Kate Daniels is a down-on-her-luck merc who has enough trouble paying the bills that the last thing she needs is taking on a charity case. But when her guardian, a member of a magical group of public defenders known as the Order, is murdered, she’s determined to see the last of her family given justice. In order to do so, she has to play nice with the Order, which she left years ago due to her problems accepting authority. When it turns out that both the People–necromancers who use vampires as spies and assassins when it’s good for business–and the shape-changing members of the Pack may be involved, things quickly move from complicated to delicate. And delicate isn’t a word that anyone would associate with Kate Daniels.

Review by Alana Abbott

Sometimes rolling the dice or holding the controller just isn’t enough…This week’s Flash Fire Mini-Reviews will be exploring some of the different Live Action Role Playing options folks have for getting in character and having some fun.

Whether you are part of an ongoing global campaign like the Camarilla or just looking for a fun party game for a few friends, LARP is available in a vareity of products.

The Tower is a supernatural horror story that reworks the traditional haunted house fable. In true demonic fashion Simon Clark takes a fledgling band to a secluded house in Yorkshire and proceeds to terrorize them. This is the kind of book where you don’t think of the participants as characters but a group of victims shuffling along to their demise.

The protagonist is Fisher, the bass player, who at first is only concerned with Fabian, the disruptive presence in the band. Fabian has ambitious plans and it seems nothing will put him off pushing the group towards stardom. It’s decided that the band need a quiet place to rehearse some new songs and a month long house sitting job is secured. However, The Tower has plans of it’s own and Fisher’s concerns suddenly become more tangible than just keeping the band together.

Review by Paul Leahy

Some of the stories have interesting premises, but sabotage themselves with clunky writing or clumsy execution (the first two stories, Adam and Eve Versus the Human Race by Alexander Zelenyj and Waking Finnegan by Joseph Benton are prime examples of this). Other stories have competent but unremarkable writing but tired, clichéd plots–A New Year’s Tale by Dave Bartlett starts off promising, but quickly turns into something extremely similar to The Hills Have Eyes.

There are a few pieces that are quite good. The two opening poems by Guy Belleranti are atmospheric and effective. Unfortunately, the rest of the poetry included in this anthology doesn’t work quite as well. But, it has to be said, revenants aren’t the most inspiring subjects when it comes to poetry.

Review by Leah Clarke

Axiom-Man is a superhero whose true identity is a bumbling social introvert named Gabriel Garrison. Gabriel works in an office and he’s madly in love with Valerie Vaughn, the gorgeous coworker who predictably won’t give him the time of day. Axiom-Man’s conduit to the rest of the world, especially its seedy underbelly, is Sgt. Jack Gunn, an old school lawman with whom he shares a love-hate-love relationship of mutual necessity. If you’re keeping track, that’s one Superman, a Clark Kent, Lois Lane with a twist of Vicky Vale, and a generous helping of Commissioner Gordon. These clichés don’t exactly stop this story dead, but they certainly don’t make for the most compelling read either.

Review by Jason Thorson

The subtitle is The Book of Undead and that accurately captures the thrust of this entire work. For me, this work was long coming as I still have my copy of the 2nd Edition Necromancer’s Handbook on my gaming shelf (okay, shelves). That book allowed us to live out our darker desires in D&D; a game whose objective morality often prevents those who want a little taste of the dark side from enjoying themselves. That handbook, like Libris Mortis promises us the chance to peer deeper into the unlife of undead from every angle. Let’s face it, who doesn’t sit at work some days, when your boss is breathing down your neck, and Sheila from accounting is emailing you thirteen times an hour for the TPS reports, and dream of summoning a horde of the undead to wipe them all out.

It can’t be just me.

Review by Vincent Venturella

We’ve covered vampires, zombies, magic and more in past Flash Fire Mini-Reviews. This week we’re going to take a look at a genre that often blends Sci-Fi with Horror and Adventure with Mystery…sometimes all at once.

Post-Apocalypse stories often show a bleak future, but can offer a bit hope as well.

The civilized world has come to an end, in the rubble the survivors battle horrors and each other in an attempt to gather resources and perhaps to rebuild their world. Post Apocalyptic settings are the subject of this week’s Flash Fire Mini-Reviews.

We’ve got a mix of games, fiction and a movie to explore this week. Each with a different spin on just what Post-Apocalypse means…

A great follow-up tale to Stolze’s earlier Requiem novel A Hunger like Fire, this time we learn about some new members of Chicago’s undead society. Most of the characters in this book, with two notable exceptions, are members of the Lancea Sanctum Covenant. The two exceptions are “Earth” Baines and Aurora…but I’ll get to them a little later.

Events in A Hunger like Fire have put Solomon Birch, the ranking member of the Lancea Sanctum, in a dangerous position. A few members of the Covenant feel he is no longer fit to lead them and begin planning his removal as Bishop. Deals are made, gossip is whispered, and pawns are set into motion.

This is it, all your Conan stories all in one spot accompanied by an able and long article on the author, a nice long introduction to the world of Hyboria and a smattering of black and white art – both endpieces and plates – to bring some of the old feel of the mystery magazines back in. This is what it says on the tin, a full on compilation of everything Conan behind a nice looking inlaid cover.

Review by James ‘Grim’ Desborough

A good urban fantasy can be like a mixed drink. It’s got to have the right flavor—but it’s also got to have a lot of kick. Not so much, of course, that you’ll regret it the next morning. The characters in Mark Henry’s Happy Hour of the Damned might not liken themselves to mixed drinks, but they would certainly appreciate the allusion. Because few zombies appreciate liquor like the heroines in Henry’s novel.

