Tell Tale Lore (V): O Acontecimento - Paulo Gonçalves

O Acontecimento

(950 palavras + 70 fim)

Paulo Gonçalves

É o fim. Enquanto visto a minha armadura e preparo-me para enfrentar a morte penso na vida que tive desde o Acontecimento. Lembra-me tao bem quando começaram a surgir os primeiros zombies. Bem... eles nao sao bem zombies. Sao seres vivos em que a sua capacidade mental se reduzio ao mais basico da sobrivencia. Comer. Não sei o que prefiro... Zombies ou estes seres.

Lembra-me quando passaram na TV as primeiras imagens e as primeiras mortes... Lembra-me quando os cientistas diziam dia após dia que nao sabia como tinha aparecido tal peste nem como poderiam eliminar-la. Bastava o contágio de sangue ou saliva e passado algumas horas tornavamo-nos nestes monstros. Canibalismo começou a ser uma palavra usada diariamente. Os monstros nao se limitavam a comer outros humanos mas também animais... Os seus actos nao ficavam por ai... Verduras e frutos também estavam na sua ementa embora preferisem carne e sangue. O mais estranho é que era resilientes a dor. Pessoas que tinham sido mordidas com dezenas de cortes e mesmo assim andavam e eram tão perigosos como pessoas sãs.

Lembra-me quando atingiu Portugal... Foi em Agosto. A minha namorada estava na Bulgaria e a ultima vez que consegui falar com ela antes dos telefones se avariarem ela estava na aldeia dos avós e estavam um pouco isolados da maior parte das pessoas. Dizia-me que os aldeões muitos velhos estavam a tentar criar barreiras para proteger a sua pequena aldeia. Não sei nada dela a muito tempo... espero que esteja bem mas... o mundo todo está dominado destes seres... Os paises cairam. Os governos incapazes de cooperar com esta ameaça cairam no anarquismo. Existem algumas zonas controladas mas nao tem grande poder... voltamos a era medieval. Os cientistas diziam que era esperar.. Esperar que a comida terminasse e eles morressem a fome. É o que tento fazer...

Cá estou eu a usar a minha armadura que me trouxe a esta casa. Nao sei de quem era mas estava muito bem protegida e tinha muita comida. Vivi aqui durante 6 meses... Agora é Inverno e a chuva cai constatemente faz tres dias...

Os zombies (o nome que lhes deou embora incorrecto) descobriram-me e estao nos portões.. Mais de cem zombies... Nao tenho chances mas nao me vou tornar num deles. Vou lutar até ao fim como um guerreiro honrado.. um samurai.. um Drizzt Do'Urden. Veremos o que vai acontecer. Foi bom estar aqui durante 6 meses. Os meus unicos companheiros eram dois gatos... nao sei como sobriviviam nesta selva mas vinham ter ao meu quintal diariamente... Talvez um doz zombies tenha os visto a entrar e pensou.. um almoço gratis. Nao sei como apareceram tantos... Eu acho que eles conseguem comunicar entre si... Aqueles grunhidos devem querer dizer algo.

Matar zombies ja nao me incomoda. O primeiro zombie que matei foi no meu trabalho, na PT. Nao sei como mas a peste nos primeiros dias invandiu a PT e varios comunicadores transformaram-se em zombies. Matei um com um monitor pela cabeça abaixo e outro com um faca de cozinha. Eu sempre disse que alguns comunicadores necessitavam ser espancados para ver se melhoravam... Levei isto ao extremo. Um sorriso...

Voltei para casa nesse dia e a minha mae nao tinha voltado do trabalho... Nunca mais voltou... A minha avó estava no hospital e lá foi dos primeiros sitios a cairem sobre o dominio dos zombies. Nunca me perdoei por nao ter conseguido ir lá a tempo e descobrir o seu paradeiro. O meu irmão? Longa história... Matei-o. Como? Ele foi mordido e cuidei dele durante doze horas... Quando ele se transformou eu peguei na minha wakizashi e cortei-lhe a cabeça. Nao sofreu nada. A minha gata? Morreu como ela sempre quis. Gorda.

