Alexander Pyles's Blog, page 9
June 22, 2019
Review: Witchmark
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Here is another from the Nebula finalist list, WITCHMARK by C.L. Polk. This novel brought a lot of things to mind, Sherlock Holmes, WWI period dramas, and not shockingly, BROADCHURCH.
Set in a secondary world that will remind many readers of pre-WWI England, noble families use their innate magical power to control their countries, down to the weather. One young man, a veteran who survived one war, re-invents himself to escape the oppressive influence of his family. Miles, who was rendered un...
June 20, 2019
Review: The Fearing Pt. 1 – Fire & Rain
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I’m grateful to Grey Matter press for sending me this ARC of THE FEARING Pt. 1 – FIRE & RAIN by John F.D. Taff. A rather stressful and disconcerting tale, Taff has made what may promise to be a full blown apocalyptic horror/thriller hybrid epic.
Since, this is part one of four, readers are only getting a taste of what Taff has in store, as well as most of the set up, dread, and psychological horror that fills these pages. Following three separate groups of people, we have a tourist group att...
June 18, 2019
Review: Spicy Constellation & Other Recipies
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What really intrigued me about this collection at first glance was the cover and I truly could not resist. Chad was gracious enough to send me a copy to review and I am terribly excited to write this review, so here goes…
SPICY CONSTELLATION & OTHER RECIPES by Chad Lutzke, is a collection of shorts that press all sorts of buttons for me. There is brutal, macabre horror, quietly moving almost literary shorts, and other stories that are pure chuckles. All of this wrapped up in an overall twist...
June 15, 2019
Review: The Calculating Stars
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Alternate history stories always bug me, because I want to know everything when it comes to how different the world is. In The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal, we have a world that is driven to the psychological and physical brink of extinction and then proceeds to fall right back into old habits, despite one literal earth-shattering event.
It all begins when a large meteorite plummets to Earth and destroys most of the east coast of the United States in 1952. This ignites a global...
June 13, 2019
Review: Rapture of the Deep and Other Lovecraftian Tales
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I wasn’t prepared for this collection of Lovecraftian stories from Cody Goodfellow, but they were some of the best cosmic horror shorts I have read this year. Packed with all the dripping dread that Lovecraft was famous for, Goodfellow manages(and does quite well) to not only adapt the traditional style of cosmic horror and weird fiction, but pulls out stories that are quite unique all on their own.
Of these, there were a few favorites that I will mention below, but I have to mention first t...
June 11, 2019
Review: Darkweird
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DARKWEIRD by Matthew Davis, does everything a second book should do: heartbreak, raises the stakes to ridiculous degrees, and more inter-dimensional hi-jinks. Davis manages to do that and so much more in his second installment of the GREY DAYS series.
A few months have passed since the last almost world ending event and now…it’s about to start all over. This time though, it seems things may be too much for Thomas Grey and his colleges. A rogue angel has set its mind to destroying the barrier...
June 8, 2019
Review: Less
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This was my latest audiobook I listened to and it was such a strange little journey. Written by Andrew Sean Greer and narrated by the amazing Robert Petkoff, winner of the 2018 Pulitzer in Literature LESS, is the story of a failing writer.
When Arthur Less is about to turn fifty within the next few months, he receives a wedding invite from his most recent ex-boyfriend of nine years. It is this final straw that drives him to devise a globe trotting trip as he attempts to flee his problems. Us...
June 6, 2019
Review: Rogue Protocol & Exit Strategy
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Murderbot is back! I finally got around to crush the last two novellas in this series. Too bad Network Effect, the full length novel, isn’t slated to come out for another year or so, but in the meantime, Martha Wells keeps teasing us along with such a fun series of books, with of course our ever lovable, but murderous Murderbot.
In Rogue Protocol, we find Murderbot or “Rin” as they are going by at the moment, hitch hiking to a terraforming station that GrayCris Corp owns, but may have been...
June 4, 2019
Review: To Another Abyss
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To Another Abyss by Zach Barlett is an entertaining mix of high art culture, Lovecraftian kitsch, and humor. He sent me a copy of this book for review and I have to say, this was a truly genre subverting read.
Following a somewhat stuffy, but insecure art gallery owner, Greg Withers and his punky counter part Decca, they agree to support an indie filmmaker, who rubs both of them wrong. Their fears are confirmed when during the first day of shooting, an Elder God is summoned by accident to th...
June 1, 2019
Review: Black Helicopters
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So, I read the sequel to Black Helicopters by Caitlin R. Kiernan some time ago. It is now in an expanded and definitive form from the World Fantasy award-nominated original short story.
Ptolema is merely a pawn in her agency’s global game of chess and is attempting to unravel what has become virtually inscrutable to just about everyone, maybe even herself.
Two sisters, deadly products of abominable experiences, evade their hunters, but they lack resources and options. Something is happening...
