Abyrne is a decaying town, trapped by an advancing wilderness. Its people depend on meat for their survival. Meat supplied by the processing plant on the edge of town. Meat is sanctified in Abyrne, a precious commodity eaten with devout solemnity by everyone except for a handful of people who won’t, who suspect that the town is evil, rotten to its core. A feud smolders between the town’s religious and secular powers – whoever controls the food supply controls everything. But the townsfolk are hungry, they must be fed. They must be fed. I thought wormed its way into my brain while I was reading Meat. I realised that it is quite rare that an author, and their writing, has properly freaked me out. I read a lot of what is described as horror, but I think in all honesty a lot of it is more horror-lite. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy reading it, but it is somewhat lacking when it comes to proper chills. I suppose most modern horror novels just aren’t that horrific. They might offer the odd shock and a bit of gore, but nothing that is what I would call genuinely unsettling. Meat is though,…

Please note The Cross is a direct sequel to Uprising and this review may contain minor spoilers for those of you who have not read book one. Consider yourself warned and read on at your own peril. An Ancient Evil Rises Again… The cross of Ardaich, feared by vampires, was believed to have been destroyed during the bloody war between the Vampire Federation and the Trads. But its accidental rediscovery could be catastrophic. Detective Joel Solomon can’t forgive VF agent Alex Bishop for making him a vampire. Yet when the Federation arch enemy Gabriel Stone enlists a vicious killer to retrieve the cross, the couple and their human allies become the only defence against pure evil. If the cross is used to gain power by the Ubervampyr, the sadistic and primeval race of the undead, it isn’t just ordinary vampires like Alex and Joel who will be in danger. Things could be about to turn very nasty for the human race… The Cross picks up immediately after the events at the end of it predecessor, Uprising. The reader is immediately thrust into the fallout of the previous novels conclusion. Each of the sides in the conflict has retreated to their respective…

The following press release dropped into my mailbox today and as I’ve enjoyed and reviewed a couple of Anarchy Books previous releases I thought I woud pass this info on. ANARCHY BOOKS PRESS RELEASE  Saturday 19th November is a date for your diaries, with Anarchy Books releasing not one wholesome SF novel, but two! First comes New York Nights by SF Heavyweight, Eric Brown. “New York 2040 is a city of the lost. So, a good place to work in Missing Persons. But business is not so good that Hal Halliday can forget his sister, burned alive when she was a child. Now, only VR offers the chance to bring her back. The future may yet allow Hal to live in the past – if he can survive his next job…” Described by Peter F. Hamilton as “the name to watch in SF“, and Brown’s novel HELIX described by Stephen Baxter as, “a classic concept – a built world to dwarf Rama and Ringworld – a setting for a hugely imaginative adventure. Helix is the very DNA of true sf. This is the rediscovery of wonder”, this first digital release of New York Nights is available as a PDF, EPUB or MOBI format, for the low price of…

Michael struggles to come to terms with the death of his wife. He has visions of her calling to him, inviting him to the beyond. At the Bereaved Partners’ Group, he learns that he is not the only one left behind who can hear the departed beckon them… to the Mill. Over the last twelve months I have rekindled my interested in reading short stories. I’ve been lucky enough to read some marvelous anthologies and some fantastic stand-alone work. I was first exposed to Mark’s writing when a read the anthology Ill at Ease. I thoroughly enjoyed his entry Come See My House In The Pretty Town. I recently got the opportunity to read another one of his short stories, The Mill. It has always struck me that sadness and grief can be incredibly difficult emotions to convey in writing. When it is successful, however, it can produce work that is not only incredibly effective but also deeply moving. Personally I have only come across writing like this a few times in the past, I think I am going to have to include Mark West on this very short list.  The reader gets glimpses of the emotional turmoil that surrounds Michael at…

For centuries, vampires walked the earth undetected, feasting on humans in keeping with their ancient traditions, but now 21st century technology has left them open to detection… To establish order, the Vampire Federation is born, policed by special agents like vampire Alexandra Bishop, authorised to hunt down those who violate the new code. But rebel vampire Gabriel Stone doesn’t play by the rules and declares war against the Federation, throwing Alex and her team into turmoil. Oblivious to the chaos in the vampire world, human Detective Inspector Joel Solomon is drawn into and unlikely alliance with Alex when he investigates a series of gruesome corpses drained of their blood. Together they are plunged into a war of good versus evil, taking them from the streets of London to the mountains of Transylvania in a battle that threatens to destroy them all… The blurb on the back cover of Uprising boldly proclaims that this will be “a perfect read for fans of films such as Blade an Nightwatch”. Curious to see if this claim would prove to be true I was looking forward to reading this novel. The concept of vampires living secretly amongst humans has been done before, and I’m sure it will…

Humanity has always believed it is the only intelligent species of life in the universe. But while excavating in Israel, an archaeologist unearths a tomb that has remained hidden for 7,000 years. Inside lies a secret of such magnitude that the story of mankind is instantly rewritten – and its future thrown into terrible danger. Only one man can piece history back together again. Only one man will risk everything to prevent a catastrophe that could tear the world apart.  That man is Ethan Warner. I always envisaged that putting together a decent thriller novel is much like making a cake. There is a recipe that outlines all the key ingredients that need to be included to make it turn out perfectly. The instructions would probably read something like this. Start with a slightly jaded hero, if you can get one who has a troubled past so much the better. Add a couple of dashes of political intrigue and, if you have it, a sprinkling of potentially controversial subject matter. Mix well with a secondary narrative that will eventually shed additional light on the first, then after around six hundred pages you’ll have an ideal thriller. Covenant is a pretty good example…

Barricaded into a city block called The Station, two hundred souls have survived the apocalypse. So far. Was it a bomb? A biological attack? Phase one of an invasion? No one knows. The Long Silence has begun.  After dark, thousands of the city’s inhabitants – neither living nor dead – prowl the streets snatching survivors. The Station is under constant threat. Each day a lottery decides the seven members of The Kill Crew – a night shift of civilian soldiers. Their mission is simple: Extermination.  Sheri Foley, a nobody in the days before the Long Silence, discovers she has the heart of a survivalist. She becomes one of the toughest members of The Kill Crew. But there are enemies inside the Station too. The evils of the old world persist and Sheri Foley must fight them all. If you’re a regular visitor to the site you’ll know that I am a big fan of apocalyptic fiction. I enjoy reading it because I am slightly obsessed about survivor’s stories.  I also use this as an excuse to try out authors whose work I have never been exposed to before. I reckon if you can tackle the end of the world as a theme then…

Welcome to Pandemonium. Ragnarok, climate change, Skynet, Mayan prophecies, zombie hordes, swine flu, reality TV, Gozer the Gozerian, the youth of today, the rise of the apes, no phone coverage, rogue asteroids and the Fox Network cancelling your new favourite TV show. Whatever your end-of-days desire, humanity has a knack for summoning an apocalypse to fit. So what kind of Judgement Day junkie are you? When I heard that some of the team behind Pornokitsch, one of my favourite websites, were putting together an anthology of short stories I was interested. Their geek culture, book, and film reviews are always a delight to read and tend to offer great insight into the topics they cover. Then I discovered that the theme of this collection was going to be the end of the world, a subject very close to my heart, I was very keen to get my hands on a copy. This first Pandemonium collection is inspired by the evocative, apocalyptic artwork of John Martin (19 July 1789 – 17 February 1854). Eighteen short stories have been commissioned to coincide with Tate Britain’s John Martin: Apocalypse retrospective. More so than any other anthology I’ve read this year, I actually found it difficult to pick my favourite stories from this collection. Not…

Thaddeus Blaklok – mercenary, demonist, bastard and thug-for-hire – is pressed into retrieving a mysterious key for his clandestine benefactors. Little does he know that other parties seek to secure this artifact for their own nefarious ends and soon he is pursued by brutal cultists, bloodthirsty gangsters, deadly mercenaries and hell spawned monsters, all bent on stopping him by any means necessary.  In a lighting paced quest that takes him across the length and breadth of the steam-fuelled city of Manufactory, Blaklok must use his wits and his own demonic powers to keep the key from those who would use it for ill, and open the gates to Hell itself. I remember hearing once somewhere, that Mos Eisley spaceport is a wretched hive of scum and villainy. After reading Kultus, I am convinced that Manufactory may come a close second. The inhabitants of this city, bar a few notable exceptions, are a resolutely nasty bunch. Everyone spends much of their time looking out for number one. Double crossing family, friends and business partners is standard practice. Into this mix we are introduced to the force of nature that is Thaddeus Blaklok. He is best described as a ‘tattooed bulldog’ of…

