Horror

Review: PRINCE LESTAT by Anne Rice (Chatto & Windus/Knopf)

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RiceA-PrinceLestatUK2The Vampires Return…

The vampire world is in crisis – their kind have been proliferating out of control and, thanks to technologies undreamed of in previous centuries, they can communicate as never before. Roused from their earth-bound slumber, ancient ones are in thrall to the Voice: which commands that they burn fledgling vampires in cities from Paris to Mumbai, Hong Kong to Kyoto and San Francisco. Immolations, huge massacres, have commenced all over the world.

Who – or what – is the Voice? What does it desire, and why?

There is only one vampire, only one blood drinker, truly known to the entire world of the Undead. Will the dazzling hero-wanderer, the dangerous rebel-outlaw Lestat heed the call to unite the Children of Darkness as they face this new twilight?

Few novels have had as much of a lasting impression on me as Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned. I have read them so many times, now. I have, of course, also read the other novels in the Vampire Chronicles. It was with considerable anticipation, then, that I started this long-awaited new novel. It did not disappoint. An ambitious expansion of the existing mythology, and an engrossing update to the lives of Lestat and the undead tribe. Continue reading →

Review: THE DAMNATION OF PYTHOS by David Annandale (Black Library)

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Annandale-HH30-DamnationOfPythosThe 30th Horus Heresy book

In the aftermath of the Dropsite Massacre at Isstvan V, a battered and bloodied force of Iron Hands, Raven Guard and Salamanders regroups on a seemingly insignificant death world. Fending off attacks from all manner of monstrous creatures, the fractious allies find hope in the form of human refugees fleeing from the growing war, and cast adrift upon the tides of the warp. But even as the Space Marines carve out a sanctuary for them in the jungles of Pythos, a darkness gathers that threatens to consume them all…

The Damnation of Pythos is a different kind of Horus Heresy. Given Annandale’s past BL output, this should come as no surprise: it’s more atmospheric and horror-tinged than many other BL novels. As the synopsis states, this novel takes place shortly after the Isstvan V massacre, which saw the Iron Hands, Raven Guard and Salamanders take a real pounding from the guns and blades of the traitor legions. Unlike other recent Heresy titles, this one does not as obviously advance the story.* It is, nevertheless, an enjoyable read. Continue reading →

Guest Post: “When Reading Habits Become Writing Habits” by David Towsey

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TowseyD-AuthorPicCropA few months ago I stumbled across a Twitter discussion that changed the way I look at my reading habits – both past and present. I have since forgotten who was involved, which is unfortunate because, like a good academic, I prefer to cite my sources. Essentially, ideas of “deep” and “shallow” reading in genre circles were tabled (without attaching any value judgements to either term). In this sense deep meant reading all the works and series of relatively few authors – typically favourites – and shallow referred to someone who reads single texts by a lot of different authors. This was something I hadn’t really thought about. I started asking those difficult questions – the kind we aim at ourselves. What kind of reader am I? What kind of reader have I been in the past? Continue reading →

Review: THE WAKE (Vertigo)

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TheWake-Complete

Writer: Scott Snyder | Artist: Sean Murphy | Colors: Matt Hollingsworth

When Marine Biologist Lee Archer is approached by the Department of Homeland Security for help with a new threat, she declines, but quickly realizes they won’t take no for an answer. Soon she is plunging to the depths of the Arctic Circle to a secret, underwater oilrig filled with roughnecks and scientists on the brink of an incredible discovery. But when things go horribly wrong, this scientific safe haven will turn into a house of horrors at the bottom of the ocean!

Collects: The Wake #1-10

This is a tricky one to review. This is the whole ten-issue run of the series, which means a lot happens. The multiple timelines, the expansive scope of the story… There’s a lot crammed into this book. It’s the most ambitious of Snyder’s stories that I’ve read, and while I found it excellent on a number of levels, the second half really let the book down. Continue reading →

Mini-Review: THE BROKEN ROAD by Teresa Frohock

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FrohockT-TheBrokenRoadA superb, dark new novella

The world of Lehbet is under siege. The threads that divide Lehbet from the mirror world of Heled are fraying, opening the way for an invasion by an alien enemy that feeds on human flesh.

Travys, the youngest of the queen’s twin sons, was born mute. He is a prince of the Chanteuse, nobles who channel their magic through their voices. Their purpose is to monitor the threads and close the paths between the worlds, but the Chanteuse have given themselves over to decadence. They disregard their responsibilities to the people they protect — all but Travys, who fears he’ll fail to wake the Chanteuse to Heled’s threat in time to prevent the destruction of Lehbet.

