The Trouble With Being God

Get The Trouble With Being God for $1.99!

Posted by William under Events, Read Online

Alright all you cheap bastards… here’s something sure to make you happy.  For a limited time, I’m offering an e-book version of The Trouble With Being God for download over at Scribd for just $1.99.

Not only is it an awesome deal, but I’ve even opted to allow for the e-book to be in the DRM-free PDF format so you can read it pretty much wherever you want.

Just don’t go uploading it illegally all over the Internets.  If you do, I will hunt you down and checkerboard you.

The Trouble With Being God: A Philosophical Thriller

New Reader Review at WeRead

Posted by William under reviews

In my ongoing effort to try to share all the reviews of The Trouble With Being God that keep popping up online, I have another review to share - this time from reader “Clyde’ at WeRead.com.  Here’s a bit of what he had to say:

This is an incredible novel especially for a debut. It reminds me of early Chuck Palahniuk with the tone and the unexpected twist. The story seems very simple at first, but gets complex. … As a reader, you will find yourself going back and re-reading parts just to make sure you understand what is happening because there are turns, and in the end it will all click. Then you will realize that this is more than a thriller novel, it has multiple levels. So if you are interested in reading something that is smart please check out The Trouble With Being God. William F. Aicher I look forward to reading more of your work.

Have you written a review, or found any reviews or discussions online that I’ve missed?  Let me know.  My goal here is to give all you potential readers the best overview of what others have thought of the book so you can make an informed decision as to if you should or shouldn’t buy a copy for yourself.

Review at Self-Publishing Review, Plus New Reader Comments

Posted by William under reviews

Another online review site has read and reviewed The Trouble With Being God.  This latest review comes to us from Henry Baum at Self-Publishing Review.

Henry Baum is the author of The American Book of the Dead (coming in 2009), North of Sunset, listed as the #1 self-published novel in Entertainment Weekly and winner of the Hollywood Book Festival Grand Prize, and The Golden Calf. He’s also a songwriter and blogs at Ash Tree.

Here’s a bit of what he had to say about TTWBG:

The novel begins with the brutal murder of a Catholic priest – a scene described in gory detail.  In this day and age, the murders in this book – while grotesque – aren’t much more shocking to the system than the series of murders in the movie “Seven.”  They’re effective and well-drawn, but nothing that is entirely shocking to the system, given how violent movies and horror fiction has been for some time.

… as a novel about a reporter covering a series of brutal murders, this is an enormously fast-paced, thought-provoking, and entertaining read.  Steven covers the murders for the newspaper, his personal life unravels, and his behavior becomes progressively more erratic - making for a multi-layered mystery into who committed these murders.  The movie “Seven” is a good comparison - as that was a story about a serial killer that was also a study on the nature of sin, and even celebrity. If this book was fleshed out, it could be on that level.

You can read the full review online here.

In addition to this review, we have a few more reader comments to share:

Joe [last name preserved for Anonymity]:

(via email) I must say that, “The Trouble With Being God”, is one of the best books I have read in years. In my opinion, its up there with older Palhniuk, Clevenger’s Dephamoria, and Baer’s Phineas Poe Trilogy. … there are fewer and fewer “original” authors out there that challenge you think about what you have just read.  The other problem is that there are too many people that try to copy this style of writing, and its becoming harder to find the authors that are “legit”.

Danny Moody says:

(via Twitter) I just finished your book, I really liked it! … I might be disturbed, but I have many of the same religious views steve has in your book, Is this life destiny or choice?

(via Amazon) “The Trouble With Being God” is exactly what a Philosophical Thriller is supposed to be. It will challenge your beliefs on all things religion with points of view those Hayseed religious folk tend ignore, or can’t answer. The morale decisions Steven is faced with is something we all can learn from, everybody lives with a dark side and the way we control it is ultimately how we are defined. The serial killer in this novel is very creative with a very sick and twisted mind that will leave you breathless. Aicher is a rising author that will be mentioned with the best and this book is a must read.

Amy Satzinger:

(via Twitter) I loved it!  … Good job.

William F. Aicher Interviewed by Booksin140

Posted by William under Uncategorized

Recently I participated in an online interview with Erin Balser (@booksin140) on Twitter. The basic premise of her interviews is that the interviewee is limited to 140 characters per answer.

In the interview we discuss The Trouble With Being God, my next project, why I decided to self-publish, and other things.  You can read the full interview online here.

And if you’re not following me on Twitter yet, feel free to do so.

More Reviews of The Trouble With Being God

Posted by William under book

Over the last few weeks several more reviews of The Trouble With Being God have been popping up across the Internet, both from readers and from professional publications. Here are a few of the highlights:

From Horror Bound Online Magazine:

The juxtaposition of Steven and one of the victims as dramatic foils is very interesting. They are both emotionally involved with Karen, and one could say that they are both preaching, albeit about very different things.

Overall, it was an interesting story. If the main characters had been more likeable, the ending would have had more impact. The killer twist ending was very good, as was the red herring. This is definitely a book to read on a rainy day and an author to watch out for in the coming years.

