Autumn Adventures

Let me preface this review by saying that I rarely (and I mean very rarely) ever read the horror genre. I went through a phase, during my early teen years, where that's all I read. But I decided, quickly, that I preferred reading stories of more depth and complexity, stories that didn't patronize me, the reader, or insult my intelligence. Hence, I moved on to epic fantasy and other fantasy sub-genres and never looked back. So I had many misgivings when this novel by David Burton won the poll for Book of the Month for June/July 2010 for the GoodReads Fantasy Book Club. I survived reading The Second Coming with many winces at the cliches, the need for a good copy editor and the hope that the adage 'Show, don't tell' might have triumphed. The irrelevant sexual content and innuendo, so pervasive in this genre, distracted more than enticed. I never once felt the shock of horror or the thrill of suspense. Most of the time, when I wasn't nodding off, I just wanted to reach the end, or at least for the words to stop so I could move on to something more challenging and fulfilling. Fantasy elements in this story are limited to necromancy, blood rites and other similar tropes of the horror genre. Supernatural entities, like demons, fallen angels and possessed mortals pervade. Towards the 'climactic' ending, the characters swapped souls like some people trade recipes or gossip. Sadly, by that point, I didn't care who ended up in what body. Or bodiless, like the poor loser in the musical chairs soul roulette. I tried to overcome my prejudices with the horror genre, but I failed miserably with The Second Comaing.