The Barnes & Noble Review
The Gathering Dark is the fourth novel in Christopher Golden's wildly entertaining horror series, the Shadow Saga (Of Saints and Shadows, Angel Souls and Devil Hearts, and Of Masques and Martyrs). This installment pits Peter Octavian -- a former vampire who spent a thousand years in Hell and is now the most powerful mage in the world -- against a mega-demon that wants to create its own nightmarish playground by stealing entire cities!
When portals begin opening all over the world and all kinds of horrific demons spill forth, the most powerful organizations are helpless. The recently restructured Catholic Church futilely tries to reconstruct a lost book of spells used to repel the forces of evil. The United Nations creates special task forces to combat the demonic minions. Nothing works. Tens of thousands of people die in the talons and jaws of the monsters, and to make matters worse, whole towns and cities start disappearing. That's where Peter Octavian and his butt-kicking friends enter the picture. Teamed up with an Earthwitch, a Catholic priest, and a few shape-shifting vampires, Peter attempts to halt Armageddon.
For those of you not familiar with Golden's Shadow Saga, I can describe it perfectly: It's like mixing Laurell K. Hamilton's action-packed Anita Blake novels with the dark ambiance of an H. P. Lovecraft story. The pacing is always pedal-to-the-floor, the main characters are larger-than-life, and the demons and other assorted monstrosities give Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos a run for its money -- just plain wild, spine-tingling, fun. Paul Goat Allen
