Shadow Lands

The Shadow Lands #1

by Lloyd Behm II, J.F. Posthumus (Illustrator), R.J. Ladon (Editor)

A universe out of time…a land of no return… Jesse Salazar is a priest of the Church Militant, who spends his days—and nights—hunting and re-inhuming the monsters that bump humanity in the night. He’s good at his job and gets paid very well to do it. But when the skies go gray, he wakes up to find himself in the Shadow Lands—the world an ancient Akkadian god uses to feed his minions their favorite food…humans. Stalked by Abzu, the lord of the realm, and all his minions—including his wife, Tiamat—Salazar must figure out a way to stay out of Abzu’s clutches while assembling a team of survivors and putting together the clues to find a way home. With only limited weapons to protect themselves and no visible means of returning home, Salazar will have to use all of his God-given talents to keep everyone alive. Especially if there’s no way back.

337 pages, Paperback

First published November 26, 2018

Reviews

[Meenaz Lodhi · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting mix of religious concepts with high tech modern ways to fight against the evil creatures/monsters. An ex marine turned Padre, non catholic with catholic friends help the Order to keep the monsters away from humans. A fun with humourous moments, gritty and action full, fast paced read.

[Pat Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clickbait: A Bad Moment and A Good Moment
January 12, 2019

I obtained this book through the Kindle Unlimited program.

Here's the Bad Moment: I'm on page 14, and I think: "There is no way possible he can maintain this level of hilarity & action throughout the book. He's going to HAVE to fail, somewhere." And, I was wrong about that.

Here's the Good Moment: The story line comes to what very well could be the end of the book, and I look down at the progress meter, and I discover I've only completed 80% of the book. LOTS more reading yet to go!

Jesse Salazar is a non-Catholic clergy in a denomination that refers to the clergy as Father. Don't get confused, because one of his buddies IS a Catholic priest, so he's a Father as well. (Actually, not much chance of getting them confused.)

He's also a former Marine who ran into some Really Bad Stuff while deployed, as in, monsters who eat people, and so on. However, he rather wanted a change, so he refused the first employment offer by QMG (Quentin Morris Group). His career plans changed after monsters ate his wife. Now, he's the straight-talking Priest With A Machine Gun, who can kick doors, as well as call on divine aid, to bring supernatural creatures back in line.

"In line" means, not bothering the civilians. It's only when a vampire, werewolf, what have you, lets their behavior get out of control that OMG gets called in. Otherwise, it's a live-and-let-be-undead kind of world.

After punching out a co-worker in the first scene (the aforementioned 14 pages), Salazar is ordered to take a vacation and relax. Since the alternative is to get down-checked by the mental health unit, he agrees to take some time off. As far as the relaxing goes, however, it's just not going to happen; he, along with some people in his general vicinity, get dragged out of our world into the dreary Shadow Land, where monsters have free reign.

Salazar forms an action team out of the people he meets, which include the Catholic priest, some other people, and especially a mysterious woman with an interesting back story.

So, that's the bones of the story. It is enough to make an interesting read, regardless of the treatment. However, what Behm does with it is hilarious. He tosses in multiple references to Monty Python and other cultural explosions, such as The Big Lebowski and Sponge Bob Squarepants. I voluntarily withdrew from the cultural stream a couple of decades ago, but he uses references even I mostly get. (There are a couple of cartoon characters I couldn't identify, but I knew there was SOMETHING there.)

There is plenty of shoot-em up action going on to please those of us who like to blow things up, and there is also a bit of a mystery/puzzle to be solved along the way. What there ISN'T, is grinding weepy emo time, with sad children watching mothers be eaten in front of them, or those dipstick moves that the guy with too many initials makes, where the best character are doomed from the start. And THAT is a relief. Once I realized it wasn't going to be THAT kind of a book, I relaxed into the pure enjoyment of reading about people shooting dragons with the Ma Deuce, the M2 .50 caliber machine gum: WHAM. WHAM. WHAM.
I love it.

