Dean Koontz: Odd Thomas

Odd Thomas More info

Forever Odd More info

Brother Odd More info

Odd Hours
More info

In Odd We Trust
More info

Odd Thomas is a fictional character who first appeared in Dean Koontz's 2003 novel of the same name, Odd Thomas. He is a twenty-year-old man who lives in the fictional desert town of Pico Mundo, California, and is able to see the spirits of the dead. He is able to make himself heard to them but they cannot speak to him, although they may make signs or mouth words. This fact complicates much of the books.

Dean Koontz has sold 400,000,000 copies of his books (One Door Away From Heaven, From the Corner of His Eye, Midnight, Cold Fire, The Bad Place, Hideaway, Dragon Tears, Intensity, Sole Survivor, The Husband, Odd Hours, and Relentless, for instance)

Odd Thomas lives up to his first name; he is a 20 year old short-order cook with the ability to see the ghosts of the dead and the shadowy faceless spirits he calls "bodachs," who gravitate toward scenes of horrific violence and evil. Odd is a very likable guy whose ideal future rests with his girlfriend and soul mate Stormy Llewellyn and with a career in tires or footwear.

Interweaving scenes of horror with humorous dialog and action, Koontz manages to keep the reader slightly off balance. He creates an unique character, and endearing and simply charming person very aware of the burden of his gift. Funny and sweet, although I didn't enjoy the unnecesary touch of tragedy.

Here is the TV Webisodes of a series based upon Odd character:

Click Here for Episode #1

Click Here for Episode #2

Click Here for Episode #3

Click Here for Episode #4

 

Harry Connolly: Twenty Palaces

Twenty Palaces is a series of fantasy/mystery novels written by Seattle author Harry Connolly. He provides a first person narrative of each story from the point of view of the main character, Ray Lilly, as he recounts his adventures working for the Twenty Palace Society.

Two novels: Child of Fire & Game of Cages

After a not-so-bad first chapter, I became quickly disappointed. No character development, no plot, no background, no rithm. Boring. Enough time wasted with this book. Let's read another one.

Richard Kadrey: Butcher Bird

Description:

Spyder Lee is a happy man who lives in San Francisco and owns a tattoo shop. One night an angry demon tries to bite his head off before he's saved by a stranger. The demon infected Spyder with something awful - the truth. He can suddenly see the world as it really is: full of angels and demons and monsters and monster-hunters. A world full of black magic and mysteries. These are the Dominions, parallel worlds full of wonder, beauty and horror. The Black Clerks, infinitely old and infinitely powerful beings whose job it is to keep the Dominions in balance, seem to have new interests and a whole new agenda. Dropped into the middle of a conflict between the Black Clerks and other forces he doesn't fully understand, Spyder finds himself looking for a magic book with the blind swordswoman who saved him. Their journey will take them from deserts to lush palaces, to underground caverns, to the heart of Hell itself.

This book, that you can also find by the name "Blind Shrike", is really great dark fantasy. My favourite Kadrey's book so far and the first I've really liked a lot. With a writing firmly rooted in Judeo-Christian theology of angels and devils but a vision of these absolutely transversal with Lucifer described as a kind, loyal and charming character. The prose is visceral and the characters realistic people you feel you can care about. You'll find here a lot of heaven, hell, and different spheres of existence highly imaginative and very well developed and a couple of very interesting and innovative cosmogonies. All sorts of weird supernatural denizens, maybe a little too "smartass" at times, interpersed with normal living and weapon wielding maniacs and manically evil bad things.

Pretty entertaining stuff, all along. And this one has a lyric quality and a "heart" that I found Sand Slim missed. And it's full of clever ideas and original ones. And witty dialogues and touching characters. Yes, I think I've liked this one. And don't forget you can read it for free so...

You can download Richard Kadrey’s novel Butcher Bird:
PDF – HTML – Rich Text Format – Plucker – Mobipocket – Enhanced MobiPocket*

Richard Kadrey: Sandman Slim

As read in Richard Kadrey's website:

"Life sucks, and then you die. Or, if you're James Stark, you spend eleven years in Hell as a hitman before finally escaping, only to land back in the hell-on-earth that is Los Angeles.

Now Stark's back, and ready for revenge. And absolution, and maybe even love. But Stark discovers that the road to absolution and revenge is much longer than you'd expect, and both Heaven and Hell have their own ideas for his future. Resurrection sucks. Saving the world is worse."

"Kill the dead", the 2nd and last for the moment book in the series is 10th in the Amazon List of Best Fantasy Books of 2010.

