Interview with STEVE RASNIC TEM

January 6, 2017January 1, 2017 Civilian Reader Interview Horror, Rebellion Publishing, Sci-Fi, Solaris, Steve Rasnic Tem, Ubo

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Steve Rasnic Tem?

Writer, father, grandfather (but not in that order), dabbler in art and photography, ex-puppeteer, ex-magician, ex-ventriloquist, ex-animator (maybe).

Your new novel, Ubo, will be published by Solaris in February. It looks really interesting: How would you introduce it to a potential reader?

Ubo is a meditation on violence using a story which is a mix of both science fiction and horror. Daniel is trapped in Ubo. He has no idea how long he has been imprisoned there by the aliens who resemble giant cicadae or roaches. Every resident has a similar memory of the journey there: a dream of dry, chitinous wings crossing the moon, the gigantic insects dropping swiftly over the houses of the neighborhood, passing through walls and windows as if by magic, or by some unknown technological means, “like a deck of baroquely ornamented cards, fanning themselves from one hidden world into the next.”

The residents of Ubo are forced to take trips into the past where they must live inside the heads of some of history’s most violent figures: Jack the Ripper, Charles Whitman, Stalin, Himmler, Gilles de Rais, and others. Continue reading →

Interview with HILLARY MONAHAN

December 23, 2016 Civilian Reader Interview Abaddon, Eva Darrows, Gods & Monsters, Hillary Monahan, Horror, Rebellion Publishing, Snake Eyes, Thea De Salle

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Hillary Monahan?

An author, a queer woman, a basset hound enthusiast, a feminist, among other things. For the purposes of this interview, I’m a New York Times bestselling author of YA and adult horror under Hillary Monahan. I’ve received critical acclaim for my humorous YA under Eva Darrows, and I have three romances under Thea De Salle coming out from Simon & Schuster starting in February.

Your new novel, Gods & Monsters: Snake Eyes, was recently published by Abaddon. It looks rather cool: How would you introduce it to a potential reader?

It’s a modernized telling of the Lamia and gorgon myths set in the Everglades. We know what happened thousands of years ago, but let’s talk about what happens to immortals in a modern day when they are, for all intents and purposes, forgotten. Continue reading →

Guest Post: “What’s in a Name?” by Simon Bestwick

December 1, 2016November 30, 2016 Civilian Reader Guest Post Feast of All Souls, Horror, Simon Bestwick, Solaris, What's in a Name?, Writing

I have the devil’s own luck when it comes to titles, at least as far as that there Jonathan Oliver at Solaris is concerned.

The new book, The Feast Of All Souls, is the third I’ve written for Jon. The first, for Abaddon Books, is the only one where the title wasn’t an issue: Tide Of Souls.

Tide was published in 2009: fast forward to 2011, when I pitched Jon a novel called Ghosts Of War. He liked the story and commissioned it, but suggested a different title, quite reasonably pointing out that Ghosts Of War gave away the plot. Continue reading →

Interview with JASON ARNOPP

November 11, 2016November 10, 2016 Civilian Reader Interview Horror, Jason Arnopp, Last Days of Jack Sparks, Most Anticipated 2016, Must Read 2016, Mystery, Orbit, Suspense

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Jason Arnopp?

He’s an author and scriptwriter, with a background in journalism. I started out as a rock journalist and spent over a decade in that field, which set me in good stead for presenting a music journalist as my titular character in The Last Days Of Jack Sparks. I mainly write supernatural fiction, hopefully with an edge and also the odd laugh. On a more personal level, I love horror movies, thrash metal, collecting old VHS videos and other fun stuff like gaming and conjuring.

Your excellent debut novel, The Last Days of Jack Sparks, was recently published by Orbit. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but how would you introduce it to a potential reader?

Thanks – I’m really glad you liked! I’d tell a potential reader that the book’s about an arrogant celebrity journalist who sets out to debunk the supernatural with his latest non-fiction book, only to end up dead. And on a more pretentious, thematic level, it’s about ego, certainty and belief, and how those three things intersect in the social media age. Oh, and death. Continue reading →

Guest Post: “New Voices” by Mark Morris

October 18, 2016October 16, 2016 Civilian Reader Guest Post Genre, Horror, Mark Morris, Obsidian Heart, Society of Blood, Titan Books, Urban Fantasy, Wolves of London, Wraiths of War

The horror genre is in fine fettle at the moment. In fact, I can’t remember a time when the work being produced has been more wide-ranging, inventive and exciting. This is not only due to the fact that established names like Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Tim Lebbon, Joe R. Lansdale, Adam Nevill and Stephen Volk are continuing to produce excellent work, but is also because a huge influx of new writers has ensured that if the genre was a bar or a club, then it would be the coolest, most vibrant place in town in which to hang out.

Some of the genre’s newer writers seem to have become instantly successful, and it’s wonderful to see the likes of Josh Malerman’s BirdBox, Andrew Michael Hurley’s The Loney, Catriona Ward’s Rawblood, Nick Cutter’s The Troop and The Deep, and Sarah Lotz’s The Three and Day Four on sale in supermarkets and piled up on promotional display tables in Waterstones.

What’s also heartening is that writers who have been around for a while, their work illuminating the small presses and gaining praise, honours and fans along the way, now seem to be breaking through into the mainstream too. Continue reading →

Guest Post: “Writing Strong Women” by M.R. Carey

September 14, 2016September 11, 2016 Civilian Reader Guest Post Fantasy, Fellside, Girl With All the Gifts, Hellblazer, Horror, Lucifer, M R Carey, Mike Carey, Must Read 2016, Orbit, Urban Fantasy, Vertigo, Writing, Writing Strong Women

My latest novel, Fellside, had its UK release in April and it’s just come out in paperback. To commemorate this fact I’m spending the week running around on other people’s blogs (thanks, Civilian Reader!) shouting “look at me.”

