Following the success of HORROR FOR GOOD in raising funds for amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, Nightscape Press presents FANTASY FOR GOOD: A CHARITABLE ANTHOLOGY edited by Jordan Ellinger and Richard Salter.

More details regarding submissions will be coming soon but for now check out their Facebook page HERE

BUTTERFLY POTION by Trent Zelazny, Nightscape Press, Paperback £4.64, eBook £1.98 94pp http://www.nightscapepress.com/butterfly-potion/

Reviewed by Chris Limb

Perry is at rock bottom.

Waking up mid afternoon lying in the dirt, his wallet and cell phone stolen, his recall of the previous evening flawed and fractured, all he can do is return to the scene of his last coherent memory. The bar. Here he can start drinking again before beginning his quest to find out what just what happened to him and who took his possessions. Enlisting the help of fellow barfly Talia, he embarks on a journey which forces him to confront the tragedy in his recent past, an event that sits at the centre of his mind like a tumour slowly eating away at his sanity…

Despite the fact that the events of ‘Butterfly Potion’ take place over less than twenty-four hours and despite the fact that nothing much really happens, this novella is a compelling read and one that the reader will probably devour in one sitting. An exploration of the darkness of the human mind, this noir mood piece engages the reader with the sheer power of its prose and makes even the darkest of descriptive passages compelling.  The confusion and panic that results from swathes of missing time are convincingly described, as are the irrational decisions the protagonist makes as he stumbles through the long dark night of this novella.

Perry, to whose thought processes we are privy, is utterly flawed but nevertheless engaging and shrewd, possessing a mind that on occasion can cut through the fog of his alcohol induced daze to work out what has happened to him.  His counterpoint, Talia, is a femme fatale only ever seen from the outside and therefore perhaps more difficult to get a handle on, but in the end she comes through for Perry and perhaps together they will be able to see the possibility of a brighter future.

‘Butterfly Potion’ is an absorbing account of human misery, touched with a scintilla of hope.

WORLD’S COLLIDER: A SHARED-WORLD ANTHOLOGY edited by Richard Salter, Nightscape Press, p/b, £9.28/£2.66 Kindle edition www.nightscapepress.com

Reviewed by Katy O’Dowd

In the near future, an experiment at the Large Hadron Collider causes an enormous explosion, known as the Collision. Over the next decade, unspeakable horrors pour from the rift. This onslaught of terror causes the collapse of civilization and threatens to wipe humanity from the planet.

Believe me when I say this book is awesome. There aren’t enough different words for the word love to let me tell you how much I loved it. The concept, the writing, the mash-up of horror, sci-fi and fantasy, the tying together of the narrative throughout the book which is so superbly done. Beauteous to behold this strange, horrible-yet-vibrant new world.

Special mentions to Nicholas Blake who made me cry, and to Steven Savile with Steve Lockley who brought all the threads together so wonderfully in the penultimate story.

James Moran’s ‘Inversions’ introduces us to Scott Fletcher – the only man in the world who knows that it is going to end. A blogger keeps track of the beginning of the end in ‘Keep Calm And Carry On Part One’, by David N Smith and Violet Addison. Kelly Hale’s ‘The Rise And Fall Of The House Of Ricky’ features a designer whose clothes people are dying to be seen in.

A lethal gas is no laughing matter in ‘Keep Calm And Carry On Part Two’ (the same authors wrote parts one to four). Joseph meets himself in an alternate reality in Aaron Rosenberg’s ‘Displacement’; while in Part Three of the Keep Calm stories, the impact of the catastrophic events continues to be felt.

‘The Coming Scream’ by Simon Kurt Unsworth features Scott, fighting against an audible entity. Paul Pearson’s ‘Doors’ is a creeping psychological horror where sanity battles to keep the upper hand. Scott’s chances rest on a woman whose mother’s love knows no bounds in Pete Kempshall’s ‘Closure’.

Bugs from the rift terrorise a desert bar in ‘Black Closure’ by Trent Zelazny. Dave Hoskin’s ‘Collisions’ sees Joseph allow an intruder into his mind. Nicholas Blake’s ‘What Little Boys Are Made Of’ is a heartrending story told from a six year old boy’s point of view.

