Jeffrey Pierce

The Amazon blurb gives an excellent synopsis of this creative twist on a WW I story. I have to admit that I did not get it at first, but when Hitler showed up, something triggered in me the idea that this was not the normal WW I or any war story for that matter. Following the (multi-national) survivors through France was agonizing enough and I kept wondering why the Russians, for example, were just not taken as prisoners - and then finally the structure of the story clicked.

I rarely read books twice, but I guarantee you that this deserves a second read because I figured out all too late that demons and zombies enter into the story. The characters and plot are crisp, the thesis is quite creative and frankly, there is a real lesson to be learned from this exposition of WWI. I haven't shelved this book as it goes back to my TBR pile.

Thanks to the author, Black Rose Writing and LibraryThing for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily.… (plus d'informations)

Set in 1914, during the beginning stages of War World I when Allied forces and Central powers rage through the border of France and Germany, The Reckoning by Jeffrey Pierce is a powerful read. The horrors of war are analyzed and described with such vivid detail that the reader needs to put down the book every now and then. Consuming too much bloodlust in one take is overwhelming.

As Book One in Pierce's series, the author sets up the characters who are on the front lines of what historians call The Great War. World War I was fought to end Imperial rule in Europe. It was the demise of the Prussian Empire, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. Though the battle took place in central Europe, it was a global war and the author makes the reader aware of the global impact of the war at the onset. Characters are noted as being Canadian, British, French, Irish, Belgian, German, Saxon, Baden, Austrian, African, Australian, American, Russian Cossack, and so on.

A fluxing wave of characters enter, many of them are brutally killed but a few make it to the end of the tale. At the apex of the story, two German soldiers are prisoners of the Allied forces, held in an abbey converted into a field hospital. When the field hospital is attacked by an army of the Central powers, all inhabitants of the abbey are forced to run, even the prisoners who fight for the Central powers. Those prisoners who stay are butchered by their own countrymen. Pierce sheds light on the demonic behavior of people engaged in war. Friends kills friends as well as their enemies. The level of irrationality is excessive.

Pierce admirably describes the trauma of warfare and the nightmares that follow those who survive the battlefields. In war, no one wins especially those who live through the devastation. Pierce makes the correlation between the plunder of the Holy Crusades and the hell of World War I. He takes readers through the experience of being in World War I and eludes to factors that caused the warfare. More than anything else, Pierce's tale makes a point of showing readers that in wars, everyone loses whether it is their life, their pride or their soul.

The phrase "the Anointed Angel comes" is repeatedly written throughout the story. Each time, the phrase refers to the grim reaper who takes an individual's life. In the Bible, the Anointed One is Jesus Christ but in Pierce's story, the Anointed Angel is a demon that has come to take someone's essence, leaving the battered and disemboweled body on earth. The reference shocks readers and brings illumination that the entity which takes people's souls is no savior but much more resembles the demons of Armageddon.… (plus d'informations)

First of a trilogy, this is a dark suspense/horror novel about the end of the world.

Drew is your average 21st century computer geek. He runs into Alicia at a local club, and recognizes her from his dreams. She is one of the Old Ones, an ancient, immortal race of beings who come from somewhere else. The reason that Drew recognizes Alicia is that, as he learns later, he is of the bloodline; he has some of the blood of the Old Ones in him. They move in together, and fall in love. Evil forces, led by a being named Lotomas, are coming after them, so they head for an isolated spot in eastern Montana to decide on their next move.

A disparate group of people, from all walks of life, join them in Montana. The only thing they have in common is that they have all had the same kind of strange dreams; they are all of the bloodline. Things end very badly for the group; Lotomas and his minions don't just kill them; their souls are also stolen. Alicia "saves" Drew by placing her hands on his chest, stopping his heart, and sending his soul to the afterlife. Alicia finds herself in a place called Ahnnchalla, a dark and dismal place with corpses as far as the eye can see.

Meantime, an angel named Nathaniel, woken after a 200-year sleep, and Jenny, a teenage girl who is also of the bloodline, arrive in Montana just after the slaughter. Being questioned by the police would be very bad, so they take off and hole up in a motel room, where Nathaniel has Jenny do some Internet searching. The intention of Lotomas is to make Earth part of Ahnnchalla. If the contemporary societal threads that will lead to such a thing can be found ahead of time, perhaps they can be pulled the right way to prevent it from happening. Humans are good at seeing the threads after a thing has happened, but have a tough time at putting things together ahead of time. Jenny finds plenty of possibilities on the Internet: war, poverty, racism, etc. When people talk about the "end of the world," it doesn't necessarily mean the destruction of Earth. Something like the world's climate going haywire, or some sort of bio-war will radically change the world for those who survive.

Do Drew and Alicia get back together, in any form? Can Jenny find the right societal threads to pull to prevent the end of the world? The writing in this book borders on amazing. It will give the reader plenty to consider, about theology and society in general. There's also a really good story here. I am not much of a horror reader, so I was glad that the horror parts were not overwhelming. This gets two strong thumbs up.… (plus d'informations)

This fantasy novel is set in a world that is somewhere outside of reality. An ancient prophecy says that 13 people hold the key to all of existence.

They are a disparate group of beings. Kai is a warrior who just wants to live somewhere peacefully with Ko’laru, his faery lover. Many people consider faeries to be demons, and any “union” with humans to be unnatural. Beltross is mer, half human and half sea creature. Daen is a prophet who can see into the future. Traela is a teenage girl who very much wants to be a warrior. Leiron and Caraine have unique abilities of their own.

At first, the intention is to gather the 13 people together in one people, then work on making the prophecy come true. A monastery is attacked by bandits led by a man named Nollon, because a young boy named Rann at the monastery is the key to the prophecy. Traela is severely injured in the ensuing battle, beyond the abilities of human healers. The group detours to the city of Node, where Traela’s only chance lies with the Maat.

The Maat are alien beings who guard the gates between worlds. They are literally nothing more than bags of fluid enclosed in a thin membrane. A member of the Maat agrees to heal Traela, but they do not come cheap. Their price is not always monetary, a price that Kai is willing to pay. The Maat are also very picky about weapons being taken from one world to another. They have ways of detecting any attempts at smuggling or deception.

There are a number of battles against strange beings, including stone monsters, sent by the forces of evil to kill or capture those involved in the prophecy. First of a trilogy, this is a surprisingly good novel. It has everything a fantasy reader could want: a quest, violence, alien beings and a bit of romance. My only complaint has to do with the editing or proofreading. In several places in the book, the word is supposed to be "prophecy," not "prophesy." But that does not detract from a tale with language that borders on poetic. It gets two strong thumbs up.… (plus d'informations)