REVIEW: Daniel Marc Chant - Aimee Bancroft and The Singularity Storm

Genre: Sci-Fi

Publisher: The Sinister Horror Company

Publication Date: 20^th August 2016

Pages: 73

REVIEWED BY NEV

A copy of Aimee Bancroft and The Singularity Storm was sent to Confessions of a Reviewer by the author, Daniel Marc Chant, in exchange for an honest review. This is said review. This book is published by The Sinister Horror Company.

So, Daniel Marc Chant, or Mr Posh to his friends, has a new book out. This one. He sent me a copy for my own pleasure and not necessarily for review but I couldn’t resist. I had to change reading mode for this one as it is, wait for it, NOT HORROR! How very dare he. But, on the flip side, this is a perfect excuse to get to see how he writes stuff other than the scary ones. This is a sci-fi tale. To be honest I didn’t know anything about the synopsis before I started to read it but I was intrigued from page one.

This is what I thought.

Aimee Bancroft is a lady from the privileged side of the fence. She has had numerous adventures all over the world and has got a name for herself as a great explorer.

Her latest adventure is her most gruelling yet. She is attempting to row across the Atlantic single handedly. She would be the first woman to do so. A feather in her cap that she would like to show off to many condescending men.

During a storm, she gets sucked into a maelstrom, and faces certain death. Until she wakes up at the bottom of the ocean. This is the beginning of an adventure that Aimee will never forget.

So you would think that a story about a woman rowing across the Atlantic wouldn’t have a lot of characters in it. Well you would be wrong. The problem I have is that I can’t tell about any of them, apart from Aimee herself, without giving away some of the story, which you will know I am not prepared to do.

Aimee is an upper middle class lady who speaks very posh, like the author, and I suspect hasn’t really had much hardship in her life. Yes, she is brave for what she is doing and yes she is headstrong and a few other superlatives that you would use to describe a lady with huge cojones. In the middle of this storm though, her vulnerabilities come to the fore and she genuinely fears for her life.

She is even more scared when she wakes up at the bottom of the ocean. I can tell you no more.

The story itself features a plot that, if you loved your sci-fi films when you were younger, will not be unfamiliar to you. Lady explorer gets caught up in a storm and ends up in a………..not going there. You get the picture.

It involves a mysterious lost world. A mysterious lost people. An ancient history full of legends that many believe, and many don’t. Where Aimee comes into all of this, well, you will just have to read it to find out.

So how is the writing? I was worried about this one. I love what Mr Chant writes with the scary stuff. Mr Robespierre was my favourite short of last year. Sci-fi though? You know what? He has only gone and bloody pulled it off. This is wonderful. Yeah it is sci-fi, but for me it was also full of fantasy and yes even a little bit of horror. What Aimee goes through is not for the feint hearted.

The world she ends up in sounds beautiful. The people sound weird. The legends sound fearful. This reminded me of so many of the old sci-fi shows I grew up watching with my dad when I was a little kid. There are flavours of Star Trek in there, even though it is set under water. There are flavours of any underwater adventure show you would have seen in the 70’s or 80’s. Most of all though when I read this I felt Farscape. Don’t ask me why. I think it was the colours and the atmosphere and the strange people all coming together in one big adventure.

I’m not as huge a sci-fi fan as I was when I was a kid, but this really hit the mark with me. Wonderful writing that really does take you away to another world. Daniel Marc Chant’s writing makes it very easy for you to completely lose yourself in this story and enjoy every minute of it.

To summarise: if you want to lose yourself in a story that won’t take much concentration but will provide you with a couple of hours’ fun and enjoyment, then you got to pick this up. You definitely won’t regret it.

General rating:

★★★★ took me back to my childhood!

Sci-Fi rating:

★★★★ I wanna get my Space 1999 suit out again!

If you would like to help support Confessions of a Reviewer, then please consider using the links below to buy Aimee Bancroft and the Singularity Stormor any other books from Daniel. This not only supports me but also lets me know how many people actually like to buy books after reading my reviews.

