Let the buyer beware

Every freehold knows of at least one. Some seem to have grown up almost overnight, like a ring of small white mushrooms. Others seem to have run for millennia, outliving the rise and fall of the freeholds that surround them. They’ll never go away entirely, despite the dangers of their wares. Someone always needs something you can only get at a Goblin Market.

A chronicle book for Changeling: The Lost

Goblin Markets is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

I’ve not been privy to the works of Brian Keene before this past week, nor had I ever even heard of him. I’ve got plenty of reasons as to why Brian has flown under my radar, ranging from my recent urban fantasy kick (I’ve been on a mission to complete The Dresden Files and The Mercy Thompson series lately), making an earnest attempt at reading more of the books my friends ask me to read (recently wrapped up The Lovely Bones to discuss with a gal-pal of mine), to boning up on my ghost hunting & ghost story lore to finish up some of my freelance work for Palladium Books. For these reasons and others I’ve not read a horror novel in what feels like way too long.

But the other week I was hanging out with a buddy who had a copy of Urban Gothic chilling atop a box of books he calls his “finished and ready to trade in” box. Curiosity got to me and I glanced it over, catching various notes of praise like “Brian Keene is the next Stephan King”, “Post-apocalyptic… blunt and visceral” and “One of horror’s most impressive new literary talents.”

In a world where those with special powers are looked down upon and hunted, a secret team is brought together to protect it from the machinations of fallen angels and their children. From a noble cyborg warrior to a jumpy raver girl with electrical powers, they are brought in by a mysterious stranger and have to save a world that wouldn’t save them.

The graphic novel is a collection of short stories, introducing a reader to the universe of Alpha Gods. It is a world of magic and mutants, with sinister demons lurking in the shadows and with human beings developing strange powers. Called Extra Humans or Ex-Hus for short, the world knows they exist and has a largely negative view of them. The Alpha Gods try to protect the innocent ones while they struggle against a sinister corporation known as Grigori Enterprises that is performing experiments that will aid their demonic masters, the Nephilim.

Review by John D. Kennedy

Back by popular demand, Eden Studios presents all lovers of PDFs with an incredible sale on all of their amazing products!

All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Conspiracy X, Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, C.J. Carella’s Witchcraft, Army of Darkness and more!

Enjoy 50% to 75% Off Savings on all Eden Studios Electronic Games for a limited time!

The sale ends Thursday, September 3rd so take advantage of this awesome sale! Price has been automatically discounted off the original (or sale) price so you’ll enjoy huge discounts. If you’ve ever been interesting in conspiracies, paranormal threats, zombies, ghosts, witchcraft or the other things that lurk in the dark — now’s the perfect time to check out these great games.

Eden Studios RPGs are available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

The Flash Fire Mini-Reviews series has crawled out of its grave and returned as a regular feature on the Flames Rising website.

To celebrate we’re going to be taking a look at several kinds of undead this week. We’ve got a mix of games, books and more. This particular edition of Flash Fire Mini-Reviews is going to feature a few different reviewers.

We’re going to take a look at Zombie Haiku, Vampire: the Eternal Struggle, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Geist: The Sin-Eaters and The Estuary.

A school full of kids.

A mysterious yellow rain.

High school will never be the same.

They are outcasts and misfits, teenagers lost on the path to adulthood, living day-to-day inside a high school culture of taunts, humiliation, and isolation. They are the misunderstood, the neglected, and the abused. They are . . . The Lifeless.

For them, every school day is a nightmare.

But on Monday, October 2nd, they will discover the true meaning of terror.

Classes are cut short by news of explosions in the city across the river, part of a series of horrific terrorist attacks that paralyze the nation. But that is only the beginning: amber clouds fill the sky, burning rain pelts down, and the surviving students of Verlaine High learn that their tormentors have mutated into something far worse-reanimated corpses with a primordial instinct for murder.

It’s time to stand up to the in-crowd . . . or be consumed by it.

The Lifeless: A Zombie Novel is available at DriveThruHorror.com.

