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Hungry Gods #1
Death Storm
A Dark Fantasy Zombie Apocalypse
A great evil descends upon the kingdom of Medanholm. A necromancer in the service of a fallen god leads an army of undead to extinguish all life. In the village of Briar's End, there are few survivors. They are scattered and hopelessly outnumbered, with dwindling options for sanctuary. Hidden away within their mountain temple, the gods are oblivious to the horror on their doorstep...
...and it's coming for them.
Death Storm is book 1 in the Hungry Gods series, a Dark Fantasy Zombie Apocalypse that brings the nightmare of Armageddon to a high fantasy world.
A great evil descends upon the kingdom of Medanholm. A necromancer in the service of a fallen god leads an army of undead to extinguish all life. In the village of Briar's End, there are few survivors. They are scattered and hopelessly outnumbered, with dwindling options for sanctuary. Hidden away within their mountain temple, the gods are oblivious to the horror on their doorstep...
...and it's coming for them.
Death Storm is book 1 in the Hungry Gods series, a Dark Fantasy Zombie Apocalypse that brings the nightmare of Armageddon to a high fantasy world.
188 pages, Paperback
First published July 12, 2013
15 people are currently reading
295 people want to read
About the author
G.S. Wright
36 books155 followersG.S. Wright is a horror, sci-fi, and fantasy writer that mixes in the fast-paced action of the thriller novel, bringing you intense fiction guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat. Regardless of genre, you'll find absorbing stories that will pull you in with realistic heroes and loathsome villains, and give you chills that will keep you up at night... turning the page.
G.S. Wright is the author of Broken Things, and the new dark fantasy zombie apocalypse novel: Death Storm.
G.S. Wright is the author of Broken Things, and the new dark fantasy zombie apocalypse novel: Death Storm.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 23, 2013
G.S. Wright has done it again! Another fantastic novel showing what an excellent story teller he is. Death Storm is so different than any other book I have read. It is a mixture that I would never have thought of. It's unique but it has all the right elements to make this a fantastic read. It combines today's rage with zombies with old world kingdoms. It's a fantasy land with mythological gods and scary zombies. This book will have you on the edge of your seat but it's not all action, there is a love story and the love of family. This story has depth and shows the important things in life and the sacrifices that are made for loved ones. Death Storm has so much detail that you feel like you're in the action. G.S. Wright has an amazing ability of describing the senses. You can imagine the sounds and places easily but you can almost taste and smell it as well. That kind of detail really pulls you into this story. I did not want to put this book down starting with the very first page. My only complaint is that I have to wait for book two of this series.
November 30, 2013
Okay, I'll admit, I'm over zombies. I have been for awhile and will pass by zombie lit with stunning speed. Yet I was intrigue with the premise of Death Storm so I decided to give it a chance. I was immediately sucked in and and disappointed when I hit the dreaded "end part 1". A highly enjoyable read into an immediately imaganitive and contagious world.
August 9, 2013
'Death Storm' is the story of one necromancer and his undead army and the handful of survivors trying to figure out what's happening and stay alive.
This is an excellent zombie story, getting off to a start that hooked my attention instantly. It's a high fantasy novel with a brilliant horror twist. The characters were well written and there's a lot of edge-of-seat material in there. I was gripped quickly by the story and found it a fast read, well paced and action-packed.
There was nothing I didn't enjoy about this book! The bad guy was creepy, the good guys were thoroughly likeable, and everything felt believable so I just got absorbed in the story. This is the beginning of a series and I look forward to the next part.
Overall this is a fast-paced and thoroughly enjoyable start to what looks to be a well thought out and exciting series. I would recommend this to just about anyone as it has a little bit of everything; action, horror, fantasy, romance. An excellent zombie novel!
This is an excellent zombie story, getting off to a start that hooked my attention instantly. It's a high fantasy novel with a brilliant horror twist. The characters were well written and there's a lot of edge-of-seat material in there. I was gripped quickly by the story and found it a fast read, well paced and action-packed.
There was nothing I didn't enjoy about this book! The bad guy was creepy, the good guys were thoroughly likeable, and everything felt believable so I just got absorbed in the story. This is the beginning of a series and I look forward to the next part.
Overall this is a fast-paced and thoroughly enjoyable start to what looks to be a well thought out and exciting series. I would recommend this to just about anyone as it has a little bit of everything; action, horror, fantasy, romance. An excellent zombie novel!
August 4, 2013
This book has it all! Put together giants, dwarves, a goddess and a necromancer and you have a unique book full of mythical creatures fighting off a zombie invasion. Death Storm has it's share of heroes too. Besides loving and protecting his family the main character cherishes Lara, an admirable heroine. The author fills the pages with death and violence, but it does not overwhelm the reader. A page-turning story line along with memorable characters makes this a must-read book for all fantasy and adventure lovers.
