I down-loaded both
these books for free as they are self-published books. A lot of you don’t
bother with self-published, but why not? It is not easy to find a publisher
these days that will take the risk with an unknown author. More and more writers
are now taking the self-published route so amongst the terrible you might find
a few gems. With Cody Reel I found both. Let’s start with the gem.
Fanaticism by Cody Alan Reel
This is a short
novella about Richard a fanatical sports fan, who spends most of his time
following his favourite American football team; the Philadelphia Eagles. He is
overweight and apart from a resemblance to the Eagles coach Andy Reid he hasn’t
got a lot going for him. It gets him abuse when the team loses, but free beer
and lots of it when they win. Then he meets Violet, an attractive woman and the
two get along great apart from the fact that she isn’t interested in sports. He
is in love and tries to see things her way. He tries new things and discovers
gradually that there is more to live than just sports.
I found this a sweet
story, Cody describes the sports fan and his budding romance with Violet with humour
and warmth. My problem with the story starts when Richard decides to help out
at the children’s hospital. He gets mistaken for coach Reid again. The line
that had a doctor saying that a sick kid was dying to meet him, had me spitting up
my coffee; was it meant to be funny? Probably not, as the story turned rather
serious after this. I did like the story a lot and the ending was heart-warming
although a bit naive for my liking. I rate it worthwhile reading and give it a
3.5 out of 5.
Dark by Cody Alan Reel
In short it is about
the fictional Village of Marion. The sun is slowly dying and when it does murder,
rape and mayhem ensues, until a group of children decides to make a stand.
When I started reading
this book I could hardly believe it was by the same writer as Fanaticism, as
that was written with some understanding of humanity. I struggled through this
book and when there was an alternate ending I screamed. ( but hey, I read this
so you don’t have too, just wanted to make sure there wasn’t a good bit at the
end) I don’t know if Cody has a 10 year old child, but it feels like it was
written by said child. I give you an example from the book:
The rapists were also happy at the cover that
the darkness allowed at their arousal. They would pick up women as they
screamed: the town in a dark chaos that was sometimes too busy to hear. Most
men tried to be heroic and safe her, but a murderer would appear and kill him before
he could. Then the murderer would kill the rapist and the woman.
What? Why? Anyway, don’t
bother with this one. I rate it 1.5 out of 5.
