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Prisoner 489 (2014)

by Joe R. Lansdale(Favorite Author)

4.24 of 5 Votes: 6

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Dark Regions

review 1: Joe R Lansdale, need I say more? The long awaited novella is a well written and beautifully illustrated book. Santiago Caruso has created a stunning set of illustrations to accompany Prisoner 489 and you are most definitely going to want a hard copy. Bernard lives on a small island along with two other men, Toggle and Wilson. The three of them prisoners of sort, one step from freedom. Overshadowing their little island is a larger island, an ugly, dismal island, home to an imposing prison that houses the worse of the worse. When a prisoner dies he is ferried over to the smaller island for burial. Plots are marked by number, no names needed.The time comes when Prisoner 489 is slated for execution. 489 is one that exudes evil. It takes four attempts to electrocute h... moreim, before ferrying him over to the small island. Taking no chances with one that was so hard to execute, 489 is placed in a steel coffin, wrapped in chains.A storm is brewing and there is an uneasy feeling in the air. Bernard, worried about Toggle goes in search of him. What he finds is beyond belief, an evil so horrific has been unleashed and the battle-lines are drawn.I don’t know about you, but when I read a book by Joe, I feel like he’s there before me telling the story. He has a magical way with words, that allows for an uninterrupted flow. This was so worth the wait!
review 2: 2.5 starsWhen I read the summary of this one on Dark Region's website, I got excited because it sounded great! As soon as I got the ebook from them, I dug in for what I expected to be a great time. Unfortunately, no. The book started out slowly, fleshing out the few main characters it contains before moving the antagonist into the picture. Once it appeared, things picked up a little but the conversation between the characters was very flat, especially for people that are supposed to be terrified and nearly dying every few pages. Given the total lack of emotion from them, they could have been discussing the weather, politics or what they had for supper. I certainly felt NONE of the terror and tension that they should have been experiencing. There were some beautiful illustrations in this advance copy but instead of adding to the story, they retracted from it. Comparing the illustrations to the story, there were several inconsistencies such as size of the creature, articles of clothing and placement of restraints. I loved the illustrations but I feel that the text should have matched them. Lastly, there were several mistakes in punctuation and one case of sloppy editing where a piece of equipment that was gone from the story magically reappeared. Maybe it's just me but that sort of thing yanks me right out of a story. All in all, I was very disappointed in this book and felt that it could have been so much better with better dialogue and another pass at editing. less

Download links for: Prisoner 489

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