Best Fantasy Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award)
Blood and Feathers, Lou Morgan (Solaris)
The Brides of Rollrock Island, Margo Lanagan (David Fickling Books)
Railsea, China Miéville (Macmillan)
Red Country, Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz)
Some Kind of Fairy Tale, Graham Joyce (Gollancz)

Best Horror Novel (the August Derleth Award)
The Drowning Girl, Caitlin R. Kiernan (Roc)
The Kind Folk, Ramsey Campbell (PS Publishing)
Last Days, Adam Nevill (Macmillan)
Silent Voices, Gary McMahon (Solaris)
Some Kind of Fairy Tale, Graham Joyce (Gollancz)

Best Novella
Curaré, Michael Moorcock (Zenith Lives!) (Obverse Books)
Eyepennies, Mike O’Driscoll (TTA Press)
The Nine Deaths of Dr Valentine, John Llewellyn Probert (Spectral Press)
The Respectable Face of Tyranny, Gary Fry (Spectral Press)

Best Short Story
Our Island, Ralph Robert Moore (Where Are We Going?) (Eibonvale Press)
Shark! Shark! Ray Cluley (Black Static #29) (TTA Press)
Sunshine, Nina Allan (Black Static #29) (TTA Press)
Wish for a Gun, Sam Sykes (A Town Called Pandemonium) (Jurassic London)

Best Collection
From Hell to Eternity, Thana Niveau (Gray Friar Press)
Remember Why You Fear Me, Robert Shearman (ChiZine Publications)
Where Furnaces Burn, Joel Lane (PS Publishing)
The Woman Who Married a Cloud, Jonathan Carroll (Subterannean Press)

Best Anthology
A Town Called Pandemonium, Anne C. Perry and Jared Shurin (eds) (Jurassic London)
Magic: an Anthology of the Esoteric and Arcane, Jonathan Oliver (ed.) (Solaris)
The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women, Marie O’Regan (ed.) (Robinson)
Terror Tales of the Cotswolds, Paul Finch (ed.) (Gray Friar Press)

Best Small Press (the PS Publishing Independent Press Award)
ChiZine Publications (Brett Alexander Savory and Sandra Kasturi)
Gray Friar Press (Gary Fry)
Spectral Press (Simon Marshall-Jones)
TTA Press (Andy Cox)

Best Non-Fiction
Ansible, David Langford
The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature, Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn (eds) (Cambridge University Press)
Coffinmaker’s Blues, Stephen Volk (Black Static) (TTA Press)
Fantasy Faction, Marc Aplin (ed.)
Pornokitsch, Anne C. Perry and Jared Shurin (eds)
Reflections: On the Magic of Writing, Diana Wynne Jones (David Fickling Books)

Best Magazine/Periodical
Black Static, Andy Cox (ed.) (TTA Press)
Interzone, Andy Cox (ed.) (TTA Press)
SFX, David Bradley (ed.) (Future Publishing)
Shadows and Tall Trees, Michael Kelly (ed.) (Undertow Publications)

Best Artist
Ben Baldwin
David Rix
Les Edwards
Sean Phillips
Vincent Chong

Best Comic/Graphic Novel
Dial H, China Miéville, Mateus Santolouco, David Lapham and Riccardo Burchielli (DC Comics)
Saga, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
The Unwritten, Mike Carey, Peter Gross, Gary Erskine, Gabriel Hernández Walta, M.K. Perker, Vince Locke and Rufus Dayglo (DC Comics/Vertigo)
The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard (Skybound Entertainment/Image Comics)

Best Screenplay
Avengers Assemble, Joss Whedon
Sightseers, Alice Lowe, Steve Oram and Amy Jump
The Cabin in the Woods, Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro

Best Newcomer (the Sydney J. Bounds Award)
Alison Moore, for The Lighthouse (Salt Publishing)
Anne Lyle, for The Alchemist of Souls (Angry Robot)
E.C. Myers, for Fair Coin (Pyr)
Helen Marshall, for Hair Side, Flesh Side (ChiZine Publications)
Kim Curran, for Shift (Strange Chemistry)
Lou Morgan, for Blood and Feathers (Solaris)
Molly Tanzer, for A Pretty Mouth (Lazy Fascist Press)
Saladin Ahmed, for Throne of the Crescent Moon (Gollancz)
Stephen Bacon, for Peel Back the Sky (Gray Friar Press)
Stephen Blackmoore, for City of the Lost (Daw Books)

The winners of these categories will now be decided by the following juries. Main jury, deciding the categories of fantasy novel, horror novel, novella, short story, collection, anthology, magazine/periodical, comic/graphic novel and screenplay: Esther Sherman, Matthew Hughes, Neil Williamson, Pauline Morgan and Ros Jackson. Best non-fiction: Djibril al-Ayad, Jason Arnopp and Roz Kaveney. Best artist: Daniele Serra, P.M. Buchan and Rachel Kendall. Best small press: Elaine Hillson, Elloise Hopkins, Dave Brzeski, Rachel Kendall and Rhian Bowley. Best newcomer: Adele Wearing, Alison Littlewood, Jim Steel, Lizzie Barrett and Peter Tennant.

The winners of each of these awards, as well as the winner of the Karl Edward Wagner Award (a special award decided by a vote of the British Fantasy Society committee) and the World Fantasy Awards, will be announced at the Fantasy Awards banquet at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton on Sunday, November 3, 2013.

UPDATE: If any nominees would now like to attend the World Fantasy Convention, the awards banquet, or even just the ceremony itself, a small number of places have been reserved for a limited period of time. Email bfsawards@britishfantasysociety.org for details.

Johnny will be posting a blog soon with an address to send all anthologies and single author collections to.

28 Teeth of Rage (Ennis Drake) and Delphine Dodd (S.P. Miskowski) are both nominated in the novella category, representing two of the five potential winners. This is Drake’s debut and first award nomination; however, Miskowski’s Knock Knock was nominated in the SJA novel category in 2011.

“I couldn’t be more pleased that Omnium Gatherum has books once again nominated for an award of this stature,” says Kate Jonez, chief editor and publisher of OGM. “In fact, as a publisher only in business since 2011, it’s safe to say we’re deeply honored to have had books nominated in our first and second years.”

First given in 2007, the Shirley Jackson Awards are a prestigious juried prize for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic. The awards will be announced at Readercon 24, Conference on Imaginative Literature, in Burlington, MA, on Sunday, July 14, 2013.

To learn more about Ennis Drake and 28 Teeth of Rage, see the author’s Goodreads page at http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5363741.Ennis_Drake; and to learn more about award-winning author S.P. Miskowski and Delphine Dodd see the author’s website at http://d-o-cat.blogspot.com.

Orbit, h/b, 560pp, £14.99

Reviewed by Elloise Hopkins

Adamat, former police inspector, has been summoned to the Skyline Palace, otherwise known as the Jewel of Adro. But when he arrives Adamat knows something is wrong. There are no guards, no lights, and no sign of the king. Then he sees Field Marshal Tamas and things start to make a little more sense. A coup. Guns. Military badges. Bodies strewn around.

Field Marshal Tamas quickly recruits Adamat to investigate the strange last words uttered by all of the dead men and Kresimir’s Promise opens a mystery that will test both of them and cost even more. Tamas draws on all of his resources – nothing more important than ensuring the royalists cannot rise against him – including his own son.

Taniel is a powder mage, and a talented one. He can float bullets farther than anyone else. With Ka-poel, a talented savage, at his side perhaps he will succeed in his father’s mission. Then again, with rumours of gods returning to the world and an army of sorcerers marching against them, he may not. Despite the danger Taniel is becoming more and more reliant on powder trances, and the lure of magic may be all of their undoing.

This is most definitely not a world we have encountered before and it is one rife with unique magics and conflicts. Politics, faith and good old-fashioned blackmail and extortion combine to make a story that is full of action from start to finish. McClellan draws on the more romantic elements of the military to create a cast of solid and likeable characters and a setting that thrives on minimal descriptions.

Adamat, Tamas and Taniel all act as point of view characters throughout the book and each has a different feel about it. Adamat has elements of noir detective thrillers and Tamas is all about military strategy and political manoeuvring, whereas Taniel takes on a more epic fantasy feel where the magic system and a difficult journey come into play. And it is a combination that works.

The magic system, or rather systems, are a great strength of this book. There are different levels of magic users with different and usually awesome abilities, but all those with power have weaknesses and can be killed in more mundane ways if they let their guard slip. Swordplay and fist fighting also have a notable place in the narrative and the whole package makes for a fun and enjoyable read that has certainly laid the groundwork for a fantastic sequel.

Gollancz, h/b, 208pp £9.99, eBook £4.99

Reviewed by Chris Limb

It’s Snow White, but not as you know her…

…although that may depend upon how you interpreted the story when first reading it as a child.  Different types of children will read fairy tales in different ways. If during your childhood you always found yourself rooting for the baddies – whether the wicked witch, the evil queen or the big bad wolf – then Poison is a modern retelling that you will almost certainly enjoy.

The central character here is Queen Lilith, the Wicked Stepmother. Her machinations show that she does indeed live up to this epithet  – but she is given such a rich backstory that readers can’t help but empathise with her (even if they weren’t that sort of child).  The first half of the tale is pretty much seen through her eyes and although few of her actions can be condoned they can at least all be understood, such is the skill with which her thoughts are depicted.

This is an unhappy woman trapped in a marriage to an oafish king; she uses what power she has – whether magical, political or sexual – to further her own ends.  If only she could be more like Snow White she might have a chance at happiness. Failing that, if only Snow White would just go away…

Snow White herself is a long way from the bland cypher familiar from Disney or pantomime. Though undoubtedly a beauty she lives life on her own terms, refusing to conform to traditional notions of princess and inadvertently rubbing Lilith up the wrong way at every turn…

Most of the elements familiar to readers from their knowledge of this tale are here – the dwarves, the apple, the magic mirror and the handsome prince – although none quite as they may expect. Furthermore there is the distinct feeling that the world in which this tale takes place is a pocket universe, home to all fairy stories – an impression heightened by cameos from Aladdin, Hansel and Gretel.

Perhaps particularly unexpected in the context of fairy tales are the sex scenes. However far from being incongruous they form an essential part of the story and furthermore are so well described (despite clearly not being included for titillation purposes they are unashamedly erotic) that they give the characters a solid verisimilitude. Sex is part of everyone’s life and its depiction should be no more or less shocking than characters sitting down for a good meal.

Poison is in some ways a return to the original dark world of the Brothers Grimm, although Pinborough shows that through twenty first century eyes the inherent misogyny and injustice built into these traditional fairy tale worlds is equally as wicked as any spell or curse and perhaps infinitely more difficult to fight.

When the odds are stacked against you it would be foolish to hope for a happy ever after.

Corgi Books, p/b, 448pp, £7.99

Reviewed by Rebekah Lunt

Even before you consider the authors’ stamp of quality, based on their previous works, within a few pages of starting reading you will know that this is the creation of a world story that you are going to want to be in for at the start. Unfortunately I was a little late to the ball, so the next stage of the story is already nearly with us, but I am very glad I wasn’t any later.

The story is based around the premise of a seemingly endless sequence of earths which are stacked like dominoes against each other, so that, for the knowing and able, one can ‘step’ along to multiple earths, albeit with a certain amount of discomfort. One of the key characters (you will meet others along the way who are equally or interchangeably protagonists, weaving a wide variety of different perspectives from which to view the impact of the new freedom of endless, unpopulated earths), is Joshua Valiente, the hero of Step Day.

Joshua is aware that he is, as far as he can tell, the only ‘natural’ stepper – he can step onto other worlds without the aforementioned discomfort, as well as which, he also feels more at home on these other worlds, embracing the Silence. As the story develops he becomes a kind of target for various individuals and agencies, who all can see ways in which he can help work out the issues ‘Datum Earth’ now faces, as well as the challenges faced in engaging with the Long Earth.

This book was amazingly comfortable to read; as I read it was though there was nothing alien about the concepts that are embedded within the tale, which is amazing considering the numerous scientific and philosophical theories the different aspects of the story rely on. I was able to read it quickly but with utmost enjoyment, and there were many moments on which my mind is still lingering.

I am glad that this was the first in what I hope will be a Long sequence of books, although I wish that the next one would pick up from where this has left off, because I really don’t think I could read too much of everything the authors have to tell us about the Long Earth.

Publication date 21st June 2013. The Life of Arthur Machen is a paperback of 398+ xxv pages, inc index.  ISBN 978-1-905784-55-4.  £19.95 inc. p&p. worldwide

Check out the website HERE for more information.

Featuring poetry/prose and general strangeness from Trevor Calvert, Mike Cannon, David Gullen, Jack Madigan, Travis McCullers, Eleanor Mitchell, Adam Napier, Jacob Solstice, Kate Tattersfield and Jon Wesick. With cover art by Bonnie Seifert.

UK copies are £4 inc p&p, overseas £6. Please note back issues of #1 and #2 are still available so if you haven’t tried us before please consider doing so.

We’re also open for submissions for #4, so consider sending us something weird!

Hammer Chillers, Download, £2.99

Reviewed by Chris Limb

Phil’s Mummy doesn’t have much in her life – just the occasional evening out at the Friday night bingo with her friend Reneé, looking after her socially awkward middle aged son and making her “Spanish Ladies” – cheap dolls she buys and customises to use as toilet roll covers. She has dreams of visiting Spain herself one day and has nightmares about her son being taken away from her by some cheap blonde bit…

Whilst there’s no sign of her dreams ever coming true, her nightmares might. Mummy begins to have her suspicions about what Phil’s been up to. If she’s right there’s no telling what she might do…

Whilst the Overbearing Mother and Awkward Single Son may be a familiar theme in darker fiction – from the Bates in Psycho to the Sowerbutts in Psychoville – Spanish Ladies is a refreshing and different take on it. One of the strengths of this play is Jacqueline King’s powerful performance as the deranged Mummy and the sinister conversations she has with her Spanish Ladies as she goes through her son’s possessions looking for evidence. Ewan Bailey’s Phil is suitably self-conscious and clumsy, at turns both sympathetic and sinister and Camile Coduri’s Reneé comes across as a naive innocent who nevertheless has secrets and an agenda of her own.

The 1976 setting of this play is perfect – evoking the stagnation of suburbia in the summer heat and the dreams of escape to the Costa Brava. There is a lot of humour inherent in the story, which makes the dark turns it takes all the more shocking when they leap out at the listener, the final chilling twist making this a genuine tale of the unexpected…

Brightest Black by Mark Howard Jones.
Sixteen stories. A hundred nightmares.

For more information and to download a sample story from the collection, please visit: http://www.screamingdreams.com/brightestblack.html

Authors Adam Millard, Dave Jeffery and Steve Byrne will be made welcome at Drummonds Bar at The Swan with Two Nicks, 19 June 2013. They will form a panel to discuss with local writers and horror aficionados what horror writing is about and how the best writers approach it.

Steve Byrne is the author of ‘Phoenix’, a dark horror novel set during the Vietnam War. He’s had a number of short stories published – the latest will appear in the anthology ‘No Monsters Allowed’. Steve was born and bred in Wolverhampton. His parents soon feared that something wasn’t right. While the other kids were reading Enid Blyton, his head was buried in a copy of the latest James Herbert.

Dave Jeffery is perhaps best known for his zombie novel Necropolis Rising which has gone on to be a UK #1 Bestseller. His Young Adult work includes the critically acclaimed Beatrice Beecham Series, BBC: Headroom endorsed Finding Jericho and the 2012 Edge Hill Prize Long-listed Campfire Chillers short story collection. His short story Daddy Dearest features in the award-winning Holiday of the Dead anthology (this is Horror Awards, Best Anthology, 2012).

Adam Millard is the author of thirteen novels and more than a hundred short stories. Probably best known for his post-apocalyptic fiction, Adam also writes fantasy/horror for children. He created the character Peter Crombie, Teenage Zombie just so he had something decent to read to his son at bedtime. Adam also writes Bizarro fiction for several publishers, who enjoy his tales of flesh-eating clown-beetles and rabies-infected derrieres so much that they keep printing them. When he’s not writing about the nightmarish creatures battling for supremacy, Adam writes for ‘This Is Horror’, whose columnists include Shaun Hutson, Simon Bestwick and Simon Marshall-Jones.

Go along to hear what Adam, Dave and Steve have to tell us about successfully publishing their work. They will value your questions and give you insight to the world of horror and publication in the genre. Tickets are just £3 on the door. Keep up with www.facebook.com/42worcester for further information.

Authors Adam Millard, Dave Jeffery and Steve Byrne will be made welcome at Drummonds Bar at The Swan with Two Nicks, 19 June 2013. They will form a panel to discuss with local writers and horror aficionados what horror writing is about and how the best writers approach it.

Steve Byrne is the author of ‘Phoenix’, a dark horror novel set during the Vietnam War. He’s had a number of short stories published – the latest will appear in the anthology ‘No Monsters Allowed’. Steve was born and bred in Wolverhampton. His parents soon feared that something wasn’t right. While the other kids were reading Enid Blyton, his head was buried in a copy of the latest James Herbert.

Dave Jeffery is perhaps best known for his zombie novel Necropolis Rising which has gone on to be a UK #1 Bestseller. His Young Adult work includes the critically acclaimed Beatrice Beecham Series, BBC: Headroom endorsed Finding Jericho and the 2012 Edge Hill Prize Long-listed Campfire Chillers short story collection. His short story Daddy Dearest features in the award-winning Holiday of the Dead anthology (this is Horror Awards, Best Anthology, 2012).

Adam Millard is the author of thirteen novels and more than a hundred short stories. Probably best known for his post-apocalyptic fiction, Adam also writes fantasy/horror for children. He created the character Peter Crombie, Teenage Zombie just so he had something decent to read to his son at bedtime. Adam also writes Bizarro fiction for several publishers, who enjoy his tales of flesh-eating clown-beetles and rabies-infected derrieres so much that they keep printing them. When he’s not writing about the nightmarish creatures battling for supremacy, Adam writes for ‘This Is Horror’, whose columnists include Shaun Hutson, Simon Bestwick and Simon Marshall-Jones.

Go along to hear what Adam, Dave and Steve have to tell us about successfully publishing their work. They will value your questions and give you insight to the world of horror and publication in the genre. Tickets are just £3 on the door. Keep up with www.facebook.com/42worcester for further information.

Orbit Books, p/b, 384pp, £7.99

Reviewed by Catherine Mann

The city of Mahala is a vertical metropolis, walled by mountains and founded on trade and magic. However the king is long dead, his pain mages were banished, and now the city is run by the Ministry in the name of the Goddess. The Ministry rules from the heights whilst the poor live in squalor on the lower levels. Rojan Dizon finds missing people and keeps his head down in order to hide his forbidden ability draw magic from pain. Then he receives a desperate message from his estranged brother, who did very well for himself but was recently attacked for reasons unknown. Going against his usual cynical self-interest Rojan agrees to help and ends up travelling to a strange part of the city where the rules are very different. He must rely on new allies whose agendas seems to match his own, at least at first. Rojan discovers the dark secret that the Ministry keeps hidden from most of the population.

When thinking of fantasy settings where status is linked to height , Gormenghast is perhaps the most classic example. It’s an idea which creates striking visuals and it’s easy to understand a social hierarchy that is literally stratified. The city of Mahala has a definite towering quality, though it is grittier than the gothic tales of Mervyn Peake. The other setting that Mahala reminded me of was Thaiburley, the city of a hundred rows in City of Dreams and Nightmare by Ian Whates, which was published in 2010. Thaiburley is another fantasy city where the rich live in luxury at the top and the poor are relegated to increasingly squalid levels below, though Whate’s story has a very different tone. Mahala is very much its own world and contains many original ideas, plus we see the city entirely through Rojan’s eyes. He occupies what seems to be the lower-middle levels of the city, which means he has seen sky a few times, but normally he travels lower to carry out his work. Most of the action takes place in a part of the city, where all the rules are different, so Rojan is able to take the position of outsider and the audience learns about the city through Rojan comparing what he knows to the new environment he finds himself in. The worldbuilding in Fade to Black cannot be faulted, there is enough detail in the book to create a very strong sense of place throughout. As the title suggests it is a setting full of greys, both literally -sunlight is non-existent in the lowest levels- and morally, as Rojan’s cynicism tinges most of the story, and discoveries about the world get darker. The technology level of Mahala is industrialised, and the factories are important to the city’s existence, though it’s clear that certain areas (including weapons tech) developed at different rates because of the social structure of the city. The wider world is hardly mentioned and even though it must exist there is little detail of lands beyond Mahala’s crowded mountain pass.

The story is told in first person point of view by Rojan and the reader spends the entire book inside his head. Rojan is not a heroic type and his cynicism could be wearing if he were not such an entertaining character with a healthy vocabulary of curses and pessimistic metaphors. As it is Francis Knight has done a good job of creating a character who is not exactly likeable, but is definitely interesting. Even if the reader doesn’t agree with Rojan’s viewpoint or decisions, he is upfront about why he is the way he is, and a strong vein of self-deprecation makes him sympathetic. One of the interesting things about Rojan as a fantasy character is that he is a magic user by birth, but not by choice. His fear of using his own magical abilities is only partly fuelled by fear of pain or official reprisals, and is mostly driven by the way magic can take mages over, leaving them with little sense of self. Rojan may not particularly like himself, but his first instinct is to protect what he is at all costs.

There’s a reasonable cast of characters all fairly distinctive, though the ones Rojan already knows don’t get as much attention as those he meets on his unexpected quest. The most important of his new allies are Pasha and Jake. Pasha seems young and uncertain but he can be deadly when angered. He and Rojan spend much of the book sizing one another up with each not quite trusting the other. Pasha is described as being monkey-like and Rojan is able to use this analogy to aptly describe the different facets of Pasha’s character. Jake is a female gladiator with cherry-red hair and a steely commitment to her cause. She and Pasha use Rojan because his aim fits with their much grander and more altruistic plans. Both have been badly damaged –physically and mentally- by their crusade against the horrors of their society and the things they have seen. Both have very strong faith, which isn’t compatible with Rojan’s nihilistic outlook. Many of the scenes in this book involve interactions between characters who are psychologically damaged and very guarded, and it’s a testament to the author’s skill that they are compelling enough for the audience to care despite the barriers the characters throw up.

The story is brutal in places, with revelations bad enough to deeply shock Rojan through his shield of cynicism, though the truly dreadful deeds are implied and referred to rather than shown. The story focuses on the aftermath of violence and abuse, on what happens to those who have lived lives rules by fear. There is a lot of focus on consequences, both those that have already happened, and those that might happen as a result of certain actions. There are several plot twists, most of which are well done and make a lot of sense in the context of both the story and the setting. The final reveal about the villain seems clichéd, and though it’s handled well within the story I began to suspect it might be coming simply because it’s a very familiar plot device, meaning that there was a certain inevitability about what came next. This is the main flaw in the book, and it didn’t particularly spoil my enjoyment.

Fade to Black is a dynamic and original introduction to a world and character that promise further exciting stories. I would recommend the book to those who enjoy dark fantasy, hard-boiled protagonists and stories unafraid to examine the dark side.

Orbit Books, p/b, 336pp, £7.99

Reviewed by Martin Willoughby

Saintcrow is an author with a dozen books to her name and a good reputation, which is not let down by this novel. I’ll get the bad stuff out the way first:

1. The number of sentences in italics is disturbing and I feel as if she’s shouting at me.
2. Non-use of the Oxford comma
3. Odd capitalisations
4. Descriptions of the action are far less detailed than those of the clothing, faces and interior decor.

However, all four of those are more likely the result of bad editing practices, a surprise given Orbit’s reputation. What’s more, they show their ugly faces only in the first half of the book, the second half being bereft of these irritants and the italic sentences occur on far fewer occasions.

The only other problem is that I feel the need to have read the first book of the series to know all of what’s going on. This is, therefore, not a standalone book and the series needs to be read in order.

Putting those minor things aside, this is a well written novel with a good story, some well described characters and a good ending. It’s not a masterpiece, but it is a good read.

The two main characters are Emma Bannon, a sorceress, and Archibald Clare, a Mentath. Bannon is a prime, though what this actually means is not expanded on in this book, so I assume it’s detailed in the first one. She does the dirty work for Queen Victrix, the latest vessel for the spirit of Britannia that rules the land.

Clare is a Mentath, a person who is highly logical and can deduce answers from things that are around him, like Sherlock Holmes does. A Mentath, however, is far better at deduction. Again, there is detail missing about his abilities which is probably in book one.

Brittania is the spirit of the isles and speaks through a king or queen from a throne set above the Stone of Scorn. She has set Bannon the task of finding a scientist who’s gone missing. I won’t spoil you by telling why as there’s a glorious twist to this story at the end. Clare gets tangled up in the plot while trying to hunt down a Doctor Vance, a fellow Mentath gone wrong, who’s taken to stealing things. Again, there is a twist to that story that I won’t spoil.

The Red Plague of the title starts killing people about half way through and the medical men of the time are baffled, unaware as they are of the theory of germs and viruses. There are one or two who know of and believe it, such as Clare and Vance, but they are in a race against time to find a cure. Bannon manages to come to their aid by finding the plague creator’s notes. It all ends in a mess for Victrix, Bannon and Clare, with thousands of deaths along the way, though the story is concluded very well, tidying up all the loose ends while leaving some open questions for the books that will undoubtedly follow.

The setting is recognisable as early Victorian London, though it is called Londinium and many other place names have been altered to suit the world Saintcrow has created. Although there is a sparse description of the city and its environs (with the notable exception of people’s clothing and the interior decor), there is enough for any reader to get a feel for the place. There are metal/flesh hybrid horses pulling carriages and winged Gryphons in the service of the queen, all of which builds a world that combines fantasy and steampunk.

There is also a subplot about Bannon’s shields which works out by the end of the story and the mutual non-feelings which might be feelings of Bannon and Clare for each other which is left open.

All in all, it’s a book well worth reading, but one that shouldn’t be started until you’ve read the first book of the series, The Iron Wyrm Affair.

Orbit Books, p/b, 496pp, £8.99

Reviewed by Matthew Johns

The third and final of Tregillis’ Milkweed Triptych sees Raybould Marsh sent back in time to 1940 by his friend the warlock, Lord William Beauclerk.  His mission is to undo his and his colleagues work when they created Milkweed, and prevent the end of the world at the hands of the deadly Eidolons, source of the warlocks’ power.

This book gives a much greater insight into the German wielders of the Gotterelektron, how they were created, and who they really were – Klaus, the ghost who walks through walls, Gretel, the clairvoyant, Reinhardt the salamander, Kammler the telekinetic and Heike the invisible girl, amongst others.

The time-travelling Marsh has to find a way to interact with his younger self and colleagues, without appearing to be a German spy.  At times, this feels a bit like Back to the Future, just without a Delorean, as Marsh tries to manipulate those around him without being caught out.

The historic backdrop of World War Two is intricately detailed, and captures the British wartime spirit well.  A suitably epic end to the magnificent Milkweed Triptych (aka trilogy!), this draws you in and keeps you glued to the page until the very end.

Orbit Books, p/b, 432pp, £8.99

Reviewed by Matthew Johns

The second in Tregillis’ Milkweed Triptych is set in 1963; Milkweed is a covert UK government department that helped to win the Second World War, thanks to the British warlocks who fought off the army of bio-engineered German psychics, pyromancers and telekinetics.  Powered by batteries wired directly into their brains, these soldiers view themselves as gods amongst men, and used their powers to crush the allied forces.

The Second World War is somewhat of a distant memory as the book opens – one of the founding members of Milkweed, Raybould Marsh, is now a gardener with a drink problem.  Two of the bio-engineered Germans escape from Soviet imprisonment and make their way to England to surrender to Milkweed – Klaus, the ghost who walks through walls, and his manipulative sister Gretel, who can see the future and shapes it through her actions.

The action flows thick and fast as Marsh finds himself back inside Milkweed, nearly twenty years after he left.  Britain’s warlocks are being killed, and he must find out what Gretel is planning so that he can avert disaster.

This gripping novel is compulsive reading – the characters are realistic and well-rounded, and the adventure draws the reader completely into Tregillis’ exciting world.

Ebury Press, p/b, 336pp, £7.99

Reviewed by Stewart Horn

Chau Chan, the great Chinese painter, died in the gunfire of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.  But twenty years on three new paintings are found, apparently painted since the artist’s supposed death.  Are they real?  Is Chan still alive and hiding somewhere?  And why are so many people interested – collectors, academics, gangsters, governments, and Chinese-American PI Lydia Chin?

Red herrings are thrown about like smarties, and the drip-feeding of facts is expertly paced to maintain interest.  Rozan’s prose is good and readable, her characters engaging, and a lot of the story is moved forward by dialogue – the banter between her three central characters is consistently amusing.  The cultural details are convincing and entertaining too, and Lydia’s mother steals any scene she’s in.

For my taste, the end is perhaps too neatly tied up: the baddies suffer and the goodies live happily ever after, but the ride is worth it.

A lot of contemporary crime fiction is dark, intense and a bit dreary, so it’s nice to have something with a lighter touch.  This book will keep you on your toes without depressing you or giving you nightmares.

Well written and lots of fun.

Big Finish Productions, CD £14.99, Download £12.99

Reviewed by Matthew Johns

This is the last of the Doctor Who series featuring the black and white Tardises (Tardii?), and brings the epic series to a satisfying conclusion.

Whilst on their mission to rescue The Doctor, Ace, Hex, Sally and Lysandra find themselves in a very strange place.  Surrounded by warriors dead and alive, they find themselves drawn deeper and deeper into a deadly game orchestrated by The Doctor’s old foe, Fenric, portrayed here by the excellent John Standing (known to many as Jon Arryn in HBO’s Game of Thrones series).

Big Finish have created yet another masterpiece for Doctor Who fans young and old alike.  Whether you’ve never seen an episode with Sylvester McCoy as The Doctor, or like this reviewer grew up glued to every episode of every incarnation available, this is a treat for the ears.

Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor finds himself at the borders of insanity, but then battles back to be the strong-willed, determined character that viewers will recognise.  His voice is music to the ears, with his dulcet tones and perfect enunciation bringing life to the script.  The companions are all strong players, with Philip Olivier’s performance deserving a special mention as Hex.

Big Finish Productions, CD £14.99, Download £12.99

Reviewed by Matthew Johns

This continues on from Protect and Survive, where Ace and Hex escape from a nuclear nightmare, straight into another.  They find themselves in Denmark, where Beowolf is about to fight and defeat the monster Grendel, or at least that’s what the popular tale had you think happened…

As in the previous episode, Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor is reduced to a supporting part, while the very able Sophie Aldred and Philip Olivier take the spotlight as Ace and Hex, respectively.  Both are accomplished actors, and along with the rest of the cast, including Maggie O’Neill as Lysandra Aristedes and Amy Pemberton as Sally Morgan, two alternate companions to The Doctor, make this compulsive listening.

All Big Finish audio dramas have the same, exacting standards and are easily some of the best produced, audio books I have enjoyed.  If you’re a fan of Doctor Who, these are an absolute must have – Big Finish do an incredible job of bringing everyone’s favourite Gallifreyan and his companions to life.

Titan Books, p/b, 512pp, £7.99

Reviewed by Pauline Morgan

At one time a trilogy was composed of three novels which told the same tale from different perspectives. They crossed or branched off from a particular event. What we now regard as a trilogy was called a triple-decker. There are times when an author ought to consider reverting to the old pattern. John Birmingham is one and the opus, of which After America is the second volume would have benefited from a different approach to the one presented here.

In the first volume, Without Warning, most of the population of the United States is wiped out by a phenomenon that covered the country and killed everyone within its limits. The rest of the world then descended into anarchy. Every petty dictator and terrorist group came out of the woodwork shooting. Israel nuked the Arab nations; India and Pakistan nuked each other; pirates infested the seas. Then the ‘Wave’ disappeared.      No-one knows where it came from, what it was or who was responsible.

After America begins about four years after the ‘Wave’. Some of the principal characters are in greatly changed circumstances. Caitlin Munroe who was a government assassin has married Bret Melton, a journalist who at the start of the first novel was embedded with the army on the eve of the invasion of Iraq. They now have a small daughter and run a farm in the British countryside. That is until someone ambushes Bret and the baby, forcing Caitlin to go after an old adversary.

Miguel Pieraro and his family were taken aboard as crew on the luxury yacht Aussie Rules and having survived storms and pirates has become part of the resettlement of Texas planning to make a living as a ranchero. Texas though is not as safe as he believes as the red-neck governor of the state is turning a blind eye to the actions of road agents and bandits. When all his family except his daughter Sofia are murdered he is determined to reach Kansas City and tell what he knows to the President’s men. He falls in with a group of Mormons who have had women and cattle stolen by road agents.

The woman who had become temporary captain of the Aussie Rules, Lady Julianne ‘Jules’ Balwyn has joined a salvage crew in New York. She and Rhino Ross are using it as a cover to try and recover some documents for a client who has promised them a sizeable sum for them. New York, though, is not the healthiest place to be as pirates from Africa and Europe have been raiding the place for goods to sell on the black market. It is also the place that President James Kipper comes to to announce some of his plans to help resettle America and make the country prosperous again. It is a job that has been thrust on him. While he is there, all hell breaks loose. He is fired on by sophisticated missiles and he barely escapes with his life. He has hard choices to make about the degree of retaliation he is prepared to take. He wants New York to be a symbol of America rising from the catastrophe; his opponents, led by a Muslin fedayeen, just want to control the city for their own ends. Jules and Rhino are caught up in the middle of it.

There are basically three stories here, taking place simultaneously – Caitlin’s, Miguel’s and Jules’s. Each one would make an exciting, fast past book on their own – a proper trilogy. For most of the 611 page volume, there is no connection between them. They are three stories set in a broken world.

Other than the size of the book and the apparent unconnectedness of the stories, there are issues with the background logic. While the trials and tribulations of the lead characters are well handled, the setting gives cause for concern. Many authors have set novels in the aftermath of an unspecified disaster that has set back civilisation by decades. I don’t have a problem with that. Given the initial scenario, I don’t believe in the subsequent world events but there are greater issues here. At the end of Without Warning, the ‘Wave’ disappeared as suddenly as it had come. No-one seems in the least concerned about the possibility that it may return. The focus is more of filling the real estate that has suddenly become available. The effects of this ‘Wave’ seem too arbitrary, designed only to enhance a plot without thought to real physics. For example, we are told early in the first volume that the effect generates heat, sufficient enough to melt down a human body. This is observed to happen. Yet once the ‘Wave’ lifts, it is only humans (and perhaps a few other primates) that are affected. Plants and other organic materials are untouched, yet these would combust at much lower temperatures than those required to liquidise flesh and bone. (All that is left of people is a heap of clothing stiffened by black residue.) Although this could be visually interesting, it is inconsistent with what we have already been told. Similarly at these temperatures all plastics would melt, rendering most of the pillaged goods shapeless masses if not vaporized. It is beginning to look as if Birmingham began with an interesting idea, found it was not quite workable and was unable to go back and remedy the inconsistencies without throwing away plot he was working with. This is a shame as it would have made a more plausible book if he had.

Titan Books, p/b, 512pp, £8.99

Reviewed by Carl Barker

Originally written back in 1991, this re-release of Kim Newman’s third novel is now accompanied by a handful of short stories which feature characters from the main story, albeit set in alternate universes.

Set in rural Somerset, the book comes across like an English Steven King, revolving around the dark goings on in a sleepy village community in the lead up to an open-air festival. Newman first draws a large cast of characters with which to populate his narrative and spends just the right amount of time fleshing each of them out, so that by the time he begins to flick between different people’s perspectives, the reader feels comfortable enough to follow along.

The eponymous Jago is not actually seen till the end of the book, Newman choosing instead to demonstrate his influence over events via his many followers and the strange changes taking place throughout the village. Whilst the back-cover blurb would have you believe that Paul and Hazel, a young couple recently arrived to the village, are the novel’s main protagonists, this is not really the case as by the time all hell begins to break loose, there are a large number of different factions vying for page space.

Newman brings a smorgasbord of different influences to the story, combining elements of The Wicker Man, War of The Worlds and Lord of Illusions with pagan mythology, time travel and various elements of body horror. It’s a slick ride and one that feels justly satisfied as things draw to a close, leaving you wondering if perhaps that Summer holiday to deepest, darkest Somerset might not be such a good idea after all.

Orion Books, p/b, 496pp, £7.99

Reviewed by Matthew Johns

A rip-roaring steampunk escapade in Rankin’s truly inimitable style, The Educated Ape continues the adventures of the famed detective Cameron Bell (who has an uncanny resemblance to Charles Dickens’ Mr Pickwick) and his talking monkey companion Darwin, the titular educated ape (also known as Humphrey Bananas).

Packed full of action, puns and the usual irreverence that readers of Rankin’s works have come to expect and love, this is yet another cracking read from the master of steampunk surreality.

It is the year 1899, and the reigning monarch of England, Queen Victoria is also the Empress of Mars as well as India, following the destruction of the entire Martian race by the British following a failed invasion of Earth.  Lord Brentford dreams of building a Grand Exposition to unite the people of Earth, Jupiter and Venus, while the witch Lavinia Dharrkstorrm plots to bring about the End of Days as the new century dawns.

Rankin is an institution in modern British literature, and his new works are eagerly awaited by many.  This latest, the third and penultimate in his epic “meta-Victorian” series does not disappoint.

Gollancz,  512pp, £16.99

Review by Julian White

There are three strands to Gavin Smith’s ambitious fourth novel. Far in the future, a pair of high-tech thieves attempt to lay their hands on a strange cocoon. Way back in the past, the wise woman of a Bronze Age tribe battles against a cruel and seemingly supernatural enemy. Meanwhile, in the present, a girl attempts to track down her missing sister, only to find herself caught in a conflict that might lead to the end of the world. Question is, what links this trio of chronologically disparate narratives?

Actually, “ambitious” hardly begins to describe it. What we have here is an amazing demonstration of Smith’s range as a writer. The Bronze Age story is a gritty low fantasy infused with Celtic gloom, with a tough, indomitable heroine who will eat human flesh if it will help her on her quest, and a range of love-to-hate-’em villains (the pick, a sadistic thug who cuts off his victims’ heads and grafts them, still living, onto his own shoulders so that they can witness him violating their bodies). The present day story, meanwhile, plays out as a snappy spy thriller featuring a centuries-old James Bond-style spook who offs his foes with bullets filled with nanites.

The backbone of the book, though, is its hard SF strand. This takes place in a far-flung future where the people you are likely to encounter have evolved not just from humans (“monkeys”) but from lizards, felines and insects, and where it’s routine for those in dangerous occupations to have cloning insurance. The protagonist is a maniacal gun-for-hire called Scab, the most dangerous man in Known Space, someone who prides himself on taking on apparently suicidal missions – a character we encounter through the eyes of his unwilling sidekick, Vic, a seven-foot-tall insect of a nervous disposition who is driven to taking sedatives by unpredictable boss, and whose only consolations in life are watching insect-on-human porn and honing his capacity for sarcasm (not a natural insect talent; of the four “uplifted” species, felines are supposed to be the best at it). It’s with this pair of rakish antiheroes that The Age of Scorpio really shoots into the stratosphere.

