A Blade so Black by L.L. McKinney

Popstars of the 60s dread their back catalogue going into the public domain. Their retirement fund has now been opened to everyone to listen to for free. If you think that is sad, please spare a moment for the poor authors who have long died and whose work is open to all. The likes of Shakespeare, Doyle and Carroll have had their work rewritten and reinterpreted hundreds of times. Sometimes this is done well and lets you explore the originals in a new light. Other times it just feels like a m...

Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach by Ramsey Campbell

Ramsey Campbell has won countless awards over the years and many of his stories are considered classics in the field of horror. S. T. Joshi has stated that "future generations will regard him as the leading horror writer of our generation, every bit the equal of Lovecraft or Blackwood."

Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach is being published by the brand new imprint, Flame Tree Press, as part of their launch line-up. The book follows the couple Ray and Sandra as the journey to the new ...

The House by the Cemetery by John Everson

There seems to be a rise in a new form of entertainment these last few years, that of the live action experience. While "escape rooms" seem to the most prevelant, there is also a niche for those who would prefer to be scared rather than think about puzzles.

The House by the Cemetery is an old, derelict building known locally as "Bachelor’s Grove" and is situated within the grounds of an ancient, crumbling cemetery. Rumor has it that the ghost of a witch haunts the place. What be...

New Publisher Launches - Flame Tree Press

A new imprint has recently launched with a an impressive line-up of authors and books. Flame Tree Press is a brand new publisher dedicated to finding the best award-winning and original voices. While it might be new, Flame Tree Press consists of experienced industry professionals, led by Nick Wells, the Founder of Flame Tree Publishing and a former MD of HarperCollins Enterprises.

Nick Wells commented:

After 24 years at Flame Tree Publishing, this imprint’s story ...

The Mouth of the Dark by Tim Waggoner

The very nature of horror means that it should not always be a pleasant read. You should be unsettled, scared and perhaps even disgusted at times, but a balance must be struck. If an author is failing to get genuine scares into their book they may resort to cheap tricks such as writing things so gross that the reader becomes appalled. Is that horrific, or just plain nasty? Tim Waggoner is a veteran of the genre and should know his ways around the dark arts of horror, but is that the case with...

Hallowdene by George Mann

Hallowdene is the second book in the Wychwood series, a crime thriller that weaves into the story supernatural elements. Elspeth Reeves is making a new life for herself in a quiet, sleepy village near Oxford, having escaped the hectic life of London. As a journalist for the local paper, she is often involved in events around the area. One such annual event known as Hollowdene is fast approaching when she is called to report on an excavation of the body of three hundred year old witch Agn...

By the pricking of her thumb by Adam Roberts

By the pricking of her thumb follows on from The Real Time Murders published last year, but can be read as a stand-alone novel. Set in a future where almost everyone spends all their time in a virtual world, private investigator Alma is caught up in another impossible murder. She has been asked to investigate the bizzare behaviour of the four ultra-rich who control most of the worlds wealth, one of which may or may not be dead. There is also a body, which doesn't belong to one of the fo...

131 Days by Keith Blackmore

Blackmore is a vastly under-appreciated author. His Mountain Man novels are a superb example of a post-apocalyptic / zombie series.

131 days does for heroic, gladiatorial fantasy what Mountain Man did for Zombies, a charged, fast-paced story that has confidence, style and plenty of GrimDark. Every year in the city of Sunja, gladitorial games are held in the Pit. Often fighting to the death, some fighters enter for fame, others for the money - a few for the chance of carrying out ...

This Book is Full of Spiders by David Wong

Spiders seem to tap into a primeval fear inside humans. Perhaps in the days of cavemen there were 20 foot spiders that ate those that travelled at night? What I do know is that the average domestic spider in the UK is unlikely to spring off the wall and eat through your skull. This set of events is not true of an undisclosed town in America were the spiders will not only drill into your brain, but they are invisible so you cannot even see them noshing your noggin.

Dave and John are ...

Hearts of Granite by James Barclay

How do you shake up the familiar “war that never ends” trope? James Barclay has one answer; add alien DNA with lizards to create genetically modified dragons; then fly those dragons into the battlefield burning your enemies to a smoking crisp. If that wasn’t enough, he also adds a variety of fun and interesting characters to boot. 

Set over the burning South African desert, a 30-legged behemoth slowly marches through the sand; this is the Heart of Granite; a living, breathing...

The Folio Book of Horror Stories by Ramsey Campbell

The Folio Book of Horror Stories is a new anthology, collecting some of the finest stories of the macabre written over the last two hundred years or so. The collection is edited and introduced by the award winning, legendary author and critic Ramsey Campbell, who has thoughtfully provided an insight into the process of editing the anthology over at the Folio Society blog. His introduction in this book is just as insightful:

A horror story may convey supernatural fear or psycholog...

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

The sassy, media loving AI ‘Murderbot’ returns in Exit Strategy, the final novella in The Murderbot Diaries. Murderbot first burst on to the scene in 2017’s All Systems Red. In that first installment, Murderbot was hired as a security unit (SecUnit) to protect a team of scientists lead by a Dr. Mensah from the mysterious GrayCris Corporation. Dr. Mensah ultimately became the first human to treat Murderbot like a person. Having secretly hacked its governor module, Murderbot ...

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin

The Left Hand of Darkness was first published almost 50 years ago, receiving critical acclaim and firmly establishing Le Guin as a serious, talented author. It's known as one of the first examples of feminist science fiction and retrospectively won the Hugo and Nebula awards. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that it stands amongst the most important works of science fiction, helping to raise perception of the genre in the eyes of those who don't usually read it. T...

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

Murderbot, the gruff yet lovable, media obsessed Security AI is back in Rogue Protocol, the latest tale in Martha Wells’ The Murderbot Diaries, a Tor.com series of novellas. In the first story, the Nebula Award winning All Systems Red, Murderbot, a self-nicknamed security robot, secretly hacks into its governor module and gains its freedom from its human contracts. Other than enjoying entertainment media, its goal is to recall a lapse in its memory regarding the ni...