A review of Kenny Soward's Rough Magic

Written by Seregil of Rhiminee (Tuesday, 07 May 2013 12:26 pm)

Category: Articles

Kenny Soward's debut fantasy book, Rough Magic (Book I of the GnomeSaga), was published in March 2013.

Information about the author:

Kenny Soward grew up in Crescent Park, Kentucky, a small suburb just south of Cincinnati, Ohio, listening to AC/DC, Quiet Riot, and Iron Maiden. In those quiet 1970's streets, he jumped bikes, played Nerf football, and acquired many a childhood scar.

At the age of sixteen, he learned to play drums, and did so with a passion. Kenny bashed skins for many groups over the next twenty years, and his musical tastes grew to include folk, alternative, bluegrass, and new age.

By day, Kenny works as a Unix professional, and at night he writes and sips bourbon.

Rough Magic is Kenny's first high fantasy novel, Book I of the GnomeSaga.

Kenny lives in Independence, Kentucky, with three cats and a gal who thinks she's a cat.

Click here to visit the author's Facebook page.

Information about Rough Magic:

Niksabella the gnome has tinkered in the shadows for years, developing an invention that might change the world, even if she doesn't know it yet. She has few friends and even fewer allies in the city of Hightower, where social and academic status is quite important.

Her brother, Nikselpik, is a cantankerous wizard who drinks too much, sings dirty songs, and makes rude passes at gnomestresses. A dark addiction consumes him, a habit called bugging, which gives him increased power and feelings of euphoria while pushing him closer to death.

Dark creatures from the ultraworlds have come calling. Niksabella must fight to protect her life and her invention, while Nikselpik engages the enemy as an unlikely guest of Hightower's military elite.

Niksabella and Nikselpik must find their true powers together, or perish apart. Will they heal the wounds of their childhood before it's too late?

A REVIEW OF KENNY SOWARD'S ROUGH MAGIC

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GUEST POST (AND GIVEAWAY): Life (almost) imitating art by Sean Benham, author of Blope

Written by Seregil of Rhiminee (Thursday, 02 May 2013 8:43 am)

Category: Articles

Risinghadow has the honour of publishing a guest post article by Sean Benham, the author of Blope.

Information about Sean Benham:

Sean Benham is a Toronto-based entertainment industry professional who has worked as an art director, graphic animator, writer and producer on everything from Emmy award-winning children’s television programming to heavy metal music videos.

Blope is Sean Benham’s debut novel.

Click here to visit Sean Benham official website and click here to visit the official book website.

Life (almost) imitating art

By Sean Benham, author of Blope

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A review of D.E.M. Emrys' From Man to Man

Written by Seregil of Rhiminee (Tuesday, 30 April 2013 3:10 pm)

Category: Articles

D.E.M. Emrys' short story, From Man to Man, was published in October 2012.

Information about the author:

D. E. M. Emrys is the author of the Wroge Elements fantasy series.

Click here to visit his blog.

Information about From Man to Man:

'I've traded my old enemies for just this one...' The axe thundered home. 'I miss the old ones.'

Every man has a past, none more so than Draven Reinhardt. Abandoning his old life to settle down as a villager, he struggles to fit in, let alone hold down a job. When opportunity offers the much needed coin, Draven is torn between a promise and a purpose.

But, what's one last job if you've already got blood on your hands?

'From Man to Man' is the story of how one man can change – or not – for the best. Prequel to the upcoming novel 'It Began With Ashes', the short (6400 words) introduces the reader to a world of suspense, intrigue, and action.

A REVIEW OF D.E.M. EMRYS' FROM MAN TO MAN

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A review of Lord Horror: Reverbstorm (script by David Britton, art by John Coulthart)

Written by Seregil of Rhiminee (Monday, 29 April 2013 5:48 pm)

Category: Articles

David Britton and John Coulthart's graphic novel, Lord Horror: Reverbstorm, was published by Savoy Books in February 2013.

Information about David Britton:

David Britton is a British author, artist, and publisher. In the 1970s he founded Weird Fantasy and Crucified Toad, a series of small press magazines of the speculative fiction and horror genres. In 1976 Britton co-founded (with Michael Butterworth) the controversial publishing house Savoy Books.

Click here to read more about David Britton.

Information about John Coulthart:

John Coulthart (born March 15, 1962) is a British graphic artist, illustrator, author and designer who has produced book covers and illustrations, CD covers and posters. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed Lovecraft-inspired book The Haunter of the Dark and Other Grotesque Visions which contains a collaboration with Alan Moore entitled The Great Old Ones that is unique to this book and also has an introduction by Alan Moore.

He has been updating a daily blog entitled feuilleton cataloguing interests, obsessions and passing enthusiasms since February 2006 and also uses twitter.

He was nominated for a British Fantasy Award, for Best Artist, in 2005. In 2012 he won the Artist of the Year award at the World Fantasy Awards.

Click here to visit John Coulthart's official website.

Information about Lord Horror: Reverbstorm:

"Surfin' bird Bbbbbbbbbbrbrbrbrbrb...awawawawawawawaaaaaah! A-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa- Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-ooma-mow-mow Papa-oom-mow-mow!"

- The Trashmen, 'Surfin' Bird'

Welcome to the nightmare metropolis of Torenbürgen, where New York's Art Deco architecture has fused with the termination machinery of Auschwitz. In this urban inferno Jessie Matthews is singing Sondheim, James Joyce is at work on a new novel and Lord Horror, ex-Nazi propaganda broadcaster and Torenbürgen's model citizen, is stalking the streets in search of fresh victims for his razors. Murderous apes infest the alleyways, Ononoes feast on the living and the dead, while above the rooftops the Soul of the Virgin Mary drifts like a swollen Lovecraftian dirigible, picking at bodies destined for the charnel furnaces.

Lord Horror: Reverbstorm is a unique graphic collaboration between writer David Britton, the author of four Lord Horror novels, and artist John Coulthart, whose book of Lovecraft-derived comic strips and illustrations, The Haunter of the Dark, featured a collaboration with Alan Moore. Reverbstorm was originally published in serial form and is now being presented in a single volume for the very first time. Britton's debut novel, Lord Horror (1990), was the last work of fiction to be banned in the UK; an earlier Lord Horror comic series, Hard Core Horror, was also banned by a British court in 1995. Coulthart's death-camp artwork from the final issue in that series appears in Reverbstorm as a prelude to the main narrative. There's never been a comic like this surreal collision between Modernist art and pulp aesthetics, a world where Finnegans Wake is drenched in Alligator Wine and Picasso's 'Guernica' is invaded by Tarzan's simian hordes. Ambitious, transgressive and meticulously rendered, Reverbstorm is one answer to the eternal question posed by those cultural philosophers, The Cramps: "How far can too far go?"

"Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronn-
tuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!"

- James Joyce, Finnegans Wake

A REVIEW OF LORD HORROR: REVERBSTORM (SCRIPT BY DAVID BRITTON, ART BY JOHN COULTHART)

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A review of Martha Wells' Emilie and the Hollow World

Written by Seregil of Rhiminee (Sunday, 28 April 2013 12:45 pm)

Category: Articles

Martha Well's Emilie and the Hollow World was published by Strange Chemistry in March/April 2013.

Information about Martha Wells:

Martha Wells is the author of five Ile-Rien novels (The Element of Fire, The Death of the Necromancer, The Wizard Hunters, The Ships of Air and The Gate of Gods), Books of the Raksura trilogy (The Cloud Roads, The Serpent Sea and The Siren Depths), City of Bones, Wheel of the Infinite and two Stargate Atlantis novels (Stargate Atlantis: Reliquary and Stargate Atlantis: Entanglement). She has also written short stories and non-fiction articles.

Martha Wells' official website can be found here.

Information about Emilie and the Hollow World:

While running away from home for reasons that are eminently defensible, Emilie’s plans to stow away on the steamship Merry Bell and reach her cousin in the big city go awry, landing her on the wrong ship and at the beginning of a fantastic adventure.

Taken under the protection of Lady Marlende, Emilie learns that the crew hopes to use the aether currents and an experimental engine, and with the assistance of Lord Engal, journey to the interior of the planet in search of Marlende’s missing father.

With the ship damaged on arrival, they attempt to traverse the strange lands on their quest. But when evidence points to sabotage and they encounter the treacherous Lord Ivers, along with the strange race of the sea-lands, Emilie has to make some challenging decisions and take daring action if they are ever to reach the surface world again.

A REVIEW OF MARTHA WELLS' EMILIE AND THE HOLLOW WORLD

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