The Last Church [Paperback]

New Zealand horror writer Lee Pletzers' The Last Church does the job of a good horror novel (or, I suppose, any novel): it keeps you turning the pages, wanting to know what happens next, and hoping that at least some of the characters - not to mention the world - will make it out alive at the end of the story.

And the fate of the world is very much at stake. I don't want to give too much away, so let's just say that there's a man with a plan for the future of the world which isn't what most of us would wish for; that this man has, or embodies, demonic assistance; and that a diverse coalition of characters with less power but equal determination come together to stop him -- or, at least, to try.

Along the way, quite a lot of the characters meet gruesome fates. And some of them are very gruesome: The Last Church doesn't stint on sex, violence, and in some cases sexual violence. You have been warned.

It took me a while to get into the story. There is a large cast of characters to start with - before the main villain and his henchpeople start to whittle them down -- and the story jumps between several time periods. I had trouble keep track of everything and everyone for about the first quarter of the novel. Also off-putting were quite a few proofreading and grammatical errors: mostly minor things, like missing apostrophes, but until I got into the flow of the story I found these distracting. I know only too well how hard it is to eliminate all such errors, but another proofreading run would benefit future printings of the novel.

As I read, I wasn't always convinced that characters' motivations for their actions were sufficiently well established. The principal villain is a nasty piece of work, but he has a goal, and his actions are consistent with that goal. On the other hand, to my eyes at least, the behaviour of his "dream woman" and subsequent consort seems inconsistent; or, put another way, I didn't feel I had a clear enough understanding of her character, so that her actions sometimes seemed arbitrary rather than well-founded.

But it would be a mistake to dwell on the negatives. The Last Church is scary, gruesome at times, and increasingly gripping as it approaches its climax. If you like horror with a side order of apocalypse, The Last Church is worth a visit.

Reviewer: Tim Jones

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Peter Clement is an antique dealer who doesn't really know his own merchandise and who is slowly going out of business in the township of Opera Sands. As luck would have it Peter is introduced to an arcane book by "The Meph-Man" that allows all his wishes to come true, so long as he pledges his soul to Satan and provides a steady stream of sacrifices. No such thing as a free lunch folks. Apparently you get twenty odd years to make the most of things before the next book recipient shows up.

In the year 2368 life has changed for the inhabitants of New Zealand. They live under a dome, have their every whim satisfied by Star Trek like technology, and thankfully no longer have a Crusaders rugby team blighting their lives. Outside the dome the environment is polluted and cannot sustain life but this doesn't stop Rachel and a group of fellow Archaeology students from venturing into the wilderness in search of the past. They certain do stumble upon times gone by past and in the process unleash an ancient evil, no not the Crusader rugby team.

With war bearing down on them, the citizens of the dome doing their best crazies impersonation, can a ragtag group stop the rise of Satan as chaos descends on the last church?

Horror meets Science Fiction, let's beam on in and check it out.

Review

"He came to help a woman not in distress" - Samantha

It's taken us about a year but finally we got round to a full length commercial horror novel from a Kiwi Writer. Either we suck (that's a distinct possibility) or your kiwi horror novel is few and far between. Considering the vast majority of New Zealand literature is of the dark variety the possibility does exist that there's not that much room for horror fiction of course. Let's crack into it folks, and hey a year old where's the cake man.

Lee Pletzers' novel bounces between two time frames, the near future and the distant future, before the final block of The Last Church settles into the distant future in a sort of apocalyptic vision that George A Romero would have been happy with. You get full disclosure of the background mythology leading into the main conflict of the novel, and have all the leading characters in place. Pletzers manages to hit this one out of the ballpark without raising a sweat, the framework of the novel is rock solid with all the screws having been tightened and the rough edges sanded off. The Last Church is a well polished novel, though there's a few spots the Editor missed.

There's a lot to like about this novel, dark genre fans are in for a treat. Dig on in kids!

One of the requirements of writing future based fiction, besides keeping the geeks and Crusader supporters happy, is creating a believable world that is not only credible in a technology sense but that also has its citizens interacting in believable situations. Pletzers nails it, the characters living under the dome read as perfectly believable and dependant on the technology that dominates their lives. It's quite the achievement to pull off this sort of stuff, particularly when your target readers are more likely to inhabit the dark woods of horror than the silver towers of Science Fiction.

The horror elements are of course what we are dialling in for and in the final wash up are what are going to make or break The Final Church. Get this aspect wrong and readers are not likely to take up a pew. Pletzers is once again on his game here and I was grooving to the dark delicacies he delivers throughout the novel. Be warned, the Author might venture into psychological territory but Pletzers also gets down on the slaughter house floor and wallows in the blood and gore. We're not talking a prim and proper parlour room read here, Lee Pletzers can write hard core with the best of them. Proviso here of course is that the big Kiwi Writer isn't simply hammering the reader over the head with this element, it all fits into the context of The Final Church like a psycho's hand on a kitchen knife.

