Fox Spirit Looks to the Shadows
Fox Spirit Books , Horror , Joan De La Haye / August 21, 2012

Hot on the heels of the Angry Robot cover release this afternoon, we now have a little something from the good people at Fox Spirit. (I know, I know. I don’t do any news for ages and then two articles come along at once. I’m like a bus).  Fox Spirit books are pleased to announce that Joan De La Haye’s psychological horror ‘Shadows’ is now available from amazon (to follow at other outlets soon). ‘Shad...

Angry Robot To Take On A Mad Scientist
Angry Robot , Cassandra Rose Clarke , News / August 21, 2012

A tiny little morsel of news popped into my inbox and I felt the urge to share. The Mad Scientist’s Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke is being released in Febuary 2013 from Angry Robot Books. Hmm, what more can I tell you? Well, here’s the blurb… There’s never been anyone – or anything – quite like Finn. He looks, and acts human, though he has no desire to be. He was programmed to assist his owners, and...

The Uninvited by Liz Jensen
Bloomsbury , Horror , Liz Jensen , Supernatural / August 20, 2012

A seven-year-old girl puts a nail-gun to her grandmother’s neck and fires. An isolated incident, say the experts. The experts are wrong. Across the world, children are killing their families. Is violence contagious?  As chilling murders by children grip the country, anthropologist Hesketh Lock has his own mystery to solve: a bizarre scandal in the Taiwan timber industry. Hesketh has never been good at relationships: Asperger̵...

Clovenhoof by Heide Goody & Iain Grant

Charged with gross incompetence, Satan is fired from his job as Prince of Hell and exiled to that most terrible of places: English suburbia. Forced to live as a human under the name of Jeremy Clovenhoof, the dark lord not only has to contend with the fact that no one recognises him or gives him the credit he deserves but also has to put up with the bookish wargamer next door and the voracious man-eater upstairs. Heaven, Hell and the cit...

Earth Girl by Janet Edwards

Meet me, Jarra. Earth Girl. It’s the year 2788, and the universe is divided into two different kinds of people: the Norms, who can portal between different planets, and people like me, the one in a thousand who are born with an immune system which doesn’t allow us to leave planet Earth. Norms come back to Earth for one reason: to study human history. But only if the don’t have to interact with us ‘Neanderthals...

Department 19: The Rising by Will Hill
Harper Collins , Horror , Will Hill , Young Adult / August 9, 2012

A word of caution – Department 19: The Rising is a direct sequel to Department 19. If you haven’t read the first book in this series, and you really should, there is a distinct possibility that this review may contain minor spoilers. You have been warned! 91 DAYS TILL ZERO HOUR. THAT’S 91 DAYS TO RUN. 91 DAYS TO HIDE. OR 91 DAYS TO PRAY FOR DEPARTMENT 19 TO SAVE YOU… After the terrifying attack on Lindisfarne at the ...

Blood and Feathers by Lou Morgan
Fantasy , Lou Morgan , Solaris / August 5, 2012

Alice isn’t having the best of days – late for work, missed the bus, and now she’s getting rained on – but it’s about to get worse.   The war between the angels and the Fallen is escalating and innocent civilians are getting caught in the cross-fire. If the balance is to be restored, the angels must act – or risk the Fallen taking control. Forever. That’s where Alice comes in. Hunted by the Fallen and...

vN by Madeline Ashby
Angry Robot , Madeline Ashby , Sci-Fi / July 31, 2012

Amy Peterson is a von Neumann machine, a self-replicating humanoid robot. For the past five years, she has been grown slowly as part of a mixed organic/synthetic family. She knows very little about her android mother’s past, so when her grandmother arrives and attacks her mother, little Amy wastes no time: she eats her alive. Now she carries her malfunctioning granny as a partition on her memory drive, and she’s learning impossible ...

The City’s Son by Tom Pollock

Hidden under the surface of everyday London is a city of monsters and miracles, where wild train spirits stampede over the tracks and glass-skinned dancers with glowing veins light the streets. When a devastating betrayal drives her from her home, graffiti artist Beth Bradley stumbles into the secret city, where she finds Filius Viae, London’s ragged crown prince, just when he needs someone most. An ancient enemy has returned to t...

The Red Knight by K T Davies
Anachron Press , Fantasy , K T Davies / July 23, 2012

A thousand years have passed since the Clan Lords and the Fey commanded dragons and raised mighty citadels. The remnants of their ancient power lie dormant and a new conflict threatens the kingdom of Antia…  King Daris rules a peaceful and prosperous land, but his conniving brother Jerim covets the throne and civil war looms. But there are worse threats to Antia than mere human greed. Two people will stand against mortal and demonic ...

Hereward: The Devil’s Army by James Wilde
Bantam Press , Historical , James Wilde / July 18, 2012

1067. The battle of Hastings has been lost; Harold Godwinsson is dead. The iron fist of William the Bastard has begun to squeeze the life out of England. Villages are torched and men, women and children put to the sword as the Norman king attempts to impose his cruel will upon this unruly nation. But there is one who stands in the way of the invader’s savagery. He is called Hereward. He is a warrior and master tactician and as ade...

Oasis by Joan De La Haye

2013 – The planet has been fried by solar flares turning it into a desert. The surviving population has been affected by solar radiation, turning them into Zombies. Only a handful of people remain unaffected. A family of civilians, guided by a crack army unit who has seen more action than they can handle, must make their way to the safety of a UN base at the South Pole called New Atlantis. But can they make it to this oasis alive or w...

EDGE-Lit 2012 Convention Report
Conventions / July 15, 2012

Earlier this year Alt.Fiction moved from Derby to Leicester. In its absence, EDGE-Lit has sprung up to fill the void at The Quad.   Preparation   It doesn’t matter the duration of a convention the same rule always applies – preparation is key. When a convention is only a day long I advise focusing your attention on a good breakfast. Our day started at 9am in Jack Rabbits in Derby, check out my friend Vick’s...