Empyres: Bloodblind (Northampton House), by John Koloski

Bloodblind is the first in a trilogy that pulls the reader in with a unique, evocative and powerful voice. The suspense is reminiscent of a classic Hitchcock film. And the journey the reader takes—an existential transcendence that continuously evolves—would make Carlos Castaneda proud.

Koloski’s expansive imagination evolves the concept of empathic vampires which gives the reader believable and, at times, horrific territory. Another pleasant surprise that plucks at our emotions and gives life to the characters.



We find Adam as a struggling artist at an event showcasing his latest work. After a friend asks him to accompany her for a ride in her corvette through the rain, Adam’s life is changed forever. He awakes from the accident alive, but blinded. Koloski places the reader in that headspace with effortless grace and ease. He’s being hunted, and he doesn’t even know it…yet. Despite his challenges, Adam is getting along fine: he’s a Dee jay at a local radio station, and has a loving brother who looks after him.

While at work, Adam receives a very odd song request which turns into an even stranger proposition: a possible cure for blindness. But no one in the studio could hear the woman’s voice but Adam. He accepts the invitation to meet her, and is told there is a cure…if he agrees to take an experimental drug. Adam can’t seem to put the doctor’s braille business card down, nor the urge to call her and accept.

What ensues is a fast-paced journey that ensnares the reader as the plot delves so far that it challenges the very fabric of reality. Adam is introduced to new, exciting worlds with almost limitless possibilities. However, what unintended consequences await every decision he makes to heal himself and protect those he loves? And more importantly, who is on the hunt for him and willing to burn everything that stands in their way? Other realities and dimensions await Adam, and everyone he loves, as he falls further down the rabbit hole.

Bloodblind is a breath of fresh air amidst a sea of modernity and convention--an original work that refuses to let go. Prepare to have your imagination taken to places only the author can take you. Koloski boldly steps on the stage with this new and impressive offering.

Visit www.johnkoloski.com. Buy the ebook at either Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or  Kobo.

Reviewed by Ben Eads

Ben Eads is a dark fiction author of short stories and longer fiction. His work tends to represent modern horror coupled with what he likes to call: “Imagination-tickling elements”. Ben is also a huge fan of dark fiction and dark movies. At the age of ten he wrote his first story. Taking writing seriously in early 2008, Ben Eads has published numerous short dark fiction stories in various magazines, anthologies, and E-Zines.

You can find him here.  

Every House is Haunted (Chizine), by Ian Rogers

Every House is Haunted  by Ian Rogers is nothing less than a brilliant short story collection, exploring the area between the world we know and the supernatural—and how deceptively close the two are.  It’s been a long time since this reviewer has read anything remotely comparable; and that which was had sprung from the pens of Shirley Jackson, Ray Bradbury, and Richard Matheson--with a little Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft thrown in for good measure.

The book’s organization is interesting, too.  The reader is taken, via the stories, on a trip through a house.  One begins in the Vestibule (including creepy photographs by Samantha Beiko), then on to the Library, the Attic, the Den, and finally, the Cellar—the usual locations for odd happenings in a haunted house.

Every single story in this 300-page volume is a stand-out—so much so that it is impossible to choose a favorite.  Or even several favorites. They all strongly remain with the reader days after turning the final page.

Rogers writes with all his senses, and his characters are deftly developed with an economy of language that is rare these days.  One feels as if one knew every single one of them. This reader smelled, tasted, touched, saw and heard every nuance…every subtlety.  Amazing.

There are also no weaknesses apparent to point out in this work.  It’s the strongest collection of short stories this reviewer has ever read—and though usually not one given to hyperbole, an exception must be made in this case.

Here is a little taste of the literary banquet you will indulge in should you read this masterful work:

"THE NANNY":  A kindly woman who does so much more for the children than any nanny every thought of.

"ACES":  Death and misfortune seem to following the wake of Soelle—a girl with a penchant for tarot cards and puzzles.

"CABIN D":  A lonely self-sacrificing man deals with an unorthodox killer.

"WINTER HAMMOCK": A tale H.P. Lovecraft would have been proud to call his own.

"THE DARK AND THE YOUNG": When experimentation with an ancient book spirals out of control.

I am so brief with these descriptions because I don’t want to spoil this for anyone.
I urge you to buy Every House is Haunted.  Read this book.  Buy one for yourself and one to give as a Christmas gift to your favorite horror fan.
You’ll thank me.

Get it here.

reviewed by Carson Buckingham

Carson Buckingham is a writer living in the great American Southwest and she reviews horror/paranormal suspense novels. Stop by to view her scriblins.

Revenant (Rock Bottom), by Allan Leverone

An artifact, closely guarded by the Navajo mystics for ages is stolen by an unscrupulous psychopath, Max, who is prepared to use it to create a zombie, Earl Manning, to do his bidding, and as long as Max has the stone, and Earl’s heart right next to it, he will control the Earl.  But due to some messy unforeseen circumstances, the box with heart and stone winds up in Earl’s hands.  He is suddenly the master of his undead destiny, and havoc ensues.

This second book in his series of Paskagankee novels, Allan Leverone’s  Revenant, is a page turner, and could almost be considered an homage to Stephen King, so closely does Leverone’s writing style mimic the master’s.  The book even takes place in Maine—not Derry, though; but in a town called Paskagankee.

