Michael Brookes

This is another book of short stories from Michael.  I enjoyed An Odd Quartet but this is better.  He's refined his ideas and his writing style.  This stuff is very good. 

An Odder Quintet

Amazon.com An Odder Quintet

My review -

This group of five stories is sure to enhance Michael Brookes' reputation as a short story teller. I found them all intriguing concepts. The author has an interesting mind! In the first story, a convicted murderer is offered the opportunity to take part in an experiment in which time passes very differently for him. There's a story about the Fates, or Norns, who have always interested me. A dead man is apparently able to email his grieving wife. The story I got least from, thought I think that's down to my own interests rather than the skill of the storyteller, was the fourth, involving the group of soldiers. My favourite was the last. I'd love to have gone into that more deeply. I feel it is a story with immense potential.

I really enjoy the author's imagination and love his full length novels. Nevertheless, I hope he will continue to write these gripping short stories.

Michael Brookes

This is the beginning of a new series and it kicks off to a great start.  

Faust 2.0

Amazon.com  Faust 2.0

My review - 

A being, an entity, springs painfully into self-awareness. It inhabits, infests, the internet. It detests humanity and seeks to influence people to greed, murder and acts of total selfishness. It takes the form of an attractive female avatar and promises its victims their deepest desires. There will be a pay-back, but this will be something within their power to give. Some people are on to it, and a group of internet security specialists (and one sad hacker) manage to slow its progress. Why is it doing it, though. What is it? Why are the victims all represented on their eventual arrest, by the same very expensive lawyer, who seems to give them all the same unwanted advice?

I found this an absolutely intriguing concept and loved the name the author gave to the entity – Misty Felice. (Say it to yourself a few times. It’s cryptic but it’s a give-away!) I loved the way the entity was able to twist the desires of inadequate people and make them believe that it, she, could grant them those deepest wishes. Isn’t it what we’d all like? One or two of its victims were greedy people but most were unhappy and needy and I felt for them. Sarah Mitchell is after it though. Can she succeed? The story, though perhaps a little involved to the computer layman, was written believably and the action carried me onwards. The ending, while a satisfying ending to this story, was also a beginning. I look forward to more in this series.

Michael Brookes

This post is a bit of a departure for me.  It features my review of Michael Brookes’ second novel Conversations in the Abyss.  It’s also part of Michael’s Blog Tour in which he has blog-hopped around many writers’ and reviewers’ blogs in the last few weeks.

Michael is an executive producer for a video games company in the day.  He writes mainly in the horror/sci-fi and metaphysical genres and cites Milton’s Paradise Lost as one of his greatest influences.  He always wondered why God didn’t stop The Fall of Man.  He’s a man who likes to think big!

Conversations in the Abyss

Amazon.com Conversations in the Abyss

My review -

This is an amazing novel which weaves together a number of strands. We meet The Deathless Man, an entity who has been imprisoned within the walls of a monastery and is visited by a good and a fallen angel.  We meet a group of clerics from Rome who are chasing an ancient document, The Gospel of Lazarus and a newly discovered prophecy, and we follow the preparations made by The Antichrist for The End Times.  It’s an intriguing tale and is very philosophical and metaphysical.  I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite like it. 

There’s some wonderful imagery used here and the action of the story is exciting.  There’s also considerable food for thought.  If you’ve read Michael Brookes’ first novel, ‘The Cult of Me’ it will fill in some background on characters you meet here but it’s perfectly possible to appreciate this book on its own merits.  Particularly at the beginning, I found some of this book rather lyrical, poetic, in its descriptions.  I’m assuming there will be more.  I’ll certainly be reading it.