And therein lies a problem. Solidly entertaining though the “past” and “present” strands are, if you’re anything like this reviewer, you’ll want to skip through them so as to get back to the bits with Scab and Vic, and this in turn is likely to have a knock-on effect on the reader’s ability to grasp the convoluted-verging-on-tenuous overall story arc. Given how brilliant much of The Age of Scorpio is, it seems churlish to say it, but you can’t help spying within its unwieldy bulk the shape of a leaner, meaner work – no sword and sorcery, no conspiracy theory shenanigans, just superlative, full-throttle, Harry Harrison-style SF. That said, it’s fiendishly inventive, highly accomplished and compulsively energetic, and you won’t want to miss it.

Hodder, p/b, 624pp, £6.99

Reviewed by Stewart Horn

Gavin is a troubled teenager who doesn’t get on with his parents, teachers or peers.  He’s the weird kid who talks to invisible people and sees things that aren’t there.  So he’s looking forward to a stay with an eccentric aunt in Cornwall.

But she doesn’t collect him from the station, and seems to have disappeared, leaving cryptic notes about what she had been up to.  Gavin’s search for the truth, and his adventures along the way, form the bulk of the story.  This main plot is interspersed with a retelling of the Faust myth, set in the 16^th century.

This is very much for the YA fantasy shelf, but there’s enough here to make it stand out from the crowd.  Gavin’s adventures, both in the city and when he arrives in Cornwall, are nicely creepy, foreshadowing what’s to come, and the reader is kept nicely off balance.  The historical story is told backwards, beginning with Faust drowning when his ship sinks – making what might have been dry exposition more interesting.  Treadwell’s prose is consistently tight and the characters are engaging.  There are also creatures I haven’t encountered before – I’m not sure what Corbo and Holly are, but I liked them, and like that they’re not elves or goblins.

Personally, I preferred the first half of the book, which is spooky and fun.  Once the proper fantasy stuff kicks off we meet a lot of new characters who don’t do very much, all of whom are strange and only some of whom are human – I got confused and lost some of my enthusiasm.  However, this is the first volume of a trilogy, so I’m writing a review based on a third of a story so each character’s arc is incomplete.  The last fifty pages or so reads like a prologue to the next book.

Overall, this is an engaging, atmospheric and well-told tale, written for a quite specific audience.

Big Finish, CD £10.99, download £8.99,

Reviewed by Chris Limb

“Sorry, Doctor but it seems I don’t need you after all!”

Cuthbert, ruthless CEO of the ubiquitous Corporation, is determined to find out what the swarm of alien Laan are doing on Earth and whether he can make use of them – not to mention getting revenge on them for wrecking one of his precious experiments… Even allying themselves with Earth President Moorkurk is no guarantee that the Doctor and Romana will be able to stop him – Cuthbert has fingers in many important pies and is unafraid to do whatever it takes to succeed. Unfortunately if he does it may wipe out billions of innocent Laan – and spell the end of all life on Earth…

War Against the Laan continues directly on from the preceding story in the series, The Sands of Life, wasting no time in moving the story along from the cliff-hanger at the end of the latter and raising the stakes. There is a palpable sense of relief when the TARDIS crew gain the trust of President Moorkurk, a relief that is short-lived when it becomes clear just how little control she really has over the errant Cuthbert and his lackeys.

Hayley Atwell’s President is given more of a spotlight here than in the previous story and she gives a credible performance as the newly elected Head of State – vulnerable and unsure but intelligent and thoughtful, willing to make tough decisions when the situation demands it (even if they may sometimes be the wrong ones). David Warner’s Cuthbert is as magnificently callous as he was in the previous instalment – and the hints dropped that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the character are welcome. Mention should also be made of his obsequious sidekick Mr Dorrick who is skilfully portrayed by Toby Hadoke.

The regular cast also get their moments to shine – Tom Baker does what he does best taking his Fourth Doctor from humour to seriousness and then on to convincingly righteous fury in a heartsbeat, whilst Mary Tamm’s Romana is as calm and collected in a crisis as she ever was on screen, despite the wringer her character is put through in the story when she experiences the pain of a member of the Laan being experimented upon.

War Against the Laan does what Doctor Who often does best; using an alien protagonist (or in this case protagonists –Romana is from Gallifrey too) to illustrate that aside from being indomitable, Homo sapiens is often capable of giving the monsters a run for their money in the villainy stakes.

As with the previous story, the sound design and music is first class; strongly evoking the atmosphere of the TV show in 1979.

Hammer Chillers, Download, £2.99

Reviewed by Chris Limb

Neurotic busybody Ian Hibbert is becoming increasingly frustrated by life in Darwell. When him and his family first moved there fourteen years ago it was a pleasant place to live but recently it has been turning into a slum, rubbish piling up uncollected in the streets and gangs of hooded youths running unchecked across the estates.

With a couple of like-minded neighbours he starts the Clean Up Darwell group and is determined to make the town once more a pleasant place to live even if they do have to collect all the rubbish themselves.

To Hibbert’s shock and surprise his initiative is met with outright hostility and after his daughter is attacked it becomes clear that someone wants Darwell left just as it is.

Is there no one to turn to?

The Fixation is a play that keeps the listener guessing right up until the last scene – and even then leaves some questions unanswered. The play starts out in a light hearted comic vein, Miles Jupp’s Ian Hibbert is just the kind of obsessive agitated character that an audience loves to loath and yet on some level sympathises with, a man driven to the brink of a coronary by the way the world appears stacked against him.

The comedy continues with the introduction of his fellow members of Clean Up Darwell (“We are not calling ourselves CUD!”) especially Ewan Bailey’s cheerful van owning Malcolm Beglin. It’s only when the group start to be frustrated in their ambitions at every turn and then threatened that the comedic atmosphere turns dark. Worse is the indifference of the local police, even when Hibbert’s daughter Samantha (Lauren Kellegher) is attacked. By the time it becomes clear just how isolated the Hibberts and their colleagues are the sense of claustrophobia and isolation is palpable.

The unanswered questions about Darwell leave the way open for Hammer Chillers to revisit this location in future, although as Hibbert learns, perhaps some places are best left well alone.

Hammer Chillers, Download, £2.99

Reviewed by Chris Limb

The Box – nickname for the device used in the final session of the helicopter safety training course at the maritime college after which participants will get the certificate they need to go and work out on the oilrigs. The principle is very simple. The Box is a reproduction helicopter cockpit that is dropped into a tank of water to simulate the conditions of a sea crash.

Given the calibre of the participants, this shouldn’t be a problem. However, once they emerge some of them are visibly shaken by the experience, refuse to talk about it and drop out before completing the course.

What is happening to them down there? What’s in the Box?

This is a highly effective spooky tale that should manage to unnerve even the most blasé of listeners without having to resort to shock tactics. A fully dramatized play, it relies on the skills of the actors involved to get the story across and does so very successfully, the sparse sound design enhancing rather than detracting from the story.

Throughout the play the menace is excellently implied without any of the characters ever having to state the obvious; the matter of fact attitude of the main protagonist Sean Dickens (Con O’Neill) doesn’t falter until he experiences the Box himself. At no point does anyone consider the supernatural and the refusal of any of the Box’s victims to talk about what happens makes it all the more frightening when we eventually hear it for ourselves.

Best listened to during daylight unless you enjoy disturbed sleep.

Stealing Into Winter brings us the tale of Jeniche of Antar, a young female thief caught up in a world descending into war. Everything starts with a bang, literally, as the cell in which Jeniche is held collapses allowing her to escape only to be accosted by another inmate. Fortune favouring her she makes it to freedom only to find that the city in which she is held is under siege from the Occassan nation. Hiding from the enemy, Jeniche befriends a group of monks and nuns from a distant land, led by Gyan Mi, God King of the Tunduri, and agrees to help them journey back to their temple accompanied by the mysterious Alltud and Jeniche’s friend Trag; probably my favourite character.

What follows is a fantasy adventure travelling through vast swathes of country as the group attempt to get to their goal. Along the way we are introduced to a variety of characters and hints of a civilisation that has long been forgotten (as a genre, Stealing Into Winter fits into future fantasy). All the while the signs of war are spreading around them and an old enemy of Jeniche keeps making unwelcome appearances.

Talboys grabs you from the get go with his action packed opening and Jeniche is a character you engage with immediately. Within the confines of the city Jeniche is constantly on guard, hiding from the armed soldiers patrolling the city as she tries to understand what is happening before befriending Gyan’s party. Sadly, once we get outside the city walls, the action becomes sporadic and, for the most part, end of chapter cliffhangers are hurriedly explained away in the following pages. I would have preferred to see the characters work to escape their plight rather than see the action moved on a few hours where they are safe once again. I came away with the impression of a very long trek with little to grip me and, aside from Jeniche and Trag, rarely cared about what was happening to the characters.

The subtitle of the novel is ‘being the first adventure from the chronicles of Jeniche of Antar’, and, being billed as such, leaves us with several loose ends come the conclusion. As a reader Stealing Into Winter didn’t work for me, despite its promising start, and I doubt I will be picking up part two but, to give a balanced view, I leave you with the words of the great Michael Moorcock, from the cover blurb, who clearly had a better experience than me. “A first class adventure which moves with a pace and panache rarely seen these days. If you like good future fantasy then you’ll love this.”

Reviewed by Chris Limb

In a car accident deliberately initiated by driver Michael Friday his cheating wife is killed and it takes weeks of physiotherapy before he himself is able to return home and once more take up the reins of his job as art history professor at the university.

However it soon becomes clear that he has come back changed.

Through the pages of the journal his shrink suggested he keep, his new obsessions and twisted thoughts steer him off on a far darker path than the one he had hitherto been following and it isn’t long before his violent sexual fantasies spill over into reality and the Syracuse Police Department have a serial killer on their hands…

The first-person perspective of The Venus Complex place the reader inside the mind of a very unpleasant and dangerous psychopath but such is the dexterity with which these monologues are written that a lot of the time his brand of angry cynicism comes across as sympathetic and humorous. Michael Friday can be witty and likable when he tries.

Of course this makes it all the more shocking when his sardonic musings about the state of the world suddenly become perverse, psychotic and violent. The reader, previously seduced by Friday’s mocking repartee and almost subconsciously siding with him against an unfair world, finds themselves questioning their own judgement when he starts to show his true face. And yet, as with all true psychopaths, the wit and charm of the central character draws them back in, forcing them to witness the whole affair right up to its disturbing conclusion.

What is also very clever is the way that, despite the book being written in journal form, Wilde is able to infuse the narrative with a subtext whereby the reader can see just how Friday is deluding himself, making excuses in order to give himself a reason to do those things he dare not admit are an end in themselves. Furthermore, at times it is clear that Friday’s interpretation of the events he witnesses is skewed and faulty, increasingly so as the novel progresses and he descends into the depths of psychopathy.

This is not a novel for the faint of heart and definitely NSFPT (Not Safe For Public Transport), but the skill with which it is written means that some of the darker imagery will haunt the reader long after they turn the final page.

Reviewed by Stewart Horn

If you haven’t encountered Jilly Paddock’s fiction before, this is an excellent taster.  A collection of short stories showcasing the strength and variety of her writing – there is science fiction here, fantasy, horror, crime and folk tale, but not delineated by story.  She is never afraid to stir genres together and create something new.

Her prose is consistently excellent, and she peoples her various worlds with brilliantly drawn characters.  She writes especially good strong female leads.

The title story Dragon, Fly is a beautiful and melancholic folk tale.  It has dragons in it but don’t let that put you off – there’s nothing twee about it.

Playing Possom is a ghost story, perhaps not entirely original but well-told and effective.

The Omnidirectional Woman is straight horror set firmly in the here and now, somewhat in the style of Stephen King.

She really gets into her stride with Death and Cai-Lee McGeoghan, darkly Lovecraftian and very creepy.  It’s followed by a sequel of sorts The Serpent’s Claw, set in the same place several hundred years in the future.  Between them they tell an epic tale of the rise and fall of Galactic empires, but concisely and with a handful of characters.

A Cold terrible Place Filled with Stars is a mainstream but exciting sci-fi adventure with one of Ms. Paddock’s trademark kick-ass heroines.

The Bride Carried Tigers has an interesting and slightly yucky premise that will resonate with anyone who’s ever been pregnant.

She finishes the collection off with two stories featuring Anna and Zenni – a sort of superhero/witch/spy and her cyber-familiar – characters you’ll recognise if you’ve read To Die a Stranger.  These were a treat for me, though others can judge how well they stand up as standalone stories.

Overall, a highly entertaining collection from an author too inventive and playful to be neatly pigeonholed.

Well, where to start really. They say that the line between genius and madness is a fine one and you get the sense that novelist Brian Catling is teetering on the edge of both throughout the ultra ambitious The Vorrh.

The Vorrh is set in deepest Africa, its name taken from the legendary African forest from Raymond Roussel’s Impressions of Africa. The forest features heavily in the story as we are led through a journey involving the cyclops Ishmael, a mysterious bowman, the hunter Tsungali, the photographer Eadweard Muybridge and hints at the origins of man. What is gathered before us is an astonishing outpouring of imagination which is hard to quantify into a coherent synopsis.

The opening to The Vorrh is dense, lots of information being thrown at the reader as we are led dizzyingly past living bows carved from the dead, the automaton led schooling of the young Ishmael in the secrecy of 4 Kuhler Brunnen, the background to Tsungali and the quarry he must track, and forays into the bizarre life and photography of Muybridge. The temptation for the casual reader is initially to admit defeat and reach for another tome from the bookshelf but you would be advised against this. Slowly things come together, disjointedly at first as your mind tries to comprehend the smorgasbord of stories playing out before it, and then, little by little, everything gels, pulling together like some fiendishly intricate puzzle to leave you with a feeling of wonderment at what you have just read come the end.

The Vorrh is as much a piece of art as it is a story. Themes of sex, death, society, religion, magic and much more are explored head on and without hesitation. You suspect that Catling was using his writing to explore multiple concepts within his head thus giving us one of the most unique and imaginative books I have ever read. The language is beautiful at times and the sheer imagery throughout will both delight and repulse you in equal measure. However, whilst the vision and imagery are superb, the characters are peculiar and potentially off-putting to some. There is no central hero to cheer, not that we require one here, and each character is flawed to the extreme with little to endear you to them. The female characters get the roughest deal from this and are not given the same level of authority as their male counterparts, often reduced to little more than objects of sexual gratification. Whilst maybe a reflection of conceived notions in 19^th century Europe and Africa, it does take a slight shine off an otherwise stunning book.

Overall, The Vorrh is visually breathtaking, truly unique and will likely have you eagerly devouring huge chunks at a time of its nigh on 500 pages. As the first part of a planned trilogy, it satisfyingly wraps up events within this volume whilst leaving enough mystery for Catling to play with going forward. The renowned Alan Moore provides a foreword in which he describes this as a masterpiece and, you know what, he might not be too far wrong.

Reviewed By Steve Dean

As usual, for Kzine at least, we have a good variety of stories here, written by a variety of authors and to different lengths. Some of the authors are old hands, no offence, and for some this is their first published piece. Put all this together, and we have a unique product, but one that is ultimately successful. And no dumbing down here. If you’re looking for fast-moving, tyre screaming, bullet riddled action with no plot and brainless, cloned heroes, you’ve come to the wrong place.

Ironically, you may well find fast-moving, tyre screaming, bullet riddled action, but it will always be intelligent, unique and well written, and almost certainly cross-genre, slipstream or just downright odd.

The trouble with Kzine is picking a favourite. All the stories are well written, of just the right length, and entertaining as well as being something different. I think, on balance, I’ll go for the opener, A Bedtime Chocolate by Nicole Tanquary. The unnamed heroine, a young girl, awakes one morning to find the usual chocolate, left by her dad, missing from her beside table. As it turns out, her father wasn’t a hospital porter at all, but an Anchor, a man with the ability pull people across dimensions. The opening few paragraphs set the mood, and really convey the special relationship between the two. I think this one was written from the heart, and it really shows. An excellent story with a very good ending.

Next I would go for The Judgment of The Peacekeeper by Diana Doherty. Verity is the aforementioned Peacekeeper, aided and abetted by her familiar, Spirit, who is a large warg. In this world, almost everyone has a familiar, which is usually the opposite sex to the person it is Familiar with (the Familiaree?) Having no familiar, or having one of the same sex, is very rare, but people in this state are often accused of being cursed. Anyway, Verity and Spirit are summoned to a distant village to deal with a ‘mad’ wyvern, but things aren’t that simple. I liked the premise of this one, the idea that everyone has a familiar, and those who don’t are ostracised, despite it not being their fault. Sound familiar? (pun intended.)

To end it all we have a vignette, Self-Aware And Living In Bradford by J.Y. Saville. Some fledgling AI robots have been let loose in Bradford, (must be the future, otherwise they would have been nicked and sold for scrap.) and it’s Rick’s job to analyse the recordings. This one hinges around the very last line, so be sure to read it again if you don’t get it first time. I like robot stories anyway, and this one doesn’t disappoint. It certainly makes you think, which is always good.

The rest are all good, and the authors should be proud of themselves.

And please, read Mr Hurry’s editorial, and act on it, before we drown under under ghost written, sensationalised ‘autobiographies’ written by ‘celebrities’ just, or even not quite, out of school.

Reviewed by Matthew Johns

Another beautifully bound limited edition from the ever reliable (and quirky) Tartarus Press.  This contains a collection of short stories written under a pseudonym by Gerald Bertot, a Belgian author, translated by Iain White.  Originally written in the 1960s and 1970s, these stories of the strange and fantastic have, in the most part, aged well.

The book opens with a tale of a survivor of a train crash meeting a distinctly devilish man afterwards, who keeps reappearing mysteriously throughout his life.  A wanderer finds himself assisting an architect in the eerie basement of a monastery until they find a giant waxwork of a city created long ago.  A man finds himself the keeper of a ladies coat that bleeds, a traveller gets embroiled into a game of dice to go and see a strange sow and a soldier awakes after a night of passion to find himself in an empty house next to a skeleton.

Some excellent stories are to be found within this book – the odd one or two seem to have lost something in translation or across the mists of time, but on the whole, this is an easy and worthwhile read.

Reviewed by Alex Bardy (@mangozoid)

This is book one of the Schattenreich, a new fantasy series which holds geology at its core, and is set against an intriguing Celtic/Germanic backdrop, encompassing elements of science-fantasy, the supernatural and occult, as well as various surreal paranormal episodes. There’s also a weird romance in here somewhere, and a bit of a detective thriller thing going on too, so in terms of covering all bases, I think the author has done extremely well…

That said, the mantra of “write what you know” among wannabe writers is definitely the case here… Sharon studied geophysics and geosciences back in Texas, before moving to Germany in order to pursue a career as a seismologist. An interesting background that sets out the immediate geometry for Primary Fault… [See what I did there? Lol]

After recovering from a car crash that claimed her mother, Caitlin Schwarzbach leaves Texas and heads for Cologne, ostensibly to start anew and join her brother, Augustus, from whom she’d been separated at an early age. Brother Gus just happens to be the leading seismologist expert in the country, regularly called upon for advice and interviews in the local media, as well as holding the key to a planned new tech area of the city which hinges on his seismology findings report.

No sooner does Caitlin land at Cologne-Bonn airport, she encounters a reality shift in which her brother and a strange blonde are trying to drag her through a glass wall that appears out of nowhere. Things don’t get any easier when a short while later her brother is accused of sexual assault and wanted by the police, setting the scene for him to mysteriously disappear and for her to bump into his devastatingly suave friend and colleague, Hagen von der Lahn. Sinister goings on ensue as she gradually finds herself falling in love with the aristocratic Hagen, and meets a number of other shady characters, all of whom seem to take sides and align themselves one way or the other.

While investigating the truth behind her brother’s disappearance, Caitlin uncovers his doppelganger, and enlists the aid of a local reporter/columnist to help expose him to the local police. All the while she continues to experience shifts in reality as the dreams and visions start coming thick and fast, suggesting that she holds some form of innate power to make a difference in an alternate world totally at odds with her own reality.

