Horror Book Review: A Town Called Discovery by R.R. Haywood

A Town Called Discovery is a fast moving, mind bending novel by acclaimed author, R.R. Haywood, released independently on the 9th of April this year.

R.R. Haywood was born in Birmingham, UK though has spent most of his life living on the South coast. He is self described as a “beard-keeping, caffeine befuddled, dog owning writer”. R.R. Haywood is one of the UK’s most prolific writers and has had over a million downloads of his books. A phenomenal stat, especially in this age of market saturation. Some of those books include his popular The Undead series and his Extracted series. The latter which has been put forward as an option to convert to television series by a large LA based media company, such is it’s impact.

Despite all this fame and glory, I must admit that A Town Called Discovery is my first experience of his stories. Despite only coming out in April though, I have heard nothing but great things and have been eager to get stuck in.

A man falls from the sky. He has no name. He has no sense of self.
What lies ahead are a series of tests. Each more brutal than the last, and if he gets through them all, he might just reach A Town Called Discovery.

A Town Called Discovery has one of the most exciting, intriguing and full on starts to a book that I have ever read. Its also a little confusing but in the “my mind is blown, what the hell is going on” excitement sort of way. A girl named Roshi sprints towards a door. She is exhausted and running out of steam as vicious dogs gain on her with every staggering step. She enters the door to a familiar face looking down on her who simply states, “Welcome to Discovery”. We leave Roshi behind and jump into the story of an unnamed man, falling from the sky towards an ocean. He doesn’t know who he is. He assumes he is dreaming until he hits the water and feels his bones smash and he drowns.

Then he is falling again. So he dies again and this repeats over and over and over with the only change being the appearance of a young girl, mocking him from a boat as he repeatedly dies and resets. Over numerous deaths, the unknown faller slowly starts to heed the simple advice given by the young girl.

“Try Not Dying!”

He tries to slow his descent. He dies. So, tries to turn his fall into a dive. He dies but bit by bit, he comes closer to survival until he finally manages to dive into the water with a slow enough descent that he can swim back up to the surface before drowning. He hangs on to the boat, catching a glimpse of it’s name. Discovery.

The girl is gone and our unnamed victim makes it to a beach. He is naked, the rocks cut his feet and in front of him is a sheer cliff wall. As he ponders this predicament, a huge wave tears through the beach, crushing him and killing him. He is back on the beach. He tries climbing the cliff face but falls and breaks his leg. The girl appears, mocking him as the wave follows crushing him once again. And so it repeats, as our victim dies over and over again, struggling to make it up the cliff but making more progress each time.  Then, when he finally makes it to the top, she chops his head off with an axe. Then, next time chops his dick off.

Yep, she went there! He tries to run when he finally reaches the top. She throws the axe in his back. He begs, he pleads and she kills him time and time again.

But he improves and eventually gets away from her, running which soon turns to terrified sprinting as the dogs get closer and closer, eventually ripping him to shreds as his naked body cowers on the floor. He is back at the top of the cliff. He runs. Fails. Runs again and improves. And so the trials continue as our unnamed battler gets killed more and more viciously in trial after trial. Yes, he resets but only by having to bear immense pain and suffering first. Never mind the continuous torture at the hands of the young girl, who turns out to be called Roshi. The trials get harder and more sickening but he improves as he nears the end, and the beginning. The entrance and acceptance into A Town Called Discovery.

A place where he finds he is not alone in facing these trials and, as horrific as they were, they were designed to prepare him for the real trials that are about to begin. Trials that will not only determine if he stays alive, but that also must succeed to guide humanity away from their approaching demise.

There is so much I want to write here but I need to be restrained. This book needs to be read and enjoyed, not spoiled by an over detailed review. A Town Called Discovery is absolutely relentless in it’s pace and should be a real thrill for any fan of horror and science fiction. The characters are great and while there is little to no development of them via their past, it doesn’t matter as they can’t remember it anyway. Instead the characters are developed through their trials as they are forged painfully into what they will become in order to save us all. Fast, frenetic and exhilarating, A Town Called Discovery will leave you breathless from the first page and doesn’t let up.

A Town Called Discovery is an exciting story mixing horror elements, science fiction and action into a singular tale that moves at breakneck speed. With likeable characters, a twisting plot and danger around every corner, it is a genuine page turner. One that you shouldn’t start reading too late at night as you’re going to really struggle to put it down.

A Town Called Discovery is available from Amazon by following the link.

R.R. Haywood Links

Website – On Amazon – Facebook – Good Reads – Twitter