David A. Riley's Blog, page 49

Voice from the Stone - film review

Just watched Emilia Clarke in Voice from the Stone.
At first sight this looked an intriguing supernatural movie set in Tuscany. But what a boring one and a half hours it was! The direction was so wooden and so slow-paced it made its 94 minutes feel twice the length. This might have worked as a TV feature of around 50 minutes or less, though the director gave little scope for any of the characters to spring to life, so perhaps it wouldn't even then.
Definitely not a movie I would ever watch twice!

Hereditary

Just watched Hereditary on amazon prime. Excellent production values, well scripted, very well acted and definitely well cast (it was great to see youngsters in a family without the usual overly pretty Hollywood faces), but that ending really let the whole thing down. The last few minutes and the climax broke the tension entirely and were not far short of laughable. What a damn shame.

The Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts reviewed by Trevor Kennedy of Phantasmagoria Magazine

THE FANTASTICAL ART OF JIM PITTS.
Review by Trevor Kennedy for Phantasmagoria Magazine.
The Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts is a bumper hardback dedicated to the life works so far of the man of the title, one of the great fantasy artists of our time. On top of that, it also serves as a history of sorts of the much esteemed British Fantasy Society (and related publications) and the early days of these guys at the forefront of the movement, highlighting their good times, and quite often difficulties, over the last almost half a century. Jim Pitts and his exquisitely detailed artworks are our guides through this fascinating and hugely important period for the UK fantasy/horror scene. And I loved every single page of it!
Jim’s life, from his working class Northern English beginnings and folk band days with ‘The Jim Pitts Folk Quartet’ to the present day, is chronicled over 212 pages alongside a bonanza of his macabre works and written contributions from BFS stalwarts such as David A. Riley, David A. Sutton, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen Jones, Brian Lumley, Adrian Cole, Peter Coleborn and more, fascinating real life stories concerning what really must have been a golden era for these pioneers, especially in the 1970s and ‘80s. Reading about the difficulties they faced back then just made me realise how lucky wannabe publishers/writers like myself get it these days. My first job when I left school was with a printing firm, so I know only too well how expensive lithographic printing was, and probably still is.
On the subject of Jim’s artwork itself, firstly I must state that I am no art expert, especially from a technical viewpoint. But for me, as a layman, I found his numerous pieces included on the pages to be brilliantly atmospheric, haunting and Lovecraftian. I particularly enjoyed his representations of certain M.R. James’ stories, some of his Cthulhu mythos-based creations, his cracking portrait of Vincent Price in Witchfinder General, along with a classic Universal monster or two. On a personal level, Jim’s artwork also brought with it warm feelings of nostalgia for my own childhood when I would have read some of the various publications referenced, including Fantasy Tales and the B.F.S. Bulletins, mailed to me in the 1980s by my then pen-pal cousin Dave Carson, another fantasy artist also mentioned in the book and associate of Jim and the aforementioned contributors. For me to now be just a small part of this scene is the greatest of personal honours.
This is a very special book for many reasons, so if you have even a passing interest in fantasy artwork (especially that of Jim Pitts obviously) or the recent history of the UK weird fiction scene, then you really need to grab a copy for yourself as soon as humanly possible!
A limited number of 250 signed copies of The Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts have been published by Parallel Universe Publications. If you are interested in acquiring a copy you can contact them through the following:
Parallel Universe Publications
David A. Riley; Linden Riley
Head Office: 130 Union Road, Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, BB5 3DR, UK.
Email: paralleluniversepublications@gmx.co.uk or davidariley@gmx.co.uk
A future issue of Phantasmagoria Magazine (number 10, late May 2019) will feature interviews with Jim Pitts, David A. Riley and David A. Sutton.

Gruesome Grotesques #4 - Winter on Aubarch 6

Issue 4 of Trevor Kennedy's amazing anthology series Gruesome Grotesques is now out and includes a reprint of my science fiction horror story Winter on Aubarch 6, originally published in Fear magazine in 1989.

John Gilbert, who was the editor of Fear magazine, wrote the Foreword to Gruesome Groesques and had this to say about my story: "There are also shifts in tone such as David A. Riley's 'Winter on Aubarch 6' which is hard-ish Science Fiction/Horror when originally published in FEAR Magazine but could now be considered as a fable for our age of climate change."

Winter on Aubarch 6 is also included in my collection The Lurkers in the Abyss and Other Tales of Terror (Shadow Publishing).

