Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Werewolves

  • Spotlight on the October Awards! Don’t be Afraid!

    Adventure rises. Will you answer the call?

    A cavern with the words Adventure Calls

    October is the best month to step out into an adventure. We have three scintillating Programs to Submit to:

    • Ozma Awards for Fantasy
    • Paranormal Awards for Supernatural Fiction
    • Global Thrillers for High Stakes Suspense

    This spooky month feels like the best time for stories that inspire us to dream of realities beyond imagining, and threats to the world that leave us white-knuckled and waiting for the conclusion. What better place to find your next reads and submit your work than the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards!

    Here are the Awards that are hungrier for your work than a horde of zombies.

    Ozma Awards

    Fantasy is that special world where anything can happen. We often go beyond Earth for this, looking into swords and sorcery, chosen ones and villains awash with power.

    Start out with our 2021 Fantasy Grand Prize Winner A Plague of Flies by Laurel Anne Hill.

    Excellent prose & description with an effective mingling of historical and fantasy elements. The tension is gripping and the pace is good. 

    Follow that up with From Brick and Darkness by J.L. Sullivan, a great YA Urban Fantasy.

    A new Teen Favorite, this Urban Fantasy delves down passages of mythology and more when Bax Allen unwittingly unleashes a demon into the world.

    And then you can wrap everything up with the 2020 Ozma Grand Prize Winner, Divinity’s Twilight by Christopher Russell.

    In the epic space opera a group of cadets must face the bloody past of their world, threatened by age-old conflict, and change the course of empires. Highly recommended!

    See the full list of 2021 Ozma Winners for Fantasy Fiction here. 

    Paranormal Awards

    What goes bump in the night and who are the superheroes who face them? The supernatural genre often involves vampires, werewolves, angels, demons, and superheroes. The characters may begin as ordinary, but they soon discover they may be extraordinary or transformed to be more than human.

    We would be remiss not to crow about J.W. Zarek’s The Devil Pulls the Strings. Reminiscent of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, this book took home the Overall Grand Prize Awards.

    J. W. Zarek weaves magic on the page, developing an epic, urban fantasy – first in series – readers will want to stick with for a long time. Highly recommended.

    The Insane God by Jay Hartlove brings back the cosmic horror of H.P. Lovecraft in his mystery led by a trans woman.

    Sarah is cured of schizophrenia, only to face a battle with The Insane God. Her story balances humor, social issues like gender identity, and cosmic horror. Recommended!

    And, of course, it never hurts to remember Stoker’s Dracula with a book like Suburban Vampire Ragnarok by Franklin Posner that won First Place in the Paranormal Awards.

    Scott Campbell must face his divorce, job, and thirst for human blood, while caught in his fellow vampires’ political infighting. Recommended!

    See the full list of 2021 Paranormal Winners for Supernatural Fiction here. 

    Global Thriller Awards

    When you write a Global Thriller, you write about global consequences. The stakes are higher than ever before, whether or not this is a meticulously researched disease or a terrorist attack of epic proportions, you’ll want to read each one of these stories in one sitting.

    Ron McManus’ The Chameleon won the 2021 Global Thriller Awards

    Delightful to read with great development of story and characters. Clearly researched with a healthy dash of personal experience. A story to relish.

    Then you have First Place Winner Mission: Angola by the prolific Randall Krzak. Anyone who needs a series would be wise to check this one out.

    Xavier Sear is caught between dangerous factions and outnumbered in the first book of a new action-packed, tension-filled thriller series. Highly recommended!

    For those who prefer more of an environmental story, check out A Divine Wind by Norman M. Jacobs, another First Place Winner.

    See the full list of 2021 Global Thriller Winners for High Stakes Fiction here.

     

    You Can’t Win if you Don’t Submit!

    Enter the CIBAs today! Your book deserves to be discovered. 

    Blue button that says Enter a Writing Contest

  • SUBURBAN VAMPIRE RAGNAROK by Franklin Posner – Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Political Intrigue

    Blue and Gold Paranormal 1st Place Best in Category CIBA Badge ImageFranklin Posner gives readers an adventurous dark urban fantasy filled to the brim with vampires, werewolves, black-eyed kids, and even Sasquatches in his novel Suburban Vampire Ragnarok.

    Here is a fully realized underworld of vampire factions and governments along with ancient organizations tasked with keeping track of the paranormal.

    The story opens in the past, with Scott Campbell’s father capturing a German bunker during World War II. This section is reminiscent of F. Paul Wilson’s The Keep and Saving Private Ryan with a little taste of Indiana Jones. After they find a handful of mysterious artifacts, the story then jumps forward a generation to Scott, the suburban vampire working in tech support in the Pacific Northwest.

    Scott’s life is complicated. Between a recent divorce, living with his widowed mother, and working for an over-controlling boss he has plenty to deal with.

    On top of that, he is a vampire who must suppress the urge to feed on human blood.

    Something sinister stirs behind the scenes of the vampire political world. Jack, the vampire who turned Scott against his will in hopes of using him in a diabolical coup, still has followers hidden in the vampire government. As Elizabeth and Jeremiah, vampire enforcers, hunt down the last of Jack’s sirelings and try to root out someone embedded within the vampire council, Scott falls deeper into the machinations of an evil plot and must fight to protect those he cares for.

    Posner explores themes of coming to terms with a new life.

    Scott’s life has changed drastically in many ways, and becoming a vampire is only one of them. After his divorce, his mother is encouraging him to get back out there and see new people.

    Scott does slip a few times, but he learns from his mistakes and the guilt they bring him. He also learns to trust those who still want to be part of his life, even when they know the monster that he has become. He knows that to be near him is dangerous, but, ultimately, it is their choice.

    There are a few spots where the tone of the story becomes a little too light in contrast to the tension of the scene, but the story and drama behind that tension are strong.

    Readers will marvel at the fully realized world presented in this book.

    The political complexity of the many organizations, governments, and agencies make for exciting power plays and relationships. Plus, readers will delight with the handful of cryptids who play roles, both small and large, throughout.

    Readers hungry for vampires with intricate and grounded struggles will be pleased with Franklin Posner’s twisty tale of supernatural creatures in a modern world.

    Suburban Vampire Ragnarok by Franklin Posner won First Place in the 2018 CIBA Paranormal Book Awards for Supernatural and Paranormal Fiction.