My favorite character was actually Earl Manning, the revenant.  I found it fascinating that he was pretty much a brain-dead zombie to begin with, what with an alcohol-pickled brain at the age of 29.  Becoming a zombie wasn’t much of a transition for him—this was probably why he handled it so well.  You’ll want to read this book just for this character alone—he was the best developed and the most interesting.  Instead of the zombies running wild and the focus narrowly placed on the humans who are either chasing them or running away from them; it evolves into the Earl’s, story.  A nice switch.

Leverone handles suspense well, and though initially I was disappointed about the overused cliché of yet another zombie novel, I was pleasantly surprised about the original and deft way the concept was handled.

Though I enjoyed the book from start to finish and was sorry when it ended, there were a few weaknesses that I must mention.  I felt that the protagonists, Chief Mike McMahon and Constable Sharon Dupont suffered from lack of character development, and consequently came off as a bit two-dimensional. I didn’t care as much about them as I should have, and this caused the ending to fall a tad flat for me.

I also could have done without the frequent callbacks to the first volume of this series, Paskagankee.  They were slightly jarring and completely unnecessary.  This book was more than able to stand alone and should have been allowed to.

That being said, you’ll want to buy this—it’s a fun ride.

buy it here.

 reviewed by Carson Buckingham

Carson Buckingham is a writer living in the great American Southwest and she reviews horror/paranormal suspense novels. Stop by to view her scriblins.

Bloodstar: Star Corpsman, book 1 (Harper Voyager), by Ian Douglas

Before we get this under way, it is definitely worth warning you that I am not in any way a fan of either Hard or Military Sci-Fi. As far as I am concerned, they both tend to be overloaded with information that gets in the way of the story, instead of aiding it. I know that there are people out there who are highly interested in the intricacies of propulsion units and methodology as well as tactical data, but I am not one of those. I want the story itself and any information pertinent to that story or an understanding of its characters and the world they live in but anything more bores me. Please keep that in mind as it is something that highly flavors this review.

Way off in the far-flung future, people have begun colonizing the stars. One of those colonies, Bloodworld, was founded by a group whose desire to suffer for the sins of humanity found an ideal home on its brutal terrain. They’ve lived there for decades, alone and isolated and content with both. However, a war-bound race of aliens, the Qesh, have found them. Not only is their own safety at stake, but the security of Earth and any other human colonies. Enter space marines and combat galore.

Let’s start off with the good things here: I very much enjoyed seeing war from the point of view of a Corpsman (the closest layman's term would be a field medic, but it would not be entirely accurate), someone whose primary concern is healing over harming. This alone tossed much of the over the top, “we kick ass” attitude out the window. And, Ian presents us with a much more likely view of humanity’s early forays into space: tentative and frightful. This is a future where humanity knows that they are outnumbered and outgunned by older, larger and more strategically powerful races in space and are doing everything they can to stay below the radar. The main character is well developed and there isn’t the usual good versus evil delineation so much as a concern for the people he is with.

All of these things are great. I loved the story itself. When I  got to read it.

Unfortunately, most of the time was spent buried under paragraphs and piles of text dedicated to the history of Corpsmen. The changes in medical engineering. Every detail of how each specific bit of nano-technology worked. The operating principles of the weapons systems. Military tactics out the wasoo. Over 150 pages had passed before Bloodworld was reached it still took a bit of discussion of nano-flage and nano-grown encampments before much else occurred.

I can’t stress enough how much I enjoyed the story at the heart of this novel, but I could not find it in myself to enjoy the novel as a whole.


Buy it here

Reviewed by Anton Cancre

Anton Cancre is one of those rotting, pus-filled thingies on the underside of humanity that your mother always warned you about. He has oozed symbolic word-farms onto the pages of Shroud, Sex and Murder and Necrotic Tissue magazines as well as THE GHOST IS THE MACHINE, a steampunk ghost anthology by Permuted Press, and continues to vomit his oh-so-astute literary opinions, random thoughts and nonsense at antoncancre.blogspot.com. No, he won't babysit your pet shoggoth this weekend. Stop asking.

Welcome To Moon Hill (Moon Hill) by Anthony J. Rapino

Welcome To Moon Hill is an intriguing collection of short fiction based in the mythic town of Moon Hill. The alluring stories that comprise the collection are unique as the town itself: dark, suspenseful, and most of all, enticing. The author gives us well-written, tightly-woven stories that touch upon myriads of emotions. Stand outs are:

“From Your Body They Rise”, is a surreal and haunting tale of curiosity and the wonderment of discovery. Alan discovers a peculiar “plant” that would make him a legend in science, and re-define physics. As the journey grows, so do the stakes. With a suspense that is palpable, the author weaves the reader into the tale white-knuckled, with effortless grace and ease. 

 

“Hair of The Dog”, Poor, John. Some guys just can’t get a break. He gets the courage up to ask the girl at the local coffee shop out, and she rejects him. A bit worse, actually. She simply states that he is “dark and depressing.” He walks out and goes in search of another java-joint. However, his options may be limited. This one is short, sweet and best of all, hilarious. 

 

“And The Drums Went Thump Thump Thump”, is a somber, heart-felt tale of the struggles single parents face. John is trying his best with his teenage, death-metal loving daughter, Ashley. John decides to open a door into her world, her life. Perhaps with some renewed insight, he can understand her gruff exterior. A pair of street thugs would like to do the same as well. Can John put the bottle down and finally stand up?

