The first NEHW anthology, Epitaphs, is now available at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982727593/ref=ox_ya_os_product). The price is $12.99 plus $3.99 for shipping and handling.

The cover of NEHW

Amazon states, “the New England Horror Writers Association, in partnership with Shroud Publishing, are proud to debut its inaugural anthology, Epitaphs. The anthology is a compilation of some of the best dark fiction from both best-selling authors and up-and- coming writers throughout New England. Contributors include Christopher Golden, Rick Hautala, Holly Newstein & Glenn Chadbourne, LL Soares, Trisha Wooldridge, Kurt Newton, and more. The anthology features 26 stories and poems from the delightfully scary to the deeply macabre.

Epitaphs was edited by author Tracy L. Carbone and includes an introduction by award-winning author and publisher Peter Crowther, as well as a cover by Danny Evarts.

The table of contents in this chilling anthology is as follows:

Jeffrey C. Pettengill “To Sleep, Perchance to Die”
Paul McMahon “The Christopher Chair”
Kurt Newton “A Case of the Quiets”
Scott T. Goudsward “Build-a-Zombie”
John Goodrich “Not an Ulcer”
B. Adrian White “The Possesor Worm”
John M. McIlveen “Make a Choice”
Michael Allen Todd “The Death Room”
Rick Hautala “Perfect Witness”
Holly Newstein and Glenn Chadbourne “Stoney’s Boneyard”
Trisha J. Wooldridge “Kali’s Promise”
David Bernard “The Sequel”
David North-Martino “Malfeasance”
Stacey Longo “Private Beach”
Christopher Golden “All Aboard”
L.L. Soares “Holiday House”
Steven Withrow “Lines at a Wake”
K. Allen Wood “A Deeper kind of Cold”
P. Gardner Goldsmith “Alone”
Roxanne Dent “Pandora’s Box”
Michael Arruda “Chuck the Magic Man Says I Can”
T.T. Zuma “Burial Board”
John Grover “Windblown Shutter”
Stephen Dorato “Cheryl Takes a Trip”
Philip Roberts “The Legend of Wormley Farm”
Peter N. Dudar “Church of Thunder and Lightning”

Carbone, a New England native, has published several horror and literary short stories in magazines and anthologies in the U.S. and Canada. Her YA horror novel, The Soul Collector, will be released by Shadowfall Publications in late fall 2011. She is Co-Chair of the New England Horror Writers (NEHW) and a member of the Horror Writers Association (HWA).

There will be a book release party for Epitaphs and a panel with a few of the authors from the anthology at AnthoCon, Nov. 11 through 13. There will be a special table for the anthology at the convention as well. Throughout the weekend, most of the authors in Epitaphs will be available to sign copies.

Presented by Shroud Publishing, The Anthology 2011 Conference will “showcase the imaginative talent in speculative fiction and art, with an additional focus on the convergence of images and literature,” according to the AnthoCon website (http://anthocon.com/).

The NEHW will also have a table where members can sell their books and other items at the convention.

The cover of Shroud issue #11

Like other cons, well-known writers will be on hand, among them Christopher Golden (Of Saints and Shadows), who will offer a reading and signing; Jonathan Maberry, who read from one of his new novels; and Jennifer Pelland, who will read from her debut novel, Machine. There will be an extensive dealer area which will feature books, films, artwork, comics, and more. There will also be a Juried Art Exhibit to include such shelf familiars as Ogmios (The Witches’ Almanac), Morbideus Goodell (Apex Digest, Maberry’s Vampire and Cryptopaedia), and Michael Bailey (who is also the editor of Pellucid Lunacy, an anthology of psychological horror and several novels).

“[AnthoCon] has some amazing authors, publishers and film people attending,” said Tracy L. Carbone, editor of Epitaphs, New England Horror Writers Association’s first official anthology. “It should prove to be the best new Con for horror folks out there.”

Jonathan Maberry (photo courtesy of the Anthocon website)

But what makes AnthoCon unique is its focus on the nine panels’ concentration on education for both writers and horror fans. For example, Reaching through the Veil will examine the channeling of myth, religion, spirituality and the collective unconscious in imaginative fiction; Getting Your Short Story Published with the Small Press will offer insight on finding, submitting, and selling your short story; Evil Jester Press Presents “Help! Wanted: Tales of On-The-Job Terror” will dissect the process of producing an anthology. Horror names Brian Keene, Rick Hautala, Cat Valente, Maberry, Joseph

Nassise, Pelland, and Golden will present I’ve Made It This Far, Now What?, using their paths to literary success to illumine what the process could be like for those in attendance.

Brian Keene (photo courtesy of Anthocon website)

Topics also go deeper with Writing Programs: from the MFA to Private Workshops. And Eric Red (The Hitcher, Near Dark) will present a lecture and workshop The Elements of Writing Horror and Thrillers for Films.

Aside from guests, vendors, and panelists, the event promises to draw a unique crowd to include film and book reviewers and magazine editors—like Peter Schwotzer, the man at the helm of Literary Mayhem (http://literarymayhem.com/) who also reviews anthologies, lit-zines and books for Famous Monsters of Filmland and IMDB.

“I’m going mainly to meet a lot of authors I’ve met over the past couple of years in person. We correspond by e-mails, phone, Twitter, Facebook, etc., but it will be nice to meet face to face,” Schwotzer said. “All of the authors have been so kind and generous to me, it still boggles my mind that I actually correspond with my literary heroes.”

With so much to offer that seems to be different from what’s offered at other cons, this promises to be a great inauguration with long-lasting recurring potential—writer or fan, artist or reviewer, don’t miss out.

AnthoCon 2011 will be held at the Best Western Wynwood Hotel & Suites at 580 US Route 1 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from Friday, Nov. 11 through Sunday, Nov. 13. For complete information on AnthoCon, including schedules, costs, and who will be there, visit www.anthocon.com.

The literary duo of Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon are back with the next in the Hidden Cities series, and after the paltry excuse of the last book, The Chamber of Ten, The Shadow Men is a return to what the two do best: great storytelling, with some fun characters, and one crazy plot.  Readers will not be disappointed with this next installment.

The Shadow Men focuses on the historic and wonderful city of Boston.  Jim is a rich and talented artist, who has the best wife in the world and a darling daughter he can’t get enough of, but he has also painted strange depictions of Boston, a different city that bears little resemblance to the real one.  When Jim takes a nap during the day, while his wife and daughter go shopping, his wakes up to find himself in an altered world: his fancy apartment now looks totally different, and there is no evidence of his ever having had a daughter or being married.  Jim’s world quickly falls apart as he tries to work things out.

This Boston seems different, but it is actually Jim and his life that is different, but there is one other person who is in the same predicament: Trixie, a close friend.  Together they wonder what has happened to them – physically they look different also – but the more they find out, the more it seems like Jim’s wife and daughter never existed.  They visit the oracle of Boston to discover that there are other Bostons out there, parallel ones, and it appears that his wife and daughter have somehow passed into one of them.  But time is running out and they will need to get them back soon or everything will come crashing down.  Then there are the Shadow Men, those dark shadows without faces who are chasing them.

The Shadow Men is Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon at their best, reminding readers there are still some great and fantastic stories out there to be told, making them wonder if our world is really as cut and dry and normal as it seems.

Originally written on October 13, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of White Tiger from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

You might also like . . .

The hit TV series True Blood is based on Harris’s popular Sookie Stackhouse novels. Cemetery Girl is a paranormal/fantasy mystery novel about a teenage girl with amnesia living alone in a cemetery. It is Harris’ first effort at creating an original graphic novel series (IDW publishes a graphic novel series based on the True Blood TV show) and she will collaborate on the graphic novels with fantasy writer Christopher Golden and with artist Don Kramer. The first book in the graphic novel series will be released in 2013. All eight of the Sookie Stackhouse novels have appeared on the New York Times bestseller lists.

 

Harris said she had the plot of Cemetery Girl, “in my head for a year when Chris suggested I re-imagine it as a graphic novel. Suddenly the project made a lot more sense. Since Chris has more experience in the the graphic novel field than I do, we agreed to team up for my first ever collaboration. This is an exciting venture for both of us.”

Read more of the article here

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The Sookie Stackhouse series will end with book 13 in May 2013 (*sobbing noises in background), but Charlaine Harris fans haven’t heard the last from her. Charlaine is working on a new project, a graphic novel trilogy. According to Ace Books, the first book, Cemetery Girl, will be published in 2013. The trilogy is a collaboration between Harris, dark fantasy writer Christopher Golden (of BTVS infamy), and illustrator Don Kramer. Cemetery Girl will combine fantasy and paranormal mystery to tell the story of a teenaged girl with amnesia who has grown up living alone in amid the gravestones.

As the series unfolds, the truth of who the girl is and how she came to be there will be gradually revealed both to the reader and to the character herself. It will be Harris’s first venture into the world of graphic novels.

In a press release from her publisher, Harris said “I’d had the bones of the plot for Cemetery Girl in my head for a year when Chris suggested I re-imagine it as a graphic novel. Suddenly, the project made a lot more sense. Since Chris has more experience in the graphic novel field that I do, we agreed to team up for my first-ever collaboration. This is an exciting venture for both of us.”

“After a devastating plague ends World War I, Europe is suddenly flooded with vampires. Lord Henry Baltimore, a soldier determined to wipe out the monsters, fights his way through bloody battlefields, ruined plague ships, exploding zeppelins, and submarine graveyards on the hunt for the creature who’s become his obsession.”

Baltimore has the same look and feel as BPRD and is instantly recognizable as a Mike Mignola creation.  It has a bit of a Van Helsing or Solomon Kane feel to it but it is set in an alternative history after the first World War. The setting is perfectly rendered  and the story grips you from start to finish.  I love how they merged the idea of medieval plague into an early 1900′s war torn backdrop and threw in a bit of steam punk horror to garnish the mix.  I can wait for the next collection to find out what happens in Baltimore’s search for the elusive vampire and hopefully the answers to many other questions that this cracking first collection raised.

