Guest Post: “Only the Lonely: Isolation in Horror” by Dan Coxon

October 8, 2022October 7, 2022 Civilian Reader Guest Post AG Slatter, Alison Littlewood, Anthology, Brian Evenson, Chịkọdịlị Emelumadu, Dan Coxon, Gwendolyn Kiste, Horror, Isolation, Joe R Lansdale, Jonathan Maberry, Ken Liu, Laird Barron, Lisa Tuttle, Lynda E Rucker, Marian Womack, Mark Morris, Michael Marshall Smith, MR Carey, Nina Allan, Owl Goingback, Paul Tremblay, Ramsey Campbell, Tim Lebbon, Titan Books

“I’d left her out here all alone, with nothing but the snow and the night that closes in too soon. How could anyone live so remotely without it creeping into them – the cold, endless blue dark?”

That’s taken from ‘The Snow Child’, Alison Littlewood’s story which opens my latest anthology, Isolation: The Horror Anthology. There’s good reason why I placed it first in the book. When I originally came up with the idea of isolation as a unifying theme for an anthology, this was the kind of story I was expecting. Frozen wastes, distant towns, the cold, and the dark, the effects that has upon the mind… That was the horror of Isolation. Continue reading →

New Books (May-June)

June 7, 2020May 12, 2021 Civilian Reader New Books Alaya Dawn Johnson, Amanda Harlowe, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Cassidy Lucas, Chuck Palahniuk, Claire Holroyde, Curtis Sittenfeld, Daniel Polansky, Django Wexler, Elizabeth Shackelford, Jennifer Hofmann, Jennifer Levitz, Joe R Lansdale, Lauren Beukes, Lavie Tidhar, Lee Goldberg, Melissa Korn, Michael Connelly, Michael Laurence, MR Carey, Natasha Pulley, Owen Laukkanen, Rachel Howzell Hall, Robert Webb

Featuring: Lauren Beukes, M.R. Carey, Michael Connelly, Lee Goldberg, Rachel Howzell Hall, Amanda Harlowe, Jennifer Hofmann, Claire Holroyde, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Melissa Korn, Joe R. Lansdale, Owen Laukkanen, Michael Laurence, Jennifer Levitz, Cassidy Lucas, Chuck Palahniuk, Daniel Polansky, Natasha Pulley, Elizabeth Shackelford, Curtis Sittenfeld, Lavie Tidhar, Robert Webb, Django Wexler

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New Books (November-December)

December 12, 2019May 14, 2021 Civilian Reader New Books Andy Greene, David Downing, David James Poissant, EJ Dionne, Eoin Colfer, Ezra Klein, Garth Nix, Howard Andrew Jones, Ivy Pochoda, James Patterson, James Rollins, Jon Skovron, JT Nicholas, Kathleen Barber, Kester Grant, KJ Parker, Maggie Stiefvater, Marion Womack, Matthew Ward, Michael Booth, Micheline Aharonian Marcom, MR Carey, Myke Cole, Nino Cipri, Robert Reich, S.A. Hunt, William Dalrymple

One final New Books post for 2019. It’s been quite a year! So many memorable books — new and old — and clearly many more exciting titles on the horizon.

Feel free to leave a comment with your favourites from the year, and/or your most-anticipated for 2020.

Featuring: Kathleen Barber, Michael Booth, M.R. Carey, Nino Cipri, Myke Cole, Eoin Colfer, William Dalrymple, E.J. Dionne, David Downing, Kester Grant, Andy Greene, S.A. Hunt, Howard Andrew Jones, Ezra Klein, Micheline Aharonian Marcom, J.T. Nicholas, Garth Nix, K.J. Parker, Ivy Pochoda, David James Poissant, Robert R. Reich, James Rollins, Jon Skovron, Maggie Stiefvater, Matthew Ward, Marian Womack

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Upcoming: FELIX CASTOR SERIES by Mike Carey (Re-Issues, Orbit)

January 29, 2018 Civilian Reader Uncategorized Dead Men's Boots, Felix Castor Series, Mike Carey, MR Carey, Naming of the Beasts, Orbit, Supernatural, The Devil You Know, Thicker Than Water, Thriller, Urban Fantasy, Vicious Circle

This year, Orbit is re-issuing Mike Carey‘s Felix Castor series: The Devil You Know, Vicious Circle, Dead Men’s Boots, Thicker Than Water and The Naming of the Beasts. Above and below are the new covers. Here’s the synopsis for the first novel:

Felix Castor is a freelance exorcist, and London is his stomping ground. It may seem like a good ghostbuster can charge what he likes and enjoy a hell of a lifestyle, but there’s a risk: sooner or later he’s going to take on a spirit that’s too strong for him.

