Barry Reese

My original The Peregrine Omnibus audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

The setting is just before World War II. Europe is on the brink of war and evil seems have infiltrated the Earth. Max Davies as The Peregrine is a reluctant superhero, created when he witnessed his father’s brutal murder as a child. He’s brilliant, an expert fighter and receives premonitions from his dead father, but he’s pretty lonely too. Enter the beautiful and brave young actress from Atlanta to fill this void. Together they can take on the world.

The Peregrine Omnibus is a large collection (31 hours) of short story adventures about the Peregrine, his lover, friends and the many incredibly evil men intent on destroying the world. The stories flow forward, building on the ones before, each a chapter in the Peregrine’s adventures. The theme of each story/adventure is pretty consistent, an evil man or team of evil men find a magic artifact and want to use it to open up the gates of Hell, raise a monster from the dead, or control the world. Max uses his fighting skills, guns, magic knife and visions to thwart them.

The Peregrine is comic book action in short story/novel form. It is fun and entertaining. The story plots tend to repeat themselves, but there is enough variety to keep the listener going. The villains are pure evil and the heroes virtuous. The gadgets are impossibly good (a silent car, a jet in 1937, a knife that kills any demon, a gun that doesn’t run out of bullets), but are necessary to equalize the impossibly strong foes. Some of the names are cringe-worthy (The Black Bat, Satan, the Iron Maiden), but work with the comic book atmosphere.

Pete Milan performs the audiobook. He has a wonderful voice and is perfect for the stories. At first he seems to be a little too dramatic, pausing and announcing “The Peregrine” with added importance whenever Max Davies takes on his alter ego, but seems to ease into it later on. It fits with the comic book reality he is creating. Mr. Milan has an exceptional voice that is a pleasure to listen to.

If you enjoy comic book novels, villains that are super evil, and superheroes that are super good, you should give this a listen. It would be a good choice for young adults too.

Audiobook was provided for review by the narrator.… (lisätietoja)

The Adventures of Lazarus Gray
Author: Barry Reese
Publisher: Pro Se Press
Published In: Batesville, AR, USA
Date: 2011
Pgs: 252

REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
Welcome to Sovereign City. A man awakens with no memory of who he is or where he’s from. A medallion hangs from his neck with the name Lazarus Gray on it. He along with his cohorts in Assistance Unlimited help people in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. The dark is rising. Mystic evil is coming. The man known as Lazarus Gray stands in the breech.

Genre:
Adventure
Crime fiction
Fantasy
Fiction
Horror
Pulp
Science fiction
Short stories
Thrillers
Urban fantasy

Why this book:
It’s Barry telling a story. I love when Barry tells stories.

The Girl with the Phantom Eyes:
Favorite Character:
The Aquaas. Love the concept of these little Cthulian horrors.

Least Favorite Character:
Walther Lunt. Mainly because

Character I Most Identified With:
Lazarus has a bit of the Mary Sue/deus ex machina about him. He’s everything that he needs to be. But he is the character that the reader is most likely to glom onto. I’m sure as his “secret” origin is revealed those shortcomings that I see in him will make sense. In this way, he is Sherlock Holmes, Hugo Danning, Doc Savage, Batman and Superman. And that’s not all bad.

The Feel:
Mr. Reese threw a “dark and stormy night” opening into this opening chapter of the Lazarus Gray chronicles, without saying “it was a dark and stormy night.” I tip my hat. Very well done.

Favorite Scene:
I could totally see this as a black and white, 20s/30s/40s era, crime noir movie with a supernatural tilt. Can just imagine the lightning in one of the Aquaas scenes. All black and shadow and a framed light hits the actress in the eyes as she stares at the next victim giving us the low budget special effect of a girl with glowing eyes.

Or a serial, a Lazarus Gray serial, this story could easily have been broken into six parts with a cliffhanger ending for each one. Pure gold.

Pacing:
The pace of the first act was slow, lots of exposition, lots of introduction, lots of world building, expected. The action that does happen is offscreen explained and exposited on afterwards. But when the kicker comes at the nadir of the first act, it is delicious.

Hmm Moments:
Love the lion staff. Totally glomming that for the next time I play D&D...whenever that may be.

Casting call:
I could totally see George Clooney as Lazarus Gray. Alec Baldwin wouldn’t be bad either, but he may have aged out of the role. I realize that they are within 5 years of one another. George just seems younger and more...robust. Course, I could see classic Hollywood actors in a lot of these roles as well.

Angus Scrimm as Walther Lunt. I know he’s in his 80s. But I love Angus and he could absolutely project the menace necessary for the role.

The Devil’s Bible:
Favorite Character:
Love the succubus/blood demon.

The Feel:
There’s a great 20s/30s detective movie feel with an Indiana Jones flair in some of this. Great stuff.

Favorite Scene:
Eun getting the drop on the ninja.

Hmm Moments:
Ninjas.

Casting call:
Devon Aoki as Maya Shimada

The Corpse Screams at Midnight:
The Feel:
This one feels more Hammer film than hardboiled detective drama.

Favorite Scene:
The Mummy awakening in the flashback to the previous owner and the horror that followed on afterward.

The mummy fight at the museum.

Pacing:
Page turner.

Hmm Moments:
Love the Cult of the Mummy stuff.

