Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror Book Reviews
“I think that Crowded House & Other Stories might be one of the entries in the Short, Sharp, Shocks! imprint that I enjoyed the most, and which truly resonated with me as a piece of horror fiction. All three stories in the collection are superbly written, perfectly paced, and most importantly imbued with a deeply unsettling, almost existential form of horror – the kind that seeps into you and gets under your skin and won’t let you go for a long while afterward finishing them.”
“The Birthday Girl & Other Stories is a fantastic debut by author Christopher Beck, demonstrating some real talent as a horror writer, including a particularly vivid imagination and a distinct knack for being able to reach into the very core of deeply emotional subjects and then moulding them into harrowing, memorable stories that stay with the reader long after the book itself has been finished.”
“Armor #1: The Battle of North Africa is an instant classic of World War II historical fiction, and certainly DiLouie’s greatest novel so far in his career as a writer. It is brilliantly written, populated with realistic and entirely human characters who stay with you long after finishing the last page, and is searingly, unflinchingly open about the realities of combat during World War II as experienced by the crew of an M4 Sherman medium tank. It takes the best elements of the dime store genre and blends it seamlessly with DiLouie’s inherent skill as a writer and his phenomenal imagination.”
“Multi-layered, deftly paced and with some incredibly dark and grimly shocking moments of both cosmic and human horror, The Oubliette is a superb debut novel by a talented and skilful author…”
“The Rockabilly Singer is deeply impressive, first-rate debut by Maxwell Price, one that combines an innate understanding of 1950s American culture, the Rockabilly music genre, and cosmic and folklore horror to create a slow-burning but incredibly engaging and chilling tale of supernatural and all-too-human horrors”
“Resisting Madness is a tour-de-force of horror, and I am confident that there are many great, and indeed classic, works of horror fiction yet to come from the pen of Wesley Southard. As such, I would strongly and urgently recommend that readers get in on the ground floor in order to witness his rise to the same heights as iconic horror authors like Keene, Masterton and Lee”
“Wreck and Ruin is an absolutely brilliant novella and perhaps Ware’s finest work so far for the Black Library, and perhaps even her original sci-fi titles”
“Low Lives is a fun, entertaining and fast-paced tale that is deftly intertwined with some brilliant characterisation and a more in-depth plot than is perhaps the standard for the Necromunda setting…”
“…It’s an incredibly haunting gothic horror story that’s perfectly paced and littered with unforgettable characters, accompanied by some absolutely amazing atmosphere, all of which is enhanced through the deft use of the inherent horror to be found when writing in the Warhammer 40,000 universe…”
“Severed is an absolute triumph, and I can only hope that we see more of its type in the future – both in general, and also very specifically from Mr Crowley….”
“Isha’s Lament is an assured, confident and action-packed debut title by Parrott, and demonstrates that he has rapidly and deftly mastered the ability to write stories in the Warhammer 40,000 universe…Mr Parrott is now well on my radar as an author, and while I look forward to seeing what he can produce outside of the Warhammer settings, I suspect in regards to Black Library fiction he will soon be mentioned in the same breath as authors like Wraight, Reynolds and Annandale – those who really get the setting and how to write high-quality and memorable tales within it.”
“I’ll readily admit that I really, really enjoyed The One That Shows No Fear, taken in by the deft blend of human and supernatural horrors orchestrated by Stred to develop the overarching narrative…”
“I thoroughly enjoyed Last Meal in Osaka and Other Stories and found it to be a short collection of varied, imaginative and coldly horrifying stories that deftly demonstrated Gary Buller’s skill as a writer of horror fiction…”
“The Ghoul Archipelago is a complex, multi-layered and inspired horror novel, one that is nothing less than a deconstruction and critique of the zombie/post-apocalyptic genre as a whole”
“Heart of Stone is a powerful piece of short horror fiction, raising some thought-provoking questions…”
The Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reviewer 