Although sequels are rarely as good as the original, Earthworm Gods II: Deluge was close. Keene follows the same format as the first book. The first third takes us back to the flooding mountain in West Virginia where we're introduced to Henry, who is trapped in the top of a grain silo and escapes to meet up with our survivors from the first Earthworm Gods. In the second third, we meet another band of survivors in a catamaran yacht. The two parties meet up with each in the climactic last third of the book. Along the way, we're greeted to more Lovecraftian-inspired monsters and themes as Earthworm Gods II evolves from a monster movie feel to one of a Lovecraft-inspired world of fantasy. Keene also ties in LeHorn's Hollow from his book, Dark Hollow, as well as slight references to characters in his zombie novels The Rising and City of the Dead. The only downside, to me, were the characters. While Keene still delivered the goods, the characters in the first EG, Teddy and Carl, were superb. Unfortunately, I didn't connect with the characters in EG II as much as I did with the ones in the first one. That's not saying that the characterization was poor. It's more of a tribute to how good those two were in the first story. All in all, I'm liking what Keene is doing with his saga and can't wait to jump into the next one to see where it leads.

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