The Desert and Creating a Page-Turner: A Book Review

*Full disclosure: an e-book of this novel was provided by Permuted Press.

Author: Byron Morrigan.

Byron Morrigan's first novel is titled The Desert and this paperback was originally released in 2007. Recently, publishers Permuted Press have made this exciting novel available in an e-book form (April 20th). The Desert follows Captain Henderson and Specialist Densler into the Iraqi desert, as they search for a missing platoon. What they find there are unimaginable horrors and soon, Morrigan's novel turns into a page-turner. But what makes a paperback such a good read?

This question can be answered a million different ways, depending on your likes. For this reader, developing a mythos helps anchor the story, from which intrigue can be developed. In Morrigan's novel the core of the book centers around the mythical being Malek Taus, an Arabic based character similar to another Christian fallen angel. From here, the author develops all types of nasty characters e.g. shades, Jabberwoks, and possessed zombies and each horrifying figure is given a backstory. The shades' negative energy and pessimism drew them down into the center of the earth, after their death. Now, they haunt the living, as Henderson and Densler look for a way out of a very haunted Iraqi village.

However, leaving this isolated village is no easy endeavour and the mission goes awry when only one survivor is found, Sergeant Patel. Later, the novel turns in suspenseful thriller, as agents from the underworld blanket the surrounding area in a supernatural green fog. This makes escape difficult and even more challenging, the local area is much like the mythical Bermuda Triangle. Densler and now, only Patel, find themselves trapped in an illusion, that keeps them forever walking in circles. The pages keep turning faster and faster, and this reader wanted to know what would happen to these characters next, as they fought the supernatural. The unknowing of the potentialies of the spiritual elements created much of the excitement for this reader.

Finally, unique environments made this novel a page-turner for this reviewer. The Iraqi desert is forbidding on its own. However, once an opposing spiritual force is introduced, every hidden shack holds potential doom. Under the village, a nuclear program is still being forged under the watchful eye of Taus and imagining oneself hundreds of feet below the desert, in darkness and under threat creates for a great deal of suspense. The Desert then truly becomes a chiller, simply from its descriptive and hostile setting.

Readers of supernatural fiction will likely be turning the pages in Morrigan's The Desert just as fast as this reader. Already, Morrigan has completed the sequel to this novel, titled Acheron, to be released July of 2011. The book reviewed here is important for developing a strong supernatural backstory and for creating its own sometimes dark religion, while optimism provides some characters an opportunity of transition into the second novel. Set in a harsh environment, The Desert will keep many readers entertained and page turning late into the night.

Overall: 7.5 out of 10 (a strong mythos, interesting characters, one character is treated poorly, descriptive, some philosophy - based in Christian and Arabic myths, climactic ending).

Find out more on Bryon Morrigan's upcoming projects at his official website:

Bryon Morrigan Online

In a Kindle format:



Or in paperback:



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Posted in: 2011,book review,desert,desert setting,fiction,horror fiction,iraq,military,permuted press,release date