Donnie Darko meets The Matrix in this surreal inter-galactic page-turner. What is real - what is manipulated - what is illusion - and what the heck are the aliens doing? An altered-reality reality that likely David Lynch would make a movie of ...

Oof. This was a tough read.
Our story (as best as I can sum it up): Kevin Knight has been pre-destined to be the galaxy's savior - an actual knight, so to speak. But things go sideways when tragedy strikes, he winds up in jail and demonic forces embed themselves like a parasite inside of him. The galaxy now is doomed!

But wait ... "Until a trench coat-wearing alien renegade shatters his understanding of reality" (from the Goodreads description of the book).

Now his role of galaxy savior is back on, but his understanding of what is real and what is imaginary has been challenged and changed. And who does he listen to ... the renegade alien who has rescued him, or the demonic voices in his head? The fate of the galaxy stands in the balance.

The problems here are .... well, numerous, but ultimately it boils down to some poor writing.

The first thing that stuck me was the main character saying things like:

"I was the family doctor for a while. The wounds my mom and I suffered were pretty severe. They forced me to learn martial arts, and I started sparring at five years old. I pretty much know them all."

and

"I don’t want to brag, but I pretty much know everything."

and a cabbie says to our hero: “You must protect your queen by destroying hell’s armies and defeating pretty much every alien race in existence.” I guess I pretty much don't like the use of 'pretty much' in a book.

The dialog is cheap and poor and generally doesn't sound like people talking to one another. It's 1930's pulp dialog (which, honestly I generally wouldn't mind as I like vintage pulp fiction, but this doesn't fit the bill).

Nearing the hour of Robert’s macabre massacre, the virgin whom Kevin had protected was moments away from giving birth to perfection.

“Did ya see that?” A man pointed down the dimly lit alley.

“Not this crap again. You need help.”

Two figures adorned in white hospital garb stood by a bus stop lighting cigarettes. As cars drove by, the faces of screaming, clawing demons were reflected in the windows.

-----------

Robert tapped a claw on his cigar, dropping ash. “There’s nothing I can do. Sorry. No one has ever successfully purged a minister without killing the host. Where we have failed, you will succeed.”

“We?” Kevin asked. “So there’s more than one of you things?”

Robert didn’t move.

Kevin stared at the green and red scales on the alien’s skin, which decreased farther up his face, although his arms and hands were covered in the layered platelets.

“That’s right, aliens exist. I’m what they call a Demonian.”

Kevin looked down at Robert’s hand as his crimson claws shifted gears.

Robert’s grin displayed his numerous fangs. “Frightened?” He aimed his reptilian eyes at Kevin.

“N-no, I talk to monsters every day,” Kevin said, leaning slightly away.

“You could call me that. One person’s alien is another’s monster.” Robert flattened the gas pedal. “I’m the last survivor of Demonia. Much like you, I was chosen.”

“Chosen? By who?”

Robert raised one of his red eyebrows. “That was faster than the others.”

“Others?”

“You aren’t the first being I’ve trained. But you are my first messiah. Do you believe that everything happens for a reason?”

“I don’t believe in fate, but yeah.”

If any of what I've posted above sounds interesting to you, then consider picking this up and give it a read. I found this to be an unremarkable story with stock characters and poor writing.

Looking for a good book? Keep on looking.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This was unexpectedly awesome. I highly enjoyed every word. I'll definitely be on the lookout for more from this author in the future.

Very gripping horror-sci-fi at it's very best. It's a great mix between entertaining and thought-provoking while doing a great job of subverting expectations. Highly reccomend.

Thanks so much to the publisher and Net Galley for a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
I really wanted to enjoy this book, but I just couldn’t. There were so many characters and story lines, I felt totally lost and gave up at the 23% mark.
For what it’s worth, Heres what I gathered is going on. There are some immortal beings, some have form and some are spiritual only. They exist in a furture earth that has been invaded by two alien specises. The entire planet Earth is now rubble, burned bodies -human and alien, are everywhere. One of the imortals- Night Stalker teams up with Wildfire ( ala Harley Quinn-esque character who love guns, death and torture) to go back in-time and fix things.
Next we have a teenager- Kevin who is living under virtual house arrest- and monitored by his stepfather’s body guards. He is supposedly some sort of messiah. However stepdad regularly beats the heck out of him and mom. Kevin plans his escape and when he runs away he comes across a injured pregnant woman, whos uterus glows. He carries her home, and while there a gun fight ensues and step father is killed.
I was following alomg pretty good until we got to the next section, where a slew of new characters are introduced- a reptile alien police force, complete with claws, fangs, and transporters . We have Hawaii 1958 with matrix like people that are nothing more than shimmering code., explanation for QAnon ( aka how people are fooled into believing utter nonsense), the time-web and holocaust, diamond walker assassins??? - and now im totall lost.
I’m sure there is an audience for this book, but it’s not me.