“Struck By Golden Lightning”, Ewan has the mind of a child. Despite some of his neighbors understanding this, others are more reluctant to have their children play with him. This touching, fantastical tale explores family, friends—tolerance vs. intolerance—and the belief that anything is possible. Soon, perhaps, everyone will see just how special Ewan actually is. 

 

There are a lot of books and collections that have a foreboding town, or dwelling where bad things happen. It is a tradition and staple in horror that we all love. However, Welcome to Moon Hill shines with tales that horrify, yet hook our imaginations in a unique way as well. We find ourselves standing in synch with these characters that are on the brink of new worlds and answers, or oblivion and its sweet embrace. But for the life of us, our curiosity always gets the best of us…no matter the outcome. 

buy it here.

 

To learn more about the author, please visit his website.

Reviewed by Ben Eads

 

Ben Eads is a dark fiction author of short stories and longer fiction. His work tends to represent modern horror coupled with what he likes to call: “Imagination-tickling elements”. Ben is also a huge fan of dark fiction and dark movies. At the age of ten he wrote his first story. Taking writing seriously in early 2008, Ben Eads has published numerous short dark fiction stories in various magazines, anthologies, and E-Zines.

You can find him here.

Rasputin's Bastards (Chizine), by David Nickle

Rasputin's Bastards by David Nickle is first and foremost a spy novel; and reader take note, this is a book that expects its reader to be a clever as the spies whom the story revolves around.

David Nickle describes an intricate plot with a baker's dozen of multifaceted characters, and it's a challenge to keep up with each individual and their separate motivations – in some cases, the characters themselves are not self-aware enough to understand their circumstances, and circumstances are subject to change. The reader must contend with the real world and juggle complicated metaphysical ideas involved behind the “sleeper” agents who, to reduce the idea to its basic concept, are “possessing” the bodies of other characters to carry out their goals. Add to the mix a gathering of psychic children and a telepathic infant and the complexity of Rasputin's Bastards multiplies.

The writing is good but this isn't a place for the beach-read pulp fiction crowd, and having an understanding of past spy novels (The Marathon Man by William Goldman comes to mind) is essential to appreciate what David Nickle is building, and the style he chooses to do it in.

A reader will either love it or hate it; one must keep note of the characters and their subplots while tracking the greater plot unfolding and it's not an easy job to jack-hop from one character's psychological state to another. Nickle gives nothing away to the reader for free, which lends the benefit of surprise when characters end up in unexpected places and are revealed to be different people than they started out as.

All in all, this is a read more suited to specific audience who has an interest in the genre of spy thrillers, with a dash of the supernatural.

buy it directly from Chizine.

Reviewed by Martin Rose.

Look for Martin Rose's work in the anthologies Fear of the Dark from Horror Bound publications and Art From Art from Modernist Press. More details are available here.

Zippered Flesh (Smart Rhino), edited by Weldon Burge

Zippered Flesh is an anthology of twenty tales of body enhancements gone wrong—and not “gone wrong” like Joan Rivers or Sly Stallone—we’re talking a birthday party in the cemetery degree of “gone wrong.”

The real standouts of the collection were the following:

"Comfort" by Charles Colyott – We are endlessly both fascinated and repulsed by morbid obesity, and this story is one of the best in the book. Deftly written, we find a son trying to care for his huge mother on his own and will not hear of putting her into a home—shades of Gilbert Grape. This jeopardizes both his marriage and his job, but a mama’s boy is a mama’s boy. The ending packs a punch that you’ll be thinking about hours later.

"The Shaping" by Scott Nicholson – My favorite of the entire collection, this story gives teeth to the idea that great artists and writers pour their blood, sweat and tears into their work in order to be creatively effective. This story is a little bit Logan’s Run,” a little bit “X-Factor” and a whole lot of shock at the way competition within the arts is addressed. If you’re a creative individual, you’ll understand; but even if you’re not, you’ll enjoy the insight.

"Something Borrowed" by J. Gregory Smith – A story of abduction, surgery and a conscience grown just a little too late.

"Sex Object" by Graham Masterton – This would have been a better story to open the anthology with, as horrifying as it is. It’s about a trophy wife taking steps to ensure that her easily bored husband will not throw her over for a newer model. You’ll have nightmares about this one, but little sympathy for any of the characters.

"Locks of Loathe" by Jezzy Wolfe – In opting for an illegal correction of lifelong alopecia, a woman learns that there are some scary consequences to taking things that do not belong to you. Wonderful story.

"Hearing Mildred" by Weldon Burge – I enjoyed this story because it’s the only one in the anthology with a dark sense of humor. An aging gentleman has recently lost his wife. He has small desires as to how to spend the balance of it—all he wants to do is watch television, and now he can do it without having to deal with an endless “Honey Do” list. But when his hearing aids start acting up, he discovers that silence really is golden and hearing is not all it’s cracked up to be.

That’s it. Only six standouts—in an anthology of twenty. There were other tales that were enjoyable to read but didn’t stay with me after I’d read them, and a few that the anthology could have done without entirely.

That being said, this is a first book release from this new press, Smart Rhino and there will inevitably be growing pains, which will include missed typos, commas, and that sort of thing. This is forgivable as long as it is not rampant—and it’s not.

What I have a harder time with is writers who are lazy about fact checking. One notable example in one of the stories is a pirate, at sea, referring to lines as “ropes.” “Rope” is a landlubber term. This may seem like a small thing, but to the many readers who have spent time on the ocean, it is a glaring error. 

buy it here.

reviewed by Carson Buckingham

Carson Buckingham is a writer living in the great American Southwest and she reviews horror/paranormal suspense novels. Stop by to view her scriblins.

   

A SHORT STAY IN HELL (Strange Violin), by Steven L. Peck

When I read the jacket blurb on this book, I must admit to no little excitement on my part. 

 

“As a faithful Mormon, Soren Johansson has always believed he’ll be reunited with his loved ones in an eternal hereafter. Then he dies. Soren wakes to find himself cast by a God he has never heard of into a Hell whose dimensions he can barely grasp: a vast library he can only escape from by finding the book that contains the story of his life.”

A great idea, right?

The answer is a resounding yes—it is a great idea. Unfortunately, it was an idea that, to me, really didn’t go anywhere after the initial “great idea” glow subsided.

In Peck’s novella, we discover that the only true religion (which, of course, nobody realized), is Zoroastrianism, and anyone not following this faith is given an express pass to Hell. The premise is fine, but it might have been nice if the author had given the reader more of a clue about what Zoroastrianism was about. We learn more about Mormonism than the “one true religion.” 

 

Once our hero finds himself in Hell’s library, he realizes that finding his life story isn’t going to be easy, or particularly pleasant. To those of us who are readers, spending hundreds of years in a library sounds more like Heaven than Hell; but most of the books in this library don’t make any sense. They are filled with gibberish, with only the occasional book containing even one readable phrase. Finding the book containing his life’s story is pretty much out of the question, and that is where the Hell comes in. The dimensions of the library are beyond imagining, and Peck does a good job conveying the vastness of the place.

The major problem with this novella is that it is monotonous—but existential philosophy, when applied to a work of fiction, usually is unless it is handled deftly. I realize that the author is attempting to convey the monotony as one of Hell’s many tortures, but making the reader suffer it is not the best way to do that and keep one’s readership. 

 

Additionally, the protagonist, Soren, does not change or grow, which makes the story somewhat pointless. There is little that is remotely interesting about him—certainly not enough for this reader to be pulling for him in his quest. Creating characters that bore us to the point where we care little about what happens to them is tantamount to opening up a femoral artery where exemplary fiction writing is concerned.

I wish I had more good things to say about A SHORT STAY IN HELL. I opened this book really wanting to like it and came away disappointed.

buy it here. 

Carson Buckingham is a multi-published dark fiction author. She also writes a humor blog at: carsonbuckingham.blogspot.com and has an editing service at: writetothepointservices.blogspot.com. She can be reached at: carsonbuckingham@yahoo.com

"Obsession", (Samhain Horror), by Ramsey Campbell

Continuing Samhain Horror's line of re-printed Ramsey Campbell novels is "Obsession", a novel hinging on one of the most classic of all cautionary themes, be careful what you wish for...you may just get it.  In this novel, half-hearted, juvenile wishes are granted in horrible, unimaginable ways, but - as always in these tales - there's a price to pay.  A terrible one, which is visited years down the road, after the wishes have long been forgotten.

A group of friends are faced with a fantastic, impossible scenario: wishing away their adolescent problems.  Peter's grandmother has recently moved in, changing he and his family's way of life. Jimmy's father is forever throwing money away at the horse races, even as their little family-run cafe is failing. Steve - a budding communist - faces persecution at school from a teacher because of his beliefs. And Robin's single mother must constantly deal with sexual harassment in the workplace.

These are problems of life. And like all problems, there are no easy answers. Or are there? Because one day, Peter receives in the mail a form and a very simple letter reading the following:

Whatever you most need, I do. The price is something that you do not value and which you may regain.

Thinking the whole matter a hoax, the four friends fill out their forms and make their wishes on a bluff overlooking the coast. However, at an inopportune - and eerie - moment, the forms are all torn from their grasps by the wind and blown out to sea, and they are quick to chalk the whole thing up to exactly what they'd imagined it to be: a prank.

But the wishes come true.  In some ways horrible, in others unexpected, but looming behind them all is the second stipulation of the letter: the price. But of course they are children, flexible and adaptable and very willing to forget, which is exactly what they do.  Forget, separate, grow up and live their own lives.  And, really - could the price be so bad? Especially considering that it would be something that they "do not value"?

However, twenty-five years later, they realize a terrifying truth: that what they value NOW very likely was something they did NOT value when they made the pact.  So what they'd have no fear of losing as adolescents...may now be the most important things to them. 

As always, Campbell mines feelings and emotions from the deep well of the human condition. And, especially in this work, his supernatural touch is very light.  It's there, in the letters and some hauntings, but so much of this novel is about the characters themselves: how their lives may or may not have turned out how they wanted, (Peter's dull, bland life), how they deal with tragedy, (Jimmy's wife's death), adversity, (Steve's marital problems) and illness (Robin's mother slipping deeper into dementia and Alzheimer's).  The real horror in this novel is life and mistakes and failure and desperation, which very much lift it above normal horror fare.

Visit www.ramseycampbell.com.  Buy the paperback or ebook today.

Kevin Lucia is a Contributing Editor for Shroud Magazine, a blogger for The Midnight Diner, and a podcaster at Tales to Terrify. His short fiction has appeared in several anthologies. He's currently finishing his Creative Writing Masters Degree at Binghamton University, he teaches high school English and lives in Castle Creek, New York with his wife and children. He is the author of Hiram Grange & The Chosen One, Book Four of The Hiram Grange Chronicles, and he's currently working on his first novel. Visit him on the web at www.kevinlucia.com.

The Telling, (Realms Fiction), by Mike Duran

Mike Duran's second novel "The Telling" is an intelligent, well-written thriller about the consequences of ignoring one's calling in the midst of a struggle between good and evil. In some ways reminiscent of Robert McCammon's "Mystery Walk", Duran pens a much darker, more intriguing tale than his also well-written - but somewhat standard - debut novel, "The Resurrection." 

In his second outing, Duran serves up plentiful portions of the "weird" and "fantastic" with ancient prophecies, body-snatching demons, quantum physics, parallel dimensions, a burned-out prophet, covert government military experiments and a possibly immortal holy warrior.  All centered around a portal to hell, whose opening is imminent. 


Once, Zephaniah Walker had a calling. The Voice of God spoke to him, giving him words of encouragement AND chastisement for the faithful.  Hundreds flocked to his gatherings, making him a near-celebrity on the revival circuit.  But eventually, the continual pressure of having to "perform" on a regular basis - whether he'd received God's Word or not - wears upon Zephaniah.  He's only a child, after all.  Driven by a zealous, perhaps slightly unbalanced mother determined to keep her gifted boy on his "chosen path".

But his mother dies.  His father remarries, they leave the revival circuit behind...and at the hands of his abusive, psychotic step-mother, Zephaniah loses what little faith he has left, loses his way, also.  He grows into Zeph Walker, a recluse living on the edge of the desert, near Death Valley, wanting nothing more than to be left alone and forgotten.

But ancient prophecies heed the wishes of no man, not even a burned-out former prophet.  Forces far above Zeph still have plans for him, for a rising evil - leaking out from the bowels of Hell itself - is slowly infiltrating the citizens of Endurance.  Dark magics, quantum physics, secret government projects collide in a foolhardy attempt to open a portal to Hell. According to an ancient prophecy, only one man can stop it - a man gifted with divine Speech - except there's one problem.

He's no longer talking.  Or listening.  And he just wants to be left alone.  But he finds that impossible, especially when the evil threatening him wears his face.

Consummate blogger and writer Mike Duran has crafted a rich tale tale that mixes and matches its elements, a true genre-blend. There's horror, quantum physics, folk-lore, allegory, secret-government projects, demonic invasion - you name it, it's in there.  Published in the Christian Bookseller Association, the story is faith-driven, but by no means agenda-driven, which makes all the difference in the world.  It's above-all an excellent, enjoyable story about a broken man coming to terms with himself and his destiny.  That, and an impending, demonic invasion from Hell, of course.

One of the most enjoyable characters, however, isn't necessarily the main character but Little Weaver.  Indian mystic, angel, immortal guardian of the portal to hell - his character is never fully explained, which is a good thing.  Excellent writers don't need to fill in all the blanks for us, not when a character has been so fleshed out and realized. Duran does this here, which only strengthens his tale.

Visit http://mikeduran.com/.  Buy the ebook or paperback today. 

Kevin Lucia is a Contributing Editor for Shroud Magazine, a blogger for The Midnight Diner, and a podcaster at Tales to Terrify. His short fiction has appeared in several anthologies. He's currently finishing his Creative Writing Masters Degree at Binghamton University, he teaches high school English and lives in Castle Creek, New York with his wife and children. He is the author of Hiram Grange & The Chosen One, Book Four of The Hiram Grange Chronicles, and he's currently working on his first novel. Visit him on the web at www.kevinlucia.com.

BLACKOUT (Orbit ) by Mira Grant

***BLACKOUT is the third book in a trilogy that builds heavily upon itself. Because of that, there is no way that I can talk about this work without spoiling several key events of the previous books. It isn’t designed in a way that you would enjoy it without reading both of those first anyways, so start there. We’ve got reviews of both FEED and DEADLINE to check out in the meantime.***

Here it is people, the one you’ve been waiting for. Our oldest got us all excited, the middle kid left us agitated and confused and this one is supposed to wrap it all up. This is the point where Newsflesh will either be remembered as a great trilogy in a sea of limp, processed zombie crap or it will just leave us all pissed off for getting us so worked up. Does it satisfy?

Yes. Go buy it if you don’t already have a half-devoured copy on your bookshelf.

You want details before you blindly follow my orders? Fine. The conspiracy that overran the Ryman presidential campaign, leveled Oakland and left the team at After the End Times with too many corpses in their wake has only gotten broader. The heads of AtET are all hunted fugitives hiding out with a mad scientist. Florida has been lost completely, due to a surprise insect vector of Kellis-Amberlee, just in time to distract from the raid on the CDC. People with reservoir conditions are being killed off because they carry a possible immunity to the disease. And they’ve brought Georgia back as a clone?

That last bit had me worried, since it smacked of a cheap way to bring back a beloved character, but her resurrection is integral to the larger issue of criminal misuse of science for the purpose of maintaining control. Sure, we do get a nice comfy feeling having good old George back but we also know enough not to trust it in the hands of an author who has made it perfectly clear that she won’t treat us with kid gloves. Her presence, and the reason for it, alters the path of events in integral and powerful ways that certainly calmed my initial qualms.

Overall, the dangers compound, hope rises and gets smashed against the ground, the stakes escalate and the conspiracy we’ve been following deepens. Yet, through it all, Mira maintains the sense of regular people unwittingly and unwillingly thrust into desperate times and situations determined to do what’s right, even when they don’t necessarily know what the right thing to do is, or how to do it. They’re not special, just schleps who want the truth to be heard.

