Valley of the Damned

About the Book

Valley of the Damned Epic Martial Arts/Allegorical Life Poem

Close ranks and join in Battle Royal far beyond all human sensibilities with Valley of the Damned as the tenacious tome engages the worldwide Forces of Evil for all of humanities sake!

Valley is an action-adventure martial-arts story and is designed as an interactive karate kata, a mirror, a Zen meditative rock garden, a mandala, a guide to the classical Underworld, a strategic soul-map and life-labýrinth in which to see yourself and the "musing's upon" humanity of the great and awesome "Celestial Powers That Be." Pilgrim, if you're going to ride with those three killer-phantoms, best saddle up and strap in, because they are looking for you—! Poem Info:

For millennia, Epic poems have been some of the world's most powerful sources of inspiration, capturing the high essence of gods, heroes, romances, glories, tragedies and monsters. From Homer's Odyssey to The Aeneid, Arthur and Beowulf, and from Gilgamesh to The Mahābhārata and The Divine Comedy, these larger than life tales transcend time, revealing to humanity our innermost secrets, dreams–and nightmares. Conveying a deep sense of the mystical, Epics carry with them a sweeping sense of life in the fullest measure, as men and women of renown stand tall against the backdrop of history and destiny, our present–and future–being firmly rooted in the past . . .

Valhalla! Norse gods, spirits o' war, shades, swordketeering pallorous ghost traces, soulpires, jowling grunting pigmen and slavering wolveweres, spectres, wraiths, banshees and other mind-lacerating night-haunting creatures of untold dread all come together in this Epic action-packed, martial arts adventure never before heard of tale on earth—The Valley of the Damned! In this, the "Forgotten tale that no one knows, except those who enter therein," all are invited to venture into the exotic, serrating, unseen Netherworld of the dead, where fragmented remnants of driven spirits contend with each other for power and control over kingdoms, unspeakable legions of fallen shades, and the most prized possession of all―the immortal human soul!

Ride now with three killer-phantoms on their quest to pursue the vainglorious sneering karate movie superstar Mark Theman for his soul―the despised arrogant human whom all spirits desire to capture for their own sinister purposes! Trail the perpetual teenage Valkyrie Kari, mass-battle artist, known for her mesmerizing psychotically poetic-sword s'kills and who will confront "any and all never odd or even" risks to win. Shadowing her is the jackal-like Angel-Heart, amoral sword-slingin' duelist who always dogs her, never missing an opportunity to exploit and track with Dark Storm, merciless bounty huntress who will stop at nothing in order to seize the power that Theman possesses—his soulish living human aura!

Based upon the works of cinematic masters such as Japanese director Akira Kurosawa (The Seven Samurai, 1954) and Italian director Sergio Leone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 1966), Valley is constructed as a movie. Words, sentences and stanzas function as camera shots for full lucid visual impact, pulling readers in and out of their own self-made focal mindset realizations of delight or horror that can only but belong to their own innermost soul-searching intertwined personal Netherscapes!

From the mortal aspect, what is covered in the Epic is a survey of the modern American martial arts scene. A study of souls in action, readers may recognize that Valley is a social commentary, allowing insight into the deadly, bizarre, icy undercurrents and riptides of the unseen "Martial Art Deadlands"–the Field of Mars–that many trod today, as must the bloody countless who are yet to come. Rich in visual and audio description and replete with scores of villainous and heroic spirits, Valley is an outrageous tale of valor and woe, bravery and cowardice—of damnation and redemption—played out on an immense spiritual killing field where spectral phantoms are tried and tested in the fires of their (and our) own passions. In Valley readers will:

– Enter the grotesque Market of the Soul where long-lost warriors screetch and claw in vain to recapture their former glory!

– Sit with the great Warlords of all climes, times and dimensions and listen to Motion-Effectrix Artifex St. Kari of the Blade, Val-kid extraswordinaire spin inspirangular tales of gallantry as Evil lurks about waiting to devour the unwary—and then follow her into glaringly-beyond hellishly lunacidal pitched battle– Join with Mark Theman, the ruthless, scheming martial arts film star as he desperately attempts to retrieve his long-lost soul before it is hurled headlong into the deepest Abyss of Hell!

– Ensnare doomed pitiful souls with the implacable bounty hunting phasma-revenant Dark Storm in her bid for supreme power over millions and the coveted throne of Asgard!

– Follow the hell-hound packin' cold mercenary Angel-Heart as he, like a goodly razor-sharp Ginsu kitchen knife scrupulously cutting away as seen on eleven o'clock at night TV, slices and dices the damned on his way up to become the top blade in the grisly Mortuus!

Valley is laced with myth/hist notes from the world over. (S)wordplay and inter-twistorted tales chorridor and pierce the Epic. Elusive mind-resonances, shadowy mental focal lengths, pale thought-illusions, intangible swhirling emotion-pools, insubstantial spring-loaded will-traps, graspless snaring barbed-wired realizations, sharp-cornered soul-fading mirages and spiritually bleak sucking quicksands nigh unto dimensions invisi'bled labýrinth readers down into the inner sanctums of her lores; devilering them up to the uncanny, disturbing veiled Nether and the grim, macabre obliquitious secrets she brings to dark! Valley culminates in a superlative modern legend that will stir the imaginations of those hearts who desire a bold, soul-searching undertaking into the rhapsodic core of their own Heavenly stratums or the dankest helks of their own stark raving mad personal Hells!

—Good Luck Hunting!

About the Author

About the werepoet: Douglas M. Laurent, M.A., English, B.A., Film, is a graduate of Northeastern Illinois University and Columbia College, Chicago. According to the Japanese Samurai tradition of "Pen and Sword in Accord," Mr. Laurent combines the old warrior ways with European lores, uniting global warrior cultures and otherworldly themes into a groundbreaking haunting, Dantean-like poem of Epic proportions. Using world-class literature, cinematic camera and screen writing techniques, Laurent welds the finest elements of swordplay, history, myth, art, science and technology into a heroic tale so far-reaching it touches the very vaults of eternity itself as well as the deepest recesses of the human spirit. A highly charged 38-year life study compressed into one powerfully dynamic volume, Valley of the Damned is the avant-garde martial arts poem of this generation.