August 5, 2013
Death Storm is a page turner of a novel. G.S. Wright places you right in the middle of the action as a zombie army marches through an old world kingdom. But this novel is not just a zombie story. Wright weaves the action with other fantastical creatures. But what really pulls you in are characters that you really care about.
March 8, 2017
DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATH STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORM!
Ten-minute guitar solo over montage of people slowly walking away from explosions.
I picked up this book on Amazon's list of free fantasy kindle books at the same time I grabbed Lichgates. It's dark fantasy, it's a zombie apocalypse book--I'm still not sick of zombies, mostly because I've been judiciously limiting my exposure--and it's called Death Storm. What's not to like?
Yeah, well, about that...
One of the biggest problems I have with the book is the worldbuilding. Or rather, the lack of it. We're thrown straight in with barely any explanation, a bit like Lichgates, but there's even less attempt at actually providing any rationale for throwing in Ye Olde Fantasy Tropes. Specifically Ye Olde Dungeons and Dragones Fantasy Tropes here--there are elves, and all we know about them is that they packed up and left in the face of the zombie hordes and the only one who gets screen-time is a wizard. There's a dwarf who drinks a lot and dances on tables, and is gruff yet abrasive. There are goblins who live underground, commanded by what is obviously a dark elf who is never explicitly called that. There are giants. There are ogres. There are wandering priests with maces who can theoretically turn undead, which we know because there's a party of adventures that has one and they tell him to deal with the zombies who show up.
It's not that D&D tropes can't lead to dark fantasy, because The Witcher books are also elf-dwarf-goblin fantasy and I'm pretty sure most people would call those dark fantasy. But generally, you need a sense of moral ambiguity. A counterpoint to the heroic ideal. Death Storm's protagonists are a young serf who is loyal yet honest, a lovable rogue with a heart of gold, and a rich merchant's daughter who is willing to look past a serf's heart to see the good man within. There's nothing dark here at all.
Maybe I was supposed to look at all the horror and death occurring as the zombies eat people, but the problem is that the book moved so fast that I didn't have any chance to develop any attachment to anyone. I'm uneasy arguing in favor of more fantasy doorstoppers, but if there had been more time in Briar's End and I had gotten to know some of Dorian and Lara's neighbors, maybe I would have cared that they were turned into flesh-eating undead monsters. And maybe if the carnage had been a bit more personal rather than just crowds of hundreds all being trampled and panicked and eaten. There's a famous quote from All Quiet on the Western Front that I think applies here:
Well, mostly okay. It is a zombie apocalypse after all.
The perfunctory worldbuilding also meant that I was never sure why the zombie apocalypse was so successful. So, the gods not answering the cleric's turn undead attempt is a plot point, sure, but a few paragraphs after that the elf is using wizardry to incinerate dozens of zombies singlehandedly. Are wizards super rare, or stigmatized in some way, such that there aren't enough of them around to deal with the zombies? And on that note, the party of adventurers in the beginning holds the gates of Briar's End by themselves against a huge horde for quite a while, so the D&D trope of adventuring parties as wandering WMDs is in full effect. How come no other kingdom offered huge cash rewards for zombie bounties to draw adventurers down on the zombies? Why did the invasion even get this bad? This is a fantasy world with man-eating ogres and dark elf goblin queens, so it's not like "there's an army of marauding monsters" is the kind of unbelievable
Maybe there's an explanation for all this, but I don't have enough information to determine what it is.
Oh, and as another example of the great care and creativity put into the worldbuilding, the goddess of death is named "Calli." The god of undeath--and why is there even a god of undeath if there are only a hundred gods, anyway?--is named "Skul." There's some intimations that the gods were superpowerful wizards in Ye Olden Dayes who gave themselves divine powers which I actually kind of liked, which would imply that Skul is the creepy kid who thinks he's being edgy that no one really likes but everyone is too polite to actually kick out, but I'm getting this interpretation from maybe three lines of dialogue.
I did like the beginning, and I felt like the initial attack was pretty good at conveying the horror of a zombie attack from the Dorian's perspective even if I didn't care about his neighbors. But pretty soon he's smashing skulls and chopping off heads with nary a mental breakdown in sight, and then the book just devolves into to-hit rolls and aimed shots to the head.
I'll give it an extra star for the intimations of backstory and the the opening attack scene, but the rest of it is forgettable. I think it's possible to tell an interesting zombie apocalypse set in a fantasy world--for example, I'm hoping that The Winds of Winter finally gives us the zombies hordes that have been teased since A Game of Thrones--but Death Storm isn't it.
Ten-minute guitar solo over montage of people slowly walking away from explosions.
I picked up this book on Amazon's list of free fantasy kindle books at the same time I grabbed Lichgates. It's dark fantasy, it's a zombie apocalypse book--I'm still not sick of zombies, mostly because I've been judiciously limiting my exposure--and it's called Death Storm. What's not to like?
Yeah, well, about that...