And damn do I love those schleps. I can’t gush enough over how comforting it was to settle back into this crew of crazy people. Shaun’s headlong rush for vengeance and crazy discussions with the dead sister living in his head. Becks’ anger and pure sincerity. Mahir’s dry and incredibly British sense of humor. Maggie’s energy. Aleric being an asshole. They feel like friends I never got to meet in person and I still enjoyed getting a chance to sit in their heads while the world crumbled around them.

Now, those expecting a denouement to the grand, global issues revolving around the Masons and their fellow newsies may find themselves a bit disappointed. Changes and resolutions are moved toward, but we don’t get to see the long term effect of them, so we don’t know how it truly works out. However, in my mind at least, this was never a story about those issues so much as how these people dealt with them. In that, we do reach a very satisfying conclusion that wrapped up their stories quite well. However, I am biting my tongue about a certain revelation that I didn’t think was necessary, except to give a romantic edge to the story that wasn’t really needed and made it a bit creepy.

All in all, this is a great last third to the Newsflesh story that manages to keep the focus clearly on the characters while still revealing incredible and frightening things about both their world and ours.

 Visit Mira Grant's Website and buy the book.

Reviewed by Anton Cancre

Anton Cancre is one of those rotting, pus-filled thingies on the underside of humanity that your mother always warned you about. He has oozed symbolic word-farms onto the pages of Shroud, Sex and Murder and Horrorbound magazines as well as The Terror at Miskatonic Falls, an upcoming poetry anthology by Shroud Publishing and continues to vomit his oh-so-astute literary opinions, random thoughts and nonsense at antoncancre.blogspot.com. No, he won't babysit you pet shoggoth this weekend. Stop asking.

The Hungry Moon, (Samhain Horror), by Ramsey Campbell

Continuing Samhain Horror's line of reprinted Ramsey Campbell's novels is "The Hungry Moon", an eerie tale about a small England village besieged first by rabid Christian Evangelicals and then the dark, pagan, moon-worshiping force they accidentally awaken.  

For the most part a smart story offering acute observations on the dangers of religious fanaticism, Campbell's usually suspenseful "quiet horror" does drag a little towards the end.  Taken as a whole, however, Campbell delivers the goods, as always: poignant characterization, sterling craft, creeping dread, and unsettling unease.



Godwin Mann (yes, read that as God - Win - Man) is on a quest to win souls for God. Embarrassed by his father's B-Movie horror past (Dad played the Devil once in a film), Godwin experiences a life-changing "conversion" and becomes a self-styled version of Billy Graham, leading crusades and marches and rallies, all to advance the Good News.  And he's come to England's shores to continue God's Good Work. He's come to the small town of Moonwell to rid it of its "pagan past", to "win the town for the Lord."

And initially, he and his troupe of believers find a foothold in Moonwell.  A moderately Christian town paradoxically proud of its Druid traditions, Moonwell's Christian residents see Godwinn's arrival almost akin to their own Second Coming, a chance to "purify" Moonwell of its pagan influences, once and for all. Battle lines are drawn, friend turned against friend, families divided. All in the name of Godwinn Man's "holy quest".

But when Mann confronts the source of Moonwell's Druid traditions (a deep cave in which legends say Old Beings dwell), he returns....changed. No longer human, Godwin Mann uses his influence and newly "won" town to unleash an unspeakable darkness. Night falls...and stays.  Daily deliveries - even the newspaper - from the outside world cease. No one can leave. No one can enter from outside Moonwell, as the demon that is now Godwin Mann slowly erases Moonwell, cutting it off from the rest of the world, hiding it in a perpetual night lit only by a strange, bloated moon.

And this moon is hungry. And angry, for being ignored all these years.

As always, you get what you expect in a Ramsey Campbell novel: smooth, flowing prose, deep characters, subtle emotional plays, and a lingering dread that settles right at the base of the neck. In this case, perhaps "The Hungry Moon" runs a little too long. The darkness settles around town very early, and readers can also guess pretty quickly what's happened to Mann.  

However, this novel's strength lies not in it's plot, necessarily, but in character development, as religious fanaticism not only tears the town apart, but ultimately leaves Moonwell completely vulnerable to the demon-possessed Godwin Mann. That's where this novel's real power comes from, in Campbell's portrayal of friends and family torn apart by the Lord's "Good News."

Visit www.ramseycampbell.com. Buy the paperbook or ebook today. 


Kevin Lucia is a Contributing Editor for Shroud Magazine, a blogger for The Midnight Diner, and a podcaster at Tales to Terrify. His short fiction has appeared in several anthologies. He's currently finishing his Creative Writing Masters Degree at Binghamton University, he teaches high school English and lives in Castle Creek, New York with his wife and children. He is the author of Hiram Grange & The Chosen One, Book Four of The Hiram Grange Chronicles, and he's currently working on his first novel. Visit him on the web at www.kevinlucia.com.
 

The Last Kind Words (Bantam), by Tom Piccirilli

“The last kind words ever spoken to Jesus were spoken by a thief.”

Normally, I'd start off with some kind of hook, a generalized statement that ties into my feelings about the book being reviewed. Summary. A well reasoned list of pro's and con's. Professional and clean, if a bit self-conscious at times.

That's not what you're getting today, because this isn't that kind of book.

The back flap breakdown would have you believe that this is a story of a man forced to return home to a broken family of crooks and thieves. Faced with the brutality of his brother's murder spree, he's been asked to find the killer of the one person his brother didn't kill. A murder mystery wrapped in the barbs of crime fiction curled in the velvet black drapes of noir.

But that is also not what you are getting today, because it isn't that type of book.

It's not really about any of those things, at least not to me. To me, this is a tale of the sicknesses and sins floating in blood, embedded in flesh. It's about a man's struggle to find out if he is bound to the same fate as his family, if genetics, like anatomy, is truly destiny. The murderous brother who went mad dog one night and killed an old woman, a family of five (their little daughter included). The history of graft and theft running generations deep. The dementia whose roots have all but mushed the brains of the family's eldest and have begun to worm their way into the younger ones as well. These things that our dear, humble narrator wants so desperately to believe he can extricate himself from but fears with just as much certainty that he cannot escape.

It says so much about the effect of Piccirilli's writing on me that I cannot remove myself from it, that I can only speak of it in terms of myself. That's why I, quite frankly, ride his nuts as if they are my favorite stallion. His writing is always so intensely personal, that it becomes personal to me. Here is this man whom I have never met, who knows nothing about me, yet whose words seem to understand the deepest fears and hopes bursting inside of me.

Its a bit scary, really.

I'll just end with saying that The Last Kind Words resonates against my own experiences in ways I don't care to share with strangers, but it's there all the same. There will be those of you put off by the first person narration and the somewhat overwrought and bruise-purple prose but my own experience was sublime in the truest, most Longinus(ian?) sense of the word.

Pic's blog is marvelous and you can buy the book here.

 

Reviewed by Anton Cancre

Anton Cancre is one of those rotting, pus-filled thingies on the underside of humanity that your mother always warned you about. He has oozed symbolic word-farms onto the pages of Shroud, Sex and Murder and Horrorbound magazines as well as The Terror at Miskatonic Falls, an upcoming poetry anthology by Shroud Publishing and continues to vomit his oh-so-astute literary opinions, random thoughts and nonsense at antoncancre.blogspot.com. No, he won't babysit you pet shoggoth this weekend. Stop asking.

The Legend of the Pumpkin Thief (Noble Publishing), by Charles Day

“One missing pumpkin certainly did not qualify as a visit from the Pumpkin Thief. But it was kind of cool, getting all worked up the night before the holiday, a special holiday devoted to celebrating evil and dead things.”

Nick seems like a pretty typical seventeen-year-old. He has a lot of trouble with the girls at school, just as much trouble with the bullies, and an annoying younger sister. He also has a fascination with mystery stories and hopes to some day become a detective. It’s his detective-like curiosity that leads Nick to do a little investigation of a local legend called the Pumpkin Thief. It all starts when the jack-o-lantern that Nick’s family had sitting on the porch steps disappears. Nick finds a paper written by a former student at his school and reads about a supposed creature that steals pumpkins throughout an entire neighborhood in order to really mess around with things and invite evil into the town. According to the legend, nobody knows where the Pumpkin Thief will strike, though the time is always around Halloween...

Nick doesn’t quite believe everything he reads at first. He has enough to worry about between all of the issues at school and outside of school. Lou, Nick’s archenemy, never seems to want to leave the kid alone, and he is completely outmatched in a fight. But when the Pumpkin Thief actually appears in the town these kids live in, there’s no better equalizer than fear.

The Legend of the Pumpkin Thief is a horror book that is written very well for its intended audience in the Young Adult crowd. One of its biggest strengths is surely the verisimilitude of high school life. It’s great that the book actually doesn’t get too bogged down in the buildup to the spooky climactic scenes; everything about Nick’s life has a chance to be fleshed out. Charles Day’s tale is just as much about being a seventeen-year-old kid with dreams as it is about horrifying creatures intent on the destruction of mankind, and that is what really makes the book in the end. The Pumpkin Thief himself is at first a complete mystery, but when he reveals himself his impact is felt in many ways. He really is a threat to the kids and everyone else in Nick’s town and they have to work together to get rid of the evil spirit.

This is a book that is a quick and enjoyable read for adults but might be just a little more entertaining for an audience that skews on the young side. Get it as a gift for the teenager who likes mysteries or a little Halloween spook.

visit the author's blog or buy the book here.

Review by Christopher Larochelle

Christopher Larochelle is buried under a huge pile of comics. At least that's his excuse for not updating his blog (where he used to write about them from time to time): www.clarocomics.blogspot.com. Visit it and encourage him to get back to updating.

Hunter's Moon (Omnium Gatherum) by R Scott McCoy

As a species, we are born hunters. No matter how removed from our distant past we may get, buying slabs of neatly packaged and processed meat from brightly lit coolers at the local grocery store, the genetic memory is still buried somewhere deep in our subconscious. That need to pounce and destroy. To feel the sweet, tangy taste of blood dripping down out throat. At the very least, to avoid being eaten ourselves. The stories in Hunter’s Moon deal with that relationship of predator and prey, approaching it in ways that are sometimes surprising and often quite entertaining.

The best stories in this collection showcase R Scott McCoy’s more playful side. “Jihad” is a great example of this, placing the reader in the head of a man obsessed with destroying the rodents that have overrun his house. Certainly, the analytic in me loves that I was never sure what was real and what was purely a figment of the protagonist’s growing psychosis but then he hit me with this: “I’m not leaving my post, Steve. If I do, this position will be overrun. If you want to help, bring me more peanut butter for the traps.” If you didn’t fall in love with that line, I’m not talking to you any more.

I could go on, with stories like “Bitch Queen” (kegel enhanced coochie and all), “Garbage Man” (always use a full sized portrait) and “The Find” (bigfoot-‘nuff said) but you get the point: McCoy knows how to tell a tale that is just downright fun. At the same time, his knack for building honest and true feeling characters gives the more serious tales like the heartfelt “The Last Line” and damn angry “Best Served Cold” the punch they need to truly hit home.

Unfortunately, there are times that McCoy’s old school, Serling-esque aesthetic gets a tad too repetitive and predictable. Most of the time, the personality and characters save those but there are times, specifically in the cases of “Stream Scream” and “Regular Customer”, where the story’s lack of a sense of cohesion or direction kills the experience.

McCoy isn’t out to change the world or shock us with his new and outrageous approach to story telling. His work makes it clear that he is out to do one thing and one thing only: spin a good yarn. Overall, despite a few minor missteps, he certainly succeeds with this collection.

Stop by the author's blog and buy the book here or through amazon, as always.

Reviewed by Anton Cancre

Anton Cancre is one of those rotting, pus-filled thingies on the underside of humanity that your mother always warned you about. He has oozed symbolic word-farms onto the pages of Shroud, Sex and Murder and Horrorbound magazines as well as The Terror at Miskatonic Falls, an upcoming poetry anthology by Shroud Publishing and continues to vomit his oh-so-astute literary opinions, random thoughts and nonsense at antoncancre.blogspot.com. No, he won't babysit you pet shoggoth this weekend. Stop asking.
 

The Wicked, (Shock Totem Publications), by James Newman

The Wicked, by James Newman, is a frightfully fun exercise in classic eighties horror.  The pacing is excellent, all the time-honored elements are there - evil comes to a small town, preying on vulnerable sensibilities, trying to become "flesh" - but most importantly, it's so very well written.  The prose is lean, the characterization rings true and even at 325 pages, the story moves like a dragster fueled by the fires of Hell.

David, Kate and Becca Little moved to Morganville, North Carolina in a desperate attempt to start over. After Kate's assault and rape, the Littles are hurting, badly.  This may be the only chance they have at saving their family and returning to some sense of normalcy.  Especially with Kate's pregnancy looming above them. Because they don't know.  Whose child is this? David's?

Or the rapists?

Much worse dangers lurk in the shadowed corners of Morganville, however.  Invoked by the fire that destroyed the Heller Home for Children several months before the Littles arrived, an ancient demon has come forth. Its hunger is eternal, and not only does it want to defile and debase and corrupt all human life...

It wants the children.  To fuel its unholy fires, and bring it forth from hell. And to defeat it, David must face sacrificing more than just his life...he may have to sacrifice everything he holds dear in this world.

The debate will always rage, one imagines, between those who champion "introspective, literary horror" and those who favor the more visceral sub-genres like splatterpunk and monster fiction (zombies, vampires, etc).  And that's the best thing about The Wicked.  It's so well written. Boasts a tight narrative that moves well, and there's plenty of regular "life stuff" (regarding Kate's trauma over her rape) for this to be more than just horror.  

But it IS horror, at its core. A classic tale of good versus evil, and it's done very well. Also, major credit goes to the publisher, Shock Totem, in the product itself. In a print on demand age when any "Joe" can become a "publisher" and churn out reams of substandard products, not only have they elected to start their novel line with a proven winner in James Newman, but they've knocked this one of out of the park in terms of design. Right town to a little "Totem's Grocery" discount label on the novel's back cover, and those beloved creases of a well-worn paperback.

Visit James Newman's blog. Buy the paperback or ebook today.

Kevin Lucia is a Contributing Editor for Shroud Magazine and a blogger for The Midnight Diner. His short fiction has appeared in several anthologies. He's currently finishing his Creative Writing Masters Degree at Binghamton University, he teaches high school English and lives in Castle Creek, New York with his wife and children. He is the author of Hiram Grange & The Chosen One, Book Four of The Hiram Grange Chronicles, and he's currently working on his first novel. Visit him on the web at www.kevinlucia.com.

Undead, (Cemetery Dance), by John Russo

George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead spawned legions of movies and books about the animated, lurching, flesh-eating dead. Hailed as a classic by horror fans, cited as foundational by many writers and directors, it could be argued that it changed the landscape of horror cinema dramatically.

John Russo, acclaimed screenwriter, co-wrote the screenplay and also produced two novel versions, Night of the Living Dead and Return of the Living Dead - the latter being the original version, not the version based on Dan O'Bannon's horror comedy.  



And now, for the first time in thirty years, both these works are available again in Cemetery Dance's new limited edition collection, Undead. There's nothing overly special about the prose or the stories themselves - they're straight zombie stories: violent, bloody, stripped down and fast-paced, executed adequately - but the addition of the original version of ROTLD makes this a collector's item for lovers of all things zombie, and definitely the right gift for that zombie fan in your life that already has everything.  

Pre-order today.


Kevin Lucia is a Contributing Editor for Shroud Magazine and a blogger for The Midnight Diner. His short fiction has appeared in several anthologies. He's currently finishing his Creative Writing Masters Degree at Binghamton University, he teaches high school English and lives in Castle Creek, New York with his wife and children. He is the author of Hiram Grange & The Chosen One, Book Four of The Hiram Grange Chronicles, and he's currently working on his first novel. Visit him on the web at www.kevinlucia.com.