely, it is the teenagers in the tree fort who are best able to think about the global problem of the drones and begin to figure out ways to work around them. They show intelligence and courage that their parents are sadly (but believably) lacking. And one of the best (i.e. most outrageous) lines in the whole book comes after the teenagers have made it possible for people to start linking up together again when one of the parents says, “Let the adults handle this.” The irony of it still makes me chuckle.
Trapped is a brilliant mix of all-too-relatable horror and a well-thought-out science fiction setting. As with most good horror fiction, its success is built on believable characters dealing with appalling circumstances. Some rise up to the challenge while others give into their darker natures. It makes for very good reading and leaves me hoping there will be a sequel.
If you’re interested in Trapped, why not join the discussion on my author page at Facebook? https://www.facebook.com/GilbertStack...
October 13, 2020
Occultober Day 13 Supernatural Bounty Hunter by Craig Halloran
Occultober Day 13 Supernatural Bounty Hunter by Craig Halloran
There are two general directions that most urban fantasies take with their settings—the paranormal creatures are known to exist or they are still a secret from society at large. In Craig Halloran’s Supernatural Bounty Hunter series, the existence of magical creatures is not yet known even to most of law enforcement, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that changes over the course of the series.
One of the exciting elements of this series is that there is, in essence, a supernatural creature of the week and two out of the three books I’ve read so far feature monsters that do not typically appear in urban fantasies.
Yet the best part of the series is the chemistry between John Smoke, ex-special-forces-soldier turned bounty hunter turned ex-con, and Sydney Shaw, smart, driven, competent, and by the book FBI agent. They’re very much opposites, and of course the almost required romantic tension begins developing immediately, but the dialogue is great and will make you smile.
Smoke and Shaw are tracking down suspects on the FBI’s mysterious Black Slate list. No one seems to know quite where the black slate came from and why people are on it—but Smoke and Shaw quickly find out why no one listed on the slate ever gets brought in for arrest. It’s sort of like the ex-files, but more dangerous.
If you’re interested in Supernatural Bounty Hunter, why not join the discussion on my author page at Facebook? https://www.facebook.com/GilbertStack...
October 12, 2020
Heads Up! The Man from Rome is free on Amazon for a Limited Time
The Man from Rome by Dylan James Quarles will be featured later in Occultober, but for those looking for a good book, I've just learned that it's free on Amazon right now. So why not pick up a copy on the assumption I'll convince you you want to try the book?
Occultober Day 12 The Corpse Whisperer by H. R. Boldwood
Occultober Day 12 The Corpse Whisperer by H. R. Boldwood
As we approach the middle of Occultober, I want to spotlight one of the most unique urban fantasy settings I’ve yet to come across. The Corpse Whisperer is not your typical zombie novel. While it’s still possible that the end of the world is coming, the people inhabiting Cincinnati haven’t figured that out yet. Instead of a zombie apocalypse, the world of The Corpse Whisperer has police forces, legal systems and a medical establishment that has learned to cope with the facts that the dead don’t always stay in their graves and a handful of special individuals like Allie Nighthawk have the power to raise them.
Boldwood takes this premise and runs with it, creating a whole world that is built around the existence of the dead walking mostly on the fringes of society. Zombies and the virus that creates them are studied by scientists. Not all zombies become instant biters and not all bitten people become zombies. There’s even a new medicine that can hold a person back from turning once bitten. The legal system has evolved to incorporate this new reality as gifted people like heroine, Allie Nighthawk, are often needed to raise the dead to ask them important questions like—did you see who murdered you? The rules are pretty well understood by the professionals. The problem that confronts the heroes in the first book of the series is that the rules are suddenly changing. People are turning without being bitten and people without the traditional genetic markers are turning too. Perhaps that cliched apocalypse really is about to overrun the world.
In the middle of this unfolding crisis is Allie Nighthawk. Studying Nighthawk would make any psychologist’s day. She has this amazing power but her ethics keep her from getting rich with it because she actually cares about people and the world around her. Yet those same people don’t seem to like her very much and she has become brash and difficult as a defense against constant rejection and ill treatment. Yet, when push comes to shove, she still stands in the thick of things, loyal to the core and determined to keep the undead from hurting people.
Nighthawk works as a consultant to the Cincinnati Police Department, and they don’t like her much either—even as they keep needing her skills to help with their investigations and generally keep the citizens of their fine city from being killed. Allie’s police detective partner enjoys giving her as hard a time as she gives him, but he has a major personality defect—he’s hard in lust with a news reporter named Jade Chen who keeps her ratings high by loudly criticizing Nighthawk every time a zombie rears its head in the city. And they’re rearing their heads a lot these days, and exhibiting new behaviors that scare the fecal matter out of anyone with enough knowledge to understand what’s happening.
As if all of that wasn’t complicated enough, Nighthawk has been assigned to help protect Leo, a mob accountant who has decided to squeal on his superiors in front of a grand jury. Those superiors, quite understandably, want to prevent him from doing this, but are they the only ones trying to kill him? Oh, and there’s one more thing about Leo which explains Nighthawk’s involvement with him. He’s been bitten and only a new drug is keeping him from turning right away. His tolerance for the medicine is growing, however, so it’s only a matter of time before he starts biting other people with the rest of the zombies.
Leo is the character that best shows Boldwood’s brilliance as an author. He starts out brash and unlikeable, but the longer he appears on the pages, the stronger you will root for him to beat the zombie thing. That’s not easy to do, and he’s not the only character that Boldwood tricks you into liking.
So, if you like great characters, non-stop action, a couple of solid mysteries, a smattering of genuine surprises, and your zombies without the cliched apocalypse, you should really give The Corpse Whisperer a try.
If you’re interested in The Corpse Whisperer , why not join the discussion on my author page at Facebook? https://www.facebook.com/GilbertStack...
October 11, 2020
Occultober Day 11 The Halloween Legion by Martin Powell
Occultober Day 11: The Halloween Legion by Martin Powell
For Day 11 of Occultober, I want to take a look at a novel geared toward a younger audience. Writing for youths is a challenging endeavor because you need to minimize the mature elements of a story while simultaneously simplifying the plot. Yet at the same time, it’s critically important not to compromise on characterization. This is a difficult balance to achieve, but you wouldn’t know that from reading Martin Powell’s The Halloween Legion—a creepy tale enjoyable by all ages.
The small town of Woodland has had a hard time of it lately. A few months ago a freak tornado caused a lot of damage and now strange things are happening all around them—the goat boy keeps getting spotted, a brontosaurus crushes a building and kills a man, a barn starts crawling up hill towards a nearby house (that was my favorite), and a ghost keeps making appearances, and well, you get the idea. Creepy things are coming to Woodland and the sheriff and a local high school girl seem to be stuck in the middle of it. But that’s not all because a bizarre carnival run by a very strange woman has come to town and is setting up the show of a lifetime—or maybe that’s the last show of your lifetime.
What I liked most about this story was that I was very deep into the tale before I was certain who the good guys and the bad guys were. The whole tone was unsettling and let’s face it, that’s a lot of what you want in a Halloween story. I also was very pleased at how well plotted this story is. All the strange things are tied together into a very believable problem, and if the sheriff is a little slow to get on board with the supernatural things occurring all around him (even after the events of the first chapter) I’m sure I would have wanted to find another explanation if I were a character in the story as well.
If you’re interested in The Halloween Legion, why not join the discussion on my author page at Facebook? https://www.facebook.com/GilbertStack...
