10-16-09 When Shadows Fall by Brian Scott Smith – Fiction

2 – Garbage.  Not utter garbage or it would only rate a 1, but still garbage.  This book reads like a bad B horror flick.  Smith goes overboard on trying to make the bad guys really bad guys by pulling out all the Satanist clichés instead of giving decent back-story or information.  And his use of language is pretentious and sophomoric at the same time.  For example: “…it was their job to foil this cosmically diabolical plot and save the earth from accelerated ruin.”  I mean, really.  He uses animal and human sacrifice, spirit guides, mass murderers, demons, psychics, and zombies to try to make this scary but succeeds only in making the story messy because there is no back-story, no reason.  You don’t give a rat’s ass about any of the characters because they are shallow constructs.  Even so, some of the horror scenes are well written and the basic premise of the book is good.  The execution of the premise is what sucks.  I would suggest run screaming if you see this book.