Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: Famine
SERIES: The Four Horsemen #3
AUTHOR: T. A. Chase
LENGTH: 166 Pages
BLURB:
Saving a dying man might be just what Famine, the Black Horseman, needs to feed his starving heart.
Having been sacrificed by his village shaman, Famine knows what it’s like to do anything to survive. He wanders the world, sowing drought and starvation in his wake. Yet he hates being the Black Horseman more than anything in the world, except the man who ended his life all those centuries ago. Famine never stops doing his job, and never allows himself to fall in love.
Ekundayo wants a better life for himself, so he steals a diamond from the mine where he works. Nothing goes well for him after that, and he finds himself dying in the desert on his way to the border. When he’s rescued by Famine, Ekundayo isn’t sure if his luck has changed or not. The longer he stays in Famine’s company, the more Ekundayo discovers he just might be falling in love with Famine.
One bad choice on Ekundayo’s part and a future together seems out of reach. Will Famine let his only possibility of love go or will he defy Death himself to keep Ekundayo?
REVIEW:
Today I’m bringing you my review of the next installment in The Four Horsemen series from T. A. Chase. I’m not sure if it is because this installment was set in Africa, so had less cultural inconsistencies that I would notice, or if it is because this was edited better than the first two in the series, but I found myself liking this one a little more than the first two.
In this, the third installment in the series, we focus on Famine. In the beginning of the story, a young man named Kibwe is sacrificed to the Gods to bring rain. The only problem with the scenario? The man who orders his sacrifice is the very man who has been training him to take his place eventually as the village shaman. The elder shaman is jealous of the boy’s power, so he convinces the village to stake him down on a hill top and sacrifice him. To make sure he dies, the elder also viciously knifes him in the side.
When the young man awakens, he finds he has become Famine, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. For the next thousand plus years he wanders the Earth, salting the ground and causing famine and drought leading to the deaths of untold thousands or even millions of humans.
Then one day he finds another young man, who is trapped in the desert. This young man, Ekundayo, has run away from a diamond mine, where as an employee he had been treated as little more than a slave. Underfed and given little water, his plight was hopeless. To save himself, he stole an uncarved diamond from the mine and ran into the desert, where he fell into the ravine and trapped his arm. Luckily someone hears his faint cries for help. Or will it be lucky, since the one who found him is Famine?
I enjoyed the back and forth distrust between Ekundayo and Famine. Even once Ekundayo accidently drops one drop of Famine’s salt on the island that they have been staying on and it begins to kill everything on the island, Ekundayo still does not quite believe Famine’s story.
When Ekundayo returns to civilization, against Famine’s advice, to sell the uncarved diamond and runs into very bad men, can Famine, with the help of Death, save him?
While this one still had some inconsistencies and a few minor issues here and there in editing, overall it was better than the previous two. I again didn’t like the harping on condom usage. This series is about immortal beings that can’t get, or give, any human diseases. Enough already with the preaching about condoms. Even with my 30 plus years involved with the HIV field, I still found it to be too much. Frankly, it sounded quite a bit preachy.
I’m rating this one as “Liked it / Above Average”. I think the series is headed in the right direction, and I can’t wait for Death’s story next!
RATING: 
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