A sorceress with attitude manages to get her hands on a powerful artifact, which suddenly makes her the most popular (read: most hunted) girl in town. It sound like a great set up, right? That’s how Raine Benares begins her adventures in Magic Lost, Trouble Found, narrating the entire adventure with wry commentary and snarky remarks. For fans of contemporary fantasy, the narration style is a familiar one. Throw it into a high fantasy setting where the narrator is an elven seeker–a sorceress who finds things–and it makes for an odd combination.

Review by Alana Abbott

Sometimes, as an author, you might have it in your head that you’re going to write a very long story. Instead of writing an “epic novel” in one book, you break it up into smaller pieces so that when the end is in sight, the pieces fall together neatly like a stack of dominoes. Small Favor was, to me, one of the dominoes of the over-arching plot. While it tied up a lot of previous plots, it also opened the door to a host of questions for Thomas, Murphy, Michael and, of course, Dresden.

Review by Monica Valentinelli

Welcome to the second installment of the Flash Fire Mini-Reviews series on Flames Rising!

This week we’re talking about ghosts, werewolves, alien slugs and fantasy kingdoms in a mix of books, games and even a movie. Some of these are brand-new releases and others are items that caught my eye for one reason or another this week.

Scar Night is the debut novel from Alan Campbell who, previously, has worked as a designer and coder on the Grand Theft Auto games. It forms, apparently, the first novel in a series to come called The Deepgate Codex. A good, even great first effort Scar Night would seem to (hopefully) establish Campbell as another of the active British fantasists and SF authors that seem to be keeping the innovative side of those genres bubbling along a bit

Aletheia is an extremely difficult book to write a review for because, while it is an RPG, it is one with an extremely defined, extremely tight, extremely focussed setting which amounts to a campaign idea with its own rules, rather than as an RPG as such. Given that so much of the book is devoted to the reality behind the secrets of the setting it is nigh impossible to give a full review and assessment of the game since that would give away too much and spoil it for those that do buy it.

Review by James Desborough

I write for Victoriana, though I didn’t work on the corebook, just so you know. Though I think I’ve established myself as a fair reviewer of products by now. In fact I’m writing this review when I really should be trying to get back on with some writing for Victoriana. Bad monkey, no biscuit. Anyway… Victoriana is a steampunkish, fantasyish, politically aware RPG of an alternative Victorian setting, the height of the British Empire, seemingly limitless technology, mediums, necromancers, strict class boundaries and – most importantly of all – top hats.

Review by James “Grim” Desborough

Erin McCarthy’s Bled Dry, falls into the vampire chick-litesque category of paranormal romance. It chronicles the relationship between Brittany Baldizzi, a dentist, and Corbin Jean Michel Atelier, a french vampire DNA scientist who was turned in the 19th century, and has spent the last century or so looking for a cure to his vampirism. The novel is set in Las Vegas, a good choice for those with a nocturnal lifestyle, but McCarthy could have taken more advantage of her setting.

Nox Arcana’s newest CD in their collection is devoted to the grim, grotesque and the macabre all found within a dark carnival. The CD opens with an introduction; the ringmaster, voiced by Joseph Vargo, welcomes one and all to the “circus of the strange.” Indeed, this CD is “strange” for on it you will hear a blend of organ music, children’s voices and haunting melodies.

The Nightside novels are Simon Green’s homage to the classic “hardboiled” detective fiction of the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. The strengths of these novels are the endlessly-varied settings and characters. In Hell to Pay, Simon’s signature Nightside hero, John Taylor, tackles a missing-persons case. Taylor finds himself at odds with militant nuns; cross-dressers with a strong sense of solidarity; and the usual array of angels, devils, and demigods.

The Ninth novel of the Dresden Files series, White Night advances the plot that has been building up for the last few books. This novel also features more than a few characters from previous books in what feels like a “Who has a beef with Harry?” vibe. Heroes and Villains show up in this story, trading blows and witty dialog throughout.

Billed as an erotic thriller, Season of the Witch is a mentally-seductive tale of tragedy that delves deep into the occult. Before I go any further, I’d like to say that there are a lot of books within the spectrum of supernatural romance that are not soft-core. This is one of those books; personally didn’t think that it was “erotic” in the physical sense; hidden far deep beneath the layers of the plot is a subtle message that will make you stop and think, as if the alchemy in this tale has worked its magic on you.

As the modern supernatural genre swells to the point of over-saturation, it is difficult to read any new author that comes along without comparing the writer to something else. In Witchling, it’s almost impossible to think “three sisters” without thinking of the television show “Charmed” which ran for eight seasons on the Warner Brothers network. Because of a few similarities, fans of the show may find themselves scrutinizing Galenorn’s work just a little bit more to see just how alike Witchling is to Charmed. Are the three women really sisters? Yes. Are the three women empowered, fashionable and sexy? Yes. Do they always seem to come out on top even when things go wrong? Yes.

Caitlin tells us about some of her novels To Charles Fort and The Five of Cups. She also takes a trip down memory lane by telling us about her time in the band Death’s Little Sister.

I’ve read a few reviews of this book that make statements like “Kiernan has finally found her voice,” or “this set of stories flow together so much better than [insert title of short story collection here].” I’m not completely sure that I agree. Granted, the lines that bind some of these stories together, or with her other novels like Threshold or Low Red Moon are a lot more sturdy, but to say that these stories are where Caitlin finally found her author’s voice just strikes me as a little misinformed. Caitlin’s had her voice for several years now, and while it may not be a shout, it is most certainly distinct and it carries.

The author of the Women of the Otherworld series tells about her writing, tells us why she likes werewolves and hands out a little advice for other authors.

Thematically, the story is based on three pieces that merge into a whole. “That Yellow Bastard” comes to life with Nancy (Jessica Alba), and Hartigan, (Bruce Willis). Hartigan is on the brink of retirement; he struggles through his last hours as a police officer to rescue Nancy from the clutches of a high-powered official’s son, Roark Jr., played by Nick Stahl. This segment propels the film. Even if you know what happens, you want to witness their fates. That Yellow Bastard is the punctuation between Sin City and The Big Fat Kill.

Grimm is a d20 setting part of Fantasy Flight Games’ Horizon line. It’s self-contained and only needs the 3 Core books. It’s designed with 3.5 in mind but I imagine the 3.0 Core books could be used without difficulty. The premise is that you play children who have been drawn into the lands where the Grimm fairy tales took place. It was the setting that caught my attention and is the reason I decided to buy it. Grimm definitely gets points for uniqueness.

I’ll be honest; this book snared me as an impulse buy for 2 reasons. First, I needed something to read on the bus ride home from the mall; second, well, I love werewolves and it’s so painfully rare to find a half-decent werewolf story. I’m not sure why it is, but nobody seems to be able to really nail the heart and soul of the werewolf story. The original Howling did it; An American Werewolf in London was a classic, despite its camp, and An American Werewolf in Paris to this reviewer’s mind was a very underrated werewolf film. But other than those three films, good werewolf stories seem to be slim pickin’s. I didn’t expect much better from Bitten, but I picked it up simply because I love werewolves.