David A. Riley's Blog, page 26
September 4, 2022
Review: Pariah by Sam Dawson
This review was published in Phantasmagoria magazine #21 August 2022
PARIAH & OTHER STORIES by Sam Dawson Published by Supernatural Tales, 188 pages
Not only does Pariah contain sixteen excellent stories by Sam Dawson, it also includes some really well drawn line illustrations by the author too. Plus he created its distinctive cover.
Pariah and Other Storiesis an entertainingly varied collection. While some of the tales are darkly disturbing, others are satisfyingly horrific. All share an air of authenticity.
Sixteen stories are too many to itemise here, especially as some are only a few pages long, so I will mention two that impressed me the most.
Field Tripis also one of the longest. In it we encounter two close friends who have had a long, ongoing passion for camping in unusual places, especially those with a ghostly reputation, as a sort of daring do. Perhaps inevitably, they finally chance on somewhere that not only lives up to its reputation but does so in ways the two of them least expect – somewhere that proves far more dangerous than either of them is prepared. For them it was just supposed to be a long lost, deserted village, isolated since the sixteenth century due to plague. No longer even shown on any maps, they are surprised to discover it is far from deserted and going there will change their lives forever. A well-conceived and gripping story with some unexpected twists.
The other that especially caught my attention is the title story itself: Pariah. Set during the second world war at a time when the allied armies are still fighting their way across Europe, Pariah is the nickname bestowed on a specially converted Churchill tank. It has had its main gun removed to be replaced with a massive flame thrower. Needing a new command after having lost the crew of his previous tank when it was hit by a shell while he was temporarily away from it, Sergeant Freddie Brown is offered the Pariah. Few tankmen want anything to do with flame throwers as they are regarded by most as a barbaric weapon. In fact, they are hated so much by the Germans they are known to shoot any of their crews who fall into their hands – which is why Brown’s new command comes with a brand-new crew. Its previous one were executed when the tank was briefly captured. As events unfold, it isn’t long before it becomes obvious to Brown that the tank’s reputation goes further than the detestation felt by everyone towards its function, a reputation that continues long past the end of the war up until the present day in a well-researched tale full of authentic-sounding anecdotes and facts.
One of the things that impressed me most about all of these stories, besides their variety, is the author’s research into what he is writing, without ever becoming pedantic about it.
All in all, an excellent collection which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Pariah & Other Stories is published by Supernatural Tales and is available to
purchase from Lulu and other outlets.
Phantasmagoria magazine
August 30, 2022
At Drake's Command by David Wesley Hill
Many thanks to fantasy and sci-fi writer David Wesley Hill for sending me a copy of his historical novel At Drake's Command. I recently reviewed his swords and sorcery story in the July issue of Savage Realms Monthly.
August 18, 2022
My short story collections
Below are details of all my short story collections, what stories are in them, and where they are published, plus links to ordering copies online.
The Lurkers in the Abyss and Other Tales of Terror - Shadow Publishing 2013
The Lurkers in the Abyss, After Nightfall, Terror on the Moors, The Shade of Apollyon, Prickly, Writer's Cramp, Winter on Aubarch 6, The Shadow by the Altar, Out of Corruption, A New Lease, Help-Plants, Inside the Labyrinth, A Sense of Movement, Soft Little Fingers, His Pale Blue Eyes, Fish Eye, Lurkers.
His Own Mad Demons: Dark Tales from David A. Riley - Originally Hazardous Press, now Parallel Universe Publications 2012 and 2015
Their Own Mad Demons, Lock-In, The Fragile Mask on his Face,The True Spirit, The Worst of All Possible Places.
Their Cramped Dark World & Other Tales - Originally published by Hazardous Press, now Parallel Universe Publications 2015
Hoody, A Bottle of Spirits, No Sense in Being Hungry, She Thought, Now and Forever More, Romero's Children, Swan Song, The Farmhouse, The Last Coach Trip, The Satyr's Head, Their Cramped Dark World
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After Nightfall & Other Weird Tales - Parallel Universe Publications 2020
Three Eyed Jack, The Fragile Mask on His Face, Terror on the Moors, The Shade of Apollyon, Writer's Cramp, Fish Eye, Boat Trip, Prickly, After Nightfall
Illustrated throughout by Jim Pitts
A Grim God's Revenge: Dark Tales of Fantasy & Horror - Parallel Universe Publications 2021
Lem, Scrap, The Urn, Hanuman, Gwargens, Retribution, The Bequest, Corpse-Maker, Old Grudge Ender, Dead Ronnie and I, Grudge End Cloggers, A Grim God's Revenge, They Pissed on My Sofa, A Girl, a Toad and a Cask
August 5, 2022
Review: Savage Realms Monthly July 2022
SAVAGE REALMS MONTHLY July 2022 Issue 13 Literary Rebel, LLC, edited by William Miller
Savage Realms Monthlyhas been running for just over a year now, published as a paperback and a kindle e-book, showcasing three new swords and sorcery stories in each issue.
