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THE LAST KINGDOM Series by Bernard Cornwell

September 10, 2020 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

After watching the first four seasons of THE LAST KINGDOM (Netflix) and still hungry for Saxon glory, I decided to check out the books on which they’re based. This is THE LAST KINGDOM (SAXON, WARRIOR) CHRONICLES by Bernard Cornwell, one of the most prolific and successful military fiction writers. I instantly fell in love with the voice, characters, history, and action, and found it to a fantastic companion to the TV series, which dramatically simplifies the narrative and condenses it to two books per season.

I started a short time ago, and I’m already up to book 5. I haven’t inhaled a series like this since C.S. Forester’s HORATIO HORNBLOWER series and George MacDonald Fraser’s FLASHMAN series. From the strong voice and sharp dialogue to the gritty world building, accurate history, and excellent action, every book sings, and the narrative rarely stumbles.

If you like historical fiction, this series is a must. It’s got everything, and I highly recommend it.

Filed Under: Books, Other History, The Blog

Booklist Reviews THE CHILDREN OF RED PEAK

September 8, 2020 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

“An emotionally devastating, ultimately hopeful horror story about trauma, the power of love, and the unexplainable forces that surround us,” writes Booklist, the publication of the American Library Association, in its review of The Children of Red Peak, coming from Redhook (Hachette) in November 2020.

Stoker-nominated DiLouie (One of Us, 2018) returns with a heart-wrenching, thought-provoking, terrifying tale about the meaning of life. In 2005, members of a religious cult committed suicide on top of Red Peak. Five children survived, but when the authorities rescued them, there were no bodies anywhere. Now, as the 15th anniversary approaches, one survivor commits suicide, forcing the others—and their psychological wounds—back together. Told from the alternating perspectives of three survivors, both in the present and in flashbacks to their time with “The Family,” the book illustrates the same events from different angles without sacrificing a compelling pace that builds relentlessly until each narrator is forced to confront their trauma in a beautiful and terrifying climax. Utilizing true crime tropes and the supernatural intrigue that surrounds the mountain itself, DiLouie creates more than a typical cult thriller. This is an emotionally devastating, ultimately hopeful horror story about trauma, the power of love, and the unexplainable forces that surround us. A great choice for fans of Stephen Graham Jones’ The Only Good Indians (2020), Paul Tremblay’s Disappearance at Devil’s Rock (2016), or Alma Katsu’s The Hunger (2018).

Filed Under: Apocalyptic, Books, The Blog, The Children of Red Peak

THE CHILDREN OF RED PEAK Coming Soon

August 11, 2020 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

COMING NOVEMBER 2020

“With this chilling story of cult abuse, DiLouie (Our War) proves his mastery of the slow slide from psychological drama into supernatural horror… An impressive twist…feels both shocking and inevitable. Horror readers will be hooked.” —Publisher’s Weekly

“I finished The Children of Red Peak several days ago and I’m still thinking about it—especially those terrific final 50 pages. Gripping, thought-provoking, and suspenseful, Craig DiLouie’s latest is a master study of darkness and light and the meaning of life.” —Richard Chizmar, New York Times bestselling author

“Absolutely riveting… A tapestry of past and present come together in this chilling tale of family, faith, and redemption. Craig DiLouie has a new fan.” —J.D. Barker, international bestselling author of She Has A Broken Thing Where Her Heart Should Be

“The Children of Red Peak is ice-in-your-heart, nerve-racking fantastic—Heaven’s Gate by way of Stephen King’s IT. Almost every page made my skin crawl.” —Peter Clines, New York Times bestselling author of Paradox Bound and Terminus

“The Children of Red Peak is both a subtle character study and a chilling tale of horror. It goes deep into the heart of people caught up in terrifying events. Highly recommended.” —Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Ink and V-Wars

“DiLouie really knows how to simultaneously shatter nerves and break hearts. The Children of Red Peak is a genuinely unsettling psychological horror novel, a story where faith and fear combine to destroy innocence and devastate lives. Intense, compulsive, thought-provoking, and highly recommended.” —David Moody, author of the Hater and Autumn series

“One of the most powerful voices in dark fiction does it again! Craig DiLouie’s The Children of Red Peak delivers a suspenseful and unpredictable psychological exploration of family, belief, and horror as chilling as it is thought-provoking. One of the best books of the year!” —James Chambers, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of On the Night Border

Filed Under: Apocalyptic, Books, The Blog, The Children of Red Peak

SURVIVOR’S SONG by Paul Tremblay

August 1, 2020 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

SURVIVOR’S SONG by Paul Tremblay is a literary “zombie” novel with a lot of heart, not a little heartbreak, and a very high degree of realism such it all felt fairly real. I quite enjoyed it.

In the near future, Massachusetts is under quarantine as a new rabies-like disease ravages the animal and now the human population. Like rabies, it’s spread through saliva, but unlike rabies, it incubates in a very short time. When Dr. Ramola Sherman gets a call from Natalie, an old friend who is now eight months pregnant, she hears a frantic plea for help: Natalie has been bitten. Thus begins a journey across a crumbling state to save Natalie and her child before it’s too late.

What I liked: The first thing has to be the world building. I especially enjoy apocalyptic stories where we see the center give way and the rest falling apart. Tremblay’s quarantine zone is filled with panicking people who react in many ways, from denial (including the main characters, to an extent) to paranoia and aggression, along with infected animals and people who lurch and rave as they randomly attack. The police are still in action but overtaxed, vigilantes are taking matters into their own hands, and the hospitals are flooded and starting to break down. Everything rolls out fairly realistically, which made the world feel utterly real to me. The characterizations are for the most part very strong, even the minor characters, and I rooted for Natalie to make it however dimmed her prospects became. I particularly liked two teenagers who treat the apocalypse as something they’ve long awaited and trained for by watching zombie movies. When the story moves, the tension and action are realistic and satisfying.

I had some reservations, notably some long digressions that broke the pacing and tension for me, as well as finding Ramola to be not being nearly as strong a character as Natalie. Despite this, I enjoyed SURVIVOR’S SONG quite a bit, and after reading dozens of zombie novels, found it a standout in a genre to which I’d grown jaded, along with being a solid horror novel overall.

Filed Under: Apocalyptic, Books, Reviews of Other Books, The Blog, Zombies

THE LIBRARY AT MOUNT CHAR by Scott Hawkins

July 25, 2020 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

Scott Hawkins’s THE LIBRARY AT MOUNT CHAR is a surreal, compulsively readable, wildly inventive urban fantasy about a library whose ancient knowledge grants its owner virtually infinite power, and what happens after its godlike owner disappears. I loved it.

The story focuses on two main characters, Margaret, an orphan taken in with other children by Father to learn the mysteries of the Library, and Steve, an ordinary guy drawn into the intrigue to both solve the mystery of Father’s disappearance and possibly decide who will control the Library and become God.

The result reads a little like AMERICAN GODS, but while I personally found Gaiman’s gods kind of show-offy and grating, Father’s children–each specializing in a separate catalog granting them a single extreme power/knowledge base–come across as real people twisted by their horrific childhood spent training and by their powers themselves, resulting in a unique story with intense stakes encompassing all of reality.

In this remarkable debut, Hawkins gets almost everything right for me. The story constantly moves forward with great characters, believable yet fantastic situations, immersive lore, and mystery and conflict. While Carolyn is a fantastic protagonist and Steve is very likeable, the real star of the book is the mysterious Father and the Library itself, a vast trove of knowledge that grants its students unlimited power and is surrounded by titillating mythology.

On his website, Hawkins said he’d like to do a sequel but won’t until he comes up with the right idea to do it justice, which makes me respect him even more. Either way, I’ll be reading more of this author when his next work comes out.

Filed Under: Books, The Blog

ARMOR Audiobook Now Available!

June 15, 2020 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

Available at Amazon, Audible, and iTunes, ARMOR: The Complete Series chronicles the journey of a tank crew through the Second World War, from North Africa to Berlin. Action-packed, authentic, and filled with flawed but tough men of the Greatest Generation, ARMOR drops you straight into the horror, brotherhood, and triumph of armored warfare. Enjoy the complete series as an audiobook available now–22 hours of entertainment–narrated by Garrett Michael Brown, who did an amazing job with the narration, characterizations, and a sprinkling of martial sound effects.

Listening to this book, you’ll fight alongside the crew as they go head-to-head with Tigers at Kasserine Pass, race to Palermo in Sicily, land during the horrific first assault wave at Omaha Beach, crash against the Norman hedgerows, make a stand against Hitler’s last blitzkrieg in the Battle of the Bulge, and batter their way into the heart of Nazi Germany. All the while, you’ll live with the crew in the cramped, noisy, and vulnerable fighting machine that was the American Sherman tank.

ARMOR: The Complete Series puts together for the first time all five episodes in my historical military fiction action & adventure series: The Battle of North Africa, The Fight for Sicily, Fortress Europe, The Bulge, and Reich’s Fall.

The eBook will launch June 26, and the omnibus paperback will launch around the end of the month. Thanks for reading!

Check it out here!

Filed Under: Armor Series, Books, Submarines & WW2, The Blog

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