Joseph Nassise Books

All I can say is WOW! When does the next one come out? When will they make the movie?? Buckle up and get comfortable, you are in for a heck of a ride!
Happy reading!

Some people think it all started with "The Da Vinci Code." Not true. For years, historical novels and conspiracy theories have been bedfellows in the realm of fiction. The Knights Templar have been a subject of debate for nearly a millenium, and no one has a corner on this market.

Joseph Nassise mixes elements of Stephen Lawhead's "The Iron Lance" and James Byron Huggins' "Cain," and gives us a superna tural thriller laced with history, fantasy, and horror. Though his writing is descriptive, it never bogs down, and instead leads us on a fast-paced journey into modern Templars and a battle over a holy relic. Cade Williams is the Commander of Echo Team, a group committed to secrecy in their work for the Vatican. Cade, though, is a man wrestling with his own faith after his wife's passing. His exploits are legendary, but his methods unorthodox. He's a great lead for a series such as the Templar Chronicles. His partners are stereotypical, yet functional, sidekicks.

There's not much that's new here, yet the blend of old standbys gives "Heretic" a second wind. This is straight-ahead, no-frills, lots-of-fun, storytelling. The superna tural elements are vivid, sometimes horrific, and memorable. Even as "Heretic" deals with issues of faith, it never allows those questions to derail it from entertaining and from churning the plot toward a pyrotechnic conclusion. Thankfully, some loose ends are left open for a sequel. I, for one, would jump in line for such a book.

In HERETIC: THE TEMPLAR CHRONICLES, Cade Williams is a modern-day Templar Knight who has a terrible wound in his heart, a wound that can never heal, one that torments his every waking and sleeping hour. This wound, however, has also empowered Cade to fight evil like no other knight before him, gifting him with a rare talent for recognizing the powers of darkness and black magic that threaten not only the church, but also the world. The Vatican, recognizing Cade's unusual skills, assigns him commander of the church's special operations division, which battles the arcane forces of darkness.

When someone or something starts desecrating the Templar cemeteries, and the Vatican's Templeton Commandery in Cincinnati is attacked, killing many of the Knights Templar, Cade begins to suspect that a very powerful and ancient necromancer from out of his past might be the force behind both the desecrations and the attack. As Cade sees it there is only one necromancer in the world who would commit such evils, be so brazen as to attack the Commandery itself -- the very same necromancer who wounded Cade's soul those many years ago, and stole from him his very reason for living. However, the necromancer now has a new campaign, the theft of a holy relic hidden somewhere in the deep repositories of the Vatican's enclave, a relic that will impart to him limitless supernatural power over both the living and the dead once he takes possession of it.

It is up to Cade and his team of Knights to cross the very boundaries between life and death to defeat the necromancer and his army of the undead; to plow under the necromancer's corruption, which has reigned unchallenged since Cade's last encounter with him.

But Cade also has a secret agenda, which is to inflict his own brand of revenge on the necromancer, and take back from hell the life that was stolen from him.

If you enjoy swords-and-sorcery adventure with zombies and apparitions, this action-packed novel of good versus evil, written in third person omniscient narrative, will not disappoint. Joseph Nassise is a very capable writer who has invented a brooding but sympathetic hero in Cade Williams, the protagonist in HERETIC, which is the first novel in Mr. Nassise's supernatural horror series, THE TEMPLAR CHRONICLES.

I read Joseph Nassise's Riverwatch and liked it when the book first came out four years ago. It had an innovative twist on an old theme and I had some hopes for the author. I'm not quite sure where he went, but Nassise stopped as quickly as hi started. When I found that he had finally released another book, I snapped it up and found that the author had changed his style considerably over the years, but that he could still write an interesting story.

Something is eating the modern Knights Templar, one commandery at a time. They have survived vindictive suppression by the Catholic Church, remaining hidden until modern times when they reunited with the church and become the militant arm of the church's defense against evil. Now, something that comes in the night can breach the defenses of a stronghold and entirely destroy the entire garrison, almost as if they were completely helpless. The remains left behind are badly mauled, clawed, and bitten. Something is playing for keeps.

It was time to bring in Cade Williams and his troops. Cade is the kind of Templar who scares other Templars. He is violent, secretive, and pursuing a vengeance all his own. Badly scarred with an encounter with a demon, he recovered to discover the he had hidden talents - he could see the past of any object on touching it - whether he wanted to or not. And he can cross to the other side of reality. Now he has to find who is destroying the commanderies and why. And then put a stop to it while there are still Templars left in the US.