Thanks.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Book Synopsis:

While attempting to be the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean, seasoned adventurer Aimee Bancroft is caught in a strange and otherworldly storm that opens a portal to another world.

An undersea world of warring races, ancient prophecies and wonder. Desperate to find a way back home Aimee becomes embroiled with a species’ desperate struggle for survival against an ancient menace and takes the fight to them.

CONFESSIONS REVIEWS DANIEL MARC CHANT

Mr Robespierre

Daniel Marc Chant is an up-and-coming author of Horror and strange fiction. His passion for H. P. Lovecraft genre and the films of John Carpenter inspired him to produce intense, gripping stories with a sinister edge.

Currently based in Bath -- a picturesque town in Somerset, UK -- Daniel launched his début, "Burning House," to rave reviews, and swiftly followed with the Lovecraft-inspired "Maldición," the story of a lone survivor of a desert island plane crash fighting for his life with an ancient predator.

Daniel continues to hone his craft with a number of dark titles waiting to hit shelves, including "Mr. Robespierre" and "Devil Kickers." He also created "The Black Room Manuscripts" a charity anthology featuring twenty stories from twenty experienced authors and talented newcomers.

He hopes to one day contribute to the Cthulu Mythos. Although hopefully not as a sacrifice.

And for more about Daniel, visit his site or find him on social media:

Website - Facebook - Twitter - Goodreads - Amazon Page

GUEST POST: Confessions of my Past, Present and Future #36 - Ty Arthur

Confessions of my Past, Present and Future

by

Ty Arthur

The Past

Exploring other worlds through the written word is a pastime I've been engaging in since my earliest memories. Besides my other passion – underground extreme metal – books that opened up portals to other lives easily kept me going through my middle and high school years. So much so that I got sent to the principal's office on more than one occasion for reading through particularly uninteresting classes.

Many of my favorite series had to be read during school hours or on the sly at home, as unfortunately we had a strict rule in my family against anything that would offend baby Jesus' delicate sensibilities (essentially meaning most fantasy, sci-fi, or horror). Rather than turning me off to the genres, the prohibition frankly that just increased their appeal, since they were all apparently so awesome they had to be banned.

Although there are plenty of horror novels that I managed to sneak a read through of at the library or by toting books to school away from prying eyes (The Hellbound Heart and Weaveworld immediately come to mind), fantasy definitely had a bigger impact on my formative years than horror when it comes to literature.

Redwallmanaged to make it past the “no fantasy” rule, and devouring those many stories of brave mice battling overwhelming odds is probably why I can't get enough of graphic novels and RPGs like Mouse Guardtoday. While I of course ate up series like Sword Of Truth and all the Forgotten Realmsnovels, there is one title that always stands out in my mind as particularly memorable, and it comes from a very unlikely source.

Game to novel adaptations have a huge range in quality, with many of them being forgettable or even outright bad, and that's particularly true the larger a series gets, as more and more authors are brought in over time. While I wouldn't consider myself a fanatic of the book series as large, there is one novel in the Magic The Gathering adaptations that I'll never forget: The Gathering Darkby Jeff Grubb.

Set in the Ice Age of the Magic universe, Grubb really struck a chord with me as a kid with his tale of a young magician's apprentice. He managed to weave the mechanics of the card game system into the book in a very fluid and intuitive way while having an intensely interesting cast of characters and vivid imagery I can still clearly see in my mind's eyes. From humorous elements with necromancers resurrecting cooked chickens, to terrifying scenes with overpowering wizards gone mad, there was some absolutely superb storytelling going on there.

He also managed to throw in some mildly sacrilegious content at the time that just blew my young mind, with an antagonist who hunted down spellcasters at the behest of her church – while having no idea that her powers also sprung from the well of magic rather than from any deity. While I've read many of Grubb's works since then, I have no doubt if I ever got to meet the man in person, this is the title I'd be blathering on about while he nervously looked for an exit.

The Present

In the present, my love of fiction hasn't diminished any, and my overflowing library room is a testament to the staying power of literature to impact lives. Of course my tastes have changed with age, and now with nothing having to be hidden under the mattress I can freely work through any genre I care to. It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that my modern reading habits revolve significantly around horror, as that's where my own writing tends to go.

Lately,I've beengravitating much more heavily towards graphic novels, discovering a treasure trove of interesting stories and unique ways to express them through a visual medium. From the Hellraiser series that focuses on the Harrowers trying to shut down all of hell's entrances to the very non-traditional style of new horror sensation Wytches, there's an abundance of material in the comic medium worth exploring.

Although less focused on the horror, two series that have really hooked me lately have been Birthrightand Shutter. The former grabbed me with its fascinating dual style, focusing half on a shattered family that doesn't believe their missing son has actually returned somehow 30 years older, and then shifting the other half to a stereotypical and over-the-top high fantasy universe.

Shuttermeanwhile is just an absolute trip, constantly changing art styles and meshing drastically different universes together but all without losing the plot. There aren't many series where you seek out an adorable platypus in an alley for an assassination gig, a salamander who was just served divorce papers by his wife reluctantly agrees to murder an innocent girl, and samurai fox rides around on a triceratops while killing everyone she come across.

Both of those drastically different series resonated with me as I've been trying to mesh opposing styles together in my own writing lately, particularly in my upcoming novel Light Dawning. After almost a year of writing, the first draft was finally just finished last week, and while there's inevitably months of edits and re-writes ahead before it goes to print, it's a serious load off to finally have it “finished.”

While my previous novella Empty went the sci-fi route, this time around I'm finally digging into the love of my youth and exploring my own original fantasy world that's been brewing for years. Don't expect elves and dwarves or chosen one farm boys destined to save the world though – I'm not one for cheery universes or happy endings. This is a decidedly darker fantasy, and if you thought the engineer Hansen had it bad in Empty, you will find things much worse for the main characters this time around.

Starting with the seed of a story and expanding the universe around it, I've absolutely loved building this world where I get to turn the standard fantasy tropes on their heads. This tale revolves around three very broken and flawed people all trying to survive life under the thumb of an invading army, with no one arriving to save them or route the occupying force.

Shutter

The Future

While I've always been fascinated by tales of magic and supernatural forces in fantasy stories, it has always felt overly relied on to me, working more as a means to get characters out of overwhelming trouble rather than something actually of central importance to the story. With that in mind, magic is a decidedly bad thing in my world, bringing more problems than solutions. Adding in my own brand of cosmic horror to the background of the world, anyone who finds themselves with the ability to wield supernatural powers in this tale has clearly drawn the attention of horrible, unknowable forces that don't have humanity's best interests in mind.

Hopefully you'll all be able to read my take on the fantasy style for yourselves by the end of the year, and I can't wait to hear what you think. If the fates are kind, maybe my writing can impact the life of some kid out there in need of a different universe to inhabit for a few hours, just as many fantasy novels did for me.

You can read my review of Empty, here.

You can buy Emptyhere:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

If you would like to help support Confessions of a Reviewer, then please consider using the links below to buy any of the books mentioned in this feature. This not only supports me but also lets me know how many people actually like to buy books after reading my reviews.

Thanks.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Montana native Ty Arthur fell in love with fantasy and horror at an early age, but frequently had to engage in his passions secretly during his youth. Turning to the

written word as a cathartic outlet, Arthur writes to exorcise his demons. He lives in the cold, dark north with this amazing wife Megan.

And for more about Ty, you can find him on social media:

Facebook – Twitter - Goodreads

REVIEW: Duncan P Bradshaw - Prime Directive

Genre: Horror

Publisher: The Sinister Horror Company

Publication Date: 30^th May 2016

Pages: 154

MY REVIEW:

A copy of Prime Directive was sent to Confessions of a Reviewer by the author Duncan P Bradshaw in exchange for an honest review. This is said review. This book is published by the Sinister Horror Company.

Duncan P Bradshaw is a name that many of us have become familiar with over this past year or so as being one third of the wonderful Sinister Horror Company. He is, however, a wonderful writer in his own rite. I actually came to know his writing before I knew he had anything to do with SHC. I have read his previous two books, Class Three and Those Who Survive. You can find links to those reviews at the end of this review. His stuff is always that little bit different. He doesn’t follow the sheep. He always has his own unique style in his writing.

