Here's a recommendation for a great new horror novel, THE DEVIL'S WOODS by Brian Moreland

THE DEVIL'S WOODS
by Brian Moreland
Published by Samhain Publishing

"This is indeed prime, grade-A horror writing." - Scott Baker, Shattered Ravings

For those of you into horror novels, you will definitely want to check out this new book that came out this week.  It is THE DEVIL'S WOODS by Brian Moreland.  My buddy Scott, who runs the Shattered Ravings Blog, gave this book a great review last month.  You can read his review HERE.  Here is the book's plot synopsis from it's Amazon.com page:

 Deep within the Canadian wilderness, people have been disappearing for over a century. There is a place the locals call “the Devil’s Woods,” but to speak of it will only bring the devil to your door. It is a place so evil that even animals avoid it.
  When their father’s expedition team goes missing, Kyle Elkheart and his brother and sister return to the abandoned Cree Indian reservation where they were born. Kyle can see ghosts that haunt the woods surrounding the village—and they seem to be trying to warn him.  The search for their father will lead Kyle and his siblings to the dark heart of the legendary forest, where their mission will quickly become a fight for survival.


 My buddy Scott has been telling me about Mr. Moreland's novels for some time now.  I trust his judgment completely, as we seem to have the same taste in anything and everything horror related. So if he says this book is a great read, then I believe it, even if I haven't read it myself yet.  Between my full time job, a wife and twin 7 year old boys, and running this blog, I just don't seem to find the time to read like I used to, but I am going to try to find, no, make time to read some of Mr. Moreland's books this coming year.  In fact, I think I will just go ahead and make that one of my New Year's resolutions!

  If you are a fan of horror novels, check out THE DEVIL'S WOODS or any of Mr. Moreland's other great novels. 

CLICK HERE to purchase THE DEVIL'S WOODS

CLICK HERE to visit the official website of author Brian Moreland for info on some of his other novels

Book Review: VAMPYRNOMICON by Scott M. Baker

-------------Review by contributing writer Scott Baker------------------

 

Note from Zombie Hayes: My contributing writer, M. Scott Baker, is an author himself, so I pass on most any horror novel I get to him for review. I thought it was great when I approached him back in June about reviewing a book by an author named...Scott M. Baker! HA!   That book was THE VAMPIRE HUNTERS.  This review is for author Scott M. Baker's second book in his Vampire Hunters trilogy, VAMPYRNOMICON.  So, just to clear up any confusion, the author of this book did not write his own review, and my contributing writer is not the author of this book. Confusing enough for ya? HA! On to the review....

   

VAMPYRNOMICON

by Scott M. Baker

I love to find those rare genre series that keep me wanting more, even long after the final sentence has been read. I am, of course, referring to book series in this aspect...not movies. Author Scott M. Baker gave me one of these series with the first book in his Vampire Hunters trilogy, titled with the same name. This review is for the second book in the series, titled VAMPYRNOMICON (to read my review of the first book, click here).
Here is the plot synopsis for VAMPYRNOMICON, courtesy of the book cover:

Hunters and vampires seek The Vampyrnomicon, a book that could destroy the vampires...or mankind! Within the vaults of the Smithsonian Institute lies the key to find The Vampyrnomicon, the Book of the Undead that contains the history and secrets of the vampires. According to legend, whoever possesses the book can establish a vampire nation on earth - or destroy the undead once and for all. With an opportunity to end the war against the undead so close, Drake Matthews is determined to find the book. But the vampires also want the book. When Master Chiang Shih and her coven of the most powerful and dangerous vampires arrive in Washington to claim the book as their own, the hunters find themselves facing their most deadly enemy yet. With the stakes so high, so is the ferocity of the struggle...

First, the good.

Baker once again weaves an interesting tale of vampires in modern day America. And, just as before, his bloodsuckers are just as ruthless as last time, unrelenting in their pursuit of blood and total human domination. This time however, the stakes are even greater (no pun intended).

Baker's prose is easy to read, which makes the action tighter and faster paced. I especially enjoy the battle descriptions and find myself grinning from time to time as I marvel at their uniqueness. Likewise the characters, both old and new, are well imagined and come to life easily in the reader's mind. The vamps, while not exceedingly full of depth, pose striking figures with their brutality and lack of compassion.

All in all, Baker has created a believable and likable world, in which darkness borders on overtaking all that is good.

But now for the bad.

For all of Bakers good ideas, there are a few that are extremely recycled and some that I think are owned pretty well by other series. For example, the concept of the Daywalker, not to mention the term itself, appears in the book. My immediate thought was "Hey...that's from BLADE.". Granted, it's not a copyrighted term or concept...but it's pretty obvious that the other series made it predominant in the minds of genre fans.

The other striking negative for me were the amazing number of grammatical errors. I was astounded with how many there were...there are even more in this book than the first. Many of them were silly editing errors, like the use of 'site' instead of 'sight'. Also, there are several places that have an extra 'the' in sentences and even completely omitted words that make sentences lose their meanings.

Still, with that aside, VAMPYRNOMICON is a fun read and the story is definitely interesting. This book has a bit of a cliffhanger ending, so I'm itching to get my hands on the third and final book of the trilogy. Definitely give this one a look if you want some fast-paced vampire fun!

MSB

 
CLICK HERE to purchase the book on Amazon.com

For you eBook readers, check out FORSAKEN by Andrew Van Wey

 Author Andrew Van Wey contacted me recently about his new eBook, FORSAKEN.   If you are a fan of horror fiction, I suggest you check this one out for sure.   Check out this synopsis for the book from the book's official website:

The painting loomed, large and foreboding. At a little over six feet tall and five feet wide, it wasn’t the strangest he’d ever seen, but close. A girl with a wounded, sack-like face; a boy with pinhole eyes and a cruel sneer; and a distant shadow peering out from behind a dying tree, all stared back at him.

 

Yet it wasn’t only the subjects that challenged him, but the note that came with the anonymous painting.

 

"Here in Art, Denial."

 

For professor Daniel Rineheart, these four words herald a riddle that sets off a surreal nightmare. Where objects from his past manifest in canvas and oil. Where painted clocks tick-tock away in the dark hours before dawn and a missing dog whimpers from between the walls. Where the painted subjects themselves leave the canvas to stalk the halls of his once quiet house.

 

And where all answers lead back to a blind artist and an impossible creation, one that threatens to destroy his family and devour his sanity.

 

FORSAKEN is a dark novel, a throwback to the haunted tales that slowly boil and get beneath the skin, sticking with the reader after the pages are finished and the story is over. It's a dark tale that blends the line between the psychological and the supernatural and challenges the reader to descend into a maddening world where past and present blend together, where the blind see far beyond the living veil, and where evil comes alive in oil and art.

 

As if that doesn't sound cool enough, the author went on to tell me that his target audience for this book  "are the type of people who like character driven horror that's not afraid to get messy, the kind of readers who think vampires should have a pair of fangs and, well, balls, and that they definitely don't twinkle in the twilight. The kind of readers who, like me, read a bit too much King and Barker and saw a few too many scary movies at far too early of an age and are still trying to recapture that early fear." 

 

Well, I think that pretty much describes all of us true horror fans!  This is one to check out for sure!

 

FORSAKEN is Available Now for only $2.99 Until Nov. 1st on Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and Apple iBooks.

CLICK HERE to visit the official website of FORSAKEN and to read a special sneak preview of the first 25% of the book!