Ben Stenbeck’s artwork is perfect for the subject matter and has a fantastic atmosphere to it. He has a strange technique of not drawing feet or legs on far away characters that sometimes looks a bit odd but gives the book a quirky character. The color palette is the same as many of Mignola’s work but I have absolutely no problem with that.  I will definitely be looking out for more of his work.

Baltimore is a must read book for fans of Mignola and this hardcover version is worth the extra money. ISBN-13: 978-1595826732. 9/10

Both of these books feature tattoos with a supernatural twist. In Poison Ink it’s a decidedly evil one. Sammi’s friends get matching tattoos, but fall under the thrall of the magician who inks them. It’s up to Sammi to save her friends from his influence.

The skin art in Tattoo is more positive. When Bailey and her friends try on some temporary tattoos, they are gifted with extraordinary powers. The powers only last as long as the tattoos do, so the girls have to hurry if they’re going to save the world from an ancient evil.

These two books would make a cool Halloween read, so enter the contest!

To enter:

Link back to this post on your blog or twitter. Then leave a comment here and let me know why you want to read these books, with a link to where you’ve mentioned the contest and an email address. You don’t have to follow this blog to win and duplicate entries don’t count. This contest is open from now until 6 PM on Oct. 11th. Sorry, but this giveaway is open to US residents only. The winner will be chosen at random and will receive a new softcover copy of both Poison Ink and Tattoo. Please be sure to check your email after the 11th, because if I don’t hear back from you by noon on Friday the 14th, another winner will be chosen.

Good luck and good reading!

October’s Sampler contains 25 authors as well as excerpts and chapters from 30 different books. Feel free to browse, read the book blurbs, visit their websites, and access the samples. Above all, we hope you find new books and authors to love. Looking for more samples? Be sure to check out the other Free Fiction Samplers. Enjoy!

Note: All samples and excerpts have been provided with the express permission of the authors and/or the publishers listed. Each sample contains three links:

• The author’s name will take you to his/her website,
• The book’s title will take you to the sample chapter or excerpt, and
• The book’s cover will take you to an online store where you can purchase the book.

~

John Joseph Adams

• Brave New Worlds – YOU ARE BEING WATCHED! When the government wields its power against its own people, every citizen becomes an enemy of the state. Will you fight the system, or be ground to dust beneath the boot of tyranny? In his smash-hit anthologies Wastelands and The Living Dead, acclaimed editor John Joseph Adams showed you what happens when society is utterly wiped away. Now he brings you a glimpse into an equally terrifying future — what happens when civilization invades and dictates every aspect of your life? From 1984 to The Handmaid’s Tale, from Children of Men to Bioshock, the dystopian imagination has been a vital and gripping cautionary force. Brave New Worlds collects 33 of the best tales of totalitarian menace by some of today’s most visionary writers.

• The Way of the Wizard – Power. We all want it, they’ve got it – witches, warlocks, sorcerers, necromancers, those who peer beneath the veil of mundane reality and put their hands on the levers that move the universe. They see the future in a sheet of glass, summon fantastic beasts, and transform lead into gold… or you into a frog. From Gandalf to Harry Potter to the Last Airbender, wizardry has never been more exciting and popular. Enter a world where anything is possible, where imagination becomes reality. Experience the thrill of power, the way of the wizard. Now acclaimed editor John Joseph Adams (The Living Dead) brings you thirty-two of the most spellbinding tales ever written, by some of today’s most magical talents, including Neil Gaiman, Simon R. Green, and George R. R. Martin.

Kevin J. Anderson

• Captain Nemo – When Andre Nemo’s father dies suddenly, the young adventurer takes to the sea and is accompanied by his lifetime friend, Jules Verne. Verne is thwarted in his yearning for action, while Nemo continues across the continents. Years pass, and he is feared dead. Far from lost, however, Nemo criss-crosses the globe. He discovers the lost city of Timbuktu, the hidden land at the centre of the earth, and is marooned on the uncharted mysterious island. He faces bloodthirsty pirates, prehistoric monsters, Arab slavers, and serves in the British cavalry against the Russians in the charge of the Light Brigade. Against all odds he survives, and becomes the captain of the futuristic vessel know as the Nautilus.

Beth Bernobich

• Fox and Phoenix – The king of Lóng City is dying. For Kai Zōu, the news means more than it does for most former street rats in the small mountain stronghold, because he and the king’s daughter are close friends. Then the majestic ruler of the ghost dragons orders Kai to travel across the country to the Phoenix Empire, where the princess is learning statecraft. Kai and his best friend Yún must endure a grueling trek, placate a persnickety griffin, and navigate layers of danger and court intrigue to help the princess escape and return to Lóng City. A refreshing mixture of magic, wit, and action, Fox and Phoenix is an auspicious YA debut! Based on the short story “Pig, Crane, Fox.”

Terry Brooks

• Bearers of the Black Staff: Legends of Shannara – Five hundred years have passed since the devastating demon-led war tore apart the United States and nearly exterminated humankind. Those who escaped the carnage were led to sanctuary in an idyllic valley, its borders warded by powerful magic against the horrors beyond. But the cocoon of protective magic surrounding the valley has now vanished. When Sider Ament, the only surviving descendant of the Knights of the Word, detects unknown predators stalking the valley, he fears the worst. And when expert Trackers find two of their own gruesomely killed, there can be no doubt: The once safe haven has been made vulnerable to whatever still lurks in the outside wasteland. Together, Ament, the two young Trackers, and a daring Elf princess spearhead plans to defend their ancestral home. And in the thick of it all, the last wielder of the black staff and its awesome magic must find a successor to carry on the fight against the cresting new wave of evil. Included by permission of SUVUDU, a member of Random House Inc., from Bearers of the Black Staff: Legends of Shannara by Terry Brooks.

Harry Connolly

• Circle of Enemies – Former car thief Ray Lilly is now the expendable grunt of a sorcerer responsible for destroying extradimensional predators summoned to our world by power-hungry magicians. Luckily, Ray has some magic of his own, and so far it’s kept him alive. But when a friend from his former gang calls him back to his old stomping grounds in Los Angeles, Ray may have to face a threat even he can’t handle. A mysterious spell is killing Ray’s former associates, and they blame him. Worse yet, the spell was cast by Wally King, the sorcerer who first dragged Ray into the brutal world of the Twenty Palace Society. Now Ray will have to choose between the ties of the past and the responsibilities of the present, as he and the Society face not only Wally King but a bizarre new predator.  Included by permission of SUVUDU, a member of Random House Inc., from Circle of Enemies by Harry Connolly.

Matthew Costello

• Rage - An action-packed adventure based on the award-winning videogame from id Software, the creators of DOOM® and QUAKE®,Ragefollows one man’s fight to save the future of humanity in a ravaged, post-apocalyptic world. The asteroid Apophis has annihilated Earth, and only a small percentage of humanity’s best and brightest have been saved. Buried deep below the ground in life-sustaining Arks, these chosen few are tasked with one vital mission—to restore civilization to a devastated planet hundreds of years after the impact. When Lieutenant Nick Raine emerges from his Ark, he finds a future indistinguishable from nightmare. Humankind has not been entirely destroyed on the surface world, and a primitive new society has emerged in which life is nasty, brutish, and short. Mutants and bandits prey upon the weak, and a mysterious military group known as the Authority preys upon everyone. Worst of all, a would-be tyrant seeks to impose his will upon the shattered planet. Armed with nothing more than his combat training and survival instincts, Raine must rise to meet the challenges of the wasteland. Included by permission of SUVUDU, a member of Random House Inc., from Rage by Matthew Costello.

Ellen Datlow

• Blood and Other Cravings – When we think of vampires, instantly the image arises: fangs sunk deep into the throat of the victim. But bloodsucking is merely one form of vampirism. For this brilliantly original anthology, Ellen Datlow has commissioned stories from many of the most powerfully dark voices in contemporary horror, who conjure tales of vampirism that will chill readers to the marrow. In addition to the traditional fanged vampires, Datlow presents stories about the leeching of emotion, the draining of the soul, and other dark deeds of predation and exploitation, infestation, and evisceration…tales of life essence, literal or metaphorical, stolen. Seventeen stories, by such award-winning authors as Elizabeth Bear, Richard Bowes, Kathe Koja, Margo Lanagan, Carol Emshwiller, and Lisa Tuttle will petrify readers. With dark tales by Laird Barron, Barry Malzberg and Bill Pronzini, Kaaron Warren, and other powerful voices, this anthology will redefine the terror of vampires and vampirism.

David Anthony Durham

• The Sacred Band – With the first two books in the Acacia Trilogy, Acacia and The Other Lands, David Anthony Durham has created a vast and engrossing canvas of a world in turmoil, where the surviving children of a royal dynasty are on a quest to realize their fates—and perhaps right ancient wrongs once and for all. As The Sacred Band begins, one of them, Queen Corinn, bestrides the world as a result of her mastery of spells found in the ancient Book of Elenet. Her younger brother, Dariel, has been sent on a perilous mis­sion to the Other Lands, while her sister, Mena, travels to the far north to confront an invasion of the feared race of the Auldek. Their separate trajectories will converge in a series of world-shaping, earth-shattering battles, all ren­dered with vividly imagined detail and in heroic scale.

Gregory Frost

• Shadowbridge – Sprung from a timeless dream, Shadowbridge is a world of linked spans arching high above glittering seas. It is a world of parading ghosts, inscrutable gods, and dangerous magic. Most of all, it is a world of stories. No one knows those stories better than Leodora, a young shadow-puppeteer who travels Shadowbridge collecting the intertwining tales and myths of each place she passes through, then retells them in performances whose genius has begun to attract fame . . . and less welcome attention. For Leodora is fleeing a violent past, as are her two companions: her manager, Soter, an elderly drunkard who also served Ledora’s father, the legendary puppeteer Bardsham; and Diverus, her musical accompanist, a young man who has been blessed, and perhaps cursed, by the touch of a nameless god. Now, as the strands of a destiny she did not choose begin to tighten around her, Leodora is about to cross the most perilous bridge of all–the one leading from the past to the future.

