Zraitor

This is a good to great collection of dark fiction stories showing where humanity is headed. All the topics in the stories were spot on, and you can see everything explored is basically already happening around us.

There weren't any outright terrible stories, but a few definitely fizzled out and weren't as strong as the others. That is the nature of these huge collections, though, and I truly enjoyed most of them.

The stories include lots of robots going wrong as you'd expect, some wonderfully uncomfortable racism and genetic themes are explored, and they hit pretty hard, and of course, end-stage capitalism doing its destructive best to ruin our lives. Almost anything you can think of was brought up in the collection's twenty-nine tales.

Finally, the narrator was great and brought the stories to life with a variety of voices and accents. I was really impressed by them

Starts off with the usual trope, a small-time private detective is visited by a beautiful woman who is paying too well and probably not telling him everything. The cases in the three main stories lead to Lovecraftian monsters, shapeshifters, mermaids, and werewolves... There are lots of things here the author does his own spin on and it's pretty good. I don't really want to say much more about them, best to see for yourself how crazy it gets.

Derek Adams is a good character, he has a lot of inner thoughts to relate to, and I liked his friendship with Doug. He solves most of the cases by blundering through, getting drunk, getting beat up A LOT, and talking to people with heavy Scottish accents.

Which of course leads me to the downside, it is a fairly big collection and it drags on and feels repetitive at times. All the action and mystery gets padded out by a lot of bar visits, and I was pretty burnt out by the end.

Still, it's fun and easy to read. Definitely worthwhile.

In the Secret of the Sahara, scientists and military from several countries investigate part of the seafloor that has suddenly parted. I'm sure you know what is down there, but it is still great fun. Luckily for them, one awesome cat happens to be part of the ship that takes them to the opening. Directly quoting here, “But this was no gentle pussy. My Lady Bast had been transformed into a warrior-goddess and she was not so quick to resume her domestic mien.”

The Turret is about Parker Lorentzen, sent to Old Severnford to see about the problems of a system there. His boss says if a problem can't be fixed by him, it can't be fixed... Strange dream visits to a turret that resemble a glowing face, weird townsfolk,... uncomfortable distant cousin kissing... Pretty imaginative story.

Unfortunately, it drags in the middle, with The Devil's Hop Yard and the Documents In The Case of Elizabeth Akeley. I had to stop and start three or four times to get through each of these, they are slow, and I found them confusing. They were not completely terrible, however.

The next story Brackish Waters is almost the same, but I found it won me over in the end due to the transformation being so pleasantly described by the character, despite how awful one would think it would be.

The writing is great throughout, even in the stories that didn't click with me, and in addition to these you get a look at Dunwich after the events of 1928, a couple caught in a storm, a “giant spider” lurking about, cults, a Sherlock Holmes story, and a story set in the future, where Yuggoth has been found and is near .. Worth the read.

Seems to be a collection of William Meikle's stories pulled in from all other things he has written. There were a lot of “I know that !” moments for me having read a lot of his work now. Most of them are great, and the ones that aren't are too short to really offend.

Cold as Death is an Augustus Seton story, he returns to an old friend's side to fight an incarnation of Death that has come for him from a ten-year bargain made. This story has amazing fantasy elements that I couldn't get enough of, and it seems I can't find the collection of this character on kindle and that made me sad. A reaper that brings cold death, a flaming sword, just loved it...

The Kelp is one of his “blob” stories where a mad scientist finds a Shoggoth and combines it with kelp to make a weapon for the military, you know where this is going.

Frankie, Dracula, and the Wolfman Walk Into a Bar is okay, a terrible band dressed in costumes make a deal with a man in a Satan costume that looks too real. I'm sure you also can figure out where this one is going.

The Siren's Song, a man sick of London gets away on holiday to the coast of Scotland where he encounters a very ahem, forceful mermaid creature. This idea is also used in The Midnight Eye Files Series The Sirens and I couldn't tell you which came first but I can tell you... Ouch, that's gotta hurt.

The Hair Belt is about a journal written in 1755 about a soldier's encounter with a strange man that owns a belt that turns one into a werewolf. I suppose it's okay to just outright say it seeing as how the name and certainly the big picture of a werewolf before the story spoil it already. The story is a really well-done adventure, and this journal appears in The Midnight Eye Files Series book The Skin Game. (Which both name and picture of a werewolf on the cover give it away as well :) )

Ghost Nor Bogle Shalt Thou Fear, after a power saw accident a man is rushed to the hospital where a Grim Reaper like being is found... It's not too bad.

