Gregor Xane's Blog, page 19

Jeffrey Ford Story in SUBTERRANEAN PRESS MAGAZINE (Winter 2014 Issue)

If you've not had the pleasure of reading a story by Jeffrey Ford, here's an opportunity to do so risk-free. His story "The Prelate’s Commission" is in the Winter 2014 edition of Subterranean Press Magazine.

You can read it online here.

Or you can download a FREE copy of the magazine in which it appears in either MOBI or EPUB formats.

Draculas by Blake Crouch, Jack Kilborn, Jeff Strand, F. Paul Wilson

I didn't find the setup or the ending to be particularly satisfying. And I found some of the banter between characters to be pretty hokey (especially the constant quoting from action movies).

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let me say that this is one crazy, action-packed read. It's nearly non-stop from start to finish. I liked the depiction of the vampires. They're not sexy or sophisticated. They're like sharks in a feeding frenzy. There were also a handful of nice little illustrat...

The Dinner by Herman Koch

I think I fell for every trick the author had up his sleeve on this one. I flew through this book like I was expecting the last page to reveal to me some magical secret of flight or something. Of course, it did nothing of the sort. But I love it when a book hooks me like this book hooked me.

I liked that there is one minor detail that makes this a work of science-fiction. I won't mention what that is, as that would spoil things for the reader. Also, some readers might get to the end and have...

Boston Posh by Wol-vriey

Wol-vriey is the L. Frank Baum of our perverted 21st Century!

There are striking similarities in the worlds Wol-vriey builds to the Land of Oz and its various interconnected fairylands. Both authors create patchwork characters out of inanimate objects, animals, and people parts. Geography plays a large role in separating the species they invent. Characters are repeatedly hacked to pieces and reassembled through magic. Their worlds are populated with strong female characters, often wicked and...

Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky & Boris Strugatsky

Exactly the sort of SF I like (light on the science, long on the human impact of a changed world). This had so many great and horrible things jammed into it. It was tragic and funny, and the humor grew naturally from the tragic elements. It had a noir feel, too, which I generally am fond of. Excellent writing, unusual structure, brilliant characterizations.

Read this book!

Majestic Freiks by Richard McGowan

This, to me, captures the tone of many of the stories in this fine little collection:

Grimms' fairy tales as told by Carroll's Hatter.

If I had to pick my favorite, it would be "The Chinese Type Cutter," wherein the hero sets out on a journey to find the antidote for a curse that causes his neighbor to uncontrollably laugh at her husband's erection.

Also, it must be noted that the story "Electronika of Covert Garden" has what I believe to be the first example of anti-humor I've seen deployed in...

This Crowded Earth by Robert Bloch

I like to read old SF. This was published in 1958. Part of the fun is seeing what predictions about the future the writer got right and which ones he got wrong. The title makes it clear that this book is about overpopulation and vanishing resources. Much of it takes place in our current era and a few decades from now. Overpopulation and vanishing resources are a problem today, of course, just not to the extreme predicted in this book. And the method that the secret masters of this imagined fu...

Six Dead Spots is only $0.99 for the Holidays!

Give the gift of horror this holiday season! Six Dead Spots is on sale for just $0.99 (67% off the normal digital list price) now through Christmas day.

Get it for yourself or a loved one who likes all things creepy and nasty.

Buy the Kindle Edition from Amazon.

Or you can purchase an EPUB, MOBI, or PDF version directly from me by clicking the button below.


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They Had Goat Heads by D. Harlan Wilson

If you're looking for conventional story structure, look elsewhere. But if you can stomach the surreal, the absurd, and you're fine with reading narratives that only follow the logic of dreams and nightmares, then you'll enjoy this book thoroughly. Every story made me laugh or cringe, or both.


Read this book!

Hoard of the Flies by H. Cogito Epsilon

I'd suppose you'd categorize this as a pornographic comedy of manners. It's about a disintegrating "old money" family and what happens to two paired off couples of incestuous grandchildren when their grandmother (who once raised them as her own) dies and leaves behind two huge solid gold dildos for them to discover in her run-down estate.

Naturally, this story contains shenanigans involving an elderly butler banging a sexpot maid, foursomes involving nymphomaniacal siblings, swarms of horse fl...