Last year when I went to a book signing for Dead Souls, I got to sit down in the book store coffee shop and speak with Michael Laimo for a few minutes before the signing started. We talked about his past works and what was working on next. He mentioned that he was working on his next novel, one that he was really proud of and thought it to be his greatest work to date. He never told me what it was about or the title, but said that he did a lot of research to get the book finished and was getting all the right pieces together before he turned it into his publisher. That book he spoke of was Fires Rising.
Fires Rising is a story about good vs. evil. In the beginning of the book we are given a back story about two key items that come into play in the book; both items are concealed in a crate. It’s to be buried under a new church that is being built. However this crate won’t say sealed long. Almost one hundred years later the church has made it’s run and is falling apart. Unable to keep the church going, Father Pilazzo must wait for it to be renovated in hopes that it one day will be restored to it’s old self. Construction workers have moved in and have started ripping up the floors of the church’s wreck room. Father Pilazzo goes off and joins another congregation while the church is being worked on. All the while a group of homeless men have invaded the church and are using the bedrooms and faculties to shelter themselves from the outside world. One of the men, who goes by the name of Jyro notices that something odd is going on in the church and wonders why the construction workers are just working on one room in the church and have never ventured upstairs to kick them out of the place. One night Jyro goes to investigate and finds out that not everything in the church is as it seems. While snooping around he runs into an alter boy named Timmy, whom came back to the church to clean out his locker.Unable to leave the church Jyro, Timmy and the rest of the vagrants soon realize that something is not right in the church and odd things begin to happen. Something from the pit from which the crate has been hidden all these years has been unleashed. Meanwhile outside the city is going mad, and father Pilazzo is caught in the middle of it. He now must find his way back to the church to join forces with Jyro, Timmy and the others to stop the evil that is rearing it’s ulgy head and preparing to take down all that is good.
Fires Rising is not a long book, its only two hundred and sixty two pages long and it’s a pretty quick read. What I really like about the book is that the story is simple, but is told in extreme detail. Laimo wrote this book very tightly. The story does not drag off in to crazy subplots or anything , it gets right to the point, but at the same time we’re treated to plenty of good suspenseful scares. Laimo’s writing at times in this book reminds me a lot of Clive Barkers earlier work with a mix of Lovecraft. The details in which he uses to describe the monsters and the likes in this book just really made my imagination run wild with images of terror and mayhem. It’s a story that both spiritually and mentally will creep you out. It also has a Lord of the Rings fellowship like feel to it with it’s characters. The overall characters in this book a very well written and each and everyone of them has a unique story to tell about the type of people they are and what their lives have been like.
With many short stories to his name a few novels under his belt, Laimo has proven himself as one of horror’s top talents. Fires Rising is just another example of the great reads that Michael Laimo has given us in the past few years. It’s a book that shows us a basic story of good vs. evil, and the effects that both god and mankind have on the world. A true apocalyptic tale of terror and mayhem. Laimo is a writer that never disappoints. And now I can’t wait to Return to the Darkness….
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