I had a lot of difficulty with this book. I felt the author, although he was passionate with his philosophical ideas, present too much in one book. And I could not agree with many of his ideas. Therefore, the concept of the book missed its mark.

I found the book intriguing for a while but lost myself in trying to understand the many facets of this novel.

Kevin Knight has been trained all his life to save a galaxy as he is considered the one that can do it. A renegade alien who wears a trench coat. He tells Kevin that the reality he knows isn’t real but an illusion who controls the earth. Kevin doesn’t know what to think. Kevin starts hearing “dark voices” in his head. He doesn’t know who to believe He’ll has plans to slaughter everyone. Kevin realizes that he must resist hell. Kevin must master his powers. Will he succeed?

The author has written a novel that is a science fiction horror. It has bloody battles, it is intriguing and thought provoking. Kevin faces his bizarre world with courage. It has twists and turns moving the story quickly. It’s a horrific dystopian story that intrigued me and I found to be a unique novel.

I had a hard time understanding what the heck was going on in the first few chapters -- I'm roughly about 30% into the book and STILL have a hard time figuring out what's going on. I mean, what is the actual point of this book? I don't think I will be finishing this.

I was intrigued by the premise of the book, but the execution leaves much to be desired.

Unfortunately, this book just was not my cup of tea. I don't like the idea of being thrown into the middle of multiple story lines. It was hard for me to get into it.

Thank you to NetGalley, G.R. Morris, & Darklight Publishing for a copy

Oh how I wanted to DNF this thing. The start was riveting: all action, mystery, and a smattering of arcane magic, but then that ended. What came next was an attempt at a science fiction-oriented treatise on philosophy, religion, and free will. Sure it was coupled with demons, aliens, mysterious super powers and global threats, but, for me, it was just a slog.

Tomorrow’s End is not particularly hard to follow. There are two seemingly main stories once you get past the intro. Kevin Knight is an abused teenager who is afraid of the dark, and, surprisingly, being groomed to be the savior of Earth. On the other side there is the super-mysterious orphan Daren who has amazing powers, aged up incredibly quickly, and is squashed by more demonic masterminds (or maybe the same… you decide).

Their stories almost run in parallel, but are disjointed enough to have a “where is this going?” vibe.

The main focus is on Kevin, and his reluctance to take on the role he is destined for. Cue all the free will, moral philosophy and good versus evil lectures and diatribes. I get that the author was trying to hammer the idea home in several of the presented aspects and power dynamics, but, for me, it was much more of a distraction than anything else.

I’ll give Mr. Morris credit for the invasion and action scenes. They were fantastically choreographed, and rolled out a ton of alien tech and demonic gore. Again, they leaned heavily on the forced morality of the novel’s theme, but they were still stupid fun.

All-in-all, this one is a hard pass for me. Sure, the second book may clear up the bulk of the “WTF” moments I had towards the end of this one, but there weren’t any real firm hooks to get me to make the attempt. For me, the cover and blurb had me completely pulled in, but the text just didn’t deliver.

I actually liked this. I don’t particularly mind being thrown into the middle of a complex sci-fi world and having to learn as I go along. Usually, it’s up to the author to guide me just enough that I can pick up on the nuances of the world. I thought this was cleverly written, and a lot of care went into crafting the world. The one criticism I have is that there was a lot of dialogue, but it felt a little bit disjointed. The dialogue sometimes didn’t feel meaningful or necessary.

I wanted to enjoy this, because it plays in a lot of sandboxes I enjoy, especially and most importantly exploring deep philosophical questions through art. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like it was successful in any meaningful way.

