Winterland A Dark Fairy Tale eBook Mike Duran
Download As PDF : Winterland A Dark Fairy Tale eBook Mike Duran 
Summoned into her dying mother’s coma, recovering addict Eunice Ames must traverse a surreal, apocalyptic dreamscape in search of three generational spirits who have imprisoned her mother’s soul.
Together with Joseph, a crippled drifter who serves as her guide, Eunice treks an abandoned highway strewn with debris from her mother’s “emotional” wars. Along the way, she encounters Mister Mordant, a perpetually whiny grub, Reverend Ash a fragile, supremely self-righteous minister, and Sybil, a beautiful sylph with a knack for deception. Eunice and Joseph endeavor to lead this peculiar brigade into the hell of her mother’s making, through the swamp of Mlaise and the volcanic plains of Cinder, to the Dark Throne where they were forged. Along the way, Eunice experiences, in awful living color, the forces that have shaped her mother’s descent into madness and disease.
Yet a more malevolent power conspires against Eunice. For not only is she forced to relive the psychological terrain of her own upbringing, she must now confront the darkness it has spawned... the one inside her. It seems Eunice has harbored horrors of her own; years of abuse, rejection, and generational sin have taken root. And no amount of psycho-babble and positive thinking can withstand the literal monster that is waiting at the end of this highway. Can Eunice destroy the spirits that have cursed her family and rescue her mother, or will the sun set on their hell forever?
The Wizard of Oz meets Dante’s Inferno in this novella (27,000 words), a dark adult fairy tale about finding faith, redemption, and confronting the monsters of our psyche.
Winterland A Dark Fairy Tale eBook Mike Duran
Product details
|
Tags : Amazon.com: Winterland: A Dark Fairy Tale eBook: Mike Duran: Kindle Store,ebook,Mike Duran,Winterland: A Dark Fairy Tale,Blue Crescent Press,FICTION Magical Realism,FICTION Fantasy Dark Fantasy
Winterland A Dark Fairy Tale eBook Mike Duran Reviews
I really enjoyed Duran's other works, so I was excited to read this one and get more mystery and chills, like his other books. But this book really triggered introspection and a lot of prayer. I'm recommending it to everyone I know.
I'm hesitant to write a review because I came to this book not knowing anything about it. I think the impact of the story would have been lessoned had I known what to expect. Therefore, all I'm going to say is that, in my opinion, this book is on caliber with a C.S. Lewis fantasy. It's not mere entertainment; there is meat to it. I hope you will read it.
Winterland is an urban fable set in an alternative reality post-apocalyptic landscape, with the twist being in its creation through the life and psyche of the main character's dying mother. It is not shy in introducing dark themes such as prositutition, drug abuse and self-mutilation. Whether you consider the metaphor a mere borrowing of a religious concept or a torchlight into a dark theological corner will depend on what beliefs you bring into reading it.
One thing I admire about this novellla is it's ability to goade the reader into introspection. Any piece of work that leaves room for interpretation and wonder comes from a fertile imagination - Winterland is rich in layers.
The vistas Mike Duran creates are typical wonderland fare but they kept me curious.
Although Winterland is succesfully written, I do think there are areas where the reader will long for a higher resolution of detail in the writing.
It's not always pretty, but this novella kept me occupied for the duration of a 2 hour flight without much hassle. It also gave me some thought-fodder, a quote or two and a window into Mike Duran's imagination. Although I'm sure my enjoyment of his blogging made me want to read this, I'd recommend it if you're already a fan of short fiction urban horror or fantasy - it's quick but challenging.
Author Mike Duran aptly describes this as a dark fairy tale. The novella explores the allegorical landscape of a troubled mind, and I enjoyed the vivid imagery. It is a rock-solid premise that I think could have been more fully mined, especially by fleshing out Mordant, Ash, and Cybil more intricately. However, the story's brevity engages the reader's own interpretation as the story unfolds. A fun, quick read that leaves you with something to think about.
I have to get this out there, this was pretty creepy, even in comparison to Mike's debut, The Resurrection.
Eunice Ames just had an accident happen while on the way to the hospital to visit her comatose mother. Only to have something really bizarre happen- be allowed to enter an interdimensional doorway to a place far beyond human comprehension at first. Part of the bizarre things that happen is meeting a peculiar cast of characters- the highly pessimistic critter called Mister Mordant, the self-righteous (and obnoxious) Reverend Ash, and the enigmatic nymph known as Sybil. Yet all these characters have strange secrets connected to Eunice and, more importantly, to her mother. So does the strange environments, the nightmaric creatures that don't have to have the obvious frightening imagery to be downright unnerving, and the journey itself.
Sure quite a bit of stuff can be seen as obvious allegory, but it feels that that's part of the fun reading.
I do hope the creeps continue into Mike's next book, The Telling.
I was so-so interested in the book, as it was a psychological SHORT story. How much mind bending events can happen in 27,000 words? Well, actually quiet a bit. The book's plot is nothing specifically new. A woman confronting her dying mother, and brings along her past. However, the other-worldly surrealist dimension of her mother's mind that she is pulled into takes the plot through a different twist that was refreshing and haunting. The description of Tim Burton comes up quiet a bit when describing this book. While I agree with that to a point, I would say Salvador Dali had a little more influence on the world in which the story takes part. The "monsters" the main character encounters have a Alice-in-Wonderland quality about them, but she must bring them with her to confront her mother as well. So she also needs to deal with them as her mother did. Overcoming personal demons, refreshing look on understanding and coming to grips with a loved one, a dark fairytale atmosphere all while turning challenges and tests into insightful and meaningful trials. This was a very enjoyable read. Only thing I can dock it on points for was that I thought it ended too quickly. The beginning was detailed and entrapping, and while the ending was just as so, I felt like it let go just before you grasped something. What that something was, I cannot tell. Still, a great, quick, and enchanting novel.
The title for this review is fitting for both the substance and style of Mike Duran's venture that defies being pigeon holed to one genre. Eunice's surreal adventure of discovery as led by Joseph her guide is mindful of what John Bunyan might have done with Pilgrim's Progress if he lived today and Tim Burton offered to write the screenplay. I say this as an utmost compliment. Triggered by an automobile accident, Eunice finds herself in a fantastic journey into what she believes to be the comatose landscape of her mother's mind. She is joined by a sniveling slug of a fellow by the name of Mordant, a young girl named Sybil, and nose-in-the-air Reverend Ash. All along the way her companions do everything they can to deter her from reaching her goal.
The writing is crisp and never apologizes for the sheer weirdness of the story. In many ways it reminds me of the style of Marc Schooley's Konig's Fire. I will admit that Mordant's dialogue and character got on my nerves at times but I suspect the author intended it that way. The use of adverbs got a bit heavy but that is probably more a matter of taste on my part than anything. Beyond that, this is an excellent example of why eBooks are so important. Novellas don't have much of a home anywhere else. But for less than $2.00 you get a ripping good story that could easily make any rainy afternoon worth staying home.
0 Response to "[DZM]⋙ Download Winterland A Dark Fairy Tale eBook Mike Duran"
Post a Comment