Prime Directive was a little added bonus I wasn’t expecting to get to read. Was it a bonus worth getting?

It’s 2021. The Venturer is on Mars. It’s crew, made up of Dana, Charles, Mei, Sabina, Nikolai and Sanjay, are on a mission to discover evidence of past life on Mars. Apart from Mei, none of them have discovered anything of any great importance.

After venturing to one of the great craters on the planet to try and find something interesting, Dana is contacted by someone or something. She has no idea what it is, where it has come from or more importantly, what it wants.

She discovers it is a probe sent from…..somewhere. She should have left it where it was. This probe is more powerful than anyone could have expected. Can anyone survive its Prime Directive?

The characters in this one are as listed above. It’s set on Mars so there aren’t going to be loads of people. Dana is our main character. She is very pee’d off that none of her experiments have brought anything of interest and is determined to make a name for herself, whatever the cost. Charles is the leader. Always trying to keep the peace, he tries to show his authority but doesn’t really pull it off. Mei is the one getting results. Excuse me for saying but I hated her. She is so smug and up her own arse that I just wanted to slap her. Sabina seems to be normal enough. Quiet but strong at the same time. Nikolai is a typical Russian male. Very ballsy and very brash. Sanjay just seems to be there to make up the numbers but is determined to get something that is found named after himself.

The plot is as described also. Dana finds a probe from somewhere and it is pure evil. Not giving you any more other than the fact that they all need to group together to try and stop certain things from maybe happening that might put their lives at risk.

This is a novella. Around about one hundred and fifty pages so you could probably read it fairly quickly. I did. I couldn’t put it down so read it in a couple of hours. Why could I not put it down? Simple really. It’s so bloody good.

This is, again, a total change for Duncan Bradshaw. I have discovered that his books are like that clichéd box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get. Well, in terms of the story that is. In terms of the quality, you are always assured of fantastic writing, perfectly paced with just the right amount of tension, suspense, horror and in this case, fear. This man really can write anything and make it scary.

The challenge I saw with this one was taking a part sci-fi story and making it scary. People always automatically think Alien when they see a horror set in space. Strange monsters from other planets that no one believed could exist, that kill nearly everyone and escape back to Earth, somehow piloting the ship with no hands and wreaking havoc on Earth. How do you make this different and interesting and entertaining and fresh while giving your readers well rounded, believable characters, in a novella length story?

If you want to know the answer to that then give Duncan P Bradshaw a call because he has pulled it off beautifully with Prime Directive.

It has everything exactly as I said above. Brilliant characters who you feel you know after a very short pace of time with no big elaborate back stories to introduce them. A plot which has been done before but is slightly different in that the monster isn’t really a monster, as in something with big teeth that drools a lot, in fact, in many ways it’s much scarier than that. It’s intelligent and seems to have the power to do whatever it wants. Another thing that makes this story a bit more believable is the ending. You didn’t think I was going to tell you did you? Nah, but you will see what I mean when you read it.

To summarise: a novella set in space with a crew fighting for survival and ultimately the survival of Earth. A perfect mixture of sci-fi and horror this story plants the seed of fear in your head and makes it grow and grow until you close the book.

General rating:

★★★★★ brilliant.

Horror rating:

★★★★★ imagine if it happened!

If you would like to help support Confessions of a Reviewer, then please consider using the links below to buy Prime Directive or any other books from Duncan. This not only supports me but also lets me know how many people actually like to buy books after reading my reviews.

Thanks.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

You can read my review of Class Three here.

You can read my review of Those Who Survive (Class Four #1) here.

Book Synopsis:

The crew of the first manned mission to Mars, are in the final days of their expedition before they head home. Shamed by a lack of discoveries and humiliated by her colleagues, geologist Dana Fischerman heads out to the Galle crater, eager to find something to make her own legacy. What she uncovers will not only threaten the safety of her colleagues, but also everyone back on Earth.

