The Beginning Of The End: Book One

by Michael Edward

Ethin is an evil being from another world that was defeated in battle and exiled. He has found a way to escape his banishment and return to those who defeated him. His offspring can penetrate our world, a world that has nothing to do with his war. Bound by territory, his evil offspring must end 100 humans in 24 hours. If they succeed Ethin will be freed. He will unleash his armies onto Earth and he will become powerful enough to return to his world. He will finish his war and he will end those who banished him. Can Earth survive Ethin’s rage for revenge?

The Beginning Of The End: Book One is the first book of the action-packed horror series T.B.O.T.E.

Genres: Horror

187 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 28, 2012

About the author

I am Michael Edward, a husband, a father of six, a friend, and a self-proclaimed storyteller. I say storyteller because to use the word writer would be a misrepresentation, it might imply that I can write. I have always felt that my imagination was my strength and I always see everything as a movie. A lot of times when I write, its like I am sitting in a movie theater watching it on screen and I just write down what I see with the words that I know.

I love to write screenplays and that bleeds into my writing style. Also, I have epilepsy, and my seizures have increased, so if they bleed into the writing I apologize. I just want to tell entertaining stories that give people a chance to escape reality for a bit. I mean no disrespect to writers.

Reviews

[Suralxiong · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Beginning Of The End:Book One by Michael Edward

I liked the premise of this book. I liked the internal story. I would have loved to be able to say I loved this book- but I can't. And, I do understand that there is a certain kink in the method of this writer- I just think that someone reading this should come prepared.

It might just be me, so take this with a grain of salt. After all, I watch movies with similar genre element, but not too many times do I read books of this genre.

There were several things that started out as little annoyances and just kept building into grating elements.

First I'll give some back ground on the story. We start with Heather, who seems to have had an accident or something and has lost her memories. Then there is a disembodied voice that tries to help her through her panic as she becomes aware of memories and realizes she has a brother and she thinks something is wrong.

The voice tries to calm her and then proceeds to say that she's going to go on some sort of mind travel journey into the past to obtain a full picture of something that will help her.

Then, apparently in the mind travel, we are at Seaborn a quaint community that seems to be quiet and sheltered. When we arrive, there seems to be something which is going to cause a stir in their community. We start with a group of youths Dasha, Jorn, and Kasper. They are concerned about their friend Maggie and her father Orloff, something is wrong but they are afraid to approach the adults of the council.

This is where two of the problems start for me. And, again it might just be me, but there are several-not all-but a lot of times where it looks like contractions are avoided. Now I know some people don't like them in some writing, but it began to sound a lot like a certain android we will not mention. There were a few contractions, but many times the lack of them showed up in dialogue and sounded stiff and unnatural.

The next thing is that it begins a rather annoying trend that works into the entire novel. This could be a device for part of how this Heather is seeing things but it's still annoying. We begin head hopping back and forth between the three each time we get the full thoughts and emotions of these people and its like some hot potato game.

When they link up with the adults it hops over to them quickly. Now we have Karen, Savannah, Jackson,Gordon, Orloff, Tracy and Perry. It seems that Orloff's wife and daughter are missing. And soon we find out that Dasha has been communicating with some voice in her head that takes the name Ikron. Ikron has been taking Dasha on Mind travels and now, using Perry's memories, is going to take her to her grandfather's birth.

This feels like that mirror in a mirror thing starting here.

Now its Dasha watching(maybe Heather watching Dasha watch) and we go to Carol and John Writer, Doctor Holfman, and Tom Brady. Carol is nineteen pregnant and frightened. Doc is getting prepared to deliver her and everyone is excited. Carol starts ranting about it being a mistake to have the child suggesting they should have aborted it.

At the time of birth the lights go out and when they come back on there is one baby and 5 dark clouds of energy. It's difficult to say if Carol delivered all of that but that's the suggestion. Carol declares that Ethin is here and the room grows cold and Sheriff Tom Brady acts like he's gone mad. A strange person shows up and in the end only John and Holfman and the baby-Jason- are left alive.

Fast forward to when Jason is a teen.

The cast of names grows exponentially. We get to know some of them dearly and the head hopping begins to get thick though I think I understand it's purpose.

This novel is like some of my old favorite movies; Aliens, Terminator, all the night of the living dead. People are going to die and it seems we'll be in many of their heads at the time that that occurs. That means we're introduced to all of them even some that would seem minor just for this privilege.

This is the hot potato of death. Well, its just a hot potato for a while until the terrible five show up.Of course these five are somehow related to Jason. And Jason is the only one who can do whatever must be done with Ethin and so they are out to get him but they also have to rack up some soul points by killing over a hundred people. Only they call it end or ending them. They do this seemingly quite freely using a weapon that causes no excess blood. This is okay with me because I hate those descriptive bloody scenes anyway.

So, other than Jason don't get too fond of anyone.

Now, I really do like some of the basic idea here. There's a parallel or alternated universe where Ethin has been defeated by his enemies, so he is going to come to Earth and prepare for a comeback. This somehow involves having only a small pocket opened into our world that can only be expanded after a specific amount of 'ends' to the inhabitants. Jason's mother has left him some information that will help him which his father has so sparingly left till just this very last moment to give to his son. There's even a part where things get so bad they have to get away quickly and somehow leave the book with all the clues, so they have to come back.

All this time we're doing head hopping, even into the head of very minor characters that we'll get to know long enough to watch them die from an up close and personal place.

So if you like those breathtaking seat of your pants thrillers that show you everything-except this time for the blood and gore- this is the story for you.

It has, I think four books, and I do want to know what happens. Maybe even find out how Ethin and his cronies decide, which people have value- what that means- and whether that means they are safe from ending.

For me this was a bit difficult reading- I'd expected it to be the wholesale slaughters that would stop me-it turns out there were other issues. Maybe most everyone else can get past my issues and enjoy the nifty plot and the excitement.

I still need to find out why Heather had to hop to Dasha who had to hop to Jason through Perry and how Perry's memories manage to do that wild head to head hopping.

Since Jason seems to be Dasha's grandfather I guess we can assume he will make it through the four books. Or at least most of them.

By all means visit the author's website to get some insight to his process.

Sural

[Rachel So · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so good! A cliffhanger! I read this book in one sitting. I was so into it, following the characters and all that. The author left so many questions unanswered in this book. Really good plotline. It could even be a movie. I would describe this book something like a cross between lorrien legacies by pittacus lore and endgame by james frey. if you are a fan of those books, I highly recommend you read this one.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Other than grammar it was really good. Written in present tense, something I'm not used to, gave it more ooomph. 2 more books have been completed in the series..they just need to be added.

Updating the review on 1/10/13: Michael's blog talks about his writing process. I've got a new respect for him as a writer, as the process he uses is not easy. Check out his author profile here. It will link you to his website (which is easy to navigate).