Book Review: The Wolf in the Attic by Paul Kearney
Paul Kearney’s The Wolf in the Attic (Rebellion/Solaris) is a coming-of age-story. The publishers suggest it will appeal to people who love the work of Tolkein, C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman, and I...
View ArticleBook Review: A Borrowed Man by Gene Wolfe
Gene Wolfe’s A Borrowed Man (Tor) is a novel that sneaks up on you. Beneath its cosy exterior, elegant origami-like folds of spare prose and apparently simple storyline, beats a very dark heart. A...
View ArticleBook Review: The Monstrous, ed. Ellen Datlow
In The Monstrous (Tachyon Publications), the latest anthology in which she holds the editorial reins, Ellen Datlow presents us with yet another utterly compelling cornucopia of horrors. In this case,...
View ArticleReview: Whispers from the Abyss ed. Kat Rocha
Whispers from the Abyss (01 Publishing) describes itself as “An anthology of H.P. Lovecraft inspired short fiction.” But the authors within its pages are no slavish Elvis tribute acts. Instead, they...
View ArticleBook Review: If Then by Matthew De Abaitua
What if there was an equation to help us understand and ultimately eliminate war? That is one of the central themes of Matthew De Abaitua’s latest novel, If Then (Angry Robot Books). The title itself...
View ArticleReview: Nightmare Magazine, April 2015
A horribly delayed review, for which I unreservedly apologise to John Joseph Adams and the editorial crew (hey, you know I love you guys!). In my defence, I had a backlog, made my return from seven...
View ArticleReview: The League of the Sphinx: The Purple Scarab by R.E. Preston
If you enjoy pulp fiction and old-style Saturday morning serials, before they were reinvented by the Indiana Jones franchise, you will enjoy R.E. Preston’s The Purple Scarab (Westmarch Publishing)....
View ArticleReviews: The Beauty and The Bridge
This time I am reviewing two works: a novella, The Beauty by Aliya Whitely; and a short story, The Bridge by Angela D. Mitchell. Both are distinguished by highly original, unusual storytelling and...
View ArticleBook Review: Gorel and The Pot-Bellied God by Lavie Tidhar
Reading Gorel and the Pot Bellied God by Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing) felt like discovering Michael Moorcock for the first time. That sense that something has shifted in my world and I’ve been...
View ArticleBudget? What Budget?
Recently, British horror writer Ramsay Campbell drew the attention of a horror Facebook group to some low-budget horror films he appreciates. His suggestions were in reponse to the question that some...
View ArticleBook Review: Blackwater Lights by Michael M. Hughes
A mysterious phone call from an old friend prompts Ray Simon to return to the town of Blackwater, where he had spent part of his childhood. The visit isn’t something he is too keen on, however, since...
View ArticleReview: Ack-Ack Macaque by Gareth L. Powell
Imagine if you will a World War II fighter pilot…who also happens to be a monkey. The eponymous Ack-Ack Macaque isn’t all he seems, however, as Powell’s seriously entertaining alternate history novel...
View ArticleAttack of the Hollywood Remake Zombies: 2
Spider-man, Superman, Batman, The Thing, Invasion of The Body Snatchers, War of the Worlds – I could name many more, but I haven’t the time, or the blog space. You probably glean from the headline that...
View ArticleBook Review: Bathing the Lion by Jonathan Carroll
Jonathan Carroll’s latest novel, Bathing the Lion, opens with a relationship breakup. The breakup is described so vividly that the pain and tension is tangible and convincingly real. But this, along...
View ArticleLast Contact in Bulgaria
Last Contact is a short film portraying the despair of a researcher long after his last contact with the outside world. While the film is in the final stages of production, Michael Garrett, the man...
View ArticleBook Review: Resistance by Samit Basu
It’s 2020, eleven years after the passengers of flight BA142 from London to Delhi developed extraordinary abilities corresponding to their innermost desires. The result is a world overrun with supers....
View ArticleBook Review: The Ultra Thin Man by Patrick Swenson
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS WHAT SOME MAY CONSIDER MINOR SPOILERS. Blending elements of noir crime and science fiction isn’t a new thing, but Patrick Swenson in The Ultra Thin Man (Tor), tackles the mashup...
View ArticleBook Review: Dead Man’s Hand: An Anthology of The Weird West, ed. John Joseph...
I enjoy a good Western now and then. Mainly cinematic ones, though I have read a number of novels over the years. The weird western is a relatively new phenomenon, emerging probably from some of the...
View ArticleBook Review: KOKO TAKES A HOLIDAY by Kieran Shea
Kieran Shea’s first novel, Koko Takes a Holiday (Titan Books), is an extremely fast-paced chunk of science fiction space operetta with attitude. In common with its pulp fiction antecedents, it’s...
View ArticleReview: Women Destroy Science Fiction! Lightspeed Special
When I was around 11 years old, a girl in our English class read aloud her creative writing assignment. It was about a soldier in the first World War, so badly wounded that he couldn’t stop the rats in...
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