The Burning Skull:
Favorite Character:
Mr. Skull sounds like an awesome villain. His origin is well done.

Sovereign City is every bit as much a character here as the Hawaiian Isles are in Hawaii 5-0 or as Basin City is for Frank Miller. She’s every city...at least the dark and grimy parts of every city.

Favorite Scene:
When Lunt thinking that he is going to unbalance Gray or pull him offsides or back to the dark side by laying out his cards and telling him what he knows of his past and Gray basically says, “I see”, and hangs up on him.

Hmm Moments:
“I think I may have made a terrible mistake.” - Walther Lunt

This story gives us the origin of Lazarus Gray and Mr. Skull. Greatness.

The Axeman of Sovereign City:
Favorite Character:
Sovereign City is a rich panoply of diverse characters; mob bosses, houngans, Nazis, etc. I can see the city in my mind’s eye; a dirty, dingy mix of the worst city Bogie’s characters ever crossed a rainy street in, with some Gotham, both New York and Batman’s, and some Sin City thrown in.

Monique and Dinkins, those two are a helluva piece of work.

Least Favorite Character:
Morgan and Samantha’s dancing around one another is a distraction. It robs both characters and the story flow.

Pacing:
The pace takes a bip every time we slip into a longing looks Morgan or Samantha moment.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
Despite his promises to include them more, Lazarus continues to hold his team at arm’s length. Hopefully, the “go it alone” attitude that crops up in this story will give us a him on the end of a rescue from the other members of Assistance Unlimited.

Hmm Moments:
Mr. Dinkins unique heart condition is a great plot point.

Casting call:
Geoffrey Holder as Dinkins.

The God of Hate
Favorite Character:
Morgan Watts. The second he pulled the trigger on the thing in the box, great scene.

The Feel:
This is the best one of the set of shorts included here.

Favorite Scene:
When The Claw rises from the bed with the ladies of the evening scattered about him, secure in the knowledge that he has ruined them for the rest of their lives. It’s so horrible picturing that in your mind. For an alien monster, The Claw has a lot of carnal, abusive desires.

Morgan’s Paris adventure.

The fight with The Claw in the old abandoned church.

Hmm Moments:
The Claw’s invasion of the Assistance Unlimited HQ to deliver his challenge/warning to Eun.

Casting call:
What about Tom Hanks as Lazarus? I could see it being part his performance in Road to Perdition and part his performance in The Da Vinci Code.

Every time Eun appears on the page, it makes me wish that Bruce Lee was alive today.

Doug Jones as The Claw.

John Noble as Walther Lunt.

Josh Brolin as Morgan Watts.

Darkness, Spreading Its Wings of Black

The Feel:
Would have liked a more tender moment between Samantha Grace and Morgan Watts as he rescues her from the chains.

Favorite Scene:
The showdown in the basement

Pacing:
Probably the best paced of the stories in this volume.

Hmm Moments:
Love the idea of a Rook-Lazarus Gray team up.

Last Page Sound:
Well...that was nice. Wish Lazarus would have gotten the last word instead of the Rook, but still nice. More of a denouement with the Assistance Unlimited folks would have been appreciated.

Author Assessment:
I love Barry Reese’s work.

A hero is defined by his villains. Barry gives Lazarus Gray some great ones here.

Editorial Assessment:
A physical spell check in Darkness, Spreading Its Wings of Black would have been good, ie: made scientist.

Knee Jerk Reaction:
glad I read it

Disposition of Book:
e-Book

Would recommend to:
friends, genre fans… (lisätietoja)

I am a fan of Reese's work, having read a number of his "Rook" collections and the previous volume of "Lazarus Gray," and generally like his style of writing, which is fairly straight forward action without a lot emotional bits bogging it down. "Die Glocke" was a little different than the previous books I'd read in that it only featured 2 stories, one of which took up most of the volume and was longer than anything else I've seen from Reese. Because of that - being used to a lot more stories in a Reese book - this "Die Glocke" felt very short to me.

The only downside for me (and the reason I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5) is because of the second, much shorter story that starred the public domain character, Black Terror. It read very rushed and almost unfinished, like it was tossed in as an after thought or filler. However, the quality and fun of the main story more than made up for it.

"Die Glocke" is a great offering for fans of neo-pulp and readers of quick action stories.… (lisätietoja)

I picked up "Tales of the Rook" for the Kindle. The book was a fun, quick three-hour read. I've been a fan of Barry Reese's Rook character for a while now and have read a few of the short story collections he's put together for it (those I could find for sale in e-versions).

My favorite stories from the collection were "The Killing Games" by Reese, "Where There's Smoke" by Bobby Nash, and "The Curse of Baron Samedi" by Percival Constantine. I do admit to be a little confused by Constantine's work in that I had no idea why it took place in the future, where everything else I've read had been a different Rook character set in the 30s/40s, but that was no fault of the author's.

The rest of the stories were a bit of a mixed bag in terms of quality, most feeling like they were the rougher reads of less polished authors than Reese, Nash and Constantine.

My biggest complaint about the book is that it features none of the interior illustrations by George Sellas promised in the front matter of the ebook. I'm not sure why, in this day and age, interior art isn't included in an ebook, or why the really cool front cover was in such low resolution. I felt like I was missing out.

All-in-all, Tales of the Rook is a fun book for those biding their time for the next "real" Rook collection.… (lisätietoja)