oil company’s head of safety convinces her estranged husband to fly
up to Alaska’s North Slope and investigate. But when geologist Jack
Oswald rappels down into the mysterious pit, he discovers it is
unlike anything he has ever seen. Giant wolf-like creatures attack
the nearby protester camp, slaughtering both wildlife and people.
When they kill protesters and even the oil company’s armed guards,
a member of a secret society dedicated to defending humanity from
demons has no choice but to reveal herself. The survivors soon learn
there are worse monsters than hellhounds. To repair his broken
marriage, Jack only needs to save his wife, defeat a devil, seal the
hell hole, and put an end to Armageddon. What could possibly go wrong?
Donald Firesmith’s novel, Hell Holes: What Lurks Below.
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new school year. But when hundreds of huge holes mysteriously appear
overnight in the frozen tundra north of the Arctic Circle, Jack
receives an unexpected phone call. An oil company exec hires Jack to
investigate, and he picks his climatologist wife and two of their
graduate students as his team. Uncharacteristically, Jack also lets
Aileen O’Shannon, a bewitchingly beautiful young photojournalist,
talk him into coming along as their photographer. When they arrive in
the remote oil town of Deadhorse, the exec and a biologist to protect
them from wild animals join the team. Their task: to assess the risk
of more holes opening under the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and the wells
and pipelines that feed it. But they discover a far worse danger
lurks below. When it emerges, it threatens to shatter Jack’s
unshakable faith in science. And destroy us all…
My Review
I love unexplained acts of nature. Makes for such a chilling plot. When holes start appearing in the Arctic Circle , a team of experts is sent to investigate. Once they arrive, things get worse as more holes appear. And then something straight out of Hell crawls out. A horde of otherworldly creatures that have only one thing in mind. Killing mankind. With nowhere to run, the team seeks shelter in an old station. But the horde won’t be denied, and like an octopus with a sealed bottle full of yummy bait, they will find a way in.
I was almost rubbing my hands together in twisted anticipation before I started this one. Mysterious holes appearing. Something beyond imagining crawls out. The fate of mankind hangs in the balance. Oh yeah. I knew I had to read this book.
There’s a mixed bag of character’s. Ones you come to like and respect and some not so much. The author doesn’t seem to mind killing off either one. Keeps you on edge when things get down and dirty. Which doesn’t take long at all.
The story is strong and there’s a sub plot that makes things even more interesting. Also, the blend of science fiction and horror leaves the story wide open for the author to go in many different directions.
The ending. Well, it’s an end, but also a cliff hanger. That’s because this is really the beginning of something much bigger. I’ll be grabbing the next one immediately. Got a good feeling about this series.
tundra north of the Arctic Circle, geologist Jack Oswald picked
Angele Menendez, his climatologist wife, to determine if the record
temperatures due to climate change was the cause. But the holes were
not natural. They were unnatural portals for an invading army of
demons. Together with Aileen O’Shannon, a 1,400-year-old sorceress
demon-hunter, the three survivors of the research team sent to study
the holes had only one chance: to flee down the dangerous Dalton
Highway towards the relative safety of Fairbanks. However, the
advancing horde of devils, imps, hellhounds, and gargoyles will stop
at nothing to prevent their prey from escaping. It is a 350-mile race
with simple rules. Win and live; lose and die…
My Review
It started with mysterious holes appearing overnight in the tundra of the North Slope in Alaska. A team of seven, including Jack, a geologist, his wife, Angela, a climatologist, Aileen, a reporter with a secret power, and four others are hired by Exxon Mobil to investigate. When the very hounds of Hell crawl out of one of the holes and start killing, the team races south on Dalton Highway, one of the ten most dangerous roads, trying to reach Fairbanks and safety. Soon, imps and gargoyles join the hellhounds in pursuit. Only three of the team members make it to the SUV and begin their escape. The Demon War has begun.
Jack told his story of how it all began in the first book. Now, Angela tells what happens next.
As the three survivors race down the highway, they encounter more and more demons. And the demons have some surprising tricks up their sleeve that don’t bode well. It’s attack after attack. Every time it seems like they’ve found safety, it goes to hell in a hand basket. Even the military, with all of their technology and weapons, don’t stand a chance.
After what I’ve just read, I have now decided that if there’s ever an apocalypse, I’ll take zombies over demons any time. Some of these of creatures are dumber than a box of rocks, but they are guided by higher demons, smart ones, and can inflict major damage.
The author sure doesn’t give his characters a break. And he keeps the action and suspense at full throttle. How many demons are there? Do they have a weakness? And most important, how do we stop them? The answer is one you can’t begin to imagine.
I take from the ending that there’s more to come. I have an idea where it will go and sure excited to see how that works out.
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helping the US Government acquire large, complex software-intensive
systems. In this guise, he has authored seven technical books,
written numerous software- and system-related articles and papers,
and spoken at more conferences than he can possibly remember. He’s
also proud to have been named a Distinguished Engineer by the
Association of Computing Machinery, although his pride is tempered
somewhat by his fear that the term “distinguished” makes
him sound like a graybeard academic rather than an active engineer
whose beard is still slightly more red than gray.
fantasy, apocalyptic science fiction, action and adventure novels and
relaxes by handcrafting magic wands from various magical woods and
mystical gemstones. His first foray into fiction is the book Magical
Wands: A Cornucopia of Wand Lore written under the pen name Wolfrick
Ignatius Feuerschmied. He lives in Crafton, Pennsylvania with his
wife Becky, and his son Dane, and varying numbers of dogs, cats, and birds.
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