It’s a time-honoured tradition, and to keep you from saying the same thing ten times over your publisher will usually come up with a list of possible themes or titles. On the list in front of me right now, about two-thirds of the way down, the following phrase appears:-

“Writing Strong Women”

It immediately made me wonder whether or not that’s something that I do. Continue reading →

Upcoming: DEFENDER by G.X. Todd (Headline)

August 25, 2016August 25, 2016 Civilian Reader Upcoming Defender, Dystopia, G.X. Todd, Headline, Horror, Most Anticipated 2017, Sci-Fi, The Voices

This is one I’m really looking forward to: G.X. Todd‘s upcoming debut, Defender, has been described as including “nods back to Stephen King’s The Stand“, and also influenced by Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman. That’s a pretty impressive SFFH pedigree to which it’s being tied. The first in the four-part Voices series, in which “your inner voice might kill you”. Defender is due to be published in the UK by Headline in January 2017. Here’s the synopsis:

The primal battle between Good and Evil plays out in a new arena…

‘On the cusp of sleep, have we not all heard a voice call out our name?’

In a world where long drinks are in short supply, a stranger listens to the voice in his head telling him to buy a lemonade from the girl sitting on a dusty road.

The moment locks them together.

Here and now it’s dangerous to listen to your inner voice. Those who do, keep it quiet.

These voices have purpose.

And when Pilgrim meets Lacey, there is a reason. He just doesn’t know it yet.

Defender pulls you on a wild ride to a place where the voices in your head will save or slaughter you.

For more news about Todd’s writing and novels, be sure to check out the author’s website, and follow her on Twitter and Goodreads.

Review: THE BALLAD OF BLACK TOM by Victor LaValle (Tor.com)

August 24, 2016August 23, 2016 Civilian Reader Review Ballad of Black Tom, Horror, Most Anticipated 2016, Must Read 2016, Novella, Tor.com, Victor LaValle

A nice twist on Lovecraftian horror

People move to New York looking for magic and nothing will convince them it isn’t there.

Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father’s head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops. But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic, and earns the attention of things best left sleeping.

A storm that might swallow the world is building in Brooklyn. Will Black Tom live to see it break?

I’m rather late to the party on this one, but I was certainly intrigued after I first read the synopsis. The Ballad of Black Tom is a really interesting, well-written twist on Lovecraftian horror. I really enjoyed this, and I think it will appeal to a wide swathe of SFFH fandom. Thankfully, you also don’t need to have read any Lovecraft to enjoy it. Continue reading →

Upcoming: M.R. Carey Returning to the World of THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS!

August 19, 2016August 19, 2016 Civilian Reader Upcoming Boy on the Bridge, Dystopia, Girl With All the Gifts, Horror, Most Anticipated 2017, Orbit, Post-Apocalypse, Upcoming

CareyMR-GirlWithAllTheGifts M.R. Carey’s next novel will be The Boy on the Bridge — a prequel of sorts to the story in his best-selling and critically-acclaimed The Girl With All the Gifts (which was also a CR favourite in 2013).

Here’s what the author has to say about the new novel:

“Returning to the world of The Girl With All the Gifts felt like coming home in a weird way. And every time I visit I find something I didn’t know was there. The Boy on the Bridge is very much its own thing, not a continuation of Melanie’s story but a new journey with a new cast of characters. But it answers a lot of questions that The Girl With All the Gifts implicitly asked.”

Carey’s The Girl With All the Gifts is published by Orbit Books in the UK and US. His latest novel, Fellside, is also published by Orbit Books in both the UK and US. I highly recommend them both. Carey is also the writer of the original, superb Lucifer comic series, which spun out of Neil Gaiman’s groundbreaking Sandman series.

You can watch a video of Mike discussing the new book on his Facebook page, here.

Also on CR: Review of The Girl With All the Gifts

Quick Shot Reviews: Catching up on Graphic Novels

August 6, 2016August 6, 2016 Civilian Reader Comics, Review Action, All-New X-Men, American Vampire, Black Magick, Charles Soule, Christopher Moeller, Daredevil, DC Comics, Dean Ormston, Dennis Hopeless, Extraordinary X-Men, Francis Manapul, Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, Horror, Huck, Humberto Ramos, Image Comics, Jason Fabok, Jeff Lemire, Jerry Ordway, Jim Lee, John Paul Leon, Jon J. Muth, Justice League, Kevin Maguire, Lazarus, Lucifer, Mark Bagley, Mark Millar, Marvel, Michael Lark, Mike Carey, Mitch Gerads, Nicola Scott, Owen Freeman, Peter Gross, Phil Jimenez, Rafael Albuquerque, Ron Garney, Ryan Kelly, Scott Kolins, Scott Snyder, Scott Williams, Sheriff of Babylon, Super-Heroes, Tom King, Vertigo Comics

Despite the near-total-silence on the graphic novel/comics side of things, I have continued to read a whole bunch of new and old collections. Generally speaking, though, I haven’t been overly impressed. Here are mini-reviews for ten stand-out collections I’ve read recently. [I’ll hopefully do a few more posts like this in the not-too-distant future, as I try to catch up with recent titles.]

Featuring: All-New X-Men, American Vampire, Black Magick, Daredevil, Extraordinary X-Men, Huck, Justice League, Lazarus, Lucifer, Sheriff of Babylon Continue reading →