Christopher Golden

• The Monster’s Corner – An all original anthology from some of today’s hottest supernatural writers, featuring stories of monsters from the monster’s point of view. In most stories we get the perspective of the hero, the ordinary, the everyman, but we are all the hero of our own tale, and so it must be true for legions of monsters, from Lucifer to Mordred, from child-thieving fairies to Frankenstein’s monster and the Wicked Witch of the West. From our point of view, they may very well be horrible, terrifying monstrosities, but of course they won’t see themselves in the same light, and their point of view is what concerns us in these tales. Demons and goblins, dark gods and aliens, creatures of myth and legend, lurkers in darkness and beasts in human clothing…these are the subjects of The Monster’s Corner.

Lisa Goldstein

• The Uncertain Places – An ages-old family secret breaches the boundaries between reality and magic in this fresh retelling of a classic fairy tale. When Berkeley student Will Taylor is introduced to the mysterious Feierabend sisters, he quickly falls for enigmatic Livvy, a chemistry major and accomplished chef. But Livvy’s family—vivacious actress Maddie, family historian Rose, and their mother, absent-minded Sylvia—are behaving strangely. The Feierabend women seem to believe that luck is their handmaiden, even though happiness does not necessarily follow. It is soon discovered that generations previous, the Feierabends made a contract with a powerful, otherworldly force, and it is up to Will and his best friend to unravel the riddle of this supernatural bargain in order to save Livvy from her predestined fate.

Eric Griffith

• Beta Test – Sam Terra is having a bad week. He lost Molly, the woman he secretly loves, when she vanished before his eyes at the exact same time that ten percent of the inhabitants of Earth disappeared. Naturally upset, Sam follows clues about the global vanishing with questionable help from his friends including a misanthropic co-worker and a childhood pal. When Molly reappears in the body of a man during a night of monster-laden devastation, Sam finally learns the truth. Not just about her, but about the planet Earth and the entire cosmos surrounding it. What we consider mundane reality, others consider a game…and not a very good one. The whole thing is about to be shut down.

Lev Grossman

• The Magician King – The Magicians was praised as a triumph by readers and critics of both mainstream and fantasy literature. Now Grossman takes us back to Fillory, where the Brakebills graduates have fled the sorrows of the mundane world, only to face terrifying new challenges. Quentin and his friends are now the kings and queens of Fillory, but the days and nights of royal luxury are starting to pall. After a morning hunt takes a sinister turn, Quentin and his old friend Julia charter a magical sailing ship and set out on an errand to the wild outer reaches of their kingdom. Their pleasure cruise becomes an adventure when the two are unceremoniously dumped back into the last place Quentin ever wants to see: his parent’s house in Chesterton, Massachusetts. And only the black, twisted magic that Julia learned on the streets can save them. Reprinted by arrangement with Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., from The Magician King by Lev Grossman. Copyright © 2011 by Lev Grossman.

Paula Guran

• Halloween – Shivers and spirits…the mystical and macabre…our darkest fears and sweetest fantasies…the fun and frivolity of tricks, treats, festivities, and masquerades. Halloween is a holiday filled with both delight and dread, beloved by youngsters and adults alike. Celebrate the most magical season of the year with this sensational treasury of seasonal tales—spooky, suspenseful, terrifying, or teasing—harvested from a multitude of master storytellers.

Alyxandra Harvey

• Ruling Passion – Meet the Drakes, a darkly romantic, irresistibly alluring family of royal vampire blood. Bind up contains: Hearts at Stake, Blood Feud, and Out for Blood. Previously published separately as The Drake Chronicles.

• Hearts at Stake – On Solange’s sixteenth birthday, she is going to wake up dead. As if that’s not bad enough, she also has to outwit her seven overprotective older brothers, avoid the politics involved with being the only daughter born to an ancient vampire dynasty, and elude Kieran Black—agent of an anti-vampire league who is searching for his father’s killer and is intent on staking Solange and her entire family. Luckily she has her own secret weapon—her human best friend Lucy—who is willing to defend Solange’s right to a normal life, whether she’s being smothered by her well-intentioned brothers or abducted by a power-hungry queen. Two unlikely alliances are formed in a race to save Solange’s eternal life—Lucy and Solange’s brother Nicholas, and Solange and Kieran Black—in a dual romance that is guaranteed to jump start any romance-lover’s heart.

• Blood Feud – It’s been centuries since Isabeau St. Croix barely survived the French Revolution. Now she’s made her way back to the living and she must face the ultimate test by confronting the evil British lord who left her for dead the day she turned into a vampire. That’s if she can control her affection for Logan Drake, a vampire whose bite is as sweet as the revenge she seeks. The clans are gathering for Helena’s royal coronation as the next vampire queen, and new alliances are beginning to form now that the old rifts of Lady Natasha’s reign have started to heal. But with a new common enemy, Leander Montmarte—a vicious leader who hopes to force Solange to marry him and usurp the power of the throne for himself—the clans must stand together to preserve the peace he threatens to destroy.

• Out for Blood – Hunter Wild is the youngest in a long line of elite vampire hunters, a legacy that is both a blessing and a curse at the secret Helios-Ra Academy, where she excels at just about everything. Thanks to her friendship with Kieran Black, Hunter receives a special invitation to attend the coronation of Helena Drake, and for the first time, she sees the difference between vampires that must be hunted and vampires that can become friends-or even more. When students at the academy fall victim to a mysterious illness, Hunter suspects they are under attack from within. She will need someone she can trust to help her save the future of Helios-Ra . . . help that shockingly comes in the form of Quinn Drake, a drop-dead gorgeous vampire. Who said senior year would be easy?

Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguie

• Damned – There is a fine line between love and sacrifice… Antonio would do anything for his beloved fighting partner Jenn. He protects her, even suppresses his vampire cravings to be with her. Together, they defend humanity against the Cursed Ones. But tensions threaten to fracture their hunting team and his loyalty—his love—is called into question. Jenn, the newly appointed Hunter, aches for revenge against the Cursed One who converted her sister. And with an even more sinister power on the rise, she must overcome her personal vendettas to lead her team into battle. Antonio and Jenn need each other to survive, but evil lurks at every turn. With humanity’s fate hanging in the balance, they must face down the darkness…or die trying.

• Unleashed – Katelyn McBride’s life changed in an instant when her mother died. Uprooted from her California home, Katelyn was shipped to the middle of nowhere, Arkansas, to her only living relative, her grandfather. And now she has to start over in Wolf Springs, a tiny village in the Ozark Mountains. Like any small town, Wolf Springs has secrets. But the secrets hidden here are more sinister than Katelyn could ever imagine. It’s a town with a history that reaches back centuries, spans continents, and conceals terrifying truths. And Katelyn McBride is about to change everything. Broken families, ageless grudges, forced alliances, and love that blooms in the darkest night—welcome to Wolf Springs.

Jay Lake

• Endurance - Green is back in Copper Downs. Purchased from her father in sunny Selistan when she was four years old, she was harshly raised to be a courtesan, companion, and bedmate of the Immortal Duke of Copper Downs. But Green rebelled. Green killed the Duke, and many others, and won her freedom. Yet she is still claimed by the gods and goddesses of her world, and they still require her service. Their demands are greater than any duke’s could have been. Godslayers have come to the Stone Coast, magicians whose cult is dedicated to destroying the many gods of Green’s world. In the turmoil following the Immortal Duke’s murder, Green made a God out of her power and her memories. Now the gods turn to her to protect them from the Slayers.

John Langan and Paul Tremblay

• Creatures: Thirty Years of Monsters – Monsters: As old as the oldest of stories, as new as our latest imaginings. From the ancient stone corridors of the labyrinth to the graffitied alleyways of the contemporary metropolis, they stalk the shadows. Leering from the darkness of the forest, jostling for space in our closets, they walk, crawl, creep and scuttle through our nightmares. Close as the clutter under the bed or waiting just the other side of the mirror, they are our truest companions. Creatures! The best monster fiction from the past thirty years offers a wide variety of the best monster tales–including three original stories–from speculative fiction’s most relevant names and hottest newcomers including Clive Barker, Sarah Langan, Joe R. Lansdale, Kelly Link, China Miéville, and Cherie Priest.

Jack McDevitt

• The Devil’s Eye (An Alex Benedict Novel #4) - Interstellar antiquities dealer Alex Benedict and his assistant Chase Kolpath travel to the most remote of human worlds and uncover a secret connected to a decades-old political upheaval-a secret that somebody desperately wants hidden.

.

C.E. Murphy

• Wayfinder – Lara Jansen is a truthseeker, gifted—or cursed—with the magical ability to tell honesty from lies. Once she was a tailor in Boston, but now she has crossed from Earth to the Barrow-lands, a Faerie world embroiled in a bloody civil war between Seelie and Unseelie. Armed with an enchanted and malevolent staff which seeks to bend her to its dark will, and thrust into a deadly realm where it’s hard to distinguish friend from foe, Lara is sure of one thing: her love for Dafydd ap Caerwyn, the Faerie prince who sought her help in solving a royal murder and dousing the flames of war before they consumed the Barrow-lands. But now Dafydd is missing, perhaps dead, and the Barrow-lands are closer than ever to a final conflagration. Lara has no other choice: she must harness the potent but perilous magic of the staff and her own truthseeking talents, blazing a path to a long-forgotten truth—a truth with the power to save the Barrow-lands or destroy them.  Included by permission of SUVUDU, a member of Random House Inc., from Wayfinder by C.E. Murphy.

Tim Powers

• The Bible Repairman - Gathering darkly fantastic short fiction previously available only in limited editions, this collection explores the mysteries of souls—whether they are sacrificed on the pinnacle of Mount Parnassus or lodged in a television cable box. In a Kabbalistic tale of transformation, the executor of an old friend’s will is almost duped into housing his soul. In a tale of time travel between 2015 and 1975, a tragedy sparked by an angel falling onto a pizza shop is reenacted—and the event is barely, but fatally, altered. The cornerstone of the collection is a postscript to the harrowing novel of the haunting of the Romantic poets, The Stress of Her Regard. Once Byron and Shelley break free of the succubus that claimed them, their associate, Trelawny, forges an alliance with Greek rebels to reestablish the deadly connection between man and the nephilim. Fans of Powers’s renowned secret histories will delight as he deftly weaves an array of fantastical creatures into richly layered narratives of the past.

