Hive Monkey is a sequel to the rather wonderful Ack-Ack Macque. In order to avoid spoilers I demand you go and read that first. It’s ok I’ll wait….Your done already? Good show. Onwards!  With a barrel-full of trouble and a chamber-full of attitude, charismatic but dangerous former Spitfire pilot Ack-Ack has gone into hiding working as a pilot on a world-circling nuclear-powered Zeppelin. But when the cabin of one of his passengers is invaded by the passenger’s own dying doppelganger, our hirsute hero finds himself thrust into another race to save the world this time from an aggressive hive mind, time-hopping saboteurs, and an army of homicidal Neanderthal assassins! I’ve made no secret about that fact that I adored the first novel featuring Ack-Ack Macaque. Hell, I chose the primate pilot as my outstanding character of 2013. I’ve been waiting, almost patiently, for months now and finally book two has arrived. Straight off the bat, Gareth Powell has upped the ante in this second adventure. A new religion/cult, the sinister Gestalt, has appeared and are growing in power. They are more than a little keen to induct a certain monkey into their ever-growing ranks. Add to that a mysterious murder,…

Please note Rebellion is a direct sequel to Blood and Feathers, so if you haven’t read that, there is a good chance there will be some minor spoilers below. Got it? Good. Onwards… Driven out of hell and with nothing to lose, the Fallen wage open warfare against the angels on the streets. And they’re winning. As the balance tips towards the darkness, Alice – barely recovered from her own ordeal in hell and struggling to start over – once again finds herself in the eye of the storm. But with the chaos spreading and the Archangel Michael determined to destroy Lucifer whatever the cost, is the price simply too high? And what sacrifices will Alice and the angels have to make in order to pay it? The Fallen will rise. Trust will be betrayed. And all hell breaks loose… The thing I’m always on the look out for in the second book of any series is a successful expansion on the existing narrative.  The writing needs to reference the main events of book one and, using them as a base, expand upon the universe the author has already created. The good news is that with her second novel, Rebellion, Lou Morgan…

In 1944, as waves of German ninjas parachute into Kent, Britain’s best hopes for victory lie with a Spitfire pilot codenamed ‘Ack-Ack Macaque.’ The trouble is, Ack-Ack Macaque is a cynical, one-eyed, cigar-chomping monkey, and he’s starting to doubt everything, including his own existence. A century later, in a world where France and Great Britain merged in the late 1950s and nuclear-powered Zeppelins circle the globe, ex-journalist Victoria Valois finds herself drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the man who butchered her husband and stole her electronic soul. Meanwhile, in Paris, after taking part in an illegal break-in at a research laboratory, the heir to the British throne goes on the run. And all the while, the doomsday clock ticks towards Armageddon. There used to be a popular comic strip by Bill Waterson called Calvin and Hobbes. It featured the adventures of a young boy, named Calvin, and his stuffed toy tiger, Hobbes. As soon as I read the title of Gareth Powell’s latest novel I was immediately reminded of a single frame from one of my favourite strips. Calvin is more than excited when he learns that one of his favourite author’s has a new…

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 guided by Mallory – a disgraced angel with a drinking problem he doesn’t want to fix – Alice will learn the truth about her own history… and why the angels want to send her to hell.   What do the Fallen want from her? How does Mallory know so much about her past? What is it the angels are hiding – and can she trust either side?  It probably won’t come as much of a surprise when I reveal that I have been looking forward to Blood and Feathers for quite a while; pretty much since I heard about it, to be honest (eagle eyed readers of the site will have spotted it being mentioned on the preview of 2012 post way back in January). There…

Policing the Damned  They live among us, abhorred, marginalised, despised. They are vampires, known politely as Sunless. The job of policing their community falls to the men and women of the Sunless Housing and Disclosure Executive SHADE. Captain John Redlaw is London’s most feared and respected SHADE officer, a living legend.  But when the vampires start rioting in their ghettoes, and angry humans respond with violence of their own, even Redlaw may not be able to keep the peace. Especially when political forces are aligning to introduce a radical answer to the Sunless problem, one that will resolve the situation once and for all… When it comes to a horror staple like vampires, there is so much existing fiction that anything new needs to offer some sort of unique hook, or it won’t hold my attention. Redlaw by James Lovegrove goes the political route and makes vampires an immigration issue. Over subsequent decades everyone’s favourite blood-suckers have migrated from mainland Europe to Great Britain. Throughout the country, various segregated communities have been set up to try and contain their rising numbers, but as the novel begins things have finally reached a tipping point. The general public are starting to voice…

Imagine there was a supernatural chiller that Hammer Films never made. A grand epic produced at the studio’s peak, which played like a cross between the Dracula and Frankenstein films and Dr Terror’s House of Horrors… Four passengers meet on a train journey through Eastern Europe during the First World War, and face a mystery that must be solved if they are to survive. As the Arkangel races through war-torn country side, they must find out: What is in the casket that everyone is so afraid of? What is the tragic secret of the veiled Red Countess who travels with them? Why is their fellow passenger the army brigadier so feared by his own men? And what exactly is the devilish secret of the Arkangel itself? Back in 1989 I was an impressionable fifteen year old and I had just started to develop a passion for reading and a never-ending love for cinema. One of the first books I read, through what I thought at the time were adult eyes, was Roofworld by Christopher Fowler. Meanwhile my introduction to horror cinema, via a wonderful horror obsessed grandmother, was the works of Hammer. Little did I realise some twenty-three years later…

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…

Imagine a place where all your nightmares become real. Dark urban streets where crime, debt and violence are not the only things to fear. Picture a housing project that is a gateway to somewhere else; a realm where ghosts and monsters stir hungrily in the shadows. Welcome to the Concrete Grove.  This deprived area is Hailey’s new home, but when an ancient entity notices her, it becomes something much more threatening. She is the only one who can help her mother as she joins in a dangerous dance with loan-shark Monty Bright. Only Hailey can see the truth of Tom’s darkest desires as he tries to become part of their family. And only Hailey can lead them all to the heart of the estate where something older than this land stirs and begins to wake… Hailey and her mother, Lana are trying their best to get by. They have fallen on hard times after a family tragedy and each have ended up way out of their depth. Hailey is in thrall to the strange powers that control the Grove while Lana has fallen foul of the local gangster, Monty Bright. Lana is put through the emotional and physical ringer as…