Ichthyic in the Afterglow is the kind of book that the subgenre “bizarro” was invented for. It uses the mythologies of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert W. Chambers, but it isn’t really horror. It takes place in a dystopian future, but it isn’t really science fiction. Its story is driven by factions of warring cults, but it’s […]
Review: The League of the Sphinx: The Purple Scarab by R.E. Preston
June 17, 2015 by Leave a Comment
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). This first volume of a projected seven book series called The League of the Sphinx sees 15-year-old Edmund Peabody, his brother Chander and friend Amelia Tripp […]
Audiobook Review: TINKERMAGE by Kenny Soward (Narr. Scott Aiello)
June 5, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The first book in the GnomeSaga, Rough Magick, introduced us to a tinkerer who was unaware of the worlds changing device she’s created. That story showed her accidental discovery by way of a crooked 1st Wizard and her subsequent imprisonment. While she languishes in jail, her bug-addicted brother has been sent to fight the front-line […]
Reviews: The Beauty and The Bridge
May 27, 2015 by Leave a Comment
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 beautiful prose. In The Beauty by Aliya Whitely, a group of men and boys who have escaped their failing city gather around […]
Audiobook Review: ROUGH MAGICK by Kenny Soward (Narr. Scott Aiello)
May 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment
My life was changed when, at the age of thirteen, a friend showed me Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. My first adventure into living dragons, half-elven heroes, knights, princesses, and more captivated my imagination with the joy of discovery and wonder. Some of the characters, like the mage, Raistlin, had […]
Book Review: Gorel and The Pot-Bellied God by Lavie Tidhar
April 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment
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 transported to a strange yet weirdly familiar place with an antihero who is strange, complex and … someone you want to be with as long as […]
Book Review: OF BONE AND THUNDER by Chris Evans
October 21, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The first page for OF BONE AND THUNDER is dedicated to author Chris Evans‘ comrades in Vietnam. The novel’s prologue then takes the reader over a vast, eerie forest, where a flock of birds are promptly ambushed, surrounded, and eaten–by dragons. Vietnam has been portrayed many times across various media, and this may be the first […]
