So sitting at my desk tonight, a thought occurred to me. It was time to introduce the first ever "Gross Beard Award" or "GBA" which is basically an award I came up with for books that deserve the attention of my beard! Thats right. All things, not just books, deserve this prestigious attention as well, but for now, lets focus on Scott Hales, The Three Herectics, the second book in the bones of the earth series. This book deserves some attention no doubt, for it really gets the gears churning. He has been writing horror his whole life and seems to be a master at it. Have questions about horror and the macabre, he is definitely the one to go to.

I've known Scott for a couple of years now, and he is definitely a neat author to check out. You can find more of his work here at scotthalebooks.com Give it a view and learn about the sick world that is our world gone sour, I mean, really sour. And with Halloween right around the corner, your going to want to read some good hearty horror stories mixed with some fantastical things.

Check out the review I wrote for The Three Heretics. Enjoy!

I promise you. You have never read such a strange and creative book such as this, where the fantastical is, and the worst of your nightmares come to life.

Welcome to Scott Hales world, The Bones of the Earth series, the second installment entitled, The Three Heretics. I have nothing but good things to say about this tale of macabre and suffering. Now having read the second book, I can truly say Hale possesses a unique voice unlike any other author in the world of horrific fantasy. He was bred for this stuff.

Hale does an exquisite job of extricating the rawest of human emotional intelligence. So much in fact, it bends, warps, and breaks the world he creates, shaping new boundaries in his story telling as he charges forward to explain his massive alternate post-apocalyptic universe. Three stories. Three Heretics. One rising truth, slowly unveiling as the series treks ever-forward through the aftermath of the Trauma and reoccurring dramatic deaths and self-discovery.

Although three separate stories exist underneath one roof of horror, they have been carefully crafted to have meaning in each, which relates from one story to the next. Thats right. Even though we get three heretics with their own tale to tell, it still reads as a seamless flowing timeline that makes sense. Now a bit of a warning: Hale’s world is intense. It is not for the faint of heart nor is it for anyone looking for a quick fix in fantasy. This book is massive with an endless conveyor belt of world building, a Tolkien creation of mythology and an army of characters you'll come to love and hate. Each of the three heretics reminded me of so many influential ideas from the past, that it was hard to pinpoint any one thing. Similarities that came to mind were that of Final Fantasy series, the Marcus brothers from Vampire Hunter D, Berserk and H. P. Lovecraft. If you don’t like any of these mentioned themes, do not fret, for Hale’s story goes much deeper than these light hearted comparisons. I’m just scratching the surface with this review. For a book to take me a couple months to read, I want to give it its justice and credit where its deserved. This story is rich with good versus evil, light versus darkness, bad choices for good intentions, good choices for bad intentions, religious corruption, fantastical beasts, underground horrors, gallons and gallons of BLOOD. The list can go on and on. But if I were to leave with my overall take on this second book in the series, again we must visit back to the first review I did of The Bones of the Earth, where the earth seeks to keep its realm in check. Balance. Homeostasis. Hale remains consistent with his main theme and he never veers from his true intention, which is simply this: Humankind will always comeback to make their same mistakes again and again. Hale’s metaphor relates to today. So as is in the Bones of the Earth series, so as in our time here and now. It really is only us who will be our own destruction.

5 out of 5 stars? Absolutely. Yes. Could this be made in to a movie? Sure, why not? I’d like to see the directors take on Mr. Haemo.

Hey look! Even Sassy approves!