Completely Broken [Kindle Edition]

Philip Athans (Author)

Book Description

The most ordinary of places, the most unexceptional of people, can hide the most extraordinary evil.

Dave is a good guy. He’s got a decent job at a record store. He’s in love, though the girl he loves has no idea.

Gilroy is a bad guy. He’s got a decent job at the same record store. He murders people in the name of a demon from a hellish dimension of pure evil.

For these two co-workers, where they come from, what they do, and who they are will collide in a series of events that threatens to destroy them both, and everyone around them.

A very different novel from best-selling fantasy author Philip Athans, Completely Broken will grab you by the throat from page one and by the heart-stopping climax, will leave all your expectations completely broken.

Product Details

• File Size: 444 KB
• Print Length: 227 pages
• Publisher: Athans & Associates Creative Consulting (July 31, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005FFTJWK
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #526,521 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What a ride! August 24, 2011

By Torah Cottrill

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I almost missed my stop this morning, I was so caught up reading the denouement of Completely Broken on the bus ride to work.

Not at all for the faint of heart, this book is like a flaming busload-of-nuns-vs.-logging-truck pile-up: horrific, and yet you can't take your eyes off of it. And the pace never lets up.

Athans plays with your expectations throughout the book, and very little is as it seems. I found myself liking and loathing all of the characters almost equally, at different points in this book, and although I am notorious for predicting how a movie is going to end, ten minutes in, I had no idea how Completely Broken was going to end until I got there. I hesitate even to outline the plot here, because I don't want to give anything away. But if you enjoy serial murder, mayhem, police drama, horror, and witty dialogue, with the occasional bout of unrequited love thrown in, let me assure you, you'll LOVE this.

Warning: Completely Broken is not for everyone. It is absolutely, definitely not for children still young enough to carry backpacks to school. It is also not for people susceptible to bad dreams (unless, of course, you enjoy that sort of thing). And it is not for anyone who will be offended by frank sex or graphic violence. But if you like Dean Koontz (Lightning), Patrick Suskind (Perfume), or Peter Straub (Koko), this is a book for you.

More About the Author

The New York Times best-selling author Philip Athans started writing stories the second he became literate, and an early love of movies and TV sent him to film school. He continued to write in college and even played in a punk rock band before he discovered that being a good writer and being a good musician don't necessarily go hand in hand. His degree in Cinema & Photography landed him in a string of music retail positions where he worked long hours for low pay, but got a lot of free CDs and tickets to concerts, and met some interesting people. But that was just the beginning of a career that has spanned all three stages of the entertainment industry: selling other people's work, helping refine and develop other people's work, and putting work of his own out there.

Before he even sold a short story, he started publishing his own magazine: Alternative Fiction & Poetry, which in its short, five-issue life span went from complete obscurity to semi-obscurity. Still, there's never been a better crash course in running a creative business than just diving in and doing it yourself.

While still selling records he set out to turn a hobby (role-playing games) into a career. A number of freelance assignments ended up getting him his first paying job in publishing. He sent a proposal for a freelance project to TSR, Inc. (the creators of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS®) and the vice president of the games division was so impressed by the proposal and his resume that he passed it on to the executive editor of the publishing division, who was looking for a new editor. Phil apparently said the right things in the interview and in 1995 he became the newest editor for TSR Books, one of the premiere publishers of fantasy fiction in the world. His editing job moved to Seattle two years later when TSR merged with Wizards of the Coast, and Phil moved with it, finding a new home and a string of successes in the Pacific Northwest.

The best thing about that job was the intense, hands-on development of complex intellectual properties that went way beyond traditional genre publishing. His skills in that regard are exemplified in the great leaps forward that the FORGOTTEN REALMS® novel line made under his care. Phil has been working with established authors like R.A. Salvatore (whose FORGOTTEN REALMS novel The Pirate King, broke the top three on the New York Times hardcover fiction best seller list), but he's also had the enviable opportunity of discovering new talent and starting some outstanding young authors on successful careers. He left Wizards of the Coast in June 2010, a little bloody, but not beaten.

Somewhere in all of that he got married to a very patient woman and had a couple of great kids. He continues to be a full blown media junky: a Comcast Digital Platinum subscriber, and collector of vintage Ace Science Fiction Doubles, with a huge library of books, comic books, video games, board games, roleplaying games, and DVDs.