About the only issue I had with The Final Church was with the conclusion, it reads as slightly rushed. After ploughing through 300 odd solid pages of prose the resolution comes hot and fast in a sort of maelstrom of ideas and images that forces the reader to pull up to the curb and read more carefully. It's almost as if Pletzers had a word limit, page limit, or heck decided he needed to get out of the manuscript before it consumed him totally. This isn't a criticism that applies to Lee Pletzers only, read Stephen King's The Shining for the same sort of fast fire, shoot from the hip, conclusion. Maybe it's a legitimate writing style, and yes I'm getting the idea of fast paced, but it throws this reader off. End of day this is only of minor inconvenience and doesn't distract from overall enjoyment of The Last Church as a novel and a world to escape to.

Naturally there's a final scene that leaves room for a sequel sometime in the future, or perhaps just to leave the reader with the feeling that evil is never truly defeated. If there are any movie makers reading my suggestion would be to grab the film rights and hit up Lee Pletzers to write the next book, we could be talking a major franchise here. Hey the pitch is Blade Runner meets Hellraiser, let's do lunch.

Lee Pletzers' writing style is easy to get down and funky with. The paragraphs flow naturally without misplaced words or other hindrances to the reader getting immersed in the world of the novel. To coin an often abused term, The Last Church is a page turner that will drag you into reading the book far into the night. Like Stephen King and Brett McBean, Lee Pletzers has a naturalistic style that makes for an easy read and instant gratification for the constant reader. The ideal book to either tuck yourself up in bed with or to consume on long train journeys, you can devour The Last Church at whatever pace suits you as the reader.

Like most naturalistic writers, and the vast majority of great dark genre Authors fall into this category, Lee Pletzers isn't presenting a multi tiered and theme rich ride for the day labourers at the English department of your local University. Pletzers hits the single most important requirement of a horror novel, an actual story people want to read, without feeling the need to make comment on the human condition or explore how many angels can dance on the head of a metaphysical needle no one is overly interested in.

I had a heck of a time with The Final Church and rampaged down it's aisles at a fairly rapid pace without much sidetracking me from reaching the next chapter, checking the time, then saying to hell with it and continuing reading. Due to the requirements of actually reviewing the novel, the downside of all this, I was on occasion forced to re-read chapters the next day rather than rushing on to find out how it would all turn out on the final page. Definitely one of the best horror novels I've read this year, I'm going to put it aside and have another romp through its dark fields later in the year when I don't have to worry about writing a review.

The Final Church is available online from all good bookstores folks. I scored my copy from fishpond.com.au but was slightly irked by their delayed delivery date. If you don't have the book in stock then tell me as I can hit it via another retailer.

ScaryMinds Rates this read as ...
Lee Pletzers has delivered a solid horror novel that proves to be a page turner.

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Lee Pletzers novel 'The Last Church' is a fine balance of just enough horror to satisfy those who love a bit of gore, and not too much to scare off those who don't. Add in a realistic future setting, and a twist I have not seen before on the Devil's attempts to lure man to his side and you will find a fast paced novel that keeps you wanting to read on. You will also find an interesting array of characters who interplay nicely, coming together in an ending that was both satisfying and unexpected. Lee certainly knows how to spin a good yarn.

Reviewer: Cassie Hart

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I am not a horror person. I prefer not to read anything that will scare me so much I can't sleep, but I do enjoy a good thriller, and Lee Pletzers is New Zealand's answer to Dean Koontz, Stephen King and however else you can think of out there. The Last Church is a Horror story combined with a liberal dose of Science Fiction which creates a story that is exciting, chilling and surreal all at the same time. This man can tell a story that packs a punch and keeps you reading until you get to the last page. So what is the story? The Last Church revolves around a man with a lot of power, who seems to be able to get anything he wants, and he does, all because of the power of one book. But this man wants more power and he transcends time to make sure he gets it. Mixed into the story are several other characters and their stories that ultimately come together, rather intricately and without losing the main focus of the story. In fact they add to it, rather than detract from it. The ultimate solution to the problem, an amazing ending that has you thinking for hours. With a fast pace, Lee tells a story and keeps you reading, wanting to know more, learn more, read more until you get to the end and want more.

reviewer: Karen Johnson Mead

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The Last Church takes the reader into a world where Peter Clement, a failing businessman, is about to lose everything his father worked his whole life for. His life, in his estimation, has been a complete failure, everything he tries fails until he comes across a book in the antique shop his father left him. He learns all of his dreams can come true, but as with any promise of that magnitude there is a price, the price is blood, A price he is more than willing to pay. Once the contract is signed everything he touches is golden,and although the book states that after twenty years the book must be passed on to another he finds a loophole in the contract and intends to become the devil himself.

With Christianity failing and the church itself dying out, only the last member of the Order of the Black Snake, an organization who has fought against the holders of this book, is left to fight against Clements will.

Pletzers does a masterful job of asking the reader to suspend their disbelief and takes them on a wild ride in which World War IV is about to erupt and Peter holds all of hell in the hilt of his dagger and intends to release it upon the earth.
This is a must read for anyone who loves horror, science fiction, or religious style fiction as it crosses all genres, but does so with style, leaving the reader blazing through the pages and wanting more.