Part-Time Author/Full-Time Loon.

One day upon waking, as if from some frightful nightmare, I sat at my laptop and typed out letters, which formed words, slowly they created sentences. People read it and said, that's okay that is, have a biscuit. And I said yes.

I live in Wiltshire, in Southern England with my wife Debbie and our two cats, Rafa and Pepe, they just miaowed a hello at you. Between bouts of prolonged washing up and bungie cord knitting, I type out the weird and wonderful things that run around my head.

My debut novel, zom-com Class Three, was released in November 2014, the first book in the follow up trilogy, Class Four: Those Who Survive is out in July 2015. I'm then going to try and get some novellas released which are on something other than the undead.

And for more about Duncan, visit his site or find him on social media:

Website - Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads – Amazon Page

REVIEW: Ty Arthur - Empty

Genre: Sci-Fi / Horror

Publisher: Mirror Matter Press

Publication Date: 22^nd Jan 2016

Pages: 51

MY REVIEW:

A copy of Emptywas sent to Confessions of a Reviewer by the author Ty Arthur, in exchange for an honest review. This is said review. This book is published by Mirror Matter Press.

If you have your own blog or website, then I urge you to have an open call for submissions every now and again. When you do that, you tend to have people you have never heard of before email you and ask you to review their stuff. This is a brilliant way to get to read new talent that you wouldn’t necessarily read otherwise.

This is exactly what happened when Ty Arthur asked if I would have a look at Empty. This is a brand of horror I don’t read enough of. Horror set in space. I don’t even know if there is an exact genre name for it but I do love it when I come across a good one.

How did Emptyturn out?

The research vessel, Thorne, is in trouble. It is drifting with no engines and none of its crew appear to be able to do anything about it. Apart from one man seen wandering the decks chanting strange religious type sayings.

Many decades later, the salvage ship, Penrose, is sent into deep space to try and bring the Thorne home. It has a very important cargo on board that seems to be very secret.

Junior Engineer 3^rd Class Hansen is a loner, but not by choice. He is sent to work by himself after a prank on his senior officer goes wrong. Little does he know that he is going to play the major part in trying to save the Penrose and ultimately, the universe.

So, characters in this one. You really only have Hansen. I will explain that a bit later but as characters go he is an all-round likeable person that you will warm to. He doesn’t have it easy. A bully for a boss and a job in the very bowels of the ship. He just longs to be on the salvage mission with everyone else. When he gets his chance his true personality shines.

The plot? Well this is a short story so it needs to pack an awful lot into a short space of time. It is a familiar story. Ship goes dead for some reason, salvage sent to bring it home, something lurks on the original ship. A bit same old, same old, but Mr Arthur has a significant difference in this one that makes it stand out for me and made it hugely tense and entertaining and horrific.

A distinct lack of dialogue.

There is very little talking at all in this. Most of the story is in Hansen’s head. You see what he is thinking and how he comes about the decisions he makes. He has a very analytical mind. Always thinking things through in a very logical way, rather than jumping straight in. A lot of stories need dialogue to break up the monotony. Not this one. You know the old saying in space no one can hear you scream? That’s because it is lonely. There isn’t much of an atmosphere (scuse the pun) so it’s quiet and still and eerie.

The way Ty Arthur has written this story, that lonely feeling is at the fore all of the time. It feels almost, well, Empty! Hansen is alone in everything he does. Even when he is called upon to do important work, he is still alone. Even when he is involved with others, he is still alone. When he is in deep despair and panic towards the end of the story, he is alone.

When you read this, you will start to feel alone. You will feel the emptiness. You will feel the constant quiet. No noise. Nothing. It starts to make your skin crawl. It starts to make you look around you to make sure nothing is behind you. When you cough, the sound of your own voice will scare you.

The atmosphere that is portrayed in this story genuinely scared the wee out of me. I felt very alone and very in need of a hug when I finished this story. I was cold and scared.

Bravo Mr Arthur. Bravo.