Peguei nas minhas coisas e parti a procura da minha avó no hospital só para saber que o hospital tinha sido bombardeado pelo exército para evitar a propagação da doença. Procurei uma casa que me pudesse proteger e que tivesse um quintal grande aonde pudesse cultivar algumas coisas... Encontrei em lisboa uma casa mesmo boa.. Voltei a casa e peguei em caixas cheias de livros e levei-os numa carrinha que encontrara. Nunca aprendara a conduzir mas em tempos dificeis os humanos tornam-se imaginativos. Depois procurei em varios supermercados comida enlatada e guardei-a religiosamente. Água também. Cultivei algumas coisas mas em seis meses pouca coisa cresceu.

Agora tenho aqui os monstros a minha porta... A minha paz interrupida... Finalmente tive tempo para ler o que queria... Sem luz nao havia grande coisa a fazer. Escrevi um livro que nunca irá ver a luz do dia mas é o que interessa. Escrevi-o. Devo admitir que apesar de toda a dor e sofrimento que passei a minha vida até que nao era má... Raramente via outros humanos e também nao queria saber deles para nada. Os gatos eram suficientes para mim...

Agora é o fim.

Pego na minha Wakizashi e na minha Katana e preparo-me... Com uma cota de malha e um elmo para me proteger do sangue que irá jorrar. Um corte é suficiente para eu me tornar num deles. Mas isso jamais irá acontecer. Antes matar-me-ei.

"Obrigado Perkunõs por tudo o que me deste ao longo da minha vida. Obrigado e peço-te que no fim me des força para matar estes seres abominaveis aos olhos da Mae Natureza. Dá-me força."

Os zombies inrrompem pelos portões e atacam-me com aqueles olhos vazios cheios de fome...

Com o joelho no chão e o meu arco prepardo envio flecha atrás de flecha. Impossivel falhar. Mas por cada um que cai outros dois aparecem. Odeio-os.

Retiro as espadas dos freixos e gritando ataca-os.

"Por Perkunõs!". Despedançado-os eu corto membros atrás de membros mas eles sao tantos...

********* 1 Fim (Caso seja necessário) *********

Eles derrubam-me e mordem-me nas pernas. O sangue deles cai sobre os meus olhos e boca contaminando-me... Nao irei tornar-me um deles. Pego na wakisashi e tento cometer seppuku mas nao consigo... A Dor. O Ódio.... Com tantos cortes torno-me num deles rapidamente... os meus pensamentos vão para a minha avó... para a mina... "Mina... irei reunir-me contigo brevemente..." Levanto-me e começo a caminhar para este... A caminho de ti...

********* 2 Fim (Caso seja necessário) ********

Hack and Slash através dos zombies... Ninguém me consegue parar. Os seus dentes ineficazes contra a minha armadura... Sinto-me cansado... Ainda bem que chove... A chuva limpa-me do sangue. O meu elmo protege-me. Um após outro eles tombam... Nao podemos matar quem ja morreu para o mundo...

A minha solaço está destruido... Vou a caminho da Bulgaria. Vou procurar a Mina. Nao tenho mais ninguém. Se morrer até lá morrerei bem. Veremos...

Review: Downshadow - Eric Scott De Bie

title: Downshadow (Greenwood Presents Waterdeep)
author: Eric Scott De Bie
series: Greenwood Presents Waterdeep 3 Book
isbn: 978-0-7869-5128-4 * 06 Apr 2009
pages: 320
reading time: 8 days (18/05/2009 to 25/05/2009)
rating: 7.5/10

This is the third book of the series entitled Greenwood Presents Waterdeep. The First being Blackstaff Tower and the second Mistshore. I haven't read any of the above but this one intrigued me. The backcover says...

