In the Desert no one can Hear you Scream In a desolate desert, members of an isolated agricultural station discover a dehydrated, delirious stranger. His weak frame is thin, desiccated. His blistered flesh is wooden, and in his madness, a faint raspy chant slips from his near lipless mouth, “So many, not enough. So many, not enough.”
Daniel Arthur Smith is a USA Today bestselling author. His titles include Spectral Shift, Agroland, The Cathari Treasure, and a few other novels and short stories. He also curates the phenomenal short fiction series Tales from the Canyons of the Damned and Frontiers of Speculative Fiction.
He was raised in Michigan and graduated from Western Michigan University where he studied philosophy, with focus on cognitive science, meta-physics, and comparative religion. As a young man Daniel was a bartender, barista, poetry house proprietor, teacher, then became a technologist and futurist for the Fortune 100 across the Americas and Europe.
Daniel has traveled to over 300 cities in 22 countries, residing in Los Angeles, Kalamazoo, Prague, Crete, and now writes between Manhattan and Connecticut where he lives with his wife and sons.
I do love a good horror story, even a short one, and I really enjoyed the twist the author spun on the wendigo myth. My only complaints are that I'm personally not a fan of unkillable monsters, or downer endings, but overall the story was great.
I don't usually like short stories but this was actually really good. Definitely different. I listened to the audiobook version on Audible and the sound quality was poor but the story was good enough to overcome that.
So many, not enough - So many questions, not enough answers that is!!!
So when my friend and colleague Ritesh Kala, passed on Daniel Arthur Smith's - Agroland to me and asked for my feedback, little did i know that i would end up writing an online review about it.
I thoroughly enjoyed this straight forward field reporting soldier style of writing, which i believe is the highlight of Agroland. The sense of mystery held with survivor's guilt, packed with class action and a touch of the supernatural makes 'Agroland' a page turner and a good read. I would have given Agroland a 5 on 5 rating had it been a novel with a conclusive ending, and believe that is can serve as an entire series of 'truth is stranger than fiction' series of books.
Daniel Arthur Smith has hit my radar of new age authors whose work i would like to keep an eye on, for the near future.
I have to say this is the 1st thing I've read from Daniel Arthur Smith and I'm quite impressed with it. Kept you want to finish reading. Luckily this isn't too long of a novel but enough to really get sucked into it.
It's enough horror for the horror fans and enough suspense for the suspense fans. A win-win. Gives a whole new meaning to boogeyman to say the least lol. I even love the cover it's so freakishly perfect!
Have to say the ending was just perfect! Highly recommend this one that likes a touch of horror and mayhem.
I really wanted to like this book but couldn’t help feeling like it wasn’t meant for me. What I mean is, it felt like a man’s story, written about men, for men, by a man. That’s fine, but I guess I just wasn’t expecting it. This book definitely didn’t pass the Bechdel test. There are various female characters, all of whom are described as being attractive, most of whom are just there to sleep with a more important male character. None of whom have any dialogue with one another or any real meaningful dialogue with the male characters. And then there’s the weird bit with the monster slicing of women’s breast to eat. Like, okay. I’m all for body horror but that feels a bit gender specific. I know the monster then goes on to say he prefers female meat, but that’s just on the author at this point. Maybe I’m just a raving lefty feminist, but I just felt that this book what written for someone who isn’t me.
The horror aspect was good. A fast paced retelling of the age old wendigo story. I liked that there was no big happy ending and that we never really got an answers as to what he was, with various theories from the (male) characters being given and nothing resolved. But yeah, it was okay for a quick holiday read I suppose.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
My two favourite genres of books, armed forces (fact or fiction) and supernatural (also fact or fiction) This is one hell of a read. From start to finish it was engaging, exciting, scary and I just loved it! I hadn’t heard of the author before this book but I shall be reading more of his work! 👏👏👏
This novella-length horror story is pretty gruesome and is action-packed, but once the killing starts, there’s not much suspense. Events are just steamrolling toward an inevitable, grim conclusion.
What a fab fast paced easy read book-love a bit of horror and action mixed together! I read this book in two days as didnt want to put it down! Will definitely be trying out more of his books now.
This book may be only 144 pages but it is jam-packed full of action and weirdness. A tale about the mythical bogeyman come to life. It is written in first person narrative, which seems to make the story even more chilling. The narrator leads us through a hellish nightmare, with surprises around every corner. I like my horror but I'm glad I listened to the advice to "Read it with the lights on!" Graphic in places, also with the tension of not knowing what's coming, if you like creepy and weird I'd recommend this book. This book was gifted to me in return for an honest review
When Daniel says don't read before bed, um, he means it... If you're a horror fan go ahead enjoy any time of the day, but if you're a little squeamish (like me) take heed. Still it's a good story and what an ending, wow!