Review: The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal by J. Thorn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Book Info: Genre: Dark Urban Fantasy Reading Level: Adult Recommended for:

Disclosure: I picked up a copy of this book when I found it free on Amazon; I am under no particular obligation to anyone, but am happy to provide an honest review.

Synopsis: John awakes from a Halloween party with a hangover and a dead cell phone, on the first day of the End of Days. He's desperate, on the run, and fighting for his life.

My Thoughts: Wow, this book is quite a ride, in which a man named John gets caught between fanatical Catholics that have decided to cleanse the world of “Infidels” and a motorcycle gang that calls itself the Keepers of Wormwood, while his wife Jana ends up with another group of survivors, and they both have strange dreams involving Father, the fanatical leader of the Covenant.

Thorn has a real gift for description. Consider this passage: “The cold November sun sent weak rays onto the floor of the old house. The floor beneath snickered, trying hard to hold back snaps of bawdy laughter. The temperature dropped with ease.” There are some spelling mix-ups, such as “thirty odd six” for “thirty-aught six”, but overall the pace is too fast to really stop and notice these sorts of things.

It’s a terrific coincidence that I’m posting this review on International Blasphemy Day, since in many ways this story deals with faith, redemption, fanaticism, belief, being an outsider vs. conforming to the conqueror (We welcome our new insect overlords), and the End of Days. Strong themes, and overall, strongly presented. The only real problem I had with the story was how characters were introduced – they would just appear, with their name, and that was the introduction. It made it a little hard to feel comfortable with them: “Hey, whose this Alex dude?” But they were eventually described, and the reader just had to keep up.

I think folks who enjoy apocalyptic fiction will like this story. It’s intense, it’s not pretty, and it was a good story. Definitely check it out.



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