Professor Challenger: The Cornish Owlman, well I'm not too familiar with the character so I can't comment on the accuracy but it's a fun adventure story. Carnacki and his electric pentacle make an appearance too. “Some see the owl, some only see the mouse.”

The Angel is a pretty meh story, I'm not sure why it's in here, I guess it's only to set up the themes in the final story in the collection. Thankfully it's short. A man finds a winged skeleton believed to be an angel.

The Dreams That Stuff Is Made Of is a weird story about a man, not sure if he's a movie producer or just in special effects, tasked with making a scary giant gorilla monster for a movie. After he fails spectacularly, a man named Mr. Mkele for some reason appears and tells him the pelt he has stolen was once a shape-shifting sorcerer. It's just a really goofy story that's kind of fun.

The Dragon's Bargain is about a man sent to a cave by a woman to obtain its spit. Why? Well, it's really short so it won't take long to find out.

Wee Robbie is a wonderfully done story about a man and his pregnant wife taking a vacation to yet again, the coast of Scotland. The scenery and atmosphere in this one are well written. I was wondering why I had read it before, and then I realized it's the beginning of William Meikle's other book, Eldren- The Book of the Dark. Turns out he took out the strange, deformed little people in this and swapped them for vampires in that. I greatly prefer this version, it's so much more gross and effective.

The Silent Dead, back to August Seton! He brings his flaming sword to a cursed castle and it's awesome. Loads more fantasy stuff. Flaming sword, zombies, curses, yes, please!

Ah finally, the last story, the Fallen. It's a fantasy/horror western about a group of soldiers transported to some otherworldly battleground after they are hit by a strange vortex. They get caught up in a battle of angels against demons. Lots of action and I liked it.

So ends that long review, this is a great collection full of adventure and action, with horror sprinkled in. Most of the stories aren't scary but it's so full of imagination and fun, so who cares?

S-Squad takes on Nazi ice zombies in Antarctica...

Unfortunately, they just aren't as fun as the giant isopods were .. I was expecting them to be intelligent and cool (pun not intended) but they are mostly mindless and never speak. Seems a waste of such a typically evil villain to not have them deliver any lines.

What is fun however is everything else going on this story. You get secret experiments with a “demon” that includes a floating UFO that takes people's consciousness out into the cosmos and a really well-written journal that includes Carnacki's meeting with Winston Churchill. A lot of crazy imaginative stuff is going on in this story, and every time it went back to the S-Squad I couldn't help but feel disappointed. I cared far more about the side stories than them this outing, and that's not a good thing.

The main part, S-Squad vs the Nazi Zombie's was repetitive and pretty boring honestly. They mostly just battle back and forth down a hallway filling in time before we get back the previously mentioned side stories.

They also bring in a few new members to fill in for those who died in the last book, but they are all forgettable except for Wiggins, but that's only because he is extremely annoying. Most of his dialogue is just him making sexual jokes about Hynd's wife. You know, funny the first few times, then frustrating the hundredth time...

Banks, the leader of the squad, and Hynd the second are the main characters basically and are mostly likable just because they are effective at what they do, they don't have much backstory. When the story slowed a little in the first one we saw a little character stuff and personality come out, here it's dominated by again the side stories so that doesn't happen this time.

I need to mention just one more thing before I wrap this up... There's a scene where they, to put it bluntly, have a dance-off to turn back the ritual to draw them further in the base and it was just silly and ridiculous looking in my mind. I enjoyed the getting “Lost in the dance” stuff as a metaphor for what was happening in the cosmos scenes but when you do it literally ... ugh.

So we have a fun, imaginative story, where action and well, everything, takes a backseat to the side stories going on. This weakened the book a bit to me because well, that's what this series is, pew pewing some beasties, or so I thought. Of course, you can add other stuff and I appreciate that it was still an odd choice to me

The S-Squad takes on giant snakes in the Amazon. Lots more action and fun and I sound like a broken record...

Anyways, there aren't any new recruits to the Squad this time, but it makes it easier to remember their names. Banks, Hynd, McCally, and of course the one-liner dropping Wiggins. He's thankfully getting more likable as it goes on and making me wish he gets eaten less and less.

This outing ditches the sci-fi elements and goes full-on Indiana Jones with temples, curses, hidden gold, and snake gods. Like usual, the plot is always moving fast and doesn't linger on much.

