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The Apocalypse of Silence

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Mesphisto's Seed 2:
The Apocalypse of Silence

William P. Haynes

ISBN1-4116-2479-3
Page count: 177

Reviewed by Lee Pletzers www.leepletzers.net

After reading the first book in this series of three, The Curse of Mesphisto's Seed, the Day of Awakening, I was desperately awaiting this second book. And book two delivers in two ways. First it is better written than the previous book, it is so much easier to follow the characters. And secondly, the pace is incredibly fast from the get-go. Mark and Peggy are married, and Elliott is believed dead, at the end of book one. Book 2 shows Elliott alive and well and in the presence of his father. But this book focuses more on the dark prince--Mesphisto than the first did, and naturally our heroes struggle.

Mark, Peggy, Josh and Anne find themselves in the presence of The Devil and Elliott and on trial for mankind, from the first line. Naturally they are quickly found guilty and are locked up in Hell's death row.

Mark's wedding present from Josh was a set of lock-picks and with this set Josh frees them, only to discover they may still be on trail as they check doors in a hallway looking for a way out. Each door they open leads somewhere and each one is sucked into a time in their past where they questioned God. Usually in times of great turmoil and fear and Peggy gets a glimpse of the future, a bad future, a future without Josh.

They finally get out of Hell to discover 16 years have past and doppelgangers have destroyed their lives. Debt is an ugly beast facing Mark, Anne has left him. Peggy has a terrible hairstyle and Josh owns a lodge. The Devil has finally put them out of the way, via the doppelgangers. Our heroes decide to find out why.

We also learn that Mesphisto has a weakness thrust upon him by God. Once every three days, his powers are stripped from him and he is suddenly mortal. And to help him past the time, he has taken a human woman, Denise, as a lover. Problem: he has something akin to love for her.

From the introduction of William, a detective from the twenty-third, the story jumps into an even high gear and fantasy takes a firm hold as we delve deeper and deeper into the apocalypse of silence.

This book far outweighs the first. The author has come a long way since the first book, the style is his very own but the story has more power, the words bring up emotions that most mass market books fail to attain. Reading the first book is a must, if only to discover why our heroes are in the situation they are in, learn about Elliott and his discovery of whom his real father is. Book 2 can almost stand on it's own--almost.

Wait until you meet, Lifthrasir...


Lee Pletzers
www.leepletzers.net

The Curse of Mesphisto's Seed: The Day of the Awakening was a tantalizing introduction to an epic battle between good and evil waged, for the most part, on Earth. The Apocalypse of Silence builds strongly upon the events and people of the previous novel, placing the overall storyline in a much more focused and crowd-pleasing light and granting readers further visions of hell itself. This second novel is a much more impressive, polished piece of fiction than its predecessor, showing how much author William P. Haynes has grown as a writer in a very short time. It also, by the end, shifts the Mesphisto's Seed series onto a higher plane as the nature of the struggle changes dramatically in the book's latter moments.

In The Apocalypse of Silence, Haynes takes you immediately to hell. The heroes of the first novel have been taken prisoner by the devil and sentenced to death for their "crimes." Mark Talbot, who gained unworldly powers after his "death" (in the first book) finds himself momentarily stripped of those powers, but he, his new wife Anne, best friend Josh Riley, and Riley's companion Peggy are never to be found without a trick or two up one of their sleeves, and they effect a breakout - but only after coming face to face, individually, with their most private fears. Unlike what readers found in the first novel, the devil rather than Elliott himself is the true antagonist in these pages, and as such we learn much more about him and his ways than we knew before - such as the fact that he spends some of his days in human form and that he can be, if not blinded, certainly distracted by an obsession that might be considered love in a different context.

You don't leave hell and return to Earth without paying a price. In this case, our heroes find that some twenty years have passed in their world, years in which devilish doppelgangers have gone about making messes of their lives. Their unity is sorely tested, particularly as one of them has no memory of the group's past struggles with evil, at a most inopportune time. The devil's plans for a silent apocalypse are very much in motion, and only Mark, Josh, and the others stand a chance at stopping it. Some wonderful new characters are introduced (including Death and her acolyte), adding a richer dimension to the storyline, and the ending comes with a couple of surprises that totally redefine the nature of everything that has already happened and will happen in the future.