To summarise: If you like your horror to have that little bit extra that genuinely makes your skin crawl and makes you crave human interaction when you finish it, just so you don’t feel alone, this is for you.

I loved this story. I cannot wait to read more from Mr Arthur.

General rating:

★★★★★ excellent.

Sci-Fi / Horror rating:

★★★★★ and again.

If you would like to help support Confessions of a Reviewer, then please consider using the links below to buy Empty or any other books from Ty. This not only supports me but also lets me know how many people actually like to buy books after reading my reviews.

Thanks.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Book Synopsis:

There are terrors still waiting to be discovered in the vast emptiness of space. After millennia of travel through the void, man has convinced himself he is master of the stars.

Down-on-his-luck, stuck performing punishment duty in the lower levels of the Penrose, Junior Engineer 3rd Class Hansen wants nothing more than to see the wreckage of a newly discovered ship dating back to man's earliest deep space explorations.

The engineer is about to get his wish, and in the process come face-to-face with a long-dormant horror waiting patiently for the perfect vessel. What he'll uncover in the darkness will threaten to consume him, body and soul.

Montana native Ty Arthur fell in love with fantasy and horror at an early age, but frequently had to engage in his passions secretly during his youth. Turning to the

written word as a cathartic outlet, Arthur writes to exorcise his demons. He lives in the cold, dark north with this amazing wife Megan.

And for more about Ty, you can find him on social media:

Facebook – Twitter - Goodreads

REVIEW: Brian Barr - Carolina Daemonic: Confederate Shadows

Genre: Sci-Fi / Steampunk

Publisher: J. Ellington Ashton Press

Publication Date: 14^th Aug 2015

Pages: 333

MY REVIEW:

A copy of Carolina Daemonic: Confederate Shadowswas sent to Confessions of a Reviewer by the author Brian Barr, in exchange for an honest review. This is said review. This book is published by J. Ellington Ashton Press.

This was one that was sent to me by Mr Barr the last time I put out a call for anyone looking for help or wanting reviews. Generally, with a blog that is just trying to get a name for itself like Confessions, this gets new books in from authors I have not read before and are trying to push their debuts out into the big bad world. This is one such occasion. This is scary. Probably for the author as well as me. I find it scary because you have no clue what you’re about to read and if you really don’t like it you could be about to deal a very dangerous blow to the author. It can be like walking across a lake of very thin ice.

The year is 2020. The South won the Civil War and things are not very smooth in this new Confederate land. Slavery has just been outlawed but racism is still most people’s middle name. And evil hides in the shadows.

OrbTech is the biggest robotics company in the world, striving forward and not scared to flatten anyone in their way. Titus can’t work for OrbTech even though he is a genius. He is black. They don’t accept blacks.

In a story with many paths that ultimately lead everyone to the same end, Titus will end up in a battle with OrbTech and its enigmatic spokesperson Tobias who he knows from his own sordid past.

Alongside this battle is the battle for the skies and the underground. The battle of the unknown. The battle of dark forces no one even knows exist. The time for the revolution has come.

We have quite a few main characters in this one so I will keep them brief. OrbTech spokesperson Tobias is a racist in the extreme, but with a lot of secrets from his past that could turn that completely on its head. He is also part machine. Titus is black and knows Tobias from his younger days. He is a well-respected engineer but got himself there by prostituting himself out to pay for it. Raymond runs OrbTech. Something weird about him too. He is also mechanically driven in his life. Manti is the leader of the Yoruban Nation. A group of black men fighting for survival and fighting against the oppression they have suffered for years.

There is a mixture of other characters that fit in to various plots and subplots and to be honest I can’t really talk about them without talking about spoilers and you know I don’t like to do that.

The plot? That is a difficult question to answer, again for fear of giving things away but also because I’m not one hundred percent sure how to categorise it. I’m also not one hundred percent sure how to categorise the story either. Sort of a thriller with horror and supernatural elements then parts of it are just pure occultist then parts of it are just about corporate takeovers and corruption and power hungry people trying to take over the world.

Sounds easy doesn’t it? No? It wasn’t for me either at times and that’s what has left me with a confusing feeling about this book rather than being able to say a definite yay or a definite nay.

