This Brilliant Darkness (A Dark Contemporary Fantasy): This Brilliant Darkness

By Red Tash

A brooding monster.  A quirky professor.  A small Indiana town with a soul of its own.

Imagine if the writers of Northern Exposure sat down with Stephen King and decided to craft a dark fantasy thriller starring absent-minded academians, every day goofballs, and a dark fantasy creature for good measure.  Pondering big picture questions like "Why am I here?" and "Does Love Conquer All?" has never been so fun.

That's THIS BRILLIANT DARKNESS, the top-rated dark fantasy debut novel by the author of TROLL OR DERBY, Red Tash. 

Nothing is as it seems to be, and no one behaves in ways characters are "supposed" to act.  How will it end?  It's anyone's guess, in a book that keeps you turning pages, racing to find out what will happen next.

Christine Grace finds her predictable scholarly life comforting, if a bit boring.  Her live-in boyfriend presses her for marriage, but she's too philosophically inclined to take an interest.  So, really, why does she suddenly start imagining things in the window's reflection?  Is time truly starting and stopping all around her, or is she inexplicably cracking up?

Greachin is an age-old being so tortured by his own karmic cycle that he no longer knows how to connect, except to identify potential threats through the cosmic ripples of space.  When he zeroes in on Christine Grace, he experiences second thoughts for the first time in millenia.  Will he go through with his grisly plan of murder and destruction?

And what of these other characters--an aging physicist of ill-repute, a stubborn monk who takes his vow of silence too far, and a time-shifting star visible only from Bloomington?  What a tangled web we weave, when monsters practice to deceive.  Dive into This Brilliant Darkness, and follow the journeys of these characters, from Britain to the Heartland, from January's snowfall to Halloween's costumed festivities.

THIS BRILLIANT DARKNESS is a smart, karmic mystery populated by lovable brainy characters.  Climb on, strap in, and hold tight.

Readers are saying:

"This is a fast-paced, exciting book that keeps you guessing until the very end. With an eclectic cast of characters, time travel and a karmic mystery, how can you go wrong?" ~Zombie Bedtime Stories author Thea Gregory

"By midnight, I had not put the book down, and had no intention of putting it down. At 12:15am, my fourteen-year-old son stumbled out to get a drink of water. "You're still up?" he asked. "Go to bed." I looked up from my Nook, smiled, and said, "Not on your life, dude. Not until this ends." ~Librarian Amy Marshall

"The way the author weaves fantasy, humor, science fiction, and mystery is, for lack of a better word, brilliant. I read the entire thing with admiration/envy, taking notes and thinking 'THIS is how you write a novel.'  Remember when Scream blew the horror world away by actually using technology in a realistic way? Well here's blogging and online forums and long distance cyber friendships, honestly depicting the way we live in the 21st century." ~Poet Christina Grey

AN OFFICIAL JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB MUST READ 

"The atmosphere of this book, so hard to simply label horror or paranormal...how about simply...A GREAT READ, is the true star. Ms. Tash so finely weaves a path of intrigue, terror, humor and suspense, that the reader is taken with each character, so very finely drawn.  THIS BRILLIANT DARKNESS is that rare book that one truly does not want to end!!  When it does...next question is 'What else by Red Tash can I get my hands on? QUICK!!!'"~ Rick Friedman

• Language: English
• Publisher: Flying Birdbath Books
• Release date: Mar 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781497773349

Red Tash

I’m Red Tash. I write dark fantasy.What is dark fantasy? It’s a cocktail of imagery from the most secret places of your mind. It’s scary, at times funny, imaginative, and simultaneously familiar. If you like Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, or Holly Black, you like dark fiction.I have written fiction and poetry as long as I can remember. I hope you like it.

Book preview

For Samuel, Seamus, Sean, GlennaLee, and Timothy, the most brilliant people I know.

And for NLHWCTF, the darkest.

Introduction

Hi.  I'm Red.  Nice to meet you.

You're about to read a novel told from several different viewpoints.  I hope you enjoy that sort of thing.  If you liked Stephen King's The Stand, I'm sure you'll have no trouble keeping up with This Brilliant Darkness.  I put a lot of work into making this a much quicker read.

But just in case you are the type who has trouble keeping track of names, here are a few notes about the characters. Read them now, or jump back to this page if you can't remember who's who.  It's all right here.

Cast of Characters

Christine is a young, well-liked professor at Indiana University, though you would have trouble convincing her of that.  She lives on coffee and zen meditation, adores antiquated technology and her retired greyhound, Sadie.  She loves the feel of a heavy rotary phone receiver in her hand, and the amber glow of an ancient computer monitor.  She doesn't trust her smartphone, the government, God, or her own good judgment.  Socially awkward doesn't begin to describe her.

Tom is Christine's live-in boyfriend, a long-haired carpenter who bikes all over town.  They've been together a few years, and he is very much in love with her.  He's into green fuel, the Doors, tie-dye, and Birkenstocks.  He was someone very special in a past life, but he doesn't know that yet.  He loves hotwings and beer.  He is a Bloomington boy by birth, a townie.

Richard is an eccentric, wounded recluse venturing back into the land of living for the first time in years. He was raised in privilege across the pond by a controlling father.  He was happily married and somewhat normal before his wife's accident.  Bloomington life brings out the best in him.

Greachin.  What can I tell you about Greachin?  Greachin is the dark shadow waiting for you, playing tricks with your mind.  Greachin is reading your thoughts, scanning the universe constantly for predators.  Greachin is broken, damaged, dirty, insane.  Greachin has touched each of the three above, in one life or another.  He is watching Christine, right now.  He has immense power.

Simon is a monk with a dark past and an uncertain future, devoted to prayer and plagued by dreams of people or spirits he's never met.

Dudley is the University President, and an old school friend of Richard's.

Roger is Christine's department chair.

Junie is Christine's Teaching Assistant (TA).

Officer Scott is a friend of Tom's, also a townie.

I refuse to tell you anything about Tristan at this point.  We can talk about that later.  Just email me at [e-mail]

***

Oh, and if you are the type who enjoys maps, there's one posted on http://RedTash.com, my website.  This is a direct link to the map.

Keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle, now.  Enjoy the ride.

RT

Chapter One: Unnatural Selection

Greachin

Sterling blue starlight on a cascade of golden hair. He saw her face, slipping through the passage, and she was gone.

The star pulsated. Radiant blue and platinum light, space more strewn with stars than darkness.  A void in his side.

Greachin saw the woods, cold and waiting, and threw himself into the sickening black dive.

There was no such thing as time—only this instant, and the smell of the woman on the trees, and the darkness. This brilliant darkness.

She was near. She would come. He would not drift far.

Christine.

**

Christine's scent had faded. He had chosen the wrong woods, followed a dead end, but he would use this to his advantage, after all.

By the time the Other came, he was ready.  The girl was perfect—she had a tiny child inside her and she was alone. There was something to her, her smell, perhaps. Perfect.

He watched her through the woods.

The Other neared him. He focused on the rhythm of the child, the tiny heart would go on beating, a terror worse than death.  The heart that would be his own.

**

Alessandra took a job at the paint ball range because that was where her friends worked.  If she'd learned anything in her semester and a half at Indiana University, it was that there was always a party to be had, whether on campus in the dorms, or off, and that party typically followed her friends.  Usually she did not put quite as much effort into trail clean-up as she would today, but the night before there'd been a drunken make-out session with her dorm neighbor and co-worker John, and now she didn't know what to say to him.  She wasn't sure she liked him—and she wasn't sure she didn't.  She'd had a lot more on her mind lately than school and parties.

She was nearly through her morning trail clean-up when the forest leaves picked up and swirled around her. At first it seemed natural—but they built momentum and that seemed creepy. The air around her quieted.  She'd seen trash fly this way in alleyways, but never anything like this in the woods.

Her friends would call her paranoid, but she pulled the walkie-talkie out of her pants pocket. What the hell, I'll just check in. She hit the call button, and the leaves kicked up with intensity. They flew about a foot high in the air now. 

She sensed she was being watched. Looking all around her, she saw only trees, not even a small animal. The walkie-talkie to her mouth, she abandoned her garbage bag and stepped one foot over the leaves as she spoke.

Allie to base, anybody there?

The rhythm bore down on her, like an immense whispering heartbeat. Her walkie-talkie's lights blinked red and green. Maybe her signal was being received, but she heard no response. Straddling the leaf-ring, all she heard was an intense roar.

She tried to run. She would run all the way back to the office and she wouldn't come back out, and to hell with the reason why. She pulled hard, but her feet were stuck. She couldn't move from this spot, and now the leaves were figure-eighting through her legs, and rising. They were up to her waist, and damp forest air rushed all around her.

Only her cotton panties and surplus fatigues stood between this cruel wind and the passage to her baby—her baby. She doubled over, dropping the walkie-talkie and instinctively defending her child.

The leaves rose higher. The wind turned to a shriek.  Alessandra tried with all her determination to run. She managed two steps, feeling like she was tripping through a patch of wet concrete.  Then, the tearing began deep inside. She tried to fight, to stop this thing from happening—but she was falling, and it was too dark to see, and the wind had finally quieted. She was cold. Warm, thick ooze in her fingers and her palms. She couldn't think of that now.

She thought of her mama, imagined her near, and she closed her eyes to sleep.

**

The small human body emerged from a pile of decomposing leaves. From its tiny feet a dime-sized blood clot hung—he would eat it if he could. The fragile form moved slowly, gracefully, with a strength that it shouldn't have possessed. Its delicate arms encircled its torso, combating the cold.

He would need to make the forest canopy by nightfall, would need warmth and shelter. Greachin searched the environment, the baby's tiny eyebuds already interfering with his progress. He located a thick tree trunk as footfalls several yards away reverberated on dual planes.

Someone's coming.

He rose into the air a couple of inches, and moved swiftly behind the trunk. The maneuver exhausted him, but it was necessary to protect the new host.

There were noises, voices, and Greachin saw two humans as he blanketed the area with the weight of his presence. A spring draft chilled his fragile skin, and he leaned on his resources for warmth, drawing on the energy around him. All living things within his aura felt the increase of pressure as his radiation turned on, amplifying this new incarnation.

Miserable, invisible heat. He hated to have to rely on it.

They carried the Other's body away. Their panic stunk, covering the trail of Christine's scent even more. He would need to leave these woods and track her again, as soon as he was able.

Greachin watched them go, the girl's body so lifeless. A twinge of emotion surprised him as he beheld what was left of her.

He didn't know the word pity, not from the inside out. He'd seen it before. Seen its toll.

Blake.

The cold eyes of the killer, her tentacles wrapped in bloody instruments, malice rippling behind a pile of flesh, the cannibal...

It was better this way, his way. Better to be motherless, better to be merciful, better to be...free.

Greachin's energy was fading. There were potential predators in the region, but they needn't know that he was vulnerable. He projected the aura of his future incarnation, dark and black as the heart of death, itself.

Tomorrow, the hunt.

Chapter Two: Tristan the Knight, Away

Christine

Christine knew when she was being watched. Lecturing daily for two hundred fifty undergrads or more, she'd become accustomed to the energy of multiple eyes observing her every move—at least, when they weren't cast down into their own laps, fiddling with smart phones.

She didn't mind the performance aspect of lecturing so much, anymore, but she preferred leaving the feeling of being watched behind her when class was over.  A quick check-in with her TA, and then the long walk home to mentally unwind—maybe an afternoon coffee if she'd missed out on one on the way—this was her afternoon routine, the way she shook off those post-lecture heebie jeebies.

Today as she ambled down the sidewalk, though, she felt different.  She was being observed—and though she looked over her shoulder more than once, no creepy stalker-types revealed themselves.

Someone's following me.  She moved her keys into her fist, aiming the house and car keys outward through her fingers like an improvised set of brass knuckles.  I'll stab his eyes out if anyone grabs me.

Ooga chaka, ooga ooga!  I can't stop this feeling! It's so deep inside-a me! Christine jumped.  The booming voice to her right was coming from a quartet of street people, led by a man with enormous blond dreadlocks.  He spread his arms wide, catching Christine's eye. Girl, you left and took all my money! He gestured at a cardboard box at his feet, and Christine shook her head with a smirk as the beggar pouted and wiped a mock tear from his face.

She crossed the street, headed for an ATM.  She'd take a moment inside the vestibule, where security cameras would film anyone who might be following her with bad intentions.  If no one followed her inside, she'd get some cash for the coffee shop. 

Before she could step fully back onto the sidewalk, a man wearing a red body stocking and a paper maché helmet in the shape of a washing machine clipped in front of her at a jog.

Only in Bloomington.

The last thing she saw before she tripped were the words Laundry Matt stitched on the back of his suit, and then she was flailing, hands reaching out to break her fall. One palm slipped on a Starbucks cup, pressed flat and camouflaged by grime, and she crashed, skinning her chin on the sidewalk.

Fuck!

"Instant Karma's gonna get you! The singer across the street was taunting now. Gonna knock you right on your head! Better get yourself together, sister! He sounded more like a gravel-voiced gospel singer than the Deadhead he resembled. Pretty soon you're gonna be dead!"

His back-up band harmonized and Christine did her best to ignore them as she righted herself, cursing Laundry Matt under her breath.

A soft, familiar voice whispered into her ear.  I've seen his cartoons around campus before, but I had no idea he was such a menace. She hadn't sensed anyone approaching, but before she could turn her head to place the face, strong hands pulled her up swiftly from the concrete.

Tristan. Just thinking his name sounded like a sigh.  Golden blond surfer hair and peacock blue eyes, he glowed from the front row of her Comparative Religions class. He'd found a way to be a part of her schedule for the past three or four semesters, and though he was undoubtedly every co-ed's dream, Christine had been struggling with how to cultivate a professional relationship with him, since she was taken and he seemed determined on being part of her life, regardless.

He jerked her arm back, hard, pulling her toward him. Before she could ask what his problem was, a car rolled up onto the sidewalk, taking out a parking meter and bottoming out on the high curb. Its front left tire stopped exactly where she had been standing. A cascade of quarters poured across the sidewalk from the broken meter.  The motley quartet loped across the street, ready to scoop up the jackpot.

She steadied herself against the wall of the bank. The car was inches from her, would have plowed right through her. Tristan tugged her arm gently, leading her through the heavy glass door of the ATM vestibule. Isolated from the action outside, Christine couldn't take her eyes from the street people scrounging for money and the man whose head was slumped over the steering wheel.

We should make sure he's okay, she said.

He's okay. Tristan smiled, his eyes fixed on the scene.  He had the calm serenity of a California lifeguard watching children splash in the shallowest part of the beach.

The driver climbed out of the car from the passenger side. He staggered to the front bumper, squatted down to scoop up a handful of quarters, then took off down an alley.

Christine laughed. Un-frickin'-believable. She looked at Tristan and then pointedly at the car's front left fender. I guess you saved my life.

Yeah. A little bit. Tristan blushed.

"This doesn't mean you get an A, you know. You've still got a research paper to do."

She turned to the ATM, entered her card and the pin, and then watched the scroungers outside while the machine worked on her transaction. The cadence of the ATM's receipt printer claimed her attention, but the machine had given her no cash. She glanced at the slip of paper, saw an error code, and shoved it into her pocket along with her card.

It's not even my branch, so I can't go in and complain, she said to Tristan.

But Tristan was gone.

That's weird. I didn't hear him leave.

