Dread-inducing post-apocalyptic philosophical battle of good and evil.

Great for fans of Lora Powell’s The First 30 Days, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.

SF/FANTASY/HORROR Gaze Long Into the Abyss Dalan Musson | California Coldblood Books 200p, trade paper, $17, ISBN 978-1-955-08514-4

Screenwriter Musson’s debut novel creates an immersive post-apocalyptic wasteland where an unlikely pair do battle with a supreme evil. In a landscape where the gray and glowing sky crackles with thunder and lightning but never rain, the scarred and war weary Old Man lives a meager life in a shack away from society. A young man, the Kid, wearing a patchwork uniform, approaches him one day, saying his mother Mary used to know the Old Man and to seek him out if the Kid ever needed him. The Kid warns that the prophecy is coming true, that “He” is opening a series of Seals in His quest to destroy the world. Reluctant to get involved, the Old Man relinquishes, having battled Him unsuccessfully in his youth and now ready to finish the job. The Kid, armed with a rifle, and the Old Man with his two pistols travel the barren landscape towards Him for a final showdown.

Musson’s coarse dialog, internal monologues, and ominous atmosphere evoke an eerie aura of inescapable threat and doom. With a sense of religious obligation, leaving makeshift crosses everywhere, the pragmatic Old Man lives by a code of knowing the Truth, and the characters ruminate on man’s capacity to do evil. “That kinda thing is either in you or it ain’t,” the Kid declares, to which the Old Man replies, “Any time a man acts with rage, or lust, or avarice…it takes ‘em a bit closer to Him.” As they make their way past doppelgangers and flesh-eating monsters, the pair wait for Him to open another Seal and reveal Himself.

The thoughtful dialogue and general weight of the quest at times diminish narrative momentum, as the grim plodding and sense of dread propels the ominous mission toward an existential confrontation with Him. Readers of horror and science fiction looking for a philosophical undercurrent will enjoy this character-driven quest for truth and man’s innate character.

Cover: A | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: – Editing: A- | Marketing copy: A