20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill
Fantasy , Horror , Joe Hill , PS Publishing , Supernatural / November 1, 2013

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 you’re the only inflatable boy in town. Francis is unhappy, picked on; he doesn’t have a life, a hope, a chance. Francis was human once, but that’s behind him now. John Finney is in trouble. The kidnapper locked him in a basement, a place stained with the blood of half a dozen other murdered children. With him, in his subterranean cell, is an antique phone, long since disconnected . . . but it rings at night, anyway, with calls from the dead. . . I shall be attending the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, where I will be one of a few lucky souls to share a room with Joe Hill and Peter Crowther in a unique opportunity to discuss  the…

Happy Hour in Hell by Tad Williams
Fantasy , Hodder , Horror , Supernatural , Tad Williams / September 26, 2013

Bobby Dollar has a problem or four of epic proportions. Problem one: his best friend Sam has given him an angel’s feather that also happens to be evidence of an unholy pact between Bobby’s employers and those who dwell in the infernal depths. Problem two: Eligor, Grand Duke of Hell, wants to get his claws on the feather at all costs, but particularly at all cost to Bobby. Problem three: Bobby has fallen in love with Casimira, Countess of Cold Hands, who just happens to be Eligor’s girlfriend. Problem four: Eligor, aware of Problem three, has whisked Casimira off to the Bottomless Pit itself, telling Bobby he will never see her again unless he hands over the feather. But Bobby, long-time veteran of the endless war between above and below, is not the type of guy who finds Hell intimidating. All he has to do is toss on a demon’s body, sneak through the infernal gates, solve the mystery of the angel’s feather, and rescue the girl. Saving the day should just be a matter of an eon or two of anguish, mutilation and horror.  If only it were that easy.  Are you sitting comfortably? Good. I have a question….

Saxon’s Bane by Geoffrey Gudgion

Fergus’s world changes forever the day his car crashes near the remote village of Allingley. Traumatised by his near-death experience, he stays to work at the local stables as he recovers from his injuries. He will discover a gentler pace of life, fall in love and be targeted for human sacrifice. Clare Harvey’s life will never be the same either. The young archaeologist’s dream find the peat-preserved body of a Saxon warrior is giving her nightmares. She can tell that the warrior was ritually murdered, and that the partial skeleton lying nearby is that of a young woman. And their tragic story is unfolding in her head every time she goes to sleep. Fergus discovers that his crash is linked to the excavation, and that the countryside harbours some dark secrets. As Clare’s investigation reveals the full horror of a Dark Age war crime, Fergus and Clare seem destined to share the Saxon couple’s bloody fate. I’ll begin with a confession, I’ve been told its good for the soul. I have spent the last week agonising over how to write anything resembling a coherent review of this book. Not, I should stress, because the book is bad, quite the reverse in…

Blackwood by Gwenda Bond

On Roanoke Island, the legend of the 114 people who mysteriously vanished from the Lost Colony hundreds of years ago is just an outdoor drama for the tourists, a story people tell. But when the island faces the sudden disappearance of 114 people now, an unlikely pair of 17-year-olds may be the only hope of bringing them back. Miranda, a misfit girl from the island’s most infamous family, and Phillips, an exiled teen criminal who hears the voices of the dead, must dodge everyone from federal agents to long-dead alchemists as they work to uncover the secrets of the new Lost Colony. The one thing they can’t dodge is each other. Bond’s writing perfectly captures the uncertainty in Miranda’s character. Due to the Blackwood family curse, she has been ostracised by many of the townsfolk, young and old alike. They all consider her bad luck and not worthy of their time. Rather than give in to this, Miranda has developed a determined streak that keeps her driven to uncover the truth. The other main character is Philips Rawlings. He has spent a long time away from Roanoke trying to escape powers that he doesn’t fully understand. His return to the island…

Tales of The Nun and Dragon collected by Adele Wearing
Fantasy , Fox Spirit , Horror , Sci-Fi , Supernatural / September 7, 2012

Come, rest your weary bones, draw a flagon and hark to the tales of Nuns & Dragons, of bravery and steadfastness in the face of mighty and implacable foes. Settle down and indulge yourself in wild flights of fancy brought to life by your fellow travellers.” The Nun & Dragon is a local like no other – share in the wild and wonderful tellings of a gifted panoply of authors, tales replete with wonder, a liberal coating of mysticism, the odd splash of darkness and a sprinkling of grim humour. Over the last couple of years my passion for short stories has been re-ignited by some great small publishers and the anthologies that they are producing. Anthologies are a great way to discover the work of writers you have never read before so when I was offered the opportunity to take a look at the latest from Fox Spirit I jumped at the chance. C’mon dragons, nuns the coming together of the two. That’s never going to be a bad thing is it? The Ballad of Gilrain by Sarah Cawkwell – Gilrain the knight and his trusty manservant, Therin, meet a troublesome dragon. This first story features a nice blend of humor and action to start things off. In addition you can download the…

