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Book Review: Witch Hunter: Into the Outside by J. Z. Foster

Witch Hunter: Into the Outside by J. Z. Foster

CreateSpace, 2017

ISBN-13: 978-1974522255

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

Witch Hunter: Into the Outside by J.Z. Foster is a tongue-in-cheek, ghoulish farce.  Richard, a picked-upon, chubby nebbish, is a member of a group of nerds dedicated to combating supernatural evil.  He suspects that the members are only half serious about their rituals, array of holy weapons and clandestine attacks against evil.  Richard entices Beth, an ambitious, would-be, TV reporter, and Ted, her cameraman, to accompany them on a hunt for a local witch.

Although Richard’s goal is to track down the warlock with a sanctified knife, a necklace with a cross, holy water and a book of spells, none of the small group expects anything to come from the expedition. To their shock, they encounter a series of horrors, including a wight with an insatiable, ravenous appetite, a noxious, deceptive daeva, and murderous sankai with faces of children and bodies of animals.   The confrontations escalate into a showdown with a plague warlock, who has caused stillbirths, deformed births in animals, and other catastrophes in their local community.

With the exception of Richard, most of the characters are one-dimensional, but readers will be caught up in the fast-placed plot.  The chapters alternate between the witch hunters’ increasingly harrowing adventures and Richard’s jailhouse interrogation after he is accused of murdering Beth.  Readers will empathize with his struggle to confront his self-doubt, fears and loneliness.  As Beth wrote,

“He was more than the coward he though he was, or the fumbling nervous man he appeared to be.  Richard was proof that we could all become something greater.  When faced with the impossible, Richard stood.  Richard was the hope of man, and proof that our destinies are unwritten.  Richard was proof that our fates are our own.”

Highly recommended.

Contains: rare obscenity

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

Book Review: Injection, Volume 1 by Warren Ellis, art by Declan Shalvey

Injection, Volume 1 by Warren Ellis, art by Declan Shalvey

Image Comics, 2015

ISBN: 9781632154798

Available:  Paperback, Kindle edition, and comiXology ebook

Injection centers around five eccentric geniuses dealing with the paranormal, and the consequences they must face after inflicting The Injection on the planet. Years earlier, Maria Kilbride founded the Cross Culture-Contamination Unit (CCCU), funded through a partnership between the British government and an up-and-coming company. She hand-selected the members of this new unit: computer geek Brigid Roth; Vivek Headland, a logician and ethicist; folklore expert Robin Morel; and Simeon Winters, a strategist and double agent for the Foreign Office. Fast-forward to the time after The Injection: everyone has established new lives and secured new employment allowing them to track progress on The Injection. The supernatural encroaches more quickly as the days pass, threatening humanity’s time on Earth. The former members of the CCCU must come together to investigate a case of a possessed laboratory and a mysterious disappearance.

This first volume is slow to start, but it definitely picks up. As with Ellis’ previous work, he gives very little away until he’s ready to hit you with something. When he does, it’s intense. I wouldn’t recommend picking up the first volume unless you are a die-hard Ellis fan and are willing to continue with his storytelling regarding this story. I’m not going to give anything in the subsequent volumes, but I would recommend giving this a chance.

Volume 1 collects issues #1-5.

Contains blood, gore, and nudity

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Book Review: Lady of the Tarot by Juli D. Revezzo

Lady of the Tarot (Reign of Tarot, Book 2) by Juli D. Revezzo
Createspace, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-1537434148
Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

Lady of the Tarot is a historical Gothic novel set during the French Revolution. I reviewed the audiobook version of the book. Although Lady of the Tarot is the second in a series, it stands alone just fine. I didn’t read the first one and don’t feel like there was any parts that were confusing. Book one might enhance it, but it didn’t feel necessary.

Strangely, this relates to the last book I read:  The Sandcastle Empire. The plots were very different, but the aspect of falling from high status was a theme in both. I feel that this book addressed it a lot better, and that was refreshing. Where Emilie came from, and her current status, is constantly on her mind, and I think this would be true in both stories.

The romance didn’t interest me, but it seemed to follow a classic triangle formula. Emilie had to choose between the “right” choice and the one she actually loved. Normally, love triangles really irritate me, but this one was fine, since she wasn’t waffling about her feelings, just trying to figure out if she could somehow be with one she really wanted instead of who she should be with.

The horror is of the lurking type, always in the background, and does not come to the fore until the final act. I wish it were more present throughout. There were vast stretches of the story that only dealt with the mundane horror of losing status, and not the supernatural horror that Emilie ultimately has to battle. I did like the small horrors that showed up from time to time, but I would have liked to see more of them.

Despite the shortcomings it was a fun read.

Reviewed by Nathaniel Olsen