What he finds is a nest of necromancers, allied with the same demon that murdered his wife and destroyed his face. He calls it The Adversary, and all he seeks is its destruction. They are hunting relics, sacred objects that will let them conquer the world. If Cade doesn't find the key to the puzzle the world will be enslaved. This task may be too hard for Cade Williams and his small army of loyal knights.

As you can tell this is something of a potboiler of a novel. Something is always going on whether it is supernatural or military action. With guns blazing and spells going off you can imagine that character development isn't a strong point. But since this is to become a series, Nassise has the time to make Cade into something more than a killing machine over time. This is a good start, and it will be fun to see where it goes.

If I could give this a zero, I would. Bad enough that the author rips off Katherine Kurtz's much better Adept series and combines it with a bunch of characters straight out of a Rambo movie. If he'd turned it into his own thing, that would have been fine. But he didn't. Instead, we get a mishmash of medieval Templar and modern military hierarchy that makes no sense ("Sergeants" in the Templar Rule were distinct from "Knights" and therefore, the rank of "Knight Sergeant" is an oxymoron). We also get the same tired old plotline of the Templars fighting the good fight against slavering, one-dimensional occult forces that are about as frightening as a Care Bear. The author tells us that Cade loved his wife and is a good Templar knight (apparently, Nassise tossed the original Templar vow of chastity right out the window). Yet, we see Cade break the Templar Rule right and left: killing a Christian in the very first scene, disobeying orders, leaving quarters without permission, mouthing off to his superiors, all things that would have got a medieval Templar expelled from the Order. He mopes about his wife, but we never really see what made the two of them so happy together in the first place. We're constantly beaten over the head with what a great hero and leader Cade is, yet what we get is your garden-variety, jerk-off "maverick" who treats his men like crap. It makes them look stupid and didn't make me care about any of them. The only vaguely interesting character, Duncan, has an ability that he never uses for reasons that he never explains. So, why introduce it in Book One in the first place? Yes, that's right, folks--this is part one of a series. You don't even get a complete story for your seven bucks and change.

A few scenes show potential--particularly the interrogation of the Revenant, Stone's death and Cade and Duncan's travel through the Limbo place. Gabbi's helping Cade from beyond the grave, though way to deus-ex-machinaey, does raise some intriguing possibilities with an otherwise cannon-fodder character. Unfortunately, the author torpedoes all possible mood or momentum with some truly godawful writing--passive verbs, single-sentence paragraphs, incomplete sentences, important scenes (like Stone's death) told at a distance in flashback. You name it; each page is full of it. Whoever edited this book was asleep at the switch.

It's a shame, because I really like the idea of Templar fiction and always hope to see more on the market. Unfortunately, the reality too often consists of bad research and bad writing that is so derivative of other stories that it takes all of the fun out of it. Give this one a miss; read Kurtz instead. She delivers.

This is player's guide to the Role Playing Game The Seventh Seal is an invaluable resource to players and game masters alike. It reveals three new archangels that the player characters can owe allegiance to; it gives insight into the creation of realistic, round characters, and it fleshes out the background of the Seventh Seal world.

The one drawback is that much of the material in the book might have been better suited to a Game Master's Guide. Some of the revelations in this book could unbalance the game, or give away secrets better kept for the GM only.

This is an outstanding book, and is a must for any fan of The Seventh Seal. But, GM's be warned: take a look at this book before your players do.

While the Joe Nassise stories ranged from so-so to great, every single story from Drew Williams was a winner.

Williams displays an impressive variety of terror in this collection of short stories. Stories about two-headed chickens, a drive-in movie theatre that just won't die, a freaky video store, the end of the world, a freelance writer who...whoops, well I don't wanna spoil that one, succubi, and more!

His style is perfect, he has the gift of being a natural storyteller coupled with the insights and knowledge of the genre, which puts him in the tier of the elite. Always a pleasure to read his work!

Joe Nassise came up with a few hum-dingers as well, like the awsome "CARRION MAN," but I found the dialouge in some of his pieces to be a bit corny, and some of the stories a bit contrived. Still, worth reading.

Overall, I highly reccomend that all horror fans check out Drew Williams' work. I have not met one person familiar with his work who has not spoken as highly of it as I am now.

Semi-complaint: There were more than several typos throughout (mostly in Nassise's stories)which doesn't usually bother me, but when it is a rather short book, I expect better editing than this. But that is nit-picking. This is a keeper.

