Apexology: Horror, (Apex Book Company), edited by Jason Sizemore

Apex Magazine, headed by editor Jason Sizemore, showcases twenty-one stories of dark science fiction and horror in Apexology: Horror anthology. Since 2005, Apex magazine has been recognized for bringing to the forefront quality fiction in the genres it supports, and no less here in their digital only edition.

There's an eclectic mix of stories that touch on diverse times and cultures, as well as more familiar and seemingly benign settings. Unexpected characters grace the landscape, but some are familiar, classic creatures such as vampires and werewolves.

Stand-outs in this volume include the first story, "It Tasted Like the Sea," by Paul Jessup, an eerie tale reminiscent of the Bluebeard fairy tale, and "Kusatena Uroyi" by Gill Ainsworth, which keeps the reader guessing what purpose a "white man in black skin" has in an exotic, African setting.

Some delve into uglier territory of what the human spirit can be reduced to in the heartrending story of young love, "Cerbo En Vitra Ujo." Horror even hides in a beehive hairdo in "The Spider in the Hairdo," and the anthology closes with a sinister story of sibling rivalry in "Big Sister/Little Sister." "The Dark Side," and "Disturbing Things" delightfully showcase psychological horror and the nature of subjective viewpoints to great effect.

There's many more great stories within to be discovered, rest assured, you won't find any twinkling monsters here.

Visit http://www.apexbookcompany.com/. Download it today.

Martin Rose lives in New Jersey, where he writes a range of fiction from the fantastic to the macabre, holds a degree in graphic design, and enjoys blurring the line between art and life. More details are available at www.MartinRoseHorror.com.

A Gathering of Crows, (Leisure Fiction), by Brian Keene

Brian Keene, whose work spans over twenty novels, thirteen collections, and four comic book series, has heavily influenced dark fiction since his career began. Ever since this two-time Stoker Award winner stepped on the scene, horror hasn’t been the same. And that’s a good thing. His latest novel, A Gathering Of Crows proves that the man still has his magic, and much more.

An ancient evil has descended upon the small West Virginia town of Brinkley Springs. One by one, the inhabitants realize that not only has the power gone out, but even their electronic gadgets—dependent on batteries—are dead as well. Even the natural sounds that accompany the night are gone. As well as the wind that carries their din. Once the screams start, and the gunfire begins, power and iPods are the least of the town’s worries.

Keene seamlessly takes us from person to person, and victim to victim, as those that serve an ancient deity begin to carry out Its orders: murder. Through break-neck, suspenseful pacing, we find people we truly care about. Trapped, they must rely on each other for safety as they scramble about the chaos seeking refuge.

Someone else has come to town, however. Someone Keene’s fans will remember from previous novels: ex-Amish magus, Mr. Levi Stoltzfus. Levi is a man of many skills, trades and magical disciplines. He's a faithful servant to The Lord, our God. As the body count climbs, Levi must mount a defense whilst uncover the nature of these beings, and more importantly, who they serve.

Battle lines are drawn, and people like Donny—a vet from the Iraq War—and Axel Perry, an old man who’s life is Brinkley Springs—refuse to stand idly by and watch their town be murdered. But when faced with that which is shadow, and its touch, death; will they stand by Levi and the few who support him? If they do, can Levi find the courage and magic within himself to face enemies that shadow his power?

A Gathering Of Crows is a well written, highly-imaginative, unique treat that, at some times becomes downright terrifying. Keene’s trademark voice and ability to give the reader realistic characters is at an all-time high. What truly makes this novel shine is how easily Keene combines these elements into a chill that tickles the imagination and reminds us: magic is real. And it exists in this book.

Visit www.briankeene.com. Buy it today.

Reviewed by Ben Eads.

Dark Matters, (Bad Moon Books), by Bruce Boston

Bruce Boston's work has appeared in hundreds of publications, including Asimov's SF, Amazing Stories, Realms of Fantasy, Strange Horizons, Weird Tales, The Pedestal Magazine, Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, and the Nebula Awards Showcase, and received a number of awards, most notably the Pushcart Prize, the Asimov's Readers' Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Rhysling Award, and the Grandmaster Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. He holds the distinctions of having appeared in more issues of Asimov's SF than any other author, and of coining the word "cybertext." His newest collection of dark poetry, Dark Matters, covers the full speculative range, from science fiction horror to dark fantasy, taking the reader on a nightmarish jaunt into the shadows.

