Morpheus Tales XVI

Morpheus Tales XVI is now available, either via the Morpheus website (£3.50) or through Lulu (£4.50). The latter one is described as “The Large Format Collector's” edition -- in other words it's A4 sized. The regular version is A5 format.

Morpheus Tales XVI features stories from Deborah Walker, Paul Johnson-Jovanovic & James Brooks, Anthony Baynton, Sharon Baillie, Matt Leyshon, Matthew Acheson, Kyle Hemmings, James Gabriel, Gary Budgen and Philip Roberts.

The latest issue of the free Morpheus Tales Supplement is 67 pages of genre reviews, articles, columns, and a preview/review section of the anthology 13: Tales of Dark Fiction. The Supplement includes items on or by Paul Finch, Cyndi Crotts, Alan Spencer, Simon Marshall-Jones and Tim Lebbon. Get your copy from here. 

The Last Policeman

“What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die? Detective Hank Palace has asked this question ever since asteroid 2011L47J hovered into view. Several kilometres wide, it’s on a collision course with planet Earth, with just six precious months until impact.”

The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters will be published as an eBook in July (Quirk Books $14.95)

Terror Scribes anthology

Now available: Terror Scribes edited by Adam Lowe and Chris Kelso (Dog HornPublishing – no price given on the cover). This anthology grew from a Terror Scribes gathering in 2009, which resulted in this smart-looking 250-page trade paperback. (Note: the Dog Horn website seems to be bereft of details on this book. I couldn't find any information on a brief visit just now. A mistake, I feel.)

There are 24 tales in this book, with such contributors as: Jay Eales, Jan Edwards, Derek Fox, Paul Kane, Selina Lock, Marie O’Regan, David Price and Mark West. The spooky cover illustration is by Marianna Stelmach.

Recent and forthcoming books

Eric Brown – The Devil’s Nebula (Abaddon £7.99): “Weird space … A new evil threatens the Expansion and the Vetch; the survival of both races may depend on their ability to co-operate.”

John Courtenay Grimwood – The Outcast Blade (Orbit £12.99): “history, politics and dark fantasy in an alternate Venice.” Book two of The Assassini.

N K Jemisin – The Killing Moon (Orbit £7.99): book one of the Dreamblood. “In the ancient city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. [The] priests of the dream-goddess harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal … and kill those judged corrupt.”

Stacia Kane – Sacrificial Magic (Harper Voyager £7.99): “The departed have arrived.” Book four of the Downside Ghosts.

Tim Lebbon – The Cabin in the Woods (Titan £7.99): novelisation of the Joss Whedon scripted movie.

Tanith Lee – Killing Violets: Gods' Dogs (Immanion £10.99): not seen.

George R R Martin – The Armageddon Rag (Gollancz £18.99): reprint of the 1983 novel. Murder mystery with a touch of the supernatural, a hurrah to the 60s counter culture.

Daniel Polansky – The Straight Razor Cure (Hodder £7.99): a Low Town novel. “Here, the criminal is king. Here, people can disappear, and the lacklustre efforts of the guard ensure they are never found.”

Kim Stanley Robinson – 2312 (Orbit £18.99): “Earth is no longer our only home – advances have opened gateways to the solar system and new habitats have been created on moons, planets and in between.” But it looks as if human nature remains the same.

John Trevillian – Forever A-Men (Matador £18.99): the conclusion to the A-Men trilogy, a story of “the realisation that nothing is forever.”

Liber Ursi – Caballistic Planetary Rituals (Immanion £10.99): not seen. 

The Wind Through the Keyhole: review

The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King. Hodder & Stoughton £19.99

Reviewed by Mike Chinn

The Wind Through the Keyhole – the latest addition to King’s Dark Tower books – fits between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla and is essentially a story within a story within a story. The gunslinger Roland of Gilead and his band have to wait out a starkblast (think an almost instantaneous ice age that lasts a couple of days). To keep their minds off what’s happening beyond their shelter’s stone walls, Roland tells them a tale of his youth: when he and fellow gunslinger Jamie were dispatched to the mining town of Debaria to kill a shapeshifter that’s been slaughtering the locals. Just as they arrive, news comes that an entire ranch has been attacked; all but obliterated. The lone survivor, a boy named Bill Streeter, might be the key to identifying the killer. That night there’s a wind-storm, and to bolster young Bill’s spirits, Roland tells him the story which supplies the book’s title – effectively a fairytale told to Roland as a boy by his mother (and yes, there is a fairy in it; and a dragon – but I’m prepared to overlook that, just this once).

In his Foreword, King says that readers won’t need any previous knowledge of the Dark Tower sequence and Mid-World (no – not Middle Earth … not at all), but newcomers may find the eclectic mix of Western, Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction and – yes – meta-fiction a tad baffling (if not downright irritating) at times. There are references to a lion by the name of Aslan and an eagle called Garuda; an Arthur and a Maerlyn; whilst the fairy Tim Ross encounters in the title story is pretty clearly Disney’s Tinkerbell gone bad. And although the tale young Roland tells Bill is supposed to be a traditional fable of Mid-World (with widowed mother, evil stepfather, a sinister forest, quest, kindly wizard and a sort of fairy godmother), aspects of the Dark Tower still creep in (such as a villainous tax-collector who signs himself RF/MB; which won’t mean much to anyone not familiar with the author’s universe – but should bring a nod of recognition from regulars).

But don’t let that put you off. I’ve always been in favour of blurring the genre borders – and the Dark Tower series does that in spades. Although I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this to someone unfamiliar with Roland Deschain’s grim quest, it’s still a great read: the 330+ pages fly past with barely a longeur to be found. If anyone can get away with writing a novel that throws in just about every literary genre and sub-genre, it’s King.

The Cabin in the Woods

Joss Whedon and Tim Lebbon: what’s not to love?

By now you’ve probably been to the picture house and seen The Cabin in the Woods. And now you can read the novelisation by Tim Lebbon, based on the screenplay by Whedon and Drew Goddard (Titan Books £6.99).

“Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods. Bad things happen. If you think you know the story, think again.” Whedon described the film as a “straight-up, balls-out, really terrifying horror movie.” I imagine the novel is no less…

Joss Whedon is perhaps best know as the man who created Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which in turn created its own shadows. Tim Lebbon is the critically acclaimed writer of Dusk, Fallen and Echo City.

Zombies!

Christopher Golden’s Zombie (Piatkus £8.99) is an “anthology of the undead.” Editor Golden has collected 19 stories about the undead by the likes of Joe Hill, Kelley Armstrong, Tim Lebbon, Mike Carey Joe R Lansdale and Tad Williams.

“The hungry dead have risen. They shamble down the street. They hide in backyards, car parks, shopping centres. They devour our neighbours, dogs and policemen. And they are here to stay. The real question is: what are you going to do about it?”

Recent and forthcoming books

Andrew Fukuda – The Hunt. Simon & Schuster £9.99. “When the sun goes down, start running… Against all odds, 17-year-old Gene has survived in a world where humans have been eaten to near extinction…”

Christopher Golden (ed) – Zombie. Piatkus £8.99: An anthology of the undead.

Guy Haley – Champion of Mars. Solaris £7.99: “In the far future, Mars is dying a second time. The Final War of men and spirits is beginning…”

Robin Hobb / Megan Lindholm – The Inheritance. Harper Voyager £7.99.  A collection of stories and novellas from the Six Duchies and Beyond.

Gary McMahon – Silent Voices. Solaris £7.99: Follow-up to The Concrete Grove. “Twenty years ago, three boys staggered out of an old building. [They] had no idea where they’d been, but all shared the same vague memory…”

Matthew Sprange – The Shadowmage Trilogy. Abaddon £10.99. This is an omnibus edition containing Shadowmage, Night’s Haunting and Legacy’s Price. Part of the Twilight of Kerberos series.

Theaker's Quarterly Fiction

I'm not terribly comfortable reading books and magazines on the screen and so I've bypassed Theaker's Quarterly Fiction until ... until I realised that you can buy a POD version via Lulu. Thus I ordered issues 38 and 39 for under £3.00 each (they were published in the autumn and winter of last year), and I am impressed with the quality of the finished product. Lulu's printing is top-notch. But of course, the design of the magazine itself is vital and the editors (Stephen Theaker and John Greenwood) have done an exceptional job.

TQF 38 and 39 are slim magazines of around 100 pages each. Number 38 has a lovely cover of a spaceship by Howard Watts and includes five stories by Rhys Hughes, Jim Steel, Alison Littlewood, Z J Woods and Michael Thomas. There then follows around 30 pages of book, film, comic and audio reviews.

TQF 39 has just three stories, but the first, by Rhys Hughes, is nearly 30 pages long. The other stories come from Mike Sauve and Douglas Thompson. There is an interview with Matthew Hughes and then the usual reviews section. The cover art by the same artist is no where as good as the previous issue's (the Christmas tree doesn't blend very well into the lunar landscape), although it is seasonal.

I haven't read them yet, other than the odd review and Theaker's editorial; that in #39 made me laugh. He describes some incidents when he upset writers or other small press publishers, mostly in reviews. But the thing is, and I agree with the editor, if you review something which is "bad", you have to be honest in your review. Theaker's Quarterly Fiction 40 is, I imagine, due soon.

The Female of the Species & Other Terror Tales

Shadow Publishing's David Sutton has announced The Female of the Species & Other Terror Tales by Richard Davis, due 2012. (£7.99; ISBN: 978-0-9539032-4-5; Cover Artwork by Caroline O'Neal)

Richard (1935-2005) never saw a collection of his stories published in his lifetime and this book includes all of the author's short stories, culled from as far back as 1963 and The Fourth Pan Book of Horror Stories, up to the 1980s. The collection contains an introduction about his life, the fiction and anthologies, including his work as story editor for the BBC's Late Night Horror series. The book will also feature two rare articles and an interview with the author, from the late 1960s.

Contents:

Introduction by David A. Sutton

The Female of the Species

Elsie and Agnes

A Day Out

The Lady by the Stream

The Inmate

A Nice Cut off the Joint

Guy Fawkes Night

The Time of Waiting

The Sick Room

The Clump

The Nondescript

What We Were Looking for in Horror

An Interview with Richard Davis

Horror in Fiction

Bibliography

Further details here and here.