Dave Hutchinson’s ‘Beyond The Sea’ made me laugh out loud within its opening lines of Death Metal and Rogers and Hammerstein show tunes. In ‘Caught’ by Elise Hattersley, we are in the web of the riftspider; while Colin rides the never-ending railway in Jonathan Templar’s ‘Basher’.

Rats are caught in a trap by earthly angels in Meg Moore’s disturbing ‘Lead Us Not’. Jordan Ellinger’s ‘The Last CEO’ features the fixers vs the Queen gasbag. And there is bird-watching of a riftly kind in Richard Wright’s ‘Twitchers’.

Steven Savile and Steve Lockley’s ‘Lost Souls’ features an epic showdown when the lost souls within the rift collide with the four keepers of the earth. Part Four of the Keep Calm series brings us to a chilling end.

Go buy this book. You won’t regret it.

A REQUIEM FOR DEAD FLIES by Peter N. Dudar, Nightscape Press, p/b, $14.99; ebook, $2.99, http://www.nightscapepress.com/

Reviewed by David Brzeski

The best horror stories are based upon the fear of the unknown. They don’t have clearly defined monsters, with clearly defined strengths and weaknesses.

There is evil at Battle View Farm. It started for Lester and Gordon MacAuley when they were sent to stay there one summer, while their parents recovered from the trauma of a miscarriage. Grandma Vivian is acting oddly and she’s getting worse. She talks to dead flies and they tell her things.

The story of the two young boys’ terrifying experiences, as their grandmother spirals into madness is alternated with the events of fifteen years later when they return to the farm to follow Gordon’s ambition to start a business, brewing Bourbon.

Things start well, but there are hints that something is awry and gradually the madness starts again.

Peter N. Dudar alternates between these two separate events, gradually revealing more of what happened in a truly masterful manner, which keeps the reader gripped in suspense, while formulating theories of their own that may, but probably won’t be borne out.

This may be his first novel, but Peter N. Dudar has been writing and publishing horror fiction for some ten years and it certainly shows in this excellent book.

New small press publisher Nightscape Press (established by Robert S. Wilson and Mark C. Scioneaux) will open to submissions immediately following the World Horror Convention on 2 April 2012. They are seeking quality novellas (15,000 to 50,000 words) and novels (50,000 to 120,000 words) in the following genres: horror; science fiction with a strong horror element; and fantasy with a strong horror element.

They will not accept submissions for short story collections, graphic novels or erotica.

Full details on how to submit your manuscript HERE

Mark C. Scioneaux and Robert S. Wilson, founders and co-editors of Horror for Good: A Charitable Anthology, have teamed up with Jennifer M. Wilson to form Nightscape Press. Nightscape Press is a new horror press that will publish novels, novellas, and, occasionally, anthologies with a strong focus on variety and quality over quantity. Along with this focus will be a firm concentration on nurturing and promoting the author and their work. Nightscape Press will open to submissions on 2 April 2012 immediately following the World Horror Convention.

Their first planned title is World’s Collider, an apocalyptic anthology edited by Richard Salter.

“The Collision is the worst disaster in human history. So far…

In the near future, an experiment at the Large Hadron Collider causes an enormous explosion, known as the Collision. The blast flattens a huge chunk of central Europe and punches a massive hole in the Earth’s surface. Over the next decade, unspeakable horrors pour from the rift: vicious creatures with a taste for human flesh, a terrible scream that drives all who hear it insane, a phantom entity that feeds on fear and paranoia, and a nightmare train from the pits of hell, to name but a few. This onslaught of terror causes the collapse of civilization and threatens to wipe humanity from the planet.

World’s Collider is a unique concept in short fiction, where all eighteen original stories are part of a common narrative, recounting the disaster and its aftermath. A novel by many voices, including Steven Savile, James Moran, Aaron Rosenberg, Trent Zelazny, Jonathan Green, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Kelly Hale, Richard Wright, and a host of new talent.

Fifty million people died in the Collision. They were the lucky ones…”