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Catching Hell Part One
Catching Hell is the first part of a sci-fi/fantasy epic about two friends separated on their quest to avenge their destroyed home. Aryu, who has wings, and Johan have their home destroyed by a mechanical army thought extinct. Now separated, Aryu learns that he must also deal with Nixon Ash, a phoenix-man sworn to kill owners of the Shi Kaze, a weapon Aryu recently found. Meanwhile Johan and his tactical mind adventure to a distant, advanced city to find a way to defeat their enemy and reunite with his best friend.
One goes into the world of the fantastic and mystical, while the other goes to the technological. Each are worlds they were raised to fear, but now must face to defeat their common enemy.
One goes into the world of the fantastic and mystical, while the other goes to the technological. Each are worlds they were raised to fear, but now must face to defeat their common enemy.
Kindle Edition
First published April 16, 2018
2 people want to read
About the author
Marc Watson
3 books9 followersMarc Watson is an author of genre fiction of all lengths and styles. His debut novel Death Dresses Poorly was released in 2017, and you can find stories in his science-fantasy Ryuujin World in Catching Hell: Journey and Catching Hell: Destination (all from Fluky Fiction) as well as the short story collection Between Conversations: Tales From the World of Ryuujin.
Marc lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is a husband to a very patient wife and a proud father of two. He is an avid outdoorsman, baseball player, martial artist, poutine aficionado, and lover of all Mexican foods.
He can be found at online all social media at @writewatson
Marc lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is a husband to a very patient wife and a proud father of two. He is an avid outdoorsman, baseball player, martial artist, poutine aficionado, and lover of all Mexican foods.
He can be found at online all social media at @writewatson
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 29, 2021
I'll start off by saying I am not a big fantasy reader. Here's the hard truth: I thought both The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter were lame.
Sorry...
When I first picked up Catching Hell 1, I'll admit, I was hesitant. I absolutely adored Marc Watson's Death Dresses Poorly, so I thought I would give this one a try--genre be damned! Man, am I glad I gave it a chance. The characters were realistic despite the fantastical elements, and Watson doesn't waste the reader's time on long-winded descriptions to "world build" and flex on how "imaginative" the landscape is. Instead, the story is very character-driven and to the point while still having enough imagery to help paint a picture. I personally prefer to make my own inferences when visualizing a story, and Watson doesn't. spoon-feed details to the reader.
Another aspect I loved about the book is how dark it is. Being a huge fan of The Dark Tower series, I've come to love cynical, eerie, and uncomfortable sci-fantasy. While Watson doesn't take the dark themes and painful scenes to the extreme, they are there. This story, like Death Dresses Poorly, is also a sort of coming-of-age story, which is pretty cool. I could see all ages (within reason) enjoying this book.
Can't wait for Book 2!
Sorry...
When I first picked up Catching Hell 1, I'll admit, I was hesitant. I absolutely adored Marc Watson's Death Dresses Poorly, so I thought I would give this one a try--genre be damned! Man, am I glad I gave it a chance. The characters were realistic despite the fantastical elements, and Watson doesn't waste the reader's time on long-winded descriptions to "world build" and flex on how "imaginative" the landscape is. Instead, the story is very character-driven and to the point while still having enough imagery to help paint a picture. I personally prefer to make my own inferences when visualizing a story, and Watson doesn't. spoon-feed details to the reader.
Another aspect I loved about the book is how dark it is. Being a huge fan of The Dark Tower series, I've come to love cynical, eerie, and uncomfortable sci-fantasy. While Watson doesn't take the dark themes and painful scenes to the extreme, they are there. This story, like Death Dresses Poorly, is also a sort of coming-of-age story, which is pretty cool. I could see all ages (within reason) enjoying this book.
Can't wait for Book 2!
March 30, 2019
In this novel, best friends Aryu and Johan embark on a journey of revenge. They have sworn to destroy the mechanical army that devastated their village of Tan Torna Qu-ay, leaving only them–and their childhood enemy Esgona–the last living remnants of the peaceful village. Technology has been long-gone from this corner of the world, after destroying mankind twice, but now it seems that it is back, and more destructive than ever. Even worse, it seems to be led by a man with wings… Someone akin to Aryu. The friends split ways, Johan (and Esgona, unfortunately) to travel with various refugees to a different part of the world; one that is rumored to have the advanced weaponry necessary to fight off the mechanical army. Aryu travels with Nixon, the phoenix tasked by God to kill the bearer of the fabled sword Shi Kaze–the one currently in Aryu’s protection–to find Crystal, the oldest and most powerful human alive. She is an Embracer, one who controls the Power, which broke the world once before. With all of these questions and various forms of power and hatred, what will become of Johan and Aryu’s world? Can they beat the mechanical army back? And why is it here in the first place?
