Customer Reviews

Black Dawn

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book grabbed me by the throat from the opening chapter. I read it in two sittings. Actually, I would have finished it last night with a short intermission for supper, but we were in a cabin at 7-A Ranch in Wimberley, TX, and all the rest of the family (including our grand-babies) had gone to sleep; I didn't want to sit in the bathroom to read the last fifty pages.

It was strange reading about so much doom and disaster on a sunny afternoon in the Texas Hill Country in the yard of a cabin overlooking the Blanco River. The contrast, I think, made the book even more effective.

Of course, if we were in parts of Alaska I could have stayed outside reading until after midnight :-)

The characters are very human, the thrills come at you like a hailstorm. It moves like a rocket. The ending, though, was a major disappointment.

There was a lot to like here. This isn't a book that you can skim through, either. Major characters can get killed off in the middle of a chapter. Heck, in the middle of a paragraph, for that matter.

There are lots of characters in here that the reader can identify with and root for. But at the end of the story, which winds up with a major and unexpectedly heroic character scrambling for safety while climbing the Hollywood sign in a showstorm (events in the story involve major changes in the Earth's climate, and worse) you realize that the author has painted himself into a corner and just doesn't know where to go. And the ending cost the author two stars.

BUT let me hasten to add that D. A. Stern is definitely an author to watch. It would be easy to dismiss this as being derivative of THE STAND (it is, but since that's an awesome novel it shows imitation to be the sincerest form of flattery) but it goes way beyond that. Way, way beyond.

Maybe I can award those missing stars to Mr. Stern's next book, which I'm very much looking forward to.

CLose to being a terrific book, and because it some so close it is annoying when it lets you down near the end. IMHO "Night of the Beast" by Harry Shannon is a much better read for 2002, and although not an end-of-the-world tale, is vastly more entertaining. I will buy soemthing else by Stern, but this one needed an editor.

First thing first: This book is NOT a rip-off of The Stand. Why is it that whenever someone writes an epic, end-of the world horror novel everyone claims it to be ripping off the King book? Just like Robert McCammon's "Swan Song", "Black Dawn" has a similar premise to The Stand but the author then takes things into a completely different direction.

True, this is not a great book. Good, but not great. The author creates way too many characters for a book of this size(400 pages only). Worse, some of the characters he creates that you would think are essential to the story's development get killed off swiftly and quickly just when you start to get to like them.

It's true that writing an end-of-the-world book on an epic scale and with a dozen characters in only 400 pages seems like a daunting task. However, Simon Clark did it quite well with "Blood Crazy" as did Yvonne Navarro with "Final Impact". D.A. Stern doesn't do so well, however. But let's not call this a Stand ripoff when it is not. If we keep doing this, writers will shy away from writing this type of horror novel, which would be a shame.

The only reason I picked up the book to begin with was simply because of the stunning graphics of the cover that caught the eye. When I sat down to read it, I was caught up in this epic end-of-the-world battle. My only problem with it was the convoluted nature of the plot. Starting out with a wonderful premise, the author loses the point of the desperate nature of the story by miring it down in too many details and too much of a convoluted plot. Otherwise, I adored the book.

Inconsistences abound. Editing errors throughout. Effort spent on building characters and then killing them off for no apparent reason, surely not to progress the plot. Story lines that were totally wasted.

I figured listing the problems with the book like this would get the point across a lot more succinctly. THIS IS A BAD BOOK.

Black Dawn is explosive. With a foreboding sense of utter doom, similar to King's The Stand and McCammon's Swan Song, D.A. Stern has written a tightly woven horrific masterpiece. It is complex and constant.

Los Angeles may be used to rolling blackouts, but the city of angels was not ready for what overcame them. It came in two waves. The first started with complete power outages that not only knocked out utilities, but also rendered batteries useless. The second wave was more of a spiritual power outage, that tore through the hearts and souls of the people, allowing for the propensities toward violence become the norm in most.

The bizarre blackouts, spreading across the country in a spiraling fashion have the American people fearing the worst. The military think it is a biological war that has been initiated by an unknown enemy. Some think it is the time of the Apocalypse. There is a gathering of people, the evil with the evil, the good with the good, and at times the good, unsuspecting, with evil.