Within the palace, intrigue creates illusions of love where there is none, and whenTravys’ own brother turns against him, he is forced to flee all that he has known and enter the mirror world of Heled where the enemy has already won. In Heled, he must find his true voice and close the threads, or lose everyone that he loves.

The Broken Road is the first in a new series from Teresa Frohock. It exhibits all of the strengths of her previous work (the excellent Miserere and a number of short stories): excellent prose, brisk-yet-unhurried pacing, a dark and gothic atmosphere, and a wonderfully horror-tinged fantasy approach. All of this makes for an excellent read. Continue reading →

Franklin Ship Discovered – Time to Read “The Terror”?

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TorontoStar-201409-FranklinShipThis is huge news in Canada at the moment: one of the Franklin expedition’s lost ships has been discovered under the northern ice. The ship will either be the HMS Terror or the HMS Erebus, both Royal Navy ships commanded by Sir John Franklin were lost during his doomed 1845 search for the Northwest Passage. From the Toronto Star:

“Because the wrecks of Erebus and Terror are both British property and Canadian national historic sites, the the 1997 memorandum of understanding carefully lays out each country’s claims and responsibilities. Britain retains ownership of the wrecks but has assigned ‘custody and control’ to the Government of Canada. That means Canadian archeologists get to lead the recovery mission, and Canada can keep everything taken from the wreck — with a few important exceptions.”

The Star and Globe & Mail have both published multiple stories today about the discovery, so I’d recommend heading to their websites to read more. Stand-outs include this commentary by Ken McGoogan, a short piece on the HMS Terror’s history, and also this piece about the Franklin expedition.

While nobody seems to be prepared to make a guess as to which of the two ships the discovered wreck is, the news naturally made me think of Dan Simmons’s The Terror, which was published in 2007 by Transworld Books (UK) and Little, Brown (US).

SimmonsD-TheTerror

I have yet to read the novel (like oh-so-many others), but it has been inching up my TBR mountain for some time. With this latest discovery, though, I have a feeling it will leap closer to the top. Here is the synopsis…

The men on board Her Britannic Majesty’s Ships Terror and Erebus had every expectation of triumph. They were part of Sir John Franklin’s 1845 expedition – as scientifically advanced an enterprise as had ever set forth – and theirs were the first steam-driven vessels to go in search of the fabled North-West Passage.

But the ships have now been trapped in the Arctic ice for nearly two years. Coal and provisions are running low. Yet the real threat isn’t the constantly shifting landscape of white or the flesh-numbing temperatures, dwindling supplies or the vessels being slowly crushed by the unyielding grip of the frozen ocean.

No, the real threat is far more terrifying. There is something out there that haunts the frigid darkness, which stalks the ships, snatching one man at a time – mutilating, devouring. A nameless thing, at once nowhere and everywhere, this terror has become the expedition’s nemesis.

When Franklin meets a terrible death, it falls to Captain Francis Crozier of HMS Terror to take command and lead the remaining crew on a last, desperate attempt to flee south across the ice. With them travels an Eskimo woman who cannot speak. She may be the key to survival – or the harbinger of their deaths. And as scurvy, starvation and madness take their toll, as the Terror on the ice become evermore bold, Crozier and his men begin to fear there is no escape…

You can read an excerpt from The Terror on the author’s website.

Upcoming: THE SHOTGUN ARCANA by R.S. Belcher (Tor/Titan)

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BelcherRS-ShotgunArcana

Two very cool, very different covers for R.S. Belcher’s follow-up to The Six-Gun Tarot. On the left, the US cover (Tor Books); and on the right, the UK cover (Titan Books). Here’s the US synopsis:

1870. A haven for the blessed and the damned, including a fallen angel, a mad scientist, a pirate queen, and a deputy who is kin to coyotes, Golgotha has come through many nightmarish trials, but now an army of thirty-two outlaws, lunatics, serial killers, and cannibals are converging on the town, drawn by a grisly relic that dates back to the Donner Party… and the dawn of humanity.

Sheriff Jon Highfather and his deputies already have their hands full dealing with train robbers, a mysterious series of brutal murders, and the usual outbreaks of weirdness. But with thirty-two of the most vicious killers on Earth riding into Golgotha in just a few day’s time, the town and its people will be tested as never before — and some of them will never be the same.

I really want to read this series. I have no idea why I haven’t done so yet… I shall make that a goal for the rest of 2014. Watch this space…

You can read an excerpt from The Shotgun Arcana over on Tor.com.

