Dave Higgins's Blog, page 52

The Gate to Oblivion by Matthew S. Cox

Cox blends ancient magical entities with the demands of modern urban life to create a vision of a world where magic is as ubiquitous and mundane as technology is in ours; and just as prone to misuse and malfunctions. This novel is the third in Cox’s Temporal Armistice series. Danger of psychometric backwash ahead. Brooklyn … Continue reading The Gate to Oblivion by Matthew S. Cox

String of Conflicts

I greatly enjoyed the string duel between Bill Bailey and Soumik Datta in Tinselworm. Salut Salon have elevated the “competition” to another level though: Today’s random thought has been: a piano has strings, but is it a stringed instrument.

Stonefish by Scott R. Jones

Jones summons forth abstruse theology in the language of dystopian thriller, creating the thinking person’s visceral cosmic dread. Years ago, tech mogul and futurist guru Gregor Makarios disappeared completely from public record. However, Den Secord, a journalist for a minor virtual reality publication, finds a fragment that somehow escaped the purge. Following a hunch that … Continue reading Stonefish by Scott R. Jones

Walled Improvement

As I suspect it has many of you, lock down has left me feeling somewhat closed in. To ring the changes from brief gathering of essentials and necessary exercise, I decided to undertake a maintenance project Nicki and I had put off until we had time: the back wall of the garden. The previous occupants … Continue reading Walled Improvement

The Restless Sands of Neel by Stephanie Flint

Flint crafts a desert fantasy novella that isn’t just the thinly veiled Middle East or Dune. Ro’nor is a scryer, a gift that lets him make a tolerable living predicting weather for farmers and other mundane tasks. However, when a young beastman fleeing desert raiders leaps into Ro’nor’s cart and scares the horses, the scryer … Continue reading The Restless Sands of Neel by Stephanie Flint

Macabre

I found this animated film both tense and aesthetically pleasing, with echoes of Poe or Lovecraft; and at just under twenty minutes, ideal for taking a short break.

The Girl Who Found the Sun by Matthew S. Cox

Cox takes the familiar post-apocalyptic tropes of survivors huddling in a bunker, failing technology, dystopian government, and possible conspiracy, and weaves them with nuances of his own to produce a tale that is fresh yet familiar. As toxins devastated Earth, a few survivors withdrew to the Arc, an underground sanctuary. The computers which stored much … Continue reading The Girl Who Found the Sun by Matthew S. Cox

Virtual Hands Across the Ocean

As someone who works from home, and enjoys books and cats more than parties, I’m used to not seeing friends and relations all the time; however, social distancing is still grating on me so this TED talk about finding meaningful ways to interact interested me. Not all of these will work for everyone: I had … Continue reading Virtual Hands Across the Ocean

Hawthorne High by Jordan Elizabeth

Elizabeth transports the trappings of a classic ghost story to the tawdry dystopia of a US high school, amplifying the exclusion faced by those whose life includes—or publicly includes—other than the narrow list of socially acceptable things. Dylan Hatfield’s grandmother suffers from dementia. And, ever since moving to Hawthorne, Dylan has been followed by imaginary … Continue reading Hawthorne High by Jordan Elizabeth

Call for Submissions: Outsiders Within

After years of reading cosmic horror and publishing books, I’m fusing the two like some eldritch phenomena. I’m looking for tales of cosmic dread about people with embarrassing secrets, hobbies they don’t mention, and other things that make them different from what those around them believe. Full details here . If you know someone else … Continue reading Call for Submissions: Outsiders Within