Review of "The Warlock"

Review by William Holt.

If you like big novels set on Aegean Islands, you could do far worse than to read Nicholas Boving's The Warlock. It will take you right into a monastery and to a strange den of iniquity, both set against each other on a little island with great natural beauty, primitive transport, and such people as may be found everywhere if you know where to look and if you don't mind being both uplifted and appalled. You won't easily forget the experience!

My other most vivid experience of the Grecian milieu, apart from Homer, is Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet. Though evocative, Durrell, like many authors using first person pov, can be unnecessarily obscure and suffocatingly subjective. Nothing of that sort appears in Nicholas's narrator. He's likable, straightforward, and not troubled with any of Durrell's misty romanticism, which from the first paragraphs of Justine, put me in mind of Lovecraft, though he's differently oriented and certainly superior in talent.

The Game

“I wanted the ideal animal to hunt," explained the general. "So I said, `What are the attributes of an ideal quarry?' And the answer was, of course, `It must have courage, cunning, and, above all, it must be able to reason.’”

"But no animal can reason," objected Rainsford.

"My dear fellow," said the general, "there is one that can."

In 1924, Richard Connell’s THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, captivated readers with the tale of one man hunting another man for sport. It became an instant classic.

Now, witness the next evolution of hunt, with eleven all new tales of cunning and survival.

THE GAME is on!

Published by Seven Realms Publishing.

THE GAME, an anthology featuring some of the best indie authors around. This volume, inspired by Richard Connell's classic tale THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, features stories by Alan Baxter, Nicholas Boving, Rick Chesler, Sean Ellis, R.J. Fanucchi, J. Kent Holloway, William Meikle, Rick Nichols, David Sakmyster, R.P. Steeves, and David Wood.

Find it and buy it at: http://bit.ly/qVbloS

Tales of the Shadowmen

The international anthology devoted to paying homage to the world's most fantastic heroes and villains returns in this eighth installment. This time, the stories focus on those who provoke or entice evil… Agents Provocateurs who thrive in the shadows and lurk on the periphery of our world…

My story - "The Elfberg Red". Find it at http://www.blackcoatpress.com/talesshadowmen08.htm

The Warlock - review

Powerful and compelling, the story of Allan Collins unfolds. He is an over-worked executive who takes a sabbatical at the monastery of Agios Dimitrios on the lonely Grecian island of Melanos on the advice of his physician. He encounters Vincent Marat, a man who Alan is warned by the Abbot not to be taken in by. Though Alan takes the advice, he can't help but seeing Marat, who calls himself Ipsissimus, the highest grade of magician, as nothing more than an egotistical and hedonistic deviant.

The Warlock is a winning combination of outstanding storytelling, marvelous writing, poetic prologue, strong narration and dialogue, with Gothic overtones. This is the way thrillers and horror genres should be written.

Review by L. Anne Carrington

Now read on - a new chapter every week.

Maxim Gunn - The Serpent Force

For a limited time I've decided to give away e-copies of "The Serpent Force", the third in the Maxim Gunn series. You can fin it at http://bit.ly/bOZy6p on Smashwords, along with the other five thrillers, plus a "Frances West adventure called "Castle Dark" - you'll love Frances, she's one hell of a woman, and another thriller "Declaration of Intent".

The cover above, "The Chaos Project" is for the first in the series.