The Dark Knight Must Choose: Justice or VengeanceA dangerous, subterranean labyrinth haunted by outlaws and monsters.
The upper reaches of the legendary Undermountain.
The only law is that of the sword in
Downshadow
Ever wondered what it's really like to be a paladin? A holy knight, struggling to live in a very unholy city? A city crowded with tempting women who take a great interest in you, and old enemies increasingly thirsty for your doom?
Downshadow shows you, in a tale packed with battles, betrayals, sticky situations, lurking foes . . . and the deadly rooms and passages of Waterdeep's most dangerous neighborhood of all: Downshadow, beneath the cobbles and cellars and the sewers that underlie them.
This is one wild ride. I highly recommend it, have read it several times through, and look forward to re-reading it many times more!
-- Ed Greenwood

When I read this cover and after reading two of the priests series I thought to myself... time to get my hands on forgotten realms books... as a bibliophile as I am I bought a dozen books... I bought two books from the Citadels and two from the Dungeons, the trilogy The Haunted Lands, the Last Mythal and two books from Sembia (The first two), the Erevis Cale Trilogy and The Twilight Trilogy... (Too many don't you think? Oh do shut up)...

Well I had read Ghostwalker by de Bie and I enjoyed it so I gave it a try. I wasn't dissapointed but I didn't enjoyed as much as I would like...

First the Plot...

We follow the adventures that the mysterious Shadowbane as he patrols Downshadow as he deal with the it's wicked denizens. The book is very entertainment because it's full of altruistic deeds (not only by Shadowbane), betrayals and deceits acts and plenty of battles. In his first book I enjoy the fight scenes and in this book he didn't disapointed me. The flux of the book is mixed. Either is fast-paced or it's too slow... At sometimes I had to re-read a part because I felt kind of lost.

There are several characters on this book that we get to know... Kalen, Araezra, Talanna, Fayne, Rath, Myrin...

We have the evil doers that were portraid nicely and I think they were the jewel of this book. (alongside with Kalen). Talanna has a small part in the plot but I think it was essential. Shadowbane.. I prefered in the beginning (the first a hundred pages) then we know who his shadowbane and I think he lost depth. Kalen is the main character (and Shadowbane). I really enjoyed the back story and the plot. I learn something about spellplague and the fate of some of the gods. Araezra and Myrin were not that interesting... well only in the love story with the main character...

I learn as I said before about the spellplague and the spellscar powers.

Some dialogue were not that interesting and think the writer should had dwell some more time in it. (I tink the first novel by de Bie was better in this area). The powers they had (and I know this is just the beginning of the spellscar powers) were kind of ... x-men alike. I think Myrin powers were kind of deus ex machina .

The writing itself was very good. I think it was kind of dark writing and de Bie doesn't mind (or even secretly enjoyed) to drag the characters to a bitter downfall so they can stand up. I think this is are "real" characters who have pass some difficulty times. I enjoyed it...

The villains were very well portraied. Specially Rath. (It reminds me some of warhammer villains).

In the end a good book that seduced me to read other forgotten realms novels...

I think this author would do great in the Warhammer World. It's a darker world where he would fit very well.

Review: The Rising: Selected Scenes from the End of the World - Brian Keene

Title: The Rising: Selected Scenes from the End of the World

Author: Brian Keene

Publisher: Delirium Books
Pages: 215
Reading Time: 3 days (15/06/2009 to 17/06/2009)

Rating: 8.5/10

I told ye all that I would be reading this book as soon as it arrived at my house. Well this is a combination of several short stories (thirty-two) that are interlinked and shared the same mythos with the previous Brian Keene's books The Rising and City of the Dead.

I must say I read this book a long time ago (and I also got a comment by the author himself) and so I forgot several things... I remember the plot and the different zombies Keene used but the name of the characters have already flipped from my mind...

Well now the short stories... All of them if I am not incorrect don't exceed the 1000 words. They are almost all of them 5/6 pages. The ones who are more are divided in two short stories (There are two situations but both short stories can stand on their own...

Highlights... (each story is one day so the number that appears before is the day the story happenend)

1. Don's Last Moch - It tells the story of a guy who goes to a metal concert trying to have a moch but instead it's bitten by a girl (he was flirting or trying to) who was killed in the concert. Here Keene's interest in metal bands is evidential... Unfortunally as mostly americans the Metal they hear is not the same as we hear here... Well some are but the metal in that side of the atlantic evolved for one way and ours to another. I think he deslikes Black Metal... Oh well we can't be perfect...

