James A. Moore (1)Reviews
Author of Seven Forges
For other authors named James A. Moore, see the disambiguation page.
Reviews
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.
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.
A little backstory:
Come one, come all and take a ride into the haunted forest where you will see amazing creatures the likes of what you have never seen before!
There are trams on tracks that take tourists through a haunted forest with all kinds of oddball creatures and the tourists are hoping to get glimpses of the creatures that are roaming through the forest!
However, with any maiden voyage though comes unexpected problems that are unforeseeable and when one of the trams comes to a stop to view the creatures the last thing expected would be that the tram would lose power, but that is what happens and when the power goes out, so does the chance of escape. When another tram rams into the powerless tram it brings about a horrific crash which that is when things get interesting as now the tourists are considered a prime meal for the creatures out in the forest.
What happened to the tram? What happens to the tourists? Do they escape the clutches of the creatures? What kind of creatures are roaming the haunted forest? No spoilers here as you will just have to read the book!
There are quite a few characters within this story which I am not going into detail with each one, but I will say that I really loved most of the characters as they tried to fight their way to survival against the creatures.
There is lots of blood and gore throughout the story which starts practically right away in the first chapter and doesn't let up till the end of the book!
The story just flows along with the fast paced action but when the trams crash and the tourists are sitting ducks is when the story goes into overdrive. From that point on the story stays in overdrive with constant blood and gore action to the point that I could literally not put the book down as I wanted to stay awake to see what would happen next!
This book was awesome and it is a perfect read for Halloween! Giving this book five "gory" stars!
Highly recommend to all horror fans!
READ THE WHOLE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!
As per usual the company is trying to capture themselves a live xenomorph, and they are slandering, and sacrificing people along the way.
The outcome of this was surprising and I cannot wait to see where the story takes us.
That is just the start. The new people claim to have seven gods that tell them what to do, and they expected the Capt on the original expedition, and another that they trek to the Empire to meet, Andovar. I don't want to get to into details and spoil it, but events then lead us into the start of a war, with an un-yet known enemy.
This is a great start to what is appearing to me to be a great series. I am already half way through the next book, and see that there is a third, and soon to be a fourth. Definitely worth checking out!
The good: full of the humor that you expect from Strand. This is my first experience with James A. Moore but I will definitely read other books by him now. Characters are interesting. Main Bad guy is really pretty bad--as are a few of the humans, and snarkiness abounds. Entertaining with never a dull moment.
The bad: Just too much. Of everything. Too many monsters. Too many characters going in too many directions. Too much mayhem. One third of the way in I was hoping that the action would slow down so that the plot could develop. No suspense because the action never stops. No scares because there are monsters everywhere you look. I think if we had less characters and if the story developed slower it would have been better. If we are talking about Strand's lighter books, I like the Andrew Mayhem series and Benjamin's Parasite better because they had more focus.
To see the more serious side of Strand I would recommend Dweller, which is just amazing.
This Is Halloween gathers 10 deliciously creepy and bizarre Halloween tales. From the dangers of trick or treating to the threat of wicked secret traditions, the stories are varied and very creepy. My two favorites are: Harvest Moon...the tale of a small town with a strange annual tradition, and The Walker Place...sometimes the scariest house in town is vacant for a very good reason!
The stories are all well-written. I enjoyed all 10 of them. This anthology was perfect for giving me a bit of Fall fright, even in the off-season. :)
This is the first book by James A. Moore that I have read. I'm definitely going to be reading more by this author. He has a nice long list of published books in horror, sci-fi and fantasty genres including The Haunted Forest Tour, Under the Overtree, and the Serenity Falls series.
The story takes place in a small, normal town in New Mexico. Normal until a full grown forest pops up and takes over the entire town in one day. A forest that is populated with monsters and ghosts and too many creatures to describe. Flash forward a few years and the forest has been converted into a tourist attraction with tram rides through the center of the forest. A special Halloween tour is about to take place and this ride is going to be more disastrous than anybody realizes.
The mix of characters was very easy to picture in my head. And the vocal performance by Joe Hempel really helped to differentiate each one. The story had a wide selection of characters so it was not obvious as to who would be killed and who wouldn't. And there were than a few times where I was actively laughing out loud. One more thing that I don't know if Strand and Moore were doing this on purpose or not, but it seemed to me that they kept stopping chapters semi-abruptly, leaving a character in a near impossible spot. In my mind, I pictured it as either Strand or Moore saying "Ha, let's see how you write your way out of this one." as they pass the story to the other. I'm not sure if that was real or not but it felt like it. To me, it made the experience even better.
