Hallo and welcome to a new blogpost featuring me trying to write about books I like in a way that sound like I know what I am talking about.
Today book is the excellent “The Cold” by Rich Hawkins published by one of my favourite independent publishers, Horrific Tales Publishing. Whenever Horrific Tales comes with a new book, I buy. Even though this time my order seems to have been delayed, so I read the kindle version of it instead.
Description taken from online:
It was an English summers day like any other until the snow began to fall and kept falling. Within hours, the entire country was buried beneath a freezing white blanket. And hidden within the blizzard conditions things began to move and kill and feast. Seth is one of the few passengers to survive the train crash. Now he and his fellow survivors face a new world of snow, ice and freezing fog, where they will be hunted like prey in the ruins of Great Britain. They must run. They must hide. They must survive THE COLD.
The world is plunged into an all-encompassing winter quite abruptly, and with the snow and the cold comes monsters hellbent on devouring all things living, Seth is one survivor that survives the initial onslaught and has to learn how to survive in the new world, every day he and fellow survivors endure new horrors. The book is bleak and atmospheric. The writing is solid and the characters are well crafted. The monsters are fantastic: nightmarish, disturbing and wrong in the right ways! Its fast paced and unrelenting, new terrors lurking at every page. The use of a constant snowfall gives a claustrophobic sense through it all, even when they are out in the open. As it is set in Great Britain there is not an abundance of guns lying about, so people have to use what they find to protect themselves, makes it more realistic!
So, all in all this is a gritty and claustrophobic survival story with nightmarish monsters. Just another fantastic publication from Horrific Tales! And when it arrives the hardback edition will look amazing on my shelf!
Personally, right now I would enjoy some biting cold, sitting here in a heatwave (in Norway I might add) and slowly melting away!
If you have read any other books from Horrific Tales then you know what you could be inn for, well-crafted bleak cosmic horror (think maybe bleak is too much, considering cosmic horror is quite bleak, but what the hell. It’s very bleak) where survival of the main characters is not always guaranteed. Stories filled with disturbing imagery and a menagerie of vile
monsters (then as literal monsters and evil humans)
As for the author, Rich Hawkins, this is the first time I have read any of his books and he have proved to be a very competent writer! after reading “The Cold” I think checking out his catalogue, and it is something that needs to be done in near future!
If you liked this book (then you have great taste!) then just go for any of Horrific Tales other publications! Personal favourites the “Singularity Cycle” series by William Holloway is fantastic, same with “The Rot” by Paul Kane, “Dead Shift” by John Llewellyn Probert and “High Cross” by Paul Melhuish.
Notes on book reviewed:
Kindle
Page number: 224
Publisher: Horrific Tales Publishing
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