When Castor accepts a seemingly simple ghost-hunting case at a museum in the shadowy heart of London, what should have been a perfectly straightforward exorcism is rapidly turning into the Who Can Kill Castor First Show, with demons and ghosts all keen to claim the big prize.

But that’s business as usual: Castor knows how to deal with the dead. It’s the living who piss him off…

Carey has recently been publishing as M.R. Carey, including the critically-acclaimed and best-selling The Girl With All the Gifts and its sequel, The Boy on the Bridge. The Felix Castor novels are published by Orbit in the US and UK.

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

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Upcoming: THE BOY ON THE BRIDGE by M.R. Carey (Orbit)

January 14, 2017January 12, 2017 Civilian Reader Upcoming Boy on the Bridge, Duncan Spilling, Girl With All the Gifts, Mike Carey, Most Anticipated 2017, MR Carey, Orbit Books, Post-Apocalypse, Stephen Mulcahey

Above is the cover for M.R. Carey‘s The Boy on the Bridge, the highly anticipated sequel to The Girl With All the Gifts (easily one of my favourite reads of 2013). Cover design by Duncan Spilling, photography by Stephen Mulcahey of Arcangel Images.

Here’s the novel’s brief synopsis:

Once upon a time, in a land blighted by terror, there was a very clever boy.

The people thought the boy could save them, so they opened their gates and sent him out into the world.

To where the monsters lived.

The Girl With All the Gifts was a word-of-mouth bestseller, and has been adapted into a film starring Sennia Nanua, Glenn Close, Gemma Arterton and Paddy Considine.

The Boy on The Bridge (one of my most-anticipated novels of the year) is published by Orbit in the UK and US, on May 4th, 2017.

Also on CR: Guest Post on “Writing Strong Women”; Review of The Girl With All the Gifts

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Upcoming in 2017… Orbit Books

January 6, 2017February 2, 2017 Civilian Reader Upcoming Brian McClellan, Charlie Fletcher, Claire North, Dale Lucas, David Mealing, Elizabeth Moon, Jon Skovron, Jordanna Max Brodsky, Kim Stanley Robinson, Most Anticipated 2017, MR Carey, Nicholas Eames, Orbit Books, Sam Sykes

Here are some of my most-anticipated novels published by Orbit Books…

Featuring: Jordanna Max Brodsky, M.R. Carey, Nicholas Eames, Charlie Fletcher, Dale Lucas, Brian McClellan, David Mealing, Elizabeth Moon, Claire North, Jon Skovron, Kim Stanley Robinson, Sam Sykes

[Updated on January 16th with five more books; and on February 2nd with a video of interviews with new Orbit authors.]

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Upcoming: FELLSIDE by M.R. Carey (Orbit)

November 16, 2015November 16, 2015 Civilian Reader Covers, Upcoming Fellside, Fiction, Gemma Arterton, Girl With All the Gifts, Glenn Close, Most Anticipated 2016, MR Carey, Orbit Books, Sennia Nanua, She Who Brings Gifts, Suspense

Last week, Orbit (quietly) unveiled the cover for M.R. Carey’s upcoming novel, Fellside. Another standalone, it sounds rather excellent:

Fellside is a maximum security prison on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors. It’s not the kind of place you’d want to end up. But it’s where Jess Moulson could be spending the rest of her life.

It’s a place where even the walls whisper.

And one voice belongs to a little boy with a message for Jess.

Will she listen?

Fellside is due to be published by Orbit Books in the US and UK, in April 2016.

Carey’s previous novel, The Girl With All the Gifts was fantastic, and easily one of my favourite novels of 2014 — it’s published in the US and UK by Orbit Books. You can read my review here. If you haven’t had a chance to read it, then I strongly urge you to do so — it’s magnificent. It is also being made into a movie, SheWho Brings Gifts. Here’s an early still from the filming, from The Telegraph, featuring Gemma Arterton (as “Helen Justineau”), Glenn Close (“Dr. Caroline Caldwell”) and Sennia Nanua (“Melanie”):