Last year I had the good fortune to read The Kill Crew and then Meat by Joseph D’Lacey. Each were superb examples of the horror genre, both are darkly bleak but utterly compelling. D’Lacey’s latest publication is Snake Eyes, a single volume split into two separate novellas. This is a slight departure for the author as the first story moves into the realms of science fiction while the second has a more fantastical tone. A Man of Will and Experience – Robert Johnson dreams of spiders, thousands of them. When he wakes, the true nightmare begins: a tube has been attached to his head – to everyone’s – but he’s the only one aware of it. His cosy suburban life unravels into paranoid hallucination as Johnson fights to free himself from the control of unseen forces. I don’t want to delve to deeply into the plot, I believe that part of the enjoyment of this particular story is making discoveries yourself, but what I will say is be prepared to explore a landscape that shifts on more than one occasion. Be ready for an experience that feels akin to reading without the aid of a safety net. The story veers off…

Daniel Cole wants the world to end. Returned home from the Great War, his parents and brother in their graves, Daniel walks a ghost world. When players in a theatre show lure Daniel and his friends, fellow soldiers, into a surreal otherworld they find themselves trapped on an apocalyptic path. A pirate ship, helmed by Death, waits to ferry some of them to the end of the world. Already broken by war, these men are now the world’s only hope in the greatest battle of all. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to read the short story Nowhere Hall by Cate Gardner. I enjoyed it a great deal, and when the chance to read more of her work arose I jumped at it. Like an expertly crafted piece of classical music, Theatre of Curious Acts has many layers to explore, and it works very effectively on multiple levels. It can be read as a straightforward horror story, and there is certainly enough startling imagery to please the most hardened horror fan, but there is also a psychological element in play that is just as effective. Are the events unfolding all in Daniel’s head? Are Daniel and his comrades alive or already…

1494 Barcelona As Torquemada lights the fires of religious fervor throughout the cities of Spain, accused heretics are not the only victims. Thousands of books and manuscripts are lost as the Black Friars attempt to purge Europe of the ancient secrets of the gods and the bold new ideas that are ushering the Renaissance.  Nadira lives a dreary life as servant to a wealthy spice merchant until a dying scholar is brought to the merchant’s stable, beaten by mercenaries who are on the hunt for The Hermetica of Elysium. To Nadira, words are her life: she lives them as her masters scrivener and dreams them in her mother’s poetry. She is pursued as passionately as the fabled manuscript for her rare skill as a reader of Ancient Greek, Latin, Arabic and Hebrew that maker her valuable to men who pursue the book to exploit its magic. Kidnapped by Baron Montrose, an adventurous nobleman, she is forced to read from the Hermetica. It is soon revealed to her that ideas and words are more powerful that steel or fire for within its pages are the words that incite the Dominicans to religious fervor, give the Templars their power and reveal the…

Son of a knight and aspirant to the Round Table, Alymere yearns to take his place in the world, and for a quest to prove his worth. He comes across the foul Devil’s Bible – said to have been written in one night by an insane hermit – which leads and drives him, by turns, to seek the unholy Black Chalice. On his quest he will face, and overcome dire obstacles and cunning enemies, becoming a knight of renown; but the ultimate threat is to his very soul. It’s typical isn’t it? It turns out that stories about knights are like buses. You wait for one to arrive and then two appear at the same time. No sooner had I finished King Death by Paul Finch, I then noticed that the next book on my TBR pile was The Black Chalice by Steven Savile. (Possibly not the best planning in the world on my part but we’ll gloss over that shall we?). The Black Chalice is the first in a series from Abaddon Books called Malory’s Knights of Albion. The premise of this series is outlined in the novel’s introduction and describes the set-up perfectly. Found in a church vestry…

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….

Wuruyaaria: city of werewolves, whose raiders range over the dying northlands, capturing human beings for slaves or meat. Wuruyaaria: where a lone immortal maker wages a secret war against the Strange Gods of the Coranians. Wuruyaaria: a democracy where some are more equal than others, and a faction of outcast werewolves is determined to change the balance of power in a long, bloody election year. Their plans are laid; the challenges known; the risks accepted. But all schemes will shatter in the clash between two threats few had foreseen and none had fully understood: a monster from the north on a mission to poison the world and a stranger from the south named Morlock Ambrosius When I first saw the cover for The Wolf Age by James Enge I knew that I wanted it to be included in Werewolf Appreciation Month. Broody looking hooded figure with a magic sword fighting off hordes of evil looking werewolves. It looked like it would be an absolutely perfect fit. I couldn’t help but love this book could I? I immediately rushed off to Amazon and purchased an imported copy, I’m not sure but I don’t think the book has been officially released in…

This is a story about God and the Devil, but not how you were taught to believe. This is also a story about love and hate, and the suffering both can bring. This is about rights and wrongs, and all of the spaces in between. This is about revenge, courage, death, passion; with no villains, no heroes… only those left scorned. This is a story about Heaven, Hell, and the Jury that holds them together. This is The Antithesis. Justice Alezair Czynri is the newest recruit of the Jury, a group of powerful beings who reside in Purgatory and enforce the Code between Heaven and Hell. However, Justice Czynri could not have come at a worse time. A storm lays just over the horizon… One that brings with it a war. I’ll be honest and admit that I was unsure about the premise of The Antithesis when I first heard about it. There are an awful lot of books out there that deal with the eternal battle between angels and demons, and I just wasn’t sure if it would appeal to me. It is not the sort of thing that I would actively seek out. The good news is that…

