Customer Reviews (1)

terrific compilation of horror-dark fantasy tales
This is a terrific compilation of many of Thomas F. Monteleone's horror-dark fantasy tales published mostly in the 1980s (nine) and 1990s (fifteen) with two from this decade.Each entry includes a newly written "introduction" (more like background information/commentary) that enhances the reading and footnotes that though insightful and interesting can prove distracting.The stories run the gamut of horror and dark fantasy from obsession and revenge suspense to black magic and lethal monsters.Every contribution is gripping but especially thrilling is those (most of them) in which Mr. Monteleone avoids overindulging his morality gene such as "The Roadside Scalpel" and "Rehearsals".Some eerie scary illustrations by Matt Eames augment this fine anthology that fans of the author or the horror genre will want to read.

Harriet Klausner

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Product Description
A presidential candidate survives a plane crash with the power to heal the dying and resurrect the dead, a gift his beneficiaries discover comes with a price. By the author of The Blood of the Lamb. Reprint. PW. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Don't read this novel if you expect an actual conclusion
With the enticing cover artwork and an intriguing storyline, this novel had the beginnings of a good read. Somewhere along the way the story veared away from the plot, abandoned a central character and ended in a puffery. The love story feels forced and the opportunity to engage in some very interesting challenges are totally missed. The plot of a man who acquires the gift of restoring life dissipates into a paranoid anti-government rant.
I was disappointed as the book cover quotes that the author has written nineteen "acclaimed" novels. I expected more than what I received in reading this book.
Most disappointing is that the reader never receives an answer to the main question - how did this happen and what does it mean? It almost seemed like the author tired of the story and just closed shop after 300 pages with a pasted together conclusion. A good potential story ended in unachieved dramatic results. Not the good read this reader expected.

Simply awful
US Senator Tom Flanagan gains the power to raise the dead, which makes him the target of machinations by powerful groups such as the US government and the Catholic Church.

This is a terribly written novel with clumsy characterizations.Author Thomas F. Monteleone comes off like a crazy militant libertarian at times.His depiction of the government is filled with unabashedly sinister and self-serving caricatures that all but rub their hands together with glee and cackle over their evil plans.The whole millennial fever aspect of the story seems silly in retrospect (and seemed silly to some of us even at the time).The pointless subplot involving Flanagan's visions of a burning man foreshadow something that is completely unconnected to the main story.Perhaps it was meant to be developed in a sequel.Was such a sequel ever written?I couldn't care less.

NOTHING NEW HERE
"The Resurrectionist" takes on an interesting premise---one man's ability to raise people from the dead---and nullifies it by focusing on the governmental conspiracies that inevitably come with such a gift, particularly when that gift belongs to a senator who is running for the presidency.There is no explanation as to why the Senator has this gift, and why one of his resurrectees crumbles in front of a worldwide television audience.Conveniently, other beneficiaries of the senator's gift turn out okay.Overblown, overdrawn, and derivative, I give it three stars only because it holds your interest to a rather disappointing climax.

Disappointing Weirdness
The best thing about my copy of The Resurrectionist is the cover art, by Phil Heffernan.Often it is the cover art that originally attracts us to a book, and all too seldom is the artist credited.Thankfully, Warner Books has done so, and Heffernan's metallic, disembodied head and arms in a crucified position is an arresting image.

But Monteleone's text doesn't stand up to this gripping image.The plot is unique and interesting, but Monteleone doesn't really grapple with the issues he raises.The title character is a US Senator who discovers he has the power to raise the dead--at least temporarily.Naturally everyone wants a piece of his gift, including the US government, who seek to keep it to themselves.Rather than exploring the nature of his character's singular abilities, or their origin, Monteleone gives us just another shady government conspiracy novel, albeit complicated by a mysterious presence that ultimately turns out to be discouragingly mortal. But the nature of death, or the afterlife, are hardly dealt with--one resurrected character describes hovering over his own body, but that's about all.More time is spent on the effect of the Senator's powers on his campaign for president, and whether they should be concealed or revealed.

There are some good moments in the book, particularly in Monteleone's characterizations.Suddenly discovering that he has the ability to raise the dead puts a tremendous strain on the Senator, and Monteleone portrays this well.But readers hoping for a supernatural thriller (whether of the Christian persuasion or not) are sure to be disappointed.In that regard, The Resurectionist's powers are treated as nothing more unusual than a scientist with a secret nuclear formula.

Monteleone has repeatedly gone to the well of Christian-related supernatural fiction with The Blood of the Lamb : A Novel of the Second Coming and The Reckoning.This time he comes up dry.

Very unlikely plot mixed with silly Gov't paranoia
The Resurrectionist has an interesting premise but ultimately the author's penchant to indulge inoutrageous government conspiracy paranoia makes the whole story silly. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the first volume in the Dark Voices series, which features award-winning, best-selling authors reading their own short fiction. A copy of the story also appears in print in a high-quality chapbook. Each volume features original music written by Bob Schaller to accompany the author's reading. ... Read more

Product Description
Serpentine is a historical horror novel with plenty of erotic suspense. It chronicles the existence of a monster from myth called the Lamia. She is Sophia Rousseau, a sensual woman with eyes of serpent green. She has survived for thousands of years - and has never met a mortal immune to her power... until now. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Interesting but not compelling
A snake appearing from a sealed altar and the desecration of a long-dead priest's bones starts writer Matthew Cavendish off in search of a mystery. He's tracked a lot of supposedly mythical beings and events before, but this time the evidence points at something stranger, something more dangerous, than he's ever faced--a lamia--a snake/woman shapeshifter who lives as a vampire, sucking not blood but creative energy through the sex act. And if Matthew doesn't act, she'll resume her destruction of the best in human genius.

Sophia Rousseau is free for the first time in a hundred years and heads to New York, center of culture and civilization. There, she links up with an agent who can propell her to the top ranks of modeling and acting--and begins her search for the genius that sustains her even as she drains the men who hold it. At the back of her mind, though, she senses danger. Someone is hunting her. Of course, in the world of the lamia, the hunted can quickly become hunter.

In a series of flashbacks, we learn of Sophia's earlier life, before she was trapped beneath the church. She's both inspired and eventually killed some of the world's great geniuses, Mozart, Van Gogh, the Admirable James Crichton, and others. She doesn't think of herself as evil, simply as a hunter for whom mere humans are prey.

Author Thomas F. Monteleone turns Sophia into an interesting and occasionally sympathtic character. She may be killing her victims, but she provides them with a great deal of pleasure during the process and, at least for Van Gogh and Mozart, inspires them to create some of their most compelling works. The source of her power, a sexual attraction so powerful as to be hypnotic, is also the source of her greatest danger when she confronts a man who cannot be controlled through sex.

For me, the other characters, especially the characters in the present-day world, lack the same kind of interest. We never really feel that Matthew has much stake in the outcome. If he defeats Sophia, he'll have a nice chapter for his next book. If he goes home and forgets about her, he won't. Playwright Richard Hammaker is disturbed by his friend's death, but again, I didn't get any sense of passion about his desire to hunt Sophia down. Instead, he's more into feeling sorry for himself for the accident that left him incapable of taking advantage of Sophia's attraction. As for Sophia's victim, Sandler, Sophia gave him more pleasure than he'd ever found before--and he was a married man--it's hard to be too sympathetic.

I enjoyed Monteleone's version of the lamia, the sexual vampire, the notion of consuming the creative energy of genius. I would have liked SERPENTINE a lot more, though, if Monteleone had involved and invested me in the characters, had given me a stake in whether Matthew and Richard succeeded in their quest. As it was, though, what Monteleone probably intended as an intriguing and scary ending simply fell flat for me. Monteleone's writing and story-telling is strong enough that I kept reading, interested in what happened next. I do wish he'd gone a step further, though, and made me care.
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Product Description

Customer Reviews (6)

A Secret Vatican Conspiracy.
The Pope is dead!The replacement chosen unanimouslyby the Vatican was the illegitimate son of a nun who was raised in a Brooklyn orphanage. He became a parish priest who could perform miracles.Is he a savior or the anti-Christ?Everyone, even his mother, knows that things are not working according to scripture.

Monteleone used John's Revelation as most of his substantiation that the search for seven signs and Pope Peter II's impending marriage are against the Catholic beliefs.It is predicted that he will be the "last pope" because he is from America, what they call the New World.

