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Agent Orange #2
Reincursion
In 1996, the undead killer known as Agent Orange escaped the confines of the walled-off town of Morgan for what became known as the Sandalwood Slaughter. In response, the government evacuated Sandalwood and expanded the wall around it. Access to the so-called Kill Zone is forbidden...but not impossible
THE BODY COUNT CONTINUES...
Twenty years later, Prowlers like Evan guide small groups into the mysterious territory. He agrees to take a fellow Sandalwood exile back to their lost home, but they won't be alone for long. Five college students are also attempting a dangerous challenge known as the Gauntlet. When their paths cross with a desperate group exploiting Morgan's unnatural phenomena for a miracle cure, all their objectives will become the same: Survive the inhuman slayer always on the hunt for heads to mount in his domain.
Six years after Reincarnage comes the standalone, hyperviolent follow-up from Ryan Harding(Genital Grinder, Pandemonium, The Night Stockers) and Jason Taverner (The Dunbar Effect). Greater suspense, higher stakes, and a massive gore quotient befitting the trap-and-kill mayhem of the newest slasher icon.
He knows they're inside, there's nowhere he won't find them, and there's no death that would pass with an R rating. The only way to exit is going piece by piece...
REINCURSION
THE BODY COUNT CONTINUES...
Twenty years later, Prowlers like Evan guide small groups into the mysterious territory. He agrees to take a fellow Sandalwood exile back to their lost home, but they won't be alone for long. Five college students are also attempting a dangerous challenge known as the Gauntlet. When their paths cross with a desperate group exploiting Morgan's unnatural phenomena for a miracle cure, all their objectives will become the same: Survive the inhuman slayer always on the hunt for heads to mount in his domain.
Six years after Reincarnage comes the standalone, hyperviolent follow-up from Ryan Harding(Genital Grinder, Pandemonium, The Night Stockers) and Jason Taverner (The Dunbar Effect). Greater suspense, higher stakes, and a massive gore quotient befitting the trap-and-kill mayhem of the newest slasher icon.
He knows they're inside, there's nowhere he won't find them, and there's no death that would pass with an R rating. The only way to exit is going piece by piece...
REINCURSION
- GenresHorrorSplatterpunk
326 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 24, 2021
5 people are currently reading
131 people want to read
About the author
Ryan Harding
37 books167 followersRyan Harding is the four-time Splatterpunk Award-winning author of books like Transcendental Mutilation, Genital Grinder, and collaborations with Jason Taverner (Reincursion, Reincarnage), Kristopher Triana (The Night Stockers), Lucas Mangum (Pandemonium), and Edward Lee (Header 3). He wrote the novella The Profile for the all Me Hoop anthology, and wrote guest scenes in Jonathan Butcher's Your Loved Ones Will Die First and Matt Shaw's The Devil's Guests. His short stories have appeared in the anthologies Y'All Ain't Right: Southern Extreme Horror Brewtality, The Big Book of Blasphemy, The New Flesh: A Literary Tribute to David Cronenberg, Splatterpunk Forever, Past Indiscretions, Masters of Horror, Battered Broken Bodies, Into Painfreak, DOA 3, and The Year's Best Hardcore Horror Vol. 3. His work has also been published in German, Italian, and Polish. Upcoming projects include a collaboration with Bryan Smith and the 3rd Agent Orange book with Jason Taverner.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 25, 2021
Horror Bookworm Reviews
https://horrorbookwormreviews.com/
Walled off cities and towns have become sanctioned territories known as Kill Zones. These regions are the home of a mysterious killer known as Agent Orange. Derived from a mythical legend, this bloodthirsty murderer dons camouflage attire, black military boots, gas mask and a wide assortment of weaponry. Currently, groups of people attempt to infiltrate these prohibited sites for reasons of profit, thrills and spiritual needs. Results span from fortunate survivors for some…and a death sentence for others.
Authors Ryan Harding & Jason Taverner once again team up to record further exploits of a nonemotional force of nature. Venturing into dangerous quarantined areas, this writing duo enables their readers to tag along with guides known as Stalkers and Prowlers. These Gauntlet runs are littered with devious traps, gruesome calling cards and repulsive trophies that are hideously displayed.
From the macabre minds of Harding & Taverner, an antagonist has been born from their wraithlike womb of immoral creativity. Utilizing machetes, pick axes and bear traps, the descriptive acts of savagery in this book morbidly convert into a plethora of gore stained pages. From ritualistic mutilations to silent screams, readers can expect familiar grisly pulp from both authors and publisher Death’s Head Press.
From the unstoppable intensity of Jason Voorhees to the psychotic evilness of Michael Myers to the disturbing temper of Leatherface, Reincursion bestows the qualities of every classic adversary rolled up into one literary force. The fear of being trapped and the relief of escape are two emotions you won’t be able to hide from while reading this novel.
https://horrorbookwormreviews.com/
Walled off cities and towns have become sanctioned territories known as Kill Zones. These regions are the home of a mysterious killer known as Agent Orange. Derived from a mythical legend, this bloodthirsty murderer dons camouflage attire, black military boots, gas mask and a wide assortment of weaponry. Currently, groups of people attempt to infiltrate these prohibited sites for reasons of profit, thrills and spiritual needs. Results span from fortunate survivors for some…and a death sentence for others.
Authors Ryan Harding & Jason Taverner once again team up to record further exploits of a nonemotional force of nature. Venturing into dangerous quarantined areas, this writing duo enables their readers to tag along with guides known as Stalkers and Prowlers. These Gauntlet runs are littered with devious traps, gruesome calling cards and repulsive trophies that are hideously displayed.
From the macabre minds of Harding & Taverner, an antagonist has been born from their wraithlike womb of immoral creativity. Utilizing machetes, pick axes and bear traps, the descriptive acts of savagery in this book morbidly convert into a plethora of gore stained pages. From ritualistic mutilations to silent screams, readers can expect familiar grisly pulp from both authors and publisher Death’s Head Press.
From the unstoppable intensity of Jason Voorhees to the psychotic evilness of Michael Myers to the disturbing temper of Leatherface, Reincursion bestows the qualities of every classic adversary rolled up into one literary force. The fear of being trapped and the relief of escape are two emotions you won’t be able to hide from while reading this novel.
November 1, 2021
4.5 stars
If you are reading this, you should have read Reincarnage first. Do not proceed with this review otherwise. Spoilers are light until the end, which I will mark, but I will have slight spoilers beforehand.
This is a return to the slasher action we got in Reincarnage. The characters, plot, and action are all improved upon. Instead of a cast of people mysteriously abducted to be meat for the Orange grinder, we have people with a variety of purpose. This ranges from thrill seeking, to professional, and toward healing.
One group is a fledgling Prowler who is an amateur taking in a group of (peer) college kids (5 total). Second is a twosome, survivors of Agent Orange’s last expansion of his territory, the woman an immediate survivor with a scar from Agent Orange. The man is an experienced Prowler and knows the amateur’s Uncle. Third is a group (5+ upon their start) not described in the blurb for the book, and honestly the more interesting group to me, people who claim there is a “healing spot” in Orange’s territory. One of the group members was terminally ill prior and had been healed himself and lived an additional two and a half years before this story.
I found this whole concept to be pretty cool. If we do have a killer who regenerates, there is an open license for other creativity. Some sort of power source within the original zone that can heal people sounds good to me.
The first novel was definitely more of a “traditional” take when it came to the killing, this one ratchets up a little more. Many characters in the first novel were fodder, but a majority of the cast here felt as if they could have a chance to survive. There were also not any completely annoying characters (to my tastes) as there were in the first. Brutal kills follow in this story, including more trickery/deceit from Orange.
My only criticism at all, which could be misremembering on my part, is how much Agent Orange toys with people in this story as he is killing them. I feel like he killed many people quickly and/or as quickly as possible in the first. He seems much more torturous in this book. If this is my mental error, I accept that, but the first two to three kills seemed stretched out a bit.
Small side note spoiler: I was hoping for a return from the survivor of the first book, but that does not occur, nor will it possibly ever. I will assume they got out unless specified otherwise.
***Bigger spoilers***
****
****
Warned!
****
We get a lot of time with the characters, though more time with Grant leading up to his showdown would have been good. There was a lot of believability for me that he may have been about to (temporarily) disable Orange.
Clark’s death in particular I was ready to get over with, but man, if the purpose was to just put one man through as much as potentially possible, mission accomplished, lol.
I was really rooting for Omar to make it out as well, but the writing was on the wall. At least he had a quick death.
The end of the story says Survivors will return. I can only imagine that is Evan bringing his daughter back to heal her maybe? Others may want to return with him.
Hopefully there are more sequels in this line of books. Whether they’re shorts or longer like this. You could do some pretty cool stuff. I would take no credit to any line of thought as I’m sure brainstorms have been there already, but two ideas came to mind.
1. Agent Orange expands again, total carnage as he attacks a neighboring city/town.
2. You’d really have to play around with plot devices as far as what weaponry they would bring, but anywhere from one to multiple people coming to test their mettle at killing Orange could be fun. Yes, he regenerates, but the challenge alone of hunting him could be tempting for some crazy ass people. Maybe someone is paying mercenaries for a piece of Agent Orange to study? Who the hell knows, just a thought. If that happened during another “gathering” like in book one to increase the body count that would go together well.
It was a fun read.
If you are reading this, you should have read Reincarnage first. Do not proceed with this review otherwise. Spoilers are light until the end, which I will mark, but I will have slight spoilers beforehand.
This is a return to the slasher action we got in Reincarnage. The characters, plot, and action are all improved upon. Instead of a cast of people mysteriously abducted to be meat for the Orange grinder, we have people with a variety of purpose. This ranges from thrill seeking, to professional, and toward healing.
One group is a fledgling Prowler who is an amateur taking in a group of (peer) college kids (5 total). Second is a twosome, survivors of Agent Orange’s last expansion of his territory, the woman an immediate survivor with a scar from Agent Orange. The man is an experienced Prowler and knows the amateur’s Uncle. Third is a group (5+ upon their start) not described in the blurb for the book, and honestly the more interesting group to me, people who claim there is a “healing spot” in Orange’s territory. One of the group members was terminally ill prior and had been healed himself and lived an additional two and a half years before this story.
I found this whole concept to be pretty cool. If we do have a killer who regenerates, there is an open license for other creativity. Some sort of power source within the original zone that can heal people sounds good to me.
The first novel was definitely more of a “traditional” take when it came to the killing, this one ratchets up a little more. Many characters in the first novel were fodder, but a majority of the cast here felt as if they could have a chance to survive. There were also not any completely annoying characters (to my tastes) as there were in the first. Brutal kills follow in this story, including more trickery/deceit from Orange.
My only criticism at all, which could be misremembering on my part, is how much Agent Orange toys with people in this story as he is killing them. I feel like he killed many people quickly and/or as quickly as possible in the first. He seems much more torturous in this book. If this is my mental error, I accept that, but the first two to three kills seemed stretched out a bit.
Small side note spoiler: I was hoping for a return from the survivor of the first book, but that does not occur, nor will it possibly ever. I will assume they got out unless specified otherwise.
***Bigger spoilers***
****
****
Warned!
****
We get a lot of time with the characters, though more time with Grant leading up to his showdown would have been good. There was a lot of believability for me that he may have been about to (temporarily) disable Orange.
Clark’s death in particular I was ready to get over with, but man, if the purpose was to just put one man through as much as potentially possible, mission accomplished, lol.
I was really rooting for Omar to make it out as well, but the writing was on the wall. At least he had a quick death.
The end of the story says Survivors will return. I can only imagine that is Evan bringing his daughter back to heal her maybe? Others may want to return with him.
Hopefully there are more sequels in this line of books. Whether they’re shorts or longer like this. You could do some pretty cool stuff. I would take no credit to any line of thought as I’m sure brainstorms have been there already, but two ideas came to mind.
1. Agent Orange expands again, total carnage as he attacks a neighboring city/town.
2. You’d really have to play around with plot devices as far as what weaponry they would bring, but anywhere from one to multiple people coming to test their mettle at killing Orange could be fun. Yes, he regenerates, but the challenge alone of hunting him could be tempting for some crazy ass people. Maybe someone is paying mercenaries for a piece of Agent Orange to study? Who the hell knows, just a thought. If that happened during another “gathering” like in book one to increase the body count that would go together well.
It was a fun read.
March 11, 2023
Review to come.
July 9, 2022
Loved this book. Agent Orange is a hardcore maniac, and I want more!
September 26, 2021
I went into this book completely blind and once I finished it I found out it was a sequal, probably would have been a good idea to read the first one before this, however as a stand along book this is still awesome.
An undead killer known as Agent Orange stalks an area that the government has build a wall around known as the killzone. People return to the KZ for a multitude of reasons and in this book we get thrillseakers, people looking for the magical healing place and people returning after they were evacuated many years before. All manner of people are guided by prowlers, people who specialise in taking groups of people to visit the kill zone all the while hoping they don't meet Agent Orange whilst in there. The three different parties all unfortunately meet Agent Orange and it becomes a case of helping each other to survive.
This book packs a lot of characters into the story and I felt a bit lost trying to remember them all but that's because I suck with names. But one thing the authors have done masterfully is carve out a distinct personality for each person which helped me to identify them. The world building is awesome and even without the first book I was fully immersed within a few chapters.
I have to point out one thing and that is if you don't like gore in your books this should be avoided. I love gore and horror so it was right up my street and it felt like every other page had some insanely inventive death scene that would make Eli Roth jealous he didn't think of it first. I loved the book and when it finished I wanted more. Well now I know this is the second book and there will be a third book on the way I'm super stoked.
If your are a horror and gore fiend then do your selves a favour and grab this. Super solid 4/5
An undead killer known as Agent Orange stalks an area that the government has build a wall around known as the killzone. People return to the KZ for a multitude of reasons and in this book we get thrillseakers, people looking for the magical healing place and people returning after they were evacuated many years before. All manner of people are guided by prowlers, people who specialise in taking groups of people to visit the kill zone all the while hoping they don't meet Agent Orange whilst in there. The three different parties all unfortunately meet Agent Orange and it becomes a case of helping each other to survive.
This book packs a lot of characters into the story and I felt a bit lost trying to remember them all but that's because I suck with names. But one thing the authors have done masterfully is carve out a distinct personality for each person which helped me to identify them. The world building is awesome and even without the first book I was fully immersed within a few chapters.
I have to point out one thing and that is if you don't like gore in your books this should be avoided. I love gore and horror so it was right up my street and it felt like every other page had some insanely inventive death scene that would make Eli Roth jealous he didn't think of it first. I loved the book and when it finished I wanted more. Well now I know this is the second book and there will be a third book on the way I'm super stoked.
If your are a horror and gore fiend then do your selves a favour and grab this. Super solid 4/5
July 14, 2023
Was this written by the same author who wrote Reincarnage??? Because this feels like a major downgrade.
Literally no character was interesting and their reasons for being in the KZ were stupid. The concept of the first novel was scary but in here it was like they wanted to die.
When the action started to happen, it was simply Orange killing everyone and them trying to not die (nothing else to the plot). Yes, this was a similar concept to Reincarnage but at least that novel was an original idea, had better characters, and was overall better executed. Reincursion felt like it didn’t need to exist.
The blandness made these already incredibly long chapters feel twice as long, and eventually I stopped paying attention and started flipping pages to see when the chapter would end.
Not the worst novel I read, but one of the most disappointing considering how good the first book was.
Literally no character was interesting and their reasons for being in the KZ were stupid. The concept of the first novel was scary but in here it was like they wanted to die.
When the action started to happen, it was simply Orange killing everyone and them trying to not die (nothing else to the plot). Yes, this was a similar concept to Reincarnage but at least that novel was an original idea, had better characters, and was overall better executed. Reincursion felt like it didn’t need to exist.
The blandness made these already incredibly long chapters feel twice as long, and eventually I stopped paying attention and started flipping pages to see when the chapter would end.
Not the worst novel I read, but one of the most disappointing considering how good the first book was.
October 4, 2021
Full review available on https://www.hearusscream.com/
This truly read like an action-packed slasher movie and I loved how the authors constructed elaborate lore around the killer, aka Agent Orange, and established from the get-go that, just as in the movies, he was almost unkillable. His haunting ground, aka the Kill Zone, and how it came to be is one of the most interesting backstories I’ve encountered so far and I’d love to read a novel dedicated solely to his first slayings. The meta imagery goes a step further and adds a very nice touch: inside the novel’s universe the characters mention several times a slasher movie franchise that’s based on Agent Orange’s killings.
The book's pace picks up once they all get inside the Kill Zone and the tension doesn’t let up until the very last page. Considering that the novel is over 300 pages, that is a huge feat by the authors, they manage to keep the narrative dynamic and interesting without ever letting up on the tension. The characters were also constructed well and have distinct personalities and voices, which is another difficult task when there are nine different main POVs and follows 13 people. They also have complex backstories that provide the reader with a window to each person’s motives to risk their lives by entering the Kill Zone. Because of that, I was able to connect with them and root for their survival and made the deaths even harder to read. Oh, how I would pay good money to see this book adapted into a slasher movie and be able to undergo even more anxiety and repulsion at the hands of Agent Orange.
Marina Garrido
This truly read like an action-packed slasher movie and I loved how the authors constructed elaborate lore around the killer, aka Agent Orange, and established from the get-go that, just as in the movies, he was almost unkillable. His haunting ground, aka the Kill Zone, and how it came to be is one of the most interesting backstories I’ve encountered so far and I’d love to read a novel dedicated solely to his first slayings. The meta imagery goes a step further and adds a very nice touch: inside the novel’s universe the characters mention several times a slasher movie franchise that’s based on Agent Orange’s killings.
The book's pace picks up once they all get inside the Kill Zone and the tension doesn’t let up until the very last page. Considering that the novel is over 300 pages, that is a huge feat by the authors, they manage to keep the narrative dynamic and interesting without ever letting up on the tension. The characters were also constructed well and have distinct personalities and voices, which is another difficult task when there are nine different main POVs and follows 13 people. They also have complex backstories that provide the reader with a window to each person’s motives to risk their lives by entering the Kill Zone. Because of that, I was able to connect with them and root for their survival and made the deaths even harder to read. Oh, how I would pay good money to see this book adapted into a slasher movie and be able to undergo even more anxiety and repulsion at the hands of Agent Orange.
Marina Garrido
October 16, 2021
I loved both of these books. You can read this if you haven’t read the first. But you should read both! The killer is badass and he has no mercy. The plot is interesting and inventive. I had a little trouble differentiating between the characters again. Some of the prose also is a bit too flowery so the descriptions can be hard to follow. But those are just minor nitpicks. A great, fun read and I look forward to book 3. These two books put a smart, new spin on the slasher genre.
December 29, 2022
I think the concept is quite intriguing. The villain feels like Jason Vorhees or Mike Myers. The concept that he's being trapped in a walled city is intriguing especially menacing since nothing could kill him. But I think there's too many characters to keep up with. Only very few that has a compelling plot line. In a short book like this, maybe some of the characters that dont matter can be removed and focus more on fleshing out the interesting ones.
April 29, 2023
I think I could read a hundred of these books. The central premise is so ripe for storytelling and allows for a collision course between many different people with different values and personalities and history. And once you're enjoying that, the horror starts and doesn't let up. The tension is palpable and the action frenetic.
June 2, 2024
Estos libros son lo más cerquita que me he sentido a ver pelis de terror.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews