Available at Amazon.com

James Herbert is a horror writer who hails from the U.K. He’s been compared to Steven King and, for the first time, his work is available stateside. The novel I read, ASH, is a reprint through Tor Books.

Herbert is a multi-novelist with almost two dozen books out in the wild. (Sadly, the author does not have an official website, or I’d link to it for you so you could see his bibliography of published works.) This is the first time I’ve read Herbert’s work; this type of story is more my fare than a continual stream of blood, guts, and gore. ASH begins with a mystery and a haunted castle. The main character, David Ash, is a ghost hunter and parapsychologist who works for the Psychical Research Institute. His abilities give him an edge and we, the reader, find out more about them as the story progresses.

In many ways, Herbert reinvents the meaning of “haunted castle” in this book. Layers of secrets upon secrets twist and turn into winding conspiracies in and around Comraich Castle. Between the many staff members, like Senior Nurse Rachel Krantz, and the castle’s notorious “clientele,” there is no end to the horrors (or surprises) lurking here.

David’s job is not to worry about the real life conspiracies here (a fact that often gets him into trouble) but to uncover the hows and whys of a mysterious death — a ghostly crucifixion of an inmate. I felt this conflicted motivation was fairly realistic and gave the character a grittier aura; because Ash is supposed to be confined to one path, his curiosity often gets the better of him. Only, some of David’s questions intersect into the deepening mystery of the haunted castle, taking him to dark places that he barely survives.

My favorite character, hands down, was not David — but Cedric Twigg, a dying assassin. His story, along with a few others than weave into the main plot, really brought out a sense of horror. Here was a man who could not be redeemed (nor was he seeking it) but, by the end of the story I found myself rooting for him, the lesser of two evils.

The omnipresent conspiracies that are part and parcel to Comraich Castle provide ASH with a geo-political backdrop that spans the globe. These prey upon the story, playing around with what you think about [insert evil dictator or world leader] here. Are there people in the world scarier than the ghosts? Are they (the living) always worth saving? Maybe, maybe not. The emotional impact of the political story arc was a little lost on me since I live in the U.S.; foreign policy isn’t tops on our twenty-four hour news cycle’s list of “must see” reporting. Certain references, like the Queen, don’t have that emotional gut punch for me — even though I’m familiar with how the structure works. I feel that Herbert writes both aspects into the story (e.g. horrible, terrible world leader conspiracy and the machinations of British government) as a great way to appeal to more than one audience. I liked the politics, when present, because it added more teeth to the story. However, I also liked the straight up thrill ride as ASH explores more and more of the sprawling castle and its grounds.

Masterfully-written, both male and female characters are extremely diverse and unique. My only criticism is that I didn’t like the relationship between Delphine and Ash — I just didn’t buy her naivete. Mind you, part of that comes from personal preference moreso than the way Herbert designed her; the other is that I found their relationship to be distracting to me. I wanted to know more about the castle and the Inner Circle and didn’t care much about the staff — other than to discover how they played into the overall mystery.

Was I scared? I did have nightmares one night, so if that’s any indication then Herbert gave me quite a fright. However, like all satisfying horror stories, it concludes in a way that leaves you begging for more.

If you like Stephen King, Dean Koontz, or other authors in a hard-nosed almost “noir” vein, then James Herbert’s ASH will be a great addition to your collection of terrifyingly good paranormal investigative mysteries.

Review by Monica Valentinelli

Related posts:

1. The Walls of the Castle by Tom Piccirilli
2. Enter to Win a Spooky Contest from Tor Books
3. Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror Review

Available at DriveThruFiction.com

In 2004, the World of Darkness Rulebook introduced a concept that intrigued, tantalized and inspired readers and players, and left them with the question:

WHAT IS THE GOD-MACHINE?

You hold in your hands the book that might answer that question… or might simply complicate it.

What rises may fall. What ha fallen may rise again.

The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology is The Onyx Path’s opening salvo of a new series of products for the World of Darkness under the auspice of the God-Machine Chronicle. Since the launch of the new World of Darkness White Wolf/CCP has released a plethora of products as part of their toolbox approach to game design while shying away from developing an overarching “meta-book.” While some books have strayed close to the line between the two for the most part each product was a package of tools each troupe could play around with to build the World of Darkness they want to explore. Now Rich Thomas and the many creative forces behind The Onyx Path are stepping over that line and producing a chronicle book, a setting in which we can explore a particular vision of the World of Darkness (which some tweaks to the core rules to match). This anthology begins the exploration of that vision, wetting our whistle for the upcoming chronicle book which we will not get to see until sometime in 2013.

The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology collects nineteen works of short fiction which continue to “intrigue, tantalize and inspire readers” from start to finish. Seven of these tales originally appeared in other works produced by White Wolf/CCP and twelve of them are all new creations. Fans of the company and their game lines will recognize many of the writers and game designers who have lent their talents to the creation of this tome. Each piece ranges in quality from good to great but I cannot express how impressed I am with the anthology as a whole. Each story really is a piece of a much larger puzzle. This is a puzzle which we are only now starting to see its outline and there is still so much more to reveal.

Does the anthology answer questions about the God-Machine? Yes and no. If anything I have a thousand more questions than before I started reading. That is probably a good thing because I am even more excited for future releases now

Upon completion of the anthology I poured myself a glass of wine and decided to lounge on my futon with the television buzzing in the background. I realized a feeling of melancholy had crept over me with a touch of hopelessness. Not too much but just enough that I wanted to relax and let the cogs keep turning on their own without interruption. Obviously the anthology had the intended effect and I was very much in the right mindset to begin exploring this new setting.

By the way, screw room 913 and Steven Young can have the sixth floor! I am happy here in my third floor apartment. You’ll understand those references once you read the anthology and believe me, you will read it.

Rated 5 out of 5

Review by Michael Holland.

Related posts:

1. The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology for World of Darkness is Available Now!
2. Falling Scales Chapter One RPG Review
3. White Wolf – Friday the 13th Sale!

Available at DriveThruFiction.com

New Tales of the Yellow Sign by Robin D. Laws is a collection of eight short stories that invokes and draws inspiration from The King in Yellow, the 1895 psychological horror collection of Robert W. Chambers. In writing New Tales, Laws undertakes what is, in my opinion, one of the most difficult projects for an author—writing a short story collection built around a core concept or a small number of central themes. The challenge in doing this is that whether readers are trying to or not, they tend to judge each short story on its own, instead of how it fits into the collection’s overarching concept and themes. In composition, I see a collection like New Tales to be akin to concept albums. Each has “core tracks” that advance the concept. Each may include “voice breaks” where the audience is addressed directly as a way to make the message more explicit to the audience. Each often contains a “cover song” or a selection that pays homage to a past artist that the overall work is drawing inspiration from. Finally, both short story collections and concept albums try to avoid “filler tracks”—the selections that don’t really fit with the rest of the collection, but are sometimes included anyway. Approaching New Tales of the Yellow Sign from this viewpoint, I believe that Laws’ collection should be considered a creepy, disturbing success. From my point of view Laws strikes an acceptable balance in his collection having four and a half “core tracks,” one and a half “voice breaks,” one “cover song,” and only one bit of “filler.”

The core stories of New Tales of the Yellow Sign revolve around themes of madness, horror, and unexpectedly love. “Full Bleed,” “A Boat Full of Popes,” “Distressing Notification,” and “The Dog” are all core stories, while the story “Gaps” straddles the line between my view of a “core track” and a “voice break.” Throughout these stories Laws develops a North America that is both familiar and alien. There is just enough of our modern world exemplified in each story so that the weird and metaphysical additions to each story come through as more disturbing than they might otherwise in a vacuum. Through these stories Laws explores the weird, disturbing, and sometimes redemptive, aspects of modern society through the lens of psychological and metaphysical horror characteristic of Chambers’ original The King in Yellow. Of the core stories in New Tales of the Yellow Sign, I found “Distressing Notification” and “Gaps” to be the most disturbing and entertaining. In “Distressing Notification,” Laws turns a horoscope app for smartphones into a terrifying specter of doom while also playing on the disturbing intrusiveness of modern technology in daily life. In “Gaps,” which is far and away my favorite story in New Tales, Laws explores the horror of lapses in memory and control over your body in one of the best uses of a second person narrator I have ever read. “Gaps” is immersive, suspenseful, and the horrifying lack of control I felt as a reader mirrored the horror the narrator felt over his or her lack of control. Overall, each of the core stories offers a compelling view of our modern world and the strange horrors that we refuse to acknowledge or lurk the periphery of our consciousness.

Laws pulls the reader directly into the weird world of New Tales in aforementioned “Gaps” as well as the bombastic, in your face finale, “F@&k You You’re Not Getting Out of This Car.” From my view, these two stories serve a similar role to voice breaks during an album. They directly engage the audience. In “Gaps,” Laws pulls the reader into the story as a means to impart that something is not right in the world of New Tales. While the narrator is grasping at the inexplicable gaps in his or her memory, the reader grapples with the weird and impossible aspects of the world of New Tales. Suspense builds as the plot skips towards the resolution, and as the reader struggles to figure out what is not right in the world of the story. Laws ends New Tales with a hammer blow of a story in “F@&k You You’re Not Getting Out of This Car.” Written in second-person, just like “Gaps,” the reader is placed in the role of a person who is trapped in a car with a bitter, disenfranchised lunatic. The overwhelming message of “F@&k You” is that there are crazy people in the world, crazy people who are dissatisfied with their marginalized existence in mainstream society and they’re not going to take it anymore. While lacking in subtlety, the chilling part of the story comes from the sliver of uncertainty about whether the railing lunatic screaming at the narrator is just a violent madman, or if he is a righteous protector, striking down one of the pervasive, weird, or alien evils that have assaulted others throughout the pages of New Tales.

The final two stories in New Tales, “The Blood on the Wall in the Fortress” and “Pendulous,” represent one homage piece and one filler story. “The Blood on the Wall in the Fortress” pays homage to the original work of Richard Chambers. While set in World War era, as opposed to the late 19th century, the story gives a direct nod to French settings used in many of the stories in The King in Yellow. “Blood on the Wall” is itself, a frightening commentary on the dangers of standing out as different in a group, as well as the psychological tolls of war. While not a bad story by any means when viewed on its own, “Pendulous” struck me as a text that was included in New Tales of the Yellow Sign because seven stories did not seem like enough for the collection. For a collection otherwise filled with impactful and imaginative tales, “Pendulous” seemed bland and banal in comparison. In an otherwise sweetly orchestrated collection of fiction, “Pendulous” sticks out in my mind as the one sour note.

In closing, New Tales of the Yellow Sign is, overall, a quality and entertaining collection of strange and disturbing tales. I feel that any fan of the original The King in Yellow, as well as fans of authors in the vein of Lovecraft and Bierce, will enjoy this collection of short stories put forward by Robin D. Laws. Even people who are not fans of horror, but enjoy the occasional suspense-thriller, should find enough to like in New Tales of the Yellow Sign to justify a read. The only audiences who I would not recommend New Tales to are people who dislike any type of horror, and perhaps younger audiences, as Laws does use strong language in some of his stories. I enjoyed my time spent wandering through the varied world of New Tales of the Yellow Sign, and would not hesitate to give the collection another read through in the future.

Review by Brian Hagen

Related posts:

1. New Tales of the Yellow Sign by Robin D. Laws

Available at Amazon.com

Ghouls of the Miskatonic by Graham McNeil was published a little over a year ago and marked the first foray into fiction publishing for powerhouse board game publisher Fantasy Flight Games. Ghouls takes place in Fantasy Flight’s Lovecraftian setting, Arkham Horror, and is the first book in The Dark Waters Trilogy (the second book in the trilogy Bones of the Yopasi has also been published). The plot of the novel follows a menagerie of characters trying to solve the mystery behind the disappearance and murder of a number of girls from Miskatonic University, as well as the character’s attempt to keep a grip on their sanity when faced with giant flying mantis creatures who think dress formal means wearing their brains on the outside.

The novel definitely reads a bit like Modern Lovecraft 101: Introduction to Creepy Weird Things, and in my opinion, limits the scope of the audience that will truly enjoy Ghouls to die-hard fans of the Arkham Horror games or relative neophytes of Lovecraftian fiction. Personally, while I was reading Ghouls I felt like I SHOULD love it, but was never truly able to immerse myself in McNeil’s novel.

Ghouls of the Miskatonic does a number of things very well. In fact, one of the reasons that I felt like I should love the novel is it checks a number of boxes that I look for in a novel: good characters, rich setting, and memorable lines of writing. Ghouls does a wonderful job of bringing characters from the Arkham Horror games to life. Characters that were previously a collection of stats and a few lines of flavor text are on card are given life and depth in McNeil’s novel. Personal favorites like Kate Winthrop and Finn Edwards, as well as other game characters like Rita Young, Amanda Sharpe, and Rex Murphy, play significant roles as the plot unfolds. The development of these characters throughout Ghouls provides readers with insight into each character’s hidden inner strength that makes him or her a viable investigator. Plus, in future games when monsters are overrunning the board, it will be hard for me not to hear Finn Edwards’s Irish lilt in my head hollering, “We gotta get the sh@$#ing hell out of here.” (Thanks for that one Graham.)

Ghouls, as Fantasy Flight’s first Arkham Horror novel, does a good job of fleshing out the cracked masonry and peeling wallpaper of the setting. Much like his work with the characters, McNeil does a fine job of bringing the drawings of locations from the board game to life and gives them real depth. The various gothic to 1920s modern buildings on Miskatonic University’s campus are given weight and depth that the Various Arkham Horror games simply cannot provide. It is the loving development of the game’s characters and settings that I believe will make Ghouls of the Miskatonic an enjoyable read for die-hard fans of the various Arkham Horror games.

The plot of Ghouls is a bit of a mixed bag for me. The novel is very much an introduction to Lovecraft’s Cthulu mythos on which the Arkham Horror games are based. McNeil skillfully checks all the boxes required by a Lovecraftian story: creepy setting, horrific monsters, a foray into another dimension, a handful of people driven to madness, and a frat house full of evil cultists. The presence of so many standard Lovecraftian elements is why I believe Ghouls would be a highly enjoyable read for someone not intimately familiar with Lovecraft’s fiction. However, I felt the somewhat standard nature of the novel’s plot might be too predictable for someone who has read Lovecraft and Lovecraft inspired fiction before. Admittedly, mythos stories can sometimes offer a new take on things and reboot a mythology, but Ghouls felt more like an ‘in case you missed it’ take on the Cthulu Mythos.

While I reading Ghouls, feeling like I should be in love with the book, there were a couple of aspects of the novel that I felt could have been done better. The first was the pacing of the book. McNeil attempts to juggle a full complement of characters, weave their various plotlines, and introduce new readers to the Cthulu Mythos. The result, I feel, is an unevenly paced book, with a handful of throw away scenes. I found I enjoyed Ghouls the most when McNeil ran with one plotline for a number of scenes. In these instances the plot picked up momentum and seemed to be heading in a focused direction.

The pacing was at its weakest when the novel jumped between all of the plotlines in back to back scenes, and any time an added scene was thrown in to emphasize the fact that there is something not quite right with the town of Arkham. In these cases it felt like McNeil was muddling along with only a vague idea of where the book was heading, either that or there had been some mandate from the publisher that certain scenes had to be included, and McNeil just dropped them into the novel he wanted to write as best he could.

The second area that I felt the book struggled with was building the horror and suspense that is traditionally associated with Lovecraftian literature. Somewhere between the words on the page and the emotions that were created I felt a disconnect. While McNeil describes many things that are horrible (e.g., a ghoul making a feast out of some poor sap), these rarely create a sense of horror. This might have been a result of McNeil’s well-written, descriptive prose leaving the reader little room to imagine that some terrible monster might be waiting for a character just around the bend. Another possibility is that, unlike the games where losing is a very real possibility, there is never any sense in Ghouls that the main characters were in any long-term danger of being killed or going mad. Whatever the specific reason, Ghouls felt like a story where horrible things happened without much horror.

Ultimately, I feel that Ghouls of the Miskatonic is a technically well-written novel that some audiences will absolutely enjoy. There is some wonderful development of Fantasy Flight’s Arkham Horror setting, and there are some memorable lines in the novel. I also think that there are certain audiences that will share my feelings about Ghouls; it’s a book they will want to like, and maybe even feel like they should like, but in the end feel it was just an okay read.

Review by Brian Hagen

Related posts:

1. Cthulhu Week: A Note from the Editor at Innsmouth Free Press
2. Hardboiled Cthulhu Fiction Review
3. Happy Birthday H.P. Lovecraft

Available at Amazon.com

Citadels of the Lost is Book Two in The Annals of Drakis series by Tracy Hickman. A veteran author, Hickman explores a new fantasy world where the opposites of magic provide power (and a lack thereof) to varying races; humans, elves, dragons, dwarves, goblins, chimerians, manticores, etc. The elves rule the dreaded Rhonas Empire with an iron fist — and slavery by use of their magical source dubbed the “Aether.”

In Book One, readers met Drakis as a slave who ripped his freedom from the creepy elves. These aren’t the namby pamby nature lovers found in other fantasy stories; these elves are power hungry and desperately want/need to control everything they can get their hands on. As such, there are layers and layers of motivation, intrigue, and secrets to be found there. Now, I haven’t read the first book, and I feel that my experience was poorer as a result. Certain characters and character types I had to learn more about by example — The Lyric and chimerians were hard for me to picture until I got further into the book. The love affair between Mala and Drakis also seemed to take second stage compared to the quest-like nature of what had to happen here. Their relationship seemed very one-sided, but it felt like it had to be. I’m sure this would have made more sense to me if I learned not only how they met, but why Drakis fell so hard, so fast for her.

So, if you’re going to read this book? Definitely pick up the first one. That doesn’t mean, however, that this book wasn’t enjoyable. It was nice to read about an empire where humans were enslaved, struggling, and scattered. I found myself diving into the story rather quickly; I just felt like I was missing something important. This is a land focused more the social intricacies of power; a realm where magic wasn’t as common as one might think and, even then, there are rules based on the physicality of what’s required to perform magic. With physical apparatuses required to access the two sides of magic, this is firmly a story about characters and conflict and less about the proverbial sparkles. There’s a cleanliness to the prose where no word was wasted; no scene unnecessary. Everything here allows you to lounge in this world until the next character-gone-wrong or the next threat pokes its head out.

The questing nature of this book is centered upon a hero and his legend — Drakis. But is he a hero? Or a pawn? Well, he certainly doesn’t want to be the savior of humanity, but multiple happenstances, messy accidents, and determined characters seem to keep tossing the idea of destiny his way. This take on the main character provided a sense of reality to this tale, for the world turns regardless of heroic, epic deeds. Indeed, Drakis may have the brawn, but beyond that? Who is he really? A lovesick man who’s trying to make good on a promise?

New characters and scenery are introduced in this book the further Drakis and his ragtag band of adventurers explore the northernmost lands. While the story continues to set up the epic battle you know has to happen, certain characters enrich the experience, characters I’d love to see die a miserable, lonely, terrifying death — like Tsi Shebin Timuran. (Yes, I would really like to see her die painfully and slowly. . .) Much of what the elves can do is based on magical brainwashing called “Devotions.” Imagine, never being able to think for yourself, because someone else holds the magical key to your free will. That, in a nutshell, is what gives the elves their fierce power. Take that away, and. . . Well, you can see why Drakis, an escaped slave, is such a threat to Shebin and the elves.

If you’re searching for a fast read, I would pick up this book only if you’ve read the first one. I’m very much looking forward to the next in this series; I feel it’s an interesting take on a “What if?” scenario. Clean, streamlined, and fast-paced, I’d classify this to be a contemporary fantasy novel that teeters more on the character and “cost” side than the epic awe and wonderment — although the latter is there, hidden within the annals of history.

Review by Monica Valentinelli

Related posts:

1. The Lost City RPG Review
2. Blight Elves RPG Review

Available at Amazon.com

A Discovery of Witches is the first book in the All Souls Trilogy and was written by Deborah Harkness. The premise is centered upon Diana Bishop, a historian with a secret past, who stumbles upon an ancient text that is *also* a palimpset. After her accidental discovery of Ashmole 782, Diana’s life begins to change — and not necessarily for the better.

What drew me to this story was the promise of mysteries and ancient texts. I immediately identified with Diana and her more rational side and, as the book’s secrets took a strange turn, felt even more drawn into the story. Enter Matthew Clairmont, an ancient vampire with a long history and many secrets of his own. With his introduction, the story turned to romance and the mystery of Ashmole 782 and why it was so important stepped into the background as Diana got swept up into a relationship and a world she turned her back on.

As I was reading this, I got a sense that paranormal romance stories steeped in forbidden romance greatly inspired this trilogy. Since those books are not my usual fare, I was surprised at the amount of attention spent on the world-and-relationship building between the two characters. There are a lot of sensory details in the book that pull out historical elements and modern-day luxuries like food, wine, sports, architecture, cars, etc. and I appreciated the amount of research required to weave them into the plot. This technique wound up shifting my attention from the secret of the book to the relationship itself. Once it was revealed that the characters were “meant to be” together, I found myself wondering if there was something else going on, something more sinister that Diana hadn’t quite grasped yet. Diana became more emotional as the story progressed and I found myself identifying with other characters as a result. To Harkness’s credit, there was a plot-driven reason for her behavior, but the immersion into her perspective made me cringe at times when her emotions overcame not only her rationale, but everything she had accomplished in her adult life, too.

Written in the first-person narrative, the perspectives themselves are flawless and you get a full range of character depictions for Matthew and Diana from multiple characters. You’ll find no mechanical clunky bits in this tome. Part-historical romance, part-urban fantasy, A Discovery of Witches has a lot of the same elements you might find in a dreamier, more contemporary adult version of Twilight — only “Bella” is an all-powerful witch who hasn’t yet tapped into her powers.

I feel that those who enjoy a more romantic and atmospheric style of paranormal romance will greatly enjoy this 579 page tome. If you’re like me, and you love the concept of ancient alchemical texts hiding secrets, you may want to wait until you read the synopsis for Book Two of the series titled Shadow of Night before deciding whether or not you want to dive in. In my mind, A Discovery of Witches is clearly about the developing romance between Matthew and Diana and the forces that want to tear them apart or push them together for all eternity. The book is important, yes, but not as crucial as the couple it affects.

Review by Monica Valentinelli

Related posts:

1. Witch Blood (Elemental Witches, Book 2) Review
2. Witch Fire (Elemental Witches, Book 1) Review

Available at Amazon.com

Nightglass by Liane Merciel

Nightglass is an anthropological study of two cultures and a great story. Both of the elements are nicely intertwined.

The first half of the book follows the training of a boy named Isiem as a follower of Zon-Kuthon in Nidal. The second half is about his escape from this oppressive culture as a man and his living with the Strix around Devil’s Perch in western Cheliax. Sort of a lawful evil Harry Potter and then a flying Dances With Wolves.

The beginning shows a survivor of a merchant caravan being nursed back to health by a dangerously(for her village) kind woman in the Fangwood, and her young children. This is our first taste of life in the nation of Nidal, where during the Age of Darkness the people called out for deliverance and their prayers were answered by the dark god Zon-Kuthon. Striking a terrible bargain for safety but being forever bound land, body, and soul to a sadistic mad god.

After the boy Isiem is found to have a talent for magic, found with the Nightglass, he and a few other children from his village are sent off to a wizard academy/ temple in the shadowed capital of Pangolais. The training is harsh, the conditions and surroundings are warped and frightening, but they progress in the training to varying degrees. Isiem of course is a prodigy, his friends are a mix of skilled and incompetent in aspects of the wizard training.
The students then learn aspects of the religion of Zon-Kuthon, performing horrific ceremonies of torture to themselves and others.

This first section of the book shows the culture and lifestyle of the subjects of Nidal, having such a deep and inside look at a fantasy culture is essentially a dream come true for me. I now want books like this for all of the unusual and interesting cultures of the Inner Sea. From the daily life of villagers under the thumb of shadow powered masters, to the training and upbringing of those with talent for shadow magic, Nightglass offers a look into a terrifying society.

The second part of the book involves Isiem’s escape from the world of shadows. He and another wizard-priest are sent as emissaries to the allied nation of Cheliax. There they are put with the Order of the Gate Hellknights, ones who focus more on magic than martial talent, and go with them to investigate a mining town in the western reaches of Cheliax. There a boomtown around a newly discovered silver mine, called Devil’s Perch, is under attack from the Strix inhabiting the area. After an attack to rescue a captured Strix finally destroys the town and drives the inhabitants and Hellknights away, Isiem is captured by the Strix.

He is held effectively as a prisoner in a small house near the home territory of this tribe of Strix. Using magic he begins talking with the daughter of the tribe’s matriarch, no they don’t fall in love but they do become friends. She w as to learn about humans and in particular how to fight the Chelaxians threatening their seasonal hunting grounds.
Of course Isiem and the Strix eventually band together to drive off the force sent to exterminate them, and force the Chelaxians to sign a non aggression treaty.

I am leaving out a lot of detail and plot because I want you to go get this book and read it. So far I have found the Pathfinder fiction to be hit or miss. Guns of Alkenstar was a huge strike out, the two novels Nightglass and City of the Fallen Sky have been home runs.

Also, I now feel like I could play a character from Nidal, and would really like to play a Strix of the type in this book, human hating but still reasonable.

This is yet another Pathfinder novel just overflowing with Golarian flavor and information, deeply rooted in the cultures of the Inner Sea. Now I need a book set in Druma so I can learn about the Prophecies of Kalistrade, another subject of great interest to me.

So seriously pick this up. In papeback or an ebook, it was a dream to read in my iPad. These Pathfinder novels are getting me to reconsider my aversion to non physical books.

Reviewed by Bryce Pearcy
Dissentingdice.blogspot.com
@bryce963

Related posts:

1. An excerpt from Pathfinder Tales: Nightglass
2. Pathfinder Tales: City of the Fallen Sky Excerpt
3. Matt Hughes, Liane Merciel, and Tim Pratt Discuss Their Forthcoming Pathfinder Tales Novels

Available at Amazon.com

I picked up The Iron Wyrm Affair when I first learned about it to support the author. I had the chance to connect with the extraordinarily prolific Lilith Saintcrow on Twitter and, while I’ve never met her in person, I’ve always been inspired by the passion she has for her craft. I had no idea what to expect when I dove into this, but I had read some of her other books. I have a lot to say about this particular tome and its characters so I hope you enjoy the review.

I feel that the cover art misrepresents the book’s contents a little bit, because based on my other experiences with books painted in this light, I immediately get this sense that there’s a potential for romance between the two characters and they’re on equal footing. While that may happen in other books down the line, I quickly learned that the characters’ body language is also very telling for this story. The two are very much at odds with each other and they are staring straight ahead — NOT at each other. This may be subtle, but I want to point this out that their relationship is established from the beginning and they (for lack of a better word) really do hate each other.

Bannon is a forensic sorceress with sharp tongue and a fierce disposition. Clare is at war with his own mind. His conflict is internal; he can become overwhelmed easily if the world doesn’t fit within his rational parameters because of his preternatural logic machine. (Or, in other words, his extremely complex Mentath brain.) Her conflict is external. Her charges have been killed, she can’t trust her protector Mikal known also as her “Shield,” and someone has targeted the young Queen. It’s also social. While there are flavors of Victoriana here, some of the social constructs still ring true. Even in this alternate setting, men and women are expected to act in a proper manner befitting the late nineteenth century time period. As soon as I realized that this was not supposed to be a historical reenactment or a purist’s definition of steampunk (whatever that happens to be), I let Bannon take the lead, settled into a magically-embedded world, and stopped worrying about the particulars. While I’m fascinated with the steampunk genre, I tend to focus more on story anyway, so if there’s a specific historical thing you’re hoping to hang your proverbial hat on, you won’t find yourself drowning in those details here.

