Author | Flames

Flames Rising is an online resource for fans of Horror and Dark Fantasy entertainment. This horror fanzine offers reviews of Games, Fiction, Movies and more ranging from Top-Selling authors to the coolest Small Press and “indie” publishers. The popular Interviews at Flames Rising include Horror authors, artists and other creators of dark entertainment. Stay tuned to the Flames Rising news feed for the latest news on upcoming products, genre conventions and industry developments.

Flames Rising continues to add new Features and expand the Fiction and Articles sections of the site with topics of interest to Horror and Dark Fantasy fans the world over.


Sentinels: When Strikes the Warlord

Posted on May 12, 2008 by

The power-mad Warlord stands poised to conquer–or destroy!–the universe itself. Can anyone stand in his way?

Enter the Sentinels: College student Lyn Li… brilliant inventor and smart-alec Esro Brachis… beloved hero Ultraa… flamboyant showman Damon Sinclair… and mysterious alien powerhouse Vanadium.

When at last they all clash atop the Warlord’s floating city, can the world itself survive?

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Introducing: Savage Worlds Online!

Posted on May 11, 2008 by

Digital Adventures, LLC and Pinnacle Entertainment Group are proud to present Savage Worlds Online, a new community designed to support and bring together gamers using the Savage Worlds Ruleset for Fantasy Grounds II to play their favorite Savage setting online with friends across the globe!

At the moment Savage Worlds Online (SWO) supports a forum for everything Savage World and Fantasy Grounds, and a gaming calendar for linking up with other SWO members to find or host a game. There will also be product giveaways from Savage Worlds licensees, gaming and development blogs, officially sponsored PEG events, product support, gaming advise, and all great geekness associated with the Savage Worlds setting from Australia to Denmark to England to Arizona!

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World of Darkness: Innocents Now Available

Posted on May 8, 2008 by

The World of Darkness Through Innocent Eyes

Monsters don’t just lurk in remote forests, nightclubs, slums and the rooftops of the city. They’re in your neighborhood, watching you as you walk to school. They’re waiting for you in the woods behind your house as you and your friends build your fort. They’re under your bed.

Adults have learned to live in the World of Darkness by ignoring the supernatural, by pretending it isn’t there and going about the lives they have made for themselves. You don’t have that luxury. You see the world through a child’s eyes, and that means you haven’t learned to look away.

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Witch Fire (Elemental Witches, Book 1) Review

Posted on May 7, 2008 by


The line between good and evil is clearly drawn in the first Elemental Witches novel. Coven = good. Duskoff Cabal = evil. Mira Hoskins doesn’t know she’s an air witch until there’s a home invasion, where she’s rescued/kidnapped by fire witch Jack McAllister who claims he’s hiding her away for her own good. Jack trains Mira to use her magick until the time comes to move to the Coven in Chicago.

Review by Tez Miller

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Gen Con Gears Up for Best Four Days In Gaming

Posted on May 6, 2008 by

The countdown has begun and gaming enthusiasts all across the country are planning their annual trek to Indianapolis in anticipation of what gamers everywhere know to be as The Best Four Days in Gaming. With 91,000 turnstile attendees, Gen Con Indy is understandably the place where consumers and the industry come together to see and play all that is gaming. For the sixth year in a row, the event will be held at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, taking place August 14 through 17.

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Pre-Order Blood of the Dead by A.P. Fuchs

Posted on May 6, 2008 by

“Blood of the Dead isn’t what you think it is. Sure—it starts out as a zombie jamboree that drags you through Hell on Earth, but then it goes further . . . a lot further . . . and takes you straight to Hell and back again. This is the stuff of nightmares, boys and girls, with some unnerving and frightening action scenes that will have you on the edge of your seat and haunt your dreams.”
– Rick Hautala, author of The Wildman and Occasional Demons

Pre-Order Blood of the Dead at Horror-Mall.com.

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Hidden Fiction Review

Posted on May 6, 2008 by

In 2037 there will be an outbreak (a plague, maybe) that kills a whole lot of people. Don’t say I never warned you.

Excluding the prologue, this novel takes place in 2093. The world is now divided into four parts: the Northern Waste, the Equatorial Band, Africa and the Southern Hemisphere. Born in a laboratory in the icy Northern Waste, Tatiana is now free. But there’s something seriously screwed with her genes, clearly evident when she slices off a bloke’s hand with no weapons other than her own hands.