One of the biggest problems I have with the book is the worldbuilding. Or rather, the lack of it. We're thrown straight in with barely any explanation, a bit like Lichgates, but there's even less attempt at actually providing any rationale for throwing in Ye Olde Fantasy Tropes. Specifically Ye Olde Dungeons and Dragones Fantasy Tropes here--there are elves, and all we know about them is that they packed up and left in the face of the zombie hordes and the only one who gets screen-time is a wizard. There's a dwarf who drinks a lot and dances on tables, and is gruff yet abrasive. There are goblins who live underground, commanded by what is obviously a dark elf who is never explicitly called that. There are giants. There are ogres. There are wandering priests with maces who can theoretically turn undead, which we know because there's a party of adventures that has one and they tell him to deal with the zombies who show up.
It's not that D&D tropes can't lead to dark fantasy, because The Witcher books are also elf-dwarf-goblin fantasy and I'm pretty sure most people would call those dark fantasy. But generally, you need a sense of moral ambiguity. A counterpoint to the heroic ideal. Death Storm's protagonists are a young serf who is loyal yet honest, a lovable rogue with a heart of gold, and a rich merchant's daughter who is willing to look past a serf's heart to see the good man within. There's nothing dark here at all.
Maybe I was supposed to look at all the horror and death occurring as the zombies eat people, but the problem is that the book moved so fast that I didn't have any chance to develop any attachment to anyone. I'm uneasy arguing in favor of more fantasy doorstoppers, but if there had been more time in Briar's End and I had gotten to know some of Dorian and Lara's neighbors, maybe I would have cared that they were turned into flesh-eating undead monsters. And maybe if the carnage had been a bit more personal rather than just crowds of hundreds all being trampled and panicked and eaten. There's a famous quote from All Quiet on the Western Front that I think applies here:
Strange, I think to myself, how we have seen so much death in the wars and we know that two million of us have fallen in vain - how come we are so stirred up by this one man and have almost forgotten those two million? But that's just how it is, because one man is always the dead - and two million is always just a statistic.Horror is not when a plague ravages a country on the other side of the world. Horror is when your wife dies of cancer. I need some kind of connection to the characters before I can feel horror at their demise, and everyone I had a connection to came through okay.
Well, mostly okay. It is a zombie apocalypse after all.
The perfunctory worldbuilding also meant that I was never sure why the zombie apocalypse was so successful. So, the gods not answering the cleric's turn undead attempt is a plot point, sure, but a few paragraphs after that the elf is using wizardry to incinerate dozens of zombies singlehandedly. Are wizards super rare, or stigmatized in some way, such that there aren't enough of them around to deal with the zombies? And on that note, the party of adventurers in the beginning holds the gates of Briar's End by themselves against a huge horde for quite a while, so the D&D trope of adventuring parties as wandering WMDs is in full effect. How come no other kingdom offered huge cash rewards for zombie bounties to draw adventurers down on the zombies? Why did the invasion even get this bad? This is a fantasy world with man-eating ogres and dark elf goblin queens, so it's not like "there's an army of marauding monsters" is the kind of unbelievable
Maybe there's an explanation for all this, but I don't have enough information to determine what it is.
Oh, and as another example of the great care and creativity put into the worldbuilding, the goddess of death is named "Calli." The god of undeath--and why is there even a god of undeath if there are only a hundred gods, anyway?--is named "Skul." There's some intimations that the gods were superpowerful wizards in Ye Olden Dayes who gave themselves divine powers which I actually kind of liked, which would imply that Skul is the creepy kid who thinks he's being edgy that no one really likes but everyone is too polite to actually kick out, but I'm getting this interpretation from maybe three lines of dialogue.
I did like the beginning, and I felt like the initial attack was pretty good at conveying the horror of a zombie attack from the Dorian's perspective even if I didn't care about his neighbors. But pretty soon he's smashing skulls and chopping off heads with nary a mental breakdown in sight, and then the book just devolves into to-hit rolls and aimed shots to the head.
I'll give it an extra star for the intimations of backstory and the the opening attack scene, but the rest of it is forgettable. I think it's possible to tell an interesting zombie apocalypse set in a fantasy world--for example, I'm hoping that The Winds of Winter finally gives us the zombies hordes that have been teased since A Game of Thrones--but Death Storm isn't it.
March 27, 2018
Heroes and zombies
Dorian our reluctant hero needs to get the attention of the Gods in order to save the world from ravaging zombies. Unfortunately he gets the attention of the wrong one. No living creature will be spared. Lara the love of his life is fighting battles of her own to stay alive. Will they be reunited soon or will Taegar, the new hero on the block steal her heart? Fae , dwarves, ogres and more will keep you turning the pages to read what happens next.
Dorian our reluctant hero needs to get the attention of the Gods in order to save the world from ravaging zombies. Unfortunately he gets the attention of the wrong one. No living creature will be spared. Lara the love of his life is fighting battles of her own to stay alive. Will they be reunited soon or will Taegar, the new hero on the block steal her heart? Fae , dwarves, ogres and more will keep you turning the pages to read what happens next.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews