Take Wrath And Ruin: A Chilling Anthology Articulated By C.W. Briar Expressed As E-Text

is a collection of stories in a variety of genres and writing styles, spanning dark fantasy, science fiction, and horror, The highlight is the novella Ghoul: A Gideon Wells Story, a historical epistolary tale set inPennsylvania and introducing us to two fascinating characters, Gideon Wells and his very eccentric but highly capable assistant Rose Drumlin.
I hope we see more stories featuring Gideon and Rose! Another highlight is the story Turpentine, a modernday take on tropes from Faust and Dorian Gray, All in all, a great collection of stories and a good introduction to the talents of C, W. Briar. I bought this book minutes after I finished Whispers From The Depths by CW Briar, I loved it so much I needed more of his writing, Once again I was super satisfied,
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This is a definitely chilling anthology ofstories of the creepy, the adventurous, the unsettling, and the unnerving, All these stories are so unlike each other in the best way possible, He exposes me to things I wouldnt normally pick up, and I always end up loving it,
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My favorite story was a SCI FI story! Ive never been into sci fi, or fantasy, but Briar has pleasantly surprised me with wonderful stories in both genres.
He not only writes characters you grow to love, but his imagery and settings are vivid and beautiful and dark and creepy, All the stories kept my interest and had me on the edge of my seat,
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Definitely an auto buy author for me now, I picked up sitelinkWrath and Ruin: A Chilling Anthology at a Barnes and Noble bookstore near Corning, New York, sitelinkC. W. Briar had a table with his books, After talking with him about his books and his writing processes, I decided to give his book a chance, I am glad that I did, It was hard to put down and I was eager to get back to it each day, sitelinkRead more ing an anthology is hard, . . especially when you procrastinated writing the review part for several months past when you read it, you can't remember any of the stories, and you got this through the library so you can't easily consult a copy to jar your memory.

That said, I think I liked almost all of the stories in this, They all have humor and creepiness without being gory or off putting, There's a few that are exceptionally fun, some that are more serious, Good mix of ghosts to monsters to more scifi horrors, Probably Ghoul stands out as the one you want to see more of, Overall great collection. There are some really interesting stories in this collection, my favorite being Ghoul,

Briar's writing is easy to read and descriptive without going overboard and I could very clearly see the influences that Rod Serling's work has had on the writer maybe at times, too much, which, sadly, made some of the endings of several a little too predictable for me.


Still a nice little collection that I enjoyed very much, I'm looking forward to getting into Briar's novel, "Whispers from the Depths", This is a different sort of book than I normally read, I normally don't read anthologies, and I normally stay away from anything horrorrelated,

Still, I really enjoyed this book, especially the first story Escape from Wrath and Ruin, That story had the clearest Christian allegory of any of the stories, though it wasn't quite the allegory I thought it was going to be when I first started reading it.


One of the longer stories I forget the title is kind of like a supernatural Sherlock Holmes, It is set in the same Victorian time frame as Sherlock Holmes, though in Pennsylvania, not England, At first, I wasn't sure I would like this story, and it definitely was one of the creepiest stories in the whole book if you are prone to nightmares or freaking yourself out with your own imagination, don't read this book at night, by yourself, in the dark.
Not a good idea. Yet, I really liked it, and I would read more novellas or books set in the same world, This story hinted that there could be more stories connected to it,

Many of the rest of the stories in the collection were contemporary stories, and weren't my cup of tea, There are some adult themes, Everything is handled delicately. Some monsters are nightmarish beasts with fangs and grotesque bodies, Others come in the form of bad decisions we dread or regret, Both kinds haunt and stalk us while we are alone at night,


Wrath and Ruin is a collection of nine stories with a focus on fantasy and scifi threaded with quiet, traditional horror, Monsters, both literal and figurative, lurk in the shadows of this diverse anthology,


Hunters pursue a ghoul in Victorianera Pennsylvania,
A psychologist interrogates the lone survivor of a mysterious shipwreck,
Astronauts investigate a derelict alien spacecraft loitering in Earth's solar system,
A man flees powerful enemies in a bizarre, hostile land


These stories and more are included in this debut book by author C.
W. Briar. Included are two awardwinning stories,


Briar continues a tradition established by fellow Binghamton, NY writers like Rod Serling and Kevin Lucia: fantasticalyetgrounded stories with subtle horror, I had the immense pleasure of being involved in Mister Briar's Kickstarter for this book, I'd like to preface the rest of this review by saying that donating to the project in no way influence the rating I'm giving it, Simply said, I loved every story, Mister Briar is an incredibly talented writer and I hope to see more from him in the future, It saddens me that so few reviews have been given so far, so let me do Mister Briar a service by giving a quick review of each story individually.


Escape from Wrath and Ruin: The story that starts it all begins with a man waking up in a rather strange landscape with no memory of how he got there.
Worse, there is a body at his feet, dried blood on his hands, and a mysterious stranger stalking him through the dangerous wasteland, . .

Lust: A man becomes obsessed with an unknown woman who lives in the building beside him, Each day, he waits at his window to get a glimpse of her and hear her symphonic voice, In the end, it was only

a matter of time before he knew he had to meet her, had to have her, had to be with her.
Well, folks, beware the song of the siren, . .

The Other Edge: At last, evidence of aliens has been discovered in the form of a derelict spaceship, As leader of the team of astronauts sent to explore it, Varik Babel soon discovers that the ship may not be as abandoned as originally thought, . .

The Case of Elizabeth Flora: Interviewed by U, S. Naval Intelligence, a woman details her rather fanatical tale of survival after a sinking ship lands her and a few stragglers on a mysterious island, It doesn't take long for them to realize just how unusual this island is, for at its core is a swirling golden sphere that grants the wishes of those who seek it out.
Unfortunately, not all human wants stray to the side of morals, . .

Stargazing: Probably the least impressive of the stories on display, this one is a simple rumination of a man roaming at night who finds himself in the midst of something best left in the shadows.
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Turpentine: This is a beautiful tale of an artist who becomes obsessed with his own masterpiece, Beloved by all but one who view it, the painting continues to change, reflecting more and more the immense pride of its artist, But as we all know, pride is followed closely by destruction, . .

Ghoul: By far the longest piece in the collection, Ghoul tells the tale of Gideon Wells and his young, rather eccentric assistance as they take on a case that can only be described as Sherlock Holmes meets the supernatural.
This one is good for fans of Jim Butcher or Larry Correia, As with all of Mister Briar's stories, there is much more going on than one may first assume, . .

Wrong Number: Jordan's friend is struggling after a tough breakup and seems to be unsettled after an unknown person begins messaging him with vague threats.
Convinced the messages are coming from his exgirlfriend, Jordan attempts to intervene before things go wrong, If only he knew how wrong they had already gone, . .

The Parable of Thorne Ave: Last but certainly not least, Parable is a short but extremely emotional piece about a man trying to connect with his daughter before it's too late.
Unlike the other stories in the collection, this one is in no way supernatural or strange, It is, however, probably the most powerful piece, and definitely an excellent way to end a wonderful collection,

Thank you again, Mister Briar, for a beautiful collection, I hope I've done you some semblance of justice in this review and can only pray that it influences others to pick up a copy, I'm telling you, folks, this is a heck of a first work by someone I hope to see much more from in the future, .