AÂ tiny tidbit of news to start off this chilly Thursday morning. The British Fantasy Society Christmas Open Night is taking place tomorrow night in London. If you’re round and about our nation’s capital tomorrow then the following information may be of interest. http://www.britishfantasysociety.co.uk/news/bfs-xmas-open-night/ ...
Recently I got invited to take part in an edition of the popular Scrolls podcast discussing this years World Fantasy Con in Brighton. Having never taken part in a podcast I decided to give it a go. I had a great time, everyone was wonderful and I think the results manage to be informative, entertaining and at times utterly chaotic. If you're interested you can listen by clicking on the image below. Thanks to Dion and Phil for the invita...
The eagle-eyed amongst you will have probably noticed that I've reviewed The Language of Dying before. I read the PS Publishing edition and utterly adored it. The novella is being re-released by Jo Fletcher Books today and as it is so bloomin' good I thought someone else's opinion might be worth exploring. Â Over to @MadNad for her thoughts... Tonight is a special, terrible night. A woman sits at her father's bedside watching the clock ...
They burned her home. They stole her brother and sister. But vengeance is following. Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she'll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she's not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old stepfather Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb's buried a bloody past of his own, and out i...
Forget everything you know about the big bad wolf. It's not that simple any more. Here are werewolves, skin walkers, demons and unknown dangers. Nothing can be relied upon, not species not shape, not gender. In this second Fox Pocket collection of short flash fiction we explore what happens when nothing is what it seems. You'll need more than a red hood this time. The idea of this collection immediately appeals. It’s no secret that Iâ...
I like to include the odd anthology in my reading schedule from time to time. I find short story collections a perfect way to fill the gap if I have a spare five/ten minutes with nothing to do. Moribund Tales is a short anthology from author Erik Hofstatter. It collects together ten tales that mix urban legends with gothic horror. Internal Abduction - Things kick off with a retelling of one of my favourite urban legends. We’ve all had...
Corvis Correll is a lethal revenant, sworn to serve the Umbra Syndicate in destroying the Moratalis Church. After six long years in cold war, his death looks like a better possibility. When a mission goes horribly wrong, Corvis finds himself stranded in the middle of the Outlands desert, thousands of miles from home and at the complete mercy of cannibalistic tribes. His only companion is a mysterious woman left for dead amid the wreckag...
When a Senator’s daughter is kidnapped by a mysterious with ties to the supernatural, it’s clearly a job for SEAL Team 666. As Triple Six investigate, they discover links to the Zeta Cartel, a newly discovered temple beneath Mexico City, and a group known as followers of the Flayed One. But international politics. cross-border narco-terrorism, and an insidious force operating inside the team soon threaten to derail the mission. Forc...
WEWELSBURG CASTLE, 1940. The German war machine has woken an ancient threat - the alien Vril and their Ubermensch have returned. Ultimate Victory in the war for Europe is now within the Nazis' grasp. ENGLAND, 1941 Foreign Office trouble shooter Guy Pentecross has stumbled into a conspiracy beyond his imagining - a secret war being waged in the shadows against a terrible enemy. The battle for Europe has just become the war for humanity. ...
It's that MadNad person again. This time she is casting her beady eye over Sarah Pinborough's latest. Beauty is a beautifully illustrated retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story which takes all the elements of the classic fairytale that we love (the handsome prince, the ancient curse, the sleeping girl and, of course, the haunting castle) and puts a modern spin on the characters, their motives and their desires. It's fun, contemporary, ...
Something a bit different today from The Eloquent Page. A bit of non-fiction with its own unique sci-fi slant. Neil loves Sue. He also loves Doctor Who. But can he bring his two great loves together? And does he have the right? In January 2011, Neil Perryman set out on an insane quest to make his wife Sue watch every episode of the classic series of Doctor Who from the very beginning. Even the ones that didn't exist any more. And so...
I LOVE THE SMELL OF PARALLEL DIMENSIONS IN THE MORNING Baxter Zevcenko's life is pretty sweet. As the 16-year-old kingpin of the Spider, his smut-peddling schoolyard syndicate, he's making a name for himself as an up-and-coming entrepreneur. Profits are on the rise, the other gangs are staying out of his business, and he's going out with Esme, the girl of his dreams. But when Esme gets kidnapped, and all the clues point towards strange ...
In the run up to the convention we're attending this week my better half @MadNad has indulged her latest passion... some fella called Joe Hill. Imogene is young, beautiful, kisses like a movie star, and knows everything about every film ever made. She's also dead, the legendary ghost of the Rosebud Theater. Arthur Roth is a lonely kid with a head full of big ideas and a gift for getting his ass kicked. It's hard to make friends when y...