Articles
A review of Livia Llewellyn's Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
Livia Llewellyn is a new dark fantasy and horror author whose debut collection, Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors, will be published in March 2011 by Lethe Press.
Livia Llewellyn's official website can be found here.
Here's the official description of Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors:
Death and pleasure. Freud's Todestrieb, his statement that ''libido has the task of making the destroying instinct innocuous, and it fulfils the task by diverting that instinct to a great extent outwards... The instinct is then called the destructive instinct, the instinct for mastery, or the will to power.'' Few authors have spun stories of Thanatos and Eros as skillfully and powerfully as Livia Llewellyn.
In his introduction to this volume, Laird Barron writes ''Scant difference exists between exquisite pleasure and pain.'' An orphan girl with a mind for anthracite falls into the hands of a cult worshipping an entombed god. In the Pacific Northwest, evergreens lull prepubescent girls into their trunks to serve as wombs. A suburban housewife troubled by her present encounters the sixteen year-old girl she ached to touch in her dreams. These ten stories promise to indulge a reader's sensibilities, their fears and desires.
Here's the review of this collection:
A REVIEW OF LIVIA LLEWELLYN'S ENGINES OF DESIRE: TALES OF LOVE & OTHER HORRORS
Read more: A review of Livia Llewellyn's Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors
An interview with Blake Charlton
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
Blake Charlton is a new American fantasy author, who is working to establish a dual career in fiction and medicine. He is the author of Spellwright, which is the first book of The Spellwright Trilogy.
Here's a short description of Spellwright from the author's official website:
Imagine a world in which you could peel written words off a page and make them physically real. You might pick your teeth with a sentence fragment, protect yourself with defensive paragraphs, or thrust a sharply-worded sentence at an enemy’s throat.
Such a world is home to Nicodemus Weal, an apprentice at the wizardly academy of Starhaven. Because of how fast he can forge the magical runes that create spells, Nicodemus was thought to be the Halcyon, a powerful spellwright prophesied to prevent an event called the War of Disjunction, which would destroy all human language. There was only one problem: Nicodemus couldn’t spell.
Runes must be placed in the correct order to create a spell. Deviation results in a "misspell" – a flawed text that behaves in an erratic, sometimes lethal, manner. And Nicodemus has a disability that causes him to misspell texts simply by touching them.
Now twenty-five, Nicodemus lives in the aftermath of failing to fulfill prophecy. He finds solace only in reading knightly romances and in the teachings of Magister Shannon, an old blind wizard who’s left academic politics to care for Starhaven’s disabled students.
But when a powerful wizard is murdered with a misspell, Shannon and Nicodemus becomes the primary suspects. Proving their innocence becomes harder when the murderer begins killing male cacographers one by one... and all evidence suggests that Nicodemus will be next. Hunted by both investigators and a hidden killer, Shannon and Nicodemus must race to discover the truth about the murders, the nature of magic, and themselves.
Click here to visit Blake Charlton's official website.
Click here to read Risingshadow.net's review of Spellwright.
Risingshadow.net has had the honour of interviewing Blake Charlton. You can read the interview here:
AN INTERVIEW WITH BLAKE CHARLTON
Read more: An interview with Blake Charlton
A review of Rowena Cory Daniells' The King's Bastard
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
Rowena Cory Daniells (aka Cory Daniells) is an Australian fantasy author, who has been involved in speculative fiction since 1976. Her latest fantasy trilogy, The Chronicles of King Rolen's Kin, was published by Solaris. The King's Bastard is the first book of this trilogy (the other books are The Uncrowned King and The Usurper).
Click here to visit Rowena Cory Daniells' website.
Here's a description of The King's Bastard from the publisher's website:
By royal decree, all those afflicted with Affinity must serve the Abbey or face death. Sent to the Abbey because of his innate Affinity, the King's youngest son, Fyn, trains to become a warrior monk. Unfortunately, he’s a gentle dreamer and the other acolytes bully him. The only way he can escape them is to serve the Abbey Mystic, but his Affinity is weak.
Fiercely loyal, thirteen year-old Piro is horrified to discover she is also cursed with unwanted Affinity. It broke their mother’s heart to send Fyn away, so she hides her affliction. But, when Fyn confesses his troubles, Piro risks exposure to help him.
Even though Byren Kingson is only seven minutes younger than his twin, Lence, who is the king's heir, Byren has never hungered for the Rolencian throne. When a Seer predicts that he will kill Lence, he laughs. But Lence Kingsheir sees Byren’s growing popularity and resents it. Enduring loyalty could be Byren’s greatest failing.
Cloaked in silent winter snow the Kingdom of Rolencia sleeps as rumours spread of new Affinity Seeps, places where untamed power wells up. Meanwhile, King Rolen plans his jubilee unaware of the growing threat to those he loves. And here's the review:
A REVIEW OF ROWENA CORY DANIELLS' THE KING'S BASTARD
Read more: A review of Rowena Cory Daniells' The King's Bastard
A review of Ramsey Campbell's The Seven Days of Cain
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
Ramsey Campbell's new book, The Seven Days of Cain, was published in September 2010 by PS Publishing.
Ramsey Campbell is a British horror author, who has written several books and short stories.
Ramsey Campbell's official website can be found here.
Here's the official description of The Seven Days of Cain:
"I'm the voice you're not sure if you're hearing. I'm the man who tells you what to think and you believe you're thinking it yourself. Anything you do, I've already thought of it. You can't even dream unless I give you dreams. Perhaps you only see what I put into your head. I'm what you have for a soul..."
A street performer is murdered in Barcelona, and a playwright is tortured to death in New York. Andy Bentley is a photographer who works for his family's firm in a British suburb. Why is the killer emailing him to boast about the crimes? What did Andy do ten years ago that created the situation? As he tries to cope with a childless marriage and his ageing parents, what he called up begins to invade every aspect of his life. By the end he will have to confront not just the consequences of his actions but the uncertainty of reality itself, and how much that he loves will be destroyed?
And here's the review:
A REVIEW OF RAMSEY CAMPBELL'S THE SEVEN DAYS OF CAIN
Read more: A review of Ramsey Campbell's The Seven Days of Cain
A review of Gary Fry's The House of Canted Steps
- Written by Seregil of Rhiminee
Gary Fry's The House of Canted Steps was published in September 2010 by PS Publishing.
Gary Fry is the author of four short story collections and a novella. The House of Canted Steps is Gary Fry's debut novel.
Gary Fry's official website can be found here.
A REVIEW OF GARY FRY'S THE HOUSE OF CANTED STEPS
Read more: A review of Gary Fry's The House of Canted Steps