As she kicked off Werewolf Appreciation Month it only seems appropriate that she gets to round it off as well. Here is @Madnad with the final review.  A witty, entertaining, satirical guide to life after becoming a werewolf. Although it might not seem ideal to have werewolf-dom imposed by a fiendish bite, there are in fact thousands of werewolves out there – living normal lives. The only difference is that three times a month they double in size, triple in strength and grow a mane of fur. Now this guide shows all new werewolves how to cope with this transition with life-saving tips on how to avoid detection, safeguard your home and deal with the aftermath of attacking someone! Originally released in 2009, The Werewolf’s Guide to Life is not unique by any means, there are several humorous parodies of guide books to the supernatural, but it is unique in that it is the first one I have read. I have never felt the call to read any of them before, even the other Werewolf guides, but after spending several days dipping in and out of this guide, I enjoyed the experience and may have to look at others.  I…

The Viking, King Authun leads his men on a raid against an Anglo-Saxon village. Men and women are killed indiscriminately but Authun demands that no child be touched. He is acting on prophecy. A prophecy that tells him that the Saxons have stolen a child from the Gods. If Authun, in turn, takes the child and raises him as an heir, the child will lead his people to glory. But Authun discovers not one child, but twin baby boys. Ensuring that his faithful warriors, witnesses to what has happened, die during the raid Authun takes the children and their mother home, back to the witches who live on the troll wall. And he places his destiny in their hands. And so begins a stunning multi-volume fantasy epic that will take a werewolf from his beginnings as the heir to a brutal Viking king, down through the ages. It is a journey that will see him hunt for his lost love through centuries and lives, and see the endless battle between the wolf, Odin and Loki – the eternal trickster – spill over into countless bloody conflicts from our history, and over into our lives.  I’ll start with a small confession….

You’re the last. I’m sorry. The end is coming. For two centuries Jacob Marlowe has wandered the world, enslaved by his lunatic appetites and tormented by the memory of his first monstrous crime. Now, the last of his kind, he knows he can’t go on. But as Jake counts down to suicide, a violent murder and an extraordinary meeting plunge him straight back into the desperate pursuit of life. I have to admit that I approached this novel with a certain amount of caution. I read one of the author’s earlier novels – I, Lucifer – a few years ago and didn’t really enjoy it. That said, I am always willing to give a writer the opportunity to win me over so I decided to take a chance and include The Last Werewolf during this month’s werewolf themed shenanigans. Jacob ‘Jake’ Marlowe is a fascinating character. He has lived as a werewolf for nearly two hundred years and is horrified at the prospect of living the same length of time over again. He has tried to make amends for the terrible things that does when he changes, but it has reached the point when he knows that this is no…

Due to Werewolf Appreciation Month I’ve unfortunately not had time to read the latest release from Anarchy books. Luckily for me Tony (@iuchiAtesoro) Lane has. Here is his review. Guy Renford is fresh out of prison. His life in ruins, he is estranged from his wife and daughter. So he returns to the Yorkshire town of Stonegrave to try and recover what he once held dear. But a presence is watching from behind the endless rainstorm, something that wants revenge… and has not come alone. Rosie sees ghosts. She has since childhood. These sorrowful visions of drowned schoolgirls are linked to a past she fled to America to escape. But you can never run from destiny, and something is calling Rosie back to rainy Stonegrave, the home of her worst nightmares… Slowly, the lives of these two people are drawn together in a town cut off by floods, and at the height of the storm they will be forced to battle a relentless foe that uses the deluge as cover, stalking them from within a merciless onslaught of rain… First up I’d like to thank Paul for asking me to guest post on his blog. As a regular reader I’m quite chuffed. The…