This is dark and dirty fantasy with a complete badass as starring hero, a novel of brute force, cynical dark humor, and visceral fun, and Kadrey thumbs his nose, and yours too if you'll permit him, at god, the angels and the devil himself. Described by some as violent noir-slash-Gothic-punk hard-boiled detective action story and by other like a book representative of the general trend of urban fantasy to be a peeing contest to see who can create the most sharp-edged antihero.

Possibly more interesting that his book, Kadrey describes himself as a freelance writer living in San Francisco and also a fetish photographer and digital artist whose work can be seen at KaosBeautyKlinik.com (Warning: Adult Content; 18+ only!)

Some of his novels are available to download here:

Download Richard Kadrey’s novel Butcher Bird:
PDF – HTML – Rich Text Format – Plucker – Mobipocket – Enhanced MobiPocket*

And you can also enjoy this free download of Metrophage, his first novel published in 1988.

Simon R.Green: Nightside

Enter the nightside, where it's always 3 a.m. ...

Nightside series:
01. Something from the Nightside (2003)
02. Agents of Light and Darkness (2003)
03. Nightingale's Lament (2004)
04. Hex and the City (2005)
05. Paths Not Taken (2005)
06. Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth (2006)
07. Hell to Pay (2006)
08. The Unnatural Inquirer (2008)
09. Just Another Judgement Day (2009)
10. The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny (2010)
11. A Hard Day's Knight (2011)

German Editions

Setting

The series takes place in a fictional inner city area of London called "The Nightside". Elements of fantasy, science fiction and the supernatural all feature heavily in both the Nightside itself and its inhabitants.

Indicated by its name, the Nightside experiences perpetual night ("it's always 3am"). The Nightside itself is contained within London, yet is larger than London by a significant measure. Though access to the Nightside is hidden, it does experience a steady stream of tourists from the "normal" world.

The main character, John Taylor, describes the Nightside "as a place where dreams come true and nightmares come alive. Where one can buy anything, often at the price of your soul... or someone else's. Where the music never stops and the fun never ends". Numerous seemingly impossible services or goods are available-often quite commonly-in the Nightside; examples include stores selling albums from alternative time-lines (e.g. a live Mama Cass concert from 2003), a business where customers pay to be possessed for a brief period of time "just for the kick of it," and a drug called Revert which causes users to temporarily devolve into a biological ancestor (e.g. a Neanderthal).

A recurring feature in the Nightside is the appearance of "Timeslips", locations where the Nightside has collided with another part of space and/or time, and sometimes with a completely separate, alternate timeline as well. A number of characters identified within the series are "refugees" displaced by Timeslips. The appearance of Timeslips is largely unpredictable, though in some cases Timeslips have been predicted or even deliberately created.

The Nightside is overseen by The Authorities, a committee whose members are largely unknown which makes rules, policy, and decisions concerning what is allowed to happen within the realm. The Authorities' decisions are enforced by their Agent (or "The Man"), who among other equipment and abilities is given The Voice, a way of issuing vocal commands which no human can refuse. At the beginning of the first book this position is held by Walker.

Nightside - Jessica Sorrow

by ~sithwitch13

Suzie Shooter aka Shotgun Suzie aka Dear God It's Her Run!

by ~blazewu

Dead Boy

by =neekko

John Ajvide Linqvist : Handling the undead

Sweden has been hit with a weird medical happening over the last two months. Due to excessive heat levels and energy spikes, the dead seem to have returned to life. Well, it's not like all of the deceased Swedes have returned to life. I'd say a good estimate would put it around 10% of the deceased population has returned. Several citizens mark this resurrection with a degree of horror and hope. The recently widowed, orphaned and general grieving are hoping that this means their loved ones will return hope. Others fear what sort of horrors that the walking dead bring with them.

 The undead of this book aren't ghouls, but they aren't normal. These undead are shells of their former selves who are trying to return to their past lives. What makes this more of a tease is that so many grieving individuals are seeing these creatures and wanting their loved ones to come back.

The horror begins, as we find two grieving individuals that are desperate to be visited by a relative zombie. When the grandfather Mahler learns of the dead's return, he gets the idea that his deceased grandson might be alive in his coffin. Fighting against reason, he breaks into the local graveyard and begins to unearth the eight year old child. The readers get to follow along, as his troubled mind tries to rationalize his actions until he finally breaks the coffin lid. Feeling inside against the exposed bone, he realizes that his grandson hasn't returned as the same child. The sense of disgust and personal horror is what helps to drive the true terror of this work.