Set in an alternate Victorian era, this fast-paced story takes place in and around Londonium. The worldbuilding is embedded into the plot as opposed to something that’s revealed slowly and carefully. I felt this was necessary to preserve the suspense, mystery, and pacing of the tale, since much of the necessary development is focused on the characters themselves. This, to me, means that some of you may read this and want to know more about the world up front, based on the styles of storytelling that you’re used to. However, there is character growth for both Clare and Bannon within the context of the plot. This means that the story is unlike Sherlock Holmes in the sense that the characters here are not iconic. They will grow and change with their experiences. If The Iron Wyrm Affair is any indication, we’re not going to meet them for the first time and see them do the same thing over and over again in every story. I thought here Clare’s character shifted more than Bannon’s did, but her catalyst originated from a different part of her character that was not based on her sorceress’s power. It originated based on what both her and Clare tend to avoid (and have in common): human emotion.

As others pointed out, I did get the sense that Clare was a nod to Sherlock Holmes. (Note: I didn’t read all the marketing materials and kudos before I dove into the story because I’ve been in marketing for far too long. I tend to do that after the fact, though!) In particular, the use of the word “Mentath” made me realize that this wasn’t a Victorian-era logic puzzle, this was something else. Once I got past that Clare was not Holmes, I started to think about what he was dealing with. In many ways, he is painted as a victim rather than a hero. He is the weaker of the two investigators, but I felt that was appropriate given his level of experience. Bannon is far, far, far stronger because she is at the top of her game. She is Prime, she has been on investigations before, and she already has the Queen’s trust.

Clare, on the other hand, has none of these things. When the story begins, he is physically incapable of dealing with his enhanced mind. This puts him at risk — he can literally lose himself in his thoughts and never come back to the real world. Bannon has her own weakness; her magic is renewed every Tideturn and she, like Clare, can lose herself in her magic. Getting the two to work together, even though they are at odds with one another, isn’t as easy as it sounds because Clare is just learning how to be an investigator. To bridge that conflict, the story is made stronger by the way Saintcrow handles a cast of secondary cast of characters integral to the plot.

In many ways, I felt more drawn to the mystery the better I got to know the characters. I welcomed the pulp aura the story gave off and could imagine this as a graphic novel or a comic book series. Still, everything in the overreaching story about a sorcerer gone wrong, a terrifying machine, and a throne at risk, was inserted for a purpose. The tightly-woven prose very much reminded me of all the reasons why I like properties like Hellboy. There are recognizable characters, a deeper mystery, and a world we get to know through the character’s experiences. Not to mention, there’s a horrific element that sets the stakes a little higher, then a little higher still.

While the main plot was resolved within the first book, I have my suspicions that it is nowhere near done and some of the villains will be reappearing either physically or mentally. I’m curious to see what happens next and how SaintCrow handles the challenge a lot of writers face. Will she reveal more world as the series continues? Or will the characters evolve in bigger, better, and maybe even a few not-so-nice ways?

If you like steampunk for its possibilities within dark fantasy, strong female characters, and character-driven stories, I think you’ll really enjoy The Iron Wyrm Affair.

Review by Monica Valentinelli

No related posts.

Available at DriveThruFiction.com

Hell’s Door Open
by Jon Creffield

Prince Calgus found himself standing before a mirror, regarding his own face but seeing something alien; blood surrounded his mouth, his garments were torn and faded, stained with wine and food, his blond hair matted, and his hands coated in gore.

A story’s first sentence is always an important one. Although this is not the first sentence of the novel when you take the prologue into account this is the moment readers meet Calgus, Prince of Sept. It is also the moment when you realize that Jon Creffield is going to take the classic tale of swords and sorcery and turn it on its head. Hell’s Door Open is equal parts fantasy and horror with healthy doses of great storytelling.

Prince Calgus has only recently come into his throne but he has proven himself to be a just and capable ruler. Unfortunately, he has also been saddled with the fallout of the evil works of those who came before him which have culminated in a night of utter madness afflicting all of Sept. The city is covered in blood and the enemy is at the gates.

Sevenet is a thief and a jack of all trades who had the bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time committing the wrong crime. Some might call that justice but others would call it fortune. Sevenet is a survivor but there is something about the prince which moves him to act against his nature.

Jessela is a talented wizardess and the daughter of Elivas, former Astrologer Royal. Her mage craft skills are potent but will they be enough to aid the prince when he needs it most? She feels herself drawn to the prince and feels a strange stirring within herself when she is near him.

Semara is a trained courtesan as well as a secret member of the Short Fingers, female assassins under the control of the mysterious Mistress. Oh how she loathes Sevenet and his frequent advances.

This is the first book in Jon Creffield’s Hell’s Door Series and it amazes me how he is able to balance the fast moving pace of the story with an honest development of each of these four characters. Calgus and his companions struggle against the physical threats which assail them but also against the psychological and spiritual strains of having your world turned upside down in a single night. Each of Creffield’s protagonists is a product of their forbearers and they are forced to question their place in a world much larger than themselves.

Hell’s Door Open examines the relationship between mankind and deity with an eye towards the mysteries of understanding a divine will which would allow bad things to happen to good and innocent beings. Why do the gods allow evil to thrive? Where does it come from? Is anyone truly good and how does virtue survive in a vicious world? Sevenet has a few choice words on this topic and Creffield explores these issues in interesting ways.

This book is a bit of an experiment for Jon Creffield as he delves into the realm of self-publishing fantasy and science fiction. His intentions are to share what he learns through experience with the community to help others forge ahead into this young corner of the publishing industry. Hell’s Door Open is currently available in ebook format and he is working on bringing the book to print. He is also considering options for an audio book release.

I enjoyed this novel quite a bit. Reading self-published fiction can still be risky at times but Jon Creffield has delivered a fine example of smart, well written literature that will entertain fans of both fantasy as well as the macabre.

Review by Michael Holland

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Available from Dark Regions Press

Carnacki: Heaven and Hell
By William Meikle
248 pages
Dark Regions Press

I’m a fan of Carnacki. The somewhat stuffy British paranormal investigator, whose adventures were first cataloged more than a hundred years ago in Carnacki: The Ghost Finder by his creator, author William Hope Hodgson, have fascinated me since I was urged to read them by a good friend. I was curious, therefore, when I discovered that another author, Scotsman William Meikle, had taken up the mantle of telling some new Carnacki tales in Carnacki: Heaven and Hell. I tried to be objective going in, but my fondness for the character had me pretty excited to read some new adventures.

Meikle captures the voice of Hodgson’s occult detective very well. He never fails to include the characters of Jessop, Akrwright, Taylor and the narrator, Carnacki’s friends to whom he relates each of his adventures once he’s concluded them and returned to the safety of his Chelsea lodgings. I was by turns gratified and annoyed by the characterization of these four; Meikle gives them more depth of personality than Hodgson ever did, and at least one of them proves frequently to be an annoying fellow, which speaks highly of Mr. Meikle’s skill at writing believable characters. Also, the cover art and interior illustrations by Wayne Miller set the tone well and do justice to the material.

The first tale, “The Blooded Ikwla”, recounts the horror of Captain James McLeod, who is being haunted by a Zulu stabbing spear that wounds him night after night. Can Carnacki find out who – or what – is behind these attacks before the captain dies the death of a thousand cuts? A solid introduction to both the character and his methods.

The second tale, “The Larkhill Barrow”, was my first real indication that things were going in the right direction with this collection. In it, Carnacki is summoned by the commanding officer of a Royal Artillery firing range. It seems their explosions woke something up that should have been left undisturbed. I liked this story quite a bit. I felt a quibble or two rising with what I felt was slightly muddy occult lore, but it wasn’t distracting enough to change my enjoyment of the story.

The next three stories – “The Sisters of Mercy”, “The Hellfire Mirror’, and “The Tomb of Pygea” were excellent; tense, spooky, and with considerable doubt as to whether Carnacki could succeed in quelling the disturbances, all three were rich in supernatural lore and chilling details. These three alone made the whole book worthwhile for me.

The sixth, “The Beast of Glamis”, proves that a very solid grounding in history can be one of a detective’s most useful resources, and in fact this is an element of the original stories that I appreciated as well. It, and the following tale “The Lusitania”, were both very thoughtful tales, frightening at first, but giving way to both wonder and sadness towards the end. I think I might have arranged the book so that these two were not situated back-to-back in the collection.

Tale number eight, “The Haunted Oak”, was a chilling story, and like “The Lusitania” had no clear ending. The haunting may have stopped, but it’s difficult to say if the cause had truly been put to rest, or just forced to wait until conditions grew right again. I find I’m quite fond of this tale as well.

“The Shoreditch Worm” was not my favorite story in the book. There was definitely something supernatural and menacing going on, and the conclusion was satisfactory, but I had trouble reconciling the potential threat with the simple solution. I did feel rewarded however in that this tale was another showcase for some solid detective work on Carnacki’s part.

The final story, “The Dark Island”, is an involved story, broken into three parts for easier chewing. The author made strides here to weave together British Isles mythology more tightly with the existing Carnacki storylines, and for me it worked quite well. In fact the entire book involved Meikle weaving these elements together more closely than the original material – some in more subtle ways than others.