Stern's novel is a tight, character driven horror novel. Each chapter reads like a cliffhanger as he moves from one central character to the next. The pacing is amazingly fast, and terribly frightening. Forget any supernatural evil, just to realize that people actually have violent tendencies like those illustrated in the novel is beyond scary. Stern is a powerful storyteller, using crisp dialogue and succinct narrative. Consider me a Stern fan.

--Phillip Tomasso III, author of Third Ring, Tenth House & Mind Play

I struggled through this book, but I kept going because I just thought it would get better. I came to the review site, hoping to find a clue about what was going on. Who won this epic battle? What inconsistencies! The herald is a good guy, but doesn't know it? Come on....how much guidance did he need. There were too many unnecessary characters, too much unneccessary detail, and too many unanswers questions. It seems the ending was just thrown together when the author reached his page limit. I had never heard of D.A. Stern either, but both the front and back covers did indicate promise. I still hesitated before buying the book, and now I wish I had followed my first instinct. Follow the other viewers advice....re-read the Stand!

Fear the day. . .

Fear the night. . .

Fear the instant you purchase this horrible book. . .

As an inundation of overpowering curiosity welled within, a voice obstinately demanded that I get my grubby paws on the very latest from D.A. Stern. Who exactly is D.A. Stern? It didn't matter at the time, all I sought was his newest paperback. And all for what? An eye-catching cover glistening as if it were a hologram? The next pages displaying two arresting artworks of Satan as women rejoice around his flaming maw? Is that why my robust senses deceived me, trapping me deep in an impetuous buy? Yup. Literature teachers unremittingly inform their pupils to never judge a book by its cover. An expression articulating how most unsightly books may be a craft of sheer excellence. Black Dawn exploits this ancient proverb in a full opposite effect. Being one of the most visually tempting book becomes an upsetting, galling, and pointless read. Reciting the prologue, a huge attention-grabber, the story seems it would be honored in an outstanding ovation, then fairly quickly, readers gather Stern's unimaginative venture into a scenario where uncared-for characters endure the one dreadful Apocalypse. I don't know what's more dreadful, the done-to-death plot or the entire book itself.

Welcome to contemporary, urban America. The streets are bustling with sadistic gang-bangers, corrupt servants of authority glaze malice on the frail, and oh yeah, an unspeakable resurrection of the Apocalypse grows closer. In preparation of Satan's turbulent return, sudden assailing "waves" pulse all over the U.S. For no particular reason, the invisible surges provoke the ills of humanity, massing two ultimate sides; those affected by the waves against those who are randomly blessed to subjugate it. With every kind of electronically device defunct, blackness invades the land. Pearl Coleman, faithful disciple of the great Serpent (King of the Underworld), quells concord, producing rampant disorder in every direction. Her relatively trouble-free duty is to repossess prehistoric artifacts to conclusively link the portals between Earth and Hell.

To put it bluntly, Black Dawn hardly promotes scale to the "end of the world" plight. It's been overwhelmingly rehashed and the addition of the waves as reasons why the populace lose their crackers is ridiculous and languid on the author's part. Stern neglects a clear explanation why individuals are not influence by it, instead he handpicks certain characters in intertwining stories then explains how they deal with the collective hysteria. The book is drenched with blurred intent of the Serpent other than to ravage humanity because he is "evil". Missing are the answers on how the waves' function and where they have derived from. Fundamental characters, if any, are driven out the book by abrupt, stupid fatalities. Stern's imagination is flimsily shaped as the story revolves in too many angles, too many locations, and too many central characters. Black Dawn has mediocre movie written all over it. If there is a tremendous battle between good and evil, it was nowhere to be found. But, if you consider excessive, ungainly murders where every individual is nothing more than expendable, then this book is for you. Otherwise scream in dread or give a menacing scowl should you ever come across this garbage.

I bought this book with the idea that it would be another good "doomsday" type thriller. It did fulfill that promise to some degree but the ending was so vague that I was sorry I wasted the time reading the book. The author never really defines the "evil force" destroying the country. It is a mediocre book that could have been much better.

Don't bother with this book. While the author writes well the plot (as mentioned by others) is pretty much The Stand just abbreviated. Some of the characters even seem to be similar. It's ok to have the same general idea, just don't bother going where someone like King has already been.