Fractured Time by Alan Draven Review

By Alan Draven
Black Bed Sheets Books
ISBN:978-0976994787
Review by: Terry Morgan
Review posted 08/14/2011

Donovan Vicar is a feeler. He experiences emotions, bad and good vibrations of sorts. One day while walking home from a class he taught, he sees a man. The man produces a strange feeling for Vicar, a really evil feeling. He gets closer to the man, then hesitates. The the man goes on to the bus terminal and disappears, making Vicar regret not doing anything else.

He approaches his mentor, Mason with the problem. They talk and soon Vicar decides to go onto the bus where he thinks the man went, only to realize soon after being let off that the time has changed. He is now in the past of where he lives in Bitternest and not only has the time changed, but a growing evil force is present that he learns is darker than anything he has come into contact with.

Fractured Time is a story of dealing with one's gifts for the greater good. It was an interesting story that leads the reader down the growing paths of Vicar and the people around him in the past where the story takes place.

The one issue I had is at times when characters would do something that would just not make sense at the particular moment. For example, when Vicar tells his Mentor Mason he feels a certain way, his mentor tells him he is being paranoid. Why would a fellow feeler tell another 'you are being paranoid?' Isn't feelings what they are all about and they should listen to them?

This book regardless of that one issue is a great read. Its settings make you feel as if you are time-traveling with Vicar and experiencing all the conflict and horror that comes from the Bitternest past. I will say that no matter what you do, after reading this, you may think twice about going on a long bus trip.

His Pain By Wrath James White Review

By Wrath James White
Deadite Press
Review by: Ronnie Tucker
Review posted 08/05/2011

His Pain is a book about pain, but thankfully it's not painful to read. The book begins with a new born baby who is diagnosed with a rare condition which means every sensation results in severe pain. Rather than euthanasia the parents keep the child in a manufactured world to keep him safe from every sensation and be as pain free as possible. Eventually the mother hires a yoga master who can help the child focus his pain and convert it to pleasure. And if you've read Clive Barkers Hellraiser you'll know that no good comes of pleasure and pain! Parts of His Pain remind me of Barkers Books of Blood stories. Back when he wrote good stuff.

The book starts off quite slow. It's necessary set up, but I felt it was a bit too wordy. Everything was explained to us word by word. The letter the mother writes to the yoga master is verbatim as is his speech on TV (which is what gets the mother interested in him). If things like that had been suggested to us then we'd have gotten to the action much quicker. And we'd have more room for even more action! Win win methinks.

It's once the yoga master teaches the boy to convert pain to pleasure that the real fun begins. There's top class hookers, incest, emo chicks, murder, gore... the list goes on, and all in the second half of the story!

It's a short story, at 88 pages, but it's well written and doesn't beat about the bush when it comes to sex and controversy. It takes a good writer to write about sex (and incest) without turning it into either a cringefest or a Mills & Boon romance.

If you want a quick short story with graphic depictions of sex and gore then this will fit the bill very nicely!

Alice and Dorothy by JW Schnarr Review

By JW Schnarr
Northern frights Publishing
ISBN:978-0973483789
Review by: Ronnie Tucker
Review posted 08/03/2011

Alice and Dorothy is, in essence, a road movie novel. It also pulls in inspiration from, as the author admits, Alice in Wonderland, and (to a lesser extent) The Wizard of Oz.

Alice is a drug addicted prostitute who often visits her dealer who is, shall we say, a 'friend with benefits' which works both ways. One night she begins convulsing, and her dealer (being the nice guy that he is) takes her to the hospital. Unfortunately he drops her off and bolts. Alice ends up in the funny farm and it's here she, and we, meet Dorothy who, the doctors suspect, tried to killer herself. They eventually become friends, even lovers, and decide to make a jail break. Along the way things go horribly wrong involving a brick of dope, guns, hallucinations, and (of course) death.

My main complaint is that the Alice hallucinations really confuse matters as you, like Alice, begin to wonder what's real and what's hallucination. Having Alice as just a plain Jane good ol' psychopath would have been just dandy, and would probably have been a nod toward realism such as Aileen Wurnos the female serial killer.

Every so often there's be several words in italics, I assume, emphasized something, but sometimes the part emphasized didn't make sense, and I'd have to go back, and re-read a sentence/two to see what the emphasis was for! That really popped me out of the story on many occasions.

Still, a good story none the less. It has a strong female character, a hint of madness, and plenty of gore. I'm sure if you're a fan of Alice in Wonderland you'll love it even more.


