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Maximum Dark: Four Tales of Suspense
Maximum Dark collects, for the first time, Daniel Powell's thrilling novellas. Featuring the linked novellas Frozen and Torched, a pair of stories about survival in harsh climates and the haunting power of revenge. Survival tells the chilling tale of a dystopian future in which men must make the ultimate sacrifice for the right to become fathers. And A Record of Our Survival chronicles the aftermath of a worldwide pandemic that has created some...well, some very curious appetites. Four stories. 90,000 words. Maximum dark...
271 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 9, 2014
3 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Powell
24 books44 followersDaniel teaches a variety of writing classes at Florida State College at Jacksonville. He has published numerous short stories and critical essays in journals, anthologies, and magazines, and his novellas have been recently collected in Maximum Dark Four Tales of Suspense. He recently completed his doctoral degree (emphasis on digital media studies) in the Texts and Technology program at the University of Central Florida.
He enjoys fishing the tidal creeks of Duval County and jogging the haunted shell mounds of the Timucuan Preserve. He shares a small home near Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway with his wife, son, and daughter.
Other works include:
Cold on the Mountain
The Reset
In the Walls and Other Stories
The Silver Coast and Other Stories
These Strange Worlds Fourteen Dark Tales
You can learn more about Daniel’s upcoming writing projects by visiting The Byproduct, his web journal on speculative storytelling.
He enjoys fishing the tidal creeks of Duval County and jogging the haunted shell mounds of the Timucuan Preserve. He shares a small home near Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway with his wife, son, and daughter.
Other works include:
Cold on the Mountain
The Reset
In the Walls and Other Stories
The Silver Coast and Other Stories
These Strange Worlds Fourteen Dark Tales
You can learn more about Daniel’s upcoming writing projects by visiting The Byproduct, his web journal on speculative storytelling.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 20, 2017
Man, can this guy write!
This is the third book of Daniel Powell's I have read and it will not be the last. Excuse me while I go buy The Reset, the book featured at end of this book. I read the sample chapter and it will be the next book I read. I usually cull books I have read, from my Kindle. Not Daniel Powell's books, these I will keep and read again...
This is the third book of Daniel Powell's I have read and it will not be the last. Excuse me while I go buy The Reset, the book featured at end of this book. I read the sample chapter and it will be the next book I read. I usually cull books I have read, from my Kindle. Not Daniel Powell's books, these I will keep and read again...
December 24, 2014
I won a copy of this book from LibraryThing, in exchange for an honest review.
“Maximum Dark: Four Tales of Suspense” by Daniel Powell contains four textbook cases of what suspense is all about.
Beginning with ‘Remnants: A Record of Our Survival’, a post-apocalyptic blog maintained by a 12-year-old girl fraught with anxious moments; and concluding with ‘Survival’, a savage commentary on how a global population crisis might be handled in the future, "Maximum Dark" has SUSPENSE stamped across every page.
However, this collection may best be remembered for the two stories bookended by those mentioned above.
Presented as two stories, ‘Frozen’ and ‘Torched’, respectively, these tales from two points of view are actually sequential, and both are incredibly convincing as to the justifications for the actions of the two primary protagonists.
These two tales are not speculative fiction, nor do they assume an apocalyptic Earth. They could have happened, just as laid out. Or they could happen tomorrow. Indeed, one cannot help but believe such things have happened in the past… more than once.
“Maximum Dark: Four Tales of Suspense” is superbly written. Powell’s characters exist, just as he developed them. Even in the case of ‘Frozen’ and ‘Torched’, one cannot help but side with the victims, while fully understanding that the characters were all victims in one way or another.
These are not presented as Horror stories, and the only ‘monsters’ are all of the human variety, but the sheer realism with which Powell writes will have your spine quivering and unsettled long after you’ve finished reading.
Spooks and boogeymen leaping from behind bushes after dark may be good for a scare, but for real, genuine horror one must stick close to the threshold of possibility. Powell apparently has mastered that technique, as all his readers likely will agree.
“Maximum Dark: Four Tales of Suspense” is aptly named, and it delivers on its promise.
“Maximum Dark: Four Tales of Suspense” by Daniel Powell contains four textbook cases of what suspense is all about.
Beginning with ‘Remnants: A Record of Our Survival’, a post-apocalyptic blog maintained by a 12-year-old girl fraught with anxious moments; and concluding with ‘Survival’, a savage commentary on how a global population crisis might be handled in the future, "Maximum Dark" has SUSPENSE stamped across every page.
However, this collection may best be remembered for the two stories bookended by those mentioned above.
Presented as two stories, ‘Frozen’ and ‘Torched’, respectively, these tales from two points of view are actually sequential, and both are incredibly convincing as to the justifications for the actions of the two primary protagonists.
These two tales are not speculative fiction, nor do they assume an apocalyptic Earth. They could have happened, just as laid out. Or they could happen tomorrow. Indeed, one cannot help but believe such things have happened in the past… more than once.
“Maximum Dark: Four Tales of Suspense” is superbly written. Powell’s characters exist, just as he developed them. Even in the case of ‘Frozen’ and ‘Torched’, one cannot help but side with the victims, while fully understanding that the characters were all victims in one way or another.
These are not presented as Horror stories, and the only ‘monsters’ are all of the human variety, but the sheer realism with which Powell writes will have your spine quivering and unsettled long after you’ve finished reading.
Spooks and boogeymen leaping from behind bushes after dark may be good for a scare, but for real, genuine horror one must stick close to the threshold of possibility. Powell apparently has mastered that technique, as all his readers likely will agree.
“Maximum Dark: Four Tales of Suspense” is aptly named, and it delivers on its promise.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews