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shelikesitscary's review
2.0
Book Review
⭐️ ⭐️
Celestial Seepage by Brian Fatah Steel
The first part of this book is REALLY INTERESTING, creepy, intriguing. This story then takes a completely unexpected and bizarre turn. I almost wish it had gone into another direction, and kept with the beginning theme, rather than dive off into a horror/sci-fi type of story. I can’t stress enough how much I enjoyed the beginning of the book. The end result however, was barely decipherable.
Richard and Elizabeth’s relationship could use some fine tuning. It’s a small portion of the story, but since the story and relationships in the story are already confusing, this at least, should be clarified. The relationship is described as one way, and then further into the book, a completely different way.
Portions of the story seem thrown together, and not thought out. Harper and Riley are sometimes mistaken for each other in the story. The characterization needs work, and the characters could be a little more developed.
With a bizarre story like this, I’m willing to be open-minded, but it should be explained better. The monsters/aliens in the story (as well as the three assassins) are so bizarre that I can’t seem to grasp their capabilities or motives. The assassins are made to seem god-like, but also have limitations that aren’t even explained. The powers themselves are so far-fetched, it made me roll my eyes a little. I know it’s a fantasy/sci fi type novel, but it still has to be somewhat believable.
Brief glimmers of amazing writing, giving way to writing that is hard to even follow. If some of the parts were just fine-tuned a bit, and presented in a more concise and thought-out way, it would go a long way.
⭐️ ⭐️
Celestial Seepage by Brian Fatah Steel
The first part of this book is REALLY INTERESTING, creepy, intriguing. This story then takes a completely unexpected and bizarre turn. I almost wish it had gone into another direction, and kept with the beginning theme, rather than dive off into a horror/sci-fi type of story. I can’t stress enough how much I enjoyed the beginning of the book. The end result however, was barely decipherable.
Richard and Elizabeth’s relationship could use some fine tuning. It’s a small portion of the story, but since the story and relationships in the story are already confusing, this at least, should be clarified. The relationship is described as one way, and then further into the book, a completely different way.
Portions of the story seem thrown together, and not thought out. Harper and Riley are sometimes mistaken for each other in the story. The characterization needs work, and the characters could be a little more developed.
With a bizarre story like this, I’m willing to be open-minded, but it should be explained better. The monsters/aliens in the story (as well as the three assassins) are so bizarre that I can’t seem to grasp their capabilities or motives. The assassins are made to seem god-like, but also have limitations that aren’t even explained. The powers themselves are so far-fetched, it made me roll my eyes a little. I know it’s a fantasy/sci fi type novel, but it still has to be somewhat believable.
Brief glimmers of amazing writing, giving way to writing that is hard to even follow. If some of the parts were just fine-tuned a bit, and presented in a more concise and thought-out way, it would go a long way.
curiosityboughtthebook's review against another edition
4.0
I haven’t read a lot of cosmic horror, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Celestial Seepage by Brian Fatah Steele. I went into the book sort of blind, and I immediately liked it. The whole set up of the rundown, old town was great. I loved Harper’s character and all of her newly found friends. There was a lot of action in the story, but also humor and heartfelt moments. Just a really great mix of different elements to piece together a great story.
I wish there was a bit more explanation and backstory on the different characters, but I understood the essence of the book without it. It isn’t very long in itself, at just 180 pages, so I think it could have easily been fleshed out a bit more.
The ending itself was a nice one to read. We don’t get that kind of ending very often in horror, if you know what I mean!
I wish there was a bit more explanation and backstory on the different characters, but I understood the essence of the book without it. It isn’t very long in itself, at just 180 pages, so I think it could have easily been fleshed out a bit more.
The ending itself was a nice one to read. We don’t get that kind of ending very often in horror, if you know what I mean!
errantdreams's review against another edition
4.0
This is the second book I’ve read by Brian Fatah Steele. The first, Hungry Rain, was okay. It lacked in certain areas, but the main of it was interesting enough, and targeted closely enough to the type of story I like to read, that I decided to try another one of his books. Celestial Seepage is definitely a bit better. It’s certainly imaginative!
