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.

I didn’t really know what to expect when I picked up The Fountain; I had read some other reviews of it before I went out and got it and was intrigued by Darren Aronosfky’s writing and film style. Going into it, I had thought it was a film about the fountain of youth, about a couple who were possessed with finding the mythic “fountain” to restore and heal Izzy (played by Rachel Weisz) from her terminal illness.

Bioshock tells the tale of a fallen utopia, I’ll try not to give too much away but you play jack, a survivor of a plane wreck in the mid-atlantic (actually the North Atlantic near Greenland and Iceland where the main plane route is if the coordinates given for Rapture’s location are right) who discovers this rotting vision and plays a key role in breaking a stalemate between two opposing forces there.

Review by James ‘Grim’ Desborough

Written by Patricia A. McKillip
Reviewed by Alana Abbott

Secrets weave upon secrets in McKillip’s tale of weaving witches who bind their neighboring fairies, keeping the otherworld at bay. When Sylvia’s grandfather dies and she becomes the heir to Lynn Hall, one of the places where this world and the other intersect, secrets she’s been trying to hide for years start coming to the surface. She never knew the identity of her father–her mother kept it secret until her death–but she knows that he wasn’t human.

Dread is a violent horror game from Neoplastic Press about hunting demons and it is presented in a chaotic punk wave throughout the book. This review is of the revised and updated edition of the game. The revised edition cleans up some of the rules, expands the magic and adds a few new demons for the characters to deal with.

Review by: Jason Thorson

Sometimes the most innovative ideas are so simple, it’s amazing they haven’t already been done. Such is the case with Cloverfield – a giant monster movie shot entirely from the perspective of a character’s camcorder. Produced by J.J. Abrams, written by Drew Goddard, and directed by Matt Reeves, all of whom are television vets having been responsible for episodes of Lost, Buffy, Angel, Alias, and others, Cloverfield is more than merely Godzilla meets The Blair Witch Project. It’s unique in that it attempts to give us fully developed characters to inhabit it’s high concept scenario and entirely besieged Manhattan setting.

Welcome to the first installment of the Flash Fire series of mini-reviews on the new Flames Rising website!

Every Friday (hopefully) we’re going to post a series of short reviews of new-to-me Horror & Dark Fantasy products. These will usually be one or two paragraph highlights of whatever caught our eye that particular week. Basically…stuff we think is cool and want to share. We will try to keep it a mix of stuff, but you never really know just what we will be up to in a given week.

This week we’ve got some Changeling, a few zombies, a conspiracy, Cthulhu and something unnatural…

Having read quite a few “compendiums” and “how-to” guides, some take a very emotionally-filled and visual approach, to tap into and encourage your belief in this form of divination. For me, I am attracted to a more pragmatic approach because I primarily use or research these tools for my writing. In my opinion, neither method is “bad” or “good” for, like all books, it depends upon what you want to get out of it.

Half mystery, half teen drama, Vampire Academy introduces a dying world of tradition: the Moroi can do magic, but must be protected from the evil, undead Stirgoi by their Dhampir guardians. The Stirgoi feed on the blood of innocents, and if they can drink from a Moroi, so much the better. So when Rose suspects that Lissa is being hunted, the danger of losing her is very real.

If you’re in your car on the way to work, you might do as I do and invest in audiobooks. This particular audiobook was a rare find; I managed to get my hands on a copy of two plays for voices without ever knowing it existed. In fact, when I picked this up I had no idea what it was about, I just bought it on blind faith, hoping that Gaiman’s work would not disappoint me. I was pleasantly surprised.

In Marvel’s continued Ultimates series, this particular feature is a re-imagining of Doctor Strange. This film focuses heavily on eastern philosophy and mythic influences, adding several characters that emphasize a larger setting.

Billed as a “young adult” novel, Ironside is the conclusion to a three-part series written in the modern fantasy genre. I’ve chosen to write this review without providing spoilers, for those of you who enjoy being surprised. Although this is officially a “YA” novel, with several awards to boot, there are a lot of adult themes that are appropriate for mature readers. For those that make the distinction between happy fairy tales and dark fantasy, Ironside definitely falls within the realm of dark fantasy and, at times, is full of horrific scenes. I feel that these distinctions are important to make, simply because as a reader you should know that this novel is not a light and airy tale, fraught with happy brownies and delightful pixies. The fae within this series are akin to the tales of old; beautiful yet cruel, terrifying yet bound by their own set of rules.

The Dresden Files, a series of novels penned by Jim Butcher, came to the small screen in 2007 on the SciFi channel bringing with it some variations – both good and bad. This is a difficult review to write for two reasons. First, the series was canceled after only twelve episodes. In such a short period of time, there wasn’t a lot of ability for the directors to explore the setting in this format. As a result, the events in this series loosely resemble only a few, choice events from one or two books. Secondly, this television series didn’t feel like a literal translation from the novels and, as a result, could easily stand alone on its own merits.

Changeling: the Lost is a very different game than Changeling: the Dreaming. Some of the terminology may be similar but each book explores fairy tales in a different way and offer up very different types of games. Some fans will want to compare the two games, others will look at Lost as something new and original. I’m a fan of both games. Changeling: the Lost is an amazing book, full of great writing and tons of story elements.

Kitty Norville didn’t mean to become a popular radio personality. In fact, she could remember when she didn’t even enjoy having the night shift. But as a werewolf, her habits have gotten more and more nocturnal, and one bored night at the microphone discussing the paranormal becomes a talk-show phenomenon. Suddenly syndicated at two hundred stations, Kitty is the center of attention, and not all good. From a professional werewolf hunter named Cormac, to Arturo, head of the local vampire Family, to her own Pack, Kitty’s meeting opposition on all sides.

The first in a series of ten novels for Mirrorstone, the young adult imprint of Wizards of the Coast, In the Serpent’s Coils launches readers straight into the larger story. Corrine’s father disappeared during the Civil War, and her mother died while she had the swamp fever. She finds herself alone in the world except for an uncle who would rather not be responsible for her wellfare. Until, that is, she discovers people living in the hawthorn tree who promise to cure her in exchange for a small stone.

The plot is exactly like the movie. The movie is good, so the book is good by default. It’s definitely a page turner. De Candido’s style is largely free of literary flourishes. It’s as if he literally transcribed Joss Whedon’s screenplay verbatim while tossing in only a few extras. Story-wise, I thought that the book could have gone into a little more depth than it does. However, it does elaborate a bit on the battle of Serenity.

Borrowing snippets from the back cover of the book, Blood Games II is an occult-horror role-playing game about courage, self-sacrifice and desperate heroism with no hope of reward. I think of it along the lines of “John Constantine meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. There are a lot of great ideas in the book and there is an underlying sinister tone that helps separate this game of occult horror from lighter traditional urban fantasy.

A Modern Fantasy game written by Stewart Wilson.

The simple version of the game’s premise is this: there is a magical world existing alongside our own. The Unaware cannot fully comprehend everything and so the magical realities of life are concealed from them.