The year is 2037, and Corporal Kimi Jayden has one chance to rescue the lone refugee girl who is miraculously immune to Reaper absorption. Thirteen-year-old Lily walks the deserted streets of Savannah alone, ever since the Reaper absorbed her family—and tried and failed to absorb her—a year ago. An amorphous creature that has nearly wiped out civilization, growing as it feeds, the Reaper assimilates its prey’s intelligence when it consumes flesh and blood. Growing smarter with each human it absorbs, the Reaper transforms into monsters created from our darkest nightmares—and it loves tormenting its victims.
Kimi and her fellow survivors in the North Georgia Renegade Enclave believe Lily’s DNA holds the key to mankind’s survival. But the Reaper covets and abducts Lily, and Kimi must battle a ghastly horde of Reaper incarnations to preserve humanity’s last hope against extinction.
JAGANNATH reveals the resilience and determination of the human spirit in an action-filled tale of terror, selfless courage, and ultimate triumph and redemption.
Kimi and her fellow survivors in the North Georgia Renegade Enclave believe Lily’s DNA holds the key to mankind’s survival. But the Reaper covets and abducts Lily, and Kimi must battle a ghastly horde of Reaper incarnations to preserve humanity’s last hope against extinction.
JAGANNATH reveals the resilience and determination of the human spirit in an action-filled tale of terror, selfless courage, and ultimate triumph and redemption.
JAGANNATH excerpt:
Chapter 1
A tentacle as thick as a railroad tie burst out of the
gap in the crumbling wall. The sinuous limb shot toward the Renegade soldier
like a giant compressed spring releasing. Before the soldier could aim his
flamethrower at it, the tentacle coiled around him and squeezed.
He shouted for backup, and
two soldiers raced toward him. They aimed their wrist-mounted nozzles at the
transforming tentacle. Tight streams of blue gel spurted toward the creature’s
extended limb, but the soldiers fired too late. The tentacle seeped under the
soldier’s visor and touched bare skin, and the Reaper began to absorb him.
Kimi scowled, studying the
holographic video of the battle against the Reaper in the dead city of
Savannah, Georgia. Safe within the War Room of the North Georgia Renegade
Enclave, she had a bird’s-eye view of the chaos and destruction from two days
ago. The scene stoked an ever-smoldering fire inside her.
The Reaper had killed her
whole family fifteen years ago, one day before her thirteenth birthday. She had
hidden, helpless to stop the creature as it consumed them. The loss left a
gaping wound inside her that only vengeance could heal.
Her shoulders tensed as she
remembered watching her hometown of Jasper, Georgia burn. The raging flames had
surrounded her as everyone she knew and loved was absorbed. The Renegade
soldiers who came to rescue the survivors were too late to save anyone but her.
Kimi was an orphan in the
truest and bloodiest sense of the word.
Joining the Renegades was
inevitable. She signed up two years after her rescue at the lawfully acceptable
age of fifteen. Ever since that day, she wore the red, blue, and orange insignia
of blood, life, and flame with honor and pride.
Though the holo-vid was
painful to watch, Kimi’s duty was to observe and learn. She kept her eyes on
the soldier, knowing he would respond with the only avenue of escape he had
left.
“Fall back!” the soldier
called to his buddies. “I’m hitting the fail-safe!”
His voice was loud and
close through the War Room’s speakers. He was doomed, but he didn’t cry out as
the Reaper soaked up the skin on his neck and jaw. The creature’s pseudo-flesh
shifted shape, forming a cocoon around him. But the soldier popped off the cap
covering the recessed red button on his hand-grip control before he was
immobilized.
Not for the first time—or
the last—Kimi wondered why they didn’t call the fail-safe button by its true
name: a suicide switch.
The two standing soldiers
trained their flamethrower nozzles on the creature as they backed away. Tight
streams of fire shot out and ignited the Reaper’s viscous muck, too late to
save the dying soldier. But the flames started frying the isolated portion of
the creature into yellow smoke and charcoal gray ash.
The doomed soldier pressed
the red button, and the potent explosives in his helmet and body armor did
their job. The force of the blast made creature-gook spray outward in all directions—along
with various body parts.
Kimi gritted her teeth. Had
the soldier pressed the suicide switch in time, or did the creature absorb his
brain before he died?
When the Reaper rose up out
of the oceans’ depths and came ashore sixteen years ago, it seemed like nothing
more than an amorphous sludge with the limited intelligence of the aquatic
mammals it ingested, a creature of transforming slime that imitated living
organisms. It separated into portions like a deploying army, and quickly
developed a ravenous appetite for human flesh and blood. But when it began
metamorphosing into human form and mimicking people, the evidence was
conclusive: the creature was growing smarter, accumulating knowledge with each
person it consumed.
The Reaper was not only
feeding on their flesh and blood; it was absorbing their minds, and assimilating their intelligence.
And it grew as it fed.
JAGANNATH Buy links:
“JAGANNATH: The Monster From Your Nightmares Is HERE!”
Facebook Online Book Release Party Saturday February 7 – 1 to 4 p.m. EST
Virtual Book Blog Tour 2015 Extravaganza Calendar
YouTube “JAGANNATH 2015 Book BlogTour Extravaganza” promo video
Kerry Alan Denney – Author Bio:
Colleagues and readers alike have dubbed Kerry Alan Denney The Reality Bender. The multiple award-winning author of the post-apocalyptic sci-fi/ horror thriller JAGANNATH (Permuted Press February 3, 2015 – e-book ISBN 978-1618684134, trade paperback ISBN 978-1618684127) and the paranormal thriller SOULSNATCHER (Lazy Day Publishing April 29, 2014 – ISBN 978-1499251777) as well as six more novels and numerous short stories, Kerry blends elements of the supernatural, paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror in his work: speculative fiction at its wildest and craziest. With joy, malicious glee, and a touch of madness, he writes reality-bending thrillers—even when the voices don’t compel him to. His protagonists are his children, and he loves them as dearly as he despises his antagonists... even when he has to kill them.
Kerry lives near Stone Mountain, Georgia with his Golden retriever Holly Jolly, a professional Therapy Dog, and is currently writing his next supernatural novel and trying his best to remain rooted in this dimension—and deciding which characters he’s going to kill.
For more information, please visit Kerry Alan Denney is The Reality Bender
Kerry’s Amazon Author Central Page
Stop by at Kerry Alan Denney aka The Reality Bender Facebook Author Page
Kerry’s The Reality Bender Blog
Kerry’s Goodreads Author Page
Follow Kerry on Twitter (@KerryDenney)
2 comments:
Thank you so much Clarissa for this post and for sharing my work! You are fabulous. :)
You are very welcome!
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