This issue is slightly different as the second story, Good for the Gander by David Wesley Hill, is not strictly speaking a swords and sorcery tale, involving as it does a cowboy magically transported to a weird realm of magic and supernatural horror, but its bizarre setting is if anything even more outlandish than most S&S tales and I doubt it will disappoint anyone. It is also filled with some of the quirkiest humour I have come across for quite some time. Transported against his will from the banks of the Rio Grande in 1879 by a sorcerer who wanted his help in a previous story, Charles Duke is struggling to find some way to return to his homeland. To his advantage he has two six-guns and a shotgun, weapons unknown in this world. But to his disadvantage, this world contains a vast array of fiendish creatures, including gods and demons. In this the third adventure about Charles Duke, he has to venture into Hell, which is even more gross than possibly anyone has ever described it before. In this magical world Hell is a real place, accessible for those crazy, foolhardy or desperate enough to enter it. Few, of course, manage to survive their encounters with its grotesque inhabitants. But that’s just part of the job if Duke is to find some way to return home. And, being the pragmatist he is, this is what he sets out to do. It’s a great, rip-roaring tale, with plenty of colourful characters, bloody conflicts and even bloodier twists and turns.
Opening this issue is A Place of Followship by Matt Spencer, which is possibly even bloodier, with conflicts aplenty, made all the more numerous by the betrayals and double-dealings of so many of the people Severin Gris comes into contact with in a grim world ruled by a viciously totalitarian religious movement called the Theocracy.
Closing this issue is Blood Vengeance by Zach Effenberger. Set in a world anyone who has watched the excellent Viking series on TV will recognise, the bloody feuds have been notched up quite a bit as our protagonist Magnus sets out to exact revenge on the murderer of his kin, the warlord Orm Stonefist. Norse folklore plays a big part in this tale, steeped as it is in the mindset of those who follow the gods of Valhalla. Another dark, grimly-envisaged setting filled with violent action.
Although the three tales in this issue are filled with blood and violence, they are varied too, with well imagined settings. All in all, a bloody good read.
Reviewed by David A. Riley
amazon.co.uk At the moment this link only connects to the ebook version but a print version will be available there soon.
July 25, 2022
New Sword & Sorcery story finished: Mask of a Mad God
I have finally finished a new sword and sorcery story: Mask of a Mad God, which continues the saga of Welgar the Northerner, who first appeared in Ossani the Healer and the Beautiful Homunculus and then in The Dark Priestdom, neither of which have as yet been published, though they are out there awaiting a decision. Fingers crossed!
July 15, 2022
My Retro Review of The House of Cthulhu by Brian Lumley
This review was specially written for the Phantasmagoria Brian Lumley Special. THE HOUSE OF CTHULHU and Other Tales of The Primal Land
by Brian Lumley, illustrated by Jim Pitts
Weirdbook Press 1984 Hardcover 95 pages
This is a large format book measuring 8 ¾ inches by 11 ¼ inches, so although only 95 pages long it’s still quite a good read as each page is roughly the equivalent of 4 in a normal sized book.
Lavishly illustrated throughout by award-winning artist Jim Pitts, this large format hardcover (8 ¾ inches by 11 ¼ inches) contains eleven stories by Brian Lumley plus an Introduction by one of the fictitious characters in it, explaining how the ancient manuscript from a previously unknown civilisation from before the Age of the Dinosaurs was found and translated.
All the tales are set in the fictitious continent of , the only landmass on the face of the Earth in those distant days, during a time when sorcery still prevailed.
It’s a well imagined world, complete with a detailed map. It is also, of course, as the book’s title reveals, part of Lumley’s vision of the Cthulhu Mythos. Although I prefer Lovecraft’s original concept than this Derlethian derivation, it works well enough in the kind of swords and sorcery fantasy setting within which these tales take place. Indeed, the title story itself is a remarkable work, including a disturbing and utterly disgusting curse picked up by anyone foolish enough to venture into Cthulhu’s house on R’lyeh, complete with a singularly nasty climax.
One of the things that struck me about these tales is how good Lumley is at depicting interesting and credible sorcerers. The first story, The Sorcerer’s Book is a wonderful tale of a battle for supremacy between a group of them, and, as with many of these stories, has a suitably fitting twist at the end.
How Kank Thad Returned to Bhur-Esh, by contrast has as its main protagonist an exceptionally vicious barbarian. Kank Thad is no Conan. Though strong and violent, he takes unrepentant pleasure in killing his opponents. Which is why, when he is finally apprehended, tried and sentenced, it’s to climb the Ghost Cliffs of Shildakor. All but vertical and mountainously tall, no one has ever succeeded in reaching the summit and freedom before falling to their deaths. But Kank Thad is confident he can manage what no one else could, for “back home as a youth he had used to climb the sea-cliffs for gull eggs with the best of them…” So skilled is he at climbing, even partway up he manages to exact his revenge on some of those who sentenced him, until he finally discovers the cliffs didn’t receive their name without reason… There are more supernatural menaces in Tharquest and the Lamia Orbiquita, a tale that gets continually darker, while Mylakhrion the Immortal is another yarn of sorcerous treachery, brief but enjoyable in its twists and turns.
Tarra Khash is a regular character in a number of Lumley’s stories, a “bronze-skinned” barbarian “in leather breach-clout and sandals with jewelled ceremonial sword in its long curved sheath strapped to his broad, well-muscled back”. Two volumes of Tarra Khash tales were published by W. Paul Ganley - The Compleat Khash: Volume 1 Never a Backwards Glance and The Compleat Khash: Volume 2 Sorcery in Shad, both illustrated by Jim Pitts.
In Isles of the Suhm-Yi Khash sets sail to a stretch of islands in pursuit of a gang of vicious pirates who have wronged him. This coincides with the annihilation of the Suhm-yi, a strange race of Moon worshippers, by a random cloud of deadly gas. By chance a couple of them survive – though they are fated to be captured by the pirates looking for a hidden treasure whose whereabouts they are convinced the couple know. Combine this with a slumbering god, Gleeth the Blind, and this is quite some tale!
Lords of the Morass is a grisly story of two prospectors who discover the source of a vast hoard of gold. But the people who have access to it worship a monstrous sluglike “gods” that live in the swamp within which the gold can be found. These are possibly the most obnoxious creatures to be found in this book. Despite the horror of these things, though, our prospectors are determined to make themselves rich.
The barbarian Tarra Khash returns in Curse of the Golden Guardians. All but dead after crossing the Nameless Desert he chances across a mysterious old man cooking his breakfast by a large lake in a hollow. Though the two seem destined to become friends, there is something not right about the old man’s explanation of why he is here, nor why he so generously offers Tarra Khash to become his partner in stealing a golden idol. Tarra Khash suspects there is more to the stranger than meets the eye.
Cryptically Yours is in the format of a series of letters between two sorcerers worried about the inexplicable deaths of so many of their confrere. As the letters progress some significant changes take place between them with some typically Lumleyish twists and turns.
The penultimate tale, The Wine of the Wizard starts off in the “present” day. Theired Gustau has concocted a special wine to a recipe found in an ancient manuscript. Unbeknown to him, his nephew, Erik, decides to taste some of it and is immediately overcome by what he thinks is a hallucination – until he realises his mind has been sent back into the body of a young man on the long-lost continent of Theem’hdra where he becomes fascinated in sharing this other person’s life.
The final tale is The Sorcerer’s Dream – which is ultimately a nightmare about the sorcerer Teh Atht, concerned about the alleged immortality of Cthulhu.
All in all, The House of Cthulhuis an entertaining mix of sword and sorcery, outright sorcery and Lumley’s brand of Mythos fiction, tied together in the same primordial setting. Jim Pitts’s illustrations, some of them full page, augment them brilliantly.
June 25, 2022
Lovecraftiana Omnibus edition 2020-2021
Lovecraftiana magazine is publishing an omnibus edition of its four issues from 2020 to 2021 in hard cover, paperback and kindle e-book.I am delighted that this will include three of my Lovecraftian stories: Lurkers, The Shadow by the Altar and Boat Trip.
June 14, 2022
Savage Realms Monthly May 2022
My copy of
Savage Realms Monthly
for May 2022, with my story The Carpetmaker of Arana, arrived in the post today.
Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 4 now published as a paperback and kindle e-book
I am pleased to announce that the latest volume in our popular Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy series is now available as a paperback and kindle e-book. with even more stories and more pages than before.Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 4 contains eleven tales:
In the Iron Woods by Dev Agarwal
My People Were Fair and Wore Stars in Their Hair by Andrew Darlington
At Sea by Geoff Hart
The Flesh of Man by Frank Sawielijew
City at the Mouth of Chaos by Adrian Cole
In the Belly of the Beast by Edward Ahern
The Tracks of the Pi Nereske by Wendy Nikel
Slaves of the Monolith by Paul D. Batteiger
The Green Wood by David Dubrow
Demonic by Phil Emery
The Whips of Malmac by H. R. Laurence
Here are a few pages from the book, including the Introduction:
June 9, 2022
My story The Carpetmaker of Arana has just been published in Savage Realms Monthly #12
I am very pleased that my fantasy tale The Carpetmaker of Arana has just been published in
Savage Realms Monthly #12
, which is available as a paperback and a kindle e-book. This is my second fantasy tale to be published this year. The Storyteller of Koss appeared in Summer of Sci-fi & Fantasy in May.
