The Eighth Day

by Donovan Gray

Tonight the world ends. Billions will die, and I am the cause of it all.
Every living thing, every human, will cry to the heavens... helpless... hopeless... doomed, and I am the cause of it all; to know why, you have to go back to another, simpler time.
I was a boy. I remember my father, my mother and my sister…helplessly hanging from the eaves of the porch of our ranch. And I remember the Preacher, Jacob, slipping the noose around my neck. He was searching for a woman, the last of her kind. He’d been hunting her for longer than he could remember and her death would end a war that had raged for thousands of years. It was supposed to be the final battle, but she was clever, unpredictable and again she had eluded him. Instead of finding her, he found us. He found me, and even though he didn’t realise it at the time, I had made it a whole new war; one that would rage for centuries, unseen, unknown, until tonight.
My name is Gabriel Armstrong and I am immortal.

Genres: Fantasy

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Donovan Gray
The last time I had anyone read a story I had written was in High School in the early eighties. Since I was a teenager I have always had a fascination with stories of the fantastical, supernatural and science fiction. My story is inspired by classic - H.G.Wells, George Orwell, Frank Herbert - and contemporary - Stephen King, James Herbert, George R. R. Martin - writers. I love the way they can craft a universe of such vivacity and imagination, and that is probably where any similarity with my story ends. I hope, with my first outing as a writer I can inspire such worlds and creations within my readers. I live in Stourbridge, England with my wife, son and dog Shem. My story is the first in a series.

Reviews

[John Dizon]

The Eighth Day by Donovan Gray is a spellbinding thriller centered on a never-ending tale of murder and vengeance spanning across two centuries. Alex and Ruth Young stumble across a vendetta between two sworn enemies as Ben Douglas is intent on murdering Jacob Burns. The couple desperately seek to intercede, only to learn that Ben is accusing Jacob of having slaughtered members of his family in a grisly episode. They realize there is nothing they can do to prevent the revenge killing until Ben miraculously recovers from a fatal gunshot wound. The author brings the couple and the audience along the first step of an eternal blood feud that guarantees to keep you hanging on.

The theme of vengeance resonates throughout the novel as Gray provides us flashbacks of the events leading up to the murder of the innocents and the beginning of the death trip. Ben Douglas is an ex-soldier named Gabe Armstrong sworn to avenge his family’s murder over a century ago at the hands of Jacob Burns, who is actually a deranged preacher named Isaac. The Preacher continues to victimize all those in his path as he tries to elude the unforgiving Gabe, who forges precarious alliances with local sheriffs and Police Community Support Officers in an attempt to take down the psychopath. The body count rises as Gabe is unrelenting in his pursuit in a grisly tale you won’t be able to put down.

Pick up a copy of The Eighth Day by Donovan Gray and brace yourself for a breathtaking chase you won’t soon forget.

[Bandit]

What a way to start the month. This book is actually sort of tough to review, because it had some decent individual parts, it just completely didn't work as a grand total. I can't remember the last time I read a book and found myself wondering what's going on, who is this character quite so often. The narrative here was so disjointed, skipping around places and timelines, it was an incredible amount of effort just keeping track, considerably more so than a genre book should require. Gray isn't actually a terrible writer at all, he's good at vignettes and not so much at stringing them together in a cohesive manner. The plot from what was discernible was something apocalyptic. The book was short and read longer (never a great sign) due to its chaotic jumbled structure.Not to mention this was a part one of something and not the sort of part one that is a self contained entity with a proper ending that can be built upon, but the sort that just ends with an abrupt to be continued, which is really a massive F U to readers. Needless to say this isn't something worth continuing with or even worth the time. Such are the risks of trying out new authors. Caveat emptor.

[Sahara Foley]

PLEASE SEE MY BLOG ON GR FOR MY REVIEW.

[David McCullough]

Besides being so disconnected and confusing, language and sentence structure are terrible.

Not well written - really needs a good editor & someone who can use the language. Even with all the mistakes, I would have completed the book, but it is not worth the confusion. Don't bother.

[Natalie]

I was given this book by the Publisher to review. I got maybe five chapters in before I had to withdraw. By five chapters I had no sense of who the characters were, what was motivating anyone...I wasn't sure there was a plot that connected the whole disjointed thing together.

I dislike giving bad reviews, but I couldn't even finish the book. Sorry.

[Natty]

YUCK! Horribly written and I couldn't stand the characters. 70% through it and I couldn't read another word

[Cathie Hicks]

Not what you expect!

A very strange, well written take on the end of the world. Get to know character s as the go through a hellish story. Can't wait for the next one!