Cherie Priest

• Hell Bent – Vampire thief Raylene Pendle doesn’t need more complications in her life. Her Seattle home is already overrun by a band of misfits, including Ian Stott, a blind vampire, and Adrian deJesus, an ex-Navy SEAL/drag queen. But Raylene still can’t resist an old pal’s request: seek out and steal a bizarre set of artifacts. Also on the hunt is a brilliant but certifiably crazy sorceress determined to stomp anyone who gets in her way. But Raylene’s biggest problem is that the death of Ian’s vaunted patriarch appears to have made him the next target of some blood-sucking sociopaths. Now Raylene must snatch up the potent relics, solve a murder, and keep Ian safe—all while fending off a psychotic sorceress. But at least she won’t be alone. A girl could do a lot worse for a partner than an ass-kicking drag queen—right? Included by permission of SUVUDU, a member of Random House Inc., from Hellbent by Cherie Priest.

Delia Sherman

• The Freedom Maze – In 1960, thirteen-year-old Sophie isn’t happy about spending summer at her grandmother’s old house in the Bayou. But the house has a maze Sophie can’t resist exploring once she finds it has a secretive and playful inhabitant. When Sophie, bored and lonely, makes an impulsive wish inspired by her reading, hoping for a fantasy adventure of her own, she slips one hundred years into the past, to the year 1860. On her arrival she makes her way, bedraggled and tanned, to what will one day be her grandmother’s house, where she is at once mistaken for a slave.

Eric Swanson

• Closet – It seemed to be an innocent looking book that John picked up from the local bookstore, but late that night, as he read it in the secret of his closet, a creature emerged. Then with arms extended strangled the life out of him, leaving behind Megan and their baby Derek. But as Megan was leaving the house, two other forms attempted to kill her as well. The mysterious creatures were silent for the next two decades and Derek even managed to get married and start a family with a mentally disabled son. He went to seminary and was starting to look for a job. But after receiving multiple rejections, Derek was at the bottom of despair. Then after a chance encounter with a witch, he picked up a book from the sidewalk that seemed to have all the answers he needed in life. Later that evening, as Derek was reading the book, there was a noise from the closet, and a door was opened to a demonic dimension that a local witch uses to take his mentally disabled son and wife into. Derek then enters the same dimension to save the ones he loves. Along the way he confronts the evil in his own life through the help of the Holy Spirit, who shows up in seven different human forms depending on the situation. After dealing with his own weaknesses Derek has to win back his wife, and confront the two creatures that plagued his parents.

Trent Zelazny

• To Sleep Gently – When career criminal Jack Dempster gets caught and put away for five years in prison, he finds time to seriously reconsider his chosen line of work. Before he can make any serious decision, some old acquaintances track him down with a proposal. They want him to go to Santa Fe, New Mexico. With the help of an inside man, he’s to lead a small group of professionals on a daring robbery of the El Dorado Hotel, one of the finest, and most secure establishments in the Southwest. Double-crosses, love triangles, and immersion in his own self-destructive past conspire to lead him to ruin. It’s not easy to sleep when searching for normalcy in the heart of a brutal past.

Description:

Sammi, TQ, Caryn, Letty, and Katsuko are floaters. They don’t fit in with any of the groups at Covington High School – just with each other. One night, to cement their bond, the girls decide to get matching tattoos. But when Sammi backs out at the last minute – worried about her parents’ reaction and unnerved by the creepy place they’re forced to go because they don’t have IDs – everything changes.

Faster than you can say “airbrush,” Sammi is an outcast and her friends are behaving like total strangers. They smoke, skip school, fight, taunt, and are the subjects of some of the juiciest rumors Covington High has ever heard. When they attack Sammi for trying to break up a brawl, Sammi swears she spies something horrible on her friend’s back: the original tattoo has grown tendrils, snaking over the girl’s entire body. What has that creepy tattoo artist done to her friends? And what, if anything, can Sammi do to get them back?

Poison Ink is an excellent YA paranormal thriller. It adds just the right touch of creepiness to a realistic portrayal of the high school social scene. The characters were well developed and they all had their own unique personalities, which makes them easy to relate to.

When Sammi’s friends go through a strange transformation, it would have been easy for her to move on and let the friendship go. Instead she takes risks to discover what exactly happened the night they got the strange symbols inked, because she has faith in her friends. She soon learns the truth, and it’s totally twisted. The fast-paced suspense leads up to her final showdown with the artist/magician Dante, and it doesn’t disappoint.

Poison Ink was a lot of fun. Definitely check it out for a great Halloween read!

4 1/2 out of 5 stars – creepy fun

Christopher Golden, the editor of the anthology, along with authors Nate Kenyon and John McIlveen, who both have stories in the book, will be on hand signing the newly released collection.

The bookstore is located at 4 Pleasant St. in Cambridge. For more information, go to the website, http://www.pandemoniumbooks.com or call (617) 547-3721.

February 27, 2005

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: The Tao of Igor

The world according to Igor.

Writer: John Kovalic
Art: John Kovalic & Christopher Golden
Colors: John Kovalic
Letters: John Kovalic
Lethargic Lad Back-Up: Greg Hyland
Cover Art: John Kovalic
Publisher: Dork Storm

With many of his characters at a crossroads, John Kovalic takes this issue for all of them to receive counseling at the hands of one character that will never change – the good-natured geek Igor. Wanting only to help, Igor talks to both Matt and Kayleigh, struggling from their quasi-breakup and (in Matt’s case because Gilly has flown off to Europe. He talks to Carson about his money problems and filters everything through an ancient Zen tale about the empty mind and seeing the obvious. One of which applies to Igor, the other doesn’t.

Although the story is driven by the other characters, this issue is very much about Igor himself, about how he views the world, and about how he’s found his own brand of inner peace even through his utter lunacy. It’s a funny, funny little character piece that works extremely well.

Kovalic chose to print this issue of the usually black-and-white title in color, and that works too. It’s clear that this book isn’t usually a color title,, as some of the colors look a little washed-out, almost like a photocopy. However, for some of Igor’s “Zen” scenes, he applies a texture that gives the images a look of old parchment, which adds tremendously to the artwork and would never work in black-and-white.

We’ve got a few back-ups here as well, some extra Dork Tower strips and a short Dr. Blink, Superhero Shrink story, where he counsels a vaguely familiar arachnid-based superhero with severe depression. Like all Dr. Blink strips, it’s a great superhero satire. The issue is rounded off with a Lethargic Lad strip which, like all such strips, isn’t great satire. Supposedly this is a comic strip that pokes fun at superheroes, but this issue (like most), Greg Hyland simply tells a tale that could have fit easily in any goofy silver age story and throws out snarky comments about how stupid superheroes are in the meantime.

The tepid Lethargic Lad notwithstanding, this is a good issue. The color isn’t necessary (nor is it permanent, I think, based on this issue’s “Muskrat Ramblings” column), but it is welcome.

Rating: 8/10

In the Mail:

  Magebane by Lee Arthur Chane and One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire from DAW/Penguin.

  The Monster’s Corner edited by Christopher Golden from St. Martin’s Griffin.

  Skyship Academy: The Pearl Wars by Nick James from Flux.

From the Library:
7th Sigma by Steven Gould
Flash and Bones by Kathy Reichs
The Other Countess by Eve Edwards

7:00PM
Barnes & Noble  # 2767
11802 N. Dale Mabry Highway
Tampa, FL 33618

Don’t live in Florida but want to be part of the fun? There are going to be signings all over the country, so if you can’t make it to mine, keep watching this space for more updates!

I picked up Sarah Glidden’s How To Understand Israel In 60 Days Or Less a bit late, but of course it is no less relevant to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict than it was in early 2010 (the paperback will be out in late August). Glidden took a “Birthright Israel” tour to see the situation first hand, having already made up her mind, or so she thought. She came to Israel with strong Palestinian sympathies. As she met contemporary Israelis and toured historic places she began to understand the Israeli perspective better. Much to her surprise, she found herself feeling a connection. Although she did not shift to total support of Israel, she came to a more well-rounded perspective. Or, you could say she returned from the trip confused about her feelings and beliefs! This seems a reasonable reaction to a complex situation. While all of this heavy emotional turmoil is going on, the story is also a true travel memoir. Glidden gives rich portrayals of her tour group, warts and all, and does not spare herself. Parts of the tour are patently manipulative, and others are unrealistically “touristy” (she describes the Bedouin camp they visit as being like Epcot). The book works on a personal level, while also giving a lot of history (there’s even a brief Glossary, Bibliography, and Timeline of the history of the state of Israel in the back).

Jamie Delano & Jock (Vertigo, 2010)
John Constantine, Hellblazer: Pandemonium

This graphic novel brings back the original writer of the Hellblazer series to commemorate the 25th anniversary of John Constantine’s first appearance in Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing. Delano has been away from Constantine for awhile, but he still voices him like a native. I would argue that Delano really created Constantine as a serious ongoing character–Moore’s character was a mysterious cipher–and he puts Constantine back on like a comfortable old jacket. Jock previously illustrated one issue of Hellblazer during Mike Carey’s run; his return here is so well matched to the character that I wonder why he has not done more work with him. This story puts Constantine into a truly hellish setting, the war zone of contemporary Iraq. A prisoner of war has confounded all attempts at interrogation, somehow driving all of his interrogators mad. The CIA frames Constantine for terrorist activity (with the cooperation of a mysterious Muslim woman named Aseera), forcing him to take on the interrogation. He soon concludes that the prisoner is a djinn in the service of his old friend, the demon Nergal. Shortly after that all Hell breaks loose, in the form of a demonic rescue force: Constantine and Aseera escape, but soon find themselves captured by insurgents. This leads to a classic Hellblazer situation, with Constantine playing a demonic game for their souls. When he wins (was there ever any doubt?) he brings the genie in a bottle back to his CIA captors, giving them a taste of their own medicine. Pandemonium is both a classic Hellblazer story and a contemporary update. Mention should be made of Jock’s use of color. The basic approach is monochrome, with color used to help establish setting. Hell is colored red, naturally: simple but effective.