I will start with what I did enjoy. The overall story is an interesting one, and though it borrows a lot from various sources it is a unique combination of the pieces that was smart and had a lot of potential. I also liked that the book started in media res, which is to say we start in the middle of an interplanetary, multi-dimensional conflict that has existed for millennia, without any exposition or preamble as to how the world got to be the way it is. As different chapters jump around in time and place and different characters’ points of view we slowly piece together what is going on, which lets the reader’s experience parallel the character’s experience in a way that can really bring you into the experience of the story. So the structure and narrative devices of constant motion in time and place was a smart one, though not always executed as well as it could be. Lastly, I did appreciate the explicit intent of tackling existential topics and ideas, which sci-fi is the perfect vehicle for.

All of that said, I really struggled with the writing. It just wasn’t well-written. The narrative device that could be skillful and engaging if done well was instead off-putting, leaving the reader not feeling like they are one step behind but catching up but instead feeling like they are trying to watch events play out in a different room through a screen. None of the characters are interesting, they all feel like stock caricatures. This might be because there are a lot of characters so providing depth to all of them might be difficult, but even the protagonists felt boring and predictable. The dialogue was all jilted and felt incredibly forced. And the philosophical ideas, maybe the most interesting part of the narrative, were kind of the worst part. Because every character felt a need to explicitly talk about these philosophical ideas, again and again, and using this jilted, forced prose. It felt like being with a bunch of stoned college freshmen who had just binged The Matrix quadrilogy. None of it felt refined or interesting, it just felt like a lot of talking in unnatural and un-insightful ways. If the story played out the exact same way but with 80% of the explicit philosophical discussions cut out then it would have been so much better, and still forced the reader to explore and contemplate the same ideas and topics.

So, I wanted to like this. But it felt like it was trying really hard, and it also felt like it believed it was smarter than you and was daring you to try and catch up. But neither the writing skill nor the philosophical contemplation felt like they lived up to what the story thought of itself, and reading it felt like more of a chore than a joy.

I want to thank NetGalley and Dark Light Publishing, who provided a complimentary eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to G.R. Morris and NetGalley for a review copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Sadly, I could not get beyond the first chapter of this book. The writing was choppy and spoke almost as if it was an older detective story. It lacked descriptive details that would enable a reader to picture the scene, and, as such, it was difficult to follow. I'm sorry that I cannot recommend this novel.

Author Morris constructed a strange science fiction/fantasy story of time-traveling aliens and intertwined it with religion of a sort. There is a lot going on in this book and it did not flow well. I did not get to know any of the characters well enough to either like or dislike them. The dialog seemed tangential at times and the plot was disjointed.

Two stars. I did not ever get a handle on this story. My thanks to the author. All opinions expressed are my own.

#TomorrowsEndBook #NetGalley

This review is hard to write. There are philosophical parts of Tomorrow's End that are brilliant, absolutely brilliant. And... There's parts I would gladly skip just based on the amount of gore. All in all, a good story, but you need a good stomach.

I very much enjoyed this book. The story is well written and original. I liked the writing style.

This is one I will be reading again in the future.

Unfortunately, this one wasn’t for me.
I do like world building, interesting characters, and an intense plot; however, we jump into what seems like the middle of multiple stories.
Confusing the reader right off the hop just isn’t for me; I like to have a general idea of the basic concepts within the first few chapters.

Thank you to NetGalley, G.R. Morris, & Darklight Publishing for a copy.

God, I love sci Fi horror and weirdness. Sci Fi and horror are a match made in.... Er.... Hell. I love how weird and chaotic it gets and this book was no exception. Oh my goodness.

Give me MORE please! I can't wait for the rest of the series.

Thanks, Netgalley and Publisher for the opportunity to read and review!
This took a little bit longer than expected, but I enjoyed the book!
The story is a weird mix of science fiction, fantasy and horror, there are some very interesting plot twists, and very intriguing characters, but I got lost in the many POVs and load of info that we receive. There just needs to be a better balance between world-building, character development, story development and the narrative.
Basically a very intriguing premise, but the execution needs some tough-ups.

Thank you to the publisher and the author for a free galley in exchange for a fair review.

To be honest, DNF. I went into this very interested in the plot, but I found that
I lost interest quickly due to the style and tone. One of the characters was very Harley Quinn, and things get meta fairly quickly. I'd say this was a clever book, just not my kind of clever. But for someone who likes absurdist characters going meta, this would be a great book. I really liked some of the ideas. I was disappointed that the book and I just didn't jive.