Review by Alana Abbott

The characters in Scion are the long-lost, illegitimate, half-human children of the gods of old, the pantheons, the Norse, Greek, Egyptian, Japanese, Aztec and Voodoo pantheons respectively (though I’m not sure Voodoo deserves to be in such company really). There’s the possibility to play scions of other gods and pantheons as well, but these aren’t detailed in this book.

The Scions are contacted, equipped and gifted by their errant parents and put to work to defend humanity from the machinations and monsters impinging on this world at the behest of the Titans. To help them with this they get magical powers, magical items or companions and other gifts from their parents. Superpowered individuals rampaging about the modern world as demigods, fighting monsters and ancient gods (of the wrong sort).

Review by James ‘Grim’ Desborough

Last week we talked about the most well-known vampire in the world, Dracula. The Dark Prince will probably return for another round of Mini-Reviews at a later date, since we only had the chance to check out a few of the products featuring Dracula and there are certainly many more available.

This week we are going to take a look at some great collections of scary stories. There are fiction anthologies on every subject imaginable. Fans of Horror & Dark Fantasy have many authors and publishers to choose from. Some of the authors featured in this week’s mini-reviews include Jim Butcher, Laurell K. Hamilton, Kelley Armstrong, David Wellington, C.J. Henderson, Tanith Lee and Patricia A. McKillip…just to name a few.

Here are a few anthologies that I’ve had the chance to check out recently…

The Road Guide is well written and it shows that some research went into each of the locations featured throughout each chapter. A typical entry will feature a photo of the location, brief driving directions, a bit of ghost lore (i.e. what sort of ghostly activity is rumored to haunt the place), some local history and lastly, details about the investigation into the haunting. Not every entry follows this exact format; some of them have section switched around a bit or include extra notes on the topic. Generally, however, the book is easy to read and the information is offered in a useful format.

These two novels of what will likely be a septology (or more, I believe there’s a prequel coming) of novels by Scott Lynch are a sort of Renaissance fantasy world with more than a passing nod to the Venetian merchant princes of history and the ensemble cast crime movies of the modern age. I would call it ‘Oceans 11, with Wizards’ but that wouldn’t be entirely fair since, while there is magic, it’s rather low key magic for the most part, subtle and sinister rather than ‘Kablooie!’. These first two novels cover the rise, fall, recovery and then fall again of master thief Locke Lamora and his companions, most particularly the educated brute (and Locke’s best friend) Jean Tannen.

Review by James ‘Grim’ Desborough

Ravens of Avalon is the type of fantasy novel that also falls into the realm of historical fiction. The tale is a sequence of events about the Roman invasion of Britannia, threaded together with a cast of characters focused on Boudica, an Iceni Queen who united Britannia and led a bloody, short rebellion against their Roman invaders.

Having read some of the other “Avalon” novels, I expected certain conventions to remain true to this story. For one, this is a story told from the point-of-view of a priestess from Avalon, the Druid tradition. This alone makes the story different, more colorful to read as you travel back to the time of early civilization, and are able to understand not only what the goals of the characters are about, but what life might have been like during those ancient times.

Brainwashed is a d20 Modern, horror adventure by 12 to Midnight, written by the impressively named Preston P. DuBose and illustrated by Nicole Cardiff (cover) and Steve Bentley (interior). It follows the misadventures of a group of investigators as they probe the mysterious and sudden popularity of the Harmony Farm commune/cult and get to the bottom of a strange and otherworldly secret. The blurb professes an ambition for a Lovecraftian feel to the game, good to aim high, and it references 12 to Midnight’s horror supplemental rules effort Fear Effects, which – unfortunately – I haven’t read, so I can’t comment on the adventure in that respect. I also now, ahead of time and with full understanding of my own hypocrisy here, having written published adventures before, admit that I just generally don’t like pre-written adventures as they don’t suit my free-wheeling style of GMing.

Review by James ‘Grim’ Desborough

When I say that I’ve read a lot of fantasy novels over the years, I mean that there was a time in my life where I was reading about the equivalent of a book a day. As a lightning fast reader, I’ve read everything from C.S. Friedman, Margaret Weiss and Tracey Hickman to Terry Brooks, R.A. Salvatore, Melanie Rawn and Tad Williams. Included in that bucket of work, were novels I picked based on their size and whether or not there were several books that followed in a series. After a while, I got burnt out on traditional fantasy (with the exception of a few authors) simply because I got tired of the formula. A waif-like character (male or female) ends up saving the world time and time again, but not before becoming ungodly powerful in the way that only fantasy characters can.

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

We’ve been waiting a really, really, really long time for a Warhammer 40,000 RPG. I remember buying Rogue Trader – and still have it somewhere in a folder, it having fallen apart with use – and the promise in that was of a full-on Warhammer 40,000 RPG arriving at some point in the near future. That was 1987, it is now 2008 and, finally we get our Warhammer 40,000 RPG. It has a lot to live up Dark Heresy, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay was pretty much a masterpiece and gave D&D a run for its money in UK popularity, the wargames have ensnared generations of kids in their clutches and the 2nd Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, despite being a supplement treadmill and despite getting zero support from Games Workshop, was a success as well. Then, just as Dark Heresy does come out, and sells out pretty much immediately, we learn that GW/Black Industries are dropping ALL their roleplay etc lines, triumph and tragedy in one fell swoop.

Review by James ‘Grim’ Desborough

Another round of the Flash Fire Mini-Reviews is here!

This week we are talking about one of the most well-known characters in horror. Dracula has made appearances in fiction, movies, comics and games. He has been re-imagined numerous times and always comes back for more. New concepts about the character are always being invented and new fans discover the character every year.

What follows are just a few of the many, many Dracula influenced products available today. The original novel with a twist, some games and a couple of movies make up this set of mini-reviews…