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Anoxic Zone #2
Halocline
Halocline is a near future tale of the workings of an everyday salvage vessel and its inevitable crew of characters. It is a twisted continuance of john g rees’ first horror novel anoxic zone.
HALOCLINE won the 2011 Silver IPPY Award for HORROR from Independent Publishers.
Once again, john g rees is grossly graphic in his descriptions of the impalings and disfigurements that occur throughout this wildly thrilling novel. His way of words just makes you squinch your eyes and yet want more. He happily continues to disgust and amuse us.
Several years have passed since the destruction of St. George’s Cathedral in Ploiesti that occurred in anoxic zone. The self-imposed exile of Jake Strom along with his friend and scientist Giovanni aboard Barge#22 was but an intermezzo. Their lives forever changed by the machinations of Megacorp years before; they rid themselves of the yoke they had been forced to wear, but the result left them in a limbo of the damned. Whatever good they had done was vitiated by their very being. The wheel of life turns. Living a life without consequence was not in their nature. There were only two paths available to avoid being crushed by the wheel. One light and one dark.
Sometimes having too much interest can be a malady, but in this case, it only seems to prepare our cast for the to altercations to come, leaving much room for the battles to be disastrous. And they are.
Fate once again steps in and makes the question and choice for Jake and Johnny: to save themselves or to save a people from a fate worse than death? It seems the answer is both. The risks are great and the cost their souls. The battle will be on two fronts: Megacorp and limitless greed on one side and the malevolence of a madman on the other. As Jake says, ‘It’s like being between a rock and a rock.’ It would be nice if it were all that simple. But it’s not. Jake and Johnny will have to confront the evil within themselves when it gets tight if they are to prevail. For Jake this is no small task. The odds are overwhelming.
Old friends will reunite and new ones come into the picture as a torturous quest for survival and independence once again wash up on the shores of eastern Romania. Over a thousand years ago, a war was fought on the sands of the coast. Good did not win. But the winds of change are blowing and the peoples of Romania will have to go through hell all over again if they are to earn the right to live on their piece of earth.
A halocline is a vertical gradient of salinity in a body of water where freshwater mixes with salt water. The result is a blurry translucent miasma, which makes it difficult to see things in perspective. The Black Sea was once a fresh water lake. Now salt water from the Mediterranean pours in through the Bosporus. No longer fresh, the Black Sea is a continuous halocline ever in flux. In our novel the halocline phenomena is a metaphor. All is not as it seems and nothing ever stays the same. Past and present, good and evil, domination and independence, hatred and love, dreams and reality commingle creating a halocline of life that is nearly impossible to navigate or ever forget.
HALOCLINE won the 2011 Silver IPPY Award for HORROR from Independent Publishers.
Once again, john g rees is grossly graphic in his descriptions of the impalings and disfigurements that occur throughout this wildly thrilling novel. His way of words just makes you squinch your eyes and yet want more. He happily continues to disgust and amuse us.
Several years have passed since the destruction of St. George’s Cathedral in Ploiesti that occurred in anoxic zone. The self-imposed exile of Jake Strom along with his friend and scientist Giovanni aboard Barge#22 was but an intermezzo. Their lives forever changed by the machinations of Megacorp years before; they rid themselves of the yoke they had been forced to wear, but the result left them in a limbo of the damned. Whatever good they had done was vitiated by their very being. The wheel of life turns. Living a life without consequence was not in their nature. There were only two paths available to avoid being crushed by the wheel. One light and one dark.
Sometimes having too much interest can be a malady, but in this case, it only seems to prepare our cast for the to altercations to come, leaving much room for the battles to be disastrous. And they are.
Fate once again steps in and makes the question and choice for Jake and Johnny: to save themselves or to save a people from a fate worse than death? It seems the answer is both. The risks are great and the cost their souls. The battle will be on two fronts: Megacorp and limitless greed on one side and the malevolence of a madman on the other. As Jake says, ‘It’s like being between a rock and a rock.’ It would be nice if it were all that simple. But it’s not. Jake and Johnny will have to confront the evil within themselves when it gets tight if they are to prevail. For Jake this is no small task. The odds are overwhelming.
Old friends will reunite and new ones come into the picture as a torturous quest for survival and independence once again wash up on the shores of eastern Romania. Over a thousand years ago, a war was fought on the sands of the coast. Good did not win. But the winds of change are blowing and the peoples of Romania will have to go through hell all over again if they are to earn the right to live on their piece of earth.
A halocline is a vertical gradient of salinity in a body of water where freshwater mixes with salt water. The result is a blurry translucent miasma, which makes it difficult to see things in perspective. The Black Sea was once a fresh water lake. Now salt water from the Mediterranean pours in through the Bosporus. No longer fresh, the Black Sea is a continuous halocline ever in flux. In our novel the halocline phenomena is a metaphor. All is not as it seems and nothing ever stays the same. Past and present, good and evil, domination and independence, hatred and love, dreams and reality commingle creating a halocline of life that is nearly impossible to navigate or ever forget.
386 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 11, 2011
17 people want to read
About the author
John G. Rees
4 books12 followers john g rees lives on a volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii and likes it there. He’ll return to the Mainland of the USA every few years for some weeks of hard motorcycle riding – enough to hold him for the next few years. Then back to the peace of the island.
He spends his time writing and at home with his wife, cats and chickens, in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the ocean. He likes that, too. Nothing like his novels…
john g rees was a salvage diver in the Hawaiian Island Chain for some years in the 80’s and 90’s, getting a lot of research for his novels first hand. Working in Pearl Harbor on Navy vessels to Japanese fishing boats, he dived the watery field in his youth, only to see all the horror years later. He enjoys writing it down.
