Nightscape: Cynopolis
David W. Edwards
Imperiad Entertainment
October 4th, 2015
Reviewed by Stuart Conover
Synopsis: Detroit’s eastside has seen its share of horrors. Once-proud factories gutted for scrap. Whole neighborhoods burned out and boarded up. Nature drained of color. But nothing like this: a thought-virus that turns the city’s dogs feral and its underclass into jackal-headed beasts. The city erupts in chaos and nightmare violence. Communication in or out is impossible. The skies fill with lethal drone copters and airships bristling with heavy-duty cannon. Abandoned to their separate fates among hordes of monsters, the few surviving humans must find a way to elude the military blockade preventing their escape or defeat the virus at its source—before government forces sacrifice them all. Breakneck action, rogue science and deft portraiture combine for a grand and gripping tale of urban terror.
Review: Wow. That’s my first response to finishing up Nightscape: Cynopolis. Just, wow. I’ve read so many books in my lifetime that I’m not easily impressed but David W. Edwards has been able to do just that.
From years of reading outbreak novels of one kind or another I am always happily surprised when a new twist on them come up. When you take one being inflicted upon humanity by demonic aliens who are hell bent on taking over the world, which is turned into a government quarantine in order to prevent its spread, I’m instantly interested. With both canine and human being transformed into killers and carriers of the plague in an area of the United States which has already been beaten down by poverty and hate, things already seemed to be at their worst only to spiral down even further out of control.
In the novel we follow multiple groups of people who are trying to stay alive. Drenched in street life, philosophy, survival and more, this is a work of horror that is for those who love layers to what they read. As a fan of character development I have to admit that Edwards was able to run the gambit on characters evolving even in the short time span of this piece as we learn more about the survivors and what makes them who they are.
This is a piece of horror you wouldn’t stumble across everyday with the complex nature it was written and would make any lover of horror proud to add to their collection.