I think the plot takes on a more mythological air in the pages of this second book, and not only with the addition of Nox (Death) into the mix. The implication is that this is not a new conflict at all, but rather a restaging of an epic battle between good and evil that has been waged before. Given the nature of the ending, it's hard for me to predict how and where the story will go in the upcoming third book of the series - and that certainly serves to whet my appetite for what is to come.

Sunday, August 28, 2005
60. An Alternative VIEW: The Apocalypse of Silence ~ William P Haynes ~ Lulu.com

Title: Mesphisto's Seed 2: The Apocalypse of Silence
Author: William P Haynes
Publisher: Lulu.com
Genre: Fantasy /Horror
Publication date: 2005
ISBN: 1-4116-2479-3
Length: 177 pages
Edition: Paperback


Mesphito's Seed 2: The Apocalypse of Silence~ William P Haynes ~ Lulu.Com

"The Apocalypse of Silence as a book full of energy, imagination and stunning imagery, not to be missed. Keep your eye's peeled on Mr Haynes' progress, he is definitely one to watch..."

Back in the sixties, Josh Riley, a sheriff, and Mark Talbot were tied up in Jim Franklyn's murder case and it involved devil worship. Years later, during Mark and Anne Talbot's wedding, Mesphisto, the devil and his son Elliot trap Mark, Josh, Anne and their friend, Peggy, in hell, for their trial and sentencing. The devil, with all his contempt for humanity and its eternal suffering, finds them guilty, imprisons them in cells and condemns the incarcerated to eternal punishment.

Upon their escape from the confines of their cells they discover other members of Anne's Wedding party are held captive too. One by one, their true journey for deliverance begins as they search for a way out. Hell is a labyrinth of corridors and difficult to flee. These passages lead them to only where the devil wants them to go. Every door opened teleports each member of the cast into their own private turmoil, taking them to different points in their past, back to times they'd rather forget. The devil attempts to break their spirits, hoping not only they will loose faith, but the battle also.

Meanwhile, they realise Elliot's plans don't include his father, Mesphisto. To add more conflict, unbeknown to all, there is one lord of darkness whose rule is greater than that of all devils. Named by the father as Satan -- Michael Orcus of Dudael, is watching, with plans of his own. Luckily, Josh, Mark and their friends are not playing by the rules either and intend to survive and win. Fighting the devil and other beasts roaming the cursed landscape; wolves, the three headed Cerebus, Jinns, Doppelgangers and dragons. Amongst these creatures there comes a little help from the hand of death, a goddess and her pet, a black cat, both of whom have the power to determine their human fate, but which way will their luck swing?

I recommend you read the preceding book of Mesphisto's Seed Trilogy if you want to find out how the characters were thrown into this epic clash of good verses evil, although not essential. The author, William P Haynes, is more than capable of writing his many characters into a plot full of tension and hellish horror. Grabbing my attention from page one, this apocalyptic fantasy has a fresh, original style. I loved Peggy (who incidentally, once had an affair with Josh which adds to the drama) a tough policewoman with a few special moves of her own! The Apocalypse of Silence as a book full of energy, imagination and stunning imagery, not to be missed. Keep your eye's peeled, on Mr Haynes' progress, he is definitely one to watch. Find him at his website, or his blog, where you can read his work online.

http://tjbook-list.blogspot.com

Being the second book in the Haynes trilogy, The Apocalypse of Silence takes us deeper into the story of the characters. We see more of the background in which our heroes and heroins had suffered, and get to explore the world in which we only caught a small peek of earlier. The suspense builds even more in Apocalypse, and makes the reader eager to find our what will happen in the third book.

This is the second book in the Mesphisto series which explores the ramifications of the apocalypse set into motion by the devil before its due. The series deals with the lives of a small group of people who are the only ones aware of the devil's scheme,it's a tale of love and friendships, bonds that even the devil cannot sever. In this series of books, readers will discover just what it takes to turn an average person into a hero for in reality there can be a hero in all of us. This is the story of everyday people who sacrifice everything for the good of all.