WebsiteAlways.com


Book Review - As the Darkness Deepens by Michael Cale


Newton's Third Law of Motions states that "For ever action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." Michael Cale's latest novel, As the Darkness Deepens, is an interesting study in this universal law as it relates to the forces of good and evil. While this is a common storyline, Cale's strong characterization and the powerful climax give an otherwise trite subject substance to formulate a solid story.

We first meet the unassuming Christopher Jones walking his seven-year-old daughter, Sally, to school. After hugs and a kiss, Christopher sends his child across the street, when suddenly a careening car slams into Sally, mortally wounding her. In the terror of the moment, Christopher draws upon a mysterious power to heal his daughter, saving her life. This act of love creates an equal and opposite reaction that literally births the story's primary antagonist.

Christopher discovers a renewed sense of self and direction. He transforms from a soft-spoken pushover to a man filled with the need to use his new power for the good of humanity. Eventually, word of his powers spread, and he attracts hundreds and thousands of the hopeless, the infirm, and the insane. Christopher becomes nothing more than a pinball, bouncing off those who want to help to those wanting to take advantage and back again.

Cale, whose 2001 novel, The Room of Shrunken Souls, was an Eppie Finalist, knows how to construct a solid story. Here he does a satisfactory job of blending the good and evil in greedy entertainment executives, religious cults, and the Catholic Church. When all three of these groups collide in the dramatic finale, the reader is given a powerful overview of the morale fallacies harbored in day-to-day dogma. Effectively using the dingy backdrop of south Los Angeles, he builds an array of vivid character that overflow from the 150 page novel.

Despite several annoying dialogue tics and a sometimes sloppy narrative style, Cales nails the characters and setting. I would recommend As the Darkness Deepens to readers as a study in the evil side of morality bringing destruction to good.

Published by LTDBooks
ISBN: 1-55316-138-6
150 Pages
$14.95 Hardback, $5.00 eBook
http://www.ltdbooks.com

Jason Sizemore is the publisher of Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest, a quarterly magazine of dark science fiction, interviews, book reviews, and essays. You can read more about Jason and his writing at http://members.iglou.com/jasonb/index.html. Apex Digest has its own website at http://www.apexdigest.com


MORE RESOURCES:

Book reviews: 'Man in the Dark' and 'Supreme Courtship'
International Herald Tribune, France - 20 hours ago
Civil war rages between America's 16 seceding blue states - incensed by the rule of George W. Bush - and the red-state-backed federal government. ...


Bottom of The Barrel Book Reviews-Confessions of a Recovering Preppie
Slashdot - Aug 25, 2008
An anonymous reader writes "Michael de Mare's, Confessions of a Recovering Preppie, has been sitting on my desk a long time, for good reason. ...


Business book reviews
Dallas Morning News, TX - Aug 24, 2008
By JIM PAWLAK / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News The wisdom in folk tales finds its way to the workplace. In the work world of productivity ...


KUOW NPR

Listening to Wildlife and Book Reviews from Nancy Pearl
KUOW NPR, WA - Aug 25, 2008
We also get book reviews from Nancy Pearl. James Hoch's second book of poems, "Miscreants," probes the limits of art's ability to respond to tragedy. ...


Book Reviews
The Cauldron (subscription), OH - Aug 25, 2008
by Stephenie Meyer. I was venturing into unfamiliar territory when I was assigned to read this fourth and final novel of the bestselling vampire/romance ...


Book Reviews
Delphos Herald, OH - Aug 25, 2008
By Margaret Peterson Haddix Do you have people in your life you would do anything for? Would you even risk your life to save them? ...


Weekend book reviews
International Herald Tribune, France - Aug 22, 2008
White Heat The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. By Brenda Wineapple. 416 pages. $27.95. Alfred A. Knopf. ...


Children's Book Reviews
Publishers Weekly, NY - Aug 24, 2008
Taking a tip from MAD magazine’s fold-ins, longtime collaborators Yorinks and Egielski (Hey, Al; Sid and Sol) create a book with two trick spreads. ...


Book reviews: 'Sherlock Holmes on the Stage'; 'Blood on the Stage'
Los Angeles Times, CA - Aug 20, 2008
By Leslie S. Klinger, Special to The Times MYSTERY AND detection have been popular stage themes since "Oedipus Rex." Hamlet, for instance, took several acts ...


Book Reviews: 'A Blessed Child' and 'Ancient Highway'
International Herald Tribune, France - Aug 19, 2008
Being Shakespeare's sister, as Virginia Woolf imagined, would have been no bed of roses, but what do you do when you're Prospero's daughter? ...

Book-Reviews - Google News

Interesting articles | Home | site map | Link
© 2006
Job posting sites Breast enlargement Jobs Mahoubi.net Free Online Dating | Free personals | Married personals | Totally free personals | Dating online lakeland fl | Free dating sites | Travel Vacations | Multiple listing service real estate