BOOK BOMB! Night of Blacker Darkness.

 

Night of Blacker Darkness

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Blacker-Darkness-ebook/dp/B005ETBBJ6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313510746&sr=8-1

I’ve reviewed Dan Well’s books before. You may know him from his Serial Killer series, or because he’s one of the other 5 finalists for the Campbell Award. (and we will find out who wins on Saturday).  Dan is a great writer, but this was one book that he couldn’t sell. This was a book so strange, so odd, that his regular publisher wouldn’t touch it. (and once you read it, you will have enjoyed it, but you will also understand why a publisher won’t buy this). This book is simply unmarketable in a traditional publishing sense. It is just too absurd, too silly, too odd, but it is also really funny.

Basically, Night of Blacker Darkness is Dan Well’s Tom Stranger.

So Dan has decided to self publish an eBook. This is a bit of an experiment. Can a successful writer of actual serious type books self publish a really weird little eBook, and still manage to make absurd sums of money? For my own personal reasons, I hope that answer is yes, because I too want to make absurd sums of money in the future on some of my weird little ideas. (paying books come first, obviously)

So I want to book bomb him.

If you are interested in this book, I would encourage you to purchase it on Wednesday, August 17th, so that we can see how high we can push the stats on Amazon.  Normally on one of my Book Bombs, throughout the day I would post edits to show how high we had gotten the stats. However, on that day, I will be driving across Nevada in a van full of writers (including Dan), playing L5R, on our way to WorldCon, where hopefully I will beat him and win the Campbell award myself, but he won’t be sad about it on the drive home, because Night of Blacker Darkness will be #1 and raking in bazillions of dollars. See? Everybody wins.

Now, about the actual book:

Night of Blacker Darkness is a farcical vampire novel, set in Victorian times. When a man fakes his death to escape from prison, and is then seen crawling out of a coffin, it is assumed that he is a vampire. And since he is immune to things like crosses, garlic, and sunlight, then obviously he must be the greatest and most powerful master vampire of all time.

Dan’s humor is based on wordplay, and it can get really silly. This book probably isn’t for everyone, but I laughed out loud repeatedly, and by far my favorite character was Mary Shelley, who I think got the best lines.

NoBD reads like a British comedy. If you find BBC comedies funny, you will like this book. I read it over two nights and enjoyed it, and then my 11 year old daughter/administrative assistant read it next. She didn’t get some of the historical references (Wait… John Keats was a real person?) but she loved it too.

WorldCon Report
The Campbells Award

20 thoughts on “BOOK BOMB! Night of Blacker Darkness.”

  1. @Raptor: who needs a Nook? It’s in ePub and not infested with DRM, so you can read it on dang near anything. (My B&N copy is live in the ePub add-on for Firefox, and I’m going to be stuffing it into my phone in about five minutes).

    Thank you, Larry.

  2. Dan Wells is proof that, though you don’t have to be totally whacked to come up with new ideas, it certainly helps.

  3. I don’t know whether to thank you, for alerting me to a new Dan Wells book (the wife and I were big fans of the Serial Killer series), or curse you that you just cost me $4.99 So I’ll do both.

    Thank you, you bastid.

    Oh, and I’ll be getting to Spellbound in a day or two.

  4. Its even up on the British site – bought
    I’ll wait until Dead Six and Spellbound are out of e-arc before getting them though

  5. Bought it first thing this morning. Unfortunately, thanks to this thing called “work” I’ll need to wait till tonight to finish it.

    I’m getting my wife a Kindle for her birthday next week, and this served as a great example of how easy it is to buy an ebook – put “Dan Wells” in the search field, selected the title from the list, and was reading in under a minute.

  6. I bought it this morning, and I notice there are no reveiws of it yet. Since I usually buy on amazon based on reviews if I don’t have an outside suggestion, maybe we readers should do a few up for Dan. I’ll read the book and then put one up. (might not be today, I have a three-day music festival starting tomorrow).

  7. Bought it yesterday; haven’t finished it yet (just shy of halfway through), but this story is awesome. It’s sort of part vampire novel, party mystery, and part Ocean’s 11-style scheming. John Keats is particularly fun.

    Thanks for the recommendation, Larry! I don’t know how long it would’ve taken me to hear about it otherwise.

  8. Hey Larry, did you know “Donald Westlake” wrote at least one short story about an “interstellar insurance “agent? NOBD is a hoot. Thanks for the heads up

  9. I got a Kindle for Christmas, and this was on my to read list, but when I went to buy it, it seemed to have disappeared. Any idea where it went? Or when it might return?

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