Chthonic

by Steven Montano

concerning, belonging to, or inhabiting the underworld; infernalIn the distant future, Earth lies abandoned. An Exodus brought on by unforetold calamities drove humanity to the stars, where we have colonized the rest of the solar system even as we continue to wage war with ourselves. Thousands of poor are left abandoned to share Earth’s fate, while the new Colonies almost immediately start to disintegrate from within.“Sleep, buried within the bones.”Rianne Cole is an Engineer, one of a chosen few capable of building the world-spanning Engines needed to recolonize Earth and save humankind once the squandered Colonial resources run dangerously thin. But Cole is haunted by a recurring lifelong nightmare of a demonic witch determined to destroy her, a monster that may or may not exist solely within her own fragile mind...“What feeds is not forgotten.”John Trench is a man in mourning, a widower charged with transporting his wife’s coffin to a special space station where her soul may ascend to heaven. Though he is not a man of faith, he is willing to make this grim pilgrimage across the stars for his love, even when he finds himself threatened by a hostile presence that seems determined to take both he and his late wife straight to hell...“So quick is the flesh to fail.”Across the deep cold of interstellar space and through the wastelands of a ruined Earth, against hostile primitive tribes and terrifying and unexplainable supernatural presences, Cole and Trench will be forced to face their deepest fears, and both will be pushed to the limits of their sanity and their lives if they are to defeat the vast and unexplainable entity that seeks not only to lay waste to Earth, but to all of reality…CHTHONIC By Steven MontanoAn epic sci-fi/horror from the author of Blood Skies, Gun Witch & The Last Acolyte

753 pages, Paperback

Published March 6, 2021

Reviews

[Jeremyf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of confusion at the start, but things concluded well

A dark and messy trip that makes you rethink a lot of things during the story. There are a few main characters that become more then become a lot less and somehow it all comes to a grisly climax and interesting conclusion. Lots of dark imagery typical of Montano, and some truly vile stuff. Don’t feel too surprised about that, since it’s the author’s style and you already knew about it.