He is certainly the unusual Vatican occupant in every way and just may turn the Mother Church upside down.Peter Carenza was defintely the wrong choice to replace the Polish pope.Lord, help us!

Science, Religion and Action Galore!
Television is full of full of strange and wierd stories.Newspapers provide vivid accounts of macabre and sinister events.It begs the question: 'can the average person any longer be shocked?'Fortunately, the answer is a resounding YES!Thomas Moneleone has done so in "The Reckoning."

Consider developments of the past few years.What are the implications of the cloning of a sheep named Dolly?Almost immediately following that event there began debates regarding the efficacy of cloning human beings.But, if human beings WERE to be cloned, whom would the world first want to clone?The author of this masterful novel takes a stab at the answer.

Suppose, dear reader, that the scientific community were to take a small strand of DNA from dried blood on the Shroud of Tourin that may have covered the dead body of Jesus.And, suppose, for a moment, that the person conceived from this scientific exercise were to grow up to become a Roman Catholic priest.And suppose he were, one day, become the Bishop of Rome...the Pope?

This is a gripping tale that gives the reader an adventrous story as well as a look behind the scenes at the Vatican.There is action galore that takes place on a worldwide scale.Anyone who enjoys a gripping story of intrigue and also fanticizes about possibilities in our modern world will find the two combined in this novel.Truly the story grabs the reader from the first page to the very end.Well worth reading.

Cartoonish, Yet Oddly Compelling
I wanted to like this book a lot less than I did.After all, it's got just about everything in it that bothers me about bad writing: gratuitous action (see INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DUMB for the ultimate gratuitous action cultural artifact), whirled views (New Age-ism on the half-shell: the Seven Churches of Revelation turn out to be--surprise!!--holy sites of the world's major religions), bad theology (Catholics spouting tired works-righteousness views), a dodgy premise combined with shaky metaphysics (a clone from DNA from Jesus' blood equals Superman), etc.But somehow the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.I know it's probably a really stupid book, but I generally liked it anyhow.Maybe Monteleone is the Clive Cussler of theological thrillers.One could do worse.

A fitting conclusion!
Moteleone picks up where he left off in BLOOD OF THE LAMB.The first reviewer misses the point of the novel.It IS unheard of for a Pope to wear slacks and a skull cap...THAT WAS THE POINT!Pope Peter isrestructuring, or even trying to kill, the precedent of the role of Pope.Anyways, Monteleone has outdone himself and writes some vivid actionsequences and some beautiful land settings. Good stuff! Now go out and buythe damn thing!

ZERO stars!
A story that was born of a great concept (A cloning of DNA from the bloodline of Christ) falls so far short that Monteleone can be accused of churning out a book to make sure he has money at the Christmas season.

This book belongs in the Science Fiction section of your localbookstore. Research into basic Vatican protocol is non-existant("Grace" is a title of respect for a Bishop, not a Cardinal orPope). The Pope wearing tee-shirts and not a scull cap is unheard of.

Monteleone does not capture the basic essence of the story. Theflashback to the the "why" this Pope was created falls short asalmost a bookmark His timeline is so far off in cloning that it renders thestory insulting to Vatican fiction (and non-fiction) readers (not tomention typos in hte text - page 216 for example).

For those who arelooking for a fast paced Vatican novel (that you can go beyond the 5thchapter and still remain in suspense) go read (or re-read)Vicar of Christand let this High School level novel be left to the library wher you canread it for free and only worry about your time being wasted. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A great entertaining ride of terror, suspense and gore galore!
I purchased this book brand new and completely cold off the shelf.I knew nothing of the author, but simply from seeing the cover and reading the excerpt on the inside I felt it should feed the overwhelming addiction to horror and gore I was fully under the influence of at the time.Getting home on a friday afternoon I read it front to back and re-read it again, over the weekend. Needless to say bing very satisfied with the choice to buy it and totally entertained by a great story filled with native american mysticism, gore, suspense to be sure but a lot more as well, it was simply a great read.