This was an interesting book. I nearly gave up on it very early on because I didn’t understand the politics in it. I think for a non-American who doesn’t understand the American Civil War, the ins and outs of it, the result and the political makeup of the times, the first third of this book may just go right over the top of their heads. It mostly did with mine. I know it’s a period of time that is extremely important to most Americans but, outside of that, I don’t think people would know about it unless they studied it in school. It’s certainly not a subject that I can admit to knowing much about.

Once that bit is out of the way it does get a bit easier to follow although the war never strays far away from the main theme of the story. The other side of the story interested me a great deal. The occult. The dark stuff. Deadly demons swooping down from the skies and taking people to their deaths or to unknown places to do unknown things with them.

There are about four or five different groups all with their own agendas in this book. Some of them politically driven, some of them corporately driven, some of them driven by evil, dark and nasty things. This is obviously the start of a series, because just as the dark side starts to come to the fore, the story stops. It has been set up very nicely for a second book and to be honest, I think it would be better than the first because hopefully the political side of things has been all talked out and the dark stuff can come out in abundance.

There is no doubt that Brian Barr has a talent for writing. This story is extremely well put together. I am smart enough to know that it is a story about the complete opposite of what many know the world to be now and this in itself will probably pull a lot of people in. His characters are very well written. Even though some of them are fantastical you do end up believing in them and following their every move as if they were your neighbours. They feel natural after a while.

He also has an undeniable talent for writing passages that are full of tension and fear and ones that will ultimately lead you to horror. I just wish there was a lot more of it in this story because those were without doubt my favourite bits and I can’t wait to read more of it in book two.

In terms of trying to score this book, this is difficult for me. I am going to go somewhere in the middle because although there were political parts that quite frankly bored me to tears, there are flashes of the dark side that hint at a much deeper, darker story to come and one that I will enjoy much more.

My tip to you would be keep going if you start to read this. It may not be your cup of tea to begin with but it looks like it is going down the right road.

To summarise: an alternative future world full of political and corporate corruption with an evil and dark backdrop that is slowly coming to the fore and is about to completely change the world…..again. Don’t give up on it. I think this could be destined for big things.

General rating:

★★★ a bit confusing for me.

Steampunk / horror rating:

★★★ creepy but could be creepier.

If you would like to help support Confessions of a Reviewer, then please consider using the links below to buy Carolina Daemonic or any other books from Brian. This not only supports me but also lets me know how many people actually like to buy books after reading my reviews.

Thanks.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Book Synopsis:

It's 2020. The South won the Civil War and achieved manifest destiny in the United States. Great Britain, known as Victoria, and China, have maintained their empires. American slavery was abolished in the late 20th century instead of the late 19th century. Steam powered machinery and electricity make up the bulk of modern technology.

In the shadows of the Confederacy, there is magic. Esoteric sciences arcane and archaic survive from forgotten times, and strange demonic creatures wander through the slums of Charleston...

Enter Carolina Daemonic. In an alternative timeline, see a dark world not too far removed from our own- religio-political cults, racism, sexism, homophobia, corporate takeovers and corruption are abound. Witness the strange and mysterious beyond the familiarity of our ordinary world as well- godly avatars, lustful demons, necromancers, and the undead.

My name is Brian Barr. I am a published fiction author. Along with novels and short stories, I've also written comic books, including the Empress series with Chuck Amadori. I am NOT the author of God's Plan for Us, written by some other Brian Barr.

My debut novel, Carolina Daemonic Book I: Confederate Shadows, is out now. My second novel will be Psychological Revenge: The First Super Inc. Novel.

Carolina Daemonic is a dystopian alternative timeline urban fantasy-horror with LGBT, steampunk, and occult elements.

Psychological Revenge is a fun, campy superhero novel with zany villains and lots of action.

Be on the lookout for my stories and thank you for visiting my page.

I am also a proud member of the South Carolina Writer's Workshop.

And for more about Brian, visit his site or find him on social media:

Website – Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads – Amazon Page