Chris Roberson & Michael Allred (Vertigo, 2011)
iZombie Vol. 1: Dead to the World

Gwen Dylan works as a grave digger, which is useful: it gives her ready access to human brains. She has to eat at least one brain a month, or she’ll turn into the traditional shambling zombie of horror movies. Plus there’s another twist. She gains the memories of the brain’s previous owner, and feels compelled to seek justice. The current victim was murdered, and Gwen’s investigation leads her to a mysterious mansion. Along the way she gets help from her friends Ellie (a ghost) and Scott (a were-terrier). They cross paths with a group of vampires in town, who run a business called “Blood Sports Paintball” which provides them with after-dark paintball players to feed on. And, we learn of an ancient society of monster hunters. They’ve come to town to investigate the recent increase in “postmortem activity.” All of this in the first five issues of the series! Roberson has found a fresh take on the monster story–he even shares a theory explaining the genesis of all of them–and Allred’s illustrations are realistic, yet light-hearted at the same time. As this collection draws to a close, the mysterious ancient has made Gwen a proposition; she’s begun to get romantically involved with one of the monster hunters (without realizing it); and the vampires are preparing to confront the monster hunters, who have killed one of them.

Brian Wood/Leandro Fernandez (Vertigo, 2010)
Northlanders Book Four: The Plague Widow

This collects a single eight-issue arc, focusing on an isolated Viking settlement. The town has fallen prey to a violent contagion just as the brutal Northern winter starts to set in. The foreigner Boris has wild theories about communicable diseases, and has the ear of the town elders. The difficult decision is taken to expel the sick and seal the gates.This leaves the settlement isolated through the long winter, while warlord Gunborg jockeys for political position, and the group faces starvation, subzero temperatures, and the treat of the plague. We see all of this through the eyes of the newly widowed HIlda, once wealthy, now struggling for survival and protection. Her only goal is to see her eight-year-old daughter safe through spring. It’s a horror story of survival, with the multiple issue length for once in full service of the story. The endless winter slowly marches on, and desperate people do desperate things. A dramatic combat between Boris and Gunborg leaves Boris in charge, but Hilda and her daughter must leave the city for their own safety. The final part begins with a memory of summer, the first break in the relentless cold and snow. But in the present the refugees are in dire straits, and finally it is daughter Karin who finds the strength to forge on and find refuge. The story ends with many things unresolved, but it’s a satisfying victory for the women, proof of their triumph over adversity.

Cullen Bunn/Brian Hurtt/Bill Crabtree (Oni Press, 2011)
The Sixth Gun Book 2: Crossroads

The supernatural Western enters a new phase. After defeating General Hume in the first collection (but remember, he’s been dead before), Drake, Becky, and Gord go to New Orleans to plan their next move. Becky keeps her enchanted gun close by, but Drake hides his four pistols and goes in search of a way to sever his connection to them. Since the weapons can only be taken when their owner is dead, things never end well. Gord’s research shows the guns to be far more powerful than they had realized: indeed, the full set is reputed to have Apocalyptic, world-ending power. To prove that point, elemental supernatural forces begin to move in on the group. And Becky becomes involved with a handsome stranger named Kirby Hale, whose intentions may be less than honorable. The group fends off a demonic attack, with the help of some new allies. As this arc comes to a close, Drake and Becky accompany the priests known as the Sword of Abraham as they take General Hume’s body to a safe location for storage, while Gord continues to seek the books that may contain answers to the question of how to get rid of the guns permanently.

Mike Mignola/Christopher Golden/Ben Stenbeck (Dark Horse, 2011)
Baltimore Vol. 1: The Plague Ships

Baltimore tells the story of Lord Baltimore’s quest to rid the world of a vampire scourge in a world afflicted with plague. Baltimore had been a soldier in the trenches of World War I, when he attacked a vampire who was feeding on fallen soldiers. In his eyes this led directly to the plague and the increase in vampire activity. And it’s personal: the vampire Baltimore wounded comes for Baltimore’s entire family, even some recently fallen to the plague. While pursuing the vampire by sea Baltimore and his companion Vanessa find themselves shipwrecked and marooned on an island full of beached submarines and a plague ship. As night falls the dead begin to rise, leading to an epic monster battle. When the pair is rescued Vanessa decides to head home, where the Inquisition is questioning her mother about Lord Baltimore. This is sure to have repercussions as the story unfolds. Mignola has found sympathetic new collaborators in writer Golden and artist Stenbeck. The story has the feel of the Hellboy/B.P.R.D. Mignola-verse, without making any reference to it. This collection concludes with a Sketchbook which includes character sketches and pinup pages.

Scott Snyder\Rafael Albuquerque\Mateus Santolouco (Vertigo, 2011)
American Vampire Volume 2

Creator Scott Snyder continues his vampire tale without the marquee value of Stephen King’s name in this second collection. There’s little visible change in the writing, which is still consistently sharp and creative. The big story is the four-issue arc “Devil in the Sand,” which is set in Las Vegas in 1936. The town is still in its infancy, a rough place dominated by the nearby construction of the Hoover Dam. Police chief Cash McCogan has his hands full under normal circumstances, but is confronted with a series of murders in which the victim’s blood has been completely drained. His first suspect is Skinner Sweet, proprietor of an establishment in the red light district. But it soon becomes clear that there are other, older vampires involved. And a secret society of vampire hunters is introduced, called the Vassals of the Morning Star. They call on Pearl Jones in California seeking the secret weakness of the new breed of American vampire, while another pair working as FBI agents assist McCogan in Vegas. Pearl’s husband Henry reveals the secret to them, which puts Skinner into a new kind of danger. The second two-issue arc “The Way Out” is entirely illustrated by Mateus Santolouco, an artist new to the series (he assisted Albuquerque on some issues in the previous arc). We find Pearl’s old roommate Hattie Hargrove held captive by an old vampire who is experimenting on her to find the fatal weakness of the American vampire. In the end she escapes, intending to have revenge on Pearl. But Pearl and Henry have already moved on, creating another new ongoing plot line. Santolouco’s style is a change, but it’s quite compatible with Albuquerque’s. Also, I note that Vertigo is staying with the practice of not giving American Vampire collections a subtitle, which I’ve not seen before (from any publisher outside of manga that I can think of). I predict they’ll get added when the collections are reprinted somewhere down the line. Seems to me it would make them easier to find spine-out on a bookshelf.

Joe Hill/Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW, 2011)
Locke & Key Vol. 4: Keys to the Kingdom

This series continues to surprise. There are visual experiments: the first issue revolves around a tribute to Bill Watterson’s comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, while another issue includes a war comic parody called Squadron Strange. Zack’s cover is starting to slip, as more and more evidence of wrongdoing points in his direction. When his dead ally Sam reappears, Zack makes a bold move–involving one of the major characters–that will have a huge impact on the series going forward. At the same time there are signs of compression in the storytelling: a number of new keys are introduced in brief vignettes, where an entire issue might have been built around them earlier in the series. I believe the story will conclude in two more collections, so maybe Hill needs to do that to get it all in. It may also just be the creative team flexing their storytelling muscles, trying new approaches and pacing.

So far the Marvel novels have been good to us, with both What Savage Beast and Time’s Arrow garnering high grades. Next we move onto a solo X-Men book titled Codename: Wolverine, and we’ll see if the trend continues.
…
It does not.
To be fair, this isnt a bad novel. A big part of the problem is the aforementioned inability of these books to affect Marvel 616 continuity in any real way. This hampers the author and makes it difficult to tell a compelling story. To get around this, this story features a tale taken from Wolverine’s past as a secret agent. Part of the issue with this is that we’ve since learned enough about Wolverine’s history to remove this story from plausibility, the other is that (a few passages aside) the story is just plain boring.

Highlights of the novel include an explanation of how secret agents talk in code. I’m not sure how accurate it is (I suspect not at all), but it’s definitely plausible and entertaining. The battle with Mystique also gets high grades.

On the negative, for a book titles WOLVERINE, it certainly suffers from guest-start atitis, with multiple supporting characters taken from both Avengers and XMen continuity. It also tries hard to explain how all these people can still be young in the 1990s while being alive during world war II. I personally would have left this out. Knowing that the story will not be counted as canon, why not embrace that and tell a story based during the war without acknowledging the aging issue that pops up so often in the mainstream Marvel U.

It’s not a bad book. It’s just bland. Wolverine fans will be disappointed, I think. 2/5. Not hellish, not good. Not anything, really.

For more reviews, please visit The Book Closet

Here we have an original Buffy novel, one that’s not an adaption of an episode or season of the popular television show. Buffy: Immortal is supposed to take place just after season 4, and it’s in this that the book series holds it’s real charm. The tv series, like many, was broadcast between September and June for much of it’s run, skipping over the summer months. While some series’ choose to ignore this gap and continue to tell stories as though the beginning of one season takes place directly after the last (ie: Friends), Buffy chose to embrace this pattern and skip over the summer months, making the series follow a standard school year. This allowed for character changes to occur during the gaps, like Dawn’s training and maturation between seasons 6 and 7. It also allows for holes that expanded universe material, like the Buffy novels, can fill.

The book itself jumps between the present time and several hundred years ago, when a vampire named Veronique and a slayer named Lucy were engaged in heated battle, culminating in the immortal vampire being trapped in an abandoned church. While all vampires are immortal by our standards, Veronique brings it to a new level: she can’t be killed even by conventional means as outlined in the show.

When the book succeeds is in it’s characters. Xander is quippy the way he is in the show. Anya is wonderfully strange, and Williow is sweet as ever. Giles, Riley and Spike also get good treatments, although Spike’s is a little off when one realizes where the series goes.

It fails in two places, which are sadly major errors. The first and deadliest is Buffy. She’s not badly written, the whole thing just seems flat and uninteresting. It’s the same with the Buffy of the movie and the Season 8 comics. I think that while some characters are developed mainly by writers and some characters are made via a combination of input from both writers and actors… And some characters are made by the actors. Given all the Buffy material available, I suspect that she is the latter. All respect to Joss Whedon, but I think Sarah Michelle Geller is the driving force behind the character.

The other issue is the end. The whole novel leads up to a climactic battle between the Scoobies and Veronique that ends up not happening. It’s summarized much like this: “The battle went long into the night, and in the end they won. ” WHAT A FUCKING COCK TEASE. Excuse
my vulgarity. That’s just wrecked storytellig. Disappointment on a Stephen King level, without the awesomeness of a King second act.

Just a Pissoff. 2/5.

For more reviews, please visit The Book Closet

September 1st / Club Sin: Dolls and Drags / Montreal Quebec /

September 2-4th / Horrorfind Weekend / Gettysburg PA / Events include a zombie prom, scaryoke, a hearse and spooky car show, an evening with John Waters, book readings with Brian Keene, Christopher Golden, James A Moore, Thomas Monteleone and many more. There will also be several horror film screenings. For more information go to horrorfindweekend.com.

September 4th / The Exhibitionist Photo Tour / Montreal Quebec / Get out your kinkiest clothes and show your fetish colors. This event is open to all who want to dress up,  as all participants takes a tour of Montreal and visit all the best photo hot spots around town. This is the craziest adventure of the Montreal Fetish Weekend but just remember, no nudity. For more information go to www.fetishweekend.com.

September 4th / A Decadent Victorian Masked Ball /Montreal Quebec/ A night of masks. Let go of all the boundaries and enter a realm of fantasy beyond your wildest dreams. Be a participant and a voyeur and let your self be who you really want to be under the safety of your mask. Music provided by DJ Faith and DJ Xris Smack along with outrageous side shows. For more information go to fetishweekend.com/mask.htm.

September 9th -10th / Drive-In super Monster Rama / Vandergrift PA / Two nights of classic horror films on the big screen from the comfort of your car. Some of the movies being shown are Black Sabbath, The Last Man on Earth, Castle of Blood, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, Count Yorga Vampire, I Monster, along with old movie trailers, shorts and much more. $10 per person gets you a night of  retro fun. For more information go to http://www.dvddrive-in.com/driveinsupermonsterrama11.htm

I’m extremely excited to announce that my story “Malfeasance” will appear in the New England Horror Writer’s inaugural  anthology: Epitaphs. The anthology is slated for release on 11/11/11.

Jeffrey C. Pettengill “To Sleep, Perchance to Die”
Paul McMahon “The Christopher Chair”
Kurt Newton “A Case of the Quiets”
Scott T. Goudsward “Build-a-Zombie”
John Goodrich “Not an Ulcer”
B. Adrian White “The Possesor Worm”
John M. McIlveen “Make a Choice”
Michael Allen Todd “The Death Room”
Rick Hautala “Perfect Witness”
Holly Newstein and Glenn Chadbourne “Stoney’s Boneyard”
Trisha J. Wooldridge “Kali’s Promise”
David Bernard “The Sequel”
David North-Martino “Malfeasance”
Stacey Longo “Private Beach”
Christopher Golden “All Aboard”
L.L. Soares “Holiday House”
Steven Withrow “Lines at a Wake”
K. Allen Wood “A Deeper kind of Cold”
P. Gardner Goldsmith “Alone”
Roxanne Dent “Pandora’s Box”
Michael Arruda “Chuck the Magic Man Says I Can”
T.T. Zuma “Burial Board”
John Grover “Windblown Shutter”
Stephen Dorato “Cheryl Takes a Trip”
Philip Roberts “The Legend of Wormley Farm”
Peter N. Dudar “Church of Thunder and Lightning”

Hey Eric & Sookie Lovers!

Charlaine Harris will be collaborating with novelist Christopher Golden, who writes the Hidden Cities series.

In an interview Golden recently did with Blogcritics.org – he revealed, he will be collaborating with Charlaine in a trilogy of graphic novels called Cemetery Girl.

Writer(s): Christopher Golden & Tom Sniegoski

Artist(s): Marshall Rogers, John Cebollero

US Publisher: DC Comics, 2000

THE PLOT:

Charlie is 27 years old and is mentally handicapped, but he’s also loyal, steadfast and dependable. And he’s obsessed with the Batman of his childhood: the Adam West version of Batman from the popular ’60s camp series. When Charlie sees a childhood playmate — his Robin in younger days — gone bad, he knows only Batman can save her.

THE REVIEW:

This graphic novel may not get the highest star rating on the reviews in lieu of its lack of innovation on the graphical storytelling department, but it is one awesome piece of reading, and it carries more heart than anything I’ve read this decade.

That said, try to buy this book if you happen to find it buried in dust in your local book store, and if you like it, let DC know, so they make more like this.

DC benefited from two very talented writers Christopher Golden & Tom Sniegoski to tell a very delicate and sensitive story in a way that didn’t relay on sappy histrionics, or fell pray of used clichés. In case you didn’t catch it on the PLOT section, the main character in this story is mentally handicapped, and whenever you deal with such topics you incur raising the ire of the PC (Political Correct) Guardians!

But this book is written with such a dispassionate manner, such a realistic demeanor, that mainly you have to credit the writers for actually selecting what to focus on, and letting the story run its course. At the bottom of the tale, there are some archetypes, but this judgments are passed by individuals very much like ourselves, who also in real life go through our daily events thinking “That’s a swell guy” or “What a rotten gal!”

So, while I am sure that the writers also know that behind the bad guy in this books lies a sad sob story of some type of abuse, or something of that ilk, there is a point in life when you (as a functioning human being) start judging people for their actions and how those actions affects us, and not the deeper meaning, or ulterior message behind them.

This is how we should receive more DC offerings. Mixing them with the right measure of realism and professional writing that would serve as a vehicle for claiming recognition from other media outlets. I wonder if the marketing department at DC sent a copy of this to morning shows, or tried to open interview channels with the New York Times. This is a book that would’ve been an amazing ambassador for those vehicles and would’ve given those talking heads in the morning show something relatable they could babble about, while they themselves try to capture a different demographic, the hip comic reader.

The graphic department is effective and drives the message home without any technical gimmicks or shenanigans. Another point in favor of dropping this book on the doorsteps of other critics and outlets. They readers that are not comic book savvy won’t be turned off by an art style that is too personalized, (I know people who actually don’t like Mignola, go figure!)

But at the end of the day, this book flew under the radar quite a bit, and that’s why am I “reviving” it here.

This is the type of books that should be encouraged, supported, and marketed properly that put the industry in its rightful place in our society: As flexible and serious communication tools.

So, on my critics rating, Realworlds: BATMAN gets

7 1/2 STARS

July’s Sampler contains 23 authors as well as excerpts and chapters from 25 different books. Feel free to browse, read the book blurbs, visit their websites, and access the samples. Above all, we hope you find new books and authors to love.

Looking for more samples? Be sure to check out the Free Fiction Samplers from January 2011 and April 2011. Enjoy!

Note: That the Free Fiction Sampler is arranged alphabetically by each author’s last name. The samples listed contain three links: 1) the author’s name will take you to his/her website, 2) the book’s title will take you to the sample chapter or excerpt, and 3) the book’s cover will take you to an online store where you can purchase the book.

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Kevin J. Anderson

• Key to Creation (Terra Incognita, Book Three) – Brave explorers and mortal enemies across the world clash at a mysterious lost continent. After long voyages, encountering hurricanes and sea monsters, Criston Vora and Saan race to Terravitae, the legendary promised land. Saan’s quest is to find the Key to Creation, a weapon that may defeat Uraba’s enemies, and Criston wants vengeance against the monstrous Leviathan that ruined his life long ago. Back home, two opposing continents and religions clash for the remnants of a sacred city, unleashing their hatred in a war that could end both civilizations. Queen Anjine and Soldan-Shah Omra are driven by mutual hatred, heaping atrocity upon atrocity in an escalating conflict that only their gods can end. Meanwhile, the secretive Saedrans. manipulating both sides, come ever closer to their ultimate goal: to complete the Map of All Things and bring about the return of God.

Peter V. Brett

• The Desert Spear – The sun is setting on humanity. The night now belongs to voracious demons that prey upon a dwindling population forced to cower behind half-forgotten symbols of power. Legends tell of a Deliverer: a general who once bound all mankind into a single force that defeated the demons. But is the return of the Deliverer just another myth? Perhaps not. Out of the desert rides Ahmann Jardir, who has forged the desert tribes into a demon-killing army. He has proclaimed himself Shar’Dama Ka, the Deliverer, and he carries ancient weapons—a spear and a crown—that give credence to his claim. But the Northerners claim their own Deliverer: the Warded Man, a dark, forbidding figure. Once, the Shar’Dama Ka and the Warded Man were friends. Now they are fierce adversaries. Yet as old allegiances are tested and fresh alliances forged, all are unaware of the appearance of a new breed of demon, more intelligent—and deadly—than any that have come before. (c) Del Rey; Reprint edition (March 1, 2011)

Ellen Datlow

• Supernatural Noir, editor, Ellen Datlow – A hit man who kills with coincidence… A detective caught in a war between two worlds… A man whose terrible appetites hide an even darker secret… Dark Horse once again teams up with Hugo and Bram Stoker award-winning editor Ellen Datlow (Lovecraft Unbound) to bring you this masterful marriage of the darkness without and the darkness within. Supernatural Noir is an anthology of original tales of the dark fantastic from twenty modern masters of suspense, including Brian Evenson, Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Nick Mamatas, Gregory Frost, and Jeffrey Ford.

Cory Doctorow

• For The Win – In the virtual future, you must organize to survive. At any hour of the day or night, millions of people around the globe are engrossed in multiplayer online games, questing and battling to win virtual “gold,” jewels, and precious artifacts. Meanwhile, others seek to exploit this vast shadow economy, running electronic sweatshops in the world’s poorest countries, where countless “gold farmers,” bound to their work by abusive contracts and physical threats, harvest virtual treasure for their employers to sell to First World gamers who are willing to spend real money to skip straight to higher-level gameplay. Mala is a brilliant 15-year-old from rural India whose leadership skills in virtual combat have earned her the title of “General Robotwalla.” In Shenzen, heart of China’s industrial boom, Matthew is defying his former bosses to build his own successful gold-farming team. Leonard, who calls himself Wei-Dong, lives in Southern California, but spends his nights fighting virtual battles alongside his buddies in Asia, a world away. All of these young people, and more, will become entangled with the mysterious young woman called Big Sister Nor, who will use her experience, her knowledge of history, and her connections with real-world organizers to build them into a movement that can challenge the status quo. The ruthless forces arrayed against them are willing to use any means to protect their power—including blackmail, extortion, infiltration, violence, and even murder. To survive, Big Sister’s people must out-think the system. This will lead them to devise a plan to crash the economy of every virtual world at once—a Ponzi scheme combined with a brilliant hack that ends up being the biggest, funnest game of all.

Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon

• The Shadow Men - From Beacon Hill to Southie, historic Boston is a town of vibrant neighborhoods knit into a seamless whole. But as Jim Banks and Trix Newcomb learn in a terrifying instant, it is also a city divided—split into three separate versions of itself by a mad magician once tasked with its protection. Jim is happily married to Jenny, with whom he has a young daughter, Holly. Trix is Jenny’s best friend, practically a member of the family—although she has secretly been in love with Jenny for years. Then Jenny and Holly inexplicably disappear—and leave behind a Boston in which they never existed. Only Jim and Trix remember them. Only Jim and Trix can bring them back. With the help of Boston’s Oracle, an elderly woman with magical powers, Jim and Trix travel between the fractured cities, for that is where Jenny and Holly have gone. But more is at stake than one family’s happiness. If Jim and Trix should fail, the spell holding the separate Bostons apart will fail too, and the cities will reintegrate in a cataclysmic implosion. Someone, it seems, wants just that. Someone with deadly shadow men at their disposal.

Kim Harrington

• Clarity - When you can see things others can’t, where do you look for the truth? This paranormal murder mystery will have teens reading on the edge of their seats. Clarity “Clare” Fern sees things. Things no one else can see. Things like stolen kisses and long-buried secrets. All she has to do is touch a certain object, and the visions come to her. It’s a gift. And a curse. When a teenage girl is found murdered, Clare’s ex-boyfriend wants her to help solve the case–but Clare is still furious at the cheating jerk. Then Clare’s brother–who has supernatural gifts of his own–becomes the prime suspect, and Clare can no longer look away. Teaming up with Gabriel, the smoldering son of the new detective, Clare must venture into the depths of fear, revenge, and lust in order to track the killer. But will her sight fail her just when she needs it most?

Nancy Holder & Debbie Vigue

• Damned, A Crusade novel – There is a fine line between love and sacrifice…Antonio would do anything for his beloved fighting partner Jenn. He protects her, even suppresses his vampire cravings to be with her. Together, they defend humanity against the Cursed Ones. But tensions threaten to fracture their hunting team and his loyalty—his love—is called into question. Jenn, the newly appointed Hunter, aches for revenge against the Cursed One who converted her sister. And with an even more sinister power on the rise, she must overcome her personal vendettas to lead her team into battle. Antonio and Jenn need each other to survive, but evil lurks at every turn. With humanity’s fate hanging in the balance, they must face down the darkness…or die trying.

Deborah Kalin

• Shadow Queen - My Grandmother Beata had matched the squabbling drightens in might and cunning, and ruled the fractious Turasi tribes unchallenged for nigh on thirty years. Her hold on the throne was so sure even the blasphemy of allowing a Skythe shadow-walker to pour foreign memories into her skull had not unseated her, though it had sorely tested her power. (Australia)

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• Shadow Bound - Until death release me. Echoes of my swift and brutal coronation still troubled the hall: whispers thickening in the shadowed corners, memories seeping into the walls and floor. Hard-won, the stone of Turas sat heavy on my brow, the bronze circlet thrust through my braids by Sidonius’s hand. It pinched at the hair over my left ear, but I did not lift my hand to resettle it. I had grown adept at living with pain of late. (Australia)

Kirsten Imani Kasai

• Ice Song – There are secrets beneath her skin. Sorykah Minuit is a scholar, an engineer, and the sole woman aboard an ice-drilling submarine in the frozen land of the Sigue. What no one knows is that she is also a Trader: one who can switch genders suddenly, a rare corporeal deviance universally met with fascination and superstition and all too often punished by harassment or death. Sorykah’s infant twins, Leander and Ayeda, have inherited their mother’s Trader genes. When a wealthy, reclusive madman known as the Collector abducts the babies to use in his dreadful experiments, Sorykah and her male alter-ego, Soryk, must cross icy wastes and a primeval forest to get them back. Complicating the dangerous journey is the fact that Sorykah and Soryk do not share memories: Each disorienting transformation is like awakening with a jolt from a deep and dreamless sleep. The world through which the alternating lives of Sorykah and Soryk travel is both familiar and surreal. Environmental degradation and genetic mutation run amok; humans have been distorted into animals and animal bodies cloak a wild humanity. But it is also a world of unexpected beauty and wonder, where kindness and love endure amid the ruins. Alluring, intense, and gorgeously rendered, Ice Song is a remarkable debut by a fiercely original new writer. (c) Del Rey (May 19, 2009)

James Patrick Kelly

• Burn – Colonization is the theme of this exciting, complex page-turner that provides a provocative and entertaining look at Thoreau’s classic eco-text Walden. Eccentric billionaire Jack Winter has bought the planet Beekman’s Pea, renamed it Walden, and created a utopia in which members renounce the technologies of human civilization. Marginalized by these newcomers, the planet’s original inhabitants are resisting the colony’s dominance by setting fires to Walden’s artificial ecology. A member of Walden, Prosper Gregory Leung is a veteran firefighter who believes in protecting Winter’s utopian vision, but when he is wounded, he begins to learn of the terrible price that the people of Walden are paying for their paradise. Interwoven with themes of environmental responsibility, political struggle, and courage, this adventure novel nimbly combines political and social relevance with a flawless and gripping narrative from a veteran science fiction author. You can also listen to the audio version of BURN.

Katharine Kerr

• Water to Burn – Nola’s the new head of the San Francisco branch of the Agency, the psychic organization so secret that even the CIA doesn’t know it exists. What’s more, for some mysterious reason, Interpol has assigned her lover, Israeli secret agent Ari Nathan, to her new bureau as her permanent “bodyguard.” But everywhere she looks she sees a Chaos manifestation spying on her. Inexplicable “rogue waves” are sweeping innocents to a watery death before she can save them. She has two increasingly dangerous searches on hand, for Rob Ezekiel, the supposedly dead prophet from Ari’s past, and for the mysterious “Brother Belial,” head of the Chaos cult they had managed to take down. To top it off, her brother Michael is dragging Nola and Ari into his attempt to rescue his girlfriend from a radioactive alternate dimension. How is Nola supposed to serve the forces of Harmony and maintain the balance between Chaos and Order when she can’t even keep her own family under control?

Nancy Kilpatrick

• Evolve 2 - Meet the eternal predator that humanity never ceases to find both fascinating and terrifying. Evolve Two: Vampire Stories of the Future Undead moves this creature beyond 2012, through this century and into the next. We humans will evolve, but so will they! Whatever apocalyptic events that lie ahead for our species, for the planet, Vampires will be there too, helping or hindering, effecting or infecting us. Time is on their side, but it may not be on ours. They are vampires, and more powerful than ever before! Hot on the heels of the best seller, EVOLVE: Vampire Stories of the New Undead, Nancy Kilpatrick does it again with twenty-two original stories that explore the evolution of vampires.

Kathe Koja

• Under The Poppy – Love: it’s a triangle. War: is coming. Betrayal: is inevitable. Sex: watch out for the naughty puppets.

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J.M. McDermott

• Never Knew Another - Fugitive Rachel Nolander is a newcomer to the city of Dogsland, where the rich throw parties and the poor just do whatever they can to scrape by. Supported by her brother Djoss, she hides out in their squalid apartment, living in fear that someday, someone will find out that she is the child of a demon. Corporal Jona Lord Joni is a demon’s child too, but instead of living in fear, he keeps his secret and goes about his life as a cocky, self-assured man of the law. The first book in the Dogsland Trilogy, Never Knew Another is the story of how these two outcasts meet.

Jack McDevitt

• Echo – An Alex Benedict Novel. Eccentric Sunset Tuttle spent his life searching in vain for forms of alien life. Thirty years after his death, a stone tablet inscribed with cryptic, indecipherable symbols is found in the possession of Tuttle’s onetime lover, and antiquities dealer Alex Benedict is anxious to discover what secret the tablet holds. It could be proof that Tuttle had found what he was looking for. To find out, Benedict and his assistant embark on their own voyage of discovery-one that will lead them directly into the path of a very determined assassin who doesn’t want those secrets revealed.

Tracy Marchini

• Hot Ticket - Juliet Robinson is the only sixth grader in John Jay Jr. High who hasn’t received a “hot ticket” from the mysterious ticket dispenser. When one of the dorkiest kids in school – Crammit Gibson – receives a ticket before she does, Juliet decides that the ticketing system has to stop. With the help of her best friend Lucy, a Daria-esque Madeline and her almost-crush Crammit, Juliet is determined to climb a few rungs on the middle school social ladder and catch the ticket dispenser once and for all! HOT TICKET is the first book in the Hot Ticket Trilogy.

Mark Charan Newton

• Nights of Villjamur – Beneath a dying red sun sits the proud and ancient city of Villjamur, capital of a mighty empire where humans coexist with the birdlike garda race, the reptilian rumel who can live for hundreds of years, and the eerie banshees whose forlorn cries herald death. But now all life is threatened by an encroaching ice age. Throngs of refugees gather outside the city gates, while within, tragedy forces the Emperor’s elder daughter, Jamur Rika, to assume the throne. Joined by her younger sister, Jamur Eir, the new queen takes pity on the common people—and takes counsel from dashing teacher Randur Estevu, who is not what he seems. Meanwhile, a grisly murder draws rumel investigator Rumex Jeryd into a web of corruption—and an obscene conspiracy that imperils the lives of Rika and Eir and the future of Villjamur itself. But far north, where the drawn-out winter has already begun, an even greater danger appears, against which all the empire’s military and magical power may be useless—a threat from another world. Cc) Spectra; Reprint edition (May 24, 2011)

Peadar Ó Guilín

• The Inferior - STOPMOUTH AND HIS family know of no other life than the daily battle to survive. To live, they must hunt rival species, or negotiate flesh-trade with those who crave meat of the freshest human kind. It is a savage, desperate existence. And for Stopmouth, considered slowwitted hunt-fodder by his tribe, the future looks especially bleak. But then, on the day he is callously betrayed by his brother, a strange and beautiful woman falls from the sky. It is a moment that will change his destiny, and that of all humanity, forever. With echoes of Tarzan, Conan the Barbarian, and The Truman Show, Peadar Ó Guilín’s debut is an action—and idea-packed—blockbuster that will challenge your perceptions of humanity and leave you hungry for more.

Cindy Pon

• Silver Phoenix - No one wanted Ai Ling. And deep down she is relieved—despite the dishonor she has brought upon her family—to be unbetrothed and free, not some stranger’s subservient bride banished to the inner quarters. But now, something is after her. Something terrifying—a force she cannot comprehend. And as pieces of the puzzle start to fit together, Ai Ling begins to understand that her journey to the Palace of Fragrant Dreams isn’t only a quest to find her beloved father but a venture with stakes larger than she could have imagined. Bravery, intelligence, the will to fight and fight hard . . . she will need all of these things. Just as she will need the new and mysterious power growing within her. She will also need help. It is Chen Yong who finds her partly submerged and barely breathing at the edge of a deep lake. There is something of unspeakable evil trying to drag her under. On a quest of his own, Chen Yong offers that help . . . and perhaps more.

• Fury of the Phoenix - The Gods have abandoned Ai Ling. Her mysterious power haunts her day and night, and she leaves home—with just the moon as her guide—overwhelmed by her memories and visions and an unbearable sense of dread. For Ai Ling knows that Chen Yong is vulnerable to corrupt enchantments from the under-world. How can she do nothing when she has the skill and power to fight at his side? A dream has told her where he is, the name of the ship he is traveling on, his destination. So she steals off and stows away on board. The ocean voyage brings with it brutal danger, haunting revelations, and new friendships, but also the premonition of a very real and terrifying threat. Zhong Ye—the powerful sorcerer whom Ai Ling believed she had vanquished in the Palace of Fragrant Dreams—is trapped in Hell, neither alive nor dead. Can he reach from beyond the grave to reunite with Silver Phoenix and destroy Chen Yong? And destroy whatever chance Ai Ling has at happiness, at love? In this sequel to the acclaimed novel Silver Phoenix, four lives are woven together and four destinies become one, now and forever.

Thomas Randall (Christopher Golden)

• The Waking: Spirits of the Noh - Kara Foster is finally starting to fit in at her boarding school in Japan—after all, nothing bonds you with your classmates like having an ancient demon put a curse on you. Hoping life can go back to normal now that the monster has been laid to rest, Kara joins her friends Sakura and Miho in putting on a play for the Noh drama club. It’s the story of the Hannya, a snake demon who inhabits the body of a beautiful woman. When a few members of the Noh club go missing, Kara fears that the real Hannya has been awakened by the curse. Then Miho is abducted, and Kara must find her before the Hannya exacts her terrible revenge. But the demon is wily and may be hidden in the last place anyone would think to look.

Michaela Roessner

• Walkabout Woman - A novel of the Australian Outback & Aboriginal Dreamtime; it won the John W. Campbell & Crawford Awards. “Walkabout Woman is indeed a daring and innovative first novel… Beyond its setting, the strength of this work lies in its vivid depiction of the relation of the Dreamtime to ‘real life’, in the characterization of Raba, and in the incisive parallel drawn between the loss of the Welsh Annwyn and the impending fate of the aborigines… it is a book to be read, and then read again.” — Book Review Annual

Harry Turtledove

• Hitler’s War – A stroke of the pen and history is changed. In 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, determined to avoid war at any cost, signed the Munich Accord, ceding part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler. But the following spring, Hitler snatched the rest of that country and pushed beyond its borders. World War II had begun, and England, after a fatal act of appeasement, was fighting a war for which it was not prepared. Now, in this thrilling, provocative, and fascinating alternate history by Harry Turtledove, another scenario is played out: What if Chamberlain had not signed the accord? What if Hitler had acted rashly, before his army was ready–would such impatience have helped him or doomed him faster? Here is an action-packed, blow-by-blow chronicle of the war that might have been–and the repercussions that might have echoed through history–had Hitler reached too far, too soon, and too fast. (c) Del Rey (August 4, 2009)

Tad Williams and Deborah Beale

• Secrets of Ordinary Farm – Coming this summer! – Expert storytellers Tad Williams and Deborah Beale take readers on an extraordinary adventure in their next book about Ordinary Farm.

Trent Zelazny

• Fractal Despondency – Was she an angel from above, or a walking time bomb of doom? His life having crumbled, Blake Gladstone returns to his hometown of Santa Fe, and tries to settle back into the unsatisfying life he’d had before he left for Florida. When he meets Denise, a pretty young blonde with a bag full of tricks, his sad routine breaks, and the more they get to know each other, the more Blake can’t figure out if he’s on a road to salvation, or a road back to hell.

Received the next in the Hidden Cities series from bestselling authors Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon, after Mind the Gap, The Map of Moments, and here’s hoping it’s better than the last one, The Chamber of Ten.  Also have the next new novel from the British master of horror, James Herbert, who I’ve been reading since I was a teenager!

Hollow Earth Contains:

“Hollow Earth” was written by Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden and Tom Sniegoski with art by Ryan Sook.   After Hellboy leaves the BPRD, Liz checks into a monastery to try to learn to control her powers.  Whilst there she is captured by a strange race of creatures who live under the earth and BPRD agents Abe Sapien,  Roger and Johann Kraus  embark on a mission to get her back. “Hollow Earth” is a good read that has the same feel as other Hellboy books but doesn’t have that same special spark. Ryan Sook does a remarkable job of capturing Mike Mignola’s hellboy universe art style in this story.

“Hollow Earth Dark Horse Extra” was written by Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden and Tom Sniegoski with art by Ryan Sook. This is a short story that explains the origin of  Johann Kraus but it suffers from a rather confusing panel layout.

“The Killer In My Skull” was written by Mike Mignola with art by Matt Smith.  This story features the first appearance of Lobster Jonson who attempts to solve a baffling paranormal closed door murder detective case.  I didn’t really get a feel for the character here but Matt Smith did an excellent job of capturing the Mignola art style,

“Abe Sapien Versus Science”  was written by Mike Mignola with art by “Matt Smith”.  This is a story of scientific vivisection where the subject is Roger. Abe Sapien attempts to rescue roger from this fate worse than death itself.  This is sort of an origin story for Roger and I enjoyed both it and Matt Smith’s artwork.

“Drums of the Dead” was written by Brian McDonald with art by Derek Thompson. Abe and new character Garret are called to investigate paranormal activities besetting cargo ships in an area with a certain link to triangles.  This story features a different art style to the rest of “Hollow earth” but it uses a similar color palette and hence does not look out of place. I enjoyed both the art and story.

“The Soul of Venice” contains:

“The Soul of Venice” was written by Miles Gunter, Michael Avon Oeming and Mike Mignola with art by Michael Avon Oeming. It is the story of an evil vampire who has taken the soul of Venice to win favor with a demon. I enjoyed this story and the art was pretty good too.

“Dark Waters” was written by Brian Augustyn with art by Guy Davis. This is the story of 3 witches that come to light when a town pond is drained and a terrible evil is awakened.  This was my favorite story in the “Soul of Venice” chapter and it also had my favorite art.  I really liked Guy Davis’s pencils especially in combination with and Dave Stewarts coloring.

“Night Train” was written by Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins with art by Scott Kollins and Dave Stewart.  It is the story of a train crash back in the time of Lobster Johnson that leaves a train full of ghosts hell bent on revenge. This is a pretty good story but the best part of it is the really good artwork and use of colors.

“There’s Something Under My Bed” was written by Joe Harris with art by Adam Pollina.  It is a short and fun story based upon the childhood fear of monsters under the bed.

“Another Day At the Office” was written by Mike Mignola with art by Cameron Stewart. It is another short story but this one features zombies and only average art.

Plague of Frogs:

The third TPB collected in this hard cover is “Plague of Frogs”. Unlike the other two volumes collected in this Omnibus, “Plague of Frogs” is  one long story arc rather than a collection of short stories. I think this longer story marks a turning point in the series where when given room to breathe B.P.R.D really finds its own direction. This story features the return of Sadu-Hem and the frog monsters first seen in “Hellboy – Seed of Destruction”, the fulfillment of prophecies and vengeance from “Hellboy – Wake the Devil” and my personal favorite, the origin of Abe Sapien.

 Not only is Plague a great story but it has really good art to. Although Guy Davis’s art does mimic Mike Mignola it has a more delicate and detailed look which when coupled with Dave Stewarts excellent coloring is very pleasing to the eye. I love the way Guy creates a sort of Quasi Victorian steam punk look to things and I love his background work. I have no problem with Guy penciling B.P.R.D especially if Dave is coloring.

 This collected edition also has an extensive extras section with some great sketches and articles all which help this to be a must buy book for Hellboy fans. ISBN-13: 978-1595826091. 8/10