I'm blessed... or is it cursed? Either way, it's one hell of a good ride.

We don't get much of the previous novel's MC, but that's okay, because I have no problem with getting back into this wonderfully imagined post-Trauma earth, filled with dark magics, dark hearts, dark forests, dark societies, dark gods, and dark character progression.

Did I mention that it's dark? I mean it's horrorshow dark, and that's exactly what I want and need. Let's take all the good bits from the campy horrors, the scream-out-louds, the dark psychologies and the deeply, deeply, disturbing, and throw them into a solid novel led by three MC's this time. Three Heretics? Indeed. Good? Bad? Who the hell knows? The fact is, everything in this world is amazingly complex on the good/evil scale, but let's face it, everything that appears good always gets great and evil reveals. :)

Sound like your cup of tea, my horror fans?

My goodness, though, when it comes to Atticus, the gravedigger? The Second Heretic? Prepare yourself for one hell of a nice treat. I can honestly say that I've never seen such a traumatic character progression in my life, with quite as much reasonable, (or freaking unimaginable,) change.

Keep digging, Atticus. *whew* *wow*

And lastly, I should let you fanboys and fangirls of multiple tie-ins and complexly woven uber-stories, there's a ton of shorts by this author that will come out soon in an anthology that do a wonderful job at building a Hale-ian horror mythos, full of good stand-alones that just happen to enrich an awesome whole.

Do I sound like a fanboy? Well, for good reason. This is a work of great imagination and relentless horror. There's quite a bit of good psychological stuff built right in to the gore, the crazy, and the dark side of the Awe.

No one ought to skip this! It's great fun! :) ( )