For fans of traditional horror, Dark Matters contains such poems as "A Stray Grimoire," in which "your moving hand may pause/and descend upon the spine/of a book penned to decimate/the tenets of your mind," or "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Vulture," Boston's riff on Wallace Stevens, in which the speaker is "of a single mind,/Like a colony of vultures circling/A lone man in the desert" and the vulture itself "dreams/Of being shiny as a raven,/Iridescent as a peacock,/Spotless as a swan/Upon a pellucid pond." Boston's pages are plagued with assassins, torturers and zombies, ghosts and the voices of the damned, enough to keep the appetite of any horror enthusiast sated.

Boston's work also appeals to fans of science fiction. In his poem "The Oblong Observatory," "All the swayed myths/of the century's ascension/are misbegotten" and we "gather beneath/the grave gray ruins/of this oblong observatory/that reeks of the gods/of our unfailing obsessions." In "Robovamp," the "clichéd image/of a teenage boy's/rough libido at play" searches out men and "drains their life force/to power her own,/to fuel her fine form/and feed her stark mind." Boston is able to pepper his book with enough science fiction to keep fans of that genre equally satisfied, but makes the poems themselves dark enough to not stand out against the others in this collection.

Boston also delves into dark fantasy between these covers. In "The Faithless," "A great gray beast/of incertitude/comes stumbling/through the centuries/churning up corpses/and mud." In his poem "The Sizing of Curses," small curses are as "hard to track/as rats within the walls," but still "bite/and maim the child in its crib,/then fade like bloody smoke," whereas master curses slay "enemies abed/and scorch their lands with light." Fans of dark fantasy will find much in which to sink their teeth in the pages of Dark Matters.

Fans of Boston's previous work will also find comfort in this collection, as a few of his "people" poems punctuate these pages. In "Harvest People," "Sweet corn, tomatoes,/pepperoncinis and peaches/would live up to/their savory reputations" and "wine flowing/from our vineyards/would be a sense delight/in any vintage." Pleasant as these visions seem, Boston also conjures a world populated by Assassin People, in which "the slightest/indiscretion could/lead to a contract/on your life." and we "wake up/
each morning,/if we woke up at all,/with blood on our hands."

For those who have not read a collection of Bruce Boston's, now is the time to begin, and Dark Matters is an excellent place to start. For fans of Boston's previous work, Dark Matters continues his legacy of solid writing and will not disappoint. It is a spooky and chilling collection ready to shiver its way down the spine of readers, leaving only its tracks to haunt their dreams.

Visit http://www.bruceboston.com/. Buy it today.

Joshua Gage is an ornery curmudgeon from Cleveland. His first full-length collection, "breaths", is available from VanZeno Press. Intrinsic Night, a collaborative project he wrote with J. E. Stanley, was recently published by Sam’s Dot Publishing. He is a graduate of the Low Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing at Naropa University. He has a penchant for Pendleton shirts, rye whiskey and any poem strong enough to yank the breath out of his lungs. He stomps around Cleveland in a purple bathrobe where he hosts the monthly Deep Cleveland Poetry hour and enjoys the beer at Brew Kettle.

WANTED: UNDEAD OR ALIVE Vampire Hunters and Other Kick-Ass Enemies Of Evil , (Citadel Press), by Jonathan Maberry and Janice Gable Bashman

Stoker Award-winning author Jonathan Maberry along with International Thriller Writer member Janice Gable Bashman have joined forces to create WANTED: UNDEAD OR ALIVE, a book which focuses on the endless struggle between good and evil. Concentrating on both the mythical evil of vampires and werewolves and those who hunt them to the real evil of serial killers and their nemeses, FBI profilers, this book is a fascinating mixture of everything from superheroes to pulp horror to current day ghostbusters.

With chapter titles ranging from "It Didn't Start with Van Helsing" (covering vampire legends prior to Bram Stoker's famous creation) and "Who You Gonna Call?" (the ghost-hunting trade) to "The Roots of Good and Evil" (a brief overview of the nature of good and evil and why we are so fascinated by it) and "Spandex to the Rescue"(comic book heroes and villains), Maberry and Bashman have managed to cover nearly ever "monster" of legend as well as the heroes (or superheroes) who try and defeat them.

And every chapter has commentary from such luminaries as director John Carpenter, actor Doug Jones, author Peter Straub and the legendary Stan Lee. The chapter covering "Real Evil" was particularly chilling with its Serial Killer Hall of Fame. There are also chapters covering "Skin Art" (former "Rue Morgue" editor-in-chief Jovanka Vuckovic's tattoos are prominently covered here), role-playing games, horror games that became films such as "Resident Evil" series, the "Bloodrayne" series and "Silent Hill". There are even appendices covering the Top 100 Villains of All Time (care to guess who is Number One), Spirit Superstitions and the Top 40 Genre Movies of All Time (with categories of Top Ten Vampire, Werewolf, Demon and Ghost Films).

This is a great reference for all horror-lovers. Maberry and Bashman have done a commendable job trying, in 366 pages, to explain the eternal battle of good versus evil and in a way modern day readers can understand. The book also includes 40 illustrations and an 8-page color insert with art from, among others, David Leri, the covers of Marvel Horror Comics, Patrick Don Maitz and Peter Mihaichuk.

Definitely check this book out.

Visit http://jonathanmaberry.com/. Buy it today.

Growing up in the Gothic South, Elaine has been obsessed with horror in almost all of its formats since she was a young child. She has contributed movie reviews, interviews and book reviews to such websites as Bloody-Disgusting, Severed Cinema, Icons of Fright, Horror Movies.ca, Really Scary, Fatally-Yours, HorrorReanimated and “Rue Morgue” magazine. Today she is the main literary critic for Dread Central and loves all of the amazing books she receives to review.

Kill the Dead: A Sandman Slim Novel, (HarperCollins), by Richard Kadrey

I need to start the review of Kill the Dead with something as basic as, I loved this novel. Loved it.

Now. I need you to stay with me for the rest of the review. Because, as you begin to read, you may not fully believe the above statement. But trust me. I will pull it off.

The extreme basic concept of Kadrey's book continually forced comparison between Kill The Dead and Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series -- the similarities nagged. Where the main character in Kadrey's novel has Kasabian --a fully functioning head, just a head, Dresden has Bob -- a spirit that lived inside a skull. Both Bob and Kasabian are limited to the homes of the main characters, are witty and a bit annoying, but also helpful and used as a sounding board, more or less -- where they tap resources to help their main characters solve puzzles.

While Dresden uses magic to operate a private eye business out of his home, he continually encounters vampires, ghosts, witches, goblins, etc., etc. Jimmy Stark (Sandman Slim), the main guy in Kill the Dead, is a nephilim (part angel, part human), who uses magic, and works for the Vigil to help solve crimes that seem to include vampires, werewolves, goblins and zombies.

Both Dresden and Stark are similarly outlined and shaded in characters, and the story lines easily blur between authors. However, and this is where I take you back to my first sentence, I loved Kadrey's novel.

Stark, who was sent Downtown for eleven years--Downtown being Hell--is, throughout the book, searching for Mason, the evil man who sent him there. In the meantime, he has jobs to do. While working for-hire for the Vigil to keep the streets free and clear of monsters, he takes to moonlighting. His new client is none other than the Devil himself. Lucifer.

Lucifer is in town. A soul he owns is a movie producer. A motion picture is going to be shot--detailing Lucifer's existence. While on earth, Lucifer wants a body guard to protect his human form. Enter Jimmy Stark, a.k.a. Sandman Slim.

At the same time, Drifters start showing up. Drifters are a breed of zombie. One of the actresses for the Lucifer film--Brigitte, a "Czech gypsy porn star zombie killer", teams up with Stark to fight the walking dead.

Together, with the help of a host of unique characters (friends), Stark and Brigitte, must uncover who released the zombie-drifters into the general public and prevent a serious health outbreak, while protecting the Prince of Darkness, and keeping themselves alive before the complete unraveling of humanity itself!

Taut chapters. Quick, tart dialogue. Gritty noir writing. Kill the Dead is an engrossing read. It is both captivating and compelling. It has forced me to place an order for the first book in the series, Sandman Slim, because I need to know what happened before to lead Stark to where he is now!

Visit http://www.richardkadrey.com/. Buy it today.

