Release date: June 20, 2015
Subgenre: Urban fantasy, Christian fantasy
About The Book of Daniel:
Daniel Stein is having the worst day
of his life. The last day of his life, in fact. And things are only
going to get worse for him tomorrow.
Death is only the beginning for Dan. Waking up to find that his wife, Joanna, has also been killed is bad enough, but then Dan also finds a sword shoved into his hand, and is told that the only way he's ever going to get to Jo—and Heaven—is if he does as God tells him and fights against the forces of Satan's army.
But demons are the least of Dan's problems in the afterlife. There's also his hatred of God to contend with.
And Dan is pretty sure that God hates him right back.
Welcome to Purgatory.
Please note that this book contains strong language.
Death is only the beginning for Dan. Waking up to find that his wife, Joanna, has also been killed is bad enough, but then Dan also finds a sword shoved into his hand, and is told that the only way he's ever going to get to Jo—and Heaven—is if he does as God tells him and fights against the forces of Satan's army.
But demons are the least of Dan's problems in the afterlife. There's also his hatred of God to contend with.
And Dan is pretty sure that God hates him right back.
Welcome to Purgatory.
Please note that this book contains strong language.
Excerpt:
It began with a slight rising of the ground about twenty metres
behind Thomas, but the expanse of the bulge was so large that at first none of
the soldiers standing on top of it realised what was going on. Then, with a
sudden burst of energy, the mound peaked upwards and exploded in a shower of
dirt, the force of whatever it was that had tunnelled up from beneath flinging
soldiers in all directions. Dust and soil rained down upon us, interspersed
with something wetter and redder, which I suspected was blood; but the will to
investigate vanished when I caught sight of what was crawling out of the
ground.
To be honest, ‘crawling’ is probably the wrong word to use; flowing would be more accurate, but even
that doesn’t really capture the lumpy way it poured out of the hole and
assembled itself into a muddy, vaguely humanoid heap. Until a head that was
composed almost entirely of teeth suddenly burst out of the thing’s mass, I
couldn’t even tell for sure if this was actually the Subterranean that Harper
had referred to, or merely its excrement; it certainly stank badly enough to be
the latter. As the demon took shape, it shook violently, like a big, wet dog,
throwing off globs of filth, or parts of its body—it was impossible to tell if
there was any difference—in every direction. But the time it was taking the
Subterranean to fully emerge from its tunnel gave most of the nearby
Purgatorians a chance to fall back. Only a single figure was still within range
of its jaws.
Thomas.
Incredibly, he still just stood there, apparently oblivious to the
danger. Even when the Subterranean began to chomp at the air, sensing nearby
prey, he didn’t respond, and I feared that perhaps he had somehow been wounded
by the demon’s explosive arrival. I remembered shell-shocked soldiers stumbling
around the battlefield in former times, and thinking that perhaps Thomas had
been stunned, I hefted my sword and started to rush towards the Subterranean.
Impulsively, I yelled out, hoping that I could distract it from its intended
target. My brain refused to think about what would happen if it actually did
turn towards me instead of him; I was simply acting on military instinct,
trying to save my friend from what would quite literally be a fate worse than
death.
I only managed to cover a fraction of the distance before it was all
over. I was still unused to my armour’s strange bulk, and the Subterranean slid
towards Thomas far more quickly than I could run, its legs dissolving into a
shapeless, boiling mass of earth as it sped towards him. Only when the fiend
reared up like a filthy cobra, its huge mouth angled downwards and ready to
strike, did Thomas finally rouse himself from his prayers. He looked up into
the black hole framed by those unfeasibly large jaws, raised his sword high,
and calmly stood ready. For an instant, the Subterranean paused, uncertain in
the face of this unexpected bravery, but its greed quickly overrode its
confusion, and the gaping mouth thrust downwards towards Thomas like a pile
driver.
Amazon | Bookgoodies
About Mat Ridley:
Mat Ridley was born and bred in England, where he studied hard
to become a biochemist, but then decided to jump ship and work
with computers and theologians instead. In between days at the
office, he enjoys journeying far and wide in his imagination, and
published his debut novel, The Book of Daniel, in 2015. He looks
forward to publishing many more. He still lives in England.
No comments:
Post a Comment