Of Evil and Darkness follows a film crew to a mysterious island, where they are trying to find out more about the island and the mysterious murders that took place there long ago. The story starts off with humor, as even by issue two the story helps even a casual reader get adjusted to each character and their individual quirks. Upon arriving at the island, the crew is filled with a sense of nervousness from the stories about the island, and as the story progresses each character starts to become afraid. Soon they find that the stories about the island are very real, as they experience the events that took place many years ago, as a nightmare is resurrected on the island and it begins to hunt the crew down and murder them.

The film crew have unique personalities to them. From Henrick, the medium who travels with the cast and seems to foreshadow the evil events that are about to happen by his strange predictions, to the light-hearted nature of Jimmy as he tries to use humor to deal with the horror and anxiety around him.

Your mind is software. Program it.
Your body is a shell. Change it.
Death is a disease. Cure it.
Extinction is approaching. Fight it.

Eclipse Phase is a post-apocalyptic game of conspiracy and horror. Humanity is enhanced and improved, but also battered and bitterly divided. Technology allows the re-shaping of bodies and minds, but also creates opportunities for oppression and puts the capability for mass destruction in the hands of everyone. And other threats lurk in the devastated habitats of the Fall, dangers both familiar and alien. In this harsh setting, the players participate in a cross-faction conspiracy called Firewall that seeks to protect transhumanity from threats both internal and external. Along the way, they may find themselves hunting for prized technology in a gutted habitat falling from orbit, risking the hellish landscapes of a ruined earth, or following the trail of a terrorist through militarized stations and isolationist habitats. Players may even find themselves stepping through a Pandora Gate, a wormhole to distant stars and the alien secrets beyond.

The Eclipse Phase RPG is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

Rocky Joe Shields dives in to District 9 for Flames Rising.

Based on the short film Alive in Joburg, District 9 is more than just a mere science fiction summer action movie. Director Neill Blomkamp has created an exciting new world; the basis for this world is an alien-landing. Called “prawns,” the aliens landed 20 years ago over the South African city of Johannesburg. In District 9, we learn what has transpired over the next 20 years through interviews filmed in a documentary style. The people of Johannesburg have had enough, and want the aliens out of their city.

The movie begins with geeky bureaucrat Wikus van der Merwe, played wonderfully by newcomer Sharlto Copley, who has been assigned the task of getting the aliens to leave for District 10. Unfortunately, when Wikus comes into contact with an alien cylinder and sprays himself with the fluid inside, his DNA mutates, then turns him into one of the alien prawns.

Hello Flames Rising readers,

Below is a very important message from David Wong, author of the soon to be re-released John Dies at the End. Please read it carefully as your life may depend upon the information it contains…

—

My most terrifying experience reading a novel was when I opened my copy of White Fang and a dead spider fell out.

I’ve always felt like that’s what a good horror novel should do. That is what I told Jacob at Permuted Press when it came time to put John Dies at the End into print a couple of years ago. My idea was to rig each copy with a plastic spider that would jump out at the reader when they opened page 42. It was as simple as cutting a compartment into the middle pages and rigging some kind of spring mechanism.

Think you know all about vampires? Think again. Did you know that vampires can hibernate for decades, have stomachs the size of walnuts, and have a predisposition for jobs in real estate? Can you say, “I must feed?” in vampire language? A Practical Guide to Vampires (Mirrorstone) provides the in-depth information we all need to know about these dangerous creatures of the night. This comprehensive book follows the New York Times best-sellers A Practical Guide to Dragons and A Practical Guide to Monsters. All are lavishly-illustrated and fun for all ages.

A Practical Guide to Vampires is packed with thrilling, chilling and blood-spilling facts about these compelling monsters. Kids can read about vampire anatomy, intelligence, clothing, habits and habitats, as well as dangerous powers like shapeshifting, hypnotic persuasion, and superhuman strength.

As the sixth installment in George Romero’s zombie film series, Survival of the Dead offers a new storyline and (of course) more zombies. Debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in mid-September, the film’s announcement has been met with mixed results. Some zombie lovers are groaning at the thought of another film in the series; others are interested in the story about a group of survivors who leave their island to find a cure and save humanity.

There are a number of stills from the movie that have recently been released through the TIFF website.

Official Survival of the Dead Movie Premiere at TIFF.net

It’s a story that begins with death — with your death.

Why did the Reaper reach out for you before your time? Why was it that you fell between the cracks?