Harper Llewellyn is a librarian who’s been temporarily assigned to the Historical Society to digitize and catalog all of the Society’s documents. It’s going to be a very long task, made all the harder because the director of the museum, Elizabeth Vickers, doesn’t want her there. Shortly after Harper’s arrival, strange things start to happen, and Miss Vickers starts to go ’round the twist. Harper tries to figure out who approved the project and assigned her to it so she can get out of it, and finds herself dealing with three mysterious figures who run “the Trust,” which seems to have some influence in the town. Augustine is a chaotic, moody artist. Donovan is into technology. Riley is just a college student, but she tells Harper she’ll try to find out what’s going on and get her reassigned. Soon people in the failing town of Ellesmere start dying off, getting stabbed by suddenly-crazed drug dealers or running into traffic, all near the Historical Society. Something’s been trapped under the building for decades, and now it’s getting loose.
This is a fascinating blend of horror with just a smidge of science fiction and a dash of cosmic horror. Two terrible entities, the Motherarium and the Orthodoxant, are determined to be free. And once they’re free, they plan to wipe out every human on the planet by spawning horrific–and hungry–creatures. But they’re not the only alien entities hanging out in Ellesmere–there are others who were sent to stop them from their repeated destruction of “lesser” sentient races. The setup is intriguing.
I really like the characters in this one. The characters were a down-side in Hungry Rain because most of them were stereotypes and you couldn’t really tell who was meant to be the protagonist. In this one, Harper and Riley are the main protagonists. The other characters including Lana (Riley’s girlfriend), Petra (Augustine’s friend-with-benefits), and Sean (Harper’s husband), not to mention Miss Vickers and her semi-suitor Richard, have more interest than did all the side characters in that other book. Even Donovan, who doesn’t get much screen time, has a little bit of backstory that informs his choices.
There are only a few quibbles that I had with this book. There’s one development regarding Harper near the end that I don’t think gets sufficiently explained. And the epilogue to what happens feels a bit like a cheat–it either rang a bit false, or maybe just needed some extra detail, or something. I also felt like the reason Harper’s arrival at the Society triggered the story’s events was insufficiently explained.
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2020/08/review-celestial-seepage-brian-fatah-steele/
Harper Llewellyn is a librarian who’s been temporarily assigned to the Historical Society to digitize and catalog all of the Society’s documents. It’s going to be a very long task, made all the harder because the director of the museum, Elizabeth Vickers, doesn’t want her there. Shortly after Harper’s arrival, strange things start to happen, and Miss Vickers starts to go ’round the twist. Harper tries to figure out who approved the project and assigned her to it so she can get out of it, and finds herself dealing with three mysterious figures who run “the Trust,” which seems to have some influence in the town. Augustine is a chaotic, moody artist. Donovan is into technology. Riley is just a college student, but she tells Harper she’ll try to find out what’s going on and get her reassigned. Soon people in the failing town of Ellesmere start dying off, getting stabbed by suddenly-crazed drug dealers or running into traffic, all near the Historical Society. Something’s been trapped under the building for decades, and now it’s getting loose.
This is a fascinating blend of horror with just a smidge of science fiction and a dash of cosmic horror. Two terrible entities, the Motherarium and the Orthodoxant, are determined to be free. And once they’re free, they plan to wipe out every human on the planet by spawning horrific–and hungry–creatures. But they’re not the only alien entities hanging out in Ellesmere–there are others who were sent to stop them from their repeated destruction of “lesser” sentient races. The setup is intriguing.
I really like the characters in this one. The characters were a down-side in Hungry Rain because most of them were stereotypes and you couldn’t really tell who was meant to be the protagonist. In this one, Harper and Riley are the main protagonists. The other characters including Lana (Riley’s girlfriend), Petra (Augustine’s friend-with-benefits), and Sean (Harper’s husband), not to mention Miss Vickers and her semi-suitor Richard, have more interest than did all the side characters in that other book. Even Donovan, who doesn’t get much screen time, has a little bit of backstory that informs his choices.
There are only a few quibbles that I had with this book. There’s one development regarding Harper near the end that I don’t think gets sufficiently explained. And the epilogue to what happens feels a bit like a cheat–it either rang a bit false, or maybe just needed some extra detail, or something. I also felt like the reason Harper’s arrival at the Society triggered the story’s events was insufficiently explained.
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2020/08/review-celestial-seepage-brian-fatah-steele/
alexanderp's review
3.0
A fun little story in middle of nowhere OH. Maybe I was expecting something more from this book, but as it unfolds there wasn't enough buy in for me.
Steele does a decent job with his character growth and building up a rather dark fantastical foe, but by the end I couldn't care as much for how it all shook out.
Steele does a decent job with his character growth and building up a rather dark fantastical foe, but by the end I couldn't care as much for how it all shook out.
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