Quick Review - The Temple of the Dead (Sepulchral Earth 2) by Tim Marquitz

You may know this by now, but I'm a huge fan of Tim Marquitz. He writes dark urban fantasy or just dark fantasy and he's amazing...and quite hilarious at times (especially here).

Under the rumbling gray sky, Harlan Cole clutched his swollen ribs, his face a patchwork of graven lines. He circled right as the walker came at him. Short huffs of breath spewed from cracked lips. He looked into the corpse's blackened sockets to see pools of insect larvae churning in their depths. Harlan fought the urge to gag as a long brown roach skittered from the corpse’s eye and ran across its cheek. It disappeared when it wormed its way inside the walker’s jaundiced ear.

The Temple of the Dead, the second in Tim's Sepulchral Earth serial novella (my review of the first), is part of his more serious repertoire, tackling the zombie apocalypse in a new way that only Tim Marquitz can do.

This is zombies with a fantastical twist, involving magic, ghouls, guns, and an epic quest. In this installment, we find out more about Harlan Cole's past and motivations behind his pursuit of the breach and make some significant steps toward that goal.

Highly Recommended!

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher

Quick Review - Sepulchral Earth by Tim Marquitz

As you can see from my review, I'm really glad I gave Armageddon Bound a chance. Tim has a unique sense of humor and writes one heck of an action scene. Needless to say, I've been converted.

In light of this, I was excited to be contacted with Tim's newest creation, Sepulchral Earth, The Long Road, part one of a serial novella set for release on March 1, 2010. As it's just under 50 pages, I'll make this quick. Here's the blurb:

Two years after the furious dead rose up to murder the living, the
remnants of mankind face a brutal extinction. Wretched and broken, trading
humanity for life, the survivors suffer under the inevitable shadow of
death.

Aided by friendly spirits, the necromancer Harlan Cole wages war against
the merciless forces of the undead. Driven to bring peace to the souls of
his wife and daughter, Harlan vows to return the dead to their graves, or
join them trying.

This was a unique dark fantasy spin on the post-apocalyptic zombie tale that was able to suck me in from the beginning. Sepulchral Earth takes on a much more serious tone than Armageddon Bound, but still delivers on action and suspense while giving us an initial glimpse at the protagonist, Harlan Cole. Magic and monsters are combined as Harlan fends for his life and others on his journey to make the world whole again. I would recommend this to anyone who's remotely interested in the zombie sub-genre.

Sepulchral Earth, The Long Road (March 1, 2010; website) is being released in eBook (Kindle, PDF, etc.) and Trade Paperback according to Damnation Books' variable pricing. This is the first in 3 part series.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher