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For Ashley and her three friends, it was supposed to be an adventure-filled weekend. A chance to get away from the hustle-and-bustle of city life and experience the peaceful tranquility of nature. But when they ventured into those woods, their trip turned into a horror far beyond what they could have ever imagined. Because these four friends have wandered into the territory of the violent, grotesque Webb family. A group of psychopaths who have a taste for human meat. And they are hungry!
Barry and Maureen have just been approved as tenants by the Association. Pity they never read the fine print on the lease. It could be the death of them....
Four short novels from the author of The Fireman and Horns. 'Rain' explores an escalating apocalyptic event, as downpours of nails spread out across the world. In 'Loaded', a mall security guard heroically stops a mass shooting, but his story begins to unravel, taking his sanity with it. 'Snapshot, 1988' tells of a kid in Silicon Valley who finds himself threatened. And in 'Aloft', a young man parachutes for the first time...and winds up a castaway on an impossibly solid cloud.
A peculiar tablet unearthed in a Middle Eastern ossuary provokes madness in those who encounter it. One by one, people come under the tablet's sway and are subjected to horrific visions and dreams. In time, the tablet's true purpose becomes clear: It is the harbinger of an eons-dead god whose reemergence will steep the world in terror and suffering. Having put the pieces together, two men race against the clock and attempt to disrupt the terrifying work of an ancient cult.
Years ago, a young girl ran away from her childhood home and vowed never to go back. It was a place of fear, pain, and misery at the hands of an abusive father. But now, her father is dead, and she is forced to break that vow and return home - to lay his body to rest and face up to the ghosts of her past. However, Danni is about to learn that some ghosts are more real than others. Something beyond her understanding waits for her there, lurking in the shadows.
Five complete strangers from across America are about to come together and open the door to a place of evil that they all call home. Inexplicably, four men and one woman are having heart-stopping nightmares revolving around the dark and forbidding houses where each of them were born. When recent terrifying events occur, they are each drawn to their identical childhood homes, only to confront a sinister supernatural presence which has pursued them all their lives and is now closer than ever to capturing their souls....
For Ashley and her three friends, it was supposed to be an adventure-filled weekend. A chance to get away from the hustle-and-bustle of city life and experience the peaceful tranquility of nature. But when they ventured into those woods, their trip turned into a horror far beyond what they could have ever imagined. Because these four friends have wandered into the territory of the violent, grotesque Webb family. A group of psychopaths who have a taste for human meat. And they are hungry!
Barry and Maureen have just been approved as tenants by the Association. Pity they never read the fine print on the lease. It could be the death of them....
Four short novels from the author of The Fireman and Horns. 'Rain' explores an escalating apocalyptic event, as downpours of nails spread out across the world. In 'Loaded', a mall security guard heroically stops a mass shooting, but his story begins to unravel, taking his sanity with it. 'Snapshot, 1988' tells of a kid in Silicon Valley who finds himself threatened. And in 'Aloft', a young man parachutes for the first time...and winds up a castaway on an impossibly solid cloud.
A peculiar tablet unearthed in a Middle Eastern ossuary provokes madness in those who encounter it. One by one, people come under the tablet's sway and are subjected to horrific visions and dreams. In time, the tablet's true purpose becomes clear: It is the harbinger of an eons-dead god whose reemergence will steep the world in terror and suffering. Having put the pieces together, two men race against the clock and attempt to disrupt the terrifying work of an ancient cult.
Years ago, a young girl ran away from her childhood home and vowed never to go back. It was a place of fear, pain, and misery at the hands of an abusive father. But now, her father is dead, and she is forced to break that vow and return home - to lay his body to rest and face up to the ghosts of her past. However, Danni is about to learn that some ghosts are more real than others. Something beyond her understanding waits for her there, lurking in the shadows.
Five complete strangers from across America are about to come together and open the door to a place of evil that they all call home. Inexplicably, four men and one woman are having heart-stopping nightmares revolving around the dark and forbidding houses where each of them were born. When recent terrifying events occur, they are each drawn to their identical childhood homes, only to confront a sinister supernatural presence which has pursued them all their lives and is now closer than ever to capturing their souls....
Late one summer night, Elizabeth Sanderson receives the devastating news that every mother fears: her 13-year-old son, Tommy, has vanished in the woods of a local park. Riddled with worry, pain and guilt, Elizabeth is wholly unprepared for the strange series of events that follow. As the search grows more desperate, and the implications of what happened become more haunting and sinister, no one is prepared for the shocking truth about that night.
Blackwater is the saga of a small town, Perdido, Alabama, and Elinor Dammert, the stranger who arrives there under mysterious circumstances on Easter Sunday, 1919. On the surface, Elinor is gracious, charming, anxious to belong in Perdido, and eager to marry Oscar Caskey, the eldest son of Perdido's first family. But her beautiful exterior hides a shocking secret. Beneath the waters of the Perdido River, she turns into something terrifying, a creature whispered about in stories that have chilled the residents of Perdido for generations.
Eight astronauts. One killer. No way home. Frank Kitteridge is serving life for murdering his son's drug dealer. So when he's offered a deal by Xenosystems Operations - the company that runs the prison - he takes it, even though it means swapping one life sentence for another. He's been selected to help build the first permanent base on Mars. Unfortunately, his crewmates are just as guilty of their crimes as he is - and he'll have to learn to trust them if they're to succeed.
Nothing ever changes in Sanders. The town's still got a video store, for God's sake. So why doesn't Eli Teague want to leave? Not that he'd ever admit it, but maybe he's been waiting - waiting for the traveler to come back. The one who's roared into his life twice before, pausing just long enough to drop tantalizing clues before disappearing in a cloud of gunfire and a squeal of tires. The one who's a walking anachronism, with her tricorne hat, flintlock rifle, and steampunked Model A Ford.
At the height of the Cold War, officials at the Ministry of Defence conducted a highly secret investigation into unusual events that occurred along a strip of rugged Pembrokeshire coastline. The events made national headlines: objects hovering in the sky, ghostly figures peering into windows and poltergeists plaguing a terrified family. Thirty years later, the official files were finally released for public scrutiny and prompted a new witness to come forward.
Daniel Martin has never forgotten his childhood encounters with Frank Watkins, the man who built his family a summer home out of cardboard and plywood. Frank's gaze was oddly confusing, as if he was attempting to discern the proper way to behave because he didn't know how to respond in a human manner. Since Frank obviously wasn't an alien, young Daniel thought maybe the man was crazy. In the end, Daniel would learn the terrifying truth about Frank Watkins. And as an adult, Daniel is about to discover there are more of them out there.
After a bizarre and disturbing incident at the funeral of matriarch Marian Savage, the McCray and Savage families look forward to a restful and relaxing summer at Beldame, on Alabama's Gulf Coast, where three Victorian houses loom over the shimmering beach. Two of the houses are habitable, while the third is slowly and mysteriously being buried beneath an enormous dune of blindingly white sand. But though long uninhabited, the third house is not empty. Inside, something deadly lies in wait.
The Himalayas, 1935. Kangchenjunga. Third-highest peak on earth. Greatest killer of them all. Five Englishmen set off from Darjeeling, determined to conquer the sacred summit. But courage can only take them so far - and the mountain is not their only foe. As the wind dies, the dread grows. Mountain sickness. The horrors of extreme altitude. A past that will not stay buried. And sometimes, the truth does not set you free.
How far will he go to save his daughter? How far will he go to get revenge? It's 2053, and runaway climate change has brought civilization to the brink of collapse. Billions are threatened with starvation, and mankind is slowly moving north in a world stricken by war, drought and superstorms - easy prey for the pandemics that sweep across the globe. Easy prey, too, for the violent gangs and people smugglers who thrive in the crumbling world where 'King Death' reigns supreme.
The house looked right, felt right to Dr Louis Creed. Rambling, old, unsmart and comfortable. A place where the family could settle, the children grow and play and explore. The rolling hills and meadows of Maine seemed a world away from the fume-choked dangers of Chicago. Only the occasional big truck out on the two-lane highway, grinding up through the gears, hammering down the long gradients, growled out an intrusive threat. But behind the house and far away from the road: that was safe.
Twenty years ago, a pair of killers committed a series of brutal murders. Their final target was the Hollow Campground. An entire family was dragged from their cabins and slaughtered. Then the killers disappeared. Now they're back. The Hollow has recently re-opened, but people haven't forgotten the carnage that took place there. Liz Mallory is taking a weekend camping trip to the Hollow with her old college friends. Hoping to make some memories. Liz doesn't know they're being watched.
Hovern Bog. People live in terror of it - especially the residents of Fenchurch St. Jude, the little village located at its edge. They think of it as a living being. When 2,000-year-old bodies are recovered from the bog, perfectly preserved, it is the discovery of a lifetime for archaeologist David Macauley. But close examination of the corpses reveals a curious fact: all were cruelly, mysteriously murdered, gnawed to death by some unimaginable creature.
Badly battered by an apocalyptic storm, the crew of the Arctic Promise find themselves in increasingly dire circumstances as they sail blindly into unfamiliar waters and an ominously thickening fog. Without functioning navigation or communication equipment, they are lost and completely alone. One by one the men fall prey to a mysterious illness. Deckhand Noah Cabot is the only person unaffected by the strange force plaguing the ship and her crew, which does little to ease their growing distrust of him.
Dismissing Noah's warnings of worsening conditions, the captain of the ship presses on until the sea freezes into ice and they can go no farther. When the men are ordered overboard in an attempt to break the ship free by hand, the fog clears, revealing a faint shape in the distance that may or may not be their destination. Noah leads the last of the able-bodied crew on a journey across the ice and into an uncertain future where they must fight for their lives against the elements, the ghosts of the past, and, ultimately, themselves.
I downloaded this just before trip to see family in New Zealand. The holiday been amazing and this book has just added value to a lazy 2 days. It strikes me as a cross between Stephen King's The Shining and John Carpenter's The Thing. Very clever, suspenseful and with not a little philosophy about a meaningful life. The characters came across well especially towards the climax and the setting well researched and believable. The narrator is also extremely good. Managed to get the tension across with the right pace and emphasis. All in all one of the best listens I have had.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
This is an untidy story more in the paranormal fantasy realm than adventure. I think I was expecting more of the latter than the former. There is suspense and some action but there’s also a lot of repetition that should have been edited out that made the story longer than necessary. The plot is unique and held my interest though the telling wasn't as crisp as it could have been. The narration was fine.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful
This is so well written, it's refreshing. Don't know anything about the author, but he's good. The narration is wonderful. Touching in parts, very scary in others. Human nature at its best and worst. Left me with some plot questions but that didn't seem to matter in the end. Wonderful look at the many facets of each life and the mystery of our existence. Going to go see if MacLeod has anything else out there.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Loved the characters, not a perfect book, but it will hold your interest. The ending needs re-work; it is incomplete and we are left with so many questions that should be answered after spending 11 hours with these characters.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Any additional comments?
I took a chance on this book and was greatly rewarded for it. The author does a really great job of making you care about the protagonist. I found myself wanting to slap around some of his fellow crew members for him. Not too many books can cause me to become emotionally invested in them. Great job of writing and story telling.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
It took awhile for the story to get going. When it finally did, I thought this turning out to be a great story. I was disappointed that it never really went anywhere after the big reveal. The captain and first mate characters weren't believable to the point of distraction. Having said all that, I found the setting to be engaging. The premise of the story was fresh and compelling albeit under utilized. It kept my interest until the end.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Nothing about this book is boring. I've never read anything by MacLeod before, so I was pleased to be grabbed by the throat on page one and pulled through the storms and ice and horror of the novel by a master of pacing. The deckhands and roughnecks of STRANDED are quick to jump to conclusions or violence, but the same force that stretches the suspension of disbelief never once takes your attention for granted with long, tedious passages of forty different ways to say it's cold. MacLeod knows you get it. He doesn't have to prove it over and over. Things are tough in this story, and they can always get worse.
I've read that it's being compared to John Carpenter's THE THING, but beyond the setting and a few of the ancillary characters the two stories are altogether different beasts. I feel the comparison lessons the world MacLeod created in this book. Not every twist worked for me, but that doesn't mean I won't be lining up to get his next book as soon as I hear about it.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
The narrator was good. The storyline was interesting. The characters? Well, I absolutely hated Brewster and Boucher right away. Noah really bothered me too. He just couldn't keep his mouth shut to make things easier for himself. The ending ruined this book. It doesn't make any sense at all. I will say that the writer did a good job writing the characters because I had very strong emotions about several of them. Too bad the ending was so dumb.
A brutally cold tale about a supply ship running into an earth shattering storm that sends the crew into a very claustrophobic and violent episode of the Twilight Zone. There is a lot of action and suspense. I felt like I had some questions about the plot right after I finished it but the more I thought about it I grew to appreciate the unknowns more. I would recommend this book to PKD fans as well. Parts of it reminded me of some of his work like Time Out Of Joint.
If you like high action and intense end of the world type stuff then you will like Stranded. This is my first Macleod book and I intend to read more. I see he has a book coming out with ChiZine. Any author that puts out a book with ChiZine will likely be read by me at some point. Also, I did listen to the audiobook through some of Stranded and it was well read by the narrator named PJ Ochlan. You can't go wrong in any form.
Good story. Good characters. Badly needed an editor. for length, repetitiveness and internal consistency. Also plot resolution incomplete.