Summer is gone, and the world is turning to ice.
The Rondian Empress Lyra has lost her husband, her army is defeated and the deadly Masked Cabal have seized the Holy City. Her allies have abandoned her and her empire is spiralling into chaos - and her only weapon is a forbidden magic she dare not use. She can't survive alone - but who can she still trust?
'Vibrant, memorable characters' - SciFi Now
The Eastern conqueror Sultan Rashid is victorious on the battlefield, but now he faces an enemy more deadly than Rondian knights: the winter. Unless he captures a major city to shelter his huge armies, his plans to overthrow the West face ruin in the snow. But standing between his men and safety is the remnants of a defeated army led by a general who knows all about fighting for survival.
'An epic journey of ordinary people destined to change the course of history... alluring... gripping' - BoHoMind.com
There are no easy options left. Lyra and her fellow dwymancers must master their deadly magic, whatever the cost. Even those who believe themselves to be fighting for good must grasp the reins of power with cold-hearted determination, and use even the most terrible weapon, if they are to stop the world from falling apart... for ever.
Read more: Hearts of Ice - David Hair
Review: The Rimini-Ferrara Line by Brendan Connell
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Reviews
Brendan Connell's The Rimini-Ferrara Line was published by Eibonvale Press in April 2018.
Information about Brendan Connell:
Brendan Connell was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1970. His works of fiction include Unpleasant Tales (Eibonvale Press, 2013), The Architect (PS Publishing, 2012), Lives of Notorious Cooks (Chômu Press, 2012), Miss Homicide Plays the Flute (Eibonvale Press, 2013), Cannibals of West Papua (Zagava, 2015), and Clark (Snuggly Books, 2016).
Click here to visit his official website.
Information about The Rimini-Ferrara Line:
Inspiring references and illusions to both Dante and Plato, Brendan Connell’s The Rimini-Ferrara Line is a work that asks pointed questions about the truths of vibrant beauty and the strange experiences of investigational prose. In this graceful and sympathetic book, the author brings a musician’s ear and the strategic force of a Napoleon to the infinitely amusing world of Italian trains.
This is an unusual and experimental chapbook constructed with a coloured interior.
REVIEW: THE RIMINI-FERRARA LINE BY BRENDAN CONNELL
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Review: How I Learned The Truth About Krampus by Tom Johnstone
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Reviews
Tom Johnstone's How I Learned The Truth About Krampus was published by Eibonvale Press in December 2017.
Information about Tom Johnstone:
Tom Johnstone writes horror stories.
He is the co-editor of Horror Uncut: Tales of Social Insecurity and Economic Unease (co-edited with Joel Lane).
Click here to visit his official website.
Information about How I Learned The Truth About Krampus:
Krampus is a horned, anthropomorphic figure of legend with a classic half-goat half-demonic appearance. The night of the 5th December is Krampusnacht, when this hairy devil appears on the streets – on his own or accompanying St. Nicholas, but always carrying a bundle of birch twigs ready to punish those who have misbehaved. At least, that’s how the folk-festivals that take place across Europe go. The truth may be stranger still. This is a sharp and intelligently written horror story that delves deep into seasonal mythology and folk legend. An atmospheric and chilling tale of the dark side of the winter season.
REVIEW: HOW I LEARNED THE TRUTH ABOUT KRAMPUS BY TOM JOHNSTONE
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Review: The Big-Headed People and Other Stories by D. F. Lewis
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Reviews
D. F. Lewis' The Big-Headed People and Other Stories was published by Eibonvale Press in December 2017.
Information about D. F. Lewis:
The Three Ages of D. F. Lewis (1948 - )
1. 1986-2000 – Over 1000 fiction publications in magazines and anthologies, culminating in the Prime Books Weirdmonger collection.
2. 2001-2010 – Publishing Nemonymous journal of fiction.
3. 2008 to date – Gestalt real-time reviews. (Plus one novel entitled Nemonymous Night, a collection, four novellas that were independently published and three originally created multi-authored anthologies.)
Click here to visit the The Des Lewis Gestalt Real-Time Reviews website.
Information about The Big-Headed People and Other Stories:
“The story missed a beat. It was sad. It never knew it could create such utter truth from such utter fantasy.”
These stories of D. F. Lewis are deeply rooted in both horror and dreams, yet told in a way that maybe comes closest to ‘outsider art’. These works are dreamlike in a true sense of the term, capturing that feeling of portentous yet seemingly random shifts in narrative, state and environment with complete ease. The results are both subtly unnerving in ways few horror stories manage and also demonstrate the author’s unique writing style.
This collection includes an expanded version of the title story plus four smaller pieces.
REVIEW: THE BIG-HEADED PEOPLE AND OTHER STORIES BY D. F. LEWIS
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Review: Daughters of Apostasy by Damian Murphy
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Reviews
Damian Murphy's Daughters of Apostasy was published by Snuggly Books in September 2017.
Information about Damian Murphy:
Damian Murphy is the author of The Academy Outside of Ingolstadt, Seduction of the Golden Pheasant, and The Exaltation of the Minotaur, among other collections and novellas. His work has been published on the Mount Abraxas, Les Éditions de L’Oubli, and L’Homme Récent imprints of Ex Occidente Press, in Bucharest, and by Zagava Books, in Dusseldorf. He was born and lives in Seattle, Washington.
Information about Daughters of Apostasy:
An act of trespass, the subtle topology of an opulent hotel, a lengthy composition involving an exiled abbess, a letter mailed to an unknown recipient, a border station concealed by inexplicable winds, an antiquated electronic game, a rite of passage modulated by a metronome, a Gnostic heresy, a ruined church, an employee engaged in illicit acts of passion: by these and several other devices to the daughters of apostasy seek to irritate the vessels of the earth. Strange wine may be distilled thereby, and thus might the obsessive aspirant perceive the tenets of a hidden doctrine.
In these five stories and novellas, the intrigues and stratagems of interlopers, initiates, poets, and bibliophiles are revealed in all of their illicit splendor. By way of complex and labyrinthine routes do they come to obtain impossible relics not known even among the kings of the earth.
REVIEW: DAUGHTERS OF APOSTASY BY DAMIAN MURPHY
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Guest post about Seraphina's Lament by Sarah Chorn
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
- Category: Guest Post
Risingshadow has the honour of publishing a guest post by the debut author Sarah Chorn.
About Sarah Chorn:
Sarah has been a compulsive reader her whole life. At a young age, she found her reading niche in the fantastic genre of Speculative Fiction. She blames her active imagination for the hobbies that threaten to consume her life. She is a writer and editor, a semi-pro nature photographer, world traveler, three-time cancer survivor, and mom. In her ideal world, she’d do nothing but drink lots of tea and read from a never-ending pile of speculative fiction books. You can visit her website at www.bookwormblues.net
About Seraphina's Lament:
The world is dying.
The Sunset Lands are broken, torn apart by a war of ideology paid for with the lives of the peasants. Drought holds the east as famine ravages the farmlands. In the west, borders slam shut in the face of waves of refugees, dooming all of those trying to flee to slow starvation, or a future in forced labor camps. There is no salvation.
In the city of Lord’s Reach, Seraphina, a slave with unique talents, sets in motion a series of events that will change everything. In a fight for the soul of the nation, everyone is a player. But something ominous is calling people to Lord’s Reach and the very nature of magic itself is changing. Paths will converge, the battle for the Sunset Lands has shifted, and now humanity itself is at stake.
First, you must break before you can become.
Publishing date: February 19th, 2019.
Links:
Guest post about Seraphina's Lament by Sarah Chorn
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