In this speculative fiction, a large group of unrelated people wake to find that
they have been abducted from normal life and set in a strange LABYRINTH OF
STONE. We join them ten years on as basic tech has been redeveloped and a
society established. The world is full of
dangers, but at least people don't starve anymore.
There's a strange pinnacle over the land, called Reach's
Keep, and this convinces Captain Teller that the labyrinth was
built by aliens. Teller is a soldier and as he
reports to his superior, Kearney, on a failed scouting
expedition, he's also aware of personal tensions. Kearney
is keen on discipline and loyalty, but he takes male lovers
from within the ranks, which undermines those strengths.
Teller's straight, but on the other hand, there aren't many
available women. Then mutated people start to invade the
area they call home, and relationship tangles are forgotten
in the scramble to stay alive and repel the mutants.
To me, the mutants are zombies by another name; they are
people who ate the indigenous life of this world and became
changed into ghastly, deteriorating subhumans. Why is all
this happening? Is it some alien lab experiment? The people
haven't found out in ten years but we can certainly join
them in speculating. While this is a vigorous male
romance, there are some well-written women, from Helen the
home-maker doing her best to feed a family, to Raggett the
soldier doing her duty.
Certain aspects of the tale are unpleasant from more than a
horror point of view. For example, a village of slaughtered mutant
people is described as 'pacified'. We mainly
follow the military types as they try to find and recover
some of their own people from the LABYRINTH OF STONE. Tammy
Moore has written a strong story among desperate men, and I
am sure that the eerie setting will provide plenty more
material. This hard-hitting male romance is best for adult
readers who don't mind reading zombie stories.
Ten years ago the Black Rapture transported thousands of
people, seemingly at random, from Earth to the strange,
inimical world they call the Labyrinth. Will Teller was one
of them. Surviving that meant joining an army and becoming
better at killing than he's comfortable with. It's enough
upheaval for anyone's life. The only problem is, apparently
no one told his commanding officer that.
Pride, and heart, stung by abandonment, the icily controlled
General Nathan Kearney has decided that Teller can either
find the wayward lover, or he can take his place in Nathan's
bed. That's pretty good motivation for a straight guy, only
thing is - Teller's sexuality seems to have gone a bit
Magic-8 Ball on that issue. Suddenly Nathan's starting to
look pretty good, and the only question is whether or not
Teller wants to be the consolation prize?
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