More to come, evidently, so in the interim, sit back and relax. Father Salazar is on the job!

[Lori Peterson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Received as an ARC, this is an honest review. I found this book to be a struggle to get through,; there wasn't anything interesting about it. The characters' names were confusing, the story was boring, its dialogue strangely worded, I was having to reread it over and over to get it.

[Red Tide · Rating 2 out of 5]

Flat but fast

The story is fast and fun. The characters are a mixed lot but not diverse. Neither do they enjoy the least bit of depth, though the story cries out for it. Instead the reader must settle for unending violent action of the entertaining sort.

The main character's past is repeated several times as if he were an actor rehearsing lines in which he didn't believe. His empathy was a very finite resource and it was exhausted by his love for fifty caliber machine guns and his affair with machine pistols. All other characters are the sidekicks and extras. This MC is a priest and I got confused about his affiliation, Anglican or Catholic. That says loads about the character depth and their individual value to the story. They are trapped with hundreds of other survivors and make one belated attempt to search out a small group at a local college.

It's a sad picture of heroes and the description of weapons was a constant reminder that the writer chose battles over characters. I'm a little curious about the next story in the series and may try it, since the fight scenes are fun.

[John Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was tempted to say that this is an imitation of Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia, but it's not quite. Sure, it deals with a team of monster hunters employed by a company to deal with monsters, but there is a little more religion in here, and the company head is a vampire.

Jesse is a priest, and monster hunter. Told to take a vacation, he arranges to meet up with a fellow priest, someone he went to college with, before Jesse joined the Marines. While there, he helps the other priest collect a religious artifact, and somehow gets sent through a rift to the Shadow Lands, ruled by an Arkaddian God, who feeds his demon minions on humans.

As the two priests collect a rag-tag group of survivors, and discover that the religious font has a shielding effect from the demons surrounding them, they slowly work on a plan to get them back to Earth proper, managing to kill Tiamat, the wife of the Arkaddian God along the way.

[Scott Kuntzelman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable and funny monster hunting with a twist!

I really enjoyed the concepts in the book - priests that get involved in monster hunting, former military personnel, arcane explanations for some of the weird things that have happened over the years. The military patter is very realistic (and darned funny). The ecclesiastical patter also sounds genuine.
The action is fast but easy to follow, and the book flows well.
I’ve enjoyed the characters and I’m really looking forward to the next installment! You know how you read a book and think “this is the kind of author that would be fun to drink with in a bar and just spitball ideas for hours”? This is that kind of book!

[Christopher Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rip roaring rollercoaster

With an eclectic hodgepodge of supernatural critters this book is quite an adventure. Editing was good and storyline was well thought out. I found myself constantly looking up names and terms and enjoying every bit of it. This book opens up a universe that has tons of potential and could lead to many books. I look forward to seeing where the author takes us.

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was action packed from the very first chapter with a wide range of characters. Jesse’s phrasing literally had me LOL’ing. You’ll feel right at home with him because he will remind you of that friend we all have who constantly quotes movie lines and pop-culture. Actual historical events are woven seamlessly into the story. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series!

[Frank Geimer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this novel, it is full of action on the supernatural side of life. When you need a very special team to take care of the things that go bump in the night, its here. I recommend this novel for the pure enjoyment of reading it.

[Robert Steven · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gay main character violates my Christian religious beliefs.

Gay main character is portrayed as normal. LGBTQ+ is NOT normal and is anti Christian. I stopped reading the book when Heibert mentioned his husband.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally action packed. Jesse is a priest that provides us with enough things happening to keep you intrigued until the end.

[Stanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

Oh boy Lloyd is now a new favorite author of mine this one has all I need fantasy, things that go boom and fun characters to follow

[Ray Ritchey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refreshing Urban Fantasy

Fun read, lots of guns. Reminds me a bit of the Monster Hunter International series. Author knows guns, and combat is realistic.