The Last Days of Jericho - Supernatural Horror in the Bronze Age

[tbrookside]

I wanted to let everyone know that The Last Days of Jericho is now available at Smashwords and in the Amazon Kindle Store.

Blurb:

A monster is approaching the Bronze Age city of Yarich.

It cannot be stopped. It cannot be turned aside.

And the monster is…God Himself.

The Canaanite city of Yarich is home to a society that is literate, cosmopolitan – and doomed. Sakal, caravan-master to the "Melek" or king of the city-state, recounts the tale of the increasingly desperate battle for survival waged by an urban culture against fanatical outsiders – nomads from the desert wielding a terrible supernatural power. Half "Deuteronomy", half "Gojira", Brookside’s story examines the horror that arises from the knowledge of inexorable fate, and explores the moral ambiguity at the heart of the Old Testament tales that help make up the foundation of western civilization.

The basic inspiration for the story was my realization that, if taken literally, the biblical account of the invasion of Canaan makes for one heck of a "monster horror" tale.

It's approximately 47000 words. The Smashwords sample size is currently set to 50%, so you can get a pretty substantial preview before making a purchasing decision.

Warning: the Smashwords price is currently higher than the Amazon price. The Amazon price is for a limited time. It takes Smashwords a long time to update its prices once it sends them out to the other sites it supports - so I pretty much had to set the Smashwords price to its long-term level right away.

Thanks!

[Dr. Drib]

Welcome to MobileRead, Tbrookside.

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Don
(Moderator)

[tbrookside]

Thanks Dr. Drib!

[tbrookside]

The Last Days of Jericho has received its first Amazon review!

It's 4 stars.

This is Thomas Brookside's follow up to his incredibly creative and well executed "De Bello Lemures or The Roman War Against the Zombies of Armorica". Let's make one thing clear. Thomas Brookside may be self-published, but his writing is as crisp and descriptive as any big house publisher. Both stories take place in a very particular historical setting, and Brookside nails the narrator's tone and leaves readers with an extremely genuine exposition.

"Last Days of Jericho" tells the story of the fall of Jericho. Brookside's fictional account represents Joshua's god as a supernatural near-monster-like entity that destroys everything in its path.

The first-person narration is handled by a citizen in a fictional Jericho who manages the King's travel and trade. Brookside only teases his "monster" in the first half of the book, and the first hard-core supernatural activities don't occur until mid-way through the 130-page story. Bookending the horror, the reader is immersed in middle/late bronze age society, presented through day-to-day life, religion and cross-country diplomacy.

I'll hold back on the details so as not to divulge any key plot points, but as the second half of the book winds towards its conclusion, our narrator takes the reader through an almost metaphysical, and symbolically poetic journey. The author's afterword provides a nice perspective on his approach to writing the story.

This is a terrific book, and I can't wait to see Brookside score big. He's proven himself in his first two books, and I'll proudly state that I "read him when...".

I strongly recommend this book.

[tbrookside]

I just wanted all the non-Kindle readers to know that there is now a Smashwords coupon up for this title to bring the price down to 99 cents.

The coupon code is WJ59Y.

Thanks!

[carld]

This looks really interesting. I picked it up from Amazon since I have some store credit to use up there.

[DixieGal]

I just got it at Amazon. It looks intriguing.

[tbrookside]

Thanks, carld!

Thanks, DixieGal!

I hope you enjoy it!

[tbrookside]

This title has received a 5-star review at Amazon.

It reads, in part:

In this author's first book, he pretended to be a scholar who had translated an ancient document that told a story about zombies in Ancient Rome, and he included lots of footnotes to the text. I thought he would do the same thing here, and make it a kind of Dead Sea Scrolls thing. When I saw that he hadn't, and this was a straight-up historical fiction novel, I was a little disappointed at first - but then the story was so good that I got over it.

The story is pretty simple: Canaanites in Jericho [called Yarich in the book] hear that a new tribe led by a sorcerer has wiped out their neighbors near the Jordan River. When they go to investigate, God stomps their lights out - and then follows the survivors back to their city to finish the job.

I liked the "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern" idea behind the book - how when you change the protagonists of a really familiar story, everything about that story changes. In the Bible, the Canaanites are just stock character villains that have to be wiped out so that the Israelites can get to the Promised Land. But by changing the perspective Brookside makes Jericho into a real place, and then once you're attached to it, he drags it through its own little apocalypse.

Thank you, reader "BlueCat Books"!

[tbrookside]

The Smashwords coupon promotion for this title ends in 2 days!

With coupon code WJ59Y, The Last Days of Jericho is only 99 cents - but only through August 31st!

Thanks!

[CaraM]

Welcome and congratulations on your book and on your great review.

www.caramarsi.com
Logan's Redemption
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0040JI3PG

[tbrookside]

Thanks CaraM!

[Roger E Craig]

Congratulations on your monster book. I'll go look at it now and see if it's something I might like to review. I'll download a sample first.

I've recently published three novels on Kindle at test-market prices using Neville Publications as my publisher. They are beginning to sell. This morning I posted one of my novels on this forum.
I included a PUBLIC poll to ask authors if they think it is a good idea to market test at low prices.
I previously published in book form

[tbrookside]

Thanks, Roger.

I voted in the poll!

[tbrookside]

The August 99 cent promotion is over at this point, and the new Amazon price is $2.99.

But Smashwords users can still get a discount! Coupon code RL68H brings the price down to $1.99 today and tomorrow!

Thanks!