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6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
 An original story featuring an unusual assortment of characters Jan 08, 2008
By Melanie A. Achard
A Holy Bloody Day by Malachi E. Maynard offers an original story featuring an unusual assortment of gods, demi-gods, demons, elfs etc. The story is presented in two parts. The first part revolves around a power struggle among the gods. The second part is more a coming of age story for an anointed redeemer. I found the original nature of the characters as well as the plot interesting. There are also some scenes in the novel that captured my imagination (there is a great scene where Articty fights several viper dragons).
Unfortunately, the novel is hobbled by some structural and editing issues that impeded my appreciation of the story. On the structural side, in the first section the narrative voice shifts randomly the effect of which is a very disjointed prose that is hard to follow. Throughout the novel the author relies heavily on dialogue to advance the story, which results in dialogue that feels stilted and overly explanatory. The heavy reliance on dialogue also impairs the character development. Actions occur, and relationships or emotions are stated, but there is never any view into the character's mind to reveal how the character feels which makes it difficult to emotionally engage with the characters. The editing issues are pervasive with numerous instances of usage errors, missing words, agreement issues, etc. These minor shortcomings interfered with my enjoyment of the story and render the text tedious particularly in the first section.
The novel is extremely plot and action focused with rough sketches of characters, extensive dialogue, and only a few vivid scene details. I wondered as I read it if perhaps the story might not lend itself more to a graphic novel where the emotions of characters and the scene descriptions are depicted in the images and not reflected in the text.
The second section is better written and more engaging and left me curious to see what the next installment brings. In its current state, however, this is not a novel I am comfortable recommending. I hope the author has the opportunity to rework the text and bring life to the engaging story hinted at in the novel.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Too many flaws, too much dialogue Jan 01, 2008
By Andrew Gray
"Beezer Review"
A Holy Bloody Day by Malachi E. Maynard is his first foray in the fantasy genre, but more importantly, his first time trying his hand at writing a novel. Given that, this is essentially a stand-alone novel and the reader need not bring any prior reading experience to this book.
The plot of this book is actually a couple plots tied together. The book is actually divided up into two sections. The first section focuses on a battle of demigods seeking to kill off gods to take control. The second piece of the book is about another demigod type seeking to try and right the wrongs that happened earlier. The plot of this book is actually rather linear and simplistic. In fact, one could maybe argue that the first section of the book is an overly long prologue. The plot has difficulty taking hold and making sense at time, but the reason for that I'll talk about later. When you boil everything down, I think there is a decent story here, Mr. Maynard has a solid vision and good intentions I think it was the execution of those ideas that didn't quite meet the initial vision.
The characters are a large part of why I think this book didn't quite realize the vision. I think even experienced authors face challenges when writing about gods and demigods. They, for the most part, should be used sparingly as they have tremendous power and experience. Yet, in this novel there are countless gods and demigods and I think the author loses control of the power behind tat type of character. In fact, at multiple times while reading the book I didn't feel as though I was reading about gods at all, I felt as though it was just a bunch of humans calling themselves god. A couple of times they manifested powers, but that seemed more like a whim and to help the story than an actual power that character had. I must say I was not impressed with the characters in this book, I had a very difficult time getting invested in them at all. I believe a big reason for that is there was simply too much dialog in this novel. This takes away from the descriptions that could have been offered to help the scene progress. By and large the characters were uninteresting and simply flat. There was very little character development and this contributes greatly to the flatness of the characters.
There are several criticisms I have regarding this book.
First and foremost I think this novel suffers from horrendous editing. A good editor could have helped sculpt this book into what it should have been. This seems to be a problem I have run into with the few Book Surge books I have read.
Secondly, as I mentioned above, there is simply way too much dialog. Overuse of dialog seems to be a problem with newer authors. Yet, when it occurs it bogs down the story and takes away from the flow. This also takes away from character development, because the author spends so much time with dialog there is little else occurring.
Additionally, there is very little scene description. I am a fan of the minimalist descriptions, but there still needs to be enough for the reader to be able to develop some type of visual image of the setting. That simply wasn't present in this book.
I do think Mr. Maynard had a good vision. The `bones' of this story seem to hold some promise. I believe with some time to hone his craft and work on some things, and hooking up with a good editor, he can produce some decent fantasy novels.
Overall, I think this book suffers from too many things to call it anything but a very sub par book. I simply found very little to enjoy while reading it. There is certainly potential here, but ratings are never about potential. In good conscience I can not recommend this novel to any but the most hardcore fantasy fan who can not find anything else to read. I will be curious to see if Mr. Maynard corrects any of the faults with this book in his next installment, I do wish him the best though.
 A great introduction in what is sure to be a great series May 06, 2008
By Midwest Book Review
A world run by dragons and demons - but the brightest light can best be seen in darkness. "A Holy Bloody Day: Prologue to the Unholy Fire of Blood Trilogy" is a darkly sinister and passionate fantasy of legendary proportions. Debut novelist Malachi E. Maynard hopes to make his mark on the fantasy genre in a big way, questioning the every nature of good and evil in this epic fantasy. Two demon brothers will battle a goddess who wishes to plunge the world into a dark and deadly Time of fire, having to deal with one's distracting lust with a lovely elven creature, and the decision whether they should aid the world or hasten its destruction. With influences from "The Golden Compass", "A Holy Bloody Day: Prologue to the Unholy Fire of Blood Trilogy" serves as a great introduction in what is sure to be a great series. Enthusiastically recommended for any fantasy lover and for Science Fiction/Fantasy community library collections.
1 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 A wonderful start to a great series. Dec 19, 2007
By Mr. Brandon K. Brigner
A Holy Bloody Day is a very well written and interesting story line which is leading into a what is shaping up to be a very good series. The story is unique in that it is about a demon that helps to destroy the world but has a change of heart at the last minute, which is when the real story begins following the demons son which is a Frost Elf with the power to be a white weredragon.
Overall I would def. recomend this book to anyone that likes the fantasy genre. This series has a very high potential to become a very engaging trilogy.
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