The Harvest

De: Scott Nicholson

Narrado por: Steven Roy Grimsley

In this chilling tale of horror set in the Appalachian mountains, an evil presence consumes the citizens of a small town, spreading only one thought: death and destruction.

©2003 Scott Nicholson (P)2012 Scott Nicholson

Not your typical zombie book

The town of Windshake, located in the Appalachian Mountains, has a visitor. It is alien and very hungry! It will consume the people of Windshake one person at a time until it's army of dead people become plant like with glowing green eyes. Anyone who ingests the alien plant like creature - whether is through a kiss or a swig of homemade moonshine with polluted water, they will become one with the alien and one another moving towards the same purpose - consuming everything in its path.

The alien begins to learn from the souls of the folks it has absorbed into it's army thus igniting the connection between a psychic psychology professor who is well aware of the gloomies (her psychic gift), a moonshine drinking old man and one businessman. They each have their own demons to deal with during their trek to destroy the "gloomies" who have materialized into this alien plant being.

Not your typical zombie book, but one could easily identify it as such - instead of eating flesh, they consume the life thus spreading the infection or disease that converts the receiver into a green eyed zombie.

Throw in a mayor who wants their festival to go well exposing thousands of vendors and visitors to the alien and it's army - you have a major event that could enable the infected and further world consumption easily.

Scott Nicholson writes in a clear concise manner. His plot development as is his character development excel. You can visualize his characters and follow his thoughts from the beginning to the end. There are no "huh?" moments in his books. Everything connects. He makes the town real and the people just as real.

Nicholson ranks right up there with Koontz, King, and Tufo

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Plant Zombie like people!!!

Any additional comments?

I wasn't sure what to expect from this because the synopsis doesn't give anything away, I didn't expect alien plant like zombie people!! Lol. It was definitely different but still really good.

This reminded me of the old style horror movies my parents used to watch. It had everything you expect from that type of horror, remote small town, alien/monster causing havoc, band of people fighting against it, add in the Appalachian mountains and you have a winner. I have always been fascinated with the Appalachian mountains because it contains a lot of lore and a lot of land, so for me the setting was immediately a winner.

Basically what happens is an alien plantesque like presence invades the small town of Windshake. It spreads first to a man and from there it seems to quickly take over. The person becomes zombie like, with glowing green eyes and anyone it touches with it's goop becomes one of them. All it wants to do is harvest as many people as possible and wait for the rest of it's kind to come, but a group of the townsfolk are intent in stopping it.

There are plenty of characters in this and each has it's own story but they all interconnect. Each character is well written and I loved how different they all are, I mean we have a moonshiner, a psychology professor who hears and sees things, a mayor intent on having the festivals no matter what and a devout man. All completely different but all likable in their own way.

Anyway, this was a really good read. If you take it with a pinch of salt then I think you will enjoy it. It's not the hard hitting alien sci-fi nor the type of horror horror fans like, it's a good old, old style, horror movie kind of read and quite fun in a way. The author tells the story through the eyes of his characters and while it looks like they are separate stories, he brings them all together in an explosive finale.

Steven Roy Grimsley was down right amazing reading this. His tone for the alien life was creepy, he brought across each characters emotions perfectly and really got into the performance, because that's what it was for him, a performance!! He brought the story across like a movie and I adored listening to it.

*I received a copy of this for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

Zombie Alien Plant People

Think of this book as one of those Sci-Fi B movies you used to watch on afternoon television (or still watch on Netflix). An alien plant lands on earth and wants to...harvest...everything. Throw in some Appalachian good ol' boys, a psych professor with ESP and various other assorted odd balls and, well, 'nuff said about the story. Don't expect it to be logical or make sense, just go with it, and it's a pretty good time, even if the dialogue (read out loud) is often cringe-worthy/unintentionally funny. Although, who knows, the author clearly didn't intend the story to be taken seriously so perhaps the humor is intentional.

The narrator does a competent job with the story although his depiction of women's voices leaves something to be desired. Still, I imagine it is difficult to simulate a female voice if you're male and visa versa.

All in all, a good time to be had for lovers of science fiction B movies but if you like more realistic or thought-provoking science fiction (or horror, this one does overlap the boundaries), you might want to choose another title.