The first book in this series, The Six-Gun Tarot had equally interesting covers, but I must say in that case the UK cover was by far the best. Here’s the US and UK covers, side-by-side:

Belcher-SixGunTarot

Upcoming: THE RETURN OF NAGASH by Joshua Reynolds (Black Library)

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ReynoldsJ-TheReturnOfNagashAnnounced rather quietly (well, more like suddenly) and coinciding with the tabletop game’s related releases, Josh Reynolds’s THE RETURN OF NAGASH details the story of the baddest-of-the-undead-bad in the Warhammer world. Here’s the synopsis:

The End Times are coming. As the forces of Chaos threaten to drown the world in madness, Mannfred von Carstein and Arkhan the Black put aside their difference and plot to resurrect the one being with the power to stand against the servants of the Ruinous Powers and restore order to the world – the Great Necromancer himself. As they set about gathering artefacts to use in their dark ritual, armies converge on Sylvania, intent on stopping them. But Arkhan and Mannfred are determined to complete their task. No matter the cost, Nagash must rise again.

I haven’t read any of the Undead novels published by Black Library (yet), and I’m not sure how this will connect with Mike Lee’s and Josh Reynold’s other undead/vampire novels. This one, though, I am most interested in. Partly because I do like good vampire/undead fiction. But also, and perhaps more keenly, because the cover story for the first issue of White Dwarf magazine I ever bought was all about the first version of the Nagash model. The magazine included a background section for the character, a short piece of fiction, as well as rules, etc. The background was, I thought at the time, very well-written and gripping – I became hooked on reading the background sections of the Warhammer Armies and Codex books. However, Nagash’s story stuck in my mind. And so, I am very interested in reading this novel. I’ll see what I can do about getting it read and reviewed A.S.A.P.

Upcoming: PRINCE LESTAT by Anne Rice (Chatto & Windus)

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RiceA-PrinceLestatUK2Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles remain some of my favourite novels – as I’m sure I’ve mentioned many times already on CR, I consider The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned among my top five favourite novels (as one selection – they have to be read together). It was with much excitement, therefore, that I saw that Rice was returning to the series after 11 years away – 2003’s Blood Canticle was the last novel until now. As with any long-running series, it had its ups and downs, and while certain elements of the later novels didn’t work for me, I nevertheless eagerly purchased and read them on their publication days. Prince Lestat will be no different, I’m sure (unless I can get a review copy…). Here’s the synopsis:

The vampire world is in crisis – their kind have been proliferating out of control and, thanks to technologies undreamed of in previous centuries, they can communicate as never before. Roused from their earth-bound slumber, ancient ones are in thrall to the Voice: which commands that they burn fledgling vampires in cities from Paris to Mumbai, Hong Kong to Kyoto and San Francisco. Immolations, huge massacres, have commenced all over the world.

Who – or what – is the Voice? What does it desire, and why?

There is only one vampire, only one blood drinker, truly known to the entire world of the Undead. Will the dazzling hero-wanderer, the dangerous rebel-outlaw Lestat heed the call to unite the Children of Darkness as they face this new twilight?

Anne Rice’s epic, luxuriant, fiercely ambitious new novel brings together all the worlds and beings of the legendary Vampire Chronicles, from present-day New York and Ancient Egypt to fourth-century Carthage and Renaissance Venice; from Louis de Pointe du Lac; Armand the eternally young; Mekare and Maharet; to Pandora and Flavius; David Talbot, vampire and ultimate fixer from the Secret Talamasca; and Marius, the true child of the Millennia. It also introduces many other seductive supernatural creatures, and heralds significant new blood.

Prince Lestat is due to be published in the UK by Chatto & Windus, on October 30, 2014; and in the US by Knopf, on October 28th, 2014. Below are the US and earlier UK covers (according to the author’s Facebook page, the latter has been replaced by the image at the top of this post):

RiceA-PrinceLestat

Guest Post: “Setting as a Character” by Patty Templeton

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PattyTempleton-AuthorPicI have a great many tattoos. Entire appendages are coated in ink. One of my favorites is a small arsenic bottle and a sprig of blackberries on my left arm. It was inspired by the book We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.

Shirley Jackson. Geez. That woman. Though We Have Always Lived in the Castle is my favorite novel of hers – and the novel that inspired the tattoo, The Haunting of Hill House is what Jackson is most known for. Made famous by two movie adaptations and lauded by Stephen King as one of only two “great novels of the supernatural in the last hundred years,”[1] The Haunting of Hill House was the first novel that made me aware of Setting as a Character.