He spends his time writing and at home with his wife, cats and chickens, in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the ocean. He likes that, too. Nothing like his novels…
john g rees was a salvage diver in the Hawaiian Island Chain for some years in the 80’s and 90’s, getting a lot of research for his novels first hand. Working in Pearl Harbor on Navy vessels to Japanese fishing boats, he dived the watery field in his youth, only to see all the horror years later. He enjoys writing it down.
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January 25, 2011Jake Strom is a deep-water salvage diver. Johnny is his friend and a scientist. They are both Recyclables, undead men created by Megacorp for their skills, kept alive with a series of injections created with the blood of Vlad Tepes—the Dracula—and mixed with heroin and other chemicals to keep them under control. This future world was first introduced in Anoxic Zone, a term used for the deep water of the Black Sea where no oxygen exists, deadly to human divers. It is a world where countries have no governments but are run by corporations, the biggest of which is Megacorp, a bully when it comes to doing business. In Anoxic Zone, Jake and Johnny discovered Megacorp’s secret and broke away to start their own company and destroy Tepes.
Halocline takes place after some years have passed. Karuna Talian has a daughter, Riana, a product of her rape by Tepes, whom her friends Jake and Johnny knew nothing about. Riana is a driven archaeologist working on the coast of Romania along the Black Sea. She has made a discovery that Tepes wants and will stop at nothing to get. Tepes also wants Romania for his own to rule again. Jake, Johnny, Karuna and Riana are thrown into a civil war between the people of Romania and Tepes’ Societas Draconis. They find another like Tepes, named Vlad Cneajna, who also wants to destroy Tepes and his hold over Romania. Megacorp, which gives up nothing without a fight, also stands in their way.
The title, Halocline, refers to the blurry miasma created when fresh water mixes with salt water, which occurs in the Black Sea, where a good portion of the story takes place. Halocline is a novel about corporate greed, the decline of a civilization at its own hands, and the fortitude of the human spirit. It is a very different kind of vampire story and quite refreshing given the influx of beautiful, sparkly vampires. The characters are well-rounded and have continued to grow since Anoxic Zone. The story is strong and well-written and kept me glued to the pages. Rees’ writing style is straightforward yet very descriptive in its imagery. Loaded with plenty of blood and gore for any horror enthusiast, Halocline is a welcome addition to the world of literary vampires. Recommended.
Contains: violence, gore, adult language, drug use
Reviewed by: Colleen Wanglund
Halocline takes place after some years have passed. Karuna Talian has a daughter, Riana, a product of her rape by Tepes, whom her friends Jake and Johnny knew nothing about. Riana is a driven archaeologist working on the coast of Romania along the Black Sea. She has made a discovery that Tepes wants and will stop at nothing to get. Tepes also wants Romania for his own to rule again. Jake, Johnny, Karuna and Riana are thrown into a civil war between the people of Romania and Tepes’ Societas Draconis. They find another like Tepes, named Vlad Cneajna, who also wants to destroy Tepes and his hold over Romania. Megacorp, which gives up nothing without a fight, also stands in their way.
The title, Halocline, refers to the blurry miasma created when fresh water mixes with salt water, which occurs in the Black Sea, where a good portion of the story takes place. Halocline is a novel about corporate greed, the decline of a civilization at its own hands, and the fortitude of the human spirit. It is a very different kind of vampire story and quite refreshing given the influx of beautiful, sparkly vampires. The characters are well-rounded and have continued to grow since Anoxic Zone. The story is strong and well-written and kept me glued to the pages. Rees’ writing style is straightforward yet very descriptive in its imagery. Loaded with plenty of blood and gore for any horror enthusiast, Halocline is a welcome addition to the world of literary vampires. Recommended.
Contains: violence, gore, adult language, drug use
Reviewed by: Colleen Wanglund
June 4, 2013
Once again we meet up with Jake Strom in a Romania that is ruled by evil. Halocline is a metaphor used to let us know that the winds of change are always blowing. They are blowing now for Megacorp. These human monsters created Jake Strom, and his scientist friend Johnny, using blood from the original Vampire, Vlad Tepes who we know as “Dracula”- they make a cocktail of his blood mixing in heroine and other chemicals in order to maintain control of the two vampires. Then they use them for their own gains.
This is a world that is a person's worst nightmare, the governments of the major countries are little more than puppets for the big Mega-corporation. In Anoxic we saw Jake and Johnny break away from their “Masters” to attempt to bring them down. Halocline is set some years after this event, we meet the daughter of Karuna Talia, Riana is the product of a rape. Tepes himself is her father. Riana is an archaeologist who has made an important discovery one that Tepes wants and will do anything to get.
This new addition to the series is just as good as its predecessor. The story is written in such a manner as to carry the reader along on a tidal wave of intensity. The only problem is that it has to end. You will be anxiously waiting for the next installment.
This is a world that is a person's worst nightmare, the governments of the major countries are little more than puppets for the big Mega-corporation. In Anoxic we saw Jake and Johnny break away from their “Masters” to attempt to bring them down. Halocline is set some years after this event, we meet the daughter of Karuna Talia, Riana is the product of a rape. Tepes himself is her father. Riana is an archaeologist who has made an important discovery one that Tepes wants and will do anything to get.
This new addition to the series is just as good as its predecessor. The story is written in such a manner as to carry the reader along on a tidal wave of intensity. The only problem is that it has to end. You will be anxiously waiting for the next installment.
February 3, 2011
Again, I love John's writing style. I was impatiently awaiting more when I finished the first book. This one, too, left me breathless and wanting more! This book followed the adventures of the original characters to their ultimate conclusion. The use of historic fact and imagery laced with legend and imagination was like one of those famous cocktails Jake and John were so fond of. A shot in the arm to get you going and again I found it hard to put down. I breathlessly await more, John is awesome and his books are awesome!!!
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