This Brilliant Darkness
This Brilliant Darkness, my debut novel, has received at least 25 reviews in its first five months in the marketplace. More than 15 of those have been five star reviews. Almost all the rest were four.
I am so grateful. Thank you!
Here’s a quick review/summary of the book by Thea Isis Gregory:
Newsflash: It has come to my attention that Barnes & Noble is selling This Brilliant Darkness, and at a significant discount, presently about $3 cheaper than The ‘Zon. While researching that link, I also found it available here at a discount.
Paperback is now available, direct from CreateSpace or $10.99 from Amazon.
If you’d like to order a signed copy from yours truly, here’s a link for that. (If you want someone else to sign it, you’ll have to do that legwork, yourself.)
Click here to request your autographed copy. Once in awhile I will offer a review copy, ideally in exchange for an actual review—so if you think this book is your cup of tea, get in touch.
Read reviews of This Brilliant Darkness:
Author & editor Axel Howerton says:
The enigmatic Red Tash has created a compelling, multi-layered - and fully nuanced - modern fairytale, full of pop reference and varied philosophical allusions. This Brilliant Darkness is smart, thrilling, funny and full of great characters tangled in the kind of small-town webs Stephen King revels in. Excellent writing from a writer to watch. One of the best new writers I’ve read in years. Pick it up!
And I did not even have to pay him for that. :D
Librarian, author, and lover of physics Amy Marshall gives possibly the best review of TBD, yet:
Well, by midnight, I had not put the book down, and had no intention of putting it down. At 12:15am, my fourteen-year-old son stumbled out to get a drink of water. “You’re still up?” he asked. “Go to bed.” I looked up from my Nook, smiled, and said, “Not on your life, dude. Not until this ends.”
Read the rest of the review here.
Christina M. Grey calls it “Mystery Science Masterpiece Theatre” and gives it five stars. Her review lists lots of things she loves about the book, and gives you the flavor of the story without giving spoilers.
Right now the book’s exclusive to Amazon, but it will be back on Smashwords/B&N/Apple, etc. soon.
***
Okay, now here’s my take on it:
This Brilliant Darkness is my first novel. It’s a fast-moving story told from multiple points of view, and it doesn’t dumb itself down, so you need to be a top-notch reader to really enjoy this one, I think. It has a few big words and not very many pictures, I’m afraid. There’s a lot of real science behind the plot, but rather than bore you with my Carl Sagan impression, I decided to focus on the story, so it zips along at light speed.
Oh, yeah—I keep forgetting to mention: there’s a Star Trek parody sub-plot, as well.
Here are the folks you’ll meet in This Brilliant Darkness:
Christine is a young, well-liked professor at Indiana University, though you would have trouble convincing her of that. She lives on coffee and zen meditation, adores antiquated technology and her retired greyhound, Sadie. She loves the feel of a heavy rotary phone receiver in her hand, and the amber glow of an ancient computer monitor. She doesn’t trust her smartphone, the government, God, or her own good judgment. “Socially awkward” doesn’t begin to describe her.
Tom is Christine’s live-in boyfriend, a long-haired carpenter who bikes all over town. They’ve been together a few years, and he is very much in love with her. He’s into green fuel, the Doors, tie-dye, and Birkenstocks. He was someone very special in a past life, but he doesn’t know that yet. He loves hotwings and beer. He is a Bloomington boy by birth, a townie.
Richard is an eccentric, wounded recluse venturing back into the land of living for the first time in years. He was raised in privilege across the pond by a controlling father. He was happily married and somewhat normal before his wife’s accident. Bloomington life brings out the best in him.
Greachin. What can I tell you about Greachin? Greachin is the dark shadow waiting for you, playing tricks with your mind. Greachin is reading your thoughts, scanning the universe constantly for predators. Greachin is broken, damaged, dirty, insane. Greachin possesses immense power, able to flit in and out of time on a whim, and mutate organic DNA into taking any form he desires. He specializes in studying his prey to determine what they fear the most, then turning himself into their deepest terror before striking a soul-crushing blow. He’s been at it a long time, but it’s a lonely life. In This Brilliant Darkness, Greachin begins to wonder if it’s a game he’s still willing to play. Sure, it’s kept him alive this long, but at what cost?
Simon is a monk with a dark past and an uncertain future, devoted to prayer and plagued by dreams of people or spirits he’s never met.
Dudley is the University President, and an old school friend of Richard’s.
Roger is Christine’s department chair.
Junie is Christine’s Teaching Assistant (TA).
Officer Scott is a friend of Tom’s, also a townie.
I refuse to tell you anything about Tristan at this point. We can talk about that later.
Recently, I made up a quiz so people could find out which character they are most like. It’s here. I chose a fantasy cast to go those results and put them on my This Brilliant Darkness pinboard on Pinterest, too. Fun, huh?
This book does come with a couple of caveats: language and violence. There’s a bit more of the first than the second. There’s not much I can do about how the characters talk, act, and think, so if they offend you, I am very sorry. I wish sometimes I could write fluffy historicals where the heroine gets the vapors and locks herself away for a week in protest of some anachronistic social issue, but that’s never really worked for me. I yam what I yam.
If you think any of this bunch are ugly, you are really going to hate the trolls in my next book.
On the other hand, if you know a good guilty pleasure when you see one, then belly up to the bar! I’m dishing it out.
Purchase This Brilliant Darkness on Amazon.
THIS BRILLIANT IS TEMPORARILY AN AMAZON PREMIUM EXCLUSIVE, UNTIL MARCH 2012. This means that it will be coming down from the following buy links as soon as the computers filter that request through their system. If you have Amazon Prime, you can borrow This Brilliant Darkness for free, or pick it up for $2.99.
Buy This Brilliant Darkness on Smashwords (available in most ebook formats).
Now available on iBooks, for you iTunes lovers.
Now in the Nook store on B&N.
Sony reader store link to TBD.
Click to enlarge!
Previous cover:
I made a Wix site for This Brilliant Darkness, just because it’s pretty. ”Just because it’s pretty” is a good reason to do things, sometimes.
Catch the holiday book trailer for This Brilliant Darkness.
