Vince Churchill’s THE BLACKEST HEART begins like any dime-store Western, with a bar fight at the Bloody Kiss saloon, complete with heads bouncing off of hardwood floors, black boots delivering rib-crunching kicks to exposed midsections and collapsed card tables that might’ve been used for weapons after a hidden ace turned up in some poor pardner’s sleeve.
But THE BLACKEST HEART is not a Western; at least, it’s not just a Western. Churchill’s ambitious sophomore effort (his debut, THE DEAD SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH, took zombies beyond Romero’s world and landed them in outer space) jumps genres like its villainous Yardon Wrath jumps worlds, depositing pain and death and withdrawing more loot than all the train robbers who pillaged before him. Wrath is a freakish cyborg antagonist, made immortal by the World Government, which wished to create a cybernetic species of man-machines superior to all. But Wrath escaped their clutches and found refuge on the planet Pandora, a lawless world inhabited by attacking vines, ground-burrowing sharks and dog-sized spiders, among other dangers. While this wildlife almost killed Wrath upon his arrival to Pandora, it would go on to help protect him from future posses sent to assassinate him. Lost souls and those running from the law followed him to the rogue planet to join his army, aptly named The Plague. Attracted as much to his reputation as to his enormous wealth, The Plague volunteered their services in Wrath’s tour of revenge against those who’d stolen his humanity and replaced it with robotic ears and a biomechanical heart.
In the book’s bloody first chapter, Wrath and The Plague invade the Bloody Kiss and kill famous Elite Star Guard Marshal Thane Bishop, the “Wyatt Earp of space,” just one of many Wrath considers responsible for his painful transformation. Before he dies, Bishop looks up from a pool of blood to see his wife and daughter in the lusty crosshairs of Wrath and The Plague and vows to himself, if he somehow survives, to kill everyone in the room who lays a hand on them. But survive he does not, and Bishop’s body is unceremoniously deposited in an alley garbage dumpster, where he meets the Nii, a mystical, dying race on some plane of existence between life as the marshal knows it and death, drawing sustenance from the energy of entities as they pass through the Nii’s otherworldly realm.
The Nii quickly offers Bishop a chance to avenge his own death and whatever perverted acts have been performed upon his wife and daughter, and even offers to restore them to a time before that fateful night. The deal: The Nii will help transform Bishop to a younger, stronger version of himself, one more than capable of taking down his enemies, in exchange for the dark souls of criminals and sinners. Bishop reluctantly accepts the bargain, essentially selling his soul in the process, and sets out on a mission of revenge against Yardon Wrath and his band of murderers and rapists.
But Wrath’s wrath is not confined to his enemies alone. In one memorable scene, he makes an example of a human-sized king cobra named Krill, a mutant manufactured from the DNA of a former Star Corp operative who volunteered to have his genes spliced with that of a snake. Churchill’s book is well-populated by such creatures, and this cast of cyborg characters steals most of the show.
THE BLACKEST HEART is short but not sweet. In fact, it’s brutal from page one, and while the fast start might spoil readers and victimize the second third of the book, Churchill’s novel finally delivers on all accounts, with enough plot twists as colorful characters and a shocker of a climax that will leave readers drooling for more. It is sure to please fans of the many genres it crosses. Perhaps fittingly, THE BLACKEST HEART is ripe for a sequel. Not only is it not just a Western, it’s also not only an epic sci-fi adventure horror thriller. It’s also a cliffhanger.
BONUS XXX-CERPT: “Her sex pushed hard against his mouth, forcing him to continue to drink from her as she quivered and shook, grunting and panting his name along with broken flecks of profanity that only fueled his aching manhood more.”
Buy it at Amazon and Shocklines.
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This sounds AWESOME.