When a colleague of Jake Caruso's construction team acts on his greed and foolishness, by breaking and entering a chamber in a secret underground tunnel, he inadvertently unleashes a fear-craving, bloodlusting and predatory species known as a Nightshade. It is soon after the release of this that terror and pain and fear and death befriends the people of the, once peaceful, Harring Falls . . .

Night by torturous night, the body count increases and it is up to a few human beings to put a stop to the beast of darkness.

In the one corner, we have Jake Caruso; a construction worker; Samuel Travers, a fantasy writer and a worker at a nursing home, where one of his patients and a dear friend isn't who he appears to be. Hmmm? There's Katelynn Riley, a university student doing a thesis on the rich and powerful Blake family, yet her focus is mainly on a figure by the name of Sebastian Blake who mysteriously disappeared in the early 1760's and , finally, there's Damon Wilson, a police sheriff who is baffled - and haunted - by the gruesome corpses he sees as he strives to make sense of his once in a lifetime investigation.

And in the other corner, we have the Nightshade whose name is Moloch. It is, in e v e r y sense of the word, a beast. Its fast, it can fly, it takes orgasmic pleasure in killing, it's senses are far more superior than ours, and it has a few supernatural powers - including, by the way, the gift of regeneration!

The humans vs. The Nightshade.

How will our species (hell yeah, it's personal!!) compete against an intelligent, fear-inducing and , ultimately, pain-inflicting creature?

Fellow horror readers, theres a reason why Joseph Nassise's Riverwatch was nominated for the International Horror Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement in a First Novel for 2001 and ALSO for the 2001 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Fisrt Novel. Riverwatch will have - AND KEEP - you hooked from the very first sentence. Don't let this opportunity miss you.

For the first time out of the gates, Riverwatch was brilliant.

The mind play in the book is what made it most chilling for me. I thought the plot was excellent. I loved the Biblical references (whether intended or not). They added a silent layer to the story that was captivating.

I appreciated the characters doing the right thing despite the circumstances they were up against.

I've read the negative reviews on here and challenge those who didn't like Riverwatch to do better. ;) Send me a note when you've got it done!

I am not easily scared. Riverwatch had me afraid to walk to the bathroom and I did NOT want to look or go outside.

I'm looking forward to Heretic!!

I'm scanning over the first couple of pages of my paperback copy of Riverwatch, and I'm reading these positive reviews by authors and newspapers, and I'm thinking...there must have been some mistake by the publishing house, and the reviews of RiverDANCE got mixed in w/ the reviews of Riverwatch, and being that I find Riverdance insufferable, I can safely say that Riverdance is "Nasty, vicious, and perhaps most insidious of all, seductive" (to quote the blurb on the cover by the Midwest Book Review), in comparison to Riverwatch. I would rather watch a five hour documentary about Michael Flatley's toe fungus than watch a 90 minute film adaptation of this book. There HAS to be a mistake w/ all these positive reviews...

Why is it so bad? Well, it isn't so much bad as it is groaningly repetitive and unoriginal. I guess a bad book is one w/ plotholes the size of a galaxy, nonexistent climaxes, and childish grammar mistakes. This isn't bad that way, this is bad as in you've read every single sentence that is in this book before in some other book. Every piece of dialogue is lifted from an 80s horror flick or one of the bad episodes of the X-Files, like "Let's end this" or "Die, damn you, die!" Oddly enough I was yelling the same thing, but I was yelling it at the nondescript, everyman characters, who you WANT to see get eaten. These are nobodies, distinguished only by their job or their pets or the timing of their bravery. The italicized POV thoughts of the characters merely repeat what was narrated before, or they are stupid and generic thoughts that no one thinks in a flight or fight situation. The author does the incredible job of creating lowest-common denominator characters who are also paradoxically distant from the audience due to the cliched and "all-too-aware-that-its-a-horror-book" narration. Was this book meant for teenagers? Only people younger than 15 could find anything fresh in this book, yet its too gory and potty-mouthed for kids. A previous reviewer says that you'll groan alot reading this book. That's an understatement. You'll groan more often than a cow giving birth to octuplets in a 48 hour labor. This book just reads like a rough draft, no tightening of the narrative, no specification of the characters, no ding-dong on the cliche-o-meter that forces the author to brainstorm a different scenario or conversation between his characters.