With amazing world-building ability, Marc Watson transports his readers into this futuristic world, where mankind has fallen not once, not twice, but four times (twice by machine, once by the Power, and once by God), almost leading to their extinction. Even so, humans have shown a remarkable resilience and have persevered. We readers find a sturdiness in the characters, who refuse to give up but retain a healthy dose of wariness in regards to both technology and the Power. The exquisite detail of the world and its characters, down to different accents and clothing, sends us into a whole new world. We are left reeling with the characters as their towns and family members are destroyed by the machines. We feel our own need for revenge, for the unnecessary violence and slaughter of innocent human beings.
With a variety of POVs throughout the book, we get to see the world from many different perspectives, both main character and side alike. We are able to understand Aryu and Johan on a more intimate level and learn the various traits that they embody. We are also able to see how Nixon, Crystal, and Sho see the world, very different from the two young men, as they are older and very powerful people. In fact, these may be my favorite POVs, as they give us the most insight into how the world has become as it is now. We gain a deeper understanding of Ryu and his motivations, as well as how Embracers and the Power–as well as technology–were not something to be feared, but to be revered. We even get to see the hatred Esgona feels, the machine detachment of Eleotherios Duo, and various strategy and honor of military men. With all of these different perspectives shining light upon this world, we readers feel as if we are actually living there, fighting alongside them.
I loved the constant coming-of-age theme that pervaded Johan’s and Aryu’s life (mostly Johan’s), despite the fact that this is not really a coming-of-age novel. But it deepened both the characters and the cultures surrounding them so much, and enriched my reading experience.
The plot itself was something extremely unique, and I never knew what was coming. It denied using any of the familiar sci-fi or fantasy tropes, and thus I was constantly kept guessing at what was going to happen next. Betrayal, action-packed battle, and unlikely friendships, were all shoved at us out of the blue. I loved it! I never knew what was going to happen, just as if I was actually there, trekking along with the characters. Watson does an amazing job of giving us just enough information to make us curious, but never enough to spoil the surprise.
I love the content of the novel, but the reason I did not give it 5 stars was mostly technical issues. There was a wealth of grammatical and syntactical errors, and it tended to kick me out of the story. As I mentioned above, Watson does an amazing job sucking us in, so when I came across an error, the resulting jerk was very unsettling. I would be in the midst of a harrowing battle when suddenly I found myself in my living room on my couch, trying to decipher a word that was misspelled or a sentence missing words or punctuation.
I was also slightly put-off by the amount of “smirking” occurring in the book. As I see it, smirking carries with it a smug, offensive connotation. But Watson tended to use it even when characters were smiling nicely at each other. It just seemed to cheapen some characters’ interactions with each other, and I was constantly questioning if they were purposefully being smug or simply smiling. They would smirk even when in dire situations or in a sad conversation, and not for comedic effect! It just didn’t seem right. And it happened all the time. Sometimes people just smile; they don’t need to always be smirking.
Overall, this was an amazing read with a few technical errors, but of course me being an English-teacher-in-training, I may be more predisposed to noticing such errors. I still highly recommend this book (as can be seen by my rating) and I definitely intend on picking up Destination: Catching Hell Part 2! I can’t wait to see what happens next on Johan and Aryu’s journey.
With amazing world-building ability, Marc Watson transports his readers into this futuristic world, where mankind has fallen not once, not twice, but four times (twice by machine, once by the Power, and once by God), almost leading to their extinction. Even so, humans have shown a remarkable resilience and have persevered. We readers find a sturdiness in the characters, who refuse to give up but retain a healthy dose of wariness in regards to both technology and the Power. The exquisite detail of the world and its characters, down to different accents and clothing, sends us into a whole new world. We are left reeling with the characters as their towns and family members are destroyed by the machines. We feel our own need for revenge, for the unnecessary violence and slaughter of innocent human beings.
With a variety of POVs throughout the book, we get to see the world from many different perspectives, both main character and side alike. We are able to understand Aryu and Johan on a more intimate level and learn the various traits that they embody. We are also able to see how Nixon, Crystal, and Sho see the world, very different from the two young men, as they are older and very powerful people. In fact, these may be my favorite POVs, as they give us the most insight into how the world has become as it is now. We gain a deeper understanding of Ryu and his motivations, as well as how Embracers and the Power–as well as technology–were not something to be feared, but to be revered. We even get to see the hatred Esgona feels, the machine detachment of Eleotherios Duo, and various strategy and honor of military men. With all of these different perspectives shining light upon this world, we readers feel as if we are actually living there, fighting alongside them.
I loved the constant coming-of-age theme that pervaded Johan’s and Aryu’s life (mostly Johan’s), despite the fact that this is not really a coming-of-age novel. But it deepened both the characters and the cultures surrounding them so much, and enriched my reading experience.
The plot itself was something extremely unique, and I never knew what was coming. It denied using any of the familiar sci-fi or fantasy tropes, and thus I was constantly kept guessing at what was going to happen next. Betrayal, action-packed battle, and unlikely friendships, were all shoved at us out of the blue. I loved it! I never knew what was going to happen, just as if I was actually there, trekking along with the characters. Watson does an amazing job of giving us just enough information to make us curious, but never enough to spoil the surprise.
I love the content of the novel, but the reason I did not give it 5 stars was mostly technical issues. There was a wealth of grammatical and syntactical errors, and it tended to kick me out of the story. As I mentioned above, Watson does an amazing job sucking us in, so when I came across an error, the resulting jerk was very unsettling. I would be in the midst of a harrowing battle when suddenly I found myself in my living room on my couch, trying to decipher a word that was misspelled or a sentence missing words or punctuation.
I was also slightly put-off by the amount of “smirking” occurring in the book. As I see it, smirking carries with it a smug, offensive connotation. But Watson tended to use it even when characters were smiling nicely at each other. It just seemed to cheapen some characters’ interactions with each other, and I was constantly questioning if they were purposefully being smug or simply smiling. They would smirk even when in dire situations or in a sad conversation, and not for comedic effect! It just didn’t seem right. And it happened all the time. Sometimes people just smile; they don’t need to always be smirking.
Overall, this was an amazing read with a few technical errors, but of course me being an English-teacher-in-training, I may be more predisposed to noticing such errors. I still highly recommend this book (as can be seen by my rating) and I definitely intend on picking up Destination: Catching Hell Part 2! I can’t wait to see what happens next on Johan and Aryu’s journey.
January 30, 2019
Aryu has been shunned since he could remember. he grew up being hated and feared by children and adult alike. H e wants nothing more to prove his worth in front of his village council and given the respect he deserves. Johan bears the shame of his predecessor in his shoulder. something which is passed down to him from his father. The fact is he wants to dislodge that shame off his shoulders too. But suddenly their hometown is destroyed in an attack by the people who dwelled in old magic and their village is reduced to dust. There is nothing for them there. Now with a new power rising and the arrival of machines which can destroy a village to dust in mere nanosecond they need to figure out their true self fast. And the big question is are they brave enough and courageous enough to stop it? How far will someone go to stop this madness? And can it even be stopped? Or is it the end of the world as they knew it.
Written from the perspective of various characters, mostly Nix, Aryu and Johan this story is a beautiful mix of science fiction, fantasy,magic and action along with adventure. One can even call it a bildungsroman. It has lots of action packed scenes and adventures along with mystery which keeps the readers always guessing the next incident. It has a quality which keeps them almost on edge and turning the pages quickly. It is also fast paced. Normally I don't enjoy sci-fi. It seems a bit childish to me at times as in most cases the world building and the story line is too shabby and confusing. But in this case I would not say the story line is confusing, although it is not perfect it isn't too bad either. The characters are quite lovely and realistic. I especially liked Nix and Aryu a lot. The author had also tried making this story very descriptive which I'm sure is because he wanted the readers to help imagine the landscapes better. Though it gets tedious at times it is not that terrible,in fact it aids the imagination multiple times.
Overall I'll give this story 3/5 points.
please head to my blog to check out other reviews by me.
https://ensnaringlibri.blogspot.com/
Written from the perspective of various characters, mostly Nix, Aryu and Johan this story is a beautiful mix of science fiction, fantasy,magic and action along with adventure. One can even call it a bildungsroman. It has lots of action packed scenes and adventures along with mystery which keeps the readers always guessing the next incident. It has a quality which keeps them almost on edge and turning the pages quickly. It is also fast paced. Normally I don't enjoy sci-fi. It seems a bit childish to me at times as in most cases the world building and the story line is too shabby and confusing. But in this case I would not say the story line is confusing, although it is not perfect it isn't too bad either. The characters are quite lovely and realistic. I especially liked Nix and Aryu a lot. The author had also tried making this story very descriptive which I'm sure is because he wanted the readers to help imagine the landscapes better. Though it gets tedious at times it is not that terrible,in fact it aids the imagination multiple times.
Overall I'll give this story 3/5 points.
please head to my blog to check out other reviews by me.
https://ensnaringlibri.blogspot.com/
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January 31, 2019This is the greatest book called Catching Hell pt 1: Journey I've ever written.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews