Review: Rather Average Lovecraftian Tale
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 1, 2014
2 AND 1/2 STARSDead Five's Pass by relative newcomer Colin F. Barnes is a fast paced, generally entertaining read.  And while it was competently written, the story, unfortunately felt recycled and added nothing new to the Cthulhu-style mythos.  Once the premise is set, anyone who has read this type of Lovecraft homage before, will find the story fairly bland and the by-the-numbers encounters and battles rather pedestrian.The two main protagonists are somewhat interesting because of the their troubled history, but the remaining characters feel too clichéd.  My only other big problem with this story is the lack of real atmosphere.  The author's narrative is very matter-of-fact and rarely blends his prose with descriptions of any of the five senses that the makes an encounter with the Old Ones so special.  Another disappointment was the number of typos my Kindle version had.  I was surprised at this, considering Darkfuse usually distributes a thoroughly professional product.  A decent read if you are unfamiliar with Lovecraft worlds, but skip it otherwise.