If I could have one nitpick it's that the creature here Giant Freaking Snakes, aren't much of a threat to the Squad. They seemed to be at a bigger threat of going deaf firing at them then getting bit. That's not to say the action scenes aren't great, they are, especially the last fight in the book. Maybe the Squad is just that good at this now.

Book four brings the fun and action and adds even more adventure and I greatly enjoyed it.

Brings back the action and full focus on the S-Squad compared to the last book.

Not just one giant creature here, but many. After the beginning and inevitable everything going wrong it is just non-stop action.

The characters are still pretty thin but they definitely have personalities and great one-liners, very action movie like of course. Wiggins, or Wiggo, apparently they like him enough now to give him a nickname, is still pretty annoying with his Sarge's wife jokes, but they weren't as many this time around.

One of the creatures quite surprised me, maybe I should have seen it coming, but I didn't. You already see the Mammoth on the cover, there are plenty of others and it becomes quite a giant animal royal rumble.

I guess I always say the same things for this series, it's just fun. For bringing back all the action and adventure this outing gets 5 Stars from me.

Could tell the difference between this and the last one right from the beginning, the characters were being fun again and the action comes quickly.

The squad gets three new members joining the surviving three and I was glad to see that, was worried adding new people was being ignored. Of course, Wiggins gets a promotion meaning he gets more money per every Sarge's wife joke and action movie reference. (It wouldn't be a proper review from me if I didn't rag on him.)

The spiders ..... Oh, man. A proper scary creature at any size. The author used every part of them well. Fangs dripping venom, hairy bodies, many eyes shining in the darkness, the sharp ends of feet making noises hitting surfaces of things .. Argh. Well done, but argh...

The action in this one just never lets up, and the Squad members and new supporting character's personalities shine through again. It's not bogged down by occult things it's not prepared to go all-in on, and while still not having deep characters they are once again funny without being annoying and very personable.

Even the location is awesome. It makes for a perfect siege situation and I always enjoy those. Then you have the fun alternative history stuff, mostly Roman this time. I was really worried about this one after the last book, but I just can't say enough nice things about it.

S-Squad works best in my opinion when it goes at a blistering pace and keeps the focus on the action and squad member's personalities and not about over-explaining the creatures or magic/occult elements. For the non-stop action and awesomely done creature, this one gets the full stars.

A detective, haunted by the death of his girlfriend investigates an office building where a computer program has violently killed everyone.

The characters in this one aren't really great, a detective and an assassin, but it's so action-packed and the violence is gruesome. I enjoyed the commentary on technology a later character brings up too. ( As I sit here endlessly consuming digital entertainment)

The story reminded me of an updated version of the old X-Files episode “Ghost in the Machine” There are a few annoying coincidences like the USB stick having Mel on it, the main character's girlfriend's name and another thing at the end that would be a spoiler. The ending itself was a little annoying too.

I like action, and I like gore, and this book is packed with those.

Another adventure for Kotto that I just didn't enjoy as much as the first book...

When he arrives at Little Dixie you get these amazing and creepy corn men, who are equal parts funny and scary .. but it mostly does away with the crazy over the top stuff in the first.

Kotto himself is more subdued than before, I assume because there is no Richards character to ground him so he was made to tone it down a bit. While he was over much at times, he was always fun, and he just wasn't here.

In the first I never knew what was coming next, here it just becomes a battle between good and evil. I was under the impression the hell stuff was just how people decided to describe it lacking anything better, I didn't realize it was meant to be literally hell and heaven, I found this to be disappointing.

With all the conspiracy stuff pushed aside I wasn't as interested. There were a few fun battles, and lots of gore still, so I'm not outright hating it, I just didn't like the new direction.

To sum it up, I'd like more crazy and fun conspiracy Kotto, and to heck with Warrior of Light Kotto.

If one word summed this up gross would be it. Considering the constant drug use, weird sex stuff, and serial killers the sky isn't the only thing rotting here...

So as always with a collection, you get the constant repeating themes. Here we get drugs, characters that are psychopaths, Charles Manson references, families trying to set up a life living off the land, fighting couples, and he likes to throw in people talking in french too. It's full of violence and sex. Mostly this is just done to shock and gross you out, and I found it tiresome as I went through the stories. Once I saw how the author set these tales up the tension was gone, you know something awful is gonna happen but the shock of it had diminishing returns. I didn't really care for the mostly druggies and generally weird psycho characters enough to feel for them either.

