Risingshadow - Articles

A review of Neal Asher's Infinity Engine

: Written by Seregil of Rhiminee; Published: 16 July 2017

Neal Asher's Infinity Engine was published by Night Shade Books in the US in March 2017.

Information about Neal Asher:

Neal Asher was born 1961 in Billericay, Essex, the son of a school teacher and a lecturer in applied mathematics who were also SF aficionados.

Prior to 2000 the Asher had stories accepted by British small press SF and fantasy magazines but post 2000 his writing career took flight. Pan Macmillan offered him a three-book contract and have now published many more UK, America, Russia, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Japan Czechoslovakia and Romania. The majority of his novels are set within one future history, known as the Polity universe. The Polity encompasses many classic science fiction tropes including world-ruling artificial intelligences, androids, hive minds and aliens.

Click here to visit his official website.

Information about Infinity Engine:

The rogue AI Penny Royal makes a final stand in the explosive conclusion to Neal Asher’s hard-hitting and high-tech Polity space opera trilogy.

In the outskirts of space, and the far corners of the Polity, complex dealings are in play.

Several forces continue to pursue the deadly and enigmatic Penny Royal, none more dangerous than the Brockle, a psychopathic forensics AI and criminal who has escaped the Polity’s confinements and is upgrading itself in anticipation of a deadly showdown, becoming ever more powerful and intelligent.

Aboard Factory Station Room 101, the behemoth war factory that birthed Penny Royal, groups of humans, alien prador, and AI war drones grapple for control. The stability of the ship is complicated by the arrival of a gabbleduck known as the Weaver, the last living member of the ancient and powerful Atheter alien race.

What would an Atheter want with the complicated dealings of Penny Royal? Are the Polity and prador forces playing right into the dark AI’s hand, or is it the other way around? Set pieces align in the final book of Neal Asher’s action-packed Transformation trilogy, pointing to a showdown on the cusp of the Layden’s Sink black hole, inside of which lies a powerful secret, one that could destroy the entire Polity.

A REVIEW OF NEAL ASHER'S INFINITY ENGINE

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A review of The Spirit of the Place and Other Strange Tales: The Complete Short Stories of Elizabeth Walter

: Written by Seregil of Rhiminee; Published: 14 July 2017

The Spirit of the Place and Other Strange Tales: The Complete Short Stories of Elizabeth Walter was published by Shadow Publishing in March 2017.

Information about The Spirit of the Place and Other Strange Tales: The Complete Short Stories of Elizabeth Walter:

The Spirit of the Place And Other Strange Tales: The Complete Short Stories of Elizabeth Walter. All of Elizabeth Walter's 31 short stories collected in one volume for the first time. Supernatural, eerie and uncanny tales from her collections Snowfall & Other Chilling Events (1965), The Sin Eater & Other Scientific Impossibilities (1967), Davy Jones's Tale & Other Supernatural Stories (1971), Come And Get Me & Other Uncanny Invitations (1973) and Dead Woman & Other Haunting Experiences (1975). Elizabeth Walter was a novelist, short story writer, translator and for thirty years from 1961 editor of The Collins Crime Club. She was a very private person, but the book's editor, Dave Brzeski has researched snippets of bibliographic information from her days with William Collins. In addition he discusses her writing and reviews the adaptations of her stories on television, in his informative introduction.

A REVIEW OF THE SPIRIT OF THE PLACE AND OTHER STRANGE TALES: THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES OF ELIZABETH WALTER

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A review of Ronlyn Domingue's The Plague Diaries

: Written by Seregil of Rhiminee; Published: 10 July 2017

Ronlyn Domingue's The Plague Diaries will be published by Atria Books in August 2017.

Information about Ronlyn Domingue:

Ronlyn Domingue (pronounced ron-lin doh-mang, equal emphasis on all syllables) is the author of The Mapmaker's War and The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Books 1 and 2 of the Keeper of Tales Trilogy. The third book, The Plague Diaries, is forthcoming in August 2017.

Her critically acclaimed debut novel, The Mercy of Thin Air, was published in ten languages, was a fiction finalist for the 2005 Borders Original Voices Award and 2006 SIBA Book Award, and was a long list nominee for the 2005 James Tiptree, Jr. Award.

Ronlyn's essays and short stories have appeared in The Beautiful Anthology (TNB Books), New England Review, Clackamas Literary Review, The Independent (UK), Border Crossing, and Shambhala Sun, as well as on mindful.org, The Nervous Breakdown, and Salon.com.

She holds a MFA degree in creative writing from Louisiana State University, taught composition and fiction writing at the college level, and served as a fiction editor and co-editor in chief of New Delta Review. During the past 15 years, she’s edited and mentored writers of fiction and nonfiction, from short stories to memoirs.

Born and raised in the Deep South, she lives there still.

Click here to visit her official website.

Information about The Plague Diaries:

The astounding, epic conclusion to the Keeper of Tales Trilogy brings together the cryptic prophecy in The Mapmaker’s War and the troubling mysteries in The Chronicle of Secret Riven - leading to an unforgettable reckoning between lies and truth.

We are all born made of gold.

Secret Riven - the mystically gifted heroine who now represses her uncanny telepathic power - works for the mysterious magnate Fewmany as an archivist in his private library. There, she stumbles upon the arcane manuscript that had vanished following her mother’s untimely death. She suspects the manuscript contains a profound secret, and she is yet unaware of its link to a thousand-year-old war and her own family’s legacy.

The tasks before her are clear: Secret must finally learn what Fewmany wants from her as well as the meaning of a strange symbol she’s dreamed of since childhood. At last, she must confront the questions haunting her and depart on a quest to find the truth about herself, her dead mother, and her fate - to unleash a Plague of Silences meant to destroy, and transform, the world as all have known it.

A dazzling, genre-bending masterwork, The Plague Diaries illuminates the power of our choices, the scars they leave, and the wounds they heal.

A REVIEW OF RONLYN DOMINGUE'S THE PLAGUE DIARIES

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A review of Paul B. Kane's Nailbiters

: Written by Seregil of Rhiminee; Published: 13 July 2017

Paul Kane's Nailbiters was published by Black Shuck Books in February 2017.

Information about Paul B. Kane:

Paul B. Kane is an award-winning author and editor, who has worked in the fields of SF and Dark Fantasy (most notably the bestselling Arrowhead trilogy, a post-apocalyptic reworking of Robin Hood – as Paul Kane – gathered together in the sell-out Hooded Man omnibus) and the Y.A. market (The Rainbow Man, as P.B. Kane). He penned the well received Sherlock Holmes stories ‘The Greatest Mystery’ and ‘The Case of the Lost Soul’, and the critically acclaimed, bestselling and award-winning full-length mass market novel, Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell. Paul is also the author of the serial killer chiller, The Gemini Factor. His most recent co-edited anthology is Beyond Rue Morgue (Titan), all new stories revolving around Poe’s detective C. Auguste Dupin, while others in the past have featured the likes of Michael Marshall (Intruders), Richard Matheson (Duel) and Robert Bloch (Psycho). He has been a guest at many events and conventions, and his work has been optioned for film and television (including Lions Gate/NBC, who adapted one of his stories for primetime US network TV). Several of his stories have been turned into short films and he is currently adapting his novel Lunar into a feature for a UK production company. His website http://www.shadow-writer.co.uk has featured Guest Writers such as John Connolly, Dean Koontz, Lauren Beukes, Thomas Harris, Mark Billingham, Mo Hayder, Stuart MacBride, Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Charlaine Harris and Stephen King.

Information about Nailbiters:

A man seeks revenge for his dead wife’s murder, while another finds himself being tortured for information he doesn’t have. One woman’s job at a check-out is starting to take its toll, while another imagines all kinds of horrors during a blackout. An urban nightmare called Graffitiland is the location for a deadly hunt, but a thief finds more than he bargains for upon breaking and entering one particular property. And as a stalker tracks his latest victim, an altogether different kind of serial killer called The Gemini is rising...

Here in these pages you’ll find gathered together all the tales of crime and psychological terror from award-winning and bestselling author and editor Paul B. Kane (Beyond Rue Morgue, Hooded Man, Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell), plus three new novelettes - including a serial killer reworking of Cinderella.

Complete with an introduction from the award-winning Paul Finch (author of the bestselling Sergeant ‘Heck’ Heckenberg novels, including Stalkers, Sacrifice and Hunted, as well as the Sunday Times bestseller Strangers), this is one collection of thrilling Nailbiters fans of the genre will not want to miss...

A REVIEW OF PAUL KANE'S NAILBITERS

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An interview with Gail Z. Martin about the epic Darkhurst fantasy series

: Written by Seregil of Rhiminee; Published: 08 July 2017

Risingshadow has had the honour of interviewing Gail Z. Martin about her new epic Darkhurst fantasy series.

Gail Z. Martin is the author of Vendetta: A Deadly Curiosities Novel in her urban fantasy series set in Charleston, SC (Solaris Books); Shadow and Flame the fourth and final book in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga (Orbit Books); The Shadowed Path (Solaris Books) and Iron and Blood a new Steampunk series (Solaris Books) co-authored with Larry N. Martin. The first novel in her brand new epic fantasy series, Darkhurst, will be published by Solaris Books in July 2017.

She is also author of Ice Forged, Reign of Ash and War of Shadows in The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, The Chronicles of The Necromancer series (The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven, Dark Lady’s Chosen); The Fallen Kings Cycle (The Sworn, The Dread) and the urban fantasy novel Deadly Curiosities. Gail writes three ebook series: The Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures, The Deadly Curiosities Adventures and The Blaine McFadden Adventures. The Storm and Fury Adventures, steampunk stories set in the Iron & Blood world, are co-authored with Larry N. Martin.