Thomas Phillips grew up with a reading disability and did everything he could not to read. It wasn't until he was in seventh grade that he finally read a book cover to cover. Now a voracious reader and prolific writer, he uses his accomplishments as a motivational backdrop for speaking at school assemblies. When he's not writing, he plays his guitar, is active in his church, coaches his children’s' Little League teams, and plots his next story. The Molech Prophecy is his most recent suspense novel.

The Blackness Within: Stories of the Pagan God Moccus, (Apex Publications) edited by Gill Ainsworth

Do you like sex? Do you like food? Then Moccus may very well be the god for you. An ancient Celtic god of fertility, he's guaranteed to stoke your passion and get them twigs a-growin'. He may be a bit bristly and rotund, but the fiery look in his eyes will tell you everything you need to know. That said, you might want to keep in mind that the crops will need to be fertilized with something and Moccus doesn't care much for the cute and cuddlies of the world, except as something to fill his belly.

Fresh off of one of the best religious horror anthologies out there (Dark Faith), Apex brings us a collection of stories based around the big pig himself, and I couldn't be happier. These tales sprawl across the past, present and a disturbing future under the reign of a Yeatsian Second Coming where the rough beast slouching to Bethlehem has hoofed feet and a squat, flat snout. The whole is a merger of brutal dark fantasy, olde timey religion and an occasional bit of science fiction that left my pants uncomfortably moist.

Some high points include S. Clayton Rhodes' "The Messiah of Mincemeat", which intercuts its story of burgeoning violence and retribution with recipes that show the dark underpinnings of our oh-so-civilized eating habits. Mark Grundy and Conrad Zero wax Serling with "The Free Poor" and "Big Game". Then there is "Abattoir Blues", by Geoffrey W. Cole, a tale of hypocrisy and capitalization of religion that makes no bones of its comments on more traditional faiths. But Maxwell Peterson's "Daughter of God" takes the cake, working the style and tone of the oral tradition so closely associated with these old gods to marvelous effect.

However, not all of the stories came thundering down from the mountaintop. Opener "The Secrets of Fatima", by human ball of destruction Steven L. Shrewsbury, has its fair share of well portrayed sex and violence, but comes across as too random and scattershot to have any lasting effect. Similarly, Michael Keyton's "Bad Meat", while carrying a respectable Books of Blood-era Barker atmosphere, lacked the emotional center necessary for the viscera to properly bleed.

While there are a few stories here that fall flat, the overall effect of this collection is quite powerful and there is no doubt that it meets the high standards that come with the Apex name. If you spend a night or two with this little friend, I doubt you'll look at pork the same way again.

Visit http://www.apexbookcompany.com/. Buy it today.

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.

Born to Bite, (Avon), by Lynsay Sands

Lynsay Sands gives us the latest in the Argeneau family with Born to Bite from Avon HarperCollins, a vampire paranormal romance set in Sands' native Canada. Since 1997, she's been penning best-sellers in the paranormal/historical romance field, injecting story with suspense, humor, and sex.

Sands wastes no time, introducing us to Armand Argeneau and Eshe D'Aureus, immortal, good-looking, and in dire need of a reason to take off each other's clothes. Sands provides us with the reason: Eshe is an Enforcer, a law officer in the vampire world, and she is there in an undercover capacity to investigate the deaths of Armand's previous wives. Armand is told Eshe needs a place to hide out for several weeks, and takes her in as a favor to his brother.

However, in the Argeneau vampire world, vampires are known to find "life mates," an instant connection between two vampires that supersedes all other concerns, awakening their senses, their desires, and their animal appetites. While Eshe is determining if Armand is a cold-blooded killer, neither can resist their hot-blooded urges.

Born to Bite is the fast-food variety of fiction, a guilty pleasure geared for the female demographic that can be gobbled down in seconds. Sands is noted for interspersing humor throughout her novels, but most attempts fall flat here. The main characters fail to stir a sense of urgency or emotional response in the reader, and the writing style is all action, lacking the attention to character detail that can make genre fiction so enjoyable when done well. Justin Bricker is the most likable character beside the main players, because, like the reader, he has no choice but to tolerate the poor jokes and boring sex scenes.

Visit http://www.lynsaysands.net/. Buy it today.

Martin Rose lives in New Jersey, where he writes a range of fiction from the fantastic to the macabre, holds a degree in graphic design, and enjoys blurring the line between art and life. More details are available at www.MartinRoseHorror.com.