Joshua Reynolds's Blog, page 79

New NEFERATA Review

Over at the Founding Fields review site, Abhinav Jain has reviewed Neferata, a book which now holds the dubious distinction of being my most-reviewed work. Luckily, this review holds true to form, and Abhinav seems to have enjoyed the book.

From the review:

With  Neferata , Josh Reynolds brings the kind of excitement that was lacking in Black Library’s previous premier Vampires trilogy from Mike Lee and tells a focused story about one of my favourite characters from across the Warhammer Fantasy lore.

If you’d like to check out the full review, and I encourage you to do so, head over to the Founding Fields. And if you haven’t picked up Neferata yet, it’s available from Black Library in both print and ebook format.

Stalking the Night

Richard Matheson passed away last night. If you’re not familiar with that name, I’d advise you to take a few moments to . 

For me, Matheson was–and still is–a huge influence. He wrote a number of my favourite films, including the 1973 television version of Dracula, featuring Jack Palance in the title role, and the legitimately disturbing Duel. He also created one of my favourite characters, Carl Kolchak, in 1972′s The Night Stalker.

While a dedicated student of his work might disagree, one of the things that always struck me about Matheson’s work was his propensity for the ‘Everyman’ as protagonist. The normal person–the salesman, the businesswoman, the reporter, the house-wife–versus the intrusion of the abnormal, be it  a merciless vampire, taunting gremlin, or a savage doll.

It’s a common enough trope, granted, especially in television, where the surest way to audience identification is to ask ‘will this play in Peoria‘,  but Matheson imbued his protagonists with a bit more life than the run-of-the-mill hero of the week.  You could believe in them, and in their desire to survive.

That’s why Kolchak always appealed to me, I think. A middle-aged man, out of shape and outclassed by the supernormal threats that he’s forced to confront in pursuit of good copy, yet determined to do his job. His fragility, ego and sheer, stubborn refusal to compromise in the face of cosmic horror make him worth more than a hundred lantern-jawed, high-powered heroes.  Kolchak battles the forces of darkness armed only with sarcasm, a good pair of running shoes and a swanky hat.

That’s my kind of hero. And Richard Matheson was my kind of writer. If I accomplish even a third of what he did, I’ll die a satisfied man.

GOTREK & FELIX: LOST TALES Now Available for Preorder

Gotrek & Felix: Lost Tales is now available for preorder from Black Library. Lost Tales, if you were unaware, is a collection of four stories, including one by me, myself and I, that were originally released digitally (or in audio, in the case of one), and are now, at last, being offered in print. 

From the blurb:

Gotrek and Felix: unsung heroes of the Empire, or nothing more than common thieves and murderers? The truth perhaps lies somewhere in between, and depends entirely upon whom you ask… A collection of timeless tales featuring the Slayer Gotrek Gurnisson and his human companion Felix Jaeger. From the undead-ridden marshes of Hel Fenn, where an ancient evil lurks, to the court of a skaven lord in the depths of a dwarf hold, the duo face excitement, danger and intrigue at every turn.

My contribution, “Charnel Congress”, features the demolition duo going up against several nasties, including a newly resurrected Mannfred Von Carstein and a cabal of necromancers, and it was previously released in digital format. Other contributing authors include David Guymer, Jordan Ellinger and Frank Cavallo.

Gotrek & Felix: Lost Tales is available for preorder now, in either ebook or print format, and it should be in stores sometime next month.

The Royal Occultist Comes to Bandcamp!

This has been in the works for a while now, but since there’s finally something to listen to there, I think I can safely share THIS. That, if you don’t feel like clicking the embedded link, is the Adventures of the Royal Occultist Bandcamp page! 

The first story that’s gotten the audio treatment is “Owd Hob”, which finds Charles St. Cyprian (Richard Gough-Thomas), the Royal Occultist, and Ebe Gallowglass (Ruth Narramore) matching wits with a vicious boggart in Suffolk in 1924. It was published earlier this year, in the February issue Monster Corral.

The plan, such as it is, is to provide audio versions for most, if not all, of the stories currently available, as well as branching out into a few audio-only productions. Basically, if you’d like to read the Royal Occultist stories, but haven’t had time, or aren’t capable of doing so currently, well, here’s the perfect opportunity.

At the moment, the first instalment, “Owd Hob”, is set at ‘name your price’ for the cost of the download. That means you can pay a buck, five bucks, or zero bucks. If you’d like to donate something to help fund further refinements of the audio translation process (i.e. helping us get some sound effects in there), or simply to show your appreciation for the effort Rich and Ruth put in, please feel free to do so. And if you want to download it for free, well, you can do that as well.

To say that I’m excited about this is an understatement.  I’ve been wanting to produce audio versions of these stories since I wrote “Krampusnacht” back in 2010, and when Rich allowed as he’d like to give it a try, I jumped at the opportunity. I hope you enjoy the first of what I hope will be many audio-adventures for the Royal Occultist!