Here we are 25 years later and I have been for ever-and-a-day trying recall all the images this book had left permanently etched into my slowly fading memory.You see, I have been trying to find this book after having foolishly lent it to someone else and never getting it back all those years ago.As time has goneon I've tried every couple of years to dig into the drudge and/or find help to track a copy down but had been becomming more unsure of the title (funny how age has that effect on the mind!That and not being able to recall the authors name.) The net has not been a help either, constantly getting listings for the book by Michael Talbot or lyrics for Ronnie Milsap tend to leave one feeling empty.Low and behold tonight I was lucky enough to stumble into here by pure chance and read the other reviews below.POW!! I've struck gold!

This is a really fun ride and I have had a special space on my shelf just waiting for this gem!Finally, after 25 years!! The copy I just purchased should be here by this weekend, I guess I can wait a little longer...

Thanks for the help and hopefully this helps someone else.

An entertaining b-grade horror book!
Conora is a small, quiet town in the semi desert of New Mexico.It's habitants are diverse in culture and creed...

Anthony Cavella has just moved into town with his young daughter, Dierdre.They are making a fresh start and a new life for themselves, thanks to the small house and town newspaper left to Anthony by his Uncle.Tony is a newspaper man and soon finds things to investigate even in this little town...

Marty Haven's is a 15 year old boy living with his aunt, who is his guardian.Despite his aunts objections, he enjoys watching the new construction crew just outside of town, hoping for a little adventure...

Lori Danek is new to town as well, having just opened her own little shop.She is loving the transition from busy New York to serene Conora.Meeting wonderful Tony and his precocious daughter is icing on the cake.

Sheriff Miguel Lopez is a honest, hardworking man who carefully watches over his town.He has a wife, two children and a good heart.

Charles Longhand is an elderly native american working at the local gas station.He is fit and trim, having a physique worthy of a man 30 years his junior.He has lived his life struggling and alternating between the white man's world and the world of his people.For a long time he has lived in the world of the white man, though he still remembers the teachings of his grandfather, the shaman...

The rest of the town is full of normal everyday people, and a few odd ones who are just as much a fixture of the town as the desert land.

When Wally Grier unearths a Native American burial ground with his backhoe, none of them are safe.First one, then another, and then another fall victim.No one is safe from the Night Things...


I love stories like this.Not the premise, per se, but the many great characters that make up the story.Sheriff Lopez was not constructed to be one of those good-ol-boys stuck on taking care of everything themselves.He is willing and eager to accept help when he knows he needs it.He is a honest, friendly and open man, whose character is easy to figure out and like.He is by far my favorite character in the book, though others have larger parts.

An odd mixture of people join forces in this book: a newspaperman, a sheriff, a deputy, a professor of anthropology and old Charlie who has the knowledge of a shaman.Its amazing to me how the author was able to combine the many different personalities and actions in this story and make them work.Each chapter is covers the actions of a different person, going back and forth between the major and minor characters.The writing is very good, enabling me to comfortably swing from one character to another without losing the flow of the story.

With all the makings of a great B-horror movie, but many great characters to achieve even greater status, Night Thins is a wonderful read, sure to thrill all those horror fans.

A horde of nasty critters!
I love a good monster novel (or "critter novel" as we say in the south). And Thomas F. Monteleone conjures a whole nasty horde of them in NIGHT THINGS... A construction crew accidentally unearths a cavern in the desert. It is the tomb of an ancient evil that the Indians bound to the underworld in an effort to save mankind. But now they are free and there'll be hell to pay for the residents of a nearby town. When darkness falls, a horde of mummified demon-like trolls crawl forth and begin to devour and feed like pirhanas... If you love horror like I do, and you enjoy a good critter story, with a fun b-movie flavor to it, then I highly recommend you seek this one out. It's probably hard to find these days, but well worth the search. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

very good anthology of short stories
i had read this as a teenager and was looking to find it for quite some time now. That's when i found nearly every one in the series. These books are wonderful and i will have them for some time to come. Love the Borderlands series. Heard there is a 6th one coming out, and that blew my mind! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

If You Haven't Read This One Yet...
This is a fast paced read by Monteleone, an expansion of his short story "Mister Magister".This book finds Magister and his mysterious shooting gallery in a small Iowa town where the townspeople are entranced by his gallery to the point they don't realize what is happening when the bodies start to turn up.Only young Stella holds the key that might save them all.

