Horror is my least favorite genre, with guts and gore, demons and severed heads flying, maggots seething, and --well, in spite of all that, one author manages to reel me in every time while lesser writers leave me shutting the book.
Harvey Click
"After years of writing nothing but horror, I’ve written a science-fiction/fantasy adventure novel." - Harvey Click
I'm thrilled to hear that, Professor Click, but sad beyond words to hear that you plan to stop writing and publishing due to lack of sales. Say it isn't so!
If my book reviews inspired readers to buy the novels I love, you'd be a millionaire many times over.
This cannot be your last book!
A Traveler from an Antique Land by Harvey Click
... a potent cocktail of epic battles, thrilling adventures, non-stop action, and astonishing marvels!
When a young woman is whisked away to a planet populated by kidnapped humans and strange extraterrestrials, she faces perilous swordfights, flying battleships, mind-controlling alien lifeforms, crocodiles with wings, snakes that devour horses, an extinct race that communicates through its singing sculptures, an “uncertainty sink” that warps time, an interplanetary translocator guided by disembodied human brains, a gloomy castle seething with secrets, and labyrinthine catacombs filled with deadly assassins.
Harvey Click is a college lit professor
who earned an M.A. in English from Ohio State University, using his first novel as a master's thesis. He has written five novels, four of them in the horror genre, and numerous short stories. He has taught both English and creative writing for Ohio University, Ohio State University, the James Thurber House, and OSU's Creative Arts Program.
He's a writing teacher, and it shows. His prose is flawless, his stories spellbinding.
The opening pages are riveting as a young college co-ed is swept from Earth to a new planet:
“Where the hell am I?” I asked.
“Notearth,” Desmond said.
“Yeah, I’m kinda getting that impression, but what’s it called?”
“It’s called Notearth. I guess the early pioneer who named it wanted to get straight to the point. Whatever else you can say about this place, it’s not earth.”
Her abductors become her escorts, allies, and even buddies, even though they don't seem at all trustworthy.
There's a secondary character I fell in love with from his first appearance, but--dang! Spoilers! Always, I'm accused of spoilers. I don't know how to write about this fantastic story, other than to say those we expect the least of can surprise us the most.
There's an interesting contrast between those in power who have power (as in electrical power, not just political), while those who have been vanquished must live without electricity or machinery.
The heroine's mother is a piece of work. But then, a lot of mothers are awful, right? (Except me!)
There are surprises. After all the carnage, GOOD THINGS HAPPEN, and the ending is very satisfying.
How often do I approve an ending? Hardly ever. This one rocks!
Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias" is the source of the title:
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Try a sample chapter and see! Better yet,
Invest 99 cents in this book - it'll be the best dollar you spend this month!
Some Excerpts from
HARVEY CLICK'S BLOG
I grew up immersed in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. At the age of eleven, I started subscribing to pulp magazines that published this fare, and I joined a science fiction book club that sent me two new novels each month. Some of my grade-school teachers took my books and pulp magazines away from me, thinking I was too young to read about Cthulhian monstrosities, but the air of taboo only increased my fascination.
#Pulp-Rev fans will appreciate this:
During my college years I decided my fiction should be, ahem, more “literary,” but after penning a great many precious little tales in which next to nothing happened, I turned back to my childhood roots and wrote a string of horror novels and stories...
... But late last year I decided I’d had enough of the horror genre, at least for a while. After plumbing the subterranean gloom for so many years, I was ready for some fresh air and sunshine. After all, horror isn’t my only root; all those millions of pages of fantasy and science fiction I’ve read from early grade school till yesterday evening have fertilized my imagination even more than Lovecraftian lore.
So I decided to lock the bogyman back into the cellar and try tapping out a different sort of tune on my keyboard. The result is A Traveler from an Antique Land. It’s a fantasy adventure with a sprinkle of science fiction, or maybe a science fiction adventure with a dash of fantasy, but however it’s labeled, the emphasis is on adventure. There’s some satire and maybe even a touch of tavern philosophy, but action is first and foremost. Readers may react to it in any number of ways, but I doubt they’ll fall asleep.
Sword and sorcery has always been my favorite sub-genre of fantasy, and I’ve always preferred Robert E. Howard’s bloody tales or Fritz Leiber’s sardonic Gray Mouser yarns to cuddly elves and talking dragons. I wanted some of that swashbuckling sword and sorcery flavor, but I wanted to place it in a science-fictional setting instead of the usual pseudo-medieval world.
Some friends have warned me I shouldn’t mix fantasy with science fiction, but tell that to Roger Zelazny, Poul Anderson, Robert Heinlein, Edgar Rice Burroughs, or countless other writers who did it quite gleefully in the days before Puritanical purists started guarding genre definitions like fussy old men guarding their lawns from the neighbors’ hooligan children. Robert Heinlein could write hard science fiction with the best of them, but many of his novels were unabashed fantasy with a bit of math thrown in. One of my favorite fantasy novels is Heinlein’s Glory Road, which mixes swords and sorcery and dragons with plenty of cool futuristic science. Tomorrow’s science is called sorcery today.
This novel gestated in my mind for several years. The ideas first came to me in 2014, and I filled the better part of a notebook with them. But at the time I didn’t feel ready to write it, so I wrote Demon Frenzy instead. Several books later, I decided the time was right. By then the characters were clamoring to burst out of my imagination and onto the page.
The story poured out of me like silvery light from a full moon.
I’m hoping readers will find themselves immersed in the same spell that captivated me, the silvery enchantment of clashing swords, epic battles, thrilling adventures, non-stop action, and astonishing marvels in a strange world called Notearth.
He captivated me!
Held me hostage with great prose, he did. Look at my reviews of his previous books.
Go ahead, click on The Bad Box, read my praises of this brilliant writer, and if you "Find this review helpful," please click the yes button. I spend hours and hours of my life reading, reviewing, and relying on word of mouth to promote great fiction. I sometimes say if I don't start seeing any indication that my reviews get read, I'm going to quit the business, but y'all know I never quit reading and reviewing.
Realms of Night: More Tales of Terror by Harvey Click
Lace up your boots before delving into a Harvey Click tale - he'll knock your socks off, steal your breath!
By Carol Kean VINE VOICE on January 26, 2018
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
Darn it Harvey. I hate the horror genre. You write so well, you always reel me in.
Froggy Went a Courtin' - it's like a fairy tale, but the icky, froggy human man is not going to morph into a handsome prince. Not in a horror story. This is not a spoiler, ok? No happy endings here, folks. BUT - but, but, but- the awful heroine does have an eye-opener, making a character arc that could knock your socks off. Lace up your boots before delving into a Harvey Click tale.
And Froggy. Oh, man, that guy will steal your heart!
The drug dealers, the Mexican superstitions about spirits and paranormal creatures, add richness and dimension to "The Killer's Shadow." The depth of character, the surprises, the brilliant pacing and unfolding of the plot, the vivid personalities of all the villains and even the minor characters - I haven't enjoyed creepy characters this much since the best TV show ever, "Breaking Bad."
The little stick-man creatures ... there is a scene I cannot see.
Not gonna say more. This is a book you have to read and experience for yourself--because no review could do Harvey Click any justice, unless I quote lots of excerpts and deliver spoilers.
Back to reading, writing, and book reviewing!
Keangaroo
because Kean sounds like Kane (not keen, hint, hint)
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