James A. Moore (1) (1965–2024)

Not having read any of Moore’s books, but being a fan of the podcast, “Three Guys With Beards,” which he co-hosts with authors Christopher Golden and Jonathan Maberry, I was predisposed to expecting a fun, enjoyable read. My expectations were misplaced.

This book was a chore to read, with no logical plot development, and the worst writing you’ll find this side of a beginning novelists’ critique forum. It was so amateurish, I was sure this must be an early, immature work of his, put out by an undiscriminating publisher, Kensington, under their Leisure Horror imprint. It turns out, upon reading the author’s back cover bio, that this book comes 13 years into his writing career.

Starting with a MacGuffin, then introducing shape-shifting freakies, and moving on to Body Snatcher pods, the author throws all sorts of madness and mayhem at you, all with no explanation, or logical plot progression. When a character witnesses a rift opening between worlds, how does he know that’s what it is? Because he has seen that type of thing in the movies. (insert face-palm emoji)

Here’s an example of characterization. We’re near the end of the story, all hell is breaking loose, a 3-story house is on fire, ugly tentacled creatures are grabbing at our heroes, and an explosion in the house has sent a large piece of wooden shrapnel hurling toward one of the female characters, Brittany. Another female character, Katie, sees the impending danger to the oblivious Brittany, and pounces on her, shielding Brittany’s body with her own, giving rise to the most asinine WTF thought from Brittany:

Katie was all over her, her arms and legs spreading out like a blanket, and for half a second her mind flashed to whether or not Jerry’s girlfriend had suddenly gone lesbian on her.

And that is, actually, not the worst of it. Someone needs to put a shock collar around Moore’s neck and press the button every time they catch him typing the word “actually.” He used it so many times, that, starting at page 145, I kept a tally. Over the next 59 pages, he used that word no less than 15 times. That’s an average of once every four pages (twice, actually, on page 152).

With the underdeveloped plot and the atrocious writing, this book reads like a first draft. There's probably a decent story in there, somewhere, but the manuscript is in need of a couple of rewrites and considerable editing.… (more)

In the desert town of Cromay, New Mexico, resident Mike Fradella returns home from a day of work and an evening of unwinding downing three beers. A tree meets his return coming up from his porch. At first, he considers this nothing more than a prank done by the local teenagers but there is still something unsettling about this. He calls the sheriff and upon his arrival, things start becoming weird as trees spring from the ground. As these trees appear all over the small town, the body count goes up.

Fast forward a few years later, A Haunted Forest Touring company offers a chance on Halloween to view the forest inside rather than around. Those lucky to manage to get their hands on a ticket will get a once-in-a-lifetime experience of the forest and its monsters up close and personal. But this tour is doomed from the start. Forced out of their tram, the group finds itself dwindling as the forest inhabitants decide to make them a tasty meal.

Honestly, I was surprised that I was able to devour this book so quickly. I won't lie when I say the entire storyline was filled with gruesome deaths, monsters both from the gates of hell to creatures right out of nightmares, and on the edge of your chair as survivors struggle to stay alive inside of being picked off by the monsters.

This was a unique take on the horror genre. I have read a lot of horror books in my past but I am going to say this one will stand out against all the others. The tale is unique. The deaths are filled with gore. The ending was not something I was expecting. Nevertheless, it was a bit satisfying but a bit anti-climactic.

Final Thought:
If you are looking for a tale of horror, then definitely pick this book up. It will be the perfect Halloween read.… (more)

I started River of Pain but quickly ditched it upon realising it was just filling the Hadley Hope gap from Aliens. Do we really need to witness the birth of Newt? Do we need to know the details of how exactly the research station gets overrun by Xenomorphs? Many would say that the Hadley Hope scenes from Cameron's extended cut are the worst part of the film, providing needless insight and robbing later events of tension and mystery. Writing a book about it was a terrible idea.

Sea of Sorrows was easier to stick with but ultimately felt like a complete waste of time. An entirely pointless entry that does nothing to expand on the potentially interesting lore introduced in Out of the Shadows. All our time is spent waiting for characters to figure out information we already have from the first novel, as well as the slow and painful rediscovery of the xenomorph's evolutionary cycle. And how can Yutani Corp not have any info on how this creature operates by this point? The most interesting aspect is the presence of an empath, but it takes the series into a branch of science fiction I'm not sure I'm comfortable with and it isn't used to do anything interesting (beyond informing us that the aliens have a vendetta against Ripley's bloodline. Yeesh).

Again, as an audio drama, it is well produced, but it's not enough to overcome dire writing.… (more)