If you are unfamiliar with The Haunting of Hill House, the main story thread is thus: four psychically-inclined characters (two women and two men) visit an 80-year-old mansion named Hill House to study the supernatural activity that may or may not be happening there. Strange. Events. Occur. Is it all in the minds of the slightly terrified inhabitants, do ghosts roam the halls, or can a place actually be alive and evil?

Ever been in a place that gave you bad vibes? I have. There is a certain portion of south Chicagoland woods that I will never go to again. I shit you not, I had a murder of crows follow me (and my mother) on a walk for 15 minutes. Weird. Creepy. Ew. Scary woods. Scary crows.

I loved Shirley Jackson’s notion of a setting truly becoming a character. Hill House is alive… and possibly two steps down its own path of madness. Hill House is something more than even a setting as a character. The term Genius Loci is Latin for “the protective spirit of a place.” Modern usage has dulled the term to meaning the atmosphere of a place…but screw that. I like the idea of a setting being wholly and completely inhabited by a personality.

PrintIn my debut novel, There Is No Lovely End, I tried to stretch the bounds of what a setting as character could be. I wanted several places to be so infused by history and experience that they were completely animate. They do not speak in human languages, but they communicate with characters – who may or may not be used to their settings acting out, rather than just housing their daily lives. That being said, not every setting is a character. There are dead zones. Not every place you walk by in real life gives you glee or the willies, why should the places in a book be any different?

Here are questions to think about when you are debating writing a setting as a character:

Do you want your setting to comfort your main character?

The Watchbird Theater houses a congregation of oddballs led by Arrol Wester, the theater’s owner. The Watchbird itself is known to reveal hidden passages and sleeping rooms for actors it adores. If the Watchbird were a person, people would describe her as kind, caring, and completely unusual.

Do you want your setting to confront your main character?

PrintSaint Anthony’s Academy of Wayward Sons is a Dickensian slumhole of an orphanage. It’s run by Franwell Doogood, a beastly woman with a beastly son, neither of whom would blink an eye over throttling a ragamuffin with a coinbag or broken chair. Consequently, Saint Ant’s is an antagonistic place that often trips and traps the orphans. Were Saint Ant’s a bloke at a bar, he’d be described as a rotten SOB.

Here are a few more questions to get the brain boiling about what your setting can or can’t do:

· Do you want your setting to mirror the personality of those that own it (like above) or do you want your setting to break all bounds and “be itself.” If so, how will this drive your story forward?

· Can a setting save a character?

· Can a setting destroy a character?

· Can your setting speak? Is it a human language? If not, what form does its language take? Can humans understand it?

· Can a setting be the main character?

· What are some of your favorite books and movies that best exemplify “setting as a character”? Think about one. What would you have done differently to amplify or add subtlety to it?

This is what I do when I am at home alone. I nerd out while listening to Slim Cessna’s Auto Club and think about literary and cinematic Genius Loci. It all comes down to this: the only rule is what works. Now get on it. Make setting as a character work for you. Become the new Hill House. Eris knows, I sure as hell will read you.

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[1] The other novel being Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw. (Danse Macabre, 270.)

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Author Bio: Patty Templeton is roughly 25 apples tall and 11,000 cups of coffee into her life. She wears red sequins and stomping boots while writing, then hits up back-alley dance bars and honky tonks. Her stories are full of ghosts, freaks, fools, underdogs, blue collar heroes, and never giving up, even when life is giving you shit. She won the first-ever Naked Girls Reading Literary Honors Award and has been a runner-up for the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Award. There Is No Lovely End is her first novel. Here is the synopsis…

Apparitions! Outlaws! Mediums!

1884. Nathan Garlan hears and sees the dead. Using his uncanny aptitudes to assist society and its specters, he has become the most acclaimed medium in Boston. But not all esteem him. Nathan Garlan’s own mother craves her boy butchered — and she’s not the only one…

Misery! Lust! Murder!

New Haven. Sarah Winchester is the heiress to the Winchester Rifle fortune and a haunted woman. She has searched for release from familial phantoms for two decades, yet found no respite. However, she has heard of a medium in Boston who regularly administers miracles…

Wit! Wonders! Outrage!

Who is the Reverend Doctor Enton Blake? Why does the lawless Hennet C. Daniels search for him? What form of profane curio is a trick box — and what, precisely, does one inter within it? Will Sarah Winchester find serenity through Nathan Garlan’s services? Or will Hester Garlan find her son first?