Review by Tez Miller.

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Pre-Order Houses of the Blooded at IPR!

Posted on May 5, 2008 by

The new game by the Origins Award-winning author of Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea!

Ambition. Lust. Revenge. You cannot have one without the others.

Thousands of years ago, the ven ruled the world. They were a passionate people, obsessed with Romance and Revenge, opera and theater, and all the forbidden delights their decadent culture provided. In the end, that which made them beautiful was also the key to their own destruction. Houses of the Blooded is a game about tragic obsession. Set in the fantastic world of ven myth and legend, players take the roles of powerful characters bent on conquering their world, destroying their enemies and possessing all they desire.

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The Resurrectionists RPG Review

Posted on May 5, 2008 by

It is curious that Vampire adventures seem to be particularly susceptible to this kind of role-playing when the rules-givers at White Wolf are forever bringing out new rules constraining vampire characters to behave in certain ways and to react to each other based on templates relating to membership of different social organizations and family structures. This seems to be rather un-American to me – no wonder there are so many foreigners in the World of Darkness. Europeans, for example, with their dastardly class-based societies and ability to speak languages. Rafael Pope, a central figure in this adventure, for example, is described as ‘a tall European man, probably Italian.’ Not Scandinavian, then or Slavic or Gaelic. In any case, obviously someone to be watched and subject to the vampiric versions of phone-tapping and having to take his shoes off before being allowed on an aeroplane.

Review by John Walsh

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THUNDER AND ASHES (aka ‘Plague of the Dead 2’) by Z.A. Recht is out now!

Posted on May 3, 2008 by

The Morningstar Saga continues in Thunder and Ashes…

A lot can change in three months: wars can be decided, nations can be forged… or entire species can be brought to the brink of annihilation. The Morningstar Virus, an incredibly virulent disease, has swept the face of the planet, infecting billions. Its hosts rampage, attacking anything that remains uninfected. Even death can’t stop the virus, which reanimates its victims as cannibalistic shamblers.

Thunder and Ashes is now available at Amazon.com and Horror Mall.

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Postmortem Studios – 100 Dark Places

Posted on May 3, 2008 by

Postmortem Studios is proud to present the latest in the ‘100’ series of generic sourcebooks, ‘100 Dark Places‘.

Following on from 100 Planets, 100 Dark Places details a hundred different horror locations, the terrible things that dwell within each one of them and a handful of adventure seeds to get the Gamesmaster’s mind ticking over. Just what you need to kickstart your imagination or to come up with an adventure or campaign for modern horror on short notice.

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Grimm Tales from Nox Arcana

Posted on May 2, 2008 by

Once Upon A Time…

Enter the Realm of Fable, where goblins, elves and sylvan spirits dwell in the deepest shadows of the forest beneath the wicked Witch Queen’s spell of eternal darkness.

Nox Arcana invites you to immerse yourself in a haunting soundscape of bewitching melodies, eerie sound effects and pulse-pounding orchestrations as you explore an enchanted land of dark fairy tales and childhood nightmares.

Pre-Order Grimm Tales at Amazon.com

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The Host Fiction Review

Posted on May 1, 2008 by

Welcome to the future, where souls have the options of many planets and species to inhabit. The souls have invaded Earth, creating a utopian society where violence doesn’t happen and money is not an issue. Wanderer is inserted into host Melanie Stryder, after a mighty struggle to avoid the souls. Usually the host fades, though their body is well and truly active controlled by the soul. Mel remains fighting furious, but to reach common goals she has to work together and get along with Wanderer, nicknamed Wanda.

Review by Tez Miller

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True20 Cthulhu Sourcebooks from RDP!

Posted on April 30, 2008 by

The contracts are signed in blood, the sacrifices have been made, and mighty Cthulhu has bestowed his blessings. Reality Deviant Publications is happy to announce we are the newest Chaosium licensee! RDP will focus on support of the True20 game system by bringing fans of all things Cthulhu outstanding game supplements which bring H.P. Lovecraft’s deliciously maddening Mythos to life!

“I am so excited about this agreement with the fine people at Chaosium,” said David Jarvis, president of RDP. “I’ve always wanted the chance to write and develop gaming material based on H.P. Lovecraft’s works. To be officially allowed to add our own pages to his legacy is a privilege, one which we don’t take lightly. Fans of True20 and Call of Cthulhu won’t be dissapointed.”

