Dr. Strange meets Jason Bourne: The wizards of World War II become the sorcerers of the Cold War in this globe-spanning thriller sequel to The Midnight Front
1954: In SouthEast Asia, Cade Martin, hero of the Midnight Front during World War II, chases ghosts and flees his past. In the United States, Briet Segfrunsdóttir heads the Pentagon's top-secret magickal warfare program. And In South America, Anja Kernova hunts fugitive Nazi sorcerers with the help of a powerful magickal tome known as the Iron Codex.
In an ever-more dangerous world, a chance encounter sparks an international race to find Anja and steal the Iron Codex. Anja is hunted by friend and foe alike toward a showdown on Bikini Atoll in March 1954: the Castle Bravo nuclear test, where science and black magic are destined to collide.
Read more: The Iron Codex - David Mack
Review: The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Reviews
Linnea Hartsuyker's The Half-Drowned King was published by HarperCollins/Little, Brown in August 2017.
Information about Linnea Hartsuyker:
Linnea Hartsuyker is a graduate of NYU's Fiction MFA program and Cornell University's Engineering school, and has been researching the rise and reign of Harald Fairhair since she first discovered she was descended from him at the age of seventeen, when her family traced its ancestry back through 1200 years of Swedish and Norwegian church records. Since then she has read extensively of Icelandic sagas, kayaked and skied the fjordland settings for this novel, and even become proficient in lifting Husafjell stones, as the Vikings did to become stronger.
Click here to visit her official website.
Information about The Half-Drowned King:
Since the death of Ragnvald Eysteinsson's father in battle, he has worked hard to protect his sister Svanhild and planned to inherit his family's land when he comes of age. But when the captain of his ship tries to kill him on the way home from a raiding excursion, he must confront his stepfather's betrayal, and find a way to protect his birthright. It is no easy feat in Viking-Age Norway, where a hundred petty rulers kill over parcels of land, and a prophesied high king is rising.
But where Ragnvald is expected to bleed, and even die, for his honour, Svanhild is simply expected to marry well. It's not a fate she relishes, and when the chance to leave her stepfather's cruelty comes at the hand of her brother's arch-rival, Svanhild is forced to make the ultimate choice: family or freedom.
Drawing from the Icelandic Sagas, The Half-Drowned King takes inspiration from the true story of Ragnvald of Maer, the right hand man of King Harald Fairhair, first king of all Norway, and his sister, Svanhild, as she tries to find freedom in a society where the higher her brother rises, the greater her worth as a political pawn.
REVIEW: THE HALF-DROWNED KING BY LINNEA HARTSUYKER
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Review: Resonance and Revolt by Rosanne Rabinowitz
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Reviews
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
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
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
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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