Paperback, 269 pages
English language
Published by Independently published.
Twenty years ago, monsters rose on earth and began a new age of civilization.
One where humans live in military-controlled, cramped and dirty cities along the coasts, and the majority of the United States is known as the Wastes. A lawless, desolate and dangerous place, teeming with monsters that have claimed the land for their own.
Including Wyn the Soul Eater.
He appears every three years, making his way across the country and slaughtering humans randomly, sucking them dry until they’re nothing but husks.
I’ve only been in the military for six months, but now I’m part of a unit tasked with trying to stop and capture him. And when I’m the only soldier out of hundreds that the Soul Eater leaves alive, I realise that… something about me has intrigued him.
But what is it? What could a twenty-three year old guy from the south, with no one and …
Twenty years ago, monsters rose on earth and began a new age of civilization.
One where humans live in military-controlled, cramped and dirty cities along the coasts, and the majority of the United States is known as the Wastes. A lawless, desolate and dangerous place, teeming with monsters that have claimed the land for their own.
Including Wyn the Soul Eater.
He appears every three years, making his way across the country and slaughtering humans randomly, sucking them dry until they’re nothing but husks.
I’ve only been in the military for six months, but now I’m part of a unit tasked with trying to stop and capture him. And when I’m the only soldier out of hundreds that the Soul Eater leaves alive, I realise that… something about me has intrigued him.
But what is it? What could a twenty-three year old guy from the south, with no one and nothing in the world, have possibly done to capture the attention of a death monster with horns, blackened fingertips and a face hidden in the dark depths of his hood?
Soul Eater is the debut novel of Lily Mayne. It is the first in a planned post-apocalyptic fantasy series featuring monsters and human men falling in love. Warning: This m/m love story contains explicit content and is not suitable for young readers. There are also graphic depictions of torture and violence. Revised and extended: August 2021
I have read this book twice AND a few of Lily Mayne's short stories for the characters. I actually have bookmarked some of my favorite parts of the story to reread them. The characters rock and the plot is interesting. I enjoyed it the whole way through. If you like post-apocalyptic stories and/or are a monster "lover" then read it.
Okay, so I don't exactly fit the target audience. That doesn't necessarily disqualify me from reading it and truth be told, I was pretty decently entertained...
But, while being fun to read, a couple of things annoyed me so much that I almost threw it out the window (which would have been mind-numbingly dumb, it being an e-book). First, it is lazy. The surroundings are described incongruously as first barren, then overgrown fields. Everybody's moved to coastal cities, leaving the interiors - yet these interiors (The Waste) still have water and electricity. Even if the military would keep infrastructure active, they certainly wouldn't have kept it up in every nook and cranny like this. Come one! It doesn't take that much work to build tension without resorting to showers and cold shaves (and trust me, there is nothing remotely erotic about the rashes from a cold shave). This leads to …
Okay, so I don't exactly fit the target audience. That doesn't necessarily disqualify me from reading it and truth be told, I was pretty decently entertained...
But, while being fun to read, a couple of things annoyed me so much that I almost threw it out the window (which would have been mind-numbingly dumb, it being an e-book). First, it is lazy. The surroundings are described incongruously as first barren, then overgrown fields. Everybody's moved to coastal cities, leaving the interiors - yet these interiors (The Waste) still have water and electricity. Even if the military would keep infrastructure active, they certainly wouldn't have kept it up in every nook and cranny like this. Come one! It doesn't take that much work to build tension without resorting to showers and cold shaves (and trust me, there is nothing remotely erotic about the rashes from a cold shave). This leads to the second let-down: Considering that the protagonist is a virgin with a serious mother complex, he has a strangely retro-pornographic vocabulary and very quickly acts accordingly. A little bit of, ahem, restraint would have strengthened the tension even further and made the sex considerably more believable. There are a few other annoying tidbits, but they could just as well be artefacts from the two above and would probably not have mattered had it been any other book.
