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Book Review: Predators: The Hunt Begins by Michaelbrent Collings

Predators: The Hunt Begins by Michaelbrent Collings

Amazon Digital Services

ASIN: B07GZZZ9MT

Available: Kindle edition

 

Predators: The Hunt Begins by Michaelbrent Collings is a horrific novel.  Horrific in a good sense.   It is scary, gory and suspenseful, and will keep you reading late into the night.  Reviews of his previous novels include comparison to Stephen King’s novels because of similar qualities.  While reading Predators I thought of the Swedish filmmaker, Ingmar Bergman’s, classic 1957 movie, The Seventh Seal.  In that film a disillusioned knight and his squire return from the Crusades to Denmark that has been decimated by the Black Death.  The knight confronts the personification of Death, who collects the souls of characters that the knight meets on his journey home.  Some are innocents, and some have a sordid past.  One by one they perish.

Collings describes a group of American tourists on a wildlife safari, stranded in the wild in a part of Africa ravaged by drought.  The group is a conglomeration of despicable, pitiful, admirable and innocent characters.  In the story, there are predators and there are prey.  The apex predators are the hyenas, and the tourists are their prey.  However, as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that some of the humans have been predators or prey in the past.

The tourists and their guides are tracked, and some of them killed, by a hungry pack of hyenas led by a vicious, cunning queen.  The queen must lead the pack to food and dominate her rivals, or be killed herself.  The pack doesn’t care who is good or bad.  But does the author take into account the victims’ character and past in deciding who dies and how they die?

Collings writing is direct, powerful and vivid.  How does it feel to be disemboweled by the queen and have your intestine, liver and heart eaten while you are still alive?  Stephen King fans will enjoy this novel. Highly recommended

Contains: Mild profanity, sexual situations, gore.

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

Posted on September 5, 2018 by , 1 comment

Book Review: The Beauty: Volume 1 by Jeremy Haun and Jason Hurley, art by Jeremy Haun

The Beauty: Volume 1 by Jeremy Haun and Jason Hurley, art by Jeremy Haun

Image Comics, 2016

ISBN: 9781632155504

Available: print, Kindle & comixology ebook

 

The Beauty proposes a few questions. With society’s obsession with external outward beauty, what if there was a way to guarantee someone could become more attractive? What if the way to accomplish such beauty was through a sexually transmitted disease? In the world of Beauty, most of the population has taken advantage of the STD. Why not? After all, the only known side effects are increased hunger, a low-grade fever, and the benefit of being drop dead gorgeous. Detectives Vaughn and Foster discover the less than appealing side effect: the “drop dead” part is literal.  As the detectives start getting closer to solving the mystery, the danger to their lives increases. Certain parties attempt to launch a cover-up, but newly-infected Detective Foster isn’t having any of it. After a heavily publicized press conference announcement goes wrong, he’s got a shiny new target on his back.

The Beauty reads like a typical noir crime novel at times, but the story is compelling and unique. I thought there would be more of a focus on the people who voluntarily contract the disease rather than on the law enforcement angle, but it still made for a decent exploration of what happens when a disease that has been around for a few years starts exhibiting deadly consequences. I think it helps that the artwork is fantastic. This is not a story for children; violence, sex, and death are shown in detail, thanks to the magnificent art. Recommended.

Volume 1 collections issues #1-6.

Contains: blood, exploding bodies, body horror, nudity, violent content

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

Posted on July 29, 2017 by , Reply

Book Review: Clean Room, Volume 1: Immaculate Conception by Gail Simone, art by Jon Davis-Hunt.

Clean Room, Volume 1: Immaculate Conception by Gail Simone, art by Jon Davis-Hunt

Vertigo, 2016

ISBN: 9781401262754

Available: print, Kindle and comixology ebook

Journalist Chloe Pierce’s fiancé, Philip, takes his own life. When his body is found, he’s holding a book by the enigmatic self-help guru, Astrid Mueller, who began her writing career as a horror author. Chloe believes something in the book made him do it, and she will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of it. She storms the headquarters of the author’s Honest World Foundation, demanding an interview with the reclusive Astrid, and is invited into the Clean Room, a space where someone’s fears are exposed and worst moments are revealed. Chloe’s life quickly changes after her experience in the Clean Room when she is visited by an entity called Spark. There is a problem in the room, however. What has Astrid unleashed on the world after a session with one of her adherents goes wrong?

Simone weaves a strong tale in Clean Room. There is more to both Chloe and Astrid than meets the eye. The way Simone intertwines the story of both women is so well done.  Davis-Hunt’s artwork in this volume is beautiful and terrifying. This book is not for the squeamish, though; while the body horror starts out fairly tame, it intensifies as the story proceeds. Highly recommended.

Volume 1 collects Clean Room issues #1-6.

Contains: body horror, mention of child abuse, nudity, violence

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on June 4, 2017 by , Reply
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