In the original stories, Carnacki The Ghost Finder is involved in a few adventures where the explanation is fairly mundane. I appreciated that aspect; by including the occasional ‘bat rattling around in a cupboard’ story, a bit more spice was added to those stories where a supernatural agent truly was at work. Hodgson was also able to pull this off proficiently enough that the “mundane” stories are no less tense and spine-chilling, so the whole didn’t suffer any in terms of frights and overall quality. If I would change one thing about Meikle’s collection, it would be that – adding a mundane story or two to the book to keep the reader from growing complacent.

This is an excellent collection, worthy of the attention of any reader with a fondness for ghost stories. Meikle does a fine job, both in creating fresh material for the supernatural sleuth, and also for delivering the voice and feel of the classic Carnacki tales. Available in hardcover (for a limited time) and in a trade paperback edition from Dark Regions Press, I urge you to seek out this book with all possible speed; I’m confident you won’t be disappointed.

Rating: Four out of Five stars

Review by Bill Bodden

Related posts:

1. The Gaki and Other Hungry Spirits Review
2. Hell House Novel Review
3. Hell Week Fiction Review

Available at Amazon.com

City of the Fallen Sky by Tim Pratt

This is the first Pathfinder novel that I have read, since getting into the world of Golarion as a DM and player I have wanted stories about it. Turns out there are quite a few available. This is my review of one of them.

First of all I am going to tell you the things I liked the most, then a brief plot description and some final thoughts.

One of the best things this book did was show that it is a Pathfinder story, not just a generic fantasy novel. Yes, the Pathfinder organization was briefly featured, but there was so much more than that to ground this book in the Inner Sea. The way the setting, peoples, places, culture, and even game mechanics was worked into the story really made it come alive. This was more than just mentioning nations and gods, going to Absalom, and using unique monsters. The culture of different areas was discussed, both while the characters were there and by the characters themselves, it felt like a living world that was straight out of the Inner Sea Campaign Setting.

Secondly this book integrated the game with the world in a believable fashion. I can’t remember reading a D&D book that honestly explained Vancian casting in it’s context. But here the Alchemist class is portrayed in not only a mechanically accurate way but in an interesting and characterful way. Alaeron, the main character, is an alchemist and he is seen with his extracts and potions other paraphernalia used in both a game accurate and story believable way. Both the positive and negative aspects of this class Ina the game are portrayed as having real reasons and effects on story. He describes how the potions and extracts he drinks make him feel, the smell, taste, and color of them, it makes the story more immersive I think. I’d love to use those type of descriptive techniques when playing.

Third, the book handles a potentially disastrous situation well. Skiver, the rogue character, is gay and much to my surprise and delight, it’s no big deal. When he first tells Alaeron he is no threat to his intentions for their adventuring companion Jaya because he pitches for the same team I honestly stopped and decided to see just how well this was handled. Skiver’s sexual orientation only comes up about a half dozen times in the book, and it only felt a little gratuitous maybe once. Alearon’s jealousy and spite towards basically anyone Jaya touches happens far more often and is shown for the negative that it is. It even leads to wonderful scene where Jaya kisses Alaeron for good luck and Skiver does too, the descriptions of their respective kissing styles is a great detail. Skiver is just another ne’er do well that is very handy with knives, his orientation only really affects the story when he rebuffs Jaya’s attempts to bribe him.

The story is about debts, love, treasure, and pursuit of knowledge. Our Alchemist is pursued by a Technic League enforcer for taking artifacts from the Silver Mount. Running from retribution and with his hopes at romance along with his desire for knowledge lead him across the world on a harrowing adventure to the fabled Sky City of Kho. With debtors Jaya(to save her brother) and Skiver(to pay off gambling debts), Alaeron sets off from Andoren and heads south to adventure in the Mwangi Expanse near the nation of Osiria.

Want more details? Read the book, City of the Fallen Sky was a very entertaining read that immerses veteran players and non gamers alike in the world of Pathfinder.

I enjoyed it a lot and recommend you pick it up, it’s available as both a real and ebook(works on iPad at least, likely more platforms too).

Review by Bryce Pearcy
dissentingdice.blogspot.com

Related posts:

1. Pathfinder Tales: City of the Fallen Sky Excerpt

Available at DriveThruFiction.com

Haunted: Eleven Tales of Ghostly Terror
from Flames Rising Press

I believe this book is cursed, so I will begin with a brief history of my relationship with this book. It has brought me as much woe as enjoyment, thus I keep picking it back up. I first heard of this collection of ghastly mysteries several months ago and my fingers twitched with anticipation. I waited patiently, and was quite happy to see it appear on the shelves of my local game store. Soon it was purchased and in my hot little hands. I read through it in a day and a half, luckily my job at that moment afforded me a plethora of spare time, and was soon tapping out a review. At that point things went a bit sour. My desktop computer began to have issues. At first it would simply delete files, and if you were thinking that the files it deleted centered on this review.. then you were correct. After it deleted my work for a few weeks it started to truly die and before long I had a very large paper weight. A friend then sent me an old laptop, I was delighted and began catching up on the wonders of that exist on the internet. A couple months later I attempted to write, for about the fifth time, my review of Haunted. Again, I was about half-way through and the laptop died. By that time I had lost count of the times I had started, and failed, to get this review done.

At a recent convention I happened to bump into several of the authors where I gleefully obtained their signatures and praised their work. This rekindled my desire to express my utter amazement at this work.

The first tale was “What’s the Frequency, Francis” by Alex Bledsoe. It drew you in, building on the inept failings of a main character devoted to his television fame till he came across a kernel of truth that shook his feeble grasp on reality. His story then fell back in time to focus on a better educated occultist, a man who sought to keep humanity safe, but was equally unprepared for the revelations he came across. I have seen Mr. Bledsoe and his works around Madison, WI for a while, but it takes a lot for me to pick up a new author so I was quite pleased to see a short story by him proving that the praise I had heard was not false. “What’s the Frequency, Francis” was an excellent start.

Next up was “Immaterial Witness” by Jess Hartley. I have never been a fan of obsession, it blinds a person to everything around them and leaves little else but wreckage. “Immaterial Witness” focused on Liz Bordaine, a woman born with an exceptional talent that she was attempting to live off of, but not exploit. She still retained the empathy that the second character, Jackson Mane, had lost. It was a a good story, it kept my attention and started to eek out a little sympathy for Liz and her spectral friend.

After that was “Useless Creek” by Jason Sizemore, perhaps the only story I didn’t heartily enjoy. This was through no fault of the author, the characters were engaging and interesting. The characters had enough of a history to make them memorable, but for some reason I just couldn’t connect to either one. My inability to identify with either of the main characters was just because of me. I did, however, greatly enjoy the ending. I should note that even though I did not like either of the main characters, I was interested in the story enough to read through it several times.

I then read “A Quiet House in the Country” by Bill Bodden. Apparently it was his return to fictional writing after an eight year hiatus, and it was a glorious return. He has done this, now he should do more. When I do find an author I enjoy, and there were quite a few in this book, I get greedy. I get greedy and I want to see more from them. “A Quiet House in the Country” takes place in Wisconsin and focuses on a group of college students wishing to prove that paranormal activities are real. Unfortunately, they found what they wanted and I doubt that they will be as enthusiastic to dive headlong into a research project next time.

The fifth installment was “Ghost Catcher” by Georgia Beaverson. In her story, Alex is a very special boy. Sadly he is saddled with a conniving, oportunistic mother that seeks to abuse his gift as often as possible. It would be a grand world if Liz Bordaine found Alex, she would see his gift and would not seek to exploit him or it. By this story, I was still locked into reading with no pause and no break. It was only after reading the book a few times was I able to read one story, and lay the book down.

Tale six was “We Need Johnny” by Chuck Wendig, it was another story of obsession wreaking havoc. I am a glutton for times when those deserving of punishment are actually punished, so I was a giddy little fan-boy by the end.

“After Life” by Nancy O’Greene was next. It was another tidbit of writing excellence in which a group of poorly educated teens delve into a dangerous world. They found out that dim-witted bravado does not eclipse evil. I found it to be a sad story of lost promise.

Jason L. Blair, of Little Fears and Streets of Bedlam fame, also had a hand in this collection with “It Happened in the Woods at Night”. Stupid kids being stupid, although they probably considered it being brave and adventurous. They paid a heavy price, as one will often do when meddling with affairs well outside of your comprehension.

“The Man Who Built Haunted Houses” by Richard Dansky was odd. It was a pleasant read, but it was definitely odd. It was about a halfway decent man that happened to work for the Devil and he had questions for a small rural family. They were not evil either, they seemed to be more a of a loophole than anything else.

I was somewhat let down while reading “Missing Molly” by Alana Jolli Abbot. It lacked nothing, but after such a sweep delightful offerings perhaps my mind had become jaded. I liked both of the main characters, but perhaps after so many ghastly shenanigans and life and death situation a more basic mystery left me tepid. I don’t know, perhaps if it had just been offered earlier the book I would have enjoyed it more. But, I am merely a reader and those sort of decisions are beyond me.

Lastly, was “Angry Stick” by Preston DuBose and it exceeded my expectations. It hit me like a hammer and left slack jawed in surprise. It was an amazingly strong story and closed the roller-coaster of horror mysteries I had been reading.