Linqvist  slowly weaves together an intelligent, philosophical look at what would happen if the dead were to unnaturally rise from their graves. "Handling the Undead" doesn't really focus on the zombies themselves. Instead, Lindqvist conjures up a simple scenario, and examines how people would react to it -- we see hysteria, suicide, denial, dismissal, religious fervor, and a delusional belief that the zombies can simply go back to their old lives. And he brings up a number of philosophical questions with no easy answers.

In a book filled with subtle, creeping psychological horror, the author also fleshes out his characters beautifully, giving each one a backstory that shapes their current reactions. And he handles each one with compassion, even if they're delusional or twerpy.

Although perhaps a bit slow in the middle, this is a horror novel that transcends its genre by showing what the return of the dead might really mean to those who loved them.

To know more and better:


http://www.amazon.com/Handling-Undead-John-Ajvide-Lindqvist/dp/0312605250
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handling_the_Undead
http://chud.com/articles/articles/25060/1/BOOK-REVIEW-HANDLING-THE-UNDEAD-/Page1.html

Jim Butcher : Dresden Files

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is a very particular kind of private investigator. As a matter of fact he's the only one listing in the phone book under "Wizards". Although considered among his colleagues as a magical "thug" and accused of lacking fine control of his power, he's one of the strongest living wizards in terms of pure magical strength. Despite his traditional magic weapons (leather duster, rune staff, blasting rod, shield bracelet, silver ring and silver pentacle amulet) Harry has also been known to carry around many firearms such as a .38 revolver, a .357 and most recently a .44 revolver and a sawed-off shotgun for those times when 'magic just doesn't cut it'.

Amazing variety of rune staffs. Which of them you thing Harry would choose?

He lives in a basement with his principal associate, Bob, a spirit of knowledge -the equivalent of a magical encyclopedia- living in a skull, and a Foo Dog called Mouse possesed of quasi-human intelligence and able to detect supernatural evil.



Complementing Mouse is Harry's crew of loyal, pizza-bribed pixies, serving as scouts and spies and informers...and keeping the mice out of his home, under the leadership of the empowered pixie Major General Toot-toot.

Harry is a member of the White Council as a full Wizard, and has also been drafted into the Wardens, the combat-capable members of the Council, after their losses fighting the Red Court (the seat of vampiric power, the bad guys)


Last and most formidable of his particular circle of magical associates is his Fairy Godmother, the Leanan Sidhe. Considered the second most powerful member of the Winter Court, she has been tasked with protecting Harry and takes the job very seriously. You'll have to get acquainted to Winter and Summer fairies if you want to know why on earth did Harry get appointed Winter Knight or why his mother Margaret Gwendolyn LaFey bequeathed him a half brother, Thomas, who happens to be a White Court vampire, one who doesn't delight in blood but in the sickly submission that his sex appeal raises in his victims.

This is the complete series of books published so far with Harry as the protagonist:

Storm Front	Fool Moon	Grave Peril	Summer Knight
Death Masks	Blood Rites	Dead Beat	Proven Guilty
White Night	Small Favor	Turn Coat	Changes
Side Jobs (short stories)	Ghost Story

As Martina E. Balint says in Amazon Customers Review: Harry Dresden, the series' protagonist, is everything that's great about the hardboiled anti-hero, with a twist: He's a wizard trying to make a living working practical magic in a modern world that's foolishly rejected the supernatural in favor of science and technology. Part average guy, part renaissance man, Harry's got a dark side, a wicked sense of humor and a deeply rooted, personal code of honor that drives him to risk everything to fight the supernatural forces preying on his clients, an attitude that puts him at constant, dangerous odds with both the bad guys and the authorities alike.

Jim Butcher is himself a curious character: a martial arts enthusiast with fifteen years of experience in various styles including Ryukyu Kempo, Tae Kwan Do, Gojo Shorei Ryu, and a sprinkling of Kung Fu. He is a skilled rider and has worked as a summer camp horse wrangler and performed in front of large audiences in both drill riding and stunt riding exhibitions.
He  also enjoys fencing, singing, bad science fiction movies and live-action gaming. He lives in Missouri with his wife, son, and a vicious guard dog. Butcher goes by the moniker Longshot in a number of online locales. He came by this name in the early 1990's when he decided he would become a published author. Usually only 3 in 1000 who make such an attempt actually manage to become published; of those, only 1 in 10 make enough money to call it a living. The sale of a second series was the breakthrough that let him beat the long odds against attaining a career as a novelist.All the same, he refuses to change his nickname.