Review: Dark Worlds by Zack Daggy

Title: Dark Worlds: Project 31 Author: Zack Daggy Format: TP Available Formats: Kindle Page Count: 235 Genre: Horror/Suspense Publisher: BookSurge Pub. Date: February 23, 2009 ISBN-13: 9781439226261

When I first started competing in public speaking in high school (yes, this was--ahem--several years ago now), I had trouble with my pacing. To say it bluntly, my first speeches were designed to last around 10 minutes and I finished in 5 by speaking a mile a minute. Of course, the audience could only then understand about 50% of what I was saying. Reading Dark Worlds: Project 31 by Zack Daggy reminded me of this experience and the importance of patience.

Dark Worlds: Project 31 is the story of a town, Careview, more than any specific characters. Though a few primary characters become most important, the story is mostly of the corruption and evil that lurks beneath the surface of Careview. This evil that rumbles under the surface of the town manifests in unusual ways within the people who are unlucky enough to call Careview home...

I think if Dark Worlds: Project 31 had been given another hundred--or more--pages then perhaps it would have been a more enjoyable read for me. As it is, the book seems rushed, with little build into the intriguing (but flat) characters. Any horror or suspense has to hinge upon the characters, otherwise risk becoming the book equivalent of a mindless slasher film. Unless we, the reader, care about the character, we won't be impacted by the fate of that character. This is particularly true when there's a number of people mysteriously dying from the very beginning. Mostly, the text just smacks of the impatience of getting to the "juicy" bits. Additionally, along the lines of impatience, I don't normally mention editing errors but the number of errors found in the Dark Worlds: Project 31 was somewhat off-putting for me--grammatical errors, typos, things that would have been caught if patience had been utilized and another editing...

All in all, I won't be picking up the next volume in this trilogy-to-be, but hope that Daggy spends a little more time developing his work, because potential for an interesting and gripping story is definitely there.

Quick and Dirty: Not tonight, honey, I have a headache.
Dark Worlds: Project 31 came across as haphazardly done. The great ideas behind the book just didn't quite get fleshed out as much as needed. With a bit more patience to build characters and ideas, the book would have been vastly more enjoyable.