Tuesday 26 February 2013

SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW: Pantheon Series 5: Age of Voodoo and SHORT STORY: Age of Satan - James Lovegrove

Release Date: 26/02/13

SYNOPSIS:

Lex Dove thought he was done with the killing game. A retired British wetwork specialist, he's living the quiet life in the Caribbean, minding his own business. Then a call comes. One last mission: to lead an American black ops team into a disused Cold War bunker on a remote island. The money's good, which means the risks are high. How high, Dove doesn't discover until he and his team are a hundred feet below ground, facing the fruits of an experiment in science and voodoo witchcraft gone wrong. As if barely human monsters weren t bad enough, a clock is ticking. Deep in the bowels of the earth, a god is waiting. And his anger, if roused, will be fearsome indeed.


REVIEW:

Over recent years, there’s been one series that after reading the concept had me hooked, that of James Lovegrove’s Pantheon series, where the old gods are making comebacks. It is definitely something that had me hooked with the first title in the series and this, the latest is no less addictive as they take on Baron Samedi.

The prose are crisp, the characters fitting into the scenario’s wonderfully and when added to a story that gives you the undead under the malicious power of a Bokor, really works well to give you that wonderful fright as you curl up in bed. Throw into the mix solid action alongside an author who knows how to give the reader what they want and all round another successful book in the series. Magic.



Release Date: 14/02/13

SYNOPSIS:

1968. Guy Lucas, son a murdered British diplomat, is sent to an old-fashioned boarding school, where he is bullied and abused. A fellow student persuades him to perform a black mass and plead with Satan to intervene, with horrific consequences. For the next ten years, the shadow of Satan is cast across his life; he flees, across the sea and into obscurity, but tragedy follows him. Eventually, he must confront the Devil, and learn the truth about himself...

Lovegrove takes his ‘godpunk’ series to its next logical next step in a sinister new e-novella that will delight readers of the Pantheonseries as well as fans of classic films such as The Omen and The Exorcist.


REVIEW:

With so many other pantheon’s coming to the fore in the various other titles in the series, I had been wondering if James would ever tackle something to do with the darker side of Christianity so when I heard about this short story I was more than hooked to see what would unfurl.

The story is definitely sharp and follows a character throughout a number of years, its quirky, has some wonderful touches of the macabre and when blended with a writing style that fits the short story format wonderfully, really does get to the meat of the tale without having to add extra filling. Back that up with a lead character that is guessing as much as we are and all round it’s a tale that works wonderfully well. Great stuff.



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