Review: Resonance and Revolt by Rosanne Rabinowitz

Written by Seregil of Rhiminee

Category: Reviews

Published: 09 December 2018

Rosanne Rabinowitz's Resonance and Revolt was published by Eibonvale Press in March 2018.

Information about Rosanne Rabinowitz in her own words:

"I started writing when I produced ‘zines in the 1990s like Feminaxe and Bad Attitude, contributing articles, reviews and interviews. Then I began to make stuff up. My fiction has since found its way into anthologies and magazines and I completed a creative writing MA at Sheffield Hallam University. My novella Helen's Story was a finalist for the 2013 Shirley Jackson Award for achievement in the ‘literature of the dark fantastic’. I live in South London, an area that Arthur Machen once described as "shapeless, unmeaning, dreary, dismal beyond words." In this most unshapen place I engage in a variety of occupations including care work, copywriting and freelance editing. I spend a lot of time drinking coffee and listening to loud music while looking out my tenth-floor window. Sometimes it's whisky."

Click here to visit her official website.

Information about Resonance and Revolt:

"Unfulfilled desires transmit themselves across the years in unfathomable ways..." - From Greil Marcus, Lipstick Traces

A sect of sensual medieval heretics stumbles upon the secrets of quantum entanglement, a centuries-old wanderer thrives on rebellion as well as blood in the ruins of post-WWI Munich. Anti-austerity demonstrations lead to haunting connections with past and parallel events, while quantum computing meets 'welfare reform' in our near-future. Meanwhile, persecuted Jews in early 20th century Russia must decide whether extraterrestrials are allies or the schnorrers out of space.

The stories of Rosanne Rabinowitz span the centuries in a remarkable mixture of European history and the familiar world of modern Britain – as well as some all-too-likely near futures. These stories are rooted in the spirit of resistance and rebellion without ever feeling didactic. They are coloured with a sense of the fantastic, the surreal and even the mystical – rubbing shoulders with the reality that arises from every street, every shout of fury or peal of laughter, every dizzying glimpse of human possibilities.

"All together as they are here, they weave a cyclical sense of the ebb and flow of power and tyranny and resistance, yet the end result is not hopeless but quite the opposite. Just like so many of the characters in Rosanne’s writing, as we read these stories gathered in one volume, we begin to see ourselves as living with echoes of and surrounded by the past. That the struggle is ongoing does not make it seem futile; instead, we are connected, for as one character notes, “what we call time, and history, exists in layers all around us. And I should be able to see every one of them.” Reading Rosanne’s stories feels like standing in the ruins of a thousand-year-old fortress where you can almost hear the past breathing around you, or in some other liminal place: a magical wood, perhaps, but sometimes the most ordinary of city streets, where you might slip into somewhere else before you realize what’s happened." - From the Introduction by Lynda E. Rucker

"I will always raise my voice and write things down so people will know about them. I will never be like a bell without a tongue." - From The Bells of the Harelle

REVIEW: RESONANCE AND REVOLT BY ROSANNE RABINOWITZ

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Review: A Deep Horror That Was Very Nearly Awe by J.R. Hamantaschen

Written by Seregil of Rhiminee

Category: Reviews

Published: 28 November 2018

J.R. Hamantaschen's A Deep Horror That Was Very Nearly Awe was published in September 2018.

Information about J.R. Hamantaschen:

J.R. is a part time fiction writer. His work has appeared in several dozen magazines and anthologies. Generally disdainful of publicizing himself or his work, he has published intermittently, never maintained a personal website, and changed his surname frequently over the years. His debut short story collection, You Shall Never Know Security, was published in 2011.

Information about A Deep Horror That Was Very Nearly Awe:

J.R. Hamantaschen’s third collection of short stories delivers more inimitable dark fiction. These are eleven tales of macabre horror, filled with estrangement, honor, wonder, terror, delusion, pity, desperation and perseverance.

REVIEW: A DEEP HORROR THAT WAS VERY NEARLY AWE BY J.R. HAMANTASCHEN

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Review: At the Cemetery Gates: Volume Two by Brehl and Sullivan

Written by Seregil of Rhiminee

Category: Reviews

Published: 24 November 2018

Brhel and Sullivan's At the Cemetery Gates: Volume Two was by Cemetery Gates Media in October 2018.

Information about the authors:

John Brhel is a horror writer from upstate New York. His work has appeared in "The Vault of Ghastly Tales." He is the co-author of "Tales From Valleyview Cemetery"." He blogs at http://cemeterygatesmedia.tumblr.com/. His Twitter handle is @JohnBrhel.

Joseph Sullivan is a writer of horror tales (Tales from Valleyview Cemetery), occult fantasy (Marvelry's Curiosity Shop), explorer of urban legend (upcoming Route 12: The Legend Trip) hiker, songwriter, and co-founder of Cemetery Gates Media. His long-term writing goal is to combine his love of poetry, the American novel, and Upstate New York into one cohesive work of fiction.

Information about At the Cemetery Gates: Volume Two:

Illustrated by Chad Wehrle.

A man finds himself camping in the middle of a serial killer's burying grounds.

Two brothers uncover a secret more heinous than they ever imagined when snooping around in their neighbor's house.

A graduate student captures an urban legend on his school's famed 'Suicide Bridge.'

At the Cemetery Gates: Volume Two is a book for hellhounds, nostalgic crypt keepers, and creepypasta aficionados.

REVIEW: AT THE CEMETERY GATES: VOLUME TWO BY BRHEL AND SULLIVAN

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Review: Emperor of Mu by Jason Beveridge

Written by Seregil of Rhiminee

Category: Reviews

Published: 19 November 2018

Jason Beveridge's Emperor of Mu was published in October 2017.

Information about Jason Beveridge (in his own words):

"My creative journey began while living in London designing a fantasy board game, titled the Middle Kingdom of Mu. In quiet moments, often travelling overseas on business, I had fun writing the lore and exploring different realms. Why a board game? Back then, I thought digital games would deprive our two sons of social interaction and limit their development. How the world has changed since.

Although my early career was in marketing, I never thought about creative writing, let alone whether I had the aptitude or the time. On holiday travelling to Bali, I discovered through my new Kindle, emerging novelists writing great fantasy and Sci-Fi, and this encouraged me to have a crack.

So, after years of playing the corporate warrior, I have found time to explore my creative side and give chase to wondrous ideas and storytelling that I never knew existed and sides to me I didn't know about. Yep, it's a bit self-revealing; who would have thought?

I've found that reading fantasy, especially epic fantasy, requires time and effort to allow yourself to be immersed in new worlds and their lore. So, I built a graphic website for readers to explore the World of Mu and learn about its history, lore and key characters. I'm hoping this extra effort will make the reader's journey more enjoyable and easier. Visiting www.sagaofsix.com may help you decide whether this saga is of interest before taking the plunge.

I now live in Sydney helping business owners to develop and grow their businesses (which I enjoy and pays the bills), and with the rest of my time, I pursue the wonderous."

Click here to visit the official Saga of the Six Realms website (Reader's Companion Site).

Information about Emperor of Mu:

It begins on the eve of civil war with Emperor Constantine summoning his closest confidant Salvarre to a private meeting. Sworn to secrecy, he instructs Salvarre to dispatch a letter to the Sorceress of the Powers, but the news arrives too late. Constantine is murdered, and Mu is thrown into turmoil as the rulers of the six realms decide who is to become the next emperor.

While Mu elects a successor, the outland races stir. The hunt for those with forbidden dark elf blood threatens another Elvic War. To the north, rumours spread of dragons returning after a three hundred cycle absence. In the desert lands, the fearless Imanishi defend the empire from the night demons, while South of Mu, the sea invaders consolidate their rule.

This is a story of rivalry, romances, and battles between race and kind alike that keeps you guessing with its twists and turns. Set in the medieval world of Mu, where the powers of the mind and mysticism set apart the extraordinary, this new series redefines what it means to be human.

If you like a fast-moving epic with mystery and intrigue set on a big stage, please consider this page-turner.

REVIEW: EMPEROR OF MU BY JASON BEVERIDGE

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An exclusive excerpt from The Arrival of Missives by Aliya Whiteley

Written by Seregil of Rhiminee

Category: Others

Published: 16 November 2018

Risingshadow has the honour of hosting an exclusive excerpt from The Arrival of Missives by Aliya Whiteley (published by Titan Books).

About Aliya Whiteley:

Aliya Whiteley was born in Devon in 1974, and currently lives in West Sussex, UK. She writes novels, short stories and non-fiction and has been published in places such as The Guardian, Interzone, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Black Static, Strange Horizons, and anthologies such as Unsung Stories’ 2084 and Lonely Planet’s Better than Fiction I and II. She has been shortlisted for a Shirley Jackson Award, British Fantasy and British Science Fiction awards, the John W Campbell Award, and a James Tiptree Jr award. Her stories are unpredictable; they can be terrifying, tender, ferocious and deeply funny. She also regularly reviews film, books and television for Den of Geek. She blogs at: aliyawhiteley.wordpress.com and she tweets most days as @AliyaWhiteley.

About The Arrival of Missives:

In the aftermath of the Great War, Shirley Fearn dreams of challenging the conventions of rural England, where life is as predictable as the changing of the seasons. The scarred veteran Mr. Tiller, left disfigured by an impossible accident on the battlefields of France, brings with him a message: part prophecy, part warning. Will it prevent her mastering her own destiny? As the village prepares for the annual May Day celebrations, where a new queen will be crowned and the future will be reborn again, Shirley must choose: change or renewal?

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT FROM THE ARRIVAL OF MISSIVES BY ALIYA WHITELEY

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