A review of Richard Gavin's At Fear's Altar

Seregil of Rhiminee (Tuesday, 20 November 2012 11:16 pm)

Category: Articles

Richard Gavin's At Fear's Altar was published by Hippocampus Press in October 2012.

Richard Gavin is the author of three previous short story collections, Charnel Wine (2004), Omens (2007), and The Darkly Splendid Realm (2009). He lives in Ontario, Canada, with his beloved wife and their brood.

Click here to visit the author's official website.

Here's a description of At Fear's Altar:

Canadian author Richard Gavin has established himself as a leading contemporary writer of weird fiction. His richly nuanced prose style, his imaginative range, and his shrewdness in the portrayal of character and domestic conflict make his tales far more than mere shudder-coining. In this fourth collection of short stories and novelettes, Gavin again casts a wide imaginative net, from haunted Canadian woodlands to the carnivorous mesas of the American frontier, from Lovecraft's New England to the spirit traditions of Japan. Of the dozen stories included in this book, eight are previously unpublished - a rich new feast of terror for devotees of a writer who works in the tradition of Poe, Machen, Blackwood, and Ligotti.

A REVIEW OF RICHARD GAVIN'S AT FEAR'S ALTAR

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A review of Brendan Connell's Lives of Notorious Cooks

Seregil of Rhiminee (Tuesday, 20 November 2012 2:31 pm)

Category: Articles

Brendan Connell's Lives of Notorious Cooks will be published by Chômu Press in December 2012.

Here's a description of Lives of Notorious Cooks:

When he reached the age of 767, Peng Zu was sought after by the benevolent Emperor Yao, who wished to receive advice on ruling the nation. Peng Zu made a thick soup for the emperor out of pheasant, Job’s tear seeds and plums, well salted. Eating the dish, the emperor felt as if he were sitting on air. He was filled with a deep cosmic joy in which he saw everything clearly.

“You see,” Peng Zu said, “the gravest problems of state can be resolved over a bowl of soup. The people, seeing you live frugally will not resent you. When the ruler is calm, the nation is calm.”

Learn of the outrageous and sometimes dubious lives of Peng Zu and fifty other notorious cooks from the pages of history and legend, in a picaresque dictionary of delicious and playful story-telling.

A REVIEW OF BRENDAN CONNELL'S LIVES OF NOTORIOUS COOKS

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A review of Antony Innis Travers' The Lee Shore

Seregil of Rhiminee (Sunday, 18 November 2012 4:15 pm)

Category: Articles

Antony Innis Travers' The Lee Shore was published by Alfresco Press in June 2012. Alfresco Press is an independent publisher.

Antony Innis Travers is a debut author. His official website can be found here.

Here's a description of The Lee Shore:

The Lee Shore: A Parable of Apocalypse, Carnal Knowledge & Quantum Theory; a Sailing Primer... & a Love Story

It's a common enough occurrence for a sailor to become romantically involved with a responsive vessel - though seldom so intimately. And many a mariner, becalmed, might have dreamt of a lover who could raise the wind - but few find such creatures in the local pub. With both in the same port, however... it's just a matter of time before his sailboat invites his new girlfriend over for tea and a chat regarding polygamous marriage customs.

When charting a coastline that's still a squalling infant is the family business, where you go from here is always the tricky part.

A REVIEW OF ANTONY INNIS TRAVERS' THE LEE SHORE

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A review of Donald Michael Platt's A Gathering of Vultures

Seregil of Rhiminee (Monday, 12 November 2012 10:52 am)

Category: Articles

Donald Michael Platt's A Gathering of Vultures was published by DarkHart Press (an imprint of Briona Glen Publishing LLC) in 2012. This novel was originally published in 2007.

Donald Michael Platt is an American author. Click here to visit his official website.

Here's a description of A Gathering of Vultures:

MURDER, MUTILATION, CARRION... IN PARADISE?

"There shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate." – ISAIAH 34:15

Professional ballroom dancers Terri and Rick Hamilton aspire to be world champions. Unfortunately, Terri's recurring back and health problems place that goal well out of reach.

They travel to Terri's birthplace, Florianópolis, on the scenic island of Santa Catarina off the coast of Brazil to vacation and visit their best friends and mentors.

Along the picturesque beaches, dead penguins and eviscerated bodies wash up on the shores of paradise, and Antarctic blasts play counterpoint to the tropical storms that rock the island. The scenic wonder is home not only to urubús, a unique sub-species of the black vulture, but also to a clique of mysterious women who offer Terri perfect health and the promise of fame – at a terrible price.

Rick fears Terri is being drawn into a cult and that his own life may be in danger. Will it be too late when he discovers something even more terrifying lives beneath the tranquil, tropical veneer of the island?

Idyllic one moment and nightmarish the next, you never know what you'll encounter in the city of Florianópolis – murder, mutilations, carrion, or the lure of eternal youth.

A REVIEW OF DONALD MICHAEL PLATT'S A GATHERING OF VULTURES

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A review of Larry Ivkovich's The Sixth Precept

Seregil of Rhiminee (Saturday, 10 November 2012 12:28 pm)

Category: Articles

Larry Ivkovich's The Sixth Precept was published by IFWG Publishing in 2011.

Here's information about the author:

IT professional Larry Ivkovich is the author of several science fiction, fantasy and horror short stories and novellas, published online and in various print publications and anthologies including M-Brane SF, Afterburn SF, Penumbra Magazine, Twisted Cat Tales, Abaculus III, Raw Terror, Triangulations and Aoife's Kiss Shelter of Daylight. He has also been a finalist in the L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future contest and was the 2010 recipient of the CZP/Rannu Fund Award for fiction. His fantasy adventure novella, Reunion at Olan, will be published in 2012 by Wolfsinger Publications. Larry is a member of two local writing/critique groups, the Pittsburgh Southwrites and the Pittsburgh Worldrights and lives in Coraopolis, PA with his wife Martha and cats Trixie and Milo.

Here's a description of The Sixth Precept:

In 16th century medieval Japan, Yoshima Mitsu, who is gifted with psychic powers, uses her prescient abilities to send her young attendant, Shioko, into the future. There, Mitsu belives Shioko will be safe from the purges of the maniacal warlord Omori Kadanamora, his warrior monks, and his half-human, half-bestial Shadow Trackers.

In present-day Pittsburgh, police lieutenant Kim Yoshima is attacked by a creature out of someone's twisted nightmare. In the aftermath of the terrifying struggle, Kin finds a young Japanese girl named Shioko, lost, confused, and calling Kim "Mitsu" and her monstrous attacker a "Shadow Tracker."

Wayne Brewster dreams of a costumed hero, ArcNight. But more than that, he feels bizarrely connected to the fictional crime fighter as if ArcNight and his comic book world are real. And in all of his dreams, Wayne sees one constant, one face repeated over and over - the face of Kim Yoshima.

Using her powers, Kim, accompanied by Shioko and Wayne, travels by means of a temporal rift to feudal Japan. There they must assume different personas to fight Omori and creatures of Japan's mythological world to fulfill ancient prophesy and modern historical fact.

If they fail, history will be altered and the world will be forever changed.

A REVIEW OF LARRY IVKOVICH'S THE SIXTH PRECEPT

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