Jacob Tate's Max Cutter and The First Black Book was published in April 2014.
Information about Jacob Tate:
Jacob Tate is a paranormal, mystery, horror and fantasy writer currently residing in Lebanon, OH. His passion includes gore, monsters, decapitations and other typically funny things similar to these. His first book of the Max Cutter series is available now on Kindle/Amazon. The second book in the series will be available in the Fall of 2014.
The Max Cutter series is written with a humorous style to accompany the horror and supernatural components, and it revolves around a fun loving and sarcastic central character. Max is often thrust into extremely dangerous situations and symbolizes being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He counters the awkwardness of facing monsters, ghosts, demons and potential death through a wry and catching wit.
A child of the 80's, Jacob infuses his work with a number of movie, cartoon and TV references that date back to Star Wars and work their way up until present day.
Information about Max Cutter and The First Black Book:
Max Cutter is one of the world's most influential supernatural and paranormal experts. The bulk of his time is spent traveling across the globe in search of video and image evidence of myths, legends, ghosts and demons. Using his print magazine and website, Supernatural Pudding, to publish his exclusive findings, Max has developed a dedicated fan base that spans six continents and hundreds of countries. Over the years, Max's perilous encounters have included run-ins with goblins, zombies, and aliens, to name just a few. But when an entrepreneur and his daughter from Wales contact Max to ask him to help retrieve The First Black Book, a timeless text whose words hold incredible power, Max finds himself thrust into the middle of a deadly war between an ancient evil and a handful of warriors of good.
Filled with traditional horror, supernatural monsters and tons of adult humor as seen through Max's eyes, The First Black Book sets the stage for an exciting new series that anyone with a taste for Sci-Fi, horror, paranormal monsters or an occasional 80's joke will love.
A REVIEW OF JACOB TATE'S MAX CUTTER AND THE FIRST BLACK BOOK
Max Cutter and The First Black Book is Jacob Tate's debut novel. It's the first part of the Max Cutter series, which follows the paranormal investigations of Max Cutter. This novel was a pleasant surprise for me, because it turned out to be very entertaining.
Before I write more about this novel, I have to mention that I'm difficult to please when it comes to modern urban fantasy, because I consider modern urban fantasy to be the bane of speculative fiction. In my opinion there are way too many urban fantasy novels out there on the market nowadays and most of them tend to recycle to same plots over and over again without any kind of style and originality. There are fortunately a few good urban fantasy novels and series, but it isn't easy to find them among the bad ones. Max Cutter and The First Black Book is fortunately one of the good urban fantasy novels, because it's an entertaining and easily likeable novel.
Max Cutter and The First Black Book is an interesting combination of urban fantasy and dark fantasy, because it contains elements of both genres. Jacob Tate has combined these elements together and produced a highly entertaining and fast-paced story that will please fans of fast-paced action and adventure stories. I never would've guessed that somebody could write as entertaining a story about these elements as Jacob Tate, because it's difficult to mix these two genres in a successful way.
I mention separately that there are also traces of occult horror in this novel. In my opinion the occult horror is strongly connected to the dark fantasy elements. The First Black Book, which is an important part of the storyline, represents the occult horror element in this novel.
Jacob Tate has his own distinct writing style, which is good. The most significant difference between Jacob Tate and other urban fantasy authors is that Jacob Tate uses plenty of humour in his novel and dares to use 80's references etc.
Here's a bit of information about the story:
At the beginning of the novel, Max is investigating weird sightings on a Greek island and finds himself in trouble. When he returns home, Don King asks for Max's help, because something important has been stolen from him. Don's family has guarded The First Black Book, which contains information about supernatural things and lycanthropy. In wrong hands the book could cause problems for mankind, so Don asks Max to get the book back before anything bad happens. When Max begins to investigate the theft, he notices that things aren't as simple as they appeared to be. Soon he finds himself in the middle of a war between good and evil...
Jacob Tate has an intriguing way of writing about Max. He reveals bits and pieces of his life and work as the story begins to move forward. During the first chapters the readers get to know who Max is and what kind of work he does. The author does an excellent job of creating a character who's a bit eccentric and who's deeply interested in paranormal phenomena.
Max Cutter is an interesting character, because he's a paranormal investigator who's not afraid to get himself into trouble. He's an expert on all things paranormal and knows a lot about paranormal phenomena. Max has investigated everything from aliens to different legends. Reading about his life and investigations is fun, because he has an unending supply of humorous and witty comments. If I had to describe Max in a simple way, I'd say that he's almost like a nerdy and geeky Indiana Jones.
Max owns and manages a website and blog dedicated to supernatural things. He also owns a monthly periodical that publishes articles, photos, interviews etc that are linked to supernatural things. Both the website and the magazine are called Supernatural Pudding.
I was impressed by the author's way of using funny, sarcastic and witty humour in the storyline. Max's comments about many things were genuinely funny and insightful. It's good that the author has used plenty of humour, because it adds quite a lot of style to the story.
There are nice references to popular culture throughout the novel. I think that many readers who are familiar with popular culture will find themselves smiling (and at times laughing out loud) when they begin to read this novel, because the author uses popular culture references in a good way. As a Finn I must mention that it was interesting that Rare Exports was mentioned in this novel.
There are also other intriguing details in this novel. For example, it was interesting to read about The Ancient World War. I'm not going to reveal more information about this war, but I'll say that reading about it was fun.
I think that Max Cutter and The First Black Book will be of interest to everybody who has ever watched and liked such TV series as Kolchack: The Night Stalker and The X-Files, because there are similarities between these TV shows and this novel. This novel may also appeal to readers who enjoy watching other similar kind of TV series (Supernatural, Grimm etc).
I noticed that there wasn't much depth in this novel, but the lack of depth didn't bother me at all. The author exhibited a genuine enthusiasm towards his story, so I couldn't help but like the story. I think that many readers will notice that the author seems to love storytelling, because he fluently drives the story forward and keeps the action going strong.
In my opinion Jacob Tate is a talented indie author. I look forward to reading the second novel, because it'll be interesting to see what happens next to Max and what kind of touble he gets into while investigating new paranormal phenomena. I have a feeling that the sequel will be an even better and more enjoyable novel that this one.
Max Cutter and The First Black Book is a fast-paced novel with plenty of humour and witty comments and references to popular culture. It's a fast read and it offers lots of fun for readers who are interested in humorous urban fantasy novels and adventure stories. I can recommend this novel to everybody who enjoyes reading urban fantasy and fast-paced stories.
I give this novel strong four stars, because it's a good and a bit different kind of an urban fantasy novel. It was nice to read this novel, because it differed from other similar novels (the author had managed to create a thrilling story that kept me glued to the novel).
My final words are: Max Cutter and The First Black Book is an excellent, fast-paced and action-packed novel!