This novel is either bizarro fiction, a novel written on a methamphetamine nightmare, or it's a flip off for all the horror fans who've enjoyed too much of a good thing, namely blood, gore, and more blood.
The trick is to have us first CARE for the victims or possible heroes first. Failing that, we need to have a really compelling reason to hate them and want to see them die horrible, nasty, brutish deaths... EVENTUALLY.
In this case, we're given no foreplay.
It's just a carnival sideshow with super-silly demon antics with the most tired sacrifice plot ever devised, a million monsters in a magical forest, and cartoonish (if blood-soaked military action had a cartoon industry) fight scenes.
The reactions of the characters in this book are less than satisfying. What should have come across as sarcastic cardboard cut-outs actually felt less like we were supposed to laugh WITH them and felt more like the novel was laughing AT us.
*sigh*
Not happy. The novel itself was written competently enough if you leave out the purpose of empathizing with anyone... but overall, the effect was depressing.
The local librarian has now retired but loves to come to the library just prior to Halloween to tell his local tale of Hattie the witch and her sons. It seems that in the past, the town had had enough of Hattie and her brood. Angry town-folk burned her house down and then they drew and quartered her. That should be enough to bring an end to Hattie, right? Unfortunately for the town, it was not. Now, 100 years later, Hattie is still pissed off about it. With the help of her 3 sons (who do not look their age), Hattie plans on returning to Beldam Woods and exacting her revenge.
I enjoyed this "witch seeks revenge in a small town" book. This type of story has been around for a while now, but Moore makes this tale his own. I loved the character of Hattie (whose name is not Hattie), and her sons were unforgettable. They were clearly drawn with their own personalities and gifts. And those gifts were....something else.
Now on to what I did not like...and that was the fact that there was no real protagonist. We skipped around with a few different characters, and other than a few teenage boys with crushes on (or lusting after) teenage girls, there really was no clear good guy (or girl). I usually enjoy stories like that (and I did enjoy this one!), but reflecting on the tale, I would have preferred at least one clear protagonist for whom I could root.
Despite that, I had a good time with this book. It had some great bad guys and the ending was just awesome. I would recommend it for any fans of the traditional "evil in a small town" tale, and also for lovers of stories that take place at Halloween.
Haunted Forest Tour is a constant thrill. Every time a question is raised, it gets answered within the next ten-ish minutes. A character pops up that is just horrible? Guess what? He’s dead! Everything is just constantly flowing and and moving. Which is surprising considering this book has two authors. I’ve found that most books with co-authors can become clunky and the handoff from one author to another is blatantly obvious. This is definitely not the case in Haunted Forest Tour. It is fluid and seamless.
Then, there’s the perfect balance between horror and comedy. You’ll get one scene where you are completely terrified, but it will be followed up by something so foolish, you can’t help but laugh, and then we can go back to gore (which is light, in my opinion, esp when compared to something like Little Heaven by Nick Cutter). It’s all just so wonderfully crafted, a truly fantastic horror story. What makes it even better is that the questions are all answered. You don’t really need them answered, you accept it at face value. Yeah sure, New Mexico seems weird enough to have a random forest full of monsters pop up. Why not?
If you are looking for just a fun, but scary book to read, I DEFINITELY recommend The Haunted Forest Tour by James A Moore and Jeff Strand. It’s just super great and really makes me want to pick up more stuff by both authors.
The only reason it wasn't a 5 star was the first quarter or so of the book being mostly average at best and that I felt the characters for the most part were flat and had no real personality.
So you have your regular everyday humans, and then you have the gray-skinned, glowing-eyed, multiple-mouth-having, Sa'Ba Taalor. In the first book you're largely dealing with the mystery of what the Sa'Ba Taalor want. By this point it's very clear what they want, and it isn't peace and harmony. The only thing with that is, and I don't know what this says about myself, I'm not so sure they so easily labeled the bad guys. The people who murder women and children who have surrendered, will not stop until they destroy all of the humans and their cities, and show zero mercy. And still, if you had an (what you believed to be) infallible god speaking to you and giving you direct and specific orders, would you not follow them believing that in the end you would see why they were right to want what they ask for? I mean even as someone who doesn't believe in a god or gods, I can say, if an infallible god was speaking to me (and I wasn't insane) as they were the Sa'Ba Taalor, I'd trust in their own wisdom and judgement over my own.
That's, to me, what makes this story so interesting. On one hand you despise these gray folk for what they're doing. On the other, I cant help but wonder, do the gods know more than both "races" and actually have a good reason for all the evil they're bringing about? There's still one book left so the jury is still out on that, though as it gets deeper and deeper in, it's seeming less and less likely that there's anything positive that could come of it all.
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.