Nightfall

by Andrew Wolter

For aspiring poet, Stefan Powell, everyday life in the town of Spook Valley has become a seemingly unbreakable routine. Between dividing his time working at a local music store, finding inspiration for a would be book of dark poetry, and socializing with his best friend (a modern-day, practicing witch), Stefan fears he will never escape the daily rat race of life. However, all of this changes when Stefan visits the desert surrounding Spook Valley.

What, at first, seems nothing more than a vivid nightmare becomes sheer reality when Stefan's weekly outing places him at the center of a young man's rescue from a mysterious portal appearing in the desert like some impossible mirage. Determined to comprehend the origin of the stranger, Stefan's world is thrust into chaos when he discovers that he has opened a doorway to an evil netherworld hellbent on bringing eternal darkness to Earth.

With the weight of the world on his shoulders, Stefan Powell now exists in a reality where the boundaries of truth and fantasy are obscured. Paired with his best friend and unable to determine if those who come into their lives are with or against them, Stefan will realize that the terrifying face of evil can don any mask--of beauty or horror--as each decision in his day-to-day life will determine the fate of the world.

Racing against time, and coming face to face with creatures reminiscent of myth, Stefan must unlock the horrific puzzle of the destructive force known as the Nightworld and find a way to stop the netherworld from conquering, not only the sleepy town of Spook Valley, but the entire planet.

Genres: Horror

342 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 27, 2008

About the author

Andrew Wolter is the award-winning author of Much of Madness, More of Sin and Nightfall. His short stories have appeared in both online and print publications including Raw: Brutality As Art, Enter at Your Own Risk: Fires and Phantoms, and Anthology: Year One.

In addition to his fiction writing, Andrew has previously freelanced as a contributing columnist to X-Factor Magazine, in which he has over 85 published reviews and 15 published interviews. Being an advocate for LGBT rights, he also freelances as a contributing columnist (under a pseudonym) for a nationwide LGBT publication.

A resident of Seattle, Washington, Andrew is an active member of the Horror Writers Association and is currently working on several future novels.

Reviews

[Amanda M. Lyons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhere out in the desert beyond the sand and the cactus lies a doorway that is waiting for a young poet named Stefan Powell to give it entry, to make it complete enough to form a union between our world and that of the demons. The Nightworld is a terrible place full of torture and pain, for years it has stolen away young men and women with special knowledge of the arcane and the subtlest desire to know the dark that waits beyond out own world. Now after years of waiting the Nightworld will use Stefan to gain a hold on our world, to give it new power and access to all we hold sacred.

Stefan is a man overcome by the death of his mother and the darkness that dwells within him. Living his day to day life he can't help but feel alone in the small town where he's found himself working bit by bit to complete his book of demonic poetry and hoping that something will come along to alleviate his loneliness.

One night when he goes out into the desert to be alone with his thoughts and search for inspiration Stefan instead comes face to face with a doorway. A terrible sight comes to him from inside of it and there reaching from its horrible depths is the arm of a stranger who pleads for rescue.

At first he thinks its all a dream one like many he's had before and gone on to write about but then he meets Breckin ( the man he's saved) and the strange truth of his existence is revealed to him. As the days move on more and more strange people come into Stefan's life and he's forced to take action he'd never thought he'd face in his everyday life. Again and again the people he loves come under threat, over and over his own life is threatened as he begins to see what his future holds. With the aid of his friend Caitlin, lover Breckin and soon after others who become entangled in the web of his fate Stefan must face the Nightworld and stop it from freeing God Damia into our own.

Wolter does a great job of conveying Stefan's emotions and the overwhelming darkness of the Nightworld that comes to haunt him. Each of the many players in this novel has its own face and character changing the events of the story and indeed the outcome we expect again and again as we move along. Here there are many demons both real and imagined (in fact many of them are the demons that live within us at every waking moment), and the characters plagued by these creatures have their own battles to face before they can hope to affect the coming battle with the Nightworld.I had a lot of fun reading this book and hope to read more of Wolter's books in the future.

[Roxanne Bland · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing could be better, but there were a couple of concepts I found intriguing.