Download to your Nook (eBook) Amazon Barnes & Noble.com cwholcomb.com Category:  Science Fiction Publisher: PublishAmerica ISBN-10:  1606104942 Type: Fiction Pages: 174 Copyright: Nov 22, 2008 ISBN-13: 9781606104941 Dark Moon is the story of Raziel, an ancient Werewolf that emerges from the shadows after centuries to help the surviving soldiers of a brutal alien attack the only way he can, by turning them! Dark Moon is a Scifi suspense thriller about a time in the near future when creatures from ancient legends emerge from hiding to help the surviving humans fight sinister alien invaders who have begun a ground invasion of New York City and cut down all in their path with lethal energy weapons. The story centers heavily on Raziel, the last remaining Werewolf as he is forced to begin turning the human soldiers that fall in battle in order to save their lives and rekindles his kind after centuries of near extinction.      The storyline follows his ancient mind back, to bittersweet memories of his distant youth more than a thousand years before, where he had met his counterpart and soulmate Lupea, a Pure Born Werewolf like himself that he had lost to the savagery of the Wars of the Moon. As he turns an elite squad of soldiers, one by one into newborn Werewolves, his memories of her are rekindled and he is forced to feel the loss of her all over again.    Excerpt Raziel looked around the crowded shelter, noticing the crying children and their panicking mothers. His half human soul went out to the men in the shelter, fathers all, who had such frustrated and hopeless looks on their faces. They wanted to save their families, they just didn’t know how. Every man, woman and child there knew that the aliens were coming and that they had no concept of mercy. The distant explosions were getting less frequent, meaning that the far more advanced ship hovering over the center of the city was annihilating the Army, Navy and Air force. Raziel shook his head at the feeling of utter hopelessness that hung over the room, deciding to get some sleep while things were still quiet and fell into a deep dream, in which the image of an alien column marching towards them filled his minds eye. He was startled awake by the sound of women and children screaming in terror. “They’re here!” He thought in rising fear for the helpless people in the room. What the aliens saw when they entered the shelter, was a large group of horrified humans all huddled together in the far corner of the room and a tall red haired man standing, strangely apart from the others. The alien column then proceeded to blast out the ceiling lights, effectively spreading even more panic among the cluster of humanity. Before forming a line facing the crowd with their light guns aimed and ready to fire. It was then that the aliens noticed the tall red haired man walking slowly, confidently towards them. The aliens hesitated a moment, confused by such a bold fearless move, before opening fire with electric blue beams of light, which burst out the man’s back. The crowd watched in horror as he fell steaming to the ground, the aliens stepping over his limp body as they advanced toward the terror-stricken people, preparing to fire. The eyes of the people in the crowd suddenly grew wide, this time with shock as they stared past the aliens to something even more terrifying behind them. There was a deep, bone-rattling growl as a hulking werewolf rose to his full height of eight feet behind them, flexing his massive six hundred pound body: his glowing orange eyes glaring down at the aliens. There was a collective gasp among the crowd as the creature suddenly grabbed two of the aliens, lifting them effortlessly into the air before snapping their necks with his clawed thumbs. The pure born werewolf and last of his kind then proceed to tear the aliens limb from limb with a deafening roar. Far more quickly than any of the watching people would have thought possible, the alien column was reduced to several mutilated corpses splayed out on the floor, which was soaked with green alien blood. The giant werewolf was just finishing off one of the aliens, viciously crushing its neck to green pulp with his massive jaws, when the two remaining aliens opened fire with their light guns: the beams catching the beast in his abdomen eliciting a pain filled snarl. The massive werewolf stumbled to his knees, lowering his shaggy head in pain, before rising to his feet with a roar of defiance, the large burn holes in his abdomen rapidly healing closed as he stalked toward the last two aliens in long, ground-covering strides. One of the aliens fired another shot, this time into the werewolf’s chest, which slowed him down, but nothing more as he surged forward single-mindedly. The other alien, seeing the blasts having little effect on the seemingly unkillable creature, adjusted its light gun to target the werewolf’s head. Just as the creature was preparing to jump out of the way, one of the men in the watching crowd leaped on the alien’s back with a hate-filled scream, stabbing it in its neck repeatedly with a small pocket knife. This gave the werewolf the opportunity it needed to cover the rest of the distance between himself and the aliens in a single leap, landing in front of the aliens with a crash, before lunging at the alien on the right while the one on the left fell to its knees weakly as the screaming man sawed into its neck with his knife. The battle ended with the sickening sound of the werewolf biting off the other alien’s head, spitting it out in apparent disgust. The man stopped screaming as the alien he was stabbing finally died, the werewolf rising to his feet with what looked like a nod of respect to the heaving wild eyed man, noticing that he too was covered in the aliens green blood. Two women in the back of the stunned crowd fainted as the rest of the people broke out in cheers and laughter; downright giddy to be alive. The giant creature watched, his glowing orange eyes filled with amusement as the crowd of humans rushed forward, picking up the man that had killed the alien and putting him on their collective shoulders with carefree laughter. The werewolf could feel the people’s adoration and see the gratitude in their eyes. One little girl, looking to be about five or six years old broke out of her mothers grasp and ran to the giant beast, hugging his massive leg affectionately, saying in an innocent child’s voice. “Thank you for saving us, magic wolf man.” The massive beast reached down and picked up the small child, even as the child’s mother screamed out in fear for her baby. It was then that the most amazing thing the assembled people had ever seen, happened. The sound of the little girl’s giggles filled the room as the giant werewolf nuzzled her with his cold wet nose, the whiskers tickling her little face. The room erupted in relieved laughter as the beast gently put down the child; his glowing orange eyes locked on the mother’s smiling tear streaked face. The massive creature nodded once to the crowd before jumping through the en- trance and disappearing from view. Looking back on that night years later, the people in the room that night would wonder at the strange behavior of the werewolf, so uncharacteristic of the legendary monsters. They would realize as well, that it wasn’t even a full moon that night. Instead, in fact, it was a new moon that night.

Characters that Reach out to Readers
Review by M.N. Prather.

How would you live if you lived for eternity? In the first of his series, C.W. Holcomb explores those questions with his main character, Raziel, in Dark Moon: Book One of the Brotherhood of the Moon: Something out of Legend. Holcomb does a masterful job of blending fantasy with science fiction, all the while maintaining a very familiar and human thread in his tale. In the immortal, Raziel, readers will come to see some of themselves, that no matter how much time we have, we all tend to have the same emotions, worries and cares. Although many of written immortal characters from werewolf to vampire, often the characters become too stilted and fake. Holcomb manages to infuse his immortal characters with unique and compelling characteristics that will appeal even to readers who traditionally skip such tales. As this first book comes to an end, readers will rejoice that there are books that follow in the series.