Haunted was, and is, a great pleasure to read. I had plunked down my own money to pick it up, and attempted several times to write this review. Now that it is finished and I can finally focus on working on other pieces, I am fearful. I like my new laptop.. what will happen to it when I get this posted to the website (insert overly dramatic crescendo of swelling music and with lightning highlighting a grim expression on my face).

Review by Sean “Nix” Mc Conkey

Related posts:

1. Haunted Reviews and an Award!
2. Haunted: Black Friday Special Offer!
3. Announcing Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror

Available at Amazon.com

Carpathia
By Matt Forbeck
Angry Robot Books
336 pages

In the interest of full disclosure, I readily admit that Matt Forbeck is a friend of mine. As a consequence, this review cannot be seen as totally objective. I firmly believe it can only be seen as fair, both to Matt and to the reader, but I leave that for the readers themselves to decide.

Carpathia, the newest novel by Matt Forbeck and Angry Robot Books, takes place during the momentous disaster that was the maiden voyage of the S.S. Titanic in 1912. Historically, the first ship to arrive to render aid was the Carpathia. Matt’s premise stems from this, and from the idea that there might be a reason why the Titanic survivors would NOT want to be rescued by that particular vessel. In a word: vampires.

As the story unfolds we find Quincey Harker, Abraham Holmwood and Lucy Seward enjoying their voyage across the Atlantic Ocean on the Titanic. These characters refer to their “Uncle Bram” (Stoker) a couple of times, and it is revealed that their parents are several protagonists of Stoker’s story, Dracula: Jonathan and Mina Harker, Lord Arthur Holmwood, and Dr. John Seward. Their first names come from three other principal characters: Quincey Morris, Abraham Van Helsing and Lucy Westenra. More on this in a moment.

Our heroes realize something is wrong, and start working their way to safe areas aboard ship. There is an interesting exchange when Lucy is ordered into a lifeboat, leaving her friends Abe (also her fiance) and Qunicey behind. The time of the Titanic sinking was also the era of women’s suffrage, and the “women and children first” tradition of allotting space in lifeboats briefly becomes a major point of contention. Abe and Quincey want Lucy away and safe; Lucy refuses to leave her dear friends behind. In the end, Abe and Quincey convince Lucy to go.

Our heroes, after travails in the cold north Atlantic water, are indeed rescued by the crew of the Carpathia and brought aboard. At the last moment before rescue, the lifeboat containing Lucy picks up an Irishman, Brody Murtaugh, floating in the water. Unknown to anyone aboard the lifeboat, he’s part of a group of vampires who, upon hearing word of the distress call from aboard the Carpathia, turn into bats and fly to the scene for some easy pickings. After all, given the circumstances what’s one more missing body among hundreds? Dawn is approaching, however, and Brody decides the easiest way back aboard the safety of the Carpathia’s sun-proof holds is as one of the Titanic’s unlucky victims.

The leader of these vampires has his group on the Carpathia bound for Europe. The attention given to their predations in the United States is making things too hot for their kind, and he seeks the relative safety of his remote, mountainous homeland on the Balkan Peninsula as a haven for the large group of predators. He is angry with Brody and others for risking the safety of the rest by their greedy quest for a quick meal. When Brody carelessly disposes of a body aboard ship and is witnessed in the act by Quinn and Lucy, things get out of hand.

I thoroughly enjoyed Carpathia; Forbeck does a great job of setting the scene and of writing believable characters. The painfully direct connection to Bram Stoker’s novel seemed cheesy and unnecessary, but at the same time there are few other ways to have characters become not only believers in the supernatural, but also equipped to do battle with them so quickly. Still it’s a minor bump in the road, and Forbeck’s storytelling abilities more than make up for this short-cut. Along the way they’ll also have to deal with a love triangle, survivors’ guilt and a lot of angry vampires.

Carpathia is a fantastically fun read. Its vampires are definitely not the sparkly, angst-ridden types, but rather ruthless predators who defend themselves viciously and do what they must to survive without remorse. In this, they are true inheritors of the legacy of Dracula himself. They are individuals and have their own conflicts, sometimes resolved in violent, messy ways. Carpathia is well worth picking up, even if you aren’t a big fan of vampires – it is arguably Forbeck’s best novel to date. It’s also an action-packed story and will have readers turning pages as fast as they can.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Review by Bill Bodden

No related posts.

Available at Amazon.com

Edited by: Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Teeth is an anthology of the things that go bump in the night, the ones that have the teeth and the claws to rip your eyes out. It’s a YA anthology, true, but the stories can appeal to adults as well. There wasn’t a story in Teeth that I didn’t like. There were only a few that I felt could have ended better, but other than that personal preference, I would say that each story is well-written, suspenseful, and has excellent pacing. These aren’t all your typical vamps – vampire-like creatures from various cultures grace the pages of this anthology.

Ms. Datlow and Ms. Windling give a great introduction on the history of the Vampire, from its earliest days, to the ever-popular Mr. Collins, to the world of vamps as we know it today. They actually make a good argument for the glittery lead vamp being the heart-throb inheritor of the vampire legend, though I don’t necessarily want to see the connection there. (I mean, really, Angel didn’t sparkle. Spike didn’t sparkle! )

But back to the real point (pun intended) – of the stories in the antho, I decided to cover the top three on my list out of the nineteen stories presented.

Genevieve Valentine’s “Things to Know about Being Dead” is a great mix of melancholy and funny. It follows the life of a tee girl, Sui, after she is transformed into a Jiang-Shi. While Valentine uses some of the traditional aspects of the Jiang-Shi legend, she makes it her own, blending it seamlessly with the modern world. You sympathize with Sui, the complexity of her situation and how she feels like an outsider trapped in her own skin. While it was a wonderfully contained story, with an excellent ending, I wanted to read more.

“Sit the Dead” by Jeffrey Ford is an action-packed story in a modern setting, but with an old-world feel. Luke is just your typical teenage boy when he’s dragged in an otherworldly situation by his girlfriend, Darene, and her family. Her grandfather, Sfortunado, is a grouchy old man that teaches Luke some things about the world that he never expected.

The vampire in the Jewish tradition takes center stage in “All Smiles,” by Steve Berman. It alternates between funny and dramatic as it follows a runaway, Saul. Saul happens to meet with a pair of twins, “all smiles,” and from there things get weird. They don’t like his religious tattoos and that’s not the half of it.

Overall, this is an anthology that’s well worth the read.

Review by Nancy O. Greene

Related posts:

1. Vampire Week: Still Sucks To Be Me Review
2. Vampire Apocalypse Fallout Review
3. Vampire Zero Fiction Review

Available at Amazon.com

Fantasy as a genre is rife with rich worlds, dense descriptions, and complex cultures. As a reader (and a writer) I’ve always been fascinated with how other authors explore cultures within the context of the genre. Sometimes, a culture is revealed through a character’s actions or speech patterns; other times, through the way a particular town or setting is described.

In my experiences, the majority of the books I’ve read keep diverse cultures at the background of the story instead of the forefront. Intellectually, I understand why this is. Often, there’s a lot of world to explore and, in the fantasies I’ve read, that means the story matches that as well. Still, I’ve often found my reading has been bereft of the richness of contemporary stories that were firmly rooted in “a” non-European culture in “this” genre. Is that a fault of the industry? No, it just means there’s been a gap in my library that this picky reader hasn’t been able to fill since I first read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho many years ago.

Now I have.

To understand why Throne of the Crescent Moon is important as a story, I feel I should point out that this tale is a lot like the mythical ouroboros. There’s a beginning and there’s an end, but you can’t quite see the separation of the head and the tail (or the skin and its bones for that matter). Reading this work feels like you’re dropping into a hustling, bustling world that already exists. This, truly, is where the writing excels. This isn’t a story where an inspired cultural iteration is popped in. Every word matters. The fluid, musical style is important to the characters and to the plot. The structure? Equally so, even though it is a traditional sword and sorcery tale, in the sense that there is a quest. The reason why the group must fight together and save the day still boils down to the unique talents they bring to the table, but it’s not the only reason. Friendships do develop over time and while that happens here, there’s a sense of established community and obligation that comes into immediate play. By focuses on a specific town and small parts of the setting, we experience the characterization of its people moreso than we would if the emphasis was on the threat Dhamsawaat faces.

Dhamsawaat is the capital city of a country called “Abassen.” Every element narrated here — from the food, buildings and traffic to the clothing, relationship descriptions, and religious beliefs — is reminiscent of ancient lands where Middle Eastern empires once flourished under the hot sun. The main character, Adoulla, is an unlikely hero and the main focus on the tale. He’s not the plucky young warrior, he’s older and more experienced. This wisdom is often crucial to the progression of the plot and the remaining the characters. This realistic take on the group is refreshing and more realistic because we can grow with characters like Zamia more easily because of their humanity. Even so, each character adds a different aspect to the danger, to the tapestry woven, and to the community. While the idea itself — a cursed villain shrouded in myth — isn’t new, what you’ll be drawn to are the characters who live out life stories of their own.

For these reasons and more, I recommend Throne of the Crescent Moon as an exemplar of pointed, character-driven fantastical fiction that provides us with a sense of wonder about our own world. It is, truly, poetic and worthy of the accolades the book has already received.

Review by Monica Valentinelli

Related posts:

1. Hunting the Moon Tribe Review

Available at ThunderStormBooks.com

“How I wish, how I wish you were here.

Wish you were here.”