The Eyes of Water by Alison Littlewood

The Mexican cenotés. Flooded caves that fracture the Yucatan Peninsula – places of mystery, the unexplored, and of ancient sacrifice. When Alex meets an old friend while travelling, he doesn’t realise how far the encounter will take him. For Rick is exploring deep beneath the surface of the world, discovering new cave systems, one leading to the next. And when Alex is compelled to follow he has no way of knowing just how deep he will be expected to go, or how dark are the places he will find there . . . Its time to dip my toes into the water that is the latest release from those cheeky scare-mongers over at Spectral Press. (See what I did there? … the story features a great deal of water…oh suit yourself.) Though only around twenty pages long Spectral’s latest chapbook, The Eyes of Water, taps into a plethora of primal horrors that I think many readers will be able to appreciate. The psychological impact of losing someone unexpectedly, fear of the unknown and starting to fear for your own sanity are all touched upon.  Driven by a desire for the truth, Alex travels ever deeper into the water-filled cave system….

Nevermore by William Hjortsberg

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini team up to search for a literary-minded killer It is 1923 and a beautiful young woman has just been found outside a tenement, bones crushed, head ripped from her shoulders. A few stories above, her squalid apartment has been ransacked, and twenty-dollar gold pieces litter the floor. The window frame is smashed. She seems to have been hurled from the building by a beast of impossible strength, and the only witness claims to have seen a long-armed ape fleeing the scene. The police are baffled, but one reporter recognizes the author of the bloody crime: the long-dead Edgar Allan Poe. A psychopath is haunting New York City, imitating the murders that made Poe’s stories so famous. To Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the killing spree is of purely academic interest. But when Poe’s ghost appears in Doyle’s hotel room, the writer and the magician begin to suspect that the murders may hold a clue to understanding death itself. Conan Doyle and Houdini make for an intriguing double act.  Hjortsberg has taken a nugget of truth, the fact that they knew one another, and crafted a story around it. Both men were…

Kultus by Richard Ford
Richard Ford , Sci-Fi , Solaris , Supernatural / October 31, 2011

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…

Darkness Falling by Peter Crowther
Angry Robot , Peter Crowther , Sci-Fi , Supernatural / October 1, 2011

It was a typical all-American backwater – until the night the monsters came. When four employees of KMRT Radio investigate an unearthly light that cuts off communication with the outside world, they discover that something has taken the place of their friends and fellow townfolk, and imbued them with malign intentions. Little do they know, the phenomenon is not unique to the town of Jesman’s Bend… Last year when I visited FantasyCon 2010 in Nottingham, I picked up a short story collection called Zombie Apocalypse. I loved all the tales included, undead shufflers being a particular favourite of mine, but especially enjoyed the entry written by Peter Crowther. I was surprised by how much his writing put me in mind of Stephen King’s early work. Both authors seem equally blessed with the same gift of being able to convey a wealth of insight into their characters in a few scant chapters. Since then, I have been looking forward to the opportunity to read something else by him. When I heard that Angry Robot were re-releasing Forever Twilight as a trilogy (previously released as a duology in 2002, called Darkness Darkness), this sounded like the perfect place to expand my knowledge…

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very peculiar photographs. A horrific family tragedy sets sixteen year old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that Miss Peregrine’s children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow – impossible though it seems – they may still be alive. Jacob has grown up listening to his grandfather’s tall tales about the island he lived on during the Second World War. These stories about monsters and strange children with powers were a delight to Jacob as a youngster, but as he grew up, he became disillusioned with his grandfather’s flights of fancy. When his grandfather unexpectedly dies, Jacob finds himself drawn back to these stories. He decides to undertake a journey to try and separate the truth from the lies. There are some fantastic characters in this novel and normally I would take great delight in describing them to you, but in this case I…

Vampire General: Intern with the Vampire by Kit Iwasaki

Human medicine is easy. On her first day at Grace General Hospital, new intern Aline Harman risks vampire infection, demonic possession, and having her heart torn out of her chest… and this from her colleagues. Juggling transhuman politics only becomes more difficult when a patient’s life is at stake. With a zombie to resuscitate and a mermaid in critical care, Aline has her hands full. At least the doctors are good-looking. I have to be honest and admit a certain amount of uncertainty when I initially approached this ebook. This is not the sort of thing I would normally choose to read, and I was concerned that this would not be to my taste. As ever though, I am keen to try and broaden my horizons when it comes to reading, so decided to give it a chance. On reflection I’m glad that I did, as I was pleasantly surprised. Our heroine Aline is immediately thrown in at the deep end and the author certainly seems to have captured, what I imagine to be, the frenetic chaos of an emergency room. Reading the opening chapters, and the descriptions of when she first arrives at Grace General, it was easy to picture…