(read the full review)

From Flames Rising:

Dubbed a “philosophical thriller,” The Trouble With Being God delves into heady themes while we watch Steven’s struggle with one question, “Did he do it? Did he really commit those murders?”

…

The best written parts of this story were the descriptions of the murders. Poetic and languid, Aicher has a flair for describing the things that lurk in the dark. The weakest parts of this story happened toward the end; I don’t want to give anything away, but I felt that it was not an appropriate ending for this sort of a novel. Give me justice, give me conflict, but don’t give me open questions.

(read the full review)

From Readers:

Aicher’s novel is very well-crafted and extremely well-written. The soundtrack aspect of it also added a great bit of extra insight and was a feature I particularly enjoyed. The book is indeed a thriller, and held my interest to the very last page.
(by Eric at Goodreads :: full review)

[William] dove right into it with a climax. His flow of words captured me from the beginning. I greatly enjoyed his descriptions as well as commitment to the back story. He let me get to know the characters personality along with their mannerisms. Overall I thought the character development was great, but for some reason I had a hard time with Karen. Maybe I just did not like her.  Either way, I felt like I knew them personally, which is something that is very important to readers!
(by Tracy at Goodreads :: full review)

This story is full of suspense & murder. It touches on a serial killer. Follow along in the day to day life of Steven Cavelle, a local news reporter journalist as he tries to report the news from his first hand view.
(by Abigail Christy at Shelfari :: full review)

Have you read The Trouble With Being God yet? If so, send me your comments and reviews.

If not, isn’t it time you bought your own copy?

The Trouble With Being God Reviewed at Horrornews.net

Posted by William under reviews

Dr. Acula over at Horrornews.net has read and reviewed The Trouble With Being God. It’s a quite fair review, in my opinion, and I’m happy to see Horrornews enjoyed the novel and picked up on the story’s essence.

Here’s a bit of what they had to say:

The novel is a very quick read, both physically and from a mental standpoint. Most chapters are no more than a couple pages long, forcing the story, in a way, to move fast. When I first started reading it, I thought this aspect would get annoying, as with each new chapter usually comes a different character, making the novel jump from different sub-story to different sub-story. But, all of the sub-stories come together well in the end to create a solid novel. In retrospect, the style is very similar to that of Dan Brown’s (if there are any fans of his novels out there). Aicher uses the style very successfully, keeping the reader constantly wanting more.

The full review is available online at Horrornews.net.

What Is Horror? (And Am I a Horror Writer?)

Posted by William under Philosophizing

Since publishing The Trouble With Being God and releasing it into the wild, a strange thing has happened: the book has been repeatedly considered a horror novel. Now, while I can see this being easy to assume based on the first impressions of the cover design, or from a quick read of the first chapter, I never really thought of it that way.  With all the horror fans who have been picking up on the book (and a nudge from fellow author, Monica Valentinelli), however, I realized it was time to take a step back and think about just what horror is to me as well as others.  As much as I dislike defining things into set categories, it’s time for me to put together my own definition of horror.

When I think of horror, I generally tend to think of the kinds of books and movies I read during my younger years - in particular movies such as the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the Thirteenth franchises. Over the years I’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands, of films that I consider horror, as well as read hundreds of books that I consider members of the genre as well.  As to what that means, however, I have to dig a bit deeper. You see, I have always thought of “horror” as different than “scary.” In particular (and especially in the examples above), when I think of “horror” I generally tend to think of stories where there is some sort of evil at stake, usually bent on killing or otherwise harming the “good guys.” In most instances this “evil” takes the form of a monster, ghost, zombie, alien or somehow damaged human being, and the story itself involves a high amount of suspense and tension, with a relatively small amount of large action pieces (although chase sequences are nearly mandatory).

So, given the definition of “horror” as I’ve stated it above, no I do not write horror. In fact, by the rules I put forth above very little actual horror really exists these days (at least in the mainstream), having been replaced in large part by the “torture porn” films like Hostel, High Tension and the Saw franchise. Still, many people do tend to consider these films to be horror - just like many people consider The Trouble With Being God to fall into the category, so there’s obviously something else going on here that defines horror, other than my own simple definition outlined above.

Taking a step back and looking at the most basic definition of horror, which the Wiktionary defines as “An intense painful emotion of fear or repugnance,” it’s quite easy to see how so many different concepts can fall under such a broad umbrella. If you take that step back, and consider horror to be anything that’s scary, there’s quite a bit more in the genre than your Frankenstein and Wolfman movies would lead one to believe.

And that’s the thing that really does make The Trouble With Being God fall into the horror category: even though I never considered it to  be “horror” while writing it, it’s meant to be scary. Not the monster-in-your closet, boogeyman scary, but instead the “oh my god, could I do something that terrible myself?” kind of scary. It’s a similar case with the novel I’m currently writing, The Unfortunate Expiration of Mr. David S. Sparks. The story itself is scary, but in a “is that where our world is really going?” kind of way. It’s not about monsters and it’s not about boogeymen (although in this story they do make their appearances) - but horror doesn’t have to be about them.

Sometimes the most horrifying thing is the thought of looking in the mirror and seeing yourself. That’s the kind of scare I’m going for.