A true breach

 I had some expectations to The Breach by Patrick Lee and the entire trilogy of novels. The blurb, the back-cover text promised something more than the usual boring stuff we are served from establishment publishers. Usually, that promise isn’t fulfilled, but in this case, it was.
  The protagonist Travis Chase doesn’t just stumble upon an impossible scene, but his very destiny. He’s dragged reluctantly into deep secret clandestine government operations he can hardly believe. It takes even more unbelievable turns from that point.
  He has a somewhat detached approach to it all at first, but the more he discovers of the startling truth, the more personal and familiar and closer to home all of it becomes.
  What is The Breach? That question seems impossible to answer, for anyone involved, but eventually, as knowledge breeds the above-mentioned familiarity, and the truth is revealed, it becomes both far easier and far more difficult.
  This is a mystery, where layer upon layer is revealed and I love those. We are served clues that are often misdirection and distractions. Chase realizes that he can’t trust anyone, not the people he sees as friends and close confidantes, not even himself.
  This is undoubtedly a fresh breath of a story, clearly ambiguous and meant to be. There is great progression, and the story is believable within its own context, carefully crafted to slowly reveal the beyond shocking truth.

  One minor beef: I feel that the ending of the third book should have been told through action and not through the protagonist’s thoughts.

  This review is also about the novels Ghost Country and Deep Sky.

In the age of Trump

  This novel would have been important no matter who the US president happens to be, but in the age of Trump: novels like Thunder Road -Ice and Fire by Amos Keppler become more important than ever.

  There is just a desperate need for people speaking up against the narrow-minded view on climate change and life in general Trump and his people represent.

  This isn’t a documentary, even though it’s documenting in excellent ways the step by step results of human folly. It’s an engaging story describing the ultimate ramifications of recent human idiocy. We follow a group of people slowly turning into a tribe, following them as they travel from south to north in Europe, and even as climate change refugees from even farther away.

  Human civilization itself is collapsing around them, collapsing under its own weight. Extreme measures slowly, surely become needed and downright mandatory in order to survive. They fight on, against impossible odds, struggling beyond struggling to reach a place at least approaching a safe haven, in a world that has become so dangerous that death might strike at any time. This is a reality far removed from any ivory tower and especially those where Trump and his people reside.

  One of the greatest scenes in the novel is when a man stands in front of his house and the fast-rising ocean splashes his feet and he shouts: NOTHING BUT NATURAL VARIATIONS

  I will always visualize Trump in my mind when I think of that part…

Thoughts on the novel ShadowWalk by Amos Keppler

The first thought striking me when I’m reading ShadowWalk by Amos Keppler is how great it will be as a film, if the story is followed closely. Its visuals are truly amazing.

Then tons of other thoughts strike me. I’ve rarely read a novel so rich in detail and content.

This is a book about witches, about the hidden depths of the world, still here, even in this age of indifference and inch-deep culture.

It isn’t just that Keppler write about alternative lives in one specific area. He does it in all areas, presenting us all with riddles of mystery and empowerment. His stories are like a looking glass into a different, but very real realm of existence.

It also takes a good, hard look at Christianity and its violent history and present, and has a great origin myth for God. It's filled with blasphemy. This makes it even more valuable to an atheist like myself.

Strong-willed women and people loving strong-willed women will definitely love Keppler's books. There are few «typical, civilized, conditioned, overcautious human female characters» in his books. He doesn’t insult the readers that way either.

Any Keppler is an entry into the unknown world of humanity and ShadowWalk is one of his best.

It’s also the first in the series The Janus Clan. At least I read that one first and it worked fine.

So far four books have been published and they are all intense beyond words. While reading them you are venturing into the real world, not the fantasy most present day people immerse themselves in.

The Defenseless is another starting point, the book that is «officially» the first book and it’s certainly the start of the story chronologically. The main characters are merely early teenagers at this point, taking their first nascent steps on their path of vast discovery and endless growth, but life’s cruelty is with them already, as it always is and will be.

If you want to read a pleasant goodnight story for children, stay away from this one. If you seek a story filled with brutal realism and one that doesn’t insult the reader, go for it with all your heart. ShadowWalk, The Defenseless, The Slaves and Birds Flying in the Dark are all novels written for those having a strong need to experience everything life has to offer, both within and outside made up stories.

Sighing wind

The wind is sighing between the tombstones. Even when there is no wind there is a whisper in the rotting ears of the walking dead. Skeleton feet are subbing on the wet ground. An ice cold howl casts its echo between the walls of the downtrodden castle. Blood is dripping from dirty branches and color the stone gray. Fangs and claws flash in the dirty moonlight. The thunderous sound of growth mixes with that of tasty raw meat torn apart. Blood and bones and slices of flesh decorate the overgrown garden. The ballet and the dance begin on the desolate yard. The ground is slick, causing many to slip and break their neck, and the ground turns even slicker. Blades turn golden metal in the light from the fires, and red upon being dipped in buckets of blood. The swimming pool in the backyard is used often and well. Virgins are being fucked to abandon, drawing their final breath through cut throats. Hot seed is pumped into cooling bodies. It’s raining and people calling the castle home are cheering and drinking the most exquisite wine. Skulls are the most practical of glasses. Bodies decorate the trees as the most beautiful of dreams, as art in red and gray. At dawn most people are rushing by. Only a few stop to admire the exhibition, the desolate beauty, and even fewer dare venture inside when the night once more grows ascendant. Huge eyes glow in the moonlight, while raindrops fall like knives in the three-dimensional painting breathing and panting and rocking on the enormously beautiful graveyard right by the city hall, where the undead politicians are making their final effort before nightfall.