Welcome To Low Town Here, the criminal is king. The streets are filled with the screeching of fish hags, the cries of swindled merchants, the inviting murmurs of working girls. Here, people can disappear, and the lacklustre efforts of the guard ensure they are never found. Warden is an ex-soldier who has seen the worst men have to offer; now a narcotics dealer with a rich, bloody past and a way of inviting danger. You’d struggle to someone with a soul as dark and troubled as his. Bu then a missing child, murdered and horribly mutilated, is discovered in an alley. And then another. With a mind as sharp as a blade and an old but powerful friend in the city, he’s the only man with a hope of finding the killer.  If the killer doesn’t find him first. Those of you who have been following The Eloquent Page for a while may remember that The Straight Razor Cure was on my list of books I was looking forward to reading in 2011. This week, I finally managed to get my hands on a copy and was able to see if it was a worthy inclusion on that list or…

LET BATTLE COMMENCE… Thanks to his father’s gambling debts, young Jack Keats finds himself on the streets trying to graft enough coin to keep him and his two younger brothers fed. When a daring bank robbery goes awry, Jack narrowly escapes the scaffold on to be pressed into the Royal Aerostatical Navy. Assigned to the most useless airship in the fleet, serving under a captain who’s is most probably mad, Jack seems to be bound for almost certain death in the far-away deserts of Cassarabia.  Meanwhile on the other side of the world, Omar ibn Barir, the slave of a rich merchant lord, is unexpectedly freed and enters into the service of the Caliph’s military forces – just as war is brewing. Two very similar young men prepare to face each other across senseless field of war. But is Omar the enemy, or is Jack’s true nemesis the sickness at the heart of the Caliph’s court? If Jack and his shipmates can discover what Cassarabia’s aggressive new regime is trying to conceal, he might survive the most horrific of wars and clear his family’s name. If not… I have to admit that prior to picking up Jack Cloudie I hadn’t…

Thomas Locke can find anything. You know the hurricane that hit a while back? Word is he found the butterfly that started it. So, when a desperate Veronica Drysdale hires Locke to find her missing husband, it makes perfect sense. Except the world of Thomas Locke doesn’t make sense. It puts monsters under the bed, makes stars fall from the sky and leads little children to worship the marvels of road-works. This world also hides from Veronica a past far darker and stranger than she could ever have imagined. To learn the truth, Veronica is going to have to lose everything. And that’s where Locke’s shadowy business partner Lafarge comes in… Before we begin I have a couple of questions. How do you feel about novels that feature a character reincarnated as a toaster? Would you have a problem if the toaster was called Leonard? If you have issues with either of these questions I would advise reading no further. I can tell you now, that this novel is not for you. Perhaps you might wish to consider doing something else instead? I’ve been told gardening is a very popular pastime? Ahh your still here, jolly good. You’re interested aren’t…

You may have heard that the world was supposed to end last weekend. Based on the fact that you are reading this post, I think we can all safely assume that it didn’t. It struck me that predictions can be, at best, awfully fickle things. If only there was a book that didn’t mess about, something that took all the guess work out of things and just made The Apocalypse simple. According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter – the world’s only totally reliable guide to the future – the world will end on a Saturday . Next Saturday, in fact. Just after tea… Good Omens was originally published way back in the halcyon days of nineteen ninety. At the time, I was a thoroughly impressionable sixteen year old and I think, in hindsight, that I can now squarely point the finger of blame for my obsession with the end of the world on this novel. The premise is simple, the Antichrist is born on Earth and following a baby switch that quickly devolves into farce, he ends up with a family in a sleepy little village in England rather than as the son of a US…

Please note this review contains minor spoilers if you haven’t read book one in the trilogy, The Sword of Albion.  Also you are missing a real treat. Alone and on the run, Elizabethan England’s greatest spy must defeat a dark and bloody plot. Or die… The Scar Crow Men by Mark Chadbourn is the second novel in the Swords of Albion series. It sees the return of Will Swyfte, gentleman spy, and his ongoing battle with the dark forces that threaten Great Britain during the reign of Elizabeth the First. Two years have passed since the events in the first novel and Swyfte is facing troubles both at home and abroad. Different factions vie for Elizabeth’s favour and in the midst of all this political maneuvering one of Will closest friends is killed. While members of the royal household continue to plot and scheme the Unseelie Court, the Fay, have begun to tear down the magical defenses that protect all humans from their evil. They have unleashed the Scar Crow Men to help bring about a shift in power that will allow them control everything. There are a couple of things that I think elevates Mark Chadbourn’s writing beyond the…

They came from the North, and the land fell. Kell’s resistance is driving the fiends from the land. But now a far greater power has come into play. Please note this review contains some minor spoilers if you have not read the first two parts of The Clockwork Vampire Chronicles. I have thought about this long and hard and I have come to a shocking conclusion – I hate Andy Remic.  Why? Because he is just such a supremely talented sod. He has proven that he can turn his hand to science fiction, horror and fantasy. As an aside – I have a sneaking suspicion that he is attempting to become the king of all genre fiction. Every time I think he can’t possibly top his last literary effort he goes ahead and does just that. Recently I read and reviewed Serial Killers Incorporated, and was impressed with its dark brutality. A scant few weeks has passed and he has yet another novel ready to assault the senses of an unsuspecting public. The latest addition to his ever-growing canon of work, Vampire Warlords, is the third book in The Clockwork Vampire Chronicles. This novel picks up the story in the…