2. Family Reunion - A story about two gay guys who wait for the arrival of the members of the one of them. This story as nothing much to offer but I thought about the location they were was a good one... As before I talked about being in the artic but an island in lake is a good posibility as well... It can be easily defended to human zombies... if the zombie plague pass to the birds and fish then they are doomed.

6. Watching the World End -This story turns out to be as the reaction of the human psyche in terrible conditions.. aka zombies. How crazy people can become and this example is a good one... and I think would happen to alot of people... Most people crack in life and death conditions... I liked the story. I don't know why but like Bentley Little, Brian Keene kills cats too often but dogs no... It's an aversion of horror writers against cats?

7. The Fall of Rome - I liked the story. One man against an horde of zombies. On a bell tower killing zombie after zombie. After killing all he could kill he killed himself. Rather good story... I wish I was that guy...

8. 20 Walkabout - Two part stories - Great story of human love and dedication... but as other stories it doesn't end well...

9. Hellhounds on my Trail - Again another story of sacrifice and what people do for love... Two lovers are trapped over a double decker tour bus.. The zombies try making a deal that they will have a quick death if they come down... Instead of that the boy split the girl's head (so she don't turn into a zombie) and lit a light with a propane gas killing the zombies trapping them... Nice love story...

10. Spoilers - Dark comedy... That's the reason I enjoyed. A man trapped a zombie and instead of killing start talking to it. It asks his opinion on books and on videos but the zombie is limited to the knowledge of what the "owner" of the body knew... In the end the man starts talking of a book but other zombies enter the house and kill the man freeing their brother. As the body is decaying fast the zombies ask the captive if he wants that body destroy so he can go to another... The zombie says that he do but they must wait because he is waiting for another brother revive in that body so he can hear the rest of the story of that book.

13. Pocket Apocalypse - How a person can redeem themselves... I llike this story. Human mind at the work and while some crack others reveal themselves for what they are...

15. If you can see the mountain... It's a story of human surival. First when the leave the wounded... some disaproove but don't do anything to help them... It's the law of survival at it's best... I like this story.

16 You only live twice... At night I imagine what I would do in a apocalypse... And most of them I think I would leave somewhere with my cat and my 1500 books... maybe now I had the time to read them all... This story is about that. I enjoyed it because it's what I think.

25. Zombie Worm - Again another dark comedy story... I laught with this story and felt sorry for the zombie. It was a good story.

26. The Night the Dead Died - Another good story and the first that talked about the end of the first part of the invasion and the coming of the second... Elilum.

28. March of the Elilum -Another good story of survival and bitter end. Again I liked this part of the invasion even if this is too hopeless... If we can run away from zombies how can we run away from insects and plant zombies?

29. Best seat in the house - again another good love story and of Elilum. I enjoyed it even if it was a bid sad...

30. American Pie - Survival insticts at the maxim... This story describes a way to survival I talked before.. Cold!

31. Two suns in the sunset - There is no hope is the only thing I can think of... Good story.

32. Other worlds than these - A good story that connects other books by Keene and leaves hope several doors to more books in the mythos. I enjoyed it.

In the end was great read and I really hope he returns to this mythos. I don't give more than 8.5 because some short stories are not that good... they are not awful but some of them were rushed. I think he had a wordcount limit of 1000 words and I think some stories could have much more. Some of them could be told in a book...

I just want to say that he gave me some ideas and I will try write a short story... or a couple. Thank you Brian Keene. Keep up the excelent work.

Review: No Boundaries by Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore

title: No Boundaries

author: Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore

year: 1955

publisher: Consul Books

pages: 159

reading time: 4 days (12/06/2009 to 15/06/2009)

rating: 9/10

Henry Kuttner was a briliant sci-fi, fantasy writer in the late fourties and early fifties. He died with barely forty years and the world lost one of the best early sci-fi writers... C. L Moore was his wife and they had a couple books written in coalition. She had several books on her own... One of them was published recently by Gollancz as as Fantasy Masterworks called Black Gods. I have the book and I must read it...

Well this book was bought in strange conditions... I was searching with my girlfriend for a book in portuguese by HG Wells or Philip K Dick for her. In a store I had been only a couple of times there was a sale of some small books that called my attention... before this I've never heard of Consul Books... I bought this one and another called The Devil Doctor by Sax Rohmer (a Fu Manchu story).

Well I started immediatly reading it... This book is a collection of six stories...

The first is called Vintage Season and it's about space travel. We have some space travelers trying to rent a house in a small city. Another group appear and try to buy the house and with the owner try to kick the previous renters out. The main character starts interacting with one of the first space traveler and starts seeing odd things... He finds out that they are indeed space travelers and they tell them how is the future and why they are there but they can't say anymore. The book then turns to speaking of space travelling and the pros and cons of it. Why they can't change anything and what it happenend if they did. The end was very interesting and I was suprised by it.

Rating 7.5/10 (51 pages)

The second story is The Devil we Know. For me was the pearl of them all. This is a short story about the pact between one human and a devil. The story itself is very straight forward and appealing but again as the previous one the devil and the main character start talking about paralele universes and the big differences between humans and devils and their feelings and notions. for example the meaning of evil or good. The meaning of natural and supernatural.

The story itself is simple... A devil makes a pact with a human to help it in everything. the Human (Carnevan) starts asking small things and his thinking of what is going to happen to him.. what the devil wants in enchange. In the end we know the devil only wanted to get to our universe because he is being persocuted by some being he doesn't understand and he thinks coming to our universe he is safe. In the end this being stays stalking Carnevan and the devil flees to his universe...

There is a interesting part where Carnevan asks if the demon enjoys hurting people and the demon asks him if he knows what evil is... The man answers that is a matter of semantics, it's an arbitrary term, humanity has set up its own standarts... The demon responds that the is answer is a moral anthropomorphism and egotism. That he hasn't considered enviromental, that the physical properties of our world caused good and evil as we know it. Carnevan responds that Morality comes from the mind and the emotions. Afterwards the demon says that humans and all other species on earth have two common instincts... Self Preservation and Propagation and the demon don't have because they can't propagate.

Then he starts telling differences between both universes and goals...

I think it was a interesting story and it says that if for us the demon are supernatural then there are things supernatural to them and so on...

Rating: 9/10 (27 pages)

Our ignorance is everlasting and the quest for knowledge is eternal... (it came from my mind... how deep...)

Home there's no returning is the third story. This one involves robots and wars... The plot is quite simple. In the middle of a war (we are not presented on what war except that it was on the pacific) the general in charge of a base wants to activate a robot (called Ego) that will win the war. That's it's order. Win the war. This robot is different from the others because he can think and its tottally independent. It doesn't need anyone to tell him what to do or how to do it. The robot is activated with the protests of it's builder and it goes berserk. It starts going from level to level destroying everything and obtaining knowledge. Meanwhile the only thing he says its "Want". In the end he desactives itself as he says "Want - To stop wanting."

He says that no machine can act on partial knowledge. You can't expect machines to face the unknown. Only human beings can do that. Steel isn't strong enough. Only flesh and blood can do it and go on... he thought that maybe win the war was impossible and maybe that consisted on a paradox for the machine and stopped it. But the General was human. It didn't stop him. He could accept the thought and push it aside, knowing that sometimes humans really do achieve the impossible. Maybe that was all that had kept us going this long...

Rating: 8.5/10 (31 pages)

Exit the Professsor was another pearl in this collection. First it's told in the first person by a person who can't write that good so it's kind of fun reading it. We read the words as we say it and not as we read it... (making sense am I?). The story involves on a family living on the suburbs of a small town in Kentucky. The family itself are mutants... They can fly, turn invisible, read other people minds and make strange things (in this case a weapon).

Well the plot involves a professor that wants to study them but they know that if they start being study they will become a circus show. The main character reveals that their grand-grand father was a miner in Cornwall in the time of the druids but it was poisoned and so it change their DNA. The professor starts blackmailing the family and the main character says that he will go to New York if they leave them alone. Meanwhile he gives the professor a kind of gun thingy...

The grandfather says that he mustn't go, so he confronts the professor and says it. The professor refuses to hear it and asks him to go or else he will bring a commision. Saunk (the main character) then decides he must stop the professor. Since he can't killed because of the sheriff he tricks the professor of using the weapon and everybody in sight now have toothache. The sheriff arrests the professor (Saunk was invisible) and in jail he appears and say to the professor that he will help him remove the toothache if he leaves them alone. The professor says that if doesn't help him he will bring the comission. Saunk asks the rest of family for help and in a great hall they fix the gun and remove the toothache from the sheriff. As he is trying to remove from everyone an invisbile member of the family do something to the gun that removes all clothes from the people on the hall, it shortened the hair of everyone and removes every gold from the tooths. The people try to lynch him but the family saves him and brings him to their house. There he agrees not to bring the commision if they help her. The grandfather reads his mind and says he is lying so they hide him on the basement inside a bottle....

This is a great story about science and seeing how far scientists are going to achieve new things... in one part the professor says they must go new york because they must be studied, for the glory of science and the advancement of mankind. This says it all... we humans are in hunger for knowledge. We must understand and control everything even it means destroy it or damage it.

Rating 8.5/10 (17 pages)

Two-Handed Engine is the last story of the book. And a nice one. This story focus on a future society were machines have been made to help humankind. The story begins with a guy asking another to kill someone so he can take his job. He knows (the man who is doing the killing) that if he kills someone a Furie (a machine who is police, judge and executioner) will come. This furies as they arrive near someone they don't kill it. They have another interestic tactic. They stand just beside the killer and stay like that for days or what time they deem necessary. And without warning they will kill. This way the machines "think" that this will persuade others not to the same.

The story them involves and we have a glimpse of the past. The man falling to anarchism as the machines do everything to us. The wars and then the trying to rise. Humankind as they fell into barbarism they became more and more individualistic.. this was ripping apart society as a whole. This is a good story and focus on society and evolution... I enjoyed it.

Rating 9/10 (29 pages)

In conclusion it was a great read. Every story focus on one theme and on science fiction or fantasy and that pleases me. I think books in a couple of decades early had something to make us think. I remember reading several yellow dust books by Daw that were printed in 70 and 80 and they were small.. almost no book surpassed 200 pages but they were good stories. They had a plot and then they and a thought of something... politics, nature, society etc...

I don't feel the same reading books from nowadays. They are fiction books with references but not as good as the earlier years... Bear in mind that doesn't mean they aren't good. They are or else I wouldn't read them.

I have to read something more by them... I pre-order another book by them from 1950. Let us see if it's as good as this...

Review: The Conqueror Worms - Brian Keene

title: The Conqueror Worms
author: Brian Keene
publisher: Leisure Books

reading time: 7 days (05/06/2009 to 11/07/2009)

pages: 326

rating: 8/10

After reading Dead Sea I start reading this book. I still have to read The Hollow, Ghoul and Dark Hollow and the anthology the Rising (arriving this next week). The others I don't have... Maybe after reading this ones... I must save money...

Well this book is a homage (is it?) to Lovecraft and it's Cthulhu Mythos. That and the makeover of the Flood by... God.

The story again it's in the first person point of view. Again (in a good way) it's a not typical main character. It's a old man with more than 80 years. I enjoy that. First in Dead Sea and now on this book.

The book is divided in three parts... The first part starts in the end and the main character starts telling what made him write that book.. The main character is called Teddy Garrett. The first part of the book is how the main character and his friend Carl Seaton do to survive. Teddy and Carl are joined by Kevin and Sarah who survived the crash of their helicopter due to the insane actions of another survivor, Earl Harper.