- Pink Floyd, “Wish You Were Here”

Perspective is the most powerful force at work in the universe. The angle, pitch and yaw of how things are viewed, how things are not seen, and how things are interpereted by the human heart and mind’s eye forges reality for an individual. Often times this reality, perceived by the individual, exists inimical to equidistant realities nurtured and sustained by other individuals-at-large.

Driving Through the Desert presents such a singular and stalwart perspective. A universally hale perspective. The reality of Driving Through the Desert as engineered and presented by the novella’s author, Donna Lynch, is shared – for the most part – by two individuals; Kam and Henry.

Kam and Henry are on the run from one place to another place where they hope to get lost in the din and bustle of a city. They have no money to speak of. They have no resources. They have a stolen car, a set of blood-soaked clothing for each of them, and each other.

That is all.

The desperation and tension that Lynch is able to convey from the opening salvo of the story is relentless. Consternation dominates the vast majority of Kam and Henry’s story as they try to make sense of their situation and, in kind, survive their situation as it evolves around them through circumstances, memories of what led them to where they have come to travel, and coping with grief while each are in their respective states of individualized shock and awe.

To dive right in an tell a potential reader what Driving Through the Desert is about would spoil the whole of the story for the reader. What is more important, in my opinion, is the expression of what the novella is not about. There are no vampires. There are no zombies. There are no werewolves lurking in the desert crags under a full moon. There are no monsters other than sorrow, anger and regret persuing Kam and Henry across the desert. The horror presented to the reader is not necessarily abject. The horror is a bit more subtle and surreal. The horror of Driving Through the Desert is encompassed in the shallow breathing and rapid pulses of a young woman and man, filthy, stinking of road grime, sweat and someone else’s blood as they run from one reality and hope for a new one at the end of an exceptionally finite tank of gasoline.

Because even in hell, there is hope.

Lynch is a powerful author. She does not waste much time with character sketches and appearances. She has the ability to give very basic descriptions of her protagonists and allows the readers’ minds to build the characters in their heads for themselves. This technique almost forces the reader to use the tatters of clues afforded by Lynch to create Kam and Henry from head to toe, and in doing so, the reader starts to fall into a sense of caring and fear for the pair. However, Lynch’s true power is in her affinity with the immersion of the reader into a setting that, for lack of a better descriptor, is simply “wrong” on so many different levels at many different times for many different reasons. She is able to knit a world from the wasteland of the generic “desert” and turn it into something darkly mystical and instinctually foreboding. She takes dust and vultures and makes them ill omens. She takes a lonely, sand-weathered diner and makes it into an abbatoir. She takes two people who could be any of us or any of our friends and family and she tosses them into this world head-first by the scruff of their necks. Lynch’s ability to convey the sense of loss, the nearly sterile anger born of grief, and the confusion of complete and total unpreparedness for a given situation are expressed through her written word in the same manner that a barber runs a straight razor across a customer’s throat with a single, fluid motion, wipes the razor on his apron, and repeats the action. When Lynch’s blade has passed over the reader’s conciousness, the smooth flesh radiates with the empty coldness of separation from that which has become familiar.

It almost seems that while the author is fearless in her expression of her ideas, her protagonists are nothing even close. Terror and tension are all that Kam and Henry have to keep them company through their drive, and Lynch ensures that niether of them get much of a break from the former or the latter.

A mere 95 pages from introduction to d’enouement, Driving Through the Desert is so fast-paced, so jacked up to a nearly “Eraserhead” level of tension (ironic, given the author’s name), and so artfully painted with words that tend to pluck at the reader’s emotions like a cello, the book is almost like experiencing what the coyote felt every time he fell into a canyon and made a little mushroom cloud when he hit the bottom as the roadrunner “meep-meep!”‘ed at him.

It will knock the wind out of you, if nothing else.

Review by Shannon Hennessy

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Available at DriveThruFiction.com

Review: MACHINE by Jennifer Pelland
Publisher: Apex Book Company
Disclosure: I was a proofreader for this novel.

Story:

A young woman, Celia, undergoes a procedure to have her mental self – memories, thoughts, and her “soul” – transferred to a mechanical replica of her physical self while her body is put in stasis until a cure for her rare condition can be found. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of controversy surrounding the issue of these bodies. And her wife, Rivka, a very religious woman, chooses to leave her at the most difficult time in her life.

Pelland does an excellent job of weaving current political, religious and philosophical issues throughout the story without beating the writer over the head with the message(s). At the core, it is the story of Celia, a woman that must find her own way after the world has turned its back on her through no fault of her own.

Characters:

Celia is well-written, and you instantly empathize with her and her situation. The irony is not lost on her that at one point in history her marriage was deemed an abomination by some. Now her wife takes a similar stance with machine bodies, abandoning her without warning. Celia is left to fend for herself in a world she no longer understands against strangers filled with hate.

But for some she is a cause, a means to an end. For others, she is nothing more than a thing. Celia must find her own way to understand who and what she is, and what that means. Having her life turned upside down leads her on a dark journey of mutilation and crime. When it’s all said and done, what part of her self will remain?

All of the characters are well-written, and the story moves along at a realistic pace.

Shockers:

There are some very interesting shockers, and I won’t spoil it for future readers by revealing those moments.

Recommend:

Yes. An excellent book, well worth reading and adding to the collection.

Review by Nancy O. Greene

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1. The Fields Fiction Review

Fantastic Stories of the Imagination is Warren Lapine’s new anthology, taking an SF magazine sensibility into the anthology market. He brings 14 very diverse stories by a wide range of authors from great masters such as Mike Resnick and Harlan Elision to more recent discoveries (at least to me) Fans of the Liaden universe will be glad to see a Sharon Lee and Steve Miller story.

The tales go from pure science fiction through to urban fantasy. There is no theme to the anthology though many of the stories deal with the intersection between man and machine and the question of where one leaves off. Most of the stories deal with ethical and moral issues characters face, about when to intervene in someone else’s life or situation. Love is encountered, succeeds, disappoints, fails and rises from the ashes as we learn to cope, to hold and to release.

These stories do not disappoint. In reviewing the ones below I applied my peculiar standard which is that it matters little whether I personally like a story but rather whether I felt the author was successful at telling their story. Likes vary too much. Still I am pleased to report there were no stories that I didn’t like, this was a strong field worthy of Churchill Downs and no nags started this race. Some appealed to me more and a very few a bit less but those were due to personal preferences, as Warren observed he does not generally care for Steampunk or religious stories yet both are present in here. So one’s preferences should always be balanced with IS THIS GOOD? WAS IT SUCCESSFUL? As an editor myself I have published stories that I did not like, where the author took a character to a place I personally did not believe the character would go. But I accepted it because it was valid, it was well-written and it belonged. As an editor you want to avoid making all the work sound like yours or your favorite authors. You need to keep room for pieces that defy your expectations. My guess is Warren felt the same.

Full disclosure: I have met Mike Resnick socially and been published by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.

The first story “Interface Patterns” by Kelly McCullough introduces some interesting technology in a future so dominated by computer assistance in daily living as to make the most wired of the latest generation look like Luddites. This is a crime story with an interestingly dark protagonist who may identify a little too much with the other side. Believe me, you will feel the impact of the end of this piece. Usually I am not a fan of virtual reality stories but this one is anchored in blood and pain and will not be confused with a bloodless “holodeck” adventure. VR bites hard in this piece.

Harlan Ellison’s “A Tiny Man” simply has to be read and experienced and I am not quite up to the task of explaining it to you. Madness and genius with two different endings, you will think of this one for a long while after. There is biting satire; an unusual first person narrator addressing the reader, and the perspective is at once intimate and distant. Is it a metaphor? A satire? A tale of Frankenstein in miniature, or have I followed Alice too far down the rabbit hole? All I can tell you it is damn good. Read it and wish you could write this. I did.

“Steaming Into Wonderland” by Douglas Cohen Well I swear that when I mentioned Alice in the proceeding note I had no idea I would literally be going down the rabbit hole with her in Douglas Cohen’s work. I must confess to never having read Alice in Wonderland and now I think that if I do I will find it dull by comparison with this romp through a most unusual wonderland. The Matrix meets Dungeons and Dragons and no one is quite what they seem. The real world references to Suicide Kings are sly reminders that this is not Lewis Carroll yet the voice is kept so well in tune that you may forget. Again, I have not read Carroll but Alice permeates that culture and no one now escapes Disney and the Mouse that Roars so it is certainly what I think of as Alice and probably truer to the original than many of the later movies.

“The Digital Eidolon That Fits In Your Pocket” is Trent Zelazney’s entry. This is the first piece in third person and makes a nice break from the first person perspectives of the other stories. It is a daringly written piece about the converse of all those wedding videos you see these days documenting the couple’s courtship. It features an encounter with a very peculiar salesman, a staple of encounters on the edge of the Twilight Zone. This story generates a real fear that, like the movie Gattaca, it presages a technology that is nearly upon us and that someday in the not too distant future, a salesman might offer you this item, and change the way in which we deal with the final arbiter of our existence, Death. Don’t look up Eidolon until after you read the story. The tone changes from ironic to chilling, and we are left with a question of who or what the Salesman is and how true his claims are. I would have liked a little more on that Salesman but if your worry is that you wanted to stay in a story after it ended that’s a good thing.

