Deathbringer [Mass Market Paperback]

Bryan Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2006

From the Back Cover Hannah Starke was the first to die. And the first to come back. In the small town of Dandridge they all come back. The buried claw their way out of their graves. The recently killed get up and kill. As the dead attack the living, the number of the dead continues to grow. And the odds against the living get worse and worse. In the middle of it all stands a dark, shadowy figure, a stranger in town with an unspeakable goal. If he is successful, death will rule Dandridge and the terror will continue to spread until all hope is lost. Who can defeat an army of the living dead? Who can stand face-to-face against the...

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Deathbringer is a great read, in the tradition of the pulps. I loved it!" -- Brian Keene, author of The Rising and The Conqueror Worms

"Fans of old school horror, rejoice. Bryan Smith is quickly making his mark on the scene." -- THE HORROR FICTION REVIEW

From the Back Cover

Hannah Starke was the first to die. And the first to come back. In the small town of Dandridge they all come back. The buried claw their way out of their graves. The recently killed get up and kill. As the dead attack the living, the number of the dead continues to grow. And the odds against the living get worse and worse.

In the middle of it all stands a dark, shadowy figure, a stranger in town with an unspeakable goal. If he is successful, death will rule Dandridge and the terror will continue to spread until all hope is lost. Who can defeat an army of the living dead? Who can stand face-to-face against the...

DEATHBRINGER

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 342 pages
• Publisher: Leisure Books (March 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0843956771
• ISBN-13: 978-0843956771
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #411,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Book as Bad as Its Cover, May 27, 2008

By 

Caesar M. Warrington (Lansdowne, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Deathbringer (Mass Market Paperback)

If you want a quick description of Bryan Smith's DEATHBRINGER, think novelization of a bad zombie flick, the kind that tease and fool us zombie horror fans with their shlocky scare tactics, cartoonish characters, hammy acting and corny humor. DEATHBRINGER'S characters and plot are the same kind of stuff that's kept Lloyd Kaufman and his gang at Troma Entertainment in business for the last 35 years.

According to Smith, we are surrounded by beings known as Reapers, who act as collectors of the souls of the recently departed. One of them, known as the Deathbringer, has grown tired of his eternal task, and wants a confrontation with God Himself. To get God's attention the Deathbringer goes all the way to Dandridge, Tennessee (I guess it's the center of the universe, or sits upon some major ley lines, or something) to plant an ancient book of spells and invocations on the doorstep of Mike O'Bannon, a rookie cop who's been in drunken mourning over the recent shooting death of his fiance. Finding the dusty tome (that's correct, "the dusty tome"--so dusty it makes Officer O'Bannon cough and sneeze), O'Bannon opens it and immediately begins reading aloud the precise Latin passages for raising the dead (yes, Latin; not Latin for beginners or Latin for dummies, but that demonic, horror story kind of Latin). Soon after, the small town of Dandridge is plagued by zombies who not only are of the newfangled spry and agile variety, they also think, talk, crack jokes and drive cars too (Hey, I'm not kidding you...but Bryan Smith might be).

If you're still with me, saying to yourself, "Oh Man, what a stinker!" Wait! ...it gets worse (Yes, it can)...

Halfway into the story Smith puts the zombie mayhem on the backburner to concentrate on the doings of O'Bannon's fiance's killer, Melinda, a spiky-haired, tattooed teeny psychobabe who, only a couple of weeks before, was an introverted video store clerk, but now leads a couple of redneck punks on a spree of murder, torture, rape, blah, blah, blah. Your average junior high school cast of Guys and Dolls are more believable as authentic Chicago gangsters than Melinda and her crew are as roaming psychopaths.

This book is not worth your time.


The following are all much better choices in the genre:

REIGN Of The DEAD, by Len Barnhart
DAY By DAY ARMAGEDDON, by J.L. Bourne
AUTUMN, by David Moody
DYING To LIVE, by Kim Paffenroth
THE DEAD, by Mark E. Rogers

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Some original ideas, but quite a hollow zombie story overall, April 14, 2008

By 

T-Rexx (France) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Deathbringer (Mass Market Paperback)

Bryan Smith's Deathbringer novel is the story of a group of people stuck in their little US town among a fast-growing crowd of flesh-eating zombies. The zombies are actually the products of a man, the Deathbringer, who is pursuing a very personal objective in his "life", a search that should lead him to become the world's master. In order not to spoil the plot, I won't add anything about this very goal. However, the Deathbringer finds himself confronted by a crowd of everyday, makeshift heroes who will ultimately be supported by an unexpected ally.

The storyline is original for a zombie movie: it is highly centralized (small town), the timeline is limited to a few days, there are not many characters around. Also, some of the ideas that Smith came up with are quite nice changes from the usual, Romero-fed zombie books. Think about the swap of souls, the good physical coordination of the zombies -that allows them to drive cars for instance-, or the fact that quite friendly characters don't make it alive to the end of the book. These are good things.

However, overall, the book feels like an empty shell. I guess this comes from the fact that the supernatural motives of the Deathbringer lack of depth. Would have been interesting for Smith to expand a little bit more on the whereabouts of this villain hero. Also, I still can't cope very well with fast, intelligent, articulated zombies... Just personal, but I simply can't! I like them dirty, stinking, slow and dumb.

If you like an original story with supernatural backgrounds, a bit of conspiracy, lots of flesh-eaters and a little bit of eroticism, then Deathbringer's for you. But not for me.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nothing To Write Home About, May 7, 2006

By 

William M Miller (Bronxville, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Deathbringer (Mass Market Paperback)

This is my first and probably my last Bryan Smith book. The quality of the writing was average, but the story was where he lost me. It was definitely lacking. Smith is just not in the same league as the other Leisure authors such as Gary Braunbeck, T.M. Wright, Tom Piccirilli, Richard Laymon, Tim Lebbon, and Simon Clark.

The mythology he created felt forced and unoriginal. This might have made a good 90 page screenplay, but not a 342 page novel. The Hawthorne character was annoying and took away from the heroism of the main protagonist, Mike. I would have liked to see the characters in Dandridge fend for themselves instead of having an outside character help them out -- it was too easy. The dialogue, also, at times, was quite bad. Try reading some of the lines out loud and you'll see what I mean. And speaking of dialogue, I could have done without the talking zombies. (a hint for Mr. Smith -- talking zombies are not scary!)

I don't want to sound too negative, because there are a few things here and there that I enjoyed. However, with the predictability of most of the scenes and everything else I mentioned, I cannot recommend this book.