3…2…1…White Rocket is Go

Author, podcaster and pulp-enthusiast Van Allen Plexico was kind enough to invite me onto the White Rocket Podcast a few weeks ago to talk about Black Library, Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40K.

The first part of the episode is now available for your listening pleasure over at the White Rocket Podcast site, should you be interested in hearing my monotone drawl expound enthusiastically (and possibly incorrectly) upon such topics as the Horus Heresy, the Eye of Terror, etc.

I also encourage you to check out Van’s books over at White Rocket Books, because they’re pretty spiffy, especially if you like  fiction of the super-heroic variety.

On Stage at the Cabaret from Hell

I recently posted (or re-posted) my review of filmmaker Chris Regan’s short horror-comedy film, Jenny Ringo and the Monkey’s Paw. I quite enjoyed that one, and I’ve been eagerly anticipating Regan’s follow-up, Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell. Well, he was kind enough to give me an early peek at it and, I’m happy to say I found Regan’s second foray into the weird, wonderful world of  witch Jenny Ringo and her slacker roommate, Gavin, to be a delightful way to spend a half-hour.

From the synopsis:

Jenny Ringo is a witch who lives with her slacker flatmate Gavin. When a spell to help Gavin audition as a singer in a Cabaret club backfires Jenny finds herself trapped in her flatmate’s body! But there are far worse surprises waiting for her in the mysterious Cabaret club where the audience feast on the souls of the performers and the MC keeps a terrifying secret in a bucket in her office. Can Jenny reverse the spell, save Gavin and defeat the demon MC before they both become lunch for the thing in the bucket?

As with the first film, Cabaret from Hell, has its focus in the characters of Jenny Ringo, again brilliantly portrayed by Rosie Duncan, and her lackadaisical roommate Gavin, played with louche verve by Lukas Habberton. Duncan and Habberton are both as excellent as before, but with this outing they take their respective performances to the next level, mimicking one another’s mannerisms skilfully during the body-swapping sequence. While such stories aren’t normally my cup of tea, I quite enjoyed this one. I did find the lip-syncing during the sequence, with Duncan’s voice coming out of Habberton’s mouth and vice-versa, to be a trifle disconcerting, right up until a certain scene which had me laughing out loud. And the body-swapped duet at the film’s climax is simply wonderful, thanks to the chemistry on display from Duncan and Habberton.

Cabaret from Hell  is, like its predecessor, a darkly comic fable, but there’s bit more meat to it this time around, despite the short running time. While the first film felt fairly self-contained, this one indulges in a bit of world-building, with the implication that there’s more to the supernatural scrapes that Jenny and Gavin have gotten into than is evident at first glance. The script, if not as laugh out loud funny as the first one, is more polished this time around. The pacing is improved as well, and there’s a real snap-crackle-pop to things that was lacking in the first one. Frankly, this instalment feels more like the opening film of a franchise, which, to my mind, is no bad thing where these characters are concerned. Whether or not this means that the promised third film will add another layer to things, and reveal a bit more about both Jenny’s abilities and the world she and Gavin have stumbled into, I don’t know, but I look forward to finding out.

Long story short, I enjoyed this second foray into Jenny Ringo’s world as much as I did the first. It’s a wonderful film, and I encourage you to give it a shot, if you’re of a mind to watch something about witches, evictions and horrible things in buckets. 

The full film will be released on the 18th of June but you will need to subscribe to the mailing list at www.jennyringo.com to see it. I recommend that you do just that post-haste, and be sure to check out the first entry, Jenny Ringo and the Monkey’s Paw.

 

Wednesday Monkey Paw Redux

Just a head’s up–this post is a rerun from an older version of the blog, which, given the subject of a future post, I decided to give an airing to today. Enjoy! 

So, I got a chance recently to watch Chris Regan’s short horror-comedy film Jenny Ringo and the Monkey’s Paw. Long story short? It’s good. In fact, it’s safe to say that I was pleasantly surprised with it.

The film centres on Jenny Ringo (Rosie Duncan) and her flatmate, Gavin (Lukas Habberton) as they struggle to deal with the latter’s wishes-gone-wrong. Duncan is excellent as Jenny, dominating every scene she’s in by dint of sheer personality. Even when being loomed over by a demonic house-guest or forced into hand-holding in a circle of Wiccans, she imbues the character with a forceful, four-colour charisma that dominates the screen. Habberton, appropriately for the character of Gavin, is a more placid presence, but the aura of resignation and ambivalence he exudes, especially in his scenes with Duncan, is practically tangible.

Story-wise, Jenny Ringo is one of those films that gets creepier the longer you think about it. The plot is played for laughs (albeit dark ones), but the subtext is disturbing on a number of levels. The idea of wishes-gone-wrong is a pretty standard one as far as horror AND comedy films, but the way Regan combines them here is chilling. Gavin’s wishes are, for the most part, appallingly, depressingly pedestrian and the way they backfire is even worse. And the climax is, while obvious if you pay attention to the beginning of the film, appropriately darkly amusing.