Fear magazine 1989

A Distasteful Horror Story by Johnny Mains

Lovely surprise to find this splendid book in the post today from Johnny Mains, his first novel A Distasteful Horror Story - and for the acknowledgement he included: "Dave Riley for helping with the typesetting and championing this book from the very start." Thanks, Johnny. It was a pleasure!

The cover is by the very talented David Whitlam.

Two great reviews on the British Fantasy Society website.

This weekend two great reviews were published on the British Fantasy Society website for books I am directly involved with, one as the author, the other as co-editor.

Matthew Johns reviewed my Lovecraftian horror novel The Return, ending with:
"Riley’s tales of the weird and evil are always fantastically well written – truly gripping yarns that keep the reader engaged and enthralled throughout.  At times gruesome, filled with superb detail, witty dialogue and believable characters, The Return is a classic work of horror that deserves a place on your bookshelf." 

Click here for the full review.  

Dave Brzeski wrote a very detailed, excellent review of Kitchen Sink Gothic, edited by me and my wife Linden, with the closing summary:
"...on the whole this is a solid collection of stories with no absolute duds."

"...this is Kitchen Sink Gothic—like Kitchen Sink Drama, only scarier. What’s not to like? No haunted mansions here; no bloodsucking counts. No, the horror here is targeted just where it tends to be in real life, at ordinary people who don’t have enough money to protect themselves—indeed some of the horrors in these stories are quite mundane in origin, but certainly no less terrifying for that."

For Mr Brzeski's full review click here. 

The Vault of Evil Advent Calendar - Day 22 and it's Boat Trip

My Lovecraftian horror story Boat Trip, first published in The Third Spectral Book of Horror, edited by Joseph Rubas, is today's offering, beautifully illustrated by Chrissie Demant.

Vault of Evil Advent Calendar 2018

The Lurkers in the Abyss & Other Tales of Terror reviewed in Belfast's Phantasmagoria Magazine

A brilliant review coming soon in Phantasmagoria Magazine by Trevor Kennedy.

THE LURKERS IN THE ABYSS AND OTHER TALES OF TERROR by David A. Riley.
A collection of rather dark horror tales from David A. Riley spanning almost fifty years with each tale originally appearing in now considered genre classic publications such as the Pan Book of Horror series, Fantasy Tales, FEAR Magazine, World of Horror and many more.
I absolutely adored this book! The type of old school (trust me, that is a compliment) horror I grew up reading and still crave for to this day, the influences to Lovecraft and perhaps the likes of M. R. James and Poe (and maybe even Tales From The Crypt), are apparent but certainly not overdone. Riley’s own grim style shines throughout always, compelling and descriptive, though once again never over doing the descriptiveness. The haunting images his words created in my mind’s eye were vivid and lasting.
A couple of my favourite stories would have to be ‘Terror on the Moors’, a creepy, tense and atmospheric witchcraft-related yarn, and ‘Winter on Aubarch 6’, at first a mild science fiction tale that gradually evolves into full-blown, deeply disturbing body horror.
I don’t personally know what the sales figures are for this book, but I am certainly of the opinion that it should be read by as many people as possible, especially those with even a passing interest in horror or the short story form - of which Riley is one of the masters!
Hugely entertaining and great fun, I urge you to go out and purchase you own copy to experience for yourself the dark joys that lie within.
The Lurkers in the Abyss and Other Tales of Terror is available from Shadow Publishing and Amazon.
Trevor Kennedy.

Goblin Mire available for free kindle downloads from 26 - 30th November

 My fantasy novel, Goblin Mire, will be available free on kindle from the 26th till the 30th November.
All I ask is that if you download this novel you give consideration to giving it a honest review on amazon afterwards, however brief.
Hope you enjoy it, though.

Kindle:

Amazon.co.uk free

Amazon.com free

Romero's Children is in the current issue of the Russian horrorzine Darker

I am very pleased that my story Romero's Children has been reprinted in the Russian horrorzine Darker .

David A. Riley, “Romero's Children”, 2010 ©Сегодня вечером сенатор Харди провел операцию против использования широко распространенного препарата, замедляющего старение, известного как «ОМ» («Опытный Мафусаил»). В ходе этой операции были затронуты продажи на черных рынках.
«Сегодня никто не знает, какими будут долгосрочные результаты от его применения. Быть может, он и замедляет старение, но лишь кратковременно, и пройдут годы, возможно, даже десятилетия, прежде чем мы сможем утверждать, что его использование безопасно и не имеет побочных эффектов, о которых в настоящее время ничего не известно. Люди принимают этот препарат в надежде на долгую здоровую жизнь, но они не знают, не возникнет ли других последствий»...