This is a very well done addition to the genre as well as a nod to Twilight Zone and Bradbury (it is almost a retelling of "Something Wicked This Way Comes", only Monteleone provides more character depth).It's a shame this one, like many of Monteleone's books, is out of print.Not only does it tell a strange story, but it provides insights to the human condition that are rarely found in this type of fiction.The denouement is a bit anticlimatic, though, and the final explanation, while fulfilling, is a bit vague.

It is hard to find literary horror fiction, but if you are a fan of Richard Laymon, Jack Ketchum, Al Sarrantonio, Heywood Steele, King, or Joe R. Lansdale, you want to check out Monteleone and this book in particular. ... Read more

Product Description
Dr. Michael Keating is beginning to notice a very strange trend, both in his patients and in literature by other psychiatrists. People across the globe are experiencing vivid--and chillingly accurate--past-life memories of dying during the Nazi Holocaust. Keating convenes a symposium in New York City where he discovers that all these people now share a new vision of extreme danger--and its connection to their past lives is their worst nightmare. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Charles Colley, author Sisterbaby's Monkey
This book is tight and fast.It's exciting to me, in its historical look at Nazis and the Holocaust, while spinning a parallel story of reincarnation.I recently met Mr. Monteleone in person while we both signed our books for readers at Greetings and Readings in Maryland.His instant friendship and warmth is in such sharp contrast with his tense, often scary stories.I know it takes a complex soul to craft a complex tale, yet he surprised me with his simplicity of heart, his giving ways. So many novels are lost in this age of fast sales, of revolving door marketing where a book is only in stores for a short period.I recommend going back in time, in reading the older works of writers you love.See how they evolve, building one tale upon the last. That is what I am finding when I read and re-read Tom Monteleone. This guy has the goods and I recommend him!!

A real page-turner from one of the masters
NIGHT OF BROKEN SOULS was suggested to me by author Michael Laimo, and I'm glad I bought a copy.Monteleone's characters are so real you'll feel you know each one, which is a big accomplishment here considering there's several of them, not to mention one that pops up toward the end of the story!NOBS is a scary, smart, and impossible to put down read.A genuine gem that should be on every horror fans' shelf.

Not for the faint of heart
Night of Broken Souls is a technical but turgid spy thriller featuring reincarnated Holocaust victims vs a reincarnated Nazi, culminating in a hail of bullets and paranormal activity, that leaves one asking the question: Just what has this guy got against Rabbi Gershom?

He obviously (to anyone who is familiar with Rabbi Gershom's work) lampooned him by depicting him as a pastiche of stereotypes derived from anti-semitic jokes and Mel Brooks characters, but then, to add further insult, he made him sweaty...The injury was making him a widower. That was just plain mean.

Stating that the characters thought he had a good heart in spite of his sweaty, unkempt stereotype persona was just not enough sugar-coating to conceal the poison inside. Why?

One thing I wonder about: this book was published in 1997 not 1957, yet the author uses the word "Negro" (he even capitalizes it) to refer to black people.There's just something not quite right about that.

I would have rated this book higher, as I found the premise fascinating and I do enjoy a good spy thriller, but for this cruel and unnecessary parody of someone deserving of respect.It is a well-crafted and well-told tale, in general.Once it gets rolling, there is a lot of clandestine CIA/FBI/etc., activity and action for fans of that genre, with an X-Files flavor.There is a restrained love story, but this book is more for the guys-no steamy sex scenes, but there are helicopters and stuff blows up.

Bottom line:
#1 If books involving reincarnated Nazis, the CIA and FBI, supernatural battles, with plenty of shooting, fire and explosions, as well as an interoffice romance and a sweaty Jewish sterotype for comic relief, you'll probably find this a good read.
#2 If you are familiar with Rabbi Gershom and his work, reading this book is likely raise your blood pressure.