Riding the Bus by Tom Piccirilli is written with a fine New York sensibility that comes with an accent in your head (full disclosure I am from New York) and that sense of coping with impossibility that is a daily feature of life in New York. I actually laughed out with joy and enthusiasm with this noir-toned tale. I’d like to buy Tom a beer at some point. This was the first piece of the anthology that didn’t deal with us and technology at sword’s points. It was more about the classics of human life, hope and death. A well-written piece and whatever you think you see coming will not detract from it when it arrives.

“Sluggo” by Mike Resnick. If I laughed aloud in Ton Piccirilli’s story, as I write this, tears sting my eyes at Mike Resnick’s “Sluggo” a tale of loneliness and isolation with hope sprinkled on it. Yet the hope is not the one you expect and the bargain made is not the common one. A true friendship is the most valuable of commodities and love in whatever form it arrives is never to be despised or traded away. Dammit, I need a moment here…

The Swap by Barry Longyear. I needed an emotional break after Sluggo and found it in The Swop, this was a simply fun, though not simply written, tale of revenge and closure and the consequences of the lies we tell ourselves. The setting of Carlsbad Caverns made for an additional interest in this amusing tale of characters on the road of the afterlife.

Starwisps by Edward J McFadden

This tale takes us off our Earth for the first time into a fantasy world with an unlikely airship called the airscrew and Prince trying to save his people. This loosely Steampunk tale put me in mind of the works of Jack Vance in the Dying Sun series though less cynical and bitter. In the end it is the tale of a Prince and a Commoner there is a chance of happily ever after and they have a dog. What more could you ask for?

Custody by Jay O’Connell

Even the undead have family problems in this fast moving take of Mom, Dad and a the teenager whose going to drive them both crazy. This story features an immediacy and point of view that will remind you of True Blood and Sookie.

Haircut by Shariann Lewitt, is a powerful story of a young woman making a choice, I realized that I let out a pent up breath when she did, I was that relieved. I think that tells you most of what you need to know about this involving work. If you need more, well the story deals with life and death and the issue of at what point we trade what we were given by God (or random chance if you are an atheist) for what science can give you, when you do not HAVE to, when you are healthy.

A Cry for Hire, by Carole McDonnell, this piece deals with the intersection of fantasy and religion, a difficult address at the best of time. McDonnell uses a large old house that opens on to other realities and a woman caught in the hypocrisy of her marriage and religion as she reinterprets her life through the boy she meets in another world. Shades of CS Lewis and Orson Scott Card flavor this outing.

And What Were Roses? by Mary A Turzillo is a love story, human and mutant and the issue of whether love can survive the differences. In here too is an interesting issue on revenge. It’s said that an alcoholic must give up alcohol for themselves not for the good of another, and it seems the same can be said of revenge and hatred. You must do it for yourself or you will take to the bottle or the bomb again.

A Box in My Pocket by Amy Sundberg. Another sweet tale of longing and loss that will make your eyes sting if you have ever lost anyone. Sometimes the things we try to hang onto hardest are forced through our fingers. Maybe the thing we want to hang onto is not good for us to keep. It’s a real world issue we all face and will make you think.

Starblaze by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

The anthology wraps up with the only other story to be set entirely off our world, an SF piece of the Liaden universe of Lee and Miller, known for having its own extensive following. Here we find out that the experience of a taxi driver is a universal constant. You never know what can happen when you pick up a fare.

Because this story cannot explain the Liaden universe in its complexity, you may want to look up some information on it. Liaden are humans but culturally they are very Japanese or for readers of CJ Cherryh rather like the huge Atevi of her Foreigner universe. This is a complicated read so pay attention there is a whole universe in here and it is not casually followed. Honor and integrity battle consequences in this tale of a driver who goes to the nth degree for her fares.

Review by Edward F McKeown

Related posts:

1. David A Hill Jr “Ghost Stories on Space Stations”

Available at Amazon.com

Kelly McCullough, author of the WebMage series, dives into the fantasy noir genre with the debut of Broken Blade. Dubbed the Fallen Blade series, this first book introduces Aral Kingslayer, a former assassin for the now-dead Goddess of Justice named Namara.

I feel McCullough’s strength has always been building worlds that the characters are immersed in. Broken Blade explores a different side of dark fantasy than the typical European/medieval fare. The world is a blend of East meets West where remnants of martial arts and Asian mythology merge with European politics and the rights granted by proper lineage.

Written as a fantasy noir, there are plenty of mysteries to explore in this book. Kingslayer is the anti-hero; he’s the drunk who sits in the corner of a bar who’s depressed and feeling sorry for himself — for good reason. His ever-present familiar, Triss, lives in his shadow as Aral simply tries to get through the day. His true identity makes him a pariah; the goddess of justice he once worked as a temple assassin was murdered along with the majority of her Blades.

To make money, Aral works as a shadow jack to take on the occasional dark and shady gig. He’s approached by a mysterious woman who tells him to deliver a message. Only, there’s nothing simple about the lady who hired him or the message he had to deliver. Once he realizes what he’s gotten himself into, the story twists and turns through the seedier parts of town as Aral decides what to do, when to do it, and whom he has to kill.

There are two plots in the book that intersect with one another. The setting, which is supported by how the Goddess Etro was killed, is part of the mystery and supports Aral’s current predicament and the main plot. The primary issue at hand, which is revealed through the enigmatic message, dovetails into an even deeper mystery. While many secrets are revealed in this first book there are a lot more that can be explored as the series and the characters progress.

The setting is what drew me in because it’s not the typical fare and I’m a sucker for anything with leanings toward Far Eastern mythologies. The way McCullough kept the gods and goddesses ever-present but lurking in the background reminded me of the way Tad Williams first introduced them in his Shadowmarch series. I suspect each book in the Fallen Blade series will offer even more of the mythology and the reasons why the Goddess of Justice was murdered. Combined with Triss, these two elements kept me turning page after page to discover more. The only complaint I have was that Broken Blade was way too short for me! The novel wasn’t written as an epic fantasy, but I could definitely spend hundreds of pages wandering around in the wilds of McCullough’s newest creation.

For more about this fantasy book, check out Kelly McCullough’s design essay and excerpt for Broken Blade.

Review by Monica Valentinelli

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Get this book at DriveThruFiction.com

Dinocalypse Now
by Chuck Wendig
Published by Evil Hat Productions
229 pages

So you have this gorilla who wants to rule the world with his army of sentient ape-men, right? Plus, there’s a portal open to another time, and dinosaurs are coming through it – nobody’s sure who’s controlling them, but they aren’t acting purely on instinct. Then there’s the fact that many of the members of the Century Club – a group of two-fisted do-gooders who fight for truth and justice – with Chapter Houses all over the world – have disappeared, and you have the makings of a fantastic romp through pulp action in the classic tradition.

Dinocalypse Now is written by Chuck Wendig, the prolific author who contributed to the majority of work White Wolf Publishing has done in the last decade. Chuck has also written quite a bit on his own, both fiction and non-fiction titles, including his own book Blackbirds, as well as contributing stories to Tales of the Far West and Haunted: 11 Tales Of Ghostly Horror In the interest of full disclosure, I also have a story in the Haunted anthology, so I’m less than unbiased on that point.

When the story of Dinocalypse Now begins, we see new York City in approximately the mid- to late-1930s. Members of the Century Club, a group of people from across all social and economic strata, are being rounded up by persons unknown. The Century Club, despite being outwardly designed as a social club whose members must have a birthday of numerological significance, also harbors more than its fair share of adventurers, scientists and vigilantes.

As the few remaining members of the Century Club piece things together, they realize they’re up against a globe-spanning conspiracy that is part of an invasion from beyond time itself. Dinosaurs begin circling the skies and roaming the streets of New York City; weird, otherworldly gates have opened on remote islands just off the coasts of the world’s continents. It’s an apocalyptic situation, and the threat seems to have materialized out of thin air. Can the remaining Centurions get to the bottom of it and stop this horrific plot from reaching its earth-shattering conclusion?

Dinocalypse Now is based on the world of the RPG Spirit of the Century published by Evil Hat Productions. It’s interesting to see Evil Hat producing fiction to support the line; classic pulp tales like this are the inspiration for Spirit of the Century in the first place, so it makes sense that things should come full circle with Evil Hat publishing a fiction line.

I liked this story a great deal; it’s fast-paced and full of action. The characters are believable and sympathetic; I liked them from the start and cared about what happened to them from page 1. The only negative I found – which may be a positive aspect for a great many readers – was the rapid turn-over of chapters. Most chapters are only a couple of pages in length before cutting to the next scene featuring other members of the cast. In this post-MTV age of rapid jump-cuts, it’s probably a really picky criticism, but I found myself wanting more story from one group at a time. The timing of the events in the story is fairly critical, however, making these rapid jumps important and necessary.

That perhaps is the key phrase to remember from this review; I wanted more. Wendig is a wonderful storyteller and writer, and his tale sucked me in from the beginning. There’s a lot going on in this story, too – almost too much to keep track of. The fact that the ending is a monumental cliffhanger had me shrieking with frustrated rage; I don’t know how I’m going to wait until the second book comes out.

I highly recommend Dinocalypse Now. Not only is it a fun, fast read, it also gives insight into a delightful tabletop role-playing game. It’s well worth your time to check out Dinocalypse Now and Spirit of the Century; frankly, you couldn’t do much better in either case.

Find out more at Kickstarter.com and Dinocalyse.com.

Review by Bill Bodden

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