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Dead Sea Chronicles

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RETURN TO THE DEAD SEA
Come back to a mist-shrouded realm of horrors outside our own world…
Come back to a place where rotting hulks drift on brackish tides and the nightmares of wayward travelers come to hideous life…
Come back to a rancid ocean choked with a tangled maze of moldering vegetation and the decomposing carcasses of those who died screaming for rescue…
Come back to a world where predators soar through noxious clouds, aquatic leviathans lurk in the currents below and the souls of lost sailors suffer an infinite torment on their final voyages…
DEAD MEN MAY TELL NO TALES……BUT THE DEAD SEA DOES.

430 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 10, 2017

72 people are currently reading
179 people want to read

About the author

Tim Curran

149 books596 followers
Tim Curran lives in Michigan and is the author of the novels Skin Medicine, Hive, Dead Sea, Resurrection, The Devil Next Door, and Biohazard, as well as the novella The Corpse King. His short stories have appeared in such magazines as City Slab, Flesh&Blood, Book of Dark Wisdom, and Inhuman, and anthologies such as Shivers IV, High Seas Cthulhu, and Vile Things.

For DarkFuse and its imprints, he has written the bestselling The Underdwelling, the Readers Choice-Nominated novella Fear Me, Puppet Graveyard as well as Long Black Coffin.

Find him on the web at: www.corpseking.com.

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5 stars
37 (23%)
4 stars
63 (40%)
3 stars
37 (23%)
2 stars
15 (9%)
1 star
3 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
Profile Image for Chris Berko.
484 reviews143 followers
October 6, 2019
My reviews for Tim Curran books usually consist of a bunch of superlatives, a whole lot of praising and respect and admiration and love, then some more superlatives, maybe some hyperbole, then some shameless groveling and fanboy gushing to finish. Buckle up folks, because this may be the best stuff he has ever written. I loved the original Dead Sea novel but thought it could have been a tad more streamlined, that some parts were a bit long. That issue is fixed and both stories in this are fast paced AF, and they are both awesome for completely different reasons. The first one is a Tim-Curran-Creature-Feature-Splatterpalooza and it was more inline with what the original book was like. Set up + Spooky History + Grand Finale Gorefest = a fantastic story. The second one had all those killer elements but added a whole Memento like broken timeline piece to the puzzle that goes to the craziest of places and reminded me why I think Tim Curran is one of the best writers of fiction writing at this time: because he has one of the best imaginations out there. While I recommend anything he has written this is him at the top of his game. Here he showcases how mature he has grown as a writer and how to do it without sacrificing what made him so awesome in the first place: all the gooey gory stuff.
482 reviews18 followers
October 26, 2019
Do you guys enjoy cheesey monster novels? You do? What are you doing here! Curran has always been brilliant at constructing truly unique and terrifying creatures that are anything but cheesey. Dead Sea, released in 2007, was my first read of his and is likely going to remain in my top five favorite books of all time. This book allows us to revisit this absolutely insane world that attacks you both physically and mentally. Both novellas here are incredibly fun and bring us more creatures and devistating death scenes. Hopeless, chilling, and quite a bit disgusting, this is easily one of Curran’s best works and, if you haven’t encountered him before, give the first, shorter novella a try. After that, go buy Dead Sea and enjoy what you have been missing. You’re welcome!
Profile Image for Amit.
771 reviews3 followers
April 4, 2020
Photo-Grid-1586028944041

Weedworld -
Plane crashed in an unknown place of Ocean and the engine didn't work after that. Crew of this plane got stuck in there. There's a vast of weed floating in that part of ocean. Ethan, Marcus, Bisson, Ava, Brice all of them trying there best to find a way to get out of that hell of a place. Those weeds seemed norhing normal and the circumstances around them too didn't feet right. Whatever it was there's something very wrong with it and the horrifying event to happen when something violent come towards them. They better watch out or the weedworld would know what exactly have to be done here...