Also, The Lifeguard was probably the most disgusting thing I've ever read. I'm sure someone can tell me there's worse out there, and I'd believe them, but I don't care, I'm not reading it. Yuck.

Now that out of the way, the author is an extremely great writer. The stories are well described and flow easily. The few stories he breaks out of the drugs/sex/serial killer stuff are creative and fun. There are two Cthulhu Mythos stories in here that were pretty good. The Number of Darkness was a great one as well, it had all his usual themes but he worked them in well around a possession story set in the 1860s. Honestly, it was only his great writing that kept me reading, most of the stories as I said became frustrating with constant bleakness for the sake of it.

Definitely, a good collection to read if you're in the mood for some extremely ugly and violent stories. The writing is great and the stories that break out of the usual mold of this collection are awesome.

We see much more character stuff going on here, for Banks at least. With the death of other squad members weighing him down, he and the Squad go off to Norway for another mission that of course is going to go wrong...

The other squad members are still much the same, with the new ones feeling like they are just there and I kept forgetting about them. You'll see the usual banter and things from all of them.

The action and gore are there as usual and don't let up much, but when it does there were great descriptions of scenery and inner thoughts from Banks.

The creature is fun and though somewhat explained still remains mysterious enough by the end, which I appreciate. Good merging of SciFi and legends. Was nice they had a little difficulty fighting it and didn't just mow it down. I liked the moral dilemma too, even if it forced Banks to make stupid choices to make the plot work.

Another great entry in series, I'm eager to see what awaits in Operation Mongolia. (Death worms!?)

Well ... It's book eight of this, you know to expect soldiers brewing up coffee, smoking, and bantering in-between shooting monsters.

Sent off to a desert on another rescue mission, everything soon goes wrong. Or does it go right? Their superiors have to be doing this to them on purpose.

They battle the conditions of the desert area and deal with previous injuries a bit more than the death worms. Oh right, the monster this time is Mongolian death worms, but to be honest I was a bit disappointed by them.

Everything is there, flesh-eating and electrocution, and they were certainly gross but they just seemed a retread and didn't measure up to the spiders or isopods. Again like the snakes, they were just not much of a threat, and while obviously, the squad will prevail I never felt any suspense.

While it's certainly a quick read, the action is less compared to the previous books and more spaced out. Of course, lots of time was given to scenery and finally giving the squad members besides Banks some backstory, so I can't complain.

One of the people they were sent to rescue is given his own POV sections and it was nice to see the squad from someone else's viewpoint. He had a great personality and he made me laugh out loud at the end.

So despite being let down by the creature, the adventure and characters still gave me a good read.

With a cursed, bloodthirsty flaming sword, a warrior roams around Scotland battling all sorts of myths and legends. The character of Seton is good and the action is great.

This is a collection of short stories, but they are in order and build off the previous ones making it sort of a novella. Most of them are well done but eventually Seton becomes sort of a private eye and it really clashes with the themes the book starts. Those parts also have characters that seem too modern.

Seton and his friend sell their souls and get ten years to “enjoy” their bargains. Realizing time is up for his friend he races to him to save him, battling a cold version of the Grim Reaper. This is the first story and it's the most well written and done of the book and it sucked me in right away.

I really couldn't get enough of the swords and sorcery, themes of redemption, and just the wonderful fight scenes. Just wish the private eye parts didn't drag it down.

Those stories have been mostly recycled into the Derek Adams stories and are better there as the themes fully fit the character, so if you liked this be sure to check them out.

Really fun and action-packed with loads of gore as usual per the author. I'm sure it's a long shot but I'd love to see a conclusion of Seton's tale.

A solid short horror story focusing mostly on atmosphere.

Dave Duncan comes home to bury his father and does the usual William Meikle character thing of going to a bar to gather information and getting incredibly drunk. To be fair I liked him and his inner turmoil. His problems with his father should be relatable to many.

The Auld Mither lurks behind in the entire story, occasionally stepping out to play mind games or do something horrifically violent. She was really well done and described.

It's a bit hard for me to talk about this one as again, it's very atmospheric and I don't want to give too much away. The Auld Mither's full appearance in the story is great and I'm not gonna ruin that.

With the gore, folklore, and general creepiness this one is pretty good.

This one is meant to be an introduction to Midnight Eye and Sigils & Totems stories also by the author. It's short but only 99 cents.

Whether this is your first Derek Adams story or you've read the others, you'll either find or be introduced to the usual formula. He gains a case by a shady person and goes off to investigate it. Lots of drinking, running around talking to interesting and usually strange characters, often with Scottish accents. The old private eye tropes run strong throughout.

The Sigils & Totems part involves the Green Door in the title. It allows one to speak with the dead, and make them answer questions.. it's very creepy and calls back to Lovecraft and his essential salts. Lots of chanting and singing, and also talk of a dreaming god...

It's a fun and quick read and serves well as the introduction to both series as it set out to do.

Three fantasy stories that are well written, and full of adventure and fun.

The Cauldron of Camulos sees a warrior taken captive after a failed raid on an enemy and he ends up being used for the magic in him, the Wyrd. Action-packed and features a giant beast battle that the author always does well.

The Last Magician is a wonderful tale about a boy who comes across three floating colorful lights who ask him to tell them a tale in exchange for a gift. The gift ends up being magic and the boy's attempts at using them don't go very well... It's just a great enjoyable tale, quite a nice change of pace to how these usually go.

A Knight In the Lonesome October is about Galahad and some creature sent by Merlin to guide him to be a hero and stop Morgana... To be honest, this story irritated me a little, there's just too many ideas and concepts and most of it went over my head. It was full of action, and I liked the writing though, just didn't really get it.

This was a good collection to read through so check it out.

Owen is woken by his son David early in the morning. He tells him a tale of a strange tree with markings on it. When he touches them, the sight in his left eye that was lost due to an accident while he was young was restored. This sets Owen off on an investigation to find out the truth about this tree...

Uncovering a conspiracy, he tries to balance his new knowledge with his belief in God, and races off to find his son, who is responsible for signing the forms that allow the forested area to be bulldozed to put in a high-speed railway...

Well written, and with believable and likable characters. It's very subtle and slow at first, but it picks up the pace and delivers a satisfying ending.

Clara, who can see ghosts, inherits property from an aunt she didn't know existed and moves there only to find an evil presence...

So I'll just say it upfront, I just didn't like the writing in this one. Everything is told in this annoying way where you're always being told what's happening but never shown. It's like in other books where they ask a character for a story and they relate what happened, but for two hundred and seventy-six pages. It was frustrating.

With both dialogue and what was going on, it was done in these long rambling run-on sentences that make my own look short and to the point. I would often get confused about whether it was a character talking or not because it was all written the same way.

Clara's power to see ghosts is really just sorta there, and just gives her more characters to talk to really. She never encounters other violent ghosts before moving to the castle and even helps some of them move on to their ‘lights'. A person who can see ghosts, but never finding one before who was harmful, who was also invisible to her, was a good premise but it wasn't done well in my opinion here. The author also tips their hand far too early blurting out what was going on and I'm not sure if that was done on purpose or not.

There is also so much time devoted to fixing up the property, which Clara constantly calls her castle. It really becomes tiresome hearing her go on and on about which rooms and blah blah, there's an evil force here lady, who cares!? Get on with it! Even after shes attacked for the first time she just shuts the door and goes back to rambling on about her CASTLE and only finally brings in a team of “ghost huntery people” to do something about it at the very end of the far too long book.

There's a lot of dialogue between Clara and her friend Julie, and her eventually romantic partner Rodan. This also takes forever to develop into anything and it takes away from the ghost stuff. I'm sure someone would find it cute, but it did nothing for me. Clara isn't a terrible character, she'd be even likable if perhaps this were written differently. She has a few good moments with a ghost child early on, but otherwise, she seems silly ignoring the room Suite 6 and going on and on and on about the work needing done on the place. I love character work, I didn't love it here.

With so little descriptive words going into the story, you're left with just she did this, he did that, and this happened and I'm going to tell you exactly why and leave nothing to the imagination. What little describing the scenery was done on the clutter in the castle, of course. It does FINALLY get pretty violent and crazy towards the end, but it was a lot of work to get there, and I was so tired of it I didn't really care anymore. Adding in that annoying ending which I'm not sure the point of was, I only finished this because I force myself to complete every book I start.

I don't take any pleasure in leaving bad reviews for lesser-known authors with little to no other reviews on their works, but I'm an honest person and I found this to be not very good, and cannot recommend it.

I won't speak to how accurate the historical setting is, but it seemed all there to me. I just picked this one at random cause it looked to be action-packed, and boy it is ever...

But to my surprise, there are many characters being handled, and they are all fleshed out and well done. You'll see many POVs on Rome sending in this legion to conquer the land. It's certainly not just mindless action.

Of course, that being said, there is A LOT of action. While it's gory and fun I grew a little weary of it and it started to feel too repetitive after a while. Thankfully they pull out some new tricks in the final battle and let it end with a bang.

The Romans face a bunch of problems, thousands of Pict warriors, Bigfoot-like beastman, and strange magicks. Like the characters, it's handled pretty well.

Unless something went over my head, which is very possible, I didn't see what was so Lovecraftian about this. The land being old and strange creatures inhabiting before man is just usual myth and legends stuff. This isn't really a problem it just made me wonder what I missed.

The bulk of this is Roman soldiers battling beastmen, and as a one-off thing, I quite enjoyed it. I don't think I could read another book about this, but this one is definitely a fun read.

Two Eyes Open is a horror collection of sixteen stories featuring mostly psychological horror, only a few have supernatural elements. Here the people are secretly bad or becoming so getting revenge on others. Most of them I did like, but their short length hurt them a lot in my eyes. They all start out great, but then have to end suddenly and ruins the tension that was built up leaving me to think .. OK .. next story then .. Surely this is a problem in most short stories but it really stood out here to me. I'll talk about the ones I liked best.

Rage - A woman begins to see a ghost, and as her mental problems dealing with this escalate she discovers the real problem in this house... It's very well written with great inner dialogue. The subject matter was dealt with intelligently and was never insulting to anyone like most stories like this would have done.

Ursula – A man finds the missing love of his life in a mental institution and tries to see her. After being refused he takes matters into his own hands, breaking into it. Like Rage the mental issues are handled well and with more great inner dialogue in a story that keeps you guessing till the end.

The First Snowfall – A couple who every year try to find a house that only appears on the first snowfall of every year, finally do so. It supposedly holds some great treasure within. Bridgette is very manipulative and controlling towards Joshua but the power within the house causes some changes in this dynamic...Just really well written, and the supernatural story elements were great.

Show Cooking – Cannibal Edition – Prepare yourselves for some gore. Lots of it. After offering to help an old lady struggling with her groceries home, a young man finds she has a man tied up in her home. Brandishing a knife, she tells him to watch her cut him up and prepare him as a meal or she'll do the same to him. Wonderful descriptions of gore if you like that kind of thing. (I do.)

The Boats – Graciela, a Mexican-American girl is bounced around families and homes after her parents die. After finally finding a stable home she becomes friends with a girl, who treats her well despite how others don't. Offering to get Graciela a job as a maid, she instead betrays her and sends her to her father to be pimped out sparking a great and brutal revenge tale.

Mostly a well-written collection, some stories ended a bit abruptly in my opinion though. A few touched on some social issues, which while didn't bother me I felt they fell a bit flat. Worth reading overall.

Switches between drama, horror, and comedy and is grounded by good and interesting characters.

Kotto is a lot of fun, and he is also a bit too much at times. His training session with Richards was my favorite part of the book.

With Richards you get mostly commentary on soldiers, coming home and finding a place again. Not hard to figure out he is mostly a stand-in for the author, and his inner thoughts bring most of the books serious moments.

This book is seriously over the top and throws every crazy thing at you and just tells you to deal with it. This leads to one issue I had though ... After the huge crazy drug trip part the story just sort of lingers and takes forever to finish. It felt like to me the author was just trying to make it longer to hit novel length.

I still enjoyed it and the large amount of crazy on display. I would recommend it to all people, pod, or otherwise.

This had nine stories of horror, featuring the usual things you'd expect, vampires, zombies, and other dark things. I'll cover my three favorites. The rest were okay, but a few were either too short, or I felt didn't really go anywhere. Gentle Comes the Thaw also has lots of exclamation points! So even in the narrative or talking, it reads like this! Kind of annoying!


This Is Horror starts with a lot of death and continues with a man investigating the real reason. The cops believe it's the dog .. he believes it's some sort of prime evil that mankind has defeated that now lives in the background. The dialogue is really good in this one. It's a slow one with good back and forth is it real mind games and I really liked it.

Little Men is about bioengineered bacteria made to eat the world's pollution but, of course, it starts to eat people and cities as well... You learn everything through a father trying to explain this new crazy world to his daughter, and it's very sad. It's quite a grim tale, giving people few choices... Feed the “Little Men” by throwing more garbage everywhere or themselves...

Honey and Oil are slow-paced and atmospheric. At his son's funeral, a farmer's estranged mother puts honey and oil in his casket. After he confronts her, she tells him if he doesn't leave them there Death takes over the corpse, and of course, he doesn't believe her and smashes the jars to bits... It's well written and described, and gets quite gruesome at the end. For a short tale, the characters are good and well developed.

I liked this collection as a whole and found it worth reading. We all have our own tastes so I don't doubt others will like the not covered stories more than me. Give it a try.

A good collection of horror shorts with variety and little repeating themes. At the end of each story, the author has a little explanation for them.

Beginning with “Addict”, I was worried that I picked a bad collection. It's told from a second-person point of view, which I'm always a little iffy about. I'm fine with it for really short stories but here it's a bit too long and too specific. I didn't feel it worked and it was hard to get through it. I did however like the plot, even if it was a bit confusing. A sex addict finally seeks help, and after watching a self-help program he begins to see illusions of women trying to get him to relapse. Of course with the author's explanation afterward, I understood, he wanted “You” to stand for all addicts, but it doesn't make the story any easier to read in my opinion.

“I'm Going To Be The Next James Bond” has a group of kids going into an abandoned building thought to be haunted. They of course run into trouble, and the ghosts were well done and creepy and I liked how non PC the dialogue was. The story gets the name because the main character loves action movies, going so far as wanting to become the next James Bond...

“In The Lady Ogre's Den” is about an autistic boy in a hospital who is tortured by a nurse and sees a black death wolf. You're never left to understand what is actually real, but you will feel for the boy. It's a really good and sad story. My favorite of the collection.

“The Quiet Game”, the story that the collection gets its name from, is the longest and it's really good. At St. Dunstan's School for Girls one day everyone wakes up and realizes they can't hear anything at all. While trying to figure out what is going on, a person named RGF hijacks the PowerPoint presentation and says they are all playing his game, the Quiet Game. It's a good back and forth mystery, and deals with the corruption of religious officials.

Ending with “Samson Weiss's Curse” we have a ghost revenge story that I wasn't really able to get into. A senator on the campaign trail suffers from escalating harassment and weird things until well... It's OK but the storyline has been done to death. The senator was a good character at least.

All in all, it's a worthwhile read and a good debut for the author.

–>I received a free copy of this in exchange for an honest review.
A detective investigating several murder cases finds them linked and wades through an incredibly corrupt system to find the truth...

Carl Duggan is your typical hard-boiled detective type .. at first glance. As it goes on you see he has incredible depth to him. The story is full of his wonderful inner dialogue. He's also a very conflicted character, while the rest of the City is corrupt and most of the police are on the take, he refuses to be so as well. But he's still an incredibly violent man, shooting the worst criminals and prefers beating people up to gain information. He does all this while wishing for the City to be better, and at the same time telling us over and over it's a broken place that will never be any better. I enjoyed seeing him be violent one scene, then doing the best for victims he comes across the next, making his own sort of justice.

The characters that aren't completely criminals in the story are all like this really, “good” people who are tainted by the City. His partner Trent, a homophobe that takes bribes... but only from the worst criminals, and he tries to be a good detective otherwise .. Pope, a hitman who prefers to kill only criminals... you get the idea.

The City is quite the character itself. It's always referred to as just “the City”, I kept waiting for a name thinking I missed it. It's comprised of an East and West, separated by a river called the Styx, its name from people dumping corpses there. The East is the poor side, and the West the rich... but both are repeatably declared just as filthy as the other, both full of just different types of criminals. Both the narrative and Carl himself relate just how bad the City is, and I loved the descriptions of the corrupt place, where everyone is “infected” and no one leaves. Great world-building here.

I decided to focus on the characters for this review because telling too much about the murder mysteries will ruin it .. but as it goes on you will see how well set up and thought out it was. All the pieces are placed and interconnected before you realize it, which is a good thing because otherwise, the ending would have made me feel cheated. Even if you see what's coming everything was done well and made sense. I found myself wanting to be mad at it, but couldn't rightfully be because everything was already there and logical.

Great writing that brings the City to life, a main character that's surprisingly deep, and the murder mysteries are all wrapped up intelligently.