Do you remember the flare of the gun or the sharpness of the knife? Do you remember the gnawing emptiness or the choking thickness of disease? Did you fall across the Threshold alone in the wild, or in the heart of the city?

The story begins there — with the moment of death, and with the Bargain that reversed it. With the cold hand that brought you back to the living world, with the dry whispers that still haunt you, with the presence that has nestled in your soul. You’ve returned to a world where the living cannot see the shades that surround them. You drink rum to the dead, and you eat their remnants and legacies, taking their memories within you. Every night is the carnivale, because every night you walk with ghosts.

Geist: The Sin-Eaters is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

Imagine being free. Free from everything that defines you, that makes you easily recognizable as who you are. Inside you’ll find Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers alongside a knight of the Round Table. The stock market will crash in a whole new, terrifying way. You’ll follow along as heroes go head-to-head with eldritch horrors from Lovecraft’s universe. From Greek legends to Captain Nemo, from gangsters to brokers; from prisons to palaces, dead moons to South American jungles… No one is safe; nowhere is safe. This is a Mythos collection unlike any other. This is Lovecraft in many colors, many guises.

Cthulhu Unbound vol. 2 is available at Amazon.com.

Written by J.C. Hutchins, Personal Effects: Dark Arts is a multi-media thriller that was released in June 2009 through St. Martin’s Press. Created by game mogul Jordan Weisman, this book is a one-of-a-kind experience where you — the reader — can interact with the clues and the storyline through voicemail messages, ID cards and photos, additional websites, etc. Featured here below are two chapters from this unique, thrilling experience.

Chapter One

If by some miracle I survive my twenties, I am certain I’ll look back on today and think, This was the day I began to lose my mind.

Can violence solve every problem in the world when applied correctly? Is a quick hand and a quicker trigger finger going to save the world when it really counts? And what about the morality of the common action hero…they look cool as they smoke cigars and fire their guns John Wu style, but are their methods the solution or the problem?

The Prophet is a crime noir comic from Dangerkatt Creative Studios. Set in Mexico, the main character is an underworld assassin by the name of the Prophet. After a series of disturbing dreams, where a black devil keeps offering him deals that would make him the most powerful man on the planet, he has decided he will quit after one last job. Well, a couple of last jobs, it seems. If he can score the Frontera Shipment, which is the largest shipment of drugs across the border into the US, then he believes he and the team he recruits will be able to retire.

FlamesRising.com is proud to offer you a preview for the book The Magicians by Lev Grossman.

Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.

He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin’s fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.

Archaia is proud to announce that Archaia’s own Mouse Guard Vol. 2: Winter 1152 by David Petersen has debuted at #4 on The New York Times Hardcover Graphic Books Best Seller List, week ending August 1.

The rankings on the list, according to The New York Times, “reflect sales of graphic novels, for the week ending August 1, at many thousands of venues where a wide range of books are sold nationwide. These include hundreds of independent book retailers (statistically weighted to represent all such outlets); national, regional and local chains; online and multimedia entertainment retailers; university, gift, supermarket, discount department stores and newsstands. In addition, these rankings also include unit sales reported by retailers nationwide that specialize in graphic novels and comic books.”

Angelo looks around the joint, seeing only marks. Back-room poker is always a mug’s game. Every card dealt brings the unlucky ones closer to losing everything—the shirt on their backs, next month’s rent and more. Some schmucks end up with a gun in their hand, doing some of Lucky Joe’s less pleasant work to pay off their debt.

The hand’s over. One man smiles, greed painted across his face. With a nod from Joe, Angelo takes a seat at the table, in on the game. Time to take it all back.

A free Storytelling Adventure System scene and character for use with Geist: The Sin-Eaters.

The House Always Wins is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

Adding to its growing list of accolades, acclaims and honors, Archaia’s Mouse Guard Roleplaying Game has been recognized by the 2009 Gen Con EN World RPG Awards (“the ENnies”) in three categories. The awards recognize excellence in tabletop roleplaying gaming, and winners are determined by the peoples’ choice, with the final winners voted upon online by gamers across the world.

The Mouse Guard Roleplaying Game has been nominated for Best Interior Art, Best Production Values and Product of the Year. It was created by Luke Crane (Burning Wheel) and David Petersen, the creator of the comic series on which the RPG is based.