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Nominees for the 34th Origins Awards Announced!

Posted on April 29, 2008 by

The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design (AAGAD) and the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) proudly announce the nominees in all categories for the 34th Origins Awards.

Game retailer attendees at last week’s GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas reviewed the list and selected the finalists in each award category. From those finalists, attendees at the Origins Game Fair and members of the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design will select the ultimate winners of the 34th Origins Awards.

This year’s winners will be announced during the Origins Awards ceremony at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, June 28, at 8:00 p.m.

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Inquisitor’s Handbook (Dark Heresy) RPG Review

Posted on April 29, 2008 by

The Inquisitor’s Handbook is a hodge-podge of bits and pieces scattering all around the game system and the background. It’s a goody-bag of weapons, skills interpretations, new background options and new ‘fluff’ which may or many not suit a particular player group. To me it didn’t feel like it had quite the same character as a player’s guide for other systems – ones which generally limit themselves to player advice and increasing player options – but it felt like an expansion of the corebook material overall, for both players and Games Masters. I felt, reading through it, as though some of the content here should have been in the corebook and vice versa, particularly the background information and the Calixis sector particulars. It would have made more sense, to me, to have increased the player and character creation options in the main book and then had the Calixis specifics in a sourcebook, or collected in this volume with the specific data appropriate to it. The ‘imposition’ of the Calixis sector as the group’s playground is just another aspect of the ‘hemming in’ that has been a criticism of Dark Heresy.

Review by James ‘Grim’ Desborough

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Abstract Nova at Indie Press Revolution!

Posted on April 26, 2008 by

Abstract Nova Entertainment produces unique and imaginative role-playing games.

You can now find these great titles at Indie Press Revolution.

Aletheia – Written by Werner Hager, Lee Foster, Monica Valentinelli

Alien abductions. Crop circles. Spontaneous Human Combustion. The Seven Dogs Society investigates the weirdness at the fringes of reality.

Noumenon Written by Darwin Leary, Lee Foster, Monica Valentinelli

Noumenon is a role-playing game of mystery and abstraction. Players control the Sarcophagi, strange insect-like creatures trapped within an otherworldly landscape called the Silhouette Rouge.

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Pre-Order the Limited Edition BOOK OF SOULS by Jack Ketchum at Horror Mall

Posted on April 25, 2008 by

Where does inspiration come from? What secrets lie at the heart of an author’s stories and novels? What is written on the invisible ink between the lines of dialogue and description? Most writers will never tell you, will leave you to guess at the connections between their fiction and their lives.

Jack Ketchum gives a rare and intimate look into his world and into some of the people who have influenced his life in this collection of essays. Idols and friends, lovers and strangers are revealed, examined, adored and lamented as only Jack Ketchum can.

Pre-Order BOOK OF SOULS by Jack Ketchum (Limited Edition) at Horror Mall.

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Happy Hour of the Damned Fiction Review

Posted on April 24, 2008 by

You’ve seen it before: authors blurbing other books, claiming ‘I wish I’d written this’. Seems kind of hyperbolic, I know. But then I experienced it. This 300-something-page tome shouldn’t have taken me as long as it did to read. This is my fault because as I started reading, mood-killers kicked in: jealousy, envy and that dreadful thing that’s summed up as ’emo’. I did not want to feel this way, so for the first half of the book I read only in short sessions. For the uninitiated, I’m only an occasional fiction writer. Still, Mark Henry’s writing is so all-encompassingly engaging that I started hating my work and myself, lalala (emo).

Review by Tez Miller

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MEGA SALE at Noble Knight Games!

Posted on April 23, 2008 by

A message from Aaron Leader at Noble Knight Games:

This week I’m pleased to announce our MEGA MOVING SALE!!!

Thanks to you our valued customers we have outgrown our current facility and will be moving to a better location here in Janesville when our lease is up in a couple of months. Its been almost 2 years since our last sale and with our warehouse move coming up in a couple of months, it?s a great excuse to move out some good, but older, stuff at super low pricing! To put it plainly, we have lowered the prices on literally THOUSANDS of older items and for the next 10 days (or so) you can take an additional 10% off these already lowered prices and ALL items including clearance items, rare items, new releases, etc!!!

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11 Tales of Ghostly Horror

    Reviews Wanted!

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    The Devil’s Night WoD SAS

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