The

Reviews for This Brilliant Darkness (A Dark Contemporary Fantasy)

[lawonder10 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

There are some pieces of abstract art I like but it is something I shy away from. Thus so is this book. I am sorry, but I honestly tried to make sense of it and persevere when I just wanted to "toss it in". I cannot honestly tell you what its purpose was. I couldn't really grasp a plot of any kind. I am not sure if it was time travel, fantasy or just the musings from a bad drug"trip". I used to listen to friends discuss some of their weird experiences when using drugs. I never could understand why someone using drugs would choose that type of a drug. (Of course I never understooddragging oneself down to use drugs in the first place.)Her wording skills were good but they were like many short story thoughts into one book that never really was brought into a solid substance or conclusion.. It was all very depressing and confusing. I truly am sorry. This book was sent with the request for an honest review. Sadly,this is my honest review.

[ravenswoodpublishi-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Unlike Red Tash's other book "Troller Derby" I could not get into "This Brilliant Darkness" I did read it all the way through but I found myself constantly lost between what was happening real-time versus what was happening in the characters minds and I'm not even sure if there was a real-time versus mind-frame aspect to the story. The plot jumps from character to character which is not a bad thing but it did so, so much to the point that I constantly lost my place and was unsure of just where the story was going or what it was about. At first I thought it was about a demon that was stalking one of the main characters and then when you get the chance to see into the demon's mind or creature's mind, it almost seems as though it's an alien of some kind. The fact that the entire story seems to revolve around this star phenomenon makes you want to lean more toward the alien idea but it's still very hard to understand. The story has great potential and the writer shows good command of her craft but I just think the book was too diverse and jumped too much all over the place for me to get completely involved, thus my rating of 3 stars.

[gmtapublishing · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Unlike Red Tash's other book "Troller Derby" I could not get into "This Brilliant Darkness" I did read it all the way through but I found myself constantly lost between what was happening real-time versus what was happening in the characters minds and I'm not even sure if there was a real-time versus mind-frame aspect to the story. The plot jumps from character to character which is not a bad thing but it did so, so much to the point that I constantly lost my place and was unsure of just where the story was going or what it was about. At first I thought it was about a demon that was stalking one of the main characters and then when you get the chance to see into the demon's mind or creature's mind, it almost seems as though it's an alien of some kind. The fact that the entire story seems to revolve around this star phenomenon makes you want to lean more toward the alien idea but it's still very hard to understand. The story has great potential and the writer shows good command of her craft but I just think the book was too diverse and jumped too much all over the place for me to get completely involved, thus my rating of 3 stars.

[allizabeth · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Description: Bloomington Indiana. Home to a couple thousand college students - and to the Greachin, a dark creature bent on stalking and destroying university professor, Christine Grace. Christine isn't herself. Her mind wanders, she suffers from hallucinations and blackouts, strange messages and thoughts plague her, and she has an eerie suspicion that someone - or something - is watching her. Her boyfriend, Tom, and coworker, Richard are stumped, but her strange attitude paired with the appearance of a constantly shining star over the town lead the three to believe there has to be more to the seemingly unconnected events; especially when they all become targets of the Greachin's unholy power. Can they find their connection to the beast before it succeeds in destroying all that they care about? Are there others willing to fight? Or was their fate sealed centuries before they were born?Review: I was really excited when I first picked up this book because the author, Red Tash, compared it to Stephen King's The Stand, one of my favorites. I have always been a fan of multi-viewpoint novels, so that aspect didn't scare me away, but the "dark urban fantasy" tag left me uneasy. I have read too many books in the fantasy genre that didn't live up to my expectations, so I wasn't sure what to expect from This Brilliant Darkness. I am glad that I didn't let that deter my attentions, because this book is fantastically well-written, fast-paced, detailed, and full of sinuously dark curves. I was thoroughly drawn to the characters, including the Greachin, unwilling to put down the book for fear that I would destroy the building tension. Each cleverly-titled chapter led me deeper and deeper into Christine's new reality. The character development was top notch, enabling me to sympathize with the characters; and their relationships/personalities were strikingly realistic. I enjoyed reading about Christine's relationship with Tom, Richard, and Tristan from each of their perspectives. Red Tash has a way of making her characters stand out when it's their turn to speak; the viewpoint changes were not choppy, and I did not find the change-overs at all confusing. In the like, the dialogue was smart, modern, and engaging, with a good overall flow. I would not change anything about it, except the ending - I wish there was more to it, but maybe there's more to come? I hope so. Recommended to college-age adults and older who relish a great fantasy/horror novel that will leave them craving more.Rating: On the Run (4/5)* I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

[katdjz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a difficult review for me to write because I think that this was a good book, but I didn't really like it. The story was interesting and something different, and the writing was good, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. I liked that the story moved along quickly and that the chapters were short. That kept me reading and made it easy to pick up and read when I had a few minutes here and there. I didn't really care for the changing points of view, but that's common in books and just a personal preference of mine. I think that the changing points of view combined with the short chapters made it hard to really connect with any of the characters, but not enough to cause a major problem. Also, I both liked and disliked how I was never really sure what was happening or where the story was going. I felt as confused and off-balance as Christine did as all the weird things were happening, So basically, I think this book is worth a read and I think that others will enjoy and appreciate it more than I did.

[doskoipanda · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Red Tash's The Brilliant Darkness is a dark fantasy involving a young college professor, Christine, her circle of friends and colleagues, and a genuinely weird antagonist named Greachin. Set in Bloomington, Indiana, during a peculiar stellar event, the Stella Mirabilis, the story unfolds first with a murder, then with a series of increasingly weird and frightening events centered around Christine. There are heavy dabs of both Christian religion and Buddhism scattered throughout, themes of reincarnation/rebirth, karma, and touches of Greek mythology. Nods are also made towards science fiction with the weird "star", time travel, references to "Star Trails" and its star Captain Kurt, played by Bill Schakler, etc. This Brilliant Darkness has interesting ideas on various religions, and individual people or observations are well described, giving little islands of coherency and humour. The setting is described fairly well, and the author has supplied a map on her website, should you feel the need to confirm locations of various events. Clever double meanings in some of the jokes (e.g., the campus clock time), and other touches of humour were also used well throughout. A few of the shifting perspectives were well done in terms of character voice; you knew who they were through the writing rather than a direct signal.And now the bad: This Brilliant Darkness is written somewhat disjointedly - it was confusing and hard to follow. While reading it, I felt that there was very little to indicate the passage of time in the story, which added to the confusion. Characters felt unfulfilled/deflated, particularly where there was a sense of importance attached to them. (Kind of like riding to the top of the hill on a rollercoaster, hearing the clicks and the groans of the climb, then stopping at the precipice and having to take a service elevator down.) Rather a lot of referencing in such a short book (.epub edition is around 200 pages) almost to the point of it being a game, which detracted from the story. I also had trouble believing the descriptions of Christine's campus life and her work (or rather the lack thereof) as a professor.This was similar to putting together a jigsaw puzzle without all the pieces; it starts off as an interesting puzzle, but winds up being frustrating, leaving you without any payoff. It may work better combined with its sequel or subsequent volumes, for now it just doesn't feel like a complete, stand-alone work.Overall: 2.5 or 3 starsReview copy supplied by the author as part of LibraryThing's Member Giveaway program.

[redtash · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is my first book. What did I think? I think writing it was one of the hardest things I've ever done, but I hope it's a fun read. If you have any questions, get in touch.

[demonite93 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was a little confusing at first with the author using so many viewpoints one right after the other. There was a warning at the beginning of the book which I’m glad for because I think I would’ve gotten lost if I wasn’t expecting it. Once the story gets going it was much easier to distinguish between the numerous characters. I generally liked the book and thought the characters were well planned and defined in the writing. The only issue I have is the lack of back story on Greachin and the Star. I’m hoping that there is a follow up book to help explain all that. Otherwise I love the characters in all their wackiness and hope to hear more from the author.