Like a giant onion, there are layers upon layers that are gradually peeled away, and we soon learn that Hagen’s enigmatic past goes way beyond a fancy estate and grand heritage, for he is none other than steward/curator for the mysterious Schattenreich, a shadowy Otherworld which itself sits atop Anderwelt, an underworld in which gods, goddesses and death itself are all too real, the latter preferring to float in the upper world searching for souls to collect.

And I’m not sure I need say much more — this is a complex, intricate fictional web that grabs you early on and plunges you into a surreal world within a world, before pulling you out again and setting you up for the next trip. And so it continues, with Caitlin’s investigations and romance with Hagen forming the crux of an erratic spider web of intrigue and suspense…

This is a neatly plotted work, and certainly different to anything else I’ve read in a long time, but did I actually enjoy it? Sort of… the ideas and reality shifts are brilliantly done, the writing itself quite decent, but the overall tone, the ‘voice’ if you will, just didn’t gel with me, unfortunately.

If any of the above has touched a nerve with you, I would heartily suggest you dive in and see for yourself. It could prove very rewarding.

Reviewed by Alex Bardy (@mangozoid)

Bird of Prey is a short novella with a very big idea… Starting from humble beginnings, namely the showroom of a London auctioneer, this tale rapidly escalates into an extraordinary journey across Europe, in search of the secret behind the Zhar Ptitsa of Russian legend, the mythical Firebird that will return to seek vengeance for the evil and suffering that the Russian Czar (Tsar) Ivan the Terrible inflicted upon the world…

When a little old lady calling herself A. Romanov wanders into Fowler & Sons (a private auction house) clutching a small box with a crystal bird inside. Within days the crystal bird begins to grow and shed ‘feathers’, setting in motion a series of events that transform the comfortable life of Walts Walter, antique dealer, into something altogether more adventuresome. Needless to say, the bird eventually escapes and takes flight, albeit  straight into the River Thames. Resurfacing a short while later, and shorn of its crystal shell, the magical creature flees from Walts and a team of shady Russians as it sets off on a one-way trip to the Red State.

As Walts delves deeper into the history of the mythical Zhar Ptitsa, it soon becomes readily apparent that this bird is a whole lot more than it seems. Sure enough, we are treated to a Tintin-esque race across Europe, during which he becomes obsessed with the bird and handily picks up a charming young lady called Kate who is similarly obsessed by the beast, and just so happens to have a degree in History and a wealth of insider knowledge about the Firebird of legend and Anastasia Romanov, youngest daughter of the last sovereign of Imperial Russia. Cue a whirlwind romantic tour of coffee houses across the continent as the two of them join together in their pursuit of the bird.

I won’t say any more for fear of ruining the climax, suffice to say that I personally didn’t care for the ending so much. The author does a wonderful job of building up the suspense as he lays down the foundations for a ‘big reveal’, but for me it just fell a bit flat. There’s nothing really wrong with the writing, but I did feel that it promised much and delivered little. Worth a look perhaps, but when there are so many other good novellas out there just now, I fear it’ll get lost in the shuffle, if it hasn’t already… By all means try it yourself, if you have the time, it is a very quick read…

Allen Ashley is an author, editor, poet, critic and writing tutor as well as a long-standing, active member of the BFS. Allen is a regular contributor to The BFS Journal and attendee at FantasyCon. Allen won the BFS award for Best Anthology in 2006 as editor of The Elastic Book Of Numbers (Elastic Press).

Allen says: “I am receiving a steady stream of entries for this year’s competition, so a big thank you to all those authors who have got in early. However, I know that some of you like to leave it until the last minute. Literally, in the case of one writer last year! As an author who regularly submits to magazines and anthologies, I realise that it is very easy to accidentally forget to send in for something and then discover – too late – that you’ve missed the deadline. So, this is a gentle reminder to everyone: entry to this year’s competition closes at midnight BST on Sunday 30 June 2013. There’s just me judging – no filtering committee or anything like that. Word limit is 5000 words and all the usual rules apply. I will be reading all of the stories over the Summer and I hope to make the presentation at World Fantasy Con in Brighton.”

BFS members can enter one story for free; the cost is just £5 per entry for non-members. Further details and full submission guidelines HERE

For enquiries please email Allen on shortstorycomp@britishfantasysociety.org

Daniele Serra
P.M. Buchan
Rachel Kendall

Unfortunately, two of the former jury members – Jimmy Broxton and Rhian Bowley – have stepped down. Having made the final decision as to the need for any egregious omissions, the remaining jurors will now go on to decide the winner of the award. The British Fantasy Society would like to thank Jimmy and Rhian for their input with regard to the current list of nominees, which will be announced shortly.

JOYLAND will be published in original paperback and will only be available in print edition in keeping with the author’s request, in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, for people to “stir their sticks and go to an actual bookstore.”

Encouraging UK book lovers to act on King’s call to arms and buy paperback copies from traditional retailers, a team of ‘Hollywood Girls’ from the world of JOYLAND will be touring shops and literary events during the week of the book’s publication to give away free JOYLAND-branded bags of popcorn. Bookstore shoppers will also be able to win free books and exclusive JOYLAND prizes by tweeting pictures of the Hollywood Girls.

Sales Director of Titan Books, Tim Whale, elaborates: “We believe that the excitement galvanised by the Hollywood Girls with their popcorn machine will ensure that fans will respond to King’s rallying cry and buy their copies of JOYLAND from their local bookseller”.

Dressed in the costume designed by Glen Orbik for the cover of the book, four ‘Hollywood Girls’ and their vintage popcorn machine will start their tour at Crimefest in Bristol on June 1^st and end at Stoke Newington Literary Festival on June 9^th. They will travel via Foyles Charing Cross Road [June 4^th] and Forbidden Planet Shaftesbury Avenue [June 7^th].  There will also be 50 bags handed out by booksellers on June 4th at Foyles Royal Festival Hall, Foyles St Pancras, Foyles Westfelds Statford City and Foyles Westfield White City.

With the emotional impact of King masterpieces such as The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption, JOYLAND [Hard Case Crime, original paperback, June 7^th 2013], is a whodunit and a heartbreaking tale about love and loss, growing up and growing old, and about those who don’t get to do either because death comes for them before their time.

Titan Books will be publishing JOYLAND in paperback format. Stephen King explained: “I loved the paperbacks I grew up with as a kid, and for that reason, we’re going to hold off on e-publishing this one for the time being.”

JOYLAND is published by the award-winning line of pulp-styled crime novels published by Titan Books, Hard Case Crime.  Stephen King’s last title for Hard Case Crime – The Colorado Kid – was an international bestseller and inspired the TV show Haven, about to go into its fourth season on the SyFy network.

Director Gordon Flemyng             

Script: Milton Subotsky & David Whitaker

Starring: Peter Cushing, Roy Castle, Jennie Linden Roberta Tovey

Certificate: U            

Running Time: 82 Mins     

DALEKS — INVASION EARTH 2150 A.D.

Director Gordon Flemyng             

Script Milton Subotsky & David Whitaker

Starring: Peter Cushing, Bernard Cribbins, Roberta Tovey, Jill Curzon

Certificate: U            

Running Time: 84 Mins

AVAILABLE ON REGION B BLU-RAY (INDIVIDUALLY OR AS A COMBINED SET) AND REGION 2 DVD.

Release Date: 27th May

Reviewed by Guy Adams

I’m not sure it’s possible to condense my entire childhood onto a shiny disc, if it were this is certainly as close as someone could get.

Milton Subotsky and Milton J. Rosenberg, the founders of Amicus Films, were quick to see potential in the BBC’s DOCTOR WHO, most particularly the stories featuring the Daleks. Taking Terry Nation’s script for the second serial (which introduced the iconic villains) and turning it into a brash, colourful, big screen adventure seemed a certain way to make a bit of cash. And Subotsky and Rosenberg were always on the lookout for cash, as devotees of their output (and I am one of them) are aware, they rarely seemed to have any.

William Hartnell’s TV Timelord becomes Peter Cushing as a cuddly, human eccentric Dr Who (Who, rather endearingly becoming his surname) who has built a time and space machine in his back garden. When affable buffoon, Roy Castle pops round to visit Jennie Linden as Peter Who’s granddaughter, he manages to send them all to an alien planet because he never met a massive control lever he couldn’t fall into.

Cue: seventy minutes of mucking about in the brightest alien jungle and Dalek city a small, sixties budget can buy.

The film was such a success, a second was immediately rushed into production taking Terry Nation’s second Dalek script, wherein the little tin racists invade Earth, and bringing us the informatively titled: DALEKS — INVASION EARTH 2150 A.D.

Castle was busy this time. I like to think he took Barbara Who on a second date where he accidentally brought the dead to life via Jazz (c.f. his other Amicus appearance in DR TERROR’S HOUSE OF HORROR). So we now have Bernard Cribbins bumping into things and Jill Curzon as Cushing’s niece.

They’re simply lovely films. Most people of my age were able to see them on what seemed a fortnightly basis on BBC 2 as they grew up.

DR WHO AND THE DALEKS is, perhaps, a little dull (in plot, certainly not palette) which would seem surprising given that it’s a cutdown version of a serial that ran twice the movie’s length. One can also poke fun at the lava lamps in the Daleks’ control room and the fact that their entire city seems to be delineated by a judicious use of shower curtains but you’d have to be a soulless old sod to let that get in the way of your enjoyment. For all my nitpicking it’s a very fun way to spend eighty minutes.

DALEKS — INVASION EARTH 2150 A.D. however may just be the best film ever made. I mean, obviously, it can’t be… but while I’m watching it I’m hard pressed to think of one I love more. Just look at the cast of rebels: Andrew Keir, a year away from being our finest cinematic Quatermass, gives us a wonderfully gruff Wyler, Ray Brooks as a laconic, knife-throwing David, Godfrey Quigley as the wheelchair-bound Dortmun. And did anyone ever manage to distill ‘bastard’ onscreen so effectively as Phillip Madoc as the untrustworthy smuggler, Brockley?

Cribbins is always wonderful, never more so in the book-end sections when he confronts a smash and grab raid on a jewelers.

Roberta Tovey even manages to not be annoying as the young Susan Who, spraining her ankle and babysitting Andrew Keir (though I’m sure he thinks it’s the other way around).

None of which even mentions Peter Cushing. 2013 marks his centenary (as well as the fiftieth anniversary of DOCTOR WHO) and it can’t be made clear often enough: he was one of the finest actors we ever had. He is charming, funny and heroic, utterly, utterly wonderful as the cinematic regeneration of this much-loved character. There isn’t a single film that hasn’t been made better by his presence and, let’s be honest, many of them needed all the help they could get. But not these. To dismiss them as frothy kid’s fun is to shoot yourself in the foot. Find a grim Sunday afternoon to screen them in, fill it with cake and tea. Treat yourself.

StudioCanal have treated them with the respect they deserve, the HD restoration on both films offers definitive, beautiful versions. They look glorious.

Special features include: a commentary from Tovey and Linden on the first movie; some short interviews with Bernard Cribbins and film scholar Gareth Owens; a pair of featurettes on the restoration work and finally, DALEKMANIA, the hour-long documentary from director Kevin Davies that has been a regular and welcome bolt-on to releases of these films since it was produced in 1995.

The event will begin with a host of activities in both cinema spaces, including reading and Q+A sessions with the three Guests of Honour – Ken MacLeod, Adam Roberts and Ian R MacLeod. The cinemas will also host a range of panels, including sessions looking at the world of independent publishing, how to write great short stories, science-fiction’s place in the mainstream, the comic and graphic novel scene and many more.

These panels and readings offer a great chance to find out more about science-fiction on the whole, and these will be running alongside a number of ‘kafeeklatsch’ sessions. These allow audience members the chance to join an informal chat with their favourite authors – a unique chance to ask the questions that you may have for some of the leading writers on the day.

The courtyard area will be hosting a booksales area, featuring a range of booksellers and independent presses. Already confirmed are Wolverhampton Waterstones, Pendragon Press, Screaming Dreams, Fringeworks, Aethernet Magazine and more, offering you the chance to pick up some incredible bargains!

The evening of the event brings a host of fun activities to wrap up the day, including the live raffle draw, with some incredible prizes to give away. There will also be the mass signing – giving you the perfect chance to get your books at home or new purchases on the day signed – as well as a science-fiction quiz to close, with more fantastic prizes to be won!

Finally, you’ll be able to enjoy the Futura ‘Area of Ale’, with a great range of local beers and ales available to try. Both this and the bar will be open until late, giving you the chance to relax socialise after the day’s events draw to a close.

Event organiser Alex Davis said: ‘I’m really excited by the schedule of this event, which offers a great range of activities from the serious and professional to the light-hearted and fun. With so much to choose from, anyone coming along to the event is bound to find plenty to attend!’

Tickets to Futura are £25 for the day, including access to all of the above activities throughout. To book, call Light House Box Office on 01902 716055 or visit http://light-house.co.uk/featured/2013/05/futura-sci-fi-convention/

World Weaver Press

Shards of History is available in paperback and ebook via Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Kobo.com, and other online retailers. You can also find Shards of History on Goodreads.

Only she knows the truth that can save her people. Like all Taakwa, Malia fears the fierce winged creatures known as Jeguduns who live in the cliffs surrounding her valley. When the river dries up and Malia is forced to scavenge farther from the village than normal, she discovers a Jegudun, injured and in need of help. Malia’s existence–her status as clan mother in training, her marriage, her very life in the village–is threatened by her choice to befriend the Jegudun. But she’s the only Taakwa who knows the truth: that the threat to her people is much bigger and much more malicious than the Jeguduns who’ve lived alongside them for decades. Lurking on the edge of the valley is an Outsider army seeking to plunder and destroy the Taakwa, and it’s only a matter of time before the Outsiders find a way through the magic that protects the valley–a magic that can only be created by Taakwa and Jeguduns working together.

As previously announced, Roland’s new short story collection, The King of Ash and Bones, and Other Stories, including a tie-in toShards of History, will be released in digital edition on Tuesday, June 4, 2013.

An exiled man returns to his family and the life he left behind. A king is determined to avenge his people. A man doomed to die gives his wife her greatest wish. A suspected affair leads to a shocking and wondrous surprise. Roland works her magic again in this four-story collection of eerie and enchanting works, including Rasmus’s story from after Shards of History.

The King of Ash and Bones, and Other Stories will be available in ebook via amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, kobo.com, and other online retailers.

Rebecca Roland lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she writes primarily fantasy and horror. Her short fiction has appeared in Everyday Fiction, Uncle John’s Flush Fiction and in Stupefying Stories, and she is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop. When she’s not writing, she’s usually spending time with her family, torturing patients as a physical therapist, or eating way too much chocolate. You can find her online at Spice of Life, her blog, or follow her on Twitter @rebecca_roland.

Solaris is pleased to announce is has acquired Europe in Autumn by author and journalist Dave Hutchinson. The dystopian SF espionage thriller will be published in February 2014.

Rudi is a cook in a Kraków restaurant, but when his boss asks Rudi to help a cousin escape from the country he’s trapped in, a new career – part spy-part people-smuggler – begins. 

Following multiple economic crises and a devastating flu pandemic, Europe has fractured into myriad tiny countries, duchies, polities and republics. Recruited by the shadowy organisation Les Coureurs des Bois, Rudi is schooled in espionage, but when a training mission to The Line, a sovereign nation consisting of a trans-Europe railway line, goes wrong, he is arrested, beaten and Coureur Central must attempt a rescue.

With so many nations to work in, and identities to assume, Rudi is kept busy travelling across Europe. But when he is sent to smuggle someone out of Berlin and finds a severed head inside a locker instead, a conspiracy begins to wind itself around him.

With kidnapping, double-crosses and a map that constantly re-draws itself, Rudi begins to realise that underneath his daily round of plot and counter plot, behind the conflicting territories, another entirely different reality might be pulling the strings…

Editor-in-chief of Solaris, Jonathan Oliver, said: “Dave Hutchinson’s novel bowled me over with its brilliance from the first chapter. It’s an extraordinary alternative history of a near-future Europe laced with a Kafka-esque nightmare and written with all the cool-assuredness of a John le Carré. An incredibly original and insightful work of speculative fiction.”

The judges for the Red and Golden Tentacles, for novels and debut novels, are Kate Griffin, Will Hill, Annabel Wright, Anab Jain and Nick Harkaway. The Inky Tentacle, for cover art, will be judged by Craig Kennedy, Sarah Anne Langton, Barry Nugent, Hazel Thompson and Emma Vieceli.

Award Director Jared Shurin adds, “As with previous years, there’s no fee to submit to The Kitschies. And, as of this year, we’re happy to accept ebooks in lieu of physical copies – making it even easier for small and independent publishers to submit their work. We want to make sure that that our judges see all the great work that’s coming out of the UK.”

Please see http://www.thekitschies.com/submissions.html for more details.

More detail about the judges can be found at: http://www.thekitschies.com/judges.html

In 2012, The Kitschies received a record 211 submissions from 40 publishers and imprints. Submissions are now open for 2013 titles and close on 1 December 2013.

The short stories contained in this collection are: ‘The Stains’, ‘Just a Song at Twilight’, ‘Laura’, ‘Rosamund’s Bower’, and ‘Mark Ingestre: The Customer’s Tale’. We have added Aickman’s fantasy novella ‘The Model’, along with his ‘Essay’ written on winning the First World Fantasy Award, and his Introductions to The Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories. The volume contains an ‘Introduction’ by Barry Humphries, which is bookended by the reminiscence ‘Robert Remembered’ by Ramsey Campbell.

Night Voices is a sewn hardback of 316+ vii pages, printed lithographically, with silk ribbon marker, head and tailbands, and d/w. Price £32.50

Publication date 29th May 2013.

The as-yet unnamed book is the follow-up to 2013′s Nexus and the forthcoming Crux, and will be published in late 2014.

The deal for worldwide English and translation rights was negotiated by Angry Robot Senior Editor Lee Harris and Lucienne Diver of the Knight Agency.

Ramez was heard to say “I’m absolutely thrilled to be working with Angry Robot again for the third Nexus book. I couldn’t ask for better partners in bringing this story to life and getting it out to fans. Especially after I injected Nexus nanoparticles into their brains and used those to control the team’s every thought.”

Whilst Lee came back with “Absolute poppycock, of course. We bought the series because it is one of the smartest near-future technothrillers we’ve seen in ages, and not because Ramez (who, incidentally, is superhumanly handsome, gifted and generous, and an amazing dancer) is controlling our thoughts and actions.”

Ramez Naam is a professional technologist, and was involved in the development of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook. He was the CEO of Apex Nanotechnologies, a company involved in developing nanotechnology research software before returning to Microsoft. He holds a seat on the advisory board of the Institute for Accelerating Change, is a member of the World Future Society, a Senior Associate of the Foresight Institute, and a fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. Ramez is the author of More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement, and is also the recipient of the 2005 HG Wells Award for Contributions to Transhumanism, awarded by the World Transhumanist Association.

Nexus was his first novel, and Crux will be published in September 2013.

He can be found online, on Twitter and his site.

Black Mirrors is the debut collection from Paul Edwards. Originally published as a paperback by Rainfall Books, this title is now available as a Kindle edition from Screaming Dreams. Featuring fourteen stories of dark fiction to satisfy your twisted souls!

Available on Kindle from http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00CXACN5U and in ePub format from https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/318898

Screaming Dreams also have two other books now available on Smashwords:

Now That I’ve Lost You by Paul Edwards
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/318923

In these nineteen tales of love and loss, sex and death, you will brave witches, warlocks and the living dead; traverse uncharted, hypnotic highways; and you will meet up with green-eyed losers who inhabit small spaces: whether it’s graveyards, old churches, or their own echoing heads.

Songs from Spider Street by Mark Howard Jones
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/318614

Ambitious killers, haunted clowns, energetic layabouts, tender murderers, discontented lovers, honest thieves and the occassional mislaid hero all jostle for their place in a finely-spun web of desire and death, pleading to be heard. A collection of short story dark fiction.