The speculative fiction concepts are a cross between Lovecraft and Graham Hancock, with no new spin. The old good race, conveniently humanoid, that helped man build the Pyramids, vs. the old evil race, conveniently demonic, who eat people. Conveniently, only one of each race remains. Because of course, a story about two frozen-in-time antediluvian warring races being reawakened by mankind, and the two ancient forces renew their epic battle over the earth, indifferent to the destruction they rue upon modern civilization, w/ mankind having to defend its own existence to either the indifferent "angels" or ravenously hostile "demons", that's too ambitious and it's not cliched enough. Read Mountains of Madness instead of this. Moloch's a pretty nasty deity, to whom the Canaanites sacrificed their children in burnt offerings. Child sacrifice is what makes the beast so scary and horrifying--this is gutted early in the novel.

I can only recommend this book to two people, 1.) people who have been in a coma for 70 years, and have not read H.P. Lovecraft or seen a single movie ever and 2.) parents who have proto-goth teenagers who want to be "kewl" and hip to their teen's interests while encouraging them to read, so you get them a horror book that is rated R, but lacks the depth and storytelling of a Harry Potter book.

I won't go into too much depth here, as I'm sure it would only lead to spoilers. Not that it would matter much. You already know everything there is to know about this book as you've read it before. You know what the characters are going to do and what they'll say. You'll know who will die within the first 50 pages.

Expect to groan a great deal. Expect to groan more often than you flip pages as the story goes on. Expect to know the outcome of the action very quickly. Expect to know the full backstory before you read it. Don't expect outstanding writing skills, as writing takes an absolute backseat to simple action narrative.

Least of all, don't expect any maturity over time in the characters, don't expect any intelligence in them, and don't expect to relate to more than their hobbies. As a matter of fact, you might not even be able to tell one from another based on personality, as they say the same things. The only real difference is the backstory.

Do yourself a favor, track down a copy of Michael Talbot's The Bog, from the 80s. The story is almost exactly the same, only the care given to the changes in the characters sets it far above this novel.

Jake Caruso is a contractor commissioned to restore the old Blake family mansion, Stonemoor, to its previous state of grandeur. However, when his team discovers a huge tombstone-like block guarding the entrance to an underground passage, all construction inevitably ceases for the time being. When a disgruntled employee decides to break into the underground chamber in hopes of finding treasure hidden within, he unwittingly unleashes terror upon the town of Harrington Falls, and meets his own demise. Shortly thereafter, several barbarous murders take place. An evil plagues the small mountain community, and no one is safe.

Sam Travers writes role-playing games and works nights at the local nursing home, where he has befriended a resident named Gabriel. During Sam's long graveyard shifts, Gabriel entertains him by telling him stories of times long since past. Stories of "the Age of Creation," before primitive hominids had evolved into humans, and when two ancient races known as the Elders and the Na' Karat, or Nightshades, ruled the Earth.

Katelynn Riley is a graduate student working to complete her thesis for her sociology degree and is thus delving deep into the town's past. A past that she discovers has more to it than meets the eye. Furthermore, Kate wears around her neck a red stone that was given to her by Jake. A stone that he found deep within the underground passage at Stonemoor. Ever since she has worn the stone she has experienced terrible nightmares in which she can see through the eyes of a ravenous beast, as though she is indeed the beast herself.

Is there more substance to what Gabriel has been telling Sam than mere amusing fictional tales? Is there more to Gabriel himself? How does Kate's stone provide some unseen link between herself and the unleashed creature? Will these three friends be able to combine their knowledge and willpower to defeat the awakened Nightshade, Moloch, before they lose their own lives and the lives of others? Will they even be able to overcome the doubts their more rational mind inflicts upon them?

This is an outstanding debut novel! Joseph Nasisse does a great job of combining a little bit of fantasy with all the cliched elements of horror that fans of the genre know and love, and he adds some twists and turns so that the reader doesn't get bored along the way. The characters are very well developed, and the plot is spellbinding and cohesive. I loved how all of the characters were flawed in some way, making them innately human and three-dimensional.

Though this book didn't keep me up at night, scared to turn out the lights, it did have some intense moments that were somewhat frightening. There is some gore, but that is kept to a minimum. My biggest complaint is that the story line surrounding the Blake family was underdeveloped. Furthermore, expect a few editing errors sprinkled throughout the novel. However, neither detracts from the plot.

This should be a must-read for horror fans! Joseph Nasisse is a welcomed new voice in the horror genre, and I definitely look forward to picking up whatever novels he produces in the future, as his talent and skills should only be fine-tuned from here.