Old Story, New Setting, Different Ending

 

Recently, I created a trailer for Tony-Paul de Vissage's re-issue of his novel Dark God Descending.  Here's the trailer and here's his blog on the subject:

Two men…separated by thousands of years, cultures, and customs…and in love with the same woman…

All grad student James Tucker Upchurch wanted was to earn summer credit on an archaeological dig to Central America…and to marry his fiancée, Shannon.  All Semris wanted was to escape the monotony of a millennia-old life, and the burdens being a demon king, and the son of the Mayan God of Death, have placed upon him.

Tuck never expected to lose his girl to a demon nor to be given immortality, and Semris never thought he’d experience mortal love, but when the current world meets a more ancient one, everything and everyone they know will be changed. 

Forever.

Dark God Descending is a vampire romance but it's one, I hope, with an enjoyable twist.  It's also a story of friendship--between two men, separated by millennia:  Tucker Upchurch, an archaeology student from the University of Georgia, and Semris, a Mayan god-king already several thousand years old.

Tuck and Semris meet when the student accompanies his professor to Yucatan on the trail of an ancient bat god.  Instead of finding a stone statue, however, they find a living being in an extant Mayan city in the middle of the jungle, and as usual when modern civilisation intrudes into the past, disaster results.  Tuck's professor is without scruples if it will enhance his own reputation, and this is an opportunity he can't turn down.  He and his men steal the city's most prize possession--its Emperor, Semris.

Drugged and caged, Semris is guarded by Tuck who soon develops an emotional bond with his captive charge.  The two men communicate through an archaic form of Spanish, and Tuck learns that Semris is the son of Yum Cimil, the Mayan god of death, and is, in the eyes of the civilised world, a vampire.  Tuck gives his blood to keep his friend alive, and when the opportunity arises, he helps the emperor-god escape.

Before he manages to once again return to the city in the jungle, Semris will learn of human love and sacrifice, and will suffer an all too-human grief.  Tuck will lose the one person he's loved all his life but will gain something more precious in Semris' friendship, and be blessed with near-immortality.  Everyone they touch on the journey back to Yucatan will be changed forever.  And the punishment to the villain is both fitting as well as ironic.

I think it’s a good story!   I hope my readers agree. I know the critics have:

  

I highly recommend this out-of-the-ordinary novel to readers of paranormal romance.

--Fallen Angel Reviews

From its startling opening to its final showdown in the jungle, readers of modern fantasy won’t want to skip a word.

--Tony Richards, Stoker Award nominee,  Author of the Raine’s Landing series

Dark God Descending is a unique, stay-up-all-night read. It simply fascinates from beginning to end, and, when it ends, it’ll leave you hungry for more.

--Margaret Marr, nightsandweekends.com

Dark God Descending reads like a classic Indiana Jones adventure with a dark and bloody spin,

--Nerine Dorman, House of Toad

Dark God Descending is being re-issued by Class Act Books, www.classactbooks.com