Newsletter :: December 2024
- Review: Beware Us Flowers of the Annihilator by Alexander Zelenyj
Alexander Zelenyj's Beware Us Flowers of the Annihilator was published by Eibonvale Press in November 2024.About Alexander Zelenyj:
Alexander Zelenyj is the author of the books Blacker Against the Deep Dark, Songs for the Lost, Experiments at 3 Billion A.M., Black Sunshine, and others. His most recent books are These Long Teeth of the Night: The Best Short Stories 1999-2019 and Beware Us Flowers of the Annihilator.
Zelenyj lives in Windsor, Ontario, Canada with his wife, Elizabeth.
Click here to visit his official website.
About Beware Us Flowers of the Annihilator:
* A bullied boy’s worst shame turns out to be his strongest ally in the never-ending schoolyard war...
* Saxon warriors hunt down the beleaguered remnants of a Danish army—but they didn’t count on the little warrior among them, the one with the strange shimmering armour...
* Chuck thought that things couldn’t get any worse than the giant floating skull always waiting outside his apartment window...but then a knock came on his door...
* A military cop and his faithful dog seek out an ancient evil in the Iraqi desert, but then discover it’s all so much worse than that...
* The crew of the Enola Gay was en route to Japan, toting the first atomic bomb...and then the pilot, Tibbets, noticed the giant black flower clinging to the bulkhead...
* A Roman emperor and his adviser unravel the mystery of a series of strange marble sculptures, only to discover sorcery at work...
These and many other weird stories...
There are few short story specialists as prolific, endlessly entertaining, creative, and simply batshit crazy as Alexander Zelenyj. These bizarre stories often capture startling snapshots of life, coming-of-age moments, heartbreak, or individuals trapped within the ripples of otherworldly occurrences. The natural ability to effortlessly flow between genres is a rare gift and few do it better, where literary rulebooks are discarded and the monsters are frequently the most compassionate characters. He has an unpredictable and jarring writing style, which takes plots and narratives into bizarre directions, often slipping down sideroads, instead of directing his narratives into the realms of the crowd pleasing money shot. He refuses to play by any literary rulebook, except his own. This is all part of Alexander Zelenyj's unique charm.
- Tony Jones, Horror DNA
Phantasmagoric, imaginative, unflinching and magnificent, Zelenyj writes like a madman possessed. With Beware Us Flowers of the Annihilator, we get one of the greatest modern day short story writers spreading his wings and flying away with the readers' souls. Simply phenomenal.
- Steve Stred, author of Mastodon, Churn the Soil and Wagon Buddy
Wildly original, and a complete master at pulverizing the boundaries which restrict genres, Alexander Zelenyj is a dazzling shooting star in the world of weird fiction.
- Ginger Nuts of Horror
Canada's master of elegantly drafted bizarrie... Science fiction, surrealism, Canadiana and great storytelling: not too many books these days can be said to Have It All, but Beware Us Flowers of the Annihilator can and does.
- Adam Groves, The Bedlam Files - An interview with K.V. Johansen about The Wolf and the Wild King
Risingshadow has had an opportunity to interview K.V. Johansen about her new fantasy book, The Wolf and the Wild King.About K.V. Johansen:
K.V. Johansen was born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, where she developed her lifelong fascination with fantasy literature after reading The Lord of the Rings at the age of eight. Her interest in the history and languages of the Middle Ages led her to take a Master’s Degree in Medieval Studies at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, and a second M.A. in English Literature at McMaster University, where she wrote her thesis on Layamon’s Brut, an Early Middle English epic poem. While spending most of her time writing, she retains her interest in medieval history and languages and is a member of the SFWA and the Writers’ Union of Canada. In 2014, she was an instructor at the Science Fiction Foundation’s Masterclass in Literary Criticism held in London. She is also the author of two works on the history of children’s fantasy literature, two short story collections, and a number of books for children and teens. Various of her books have been translated into French, Macedonian, and Danish.
Click here to visit her official website
About The Wolf and the Wild King:High fantasy born of myth and folklore, of the dark and the trees and the winter’s cold, the flint blade’s edge and the secrets that are spoken only in dreams...
Assassin, executioner, shapeshifter, and dutiful son of the undying Queen of the land called only the Forest, Mairran is haunted by the voice of an Immortal long lost, who runs with him as a wolf in his dreams. More used to being the instrument of death than an arbiter of justice, he is dispatched by his mother to find the killer of an earl whose life was offered in an unsanctioned sacrifice to the Forest.
In an earlier age, the outlaw Lannesk swears an oath to follow the Grey Hunter and the Wild King, ancient guardians of the Forest, in a war against the invading dragon-kin and their sorcerer-priests, who seek to wake the great dragon long ago bound in sleep beneath the Lake. Past and present tangle around troubled assassin and mute outlaw, as a conspiracy of fell magic threatens the land and its people.
Evocative of a darker, grimmer McKillip, The Wolf and the Wild King is a brooding, lyrical new work from a master of epic fantasy.
Cover art by K.V. Johansen.
An interview with K.V. Johansen about The Wolf and the Wild King
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