Devil of the deep -
I liked this one better than the first. It actually frightened me to the core. Though kind of similar circumstances like the first one...

In Dead Sea with a ship Captain Gil lost his direction and was trying to figure out how to get out of that situation. Gill alongside with all his crew member Craw, Rip, Webb they were all hanging in there. Gradually as the event develope in the story things too began change. And no it was not good, not good at all. Lot of things began to happen on that unnatural environment. There's nothing like thwt fog they ever seen, as if the fog was not right. It got something unnatural thing about it and then comes the weeds. Those are too somehow didn't feel right. Storm coming on and the situation got worsen. Something attacked them. There's jo explanation what on earth they saw and fight against with. Total horror and chaos and it seems nothing stop of it. Gil on the other hand didn't give up but always kept his mind in total guard. At some point he did lost his all crew members and had to lead himself alone but he found them again. Though this time there's a difference as he couldn't meet all his crew member but someone else too was doing something wrong business in there with the help of something unnatural. Gil have no idea what holds of his future but he need to keep fighting, he need to keep sane if not for everyone than for himself too. Or otherwise there's no way to getting out of that nightmare...

I actually didn't like the ending part. I thought there must some way for Gil but well it's author's wish how the story would end. But tell me apart from that ending part I enjoyed this one by Tim Curran. Though I find it kind of slow from the beginning but after reading couple of chapters it going very good and I had no choice but finishing it in one sitting...

4 out of 5...
Profile Image for Amanda McGehee.
17 reviews
February 24, 2021
I love sea horror. The first story was awesome. I couldn't stop reading. The second story wasn't bad either just the first story was really good. I hope I find more from Tim Curran about the Dead sea.
Profile Image for Quentin Wallace.
Author 34 books178 followers
August 23, 2021
I have to say up front I didn't enjoy this collection of two novellas as much as I enjoyed the original novel. The novel was very much Stephen King's THE MIST on the high seas, which was just as good as it sounds. This was a little different.

I think Tim Curran didn't want to just rehash the first novel, so he did make an effort to expand on the Dead Sea mythos and bring something new into his universe. Rather than THE MIST, we got something like the video game SILENT HILL on the ocean. (And that would probably be a hell of a video game, just saying.)

This was as much psychological horror as it was a monster tale, I just thought this universe worked better as a monster story. Honestly, this was really good it's just that I thought the first novel was great. This was probably hurt more by my expectations rather than any flaws it has.

If you liked the novel it is worth checking this out, and I hope this isn't the last time we get back to this dimension.
Profile Image for Paulo "paper books only".
1,470 reviews75 followers
February 8, 2021
After reading the Dead Sea novel I thought about reading this short stories collection which turn out not being a short story collection but two novelas, one of which with 160 pages.

First of all, if you enjoy the novel you will probably enjoy the second. And I say probably because I didn't enjoy as much. I thought it was a rewashed of the same scenes, imagens and situations.

The first we follow a group of people who have just crash into the ocean. There's weed (we've seen this ween in the novel) and all people are trying to forget. You got the rich pretentious guy, the suck boss guy, the stupid girl and the normal one and one other guy I don't even notice he had characteristic except he knew how to fly planes.

The second one is bigger but it similar with the novel but delas with different stuff. The fog is there, they are in a boat, there's a strange boat where time moves differently. Regarding the ending was better than the novel,

Overall, I didn't enjoy it, but maybe because I read one and after the other. So there's that. If you are new to Tim Curran don't start here. Dead Sea if you want a cthulhuesque kind of novel, Blackout if you want a novella length. The Devil next door if you want a really nasty splatter full of violent things or Biohazard if you wanta post apocalpythic zombie novel full of images that will make you throw up. Yeah Start there.
Profile Image for Karibou.
31 reviews7 followers
February 11, 2022
Après Dead Sea, je voulais continuer à découvrir le monde qu'a créé Tim Curran mais j'en ressors déçu. Il reprend la même formule mais sans le rythme lent de l'original et recycle certaines idées sans arriver à développer plus son univers. C'est un raté de raconter encore des personnages venant de notre monde contemporain quand on sait ce qu'est Dead Sea. On se retrouve donc avec les mêmes archétypes.
Et dommage de ne faire que deux histoires, au lieu de plusieurs, plus courtes mais plus originales.
Profile Image for Myles.
236 reviews3 followers
February 8, 2023
I wanted to like this book. Dead Sea by Curran was good enough that it made up for its shortcomings. But I feel like Chronicles just took all the issues from Dead Sea and dialed them up to 11. Curran basically has about 3 characters that he recycles, the claustrophobia, build up, and atmosphere from Dead Sea was completely gone. There were a lot of grammatical issues too but that may have been a kindle formatting issue.

All in all this didnt completely turn me off from Curran, but I will be doing some more homework on future books before grabbing them.
62 reviews
October 29, 2024
Dead Sea Chronicles is a two novella collection acting as a sort of sequel to Curran’s earlier Dead Sea. While the world he built and creatures he populates it with remain engaging and scary, I couldn’t help but feel he was stretching it at times here, overpopulating it with fantastic ideas.
The first novella Weedworld concerned a down passenger plane and its passengers who begin dwindling quickly once the creatures of the deep make themselves known. This was a fun one reminiscent of the first novel, a desperate group lost in a parallel swamp world populated by monsters and madness. Good characterizations made this one feel like a short story due to the pace.
The last novella Devil of the Deep contained excellent descriptions of creatures and ghosts and the sense of impending doom and madness yet became lost in its main theme. This had a sailboat of people lost to the Dead Sea and trapped on a haunted freighter. The novella then starts using time bending and jumping forward and back as a plot device. The final explanation left me lost as it was unnecessary, same as the time travel elements. Curran just wanted to cram too many ideas into a horror novel and it became overly convoluted.
Overall a fun trip back to a haunted sea world of monsters and imaginative nightmares. Bring a flare gun just in case….
5 reviews1 follower
July 1, 2020
Dimension X... always a good time.

Dead Sea Chronicles is a pleasant return to this horrific world, drifting in a haunted, forgotten, cursed corner of space.
Hurray!!

It still astounds me that Mr. C's "Hive" and "Dead Sea" books have not made a bigger splash in the Lovecraftian Horror niche.

This stuff drags you, kicking snd screaming, to the worlds he creates. You can't get out until you finish the read. Even then, you will be left pondering how truly good it is, that you are not one of the characters in his novels.

There are only a handful of other authors out there who understand the components needed to create quality Cosmic Horror stories. Tim writes as if he is an actual participant in his tales. This is probably why he is able to inject such genuine dread, terror, awe, scale and hopelessness into his lore.

My only complaint is that he has not written more books to expand upon these doomed worlds.
Profile Image for Chris.
373 reviews80 followers
March 11, 2023
(Read last year)

Written as a sequel or follow up of sorts to his nautical Lovecraftian horror epic Dead Sea, Curran gives three separate tales set in that same world of pure cosmic, HPL-inspired horror. Makes me never want to set foot on a boat ever again. Even for a trip on a lake, for Christ's sake! But if you dig no holds barred horror, especially of the Lovecraftian variety, there's no one better than Tim Curran!
Profile Image for FictionFreak.
268 reviews7 followers
August 20, 2020
Back to the Dead Sea

It felt good to return to Tim Curran’s nightmare dimension. Dead Sea is one of my favorite books, so there was no question I had to scoop this one up! Check it out.
610 reviews2 followers
October 29, 2019
A MIND TRIP IT IS....

Hello, these tales were not happy and they did not end well. Very well written and entertaining to read. Thanks.
33 reviews
July 12, 2022
This book feels more like it has a location to share with you than a story to tell. I enjoy horror that draws heavily from the location, but the story dragged a bit in places for me.
2 reviews
December 20, 2025
The only book from Tim Curran that i did not enjoy as the rest, felt like too stretchy
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews

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