Published: Oct. 24, 2011
Words: 27,479 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781466141582

Short description

Summoned into her dying mother’s coma, Eunice Ames must traverse a surreal, apocalyptic dreamscape in search of three generational spirits who have imprisoned her mother’s soul. The Wizard of Oz meets Dante's Inferno in this Fantasy novella.

Extended description

Summoned into her dying mother’s coma, recovering addict Eunice Ames must traverse a surreal, apocalyptic dreamscape in search of three generational spirits who have imprisoned her mother’s soul.

Together with Joseph, a crippled drifter who serves as her guide, Eunice treks an abandoned highway strewn with debris from her mother’s “emotional” wars. Along the way, she encounters Mister Mordant, a perpetually whiny grub, Reverend Ash a fragile, supremely self-righteous minister, and Sybil, a beautiful sylph with a knack for deception. Eunice and Joseph endeavor to lead this peculiar brigade into the hell of her mother’s making, through the swamp of Mlaise and the volcanic plains of Cinder, to the Dark Throne where they were forged. Along the way, Eunice experiences, in awful living color, the forces that have shaped her mother’s descent into madness and disease.

Yet a more malevolent power conspires against Eunice. For not only is she forced to relive the psychological.. (Read more) Summoned into her dying mother’s coma, recovering addict Eunice Ames must traverse a surreal, apocalyptic dreamscape in search of three generational spirits who have imprisoned her mother’s soul.

Together with Joseph, a crippled drifter who serves as her guide, Eunice treks an abandoned highway strewn with debris from her mother’s “emotional” wars. Along the way, she encounters Mister Mordant, a perpetually whiny grub, Reverend Ash a fragile, supremely self-righteous minister, and Sybil, a beautiful sylph with a knack for deception. Eunice and Joseph endeavor to lead this peculiar brigade into the hell of her mother’s making, through the swamp of Mlaise and the volcanic plains of Cinder, to the Dark Throne where they were forged. Along the way, Eunice experiences, in awful living color, the forces that have shaped her mother’s descent into madness and disease.

Yet a more malevolent power conspires against Eunice. For not only is she forced to relive the psychological terrain of her own upbringing, she must now confront the darkness it has spawned... the one inside her. It seems Eunice has harbored horrors of her own; years of abuse, rejection, and generational sin have taken root. And no amount of psycho-babble and positive thinking can withstand the literal monster that is waiting at the end of this highway. Can Eunice destroy the spirits that have cursed her family and rescue her mother, or will the sun set on their hell forever?

The Wizard of Oz meets Dante’s Inferno in this novella (27,000 words), a dark adult fairy tale about finding faith, redemption, and confronting the monsters of our psyche.
(Less)

Tags

urban fantasy, adventure, novella, psychological drama, slipstream, fairy tales for adults, fiction fantasy contemporary, christian allegory

Available ebook reading formats

Single purchase gains access to all formats. How to download ebooks to e-reading devices and apps.

Format	Full Book	Sample First 15%
Online Reading (HTML, good for sampling in web browser)	Buy	View sample
Kindle (.mobi for Kindle devices and Kindle apps)	Buy	Download sample
Epub (Apple iPad/iBooks, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions, others)	Buy	Download sample
PDF (good for reading on PC, or for home printing)	Buy	No sample available
RTF (readable on most word processors)	Buy	No sample available
LRF (Use only for older model Sony Readers that don't support .epub)	Buy	Download sample
Palm Doc (PDB) (for Palm reading devices)	Buy	Download sample
Plain Text (download) (flexible, but lacks much formatting)	Buy	No sample available
Plain Text (view) (viewable as web page)	Buy	No sample available

Reviews

Log-in to write a Review   Log-in to add a Video Review

Review by: Splashdown Books on Dec. 28, 2011 :
Mike's a good writer. I feel like I'm in trusted hands when I read his stuff. Here, he's done it again. Winterland is a thoroughly eerie journey through the mind of a dying woman whom we never actually see in the story - only the effects of her life as seen in physical metaphors. Her daughter is chosen to wander this wilderness and round up the nasties preventing peace.

I found it slightly difficult to get into; I had no real direction, but then neither did Eunice at that point. Perhaps my confusion was only a reflection of hers. After she'd been through a few incidents on her travels, she began to warm to her task and I to her tale as she grew more determined to fulfill.

That is the true strong point here, I think - Eunice really grows as a person, eventually setting aside her not-insignificant fears and gaining relief like she never imagined possible.

Don't be put off by any horror labels you may see floating around in connection with this book. It's only a bit gross in places, a bit creepy, and very supernatural. Horror doesn't really do it justice at all.
(reviewed long after purchase)

Review by: ResAliens Press on Nov. 21, 2011 :
Winterland, a novella by Mike Duran, is part psychological fantasy, part intrapersonal suspense, and part allegorical thriller. Think Pilgrim meets the Phantom Tollbooth, but in Purgatory. The premise works well enough - and has since Dante took his journey of redemption - but as in many allegory-esque tales, the tension slips now and again due to the inevitable and somewhat predictable outcome. (But hey, we all knew Dorothy would return from Oz, so this doesn't necessarily mean this type of story can't work.)

Duran is a solid writer (his novel, Resurrection, is published by Charisma House) and the opening hook pulls you in fairly quickly. Our heroine, Eunice, on her way to see her dying mother, winds up in a car accident on a SoCal freeway. She slips into a between-worlds darker dimension (Winterland being the opposite of the Faery's cheerful Summerland) where she must reach her mother before it's too late! (See what I mean about the tension level? At this point I started skimming a bit to get to the action that never quite reaches a climax.)

Along the way, Eunice has to travel through the Swamp of Mlaise and face her family's generational demons of license, legalism, perfectionism, and regret. While not a straight up Everyman tale, the symbolism is fairly transparent. But again, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just a particular style of storytelling, one that I'm not overly fond of. I'd give it a 6 out of 10, but if you like your morality fables spiced up with a bit of suspense, this novella might be right for you. It's competently self-published and at $2 isn't a bad bargain.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

Reason for report:
— Select a reason — Book is or contains spam Book infringes copyright Same content is published elsewhere with different author (for ex., by private-label rights) Duplicate Incomplete work (such as sample or serial) Should be marked adults-only Category is inappropriate Poorly formatted Nudity or other inappropriate content on cover Nudity or other inappropriate visual content in book Inappropriate erotica content Cover image is improper Content is inappropriate Other violation of Terms of Service Other reason not shown above.

Additional details: