ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Weston Ochse is a former intelligence officer and special operations soldier who has engaged enemy combatants, terrorists, narco smugglers, and human traffickers. His personal war stories include performing humanitarian operations over Bangladesh, being deployed to Afghanistan, and a near miss being cannibalized in Papua New Guinea. His fiction and non-fiction has been praised by USA Today, The Atlantic, The New York Post, The Financial Times of London, and Publishers Weekly. The American Library Association labeled him one of the Major Horror Authors of the 21st Century. His work has also won the Bram Stoker Award, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and won multiple New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. A writer of more than 26 books in multiple genres, his military supernatural series SEAL Team 666 has been optioned to be a movie starring Dwayne Johnson. His military sci fi series, which starts with Grunt Life, has been praised for its PTSD-positive depiction of soldiers at peace and at war. Weston likes to be called a chaotic good paladin and challenges anyone to disagree. After all, no one can really stand a goody two-shoes lawful good character. They can be so annoying. It's so much more fun to be chaotic, even when you're striving to save the world. You can argue with him about this and other things online at Living Dangerously or on Facebook at Badasswriter. All content of this blog is copywrited by Weston Ochse.

Monday, June 13, 2016

Some Books I've Loved - The Catacombs, Experimental Film, and Mongrels

Periodically, I like to share some books I've loved. I constantly read in addition to writing and want to share what I think deserves greater attention. So if you feel like reading some good stuff, consider adding these to you list.


The Catacombs by Jeremy Bates
This was a truly solid read. While I've seen movies about the Paris Catacombs (An American Werewolf in Paris and the truly terrifying As Above, So Below), I've never read a novel set in the location. Bates layered a terrific narrative surrounding this locus making it a definite I'll never ever travel there.

   
Experimental Film by Gemma Files
I've fallen in love with this niche subgenre I'm calling Found Footage Fiction. From Marisha Pessl's prodigious Night Film which my mother said was too claustrophobic to read, to Adam Neville's Last Days, this subgenre has in its nature the need to create two distinct narratives, that of the protagonist and that which he or she is following. Truly, a unique format. Gemma excels at adding to this cannon with Experimental Film, taking me to places so unexpected, I actually exclaimed aloud on several occasions.


Mongrels: A Novel by Stephen Graham Jones
If you wondered what a werewolf novel written by Cormac McCarthy might look like, then this is it. Not only is this road coming of age story fraught with the necessary bildungsroman angst one might expect with a young man growing up in a vulpine family, but the narrative style is so lyrical, I found myself reading it aloud. Seriously, when did you last read a werewolf novel. They are few and far between. As far as I'm concerned, this is the best among them.

2 comments :

  1. I totally agree about The Catacombs! I read that several months ago, right after finishing his other book Suicide Forest. I'm definitely adding the other two to my "must read" list.

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