By turns funny and creepy, Jenny Ringo is well worth a watch. Despite a short running time of roughly a half hour, Regan and co. have packed the film to the gills with laughs, thrills and chills, as well as created one of the more interesting horror-heroines of recent memory. According to Regan’s blog, there might be a sequel in the works, which would suit me just fine.

If you want to know more about the film-and why wouldn’t you?-visit the official site and sign up for the mailing list. You can also give it a ‘Like’ on Facebook or follow Regan’s blog.

The Nightmare Men: ‘The Phantom Fighter’

‘He was…rather under medium height, but with military erectness of carriage that made him seem several inches taller than he actually was. His light blue eyes were small and exceedingly deep set and would have been humorous had it not been for the curiously cold directness of their gaze. With his blonde moustache waxed at the ends in two perfectly horizontal points and those twinkling, stock taking eyes, he reminded me of an alert tom-cat.’

Such is the stout Dr. Trowbridge’s description of Jules de Grandin, late of Paris, the Surete and the Sorbonne, upon first meeting the irascible little French physician in the 1925 story, “Terror on the Links”.  Cat-eyed and ebullient, de Grandin is the epitome of the phrase ‘it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog’. He defends Harrisonville, New Jersey, and by extension, all of mankind, against the spawn of Satan, using forbidden knowledge and firearms alike.

Jules de Grandin and his ever-present companion, Dr. Trowbridge, were created in 1925 by Seabury Quinn for Weird Tales and went on to feature in close to a hundred stories, with the last, “The Ring of Bastet”, appearing in 1951. Quinn, in the introduction to the 1976 Popular Library collection, The Adventures of Jules de Grandin, says that de Grandin is ‘…a sort of literary combination of Topsy and Minerva, that is, he just growed.’ It’s hard to imagine it being otherwise, given the sheer vibrancy of de Grandin from the start. De Grandin, like his more passive predecessor Dr. Hesselius, is a physician, and approaches the supernatural as an illness to be confronted. Unlike the kindly Hesselius, however, de Grandin is no amiable general practitioner, but a surgeon—flamboyant, precise and ruthless.

To continue reading, visit BLACK GATE MAGAZINE.

Previous entries in THE NIGHTMARE MEN:

‘A Doctor, Darkly’-Dr. Martin Hesselius
‘Physician Extraordinary’-John Silence
‘The Diehard’-Shiela Crerar
‘The Ghost-Finder’-Thomas Carnacki
‘The Ghost-Seer’-Aylmer Vance
‘The Judge’-Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant
‘The Supernatural Sleuth’-Anton Zarnak
‘The Haunted Wanderer’-John Kirowan
‘The Enemy of Evil’-John Thunstone
‘God’s Madman’-Abraham Van Helsing
‘The Good Inspector’-Inspector Legrasse

‘The Spirit-Breaker’-Sgt Roman Janus
‘The Blind Man’- Dr. Laban Shrewsbury

SHAPESHIFTERS TOC/Cover Sneak-Peek

I’m pleased to say that my short story, “Bultungin”, will appear in Shapeshifters, a forthcoming anthology from Fox Spirit. ”Bultungin”, if you’re curious, is about witches and were-hyenas in Lagos, and is more a sort of weird romance than a monster-fest. I think it’s a pretty neat little story, but then, I’m probably biased.

Here’s the cover:

The entire TOC has been announced over at the publisher’s website. While you’re there, be sure to take a look at Blood Bound, the sword and sorcery novella by my good friend, and fellow Black Library author, Sarah Cawkwell. I had the pleasure of reading it not too long ago and it’s a cracking read, if you like demons and Faustian bargains and such.

ZEITALTER DER LEGENDEN Cover Sneak-Peek

Black Library has revealed the cover for the forthcoming German translation of the anthology, Age of Legend, which includes “The Gods Demand”, a story by me, of which I’ve spoken before. 

Here’s the cover:

Pretty awesome right? Look at that guy. All on fire and screaming and stuff. As to what the anthology is about, well:

‘Die düsteren Grundfesten der Welt von Warhammer sind in Blut gebadet. Gewaltige Kriege zwischen verwandten Völkern formten ganze Kontinente neu, mächtige Zivilisationen erhoben sich und vergingen wieder, die Toten marschierten in Legionen auf der Erde. Es ist ein Zeitalter der mächtigen Helden, wie sie später nie wieder auf Erden wandeln sollten, wie etwa der Menschengott Sigmar und Caledor, der Phönixkönig der Hochelfen. Es ist auch eine Ära grausamer Bösewichte, darunter der Hexenkönig Malekith und Nagash, der Herrscher der Untoten. In diesen stürmischen Zeiten bevölkern noch Drachen die Himmel und es gibt so mächtige Magie, dass sie die Welt retten oder vernichten kann. Es ist ein Zeitalter der Legenden.’

So, for those of a German persuasion, you’ll be able to get your hands on this bad boy around June of 2013 or you can pre-order it now. And for those of who’d really like the English version, well, it’s still available.