Wesley Britton's Blog - Posts Tagged "urban-fantasy"

Zombie Turkeys: How an Unknown Blogger Fought Unkillable Turkeys (Life After Life) (Volume 1)
Mr. Andy Zach
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (October 17, 2016)
ISBN-10: 1539466752
ISBN-13: 978-1539466758
https://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Turkeys...


Reviewed by: Dr. Wesley Britton

The title of Zombie Turkeys signals this urban fantasy is intended to be entertaining, not to be taken seriously, and likely a comic romp. You can guess there’s lots of clever twists in the story, and happily the execution is more than what readers might expect.

The yarn is fast-moving from start to finish, opening with the first attack of carnivorous red-eyed wild turkeys very difficult to kill. They can quickly resurrect after death and grow back cut-off limbs. They’re led by a tom full of confidence as Zach gives us this tom’s perspectives from time to time as he builds his flock into the tens of thousands throughout Illinois and beyond.

On the trail of the killer swarm is Sam Melvin, investigative reporter for the small-town Illinois Midley Beacon newspaper and blog edited by his future wife, Lisa. She’s motivated to put her paper on the map and exploits the invasion by selling turkey traps, turkey t-shirts, inedible turkey sausages, and ad space on the paper’s YouTube channel where she posts Sam’s videos. Along the way, as Sam recounts his adventures, we get some obvious jokes. We hear choirs of “Gobble, gobble” when the flock goes after the “predators”—mostly we humans. Humans are literally hen-pecked to death. When we hear cries of “The zombie turkeys are coming, the zombie turkeys are coming!,” the reference to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds is more than obvious.

As the setting expands, we encounter some very strange groups. They include the heavily-armed and very secretive Organic Turkey Farmers network of survivalists. PETA shows up at law enforcement press conferences protesting the “inhumane,” aggressive means needed to kill the murderous turkeys like flame-throwers and chainsaws. There’s the Zombie Widows Help Association created for the survivors of turkey attacks who offer advice on how families can gather for Thanksgiving during the carnage across Illinois. When the flock begins to invade Chicago, Second Amendment advocates press Mayor Rob Emmanuel for a loosening of gun control measures. Even President Obama has several cameos, including an aborted Thanksgiving dinner in the city. Perhaps strangest of all is the battle at Soldiers Field where the Chicago Bears, the Green Bay Packers, and a stadium of armed fans take on a horde of relentless turkeys.

Obviously, looking for clear explanations for why all this is happening is way beside the point. We learn about a Turkey Institute who discover where the infectious bacteria came from and how simple salt water is the needed cure. We hear about the Journal of Turkey Medicine where scientific reports are published. Are there really that many turkeys in Illinois? Hundreds of thousands? Maybe so, but again, making real world connections is way beside the point. After all, here’s how the author describes himself:

Andy Zach was born Anastasius Zacharias, in Greece. His parents were both zombies. Growing up, he loved animals of all kinds. After moving to the United States as a child, in high school he won a science fair by bringing toads back from suspended animation. Before turning to fiction, Andy published his PhD thesis "Methods of Revivification for Various Species of the Kingdom Animalia" in the prestigious JAPM, Journal of Paranormal Medicine. Andy, in addition to being the foremost expert on paranormal animals, enjoys breeding phoenixes. He lives in Illinois with his five phoenixes.

I’m not certain, but Promotions for the urban fantasy seem to include fake online news reports, like an article on zombie turkey attacks posted at Weekly World News, “The World's Only Reliable News.” Other online notices for Zombie Turkey games and pranks go back to 2010, so I don’t know which came first—the turkey book or a very different creative egg. Not surprisingly, during a perhaps overlong denouement in the novel, we see the seeds for a sequel, Zombie USA. Don’t put those flamethrowers and chain-saws away just yet--

This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Jan. 10, 2016 at:
goo.gl/IqWpSb

The Seventh Age: Dawn
Rick Heinz
Publisher: Inkshares (January 17, 2017)
ISBN-10: 1941758894
ISBN-13: 978-1941758892
https://www.amazon.com/Seventh-Age-Da...


Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton

In a way, I almost feel this review might be a tad redundant. That’s because I’m about to repeat and echo observations made by a number of other reviewers before me.

For example, I’m far from the first to tell you Rick Heinz immediately drops the reader into hot and heavy action in the very first paragraph of The Seventh Age and doesn’t slow down for the over 400 pages that follow. The book is dense, complex, and populated by a very strange cast of characters that include warlocks, vampires, demons, ghosts, shape shifters, sorcerers, mutant animals, as well as humans. In all this paranormal activity, earth as we know it is about to change as all these beings have different agendas about what they want to happen. There are apparently international rituals in the works to bring about a “Unification” and the resurrection of a super-entity named Lazarus to usher in a new age when magic will again rule.

In many ways, because of the layers of varying agendas and battles between the supernatural beings, trying to offer a useful and understandable synopsis isn’t really workable in a short review like this. Suffice it to say a human named Mike Auburn is our first point-of-view character in Chicago, a man who can see the dead. He meets beings who slowly reveal his important role in what is coming. Some of the supernaturals care nothing for humans and would be happy to wipe us out. Others see us as expendable inconveniences in the way as they invade earth from both Purgatory and Hell. Still others want to Shepard and protect as much humanity as they can in underground and street level battles. There’s a lot of blood, vampirism, and eating of souls. For those who enjoy conspiracy thrillers, there’s no shortage of secret societies who want to open or block the portals between the realms and keep their activities hidden from humanity as they plan a takeover of our planet.

One of my favorite aspects of this book is just how much Heinz is able to keep the reader guessing and surprised by what is going on, particularly as many of the characters you’d think are pure evil turn out to have far more mixed motives than you’d expect. While I can’t say my reading of urban fantasies is all that deep, I can’t recall a title in this genre with this much of an epic scope. This is especially true considering Dawn is obviously just volume one of this saga.

So, if you don’t mind your fantasy being on the grim and grisly side, the plot constantly challenging any preconceptions you might have as you go along, The Seventh Age is a chilling, engrossing read. Some books still prove literature can be very frightening indeed, even if everything is so fantastic that what happens can’t reflect real-world concerns.


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Jan. 16, 2016:
goo.gl/T2mGBv