The Curse of Mesphisto's Seed: Book One: The Day of the Awakening [Paperback]

William P. Haynes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 26, 2004

The first warfare was not among men but among angels over man. That conflict ended when Semjaza was cast from heaven. Now he is known only as Mesphisto. Men call him the devil and he is shunned by all. The dark lord of the wastelands has plotted his vengeance for eons. God has chosen two acolytes to stop him. One is a sheriff, Joshua D. Riley, recently returned from the Korean War. The second is an idealistic law student whose world will fall apart following the death of his parents.Before the great shadow of the three-headed dog, Cerberus, they meet the devil. Only Josh will return from that encounter and for twenty-two years he will believe the war ended that day. In 1987 a blind shaman comes to Claremont and an angel once favored by God sets the apocalypse into motion.THIS WAR ISN'T OVER. IT HAS JUST BEGUN!

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: PublishAmerica (July 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1413728650
• ISBN-13: 978-1413728651
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,232,371 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

BIO: William Haynes aka `Elliott

I was a small press author from 1988 until 2004 and have published writings in Japan, Calcutta, Scotland and Belgium. In the U.S.A., I have published with Pearl, Black Bear Review, Alpha Press and many other small press magazines. Following my move from New York to Missouri in 1995, I began work on a modern day exploration of Dante's INFERNO in a current setting. The foundation of that series was titled The Curse of Mesphisto's Seed which I published in 2004. The following year I released The Apocalypse of Silence through lulu.com. While Curse explored the physical aspects of a direct confrontation between a small group of characters and the devil, Apocalypse showed the psychological ramifications of such an encounter over an extended period of time.
In late December of 2008, I took this series to the next level with my Outskirts Press title: The Shaman and the Rose. Using the same characters from the prior books, I wove the story into the Book of Revelations and introduced many fantasy elements connecting the Inferno with a fictional account of a possible apocalypse. I am currently working on a revision of the first two books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Like Dante's Inferno, March 14, 2005

By 

Lillian Cauldwell "Lillian Cauldwell" (Ann Arbor, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Curse of Mesphisto's Seed: Book One: The Day of the Awakening (Paperback)

Disconcerting and jarring, The Curse of Mesphisto's Seed by William P. Haynes is a masterful story. The characters of good and evil play a game of cat and mouse as redemption is found, then is lost again. The Curse of Mesphisto's Seed draws you into a complex world that twists and turns and compels the reader to remember your religious dogma taught at every Sunday school class.

The story is written from a detatched point of view which I found unsettling. Several times, I had to let previous chapters digest before reading more about the Devil, Mesphisto, his spawn Elliott Stevens, and God and His angel representative, Mark Talbot. I found it disturbing and profound, but maddening to read.

I rate The Curse of Mesphisto's Seed 3 stars for William P. Haynes efforts. This is a book to be read with one hand on the Bible, reading Revelations and the other hand, caressing a religious symbol of faith.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Curse, August 21, 2005

By 

Kimberly LeMaster "FuglyZombie" (Moooo, WI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Curse of Mesphisto's Seed: Book One: The Day of the Awakening (Paperback)

The Curse of Mesphisto's Seed is no less than a masterpeice of genious at work. Fully believable characters and beautiful plot twists insure any reader will be terrified out of their minds. It is easy to get sucked into this suspensful tale of the battle between "good" and evil. This book is worth every penny and more.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Darkly compelling despite some flaws in the writing, April 11, 2005

By 

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Curse of Mesphisto's Seed: Book One: The Day of the Awakening (Paperback)

There's nothing quite like a good apocalyptic thriller - angels of the light and the dark battling it out, dark excursions into hell, the devil's minions wreaking havoc on earth, etc. The Curse of Mesphisto's Seed: Book One: The Day of Awakening promised a dark taste of such action, but I have to admit it did not completely meet my expectations. Certainly, the idea of the book (and series) is a good one. You have a small child named Elliott who becomes the instrument of Mesphisto's vengeance on earth, and you have a couple of normal human beings who come to stand between him and his dark designs - in not one but two different encounters separated by over twenty years. As the story progressed, though, I found myself bogged down somewhat, confused by the true relationship between Elliott and Mesphisto, sometimes a little bit lost in terms of chronology, and stymied to some degree by the writing style. Eventually, the showdown between good and evil comes, but only after Elliott all but disappears from the narrative while the main heroes banter and bicker among themselves.

I found the writing somewhat discordant. Basically, I longed for more detail about Elliott's dark nature, especially in terms of the power struggle of sorts between him and Mephisto; I wanted to know more about the extraordinary powers one of the heroes acquires following a confrontation with the dark side; and I grew somewhat tired of the dialogue between the good guys in the book's later chapters, as they are apt to fly off the handle for the least little thing. There are a lot of errors and some inconsistencies in the writing, as well as abrupt transitions, all of which kept me from fully connecting with the story. The biggest problem I had with the writing, however, was the fact that it continually shifted between past and present tense, oftentimes in the same sentence - I found that very disconcerting.

Sheriff Joshua Riley and his deputy Mark Talbot are political foes who come together to hold off the first wave of hellish danger posed by young Elliott. The initial confrontation gives Mark supernatural powers, which he uses to transport himself, Joshua, and an ally of the cloth to the very depths of hell itself in order to save a loved one Elliott has kidnapped. Mark does not return from that battle, but Elliott's threat seems to have been eliminated. Then, twenty-two years later, Mark suddenly turns up, not having aged at all. In the midst of Mark's adjustment to the loss of twenty-two years on earth and the beginnings of a relationship with the spunky daughter of the woman he once loved, Elliott turns up again - this time as an evangelical preacher. Thus is the stage set for a second confrontation between good and evil.

The Curse of Mesphisto's Seed got off to a good start, detailing the strange nature of this small child Elliott, his evil excursions in the night with a hellish wolf familiar at his side, and the fear his presence evoked in the eyes of his own mother. I fully expected Elliott to take central stage in the novel, but he virtually disappeared in the middle chapters - and I never really had a sense that I understood very much about him. Mesphisto's means and motives were an even greater mystery to me. Of course, this is only the first book in a series, to some degree setting the stage for what is to come, so I would fully expect the scope of the story to expand in future installments. I'm fairly torn over this novel. I think the writing clearly reveals some weaknesses, yet I have to say I quite enjoyed the story nonetheless, and I plan on following the remaining books in the series.