The Word Thieves by Carol Riggs

Riggs blends a complex political situation with nuanced characters, creating a tale that is driven by youthful desire for justice without reducing difficult situations to simple binaries.. As the taxes on the poorest district of Noviston become ever more extreme, Taylen Hafferill relies on her power of mech-whispering to help her band of rebels stay …

Every Hour of the Light and Dark Is a Miracle

We are creatures of light. In the metaphorical sense that we have capacity for good but also in the very literal sense that where other creatures live by scent or sound, we live by sight, needing the light to achieve non-trivial actions in a way that even most other sight-focused creatures do not. While we …

She Who Returns by Audrey Driscoll

Driscoll blends learning and esoterica with complex characters, creating a story that evokes classic tales of occult scholarship without any of the dryness that can creep in. This novel is the sequel to She Who Comes Forth and describes events in Driscoll’s Herbert West series. Possible spoilers for both ahead. France Leighton has built a …

Anent The Conjuring of Thought from Machine

When one ventures beyond the comforting indifference of the crowd, one finds many vastly different, yet equally strongly held, views on AI Chatbots and similar such contrivances. However, to the enlightened mind only one opinion matters: that of the Prophet Lovecraft. And so I set forth to ask. Due to a foul confluence of unclear …

The Witch is the Body by Farah Rose Smith

Interweaving universal experiences of love, loss, and uncertainty with urban legends, folk horror, and the fantastical, Smith offers a series of stories set in the liminal zone between human concerns and the incomprehensible other. This collection gathers eleven of Smith’s short stories. ‘Dead in September’: the last person Morton wants to see at his mother’s …

Three Children in a Marianas Trench-Coat

Earlier, I was discussing the rule that one shouldn't criticise a solution unless one was prepared to offer an alternative. As I am not the only Lovecraftian in my circle, the discussion swept over whether Yog-Sothothery was an exception, which reminded me of some strange realisations I had as a younger man about the casting …

Stump and Corpse Meet the Vampire Bride by Ken Preston

Preston grounds the speculative and fantastical in utterly realistic portrayals of human behaviour, creating horror that blends the fear of otherness with a visceral sense of plausibility. This collection features six short stories in a variety of horror sub-genres. ‘Stump and Corpse Meet the Vampire Bride’: When Alderton’s wife was killed in a vampire attack, …

Season 2, Episode 8: A Tale of Sorrow

SCENE 3 Open on a back alley somewhere in Hyrkania: DR VAL ARRIA The ashes were trampled into the earth, but that’s not the strange part. Look how the blood has become like snow. SERGEANT SUBOTAI Does that look like a trophy rack to you? ARRIA I’d need to do some tests SUBOTAI Can you …

From the Ashes by Baileigh Higgins

Higgins continues her portrayal of how groups of emergency service workers might act during a zombie apocalypse with a classic “packs of zombies breach the compound” narrative. Note: while the author is blessed with a spiffing surname we are unrelated by blood or marriage. This novel is the fifth in Higgins’ Heroes of the Apocalypse …

What Strange Creature Bimbles…?

I often find rewards in computer games slightly puzzling, not merely in what they are but when they are received. For the last couple of weeks, I've been playing Sable, a game about a young woman undertaking her coming-of-age quest on a world that is a blend of many things from hunter-gatherer to high-tech. The …