Night of Broken Souls
Night of Broken Souls

The book Night of Broken Souls by Thomas Monteleone is exciting and action-packed.This thrilling novel is about the psychiatrist, Michael Keating.A new patient comes bursting into Michael's office about to kill herself because of horrible nightmares she had been having of being a Jewish girl in a consentration camp during the Holocaust.While doing research on his patient he stumbles onto a horrifying phenomenon, people worldwide have been vivid nightmares and blackouts relating back to the Holocaust.Michael realizes that these victims are the reincarnated souls of innocent Holocaust victims.Later Keating discovers that along with the victims, Der Klein Engel, the man destine to murder these victims may has been reincarnated also. Michael and a few select colleagues must stop Der Klein Engle, or "the Little Angel" before the Holocaust happens all over again.
Any one who likes a little action in their life would love this book.I personally enjoyed this novel despite the slightly vulgar language and distasteful sexual content.I would rate this to be a nine on a scale from one to ten.For those who thrive on details and knowledge this book has very detailed scenes of the horrors of the Holocaust. For those thrill seekers out there, there is enough action to full fill anyone's thrive.

Interesting premise, poorly executed
I grabbed this book off the shelf after reading The Resurrectionist (so-so) because I was in the mood for a quick, mindless read.The premisewas interesting (past lives and souls reborn), but the characters came andwent with little thought to plot.It is as if Mr. Monteleone asked all ofhis friends to come up with horror stories from WWII regarding Jews andincluded them.Now, of course, if all of these "good" people(read:innocent) who died in the Holocaust were reborn, it only makessense that the evils ones would be as well.Oooohhh!Spooky!

It isnever quite explained if part of the reborn soul is carried over life tolife (an opera singer becomes a concert violinist becomes a popstar,etc).None of the "reborn" characters have any of their formerlife's qualities...so why should we be concerned about Hitler/Mengele/DerKlein Engel?So only the "bad" souls take the evil with them?

Also, I have to agree with the Rabbi's review below (excellent, by theway...please read it).There were quite a few "Jewish"anomalies...Mr. Monteleone's research must have focused on the Holocaust,not the Jewish faith (and culture - to some) in general.And I found hisportrayal of the Rabbinical expert as stereotypical (and bordering onoffensive), as we all know that Rabbis are either cold and distant (andtall and thin) or fat and jolly...a Jewish Santa Claus!

The romancebetween the male psychiatrist and his secretary (please) felt false andincluded only for some legitimate sex (too keep bored readers interested?). The female psychiatrist was cardboard as well.

The ending, which Iwon't describe, was full of (for me, at least) much eye rolling and"you MUST be kidding"'s.Very warm and fuzzy, with a requisetcreepy epilogue.

In general, this book is not THAT bad if you don't readtoo much into it.Nice for a plane or long road trip.Not for those whowant factual information.

Slightly worse than average... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fun, quick read.
I picked up 2 of Thomas F. Monteleon's works at half-priced books, sorta on a whim. They were only a dollar each, and looked interesting. The first one I read was "Guardian." Though that was well written and easy to read, the story got confusing and erratic...just didn't sit well with me. I kept putting off reading "The Time Connection" because of the ambivelent feelings I had towards "Guardian." Finally had nothing better to do, and read "The Time Connection"...I really had a good time with this one.

Basically, it's a story of a man and a woman who stumble (or perhaps are led), into our world... a thousand yrs. in the future.

There has been a cataclysmic war between humans and an alien race in this time,that seems to have led to the annihilation of the human race. It has also led to a "near" destruction of the aliens who attacked us.

But, not is all what it appears to be.

There appears to be unseen plans in motion. And the couple who have stumbled into this futuristic earth, unbeknownst to them,find themeselves pivotal to those plans.

Easy and fun book to read. I devoured it in one 3 hour sitting.

This was his second novel I believe, written in 1976. I guess it's probably pretty hard to find now. I'm glad I happened onto it. Would make a good movie.

Recommended.

A man &woman on a perilous passage to nightmare future earth
Were they alone on a mysterious Earth were run by all knowing computers adn manned by infallible robots?

Were they alone in a savage world where a monstrous race of alien killers hunted them down and chances of servival grew more slender with every terrifying contact?

Were they alone to carry out a vital mission on which the whole future of human history depended a mission they had to discover before time ran out?

Devin Wells and Marianne Cowens were plucked out of the 20th century and plunged into the strangest adventure and most momentous challenge a man and a woman could ever know...

from back of book. ... Read more

Product Description
A mini-collection of short fiction by 4 time Stoker Award-winning author. Monteleone is also the author of the bestselling The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing a Novel. ... Read more