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Young Gods: A Door Into Darkness
Tryal is surrounded by weirdness. His brother talks to spiders, his girlfriend hears voices from the future, the boy across the street walks on water, and his best friend is Death herself. Accepted despite being the odd, untalented one in their group, Tryal lives a strange, yet uneventful small town life with his friends, who call themselves The Young Gods.
Their peaceful existence comes to an end on a night when a terrified Death begs Tryal to protect a little girl named Hood. Once he discovers that she is being pursued by Cinders, relentless shadow wolves with eyes of flame, Tryal flees his sleepy Nebraska hometown with Hood.
With his brother and girlfriend joining them, they soon make a frightening discovery: Hood is wanted by dark forces that threaten both this world and the next. To make matters worse, a crazed duo of serial killers have now made Tryal their target of obsession.
To solve the mystery that is Hood, and protect her, Tryal will have to face his fears and discover the great power hidden within himself. Not only does it draw the agents of darkness after him, but it is also the reason Death chose him as Hood’s protector.
Their peaceful existence comes to an end on a night when a terrified Death begs Tryal to protect a little girl named Hood. Once he discovers that she is being pursued by Cinders, relentless shadow wolves with eyes of flame, Tryal flees his sleepy Nebraska hometown with Hood.
With his brother and girlfriend joining them, they soon make a frightening discovery: Hood is wanted by dark forces that threaten both this world and the next. To make matters worse, a crazed duo of serial killers have now made Tryal their target of obsession.
To solve the mystery that is Hood, and protect her, Tryal will have to face his fears and discover the great power hidden within himself. Not only does it draw the agents of darkness after him, but it is also the reason Death chose him as Hood’s protector.
333 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 15, 2015
4 people are currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
J. Daniel Batt
22 books5 followersJ. Daniel Batt is a writer, teacher, designer, artist, creator of communities, listener, and explorer.
He serves as Creative and Editorial manager for 100 Year Starship. Jason creates visual engagement for 100 Year Starship programs and activities. He is also the managing editor of the 100YSS Symposium Proceedings.
He serves on the Advisory Board for the Lifeboat Foundation with their Religious/Spirituality Board and the Space Settlement Board. He has previously served on the Sacramento Law Enforcement Chaplaincy Board. He was a panel speaker at the 2011 DARPA / NASA 100 Year Starship Symposium, a speaker at the 2012, 2013, and 2014 100 Year Starship Symposia, and host for the Science Fiction Stories Night at the 2013 and 2014 Symposia.
J. Daniel Batt is a writer that has penned the children’s fantasy book Keaghan in the Tales of Dreamside and the designer of many more, including The Human Race to the Future published by the Lifeboat Foundation. He served as a judge for the Lifeboat to the Stars award for science fiction literature, which was presented at the Campbell Conference in June 2013. His fiction has appeared in Bastion Science Fiction Magazine, Bewildering Stories, and in the upcoming Genius Loci anthology.
He serves as Creative and Editorial manager for 100 Year Starship. Jason creates visual engagement for 100 Year Starship programs and activities. He is also the managing editor of the 100YSS Symposium Proceedings.
He serves on the Advisory Board for the Lifeboat Foundation with their Religious/Spirituality Board and the Space Settlement Board. He has previously served on the Sacramento Law Enforcement Chaplaincy Board. He was a panel speaker at the 2011 DARPA / NASA 100 Year Starship Symposium, a speaker at the 2012, 2013, and 2014 100 Year Starship Symposia, and host for the Science Fiction Stories Night at the 2013 and 2014 Symposia.
J. Daniel Batt is a writer that has penned the children’s fantasy book Keaghan in the Tales of Dreamside and the designer of many more, including The Human Race to the Future published by the Lifeboat Foundation. He served as a judge for the Lifeboat to the Stars award for science fiction literature, which was presented at the Campbell Conference in June 2013. His fiction has appeared in Bastion Science Fiction Magazine, Bewildering Stories, and in the upcoming Genius Loci anthology.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 8, 2017
“'Okay, beautiful, here's the whole thing. Make sure you have your belt on. This will get weird.'”
Well, that's over and done with.
Let me tell you that it's incredibly difficult to push through a book when you know - you know - that you won't like it. This is what happened to me with Young Gods. Not even a whole chapter in and I could determine that this book just wasn't for me. Now, I consider my stubborn nature to be a bit of a force - depending on the context, sure, but a force nonetheless - and I'm always determined to finish the books I start. It's such a waste of money otherwise. Well, sometimes I wish I just knew how to quit.
Because, while the opposite would have been a waste of money, reading this book definitely seemed like a waste of time.
There are a lot of things that went wrong with this book:
1) The writing. It was my first observation and my first comment on the book. I'm not saying it's atrocious, it's readable. It's just not super pleasant. It doesn't flow, it doesn't seem natural and effortless the way so many books are. I mostly felt like it was trying to be something it was not, trying to imitate a certain writing style, like a would-be, less masterful Neil Gaiman. It definitely put me off from the get-go and I may have been less forgiving because of it.
2) The constant POV changes in the same chapter. I'm so not a fan. I know it seems nice to have everyone's reactions but, in reality, it makes you feel like you're always jumping from head to head. It feels clumsy and sloppy. There is a right way to pull off omniscient narrators (most classics I've read over the years have had an omniscient narrator - it was apparently all the rage at some point), and that's not it.
3) The over-use of the word "blast". It's anecdotal at best, but never in my whole life have I heard (or, in that case, read) this word so much. It came to the point when I was like "Say that word one more time!"
I just couldn't anymore.
4) There's a huge problem with exposition. When you have to explain things and concepts to your reader 3 quarters into your book, it usually means that somewhere, somehow, something went wrong. Either you're trying to do too much at once, or you've failed to explain it well at first. At some point, your reader needs to be able to activate their "cruising-mode" and not have to wonder how the universe you've created works. It was just too much, and I honestly didn't care about knowing more, to be honest.
And the worst thing is, it's not even just the plot, it's the characters as well. There's a bit of a romancy-vibe introduced with Michelle and Cody, and then Michelle and Roland which grossed me out because you only know that Michelle is 22. It's revealed that Cody is apparently a bit older than the rest, but I've imagined them all as high-school-aged, 17 at the most (it's actually only revealed at the end of the book that the main character is 15). So the whole thing kind of grossed me out, and that's what you get for barely introducing your characters!
5) The constant snarkiness doesn't help either. I grew tired of it pretty quickly. I get that it breaks with the violence of the story, but in the end, it just seems out of place.
Anyway, as you can see, I did not like this book, although I understand that some people would be able to like it more. I also debated a lot on the rating I would give it. I was pretty set on a 2-star rating, but the fact remains that, since I've actually speed-read through a book only because I wanted to be done with it and move on to something else, I can't give it more. This is not what reading is about, this is not what literature is about. It should be about pleasure and anticipation, not reading for reading's sake.
I will not be reading the sequels.
Well, that's over and done with.
Let me tell you that it's incredibly difficult to push through a book when you know - you know - that you won't like it. This is what happened to me with Young Gods. Not even a whole chapter in and I could determine that this book just wasn't for me. Now, I consider my stubborn nature to be a bit of a force - depending on the context, sure, but a force nonetheless - and I'm always determined to finish the books I start. It's such a waste of money otherwise. Well, sometimes I wish I just knew how to quit.
Because, while the opposite would have been a waste of money, reading this book definitely seemed like a waste of time.
There are a lot of things that went wrong with this book:
1) The writing. It was my first observation and my first comment on the book. I'm not saying it's atrocious, it's readable. It's just not super pleasant. It doesn't flow, it doesn't seem natural and effortless the way so many books are. I mostly felt like it was trying to be something it was not, trying to imitate a certain writing style, like a would-be, less masterful Neil Gaiman. It definitely put me off from the get-go and I may have been less forgiving because of it.
2) The constant POV changes in the same chapter. I'm so not a fan. I know it seems nice to have everyone's reactions but, in reality, it makes you feel like you're always jumping from head to head. It feels clumsy and sloppy. There is a right way to pull off omniscient narrators (most classics I've read over the years have had an omniscient narrator - it was apparently all the rage at some point), and that's not it.
3) The over-use of the word "blast". It's anecdotal at best, but never in my whole life have I heard (or, in that case, read) this word so much. It came to the point when I was like "Say that word one more time!"
I just couldn't anymore.
4) There's a huge problem with exposition. When you have to explain things and concepts to your reader 3 quarters into your book, it usually means that somewhere, somehow, something went wrong. Either you're trying to do too much at once, or you've failed to explain it well at first. At some point, your reader needs to be able to activate their "cruising-mode" and not have to wonder how the universe you've created works. It was just too much, and I honestly didn't care about knowing more, to be honest.
And the worst thing is, it's not even just the plot, it's the characters as well. There's a bit of a romancy-vibe introduced with Michelle and Cody, and then Michelle and Roland which grossed me out because you only know that Michelle is 22. It's revealed that Cody is apparently a bit older than the rest, but I've imagined them all as high-school-aged, 17 at the most (it's actually only revealed at the end of the book that the main character is 15). So the whole thing kind of grossed me out, and that's what you get for barely introducing your characters!
5) The constant snarkiness doesn't help either. I grew tired of it pretty quickly. I get that it breaks with the violence of the story, but in the end, it just seems out of place.
Anyway, as you can see, I did not like this book, although I understand that some people would be able to like it more. I also debated a lot on the rating I would give it. I was pretty set on a 2-star rating, but the fact remains that, since I've actually speed-read through a book only because I wanted to be done with it and move on to something else, I can't give it more. This is not what reading is about, this is not what literature is about. It should be about pleasure and anticipation, not reading for reading's sake.
I will not be reading the sequels.
June 20, 2015
A Great Urban Fantasy Read!
Excellent characters, unique world building, and engaging characters highlight this book. This is the book you would get if you combined Stephen King with Jim Butcher and Suzanne Collins.
Batt sprinkles references to current and past pop culture throughout, adding a layer of realism that ands to the story, not distracts from it. I cared about the characters and found myself at the edge of my seat several times.
Excellent characters, unique world building, and engaging characters highlight this book. This is the book you would get if you combined Stephen King with Jim Butcher and Suzanne Collins.
Batt sprinkles references to current and past pop culture throughout, adding a layer of realism that ands to the story, not distracts from it. I cared about the characters and found myself at the edge of my seat several times.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews