Reviews for The Dead Shall Inherit The Earth

The average rating for The Dead Shall Inherit The Earth based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-01-26 00:00:00 Jenna Haze "Eyes straining in the hellish gloom, he couldn't make out who was there. The figure leaned in, close enough for the foul stench of death, decay, and madness to be overpowering. Close enough for the man's tight-skinned face to become frighteningly clear. Close enough for the necklace of ragged, severed ears to dangle inches away, dissolving the scant remains of the doctor's sanity. Many leering faces pushed through the deep shadows to hover above him. He could only cackle a broken man's laughter as they descended, bringing horrific pain, then, eventually a much-sought release." And so it begins, the descent into madness, the endless toil to survive in a world turned upside down by a cataclysmic plague that not only kills its victims, but first, slowly and unbearably, transforms them into psychotic killers. Against this plague, there is no cure, no balm in Gilead. The only hope for mankind is that this devastating disease is on another planet, a formerly peaceful colonization of earth. If only this plague can be examined from afar, perhaps cured with time, as long as it never infects earth. And so enters the Omni Corporation. Gale, seasoned solider haunted by memories of a particularly devastating mission that claimed the life of the only women he ever loved, is instantly convinced of the need to begin a mission to Avaric, the diseased planet where plague victims now rule, not because of the planet's peril, but because of his brother. This beloved family member was aboard the Merlin, an orbiting space ship that agreed to help the devastated plague victims, only to be overrun and destroyed. Perhaps, if luck be with him, Gale will be able to arrive in time and save his brother. Or perhaps, something far more sinister is awaiting him in the dingy blood tinged corridors of the Merlin. Now, with the help of his fellow soldiers and his need to save, not slaughter, Gale embarks on a mission not only to save the earth, but himself as well. However, this odyssey is fraught with perils, deceptions, death, and the undead. Nothing will ever be the same again, not for Gale, not for his friends, and not for those whose restless sprits drift eternally through the blood drenched corridors of damnation. Watch, for it begins anew . . . The Dead Shall Inherit the Earth is a strange tale; a tale that despite its unrealistic premise is somehow, magically, terrifyingly real. These incidents, these characters, these gruesome abominations, are presented in such a manner as to forcefully impact the reader with a full and unimaginably deep horror. How this magic is accomplished is a mystery to the reader for the tale is seamless, short, and relentlessly effecting. Through some indefinable talent, through some trick of presentation, the author manages to convey an atmosphere rich with paranoia, melancholy, the ultimate horrors, and visions that only could be created in a nightmare realm. "This is real, this is all true." This mantra relentlessly runs through the reader's mind throughout the tale, convincing them of the urgency and peril of the story allowing them to enter a world so disturbing, so shockingly appalling, and so devastatingly terrifying as to invade the reader's dreams and chill their waking hours. Rarely can a simple novel achieve such rich atmosphere, such vividness, and yet, such unending depression that will most certainly make the reader's waking hours bleakly sorrowful. Truly, this is not for the weak of heart. Combined with this aura of paranoia is the relentless, fast paced, and utterly unpredictable plot that is astounding in both its complexity and almost flawless presentation. The concept is original, well explained, and suitably melancholy presenting the reader with a tale of woe that not only scares, but emotionally impacts as well. The characters matter, we want to see them happy, we want to follow their sojourns through the realms of darkness, we want to know how their story ends and therefore, we cannot abandon them even long enough to finish the pressing demands in our daily lives. We must follow them. We have an emotional connection to all of them that demands our attention and our endless weeping for yes, we must shed tears for them. The unpredictability and the refreshing uniqueness of the tale leads to many unexpected revelations that are so shocking and deeply evil as to appall the reader, causing them to long for reparation so that our characters may have some small measure of peace for enduring a living hell. What these revelations are, I am unable to reveal, else they would give away too much of the plot. Let it be sufficient to say that the reader will be most pleased with the outcome, and will, undoubtedly, be deeply effected by the conclusion of the tale. The writing style was appropriate and easily evoked the horror of the situation faced by our characters. However, the author did make one minute error concerning the dialogue. The novel was often somewhat nebulous as to who was talking, creating much confusion until the reader became accustomed to the author's style and adjusted accordingly. A Warning: For those of a squeamish disposition, I feel it only fair to warn you that this tale is excessively gory taking visceral horror to an extreme. This tale does not contain the normal gore seen in other horror novels, but rather takes gruesomeness to an extreme repeatedly. Not for the faint of heart. Concluding Thoughts: A horror tale without parallel, The Dead Shall Inherit the Earth possess a rich, vivid, and melancholy plot coupled with characters that truly make the reader care. While the excessive gore and depressive aura might turn away faint hearted readers, true horror fans should be suitably enthralled by the atmosphere and story of a modern horror masterpiece. Highly recommended. - Ravenova

Review # 2 was written on 2010-11-05 00:00:00 Tony Ddos santos I bought this book with a bit of anticipation. Sci-Fi horror? Cool! Zombies? Cool! So Sci-Fi horror + Zombies? AWESOME!!! I knew going into this that it was the first work of Vince Churchill plus it was self published (not 100% sure, but pretty positive on both counts). So I was going to forgive him some gramatical grenades as long as there were plenty of grenades being lofted at the undead. At 184 pages I figured our merc heros would be hip deep in undead space zombies no later than 75 pages in. Unfortunately, that was not the case here. As far as writing mechanics, the one thing that really bugged me was that on several instances the author would put one person's actions in the same paragraph with another speaking. Normally that is ok, as long as there is some clarity as to who is speaking...otherwise I just assume it is the same person who is doing something. Not the case here. Usually it is the person from the previous paragraph speaking and the actions are from another character. I spent more time than I cared to re-reading a few paragraphs here and there to make sure I had it straight who was saying what. Other than that, I felt it was fairly easy to read. Not great, but not painful either. I have always loved the idea of terror in space; a distant planet or a starship. Either way you are far removed from the rest of humanity usually and the evil that stalks you is generally unavoidable. You can't run, you can't hide. I was hoping that this feeling of claustrophobia would be rampant in this book. Give it the flavor of Aliens along with a bit of Event Horizon with a creepy evil ghost ship as the setting and you get some real chills and thrills. Instead, the majority of this book is spent in character development. We get an indepth analysis of Jefferson Gale, the leader of the Mercs. Through pre-mission experiences and flashbacks, we learn more and more about him. Honestly, quite a bit more than was necessary for what amounts to a action adventure tale. Certainly, if this was the first book in a series on the exploits of the professional soldiers of Omni Corporation, the volume of detail spent on getting to know the characters might be acceptable. But this is a stand alone story and I generally tend to like to spend more than about 30% of a horror/action adventure getting scared or getting a rush. Vince did a good job describing the zombies and the 50 pages or so of action at the end of the book was pretty scary and I enjoyed that, but it just was not enough. In addition, the back cover of this book gave the impression that if this crew did not stop the zombie menace, all of humanity might be in jeopardy. Not at one point in the entire book did I ever feel that humanity was truly at risk. Instead, there is some political deception and revenge motives uncovered. How that is dealt with is decidedly unsatisfactory to me-after all these guys are mercs, not politicians themselves. The end result of that just left me disapointed. I still give this book 3 stars because even though the zombie action was brief, it was pretty entertaining. I could see this author getting stronger and improving his skills and coming back with another book that gets to the point a lot faster and keeps me glued to the page. I think he could have cut out a lot of the character development and flashbacks and made a 100 page book that would have been a real hoot here. So I liked certain parts enough that I wish there just had been more of that instead of feeling it was a blown effort.