Night of the Assholes by Kevin L. Donihe

Night of the Assholes by Kevin L. Donihe

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Night of the Assholes only confirmed something I all ready knew: the world is full of assholes.

Myself included.

It also confirmed that assholery is contagious. If you're an asshole to an asshole in Night of the Assholes, then you become an asshole yourself. I believe that in real life it is the other way around, but this formula works very well for Night of the assholes.

This book reminded me of our own race and how every one of us would probably be like the assholes in this book if we always acted out all the angry, lusty, greedy, inconsiderate thoughts and emotions every time we had them. Sometimes we do, but we also have what I like to call "the editor" in our heads. It makes us choose our battles, the appropriate times to make a pass on the opposite sex, where to defecate, etc. These assholes, however, do whatever it is that enters their minds.

I have met and known assholes who didn't seem to have an internal editor at all, which made this book feel somehow triumphant.

There are a lot of funny parts to this book, and the characters were a lot of fun to follow. The entire book was a fun read, in fact, and I felt that it worked really well as a parody of Night of the Living Dead.

A good, solid read. I highly recommend it.







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The Transition

I've been going through a strange time lately. A time of transition. A reminder of the past and a look into the future.

First, the past:
For some reason, I've had a few old friends contact me, or I them, through Facebook. I've had short and brief conversations with each, but all of them have brought on a flood of memory. It reminded me how much I miss my adolescence and my old friends. It was a completely different time back then and I was a completely different person. I feel that back then I was a bit of a drama-queen, while today I am an indifferent, sometimes apathetic asshole.

Of course, I make jokes at myself, but there is a serious change in my personality over the years. Where back then I thrived on emotion, these days I like to have fun more than anything else.

Which leads me to the future:
I've been struggling, in a fun way, to make stories previously published in magazines, e-zines, and anthologies by yours truly into an anthology all my own. A physical anthology along with an eBook anthology. My plan is thus:

First, I will publish each story as a single and then as a collection of three on the Kindle store at Amazon.com. Once I have nine, plus the tax return numbers I need from the IRS, I will publish the entire thing in one single volume. Both, of course, in eBook and physical format. The physical format will only be available with all nine stories, but if you have an Amazon Kindle, you'll be able to get all nine for your device, and probably for much cheaper as singles, triples, or all nine collected.

Apparently, this is a trend.

I will let you know all updates as I know them. I will also let you know if, and when, I will have my short stories available for the Kobo and the Nook.

This look into the future, in itself, is a scary adventure. But I hope to have the first Kindle shorts up sometime next week. Again, I'll let you know, if you're interested.

The past month or so has been a real adventure in reflection, in hopes and fears of the past and future. I'm looking forward to revisiting the past as well as heading face-first into the future. Of course I fear failure on both counts. That, in fact, is my biggest fear of all. But I'm possessed, and I can only hope that the demons possessing me are correct in their own estimations.

Kill Them All

Kill Them All by Harry Shannon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


My joy for reading Shannon's work led me to Kill Them All, book six of the Dead Man series, and my first dip into the series. It's a novella and can be read in less than a day, unless you read multiple books like I do.

Matt Cahill is a man who was frozen solid for three months before being brought back to life. Now that he is back, he can see that some people have something supernatural, something evil possessing their mind and actions. He is on the hunt for the ever elusive Mr. Dark.

In Kill them All, Cahill rescues a young girl deep crevice within the desert's rock. He is then the praise of the small town from which she comes from. They want to shower Cahill with beer, a free night at the hotel, and food, but he just wants to move on, continue his search.

A team of mercenaries, however, are on his trail. Someone wants to study Matt under the radar, and when the mercenaries find and forcibly take Cahill, his plans are ruined.

What comes next is like reading a fun western set in modern times, with shoot outs and fire. Some of the action near the end, except for maybe one or two things, felt very realistic to me. The characters are also very well drawn and I could picture them all clearly. My favorite was the town itself. A tourist town, it was built and maintained like the downtown district of the old Wild West. I would just love to visit such a town.

What it comes down to is that this is a short, fun ride into a modern western with a supernatural twist. If the rest of the series is this good, then I am a new fan and can't wait to read more.



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The Traveling Dildo Salesman by Kevin L. Donihe

The Traveling Dildo Salesman by Kevin L. Donihe

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A Fun, Twisted Ride Through a Perverse, Corrupt World.

Ralph is a door to door salesman with a briefcase full of sentient dildos. Stuck in a world corrupt with endless streets and houses, he survives by living off the promise (and hope)that once he has sold all the dildos in his briefcase, he will be able to leave and not have to sell the things. This is Ralph's dream as he rarely gets a break, and the only bus around town won’t let him on board.

What follows is an interesting cast of potential customers, failed getaways, and a giant eye in the sky that always watches Ralph while he tries to succeed in selling all his dildos. Which is something he has to do. There simply is no other way out.

What I liked best about this book is that not only is it really fun and hilarious, but Ralph and his determination to escape, his highs and lows within this journey, was really interesting to read. This sort of makes light of what I felt was the ultimate message, that it doesn’t matter how hard you struggle, you’re stuck where you are in life. Only those who fight hard can find a way out of their mundane, non-special consumerist lives. The deck is stacked against you, just as it is against Ralph, and I think that there is a very real meaning here. An important message about capitalism that people aught to recognize and look at. Study and dwell on.

Attached to this book are four short stories. The first one, Milky Agitation, didn’t really make an impression on me. If you feel the same way, do not let that deter you, because following are three strokes of genius that had me feeling disturbed even though I laughed, or simply whispered, "What the hell?"

Which is the best kind of story.

Get this book. I highly recommend it.









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