The second part is the tale of Kevin and Sarah. I Think this is better than the first. We are told how they survive in a world that is slowing drowing because it's raining for forty days. Every character as a thought of why it's happening. Then we are awarded with the Lovecraftian monsters .... Giant Worms coming out of the mud. Mermaids enchanting persons and driving them mad and even a Leviathan. This was a fast-paced part and I think the only flaw of the books is the first part. I think it's too long.

The third part begins with them all together and again we are presented with an Lovecraftian ending. In the end as he ends the book we are as Dead Sea presented with a open-ending (it's word right?). The ending makes you think what happened to the three characters that could be alive... As Dead Sea, Herr Keene can comeback to it...

I can see him making a couple of short stories with this world... I would enjoy it.

There are several thing that I enjoyed.. First the monsters. Then the magic and bible references and the alusories that they bring. Third the Lovecraftian theme. Excelent. Then the fast paced second part. (I would enjoy reading more of that world or other monsters). Then the "Satanists". Here Brian Keene starts telling that the satanists hunts and sacrifices people to their dark sea gods but then he show us that he indeed knows what are satanists and what they believe. Maybe he is trying to remove some bad relations to them. Unfortunaly there some young and not that young people that say they are satanits and they are only couple of anarchists with painted white face and red lips trying to be cool...

The other thing that I noticed was "The Sons of Constitution" reference. This is the second book of Keene that says something about them... I wonder why...

Well in the end was an interesting book without zombies but good nevertheless. The next book is going to be the anthology of the Rising.

Review: Dead Sea - Brian Keene

title: Dead Sea

author: Brian Keene

publisher: Leisure Books

pages: 337

reading time: 4 days (27/05/2009 to 30/05/2009)

rating: 8

I've already read and review several books from Brian Keene. Two of them were one of my favourite books in the Zombie Genre... The Rising and City of the Dead. I enjoy them both. Then I was away from this author for a couple of years (too many books to read)... Then I went back with Castaways which I didn't enjoy that much. But I knew the author and I know he is a great author so I tried again with Dead Sea and voila... Excelent book.

The plot is as simple as other zombie books are... a unknown plague that starts with infesting the rats and pass from specie to specie... some seem immune for some time but then they fall to it.

I like the plot and it's a conceivable one. If the land life is being overun by the plague where to go? I am not a normal person so I think about it (well more in a apocalyptic kind of view)... To run away from zombies there are two places that are the top choices... The Sea (as the author said) and the antartic or artic region. With zero temperatures there is less life and thus less probability to the plague get there. Besides with zero temperatures and a dead body the most likely event is the corpses being frozen... Both places have one minor inconvenience... food and water... Well you could go the sea in some lake and in the artic you have frozen water. Food then.

Well getting back to the book...

The book itself is in the first person and the main character is a gay black guy. I talked to my girlfriend and I thought the choice of the main character is an odd one but a good one nevertheless. Maybe only in portugal but when I think a gay person I think of a white person but okay... That didn't bother me.

Now the other characters... We have two children that the main character (Lamar) saves. We have some guy who happened to sold bibles (with particular interest in fire arms) that saves them all... And other minor characters...

I enjoyed the first half the book as they run away from the plague and get to the ship. The second half is the life itself on the ship and how they tried to survive.

Then not only land animals have the plague but also the fish... This infects one person on the ship and all hell break loses. They go to a oil platform and the main character, the two children and a girl are stranted there... They feed on birds that so far don't have the plague...

As other books from Keene in ends with a big question (because the birds are getting the plague as well)... the end is very good. It's open to a sequel but sincerily I can live with it. I think this question that he presents is worthwhile and make you imagine...

Interesting in the book one of the characters start talking of myths and the role of heroes. Abook by Joseph Campbell called the Hero of a Thousand Faces. I had the book and had been reading for a while... is not a book to read all in all...

Review: Mistress of the Night - Don Bassingthwaite & Dave Gross

Title: Mistress of the Night (The Priests Book II)

Author: Don Bassingthwaite & Dave Gross

Publisher Wizards of the Coast

Pages: 320

Year: 2004

Reading Time: 2 days (17/feb/2009 to 18/feb/2009)

Rating: 7/10

There are books you get involved and then there are books... Something like that. I was hospitalized when I read this book. I didn't had that many books so I read it... Maybe iff I was at home I wouldn't had finished in only two days or even finished at all...

The plot is very simple... Feena (tha main character) is a werewolf and a priestess of Selune who returns to the temple in yhuann where a Sharran cult is emerging (Sharr is the evil side of Selune... or so they think). A local wizards son (the family was very interesting and I really hope that they had a book themselves) is recruited by that Sharran Cult because he has main access to his father room.

I think the authors drag a bit on some of uninteresting parts which would be more fruitful if focusing on the main anthagonist which was portrayed very nicely... even if it has some minor cameos...

The good thing was the details about the Selune and Sharr clergy rituals, rties and hierachy.

I will not read this book again but it was entretainment... I would only advice if you play D&D

Review: Lady of Poison - Bruce R. Cordell

Title: Lady of Poison (The Priests Book I)

Author: Bruce R Cordell

Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (Forgotten Realms novel)

Pages: 320

Year: 2004

Reading Time: 3 days (13/Feb/2009 to 15/Feb/2009)

Rating: 7.5/10

When I read this book I was staying at the hospital because of my ashtma... It was a good time to read. I remember I read Second Game by Charles de Vet and Katherine McLean, I read this one, I read Ten Little Niggers by Agatha Christie, Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman, Mistress of the Night by Dave Gross and Bassingthwaite (The second book on the Priests Series) and The Association by Bentley Little.

Well this was some book... I've being away from Forgotten Realms for over two years but I always was interested in the story behind it and all the D&D games... So I have it a try. It wasn't the best of the books but it wasn't that bad. Most of all I loved the way the author writes... It enraptures us...

I noticed some persons complain about the editing and errors... I really don't care about it. Unless it's some pretty big errors my mind never focus on it... (I think that's a good thing).

Some of the lines were not that good... They looked like taken from some supplement book. But even that wasn't enough to bother me... That way I learn more things about the setting...

Now the plot... I think the title wasn't the right for it. The Talona's clergy (the evil doers on this plot) weren't that involved on the story. I think something like Lady of the Forest would do nicely but whom am I? I thought that this book was written in a evil character point of view but no... (That's why I would change the title)

Resume... The book is about a priest of Lurue who is concerned about the deity's waning power and the losing the connection to it. It's just this. Nothing more... Okay, he meets some persons on the way who have the same goal and there they go...

There were some interesting characters like his sidekick and the magician even with a bit-a-wit of Deus Ex Machina...

Another thing that bothers me (not only on this book but others as well) is the way the author writes about the power of the villains and then they are easily dispatched.

The Dialogues are not that great and sometimes they look like teenagers...

I've bought other book by Cordell. I really hope it's better... Let us see.

Review: On a Pale Horse - Piers Anthony

Book: On a Pale Horse (1st in Incarnations of Immortality)

Author : Piers Anthony

Year: 1983

Pages: 352

Rating: 9/10

Reading Time: 8 days (23/Jan/2009 to 30/Jan/2009)

This is the first book out of seven. The first is about Death. The others are War, Fate, Nature, Time, Good and Evil.

This book as I said before is focused on Death. It starts with an suicide attempted of Zane. Death comes to claim his soul but Zane instead kills Death. Zane is obliged to assume the office and his fuction is (as the previous) to collect and weight those few dying souls that aren't either primarily good or evil. Zane (unknowing) is being manipulated by a powerful magician and other Incarnations who are trying to thwart Satan who trying to start a World War III.

Death then meats Luna, the magician daughter who is fated to stop Satan. But Satan has therefore arranged her demise... Interesting is the sin conception. The Magician gives some of his sins to his daughter so he can meet Death in the end. But because of her sins (pursue of black arts) and of his father she is doom to hell. The Story then ends with Death trying to save her soul.

The book is filled with some ridicolous and hilarious situations. There are some unique situations as Science vs Magic; Death vs Satan or Good vs Evil.

I will try to read the other books this year...