The official Alice and Dorothy Page http://andjws.blogspot.com/

Highways to Hell by Bryan Smith Review

By Bryan Smith
Deadite Press
Review by: Gina Desory
Review posted 07/31/2011

Highways to Hell by Bryan Smith is a collection of 13 stories that are often bizarre, thrilling and just plain scarey. The list includes:

Living Dead Bitch- Rick and Danny are in the car, hopped up on drugs and discover a woman's body in their car. It looks like a ghost, but acts like a zombie. After that, it becomes a matter of how the two handle this new found item.

Slugger- Walter Percy has a hard life. He eats to make up for any bad things that has happened to him, gets ridiculed for it and through an injury gets out of baseball. However, soon Walter gets to play a new type of game, one in which he relives the thrill of being someone in control.

Pizza Face- Will Hopkins, a pizza delivery guy, delivers a pizza to a house that is experiencing a home invasion. After the door opens for Will, his world changes forever.

Remorse- Jack Roth killed his girlfriend and what he figured was her lover. He gets a second chance to relive his life through a strange new guardian. But does getting a second chance always mean it's the right choice?

Jarhead-Craig meets up with a lost friend Mark. He takes his love, Jenny, with him. Questions are asked what happened to Mark for so long. Some are answered and others are left hanging. After a brief time, Mark takes Craig into his van to show him a head in a jar. What happens next is something Craig could not have possibly ever imagined.

Sustenance- Kent Hogan one day leaves his wife. He has no reason, just does it. He waits at a light thinking about his wife and his life, that perhaps he regrets it. When soon he sees a woman walking in front of his car. She doesn't look good and collapses. He runs to her, with thoughts he doesn't think are right, but will act on them. But soon after meeting this woman, there are things that he discovers that will never make him the same again.

Killers on the Road- Heather and Josh went to rob a store. What they didn't expect was who would be coming there as well and what they would have hoped would never have happened.

Brain worms crave soul food- Rafe Martin is a writer with a very bad relationship. He feels stuck and with writer's block becomes worried. A strange headache forms. It seems okay until little things come out of his nose, relieving the headache, but causing chaos like he has never known.

Rattlehead- Ray Webber is getting annoyed by this person they calle Rattlehead. The man never shuts up. One night he gets the urge to just kill him. And the urge produces a very strange result that will change Ray's life forever.

Truth-Kyle Miller has nightmares of killing. He doesn't want to sleep or think of these dreaded dreams. But are the dreams real or is it just a way for Kyle to get out his frustrations of life? The truth for Kyle is worse than his nightmares.

Left for Dead (Moon child ascending)- Mitch MacCaffrey gets shot one day and left for dead where all he sees is the moon in the sky. Then a woman appears and Mitch is given strange powers that he uses to seek one thing, revenge.

Walk among us- Jack Grimm and Andy O'Day are time travelers who use their magic and wisdom to track down creatures with unexpected results.

Hell ain't a bad place to be- John Marlowe wants to be a serial killer and he succeeds. Then one day one of his victims starts talking to him, one that he has already killed. He soon discovers they are a match made for each other. But where does this take John? To a place he finally feels he belongs to.

This collection often made me think, at times even cringe. The stories played out so well together except for one and that was 'Walk among Us.' This story was often too jumbled and confusing at times. While the other stories talked of revenge, even a moral in there somewhere, this particular story left me with confusion and questions, making it hard to get through.

The best story out of this collection is 'Killers on the Road.' If you like twists that seem to bring justice to bad actions, this one is for you. It had a certain niche that made me want to read more about these characters. I was thrilled to see such a story in this collection.

Highways to Hell is not a collection for those who like light horror or not bizarre type situations. However, this collection will bring the fear out of you like nothing you have ever experienced. But be warned, if you are not sure you can handle it, take care in turning the pages.

Vampyrnomicon BOOK TWO OF THE VAMPIRE HUNTERS TRILOGY by Scott M. Baker Review

By Scott M. Baker
Pill Hill Press
ISBN:978-1617060526
Review by: Rob Walter
Review posted 07/28/2011

Vampyrnomicon is the second of The Vampire Hunters Trilogy from Scott M. Baker published by Pill Hill Press.

Drake Mathews and Alison Monroe are back for the second book in the trilogy. As I said in my review of the first book (The Vampire Hunters, Pill Hill Press, 2010), this is not a book about Twilight Vampires as these vampires are evil, nasty and destructive. Drake and Alison continue their crusade to eliminate the vampire nest in Washington D.C with varying degrees of success. They discover that there is a book called the Vampyrnomicon that contains information that will give them the ability to eliminate vampires once and for all or, if it falls into vampire hands, establish world control by the vampires. The vampires have gotten nastier and tougher to kill, but Jimmy Delmarco , an ex-engineering student who is the newest addition to the team, is also improving the weapons the hunters use.

The action is not as prominent in this as the author has spent time developing the characters giving them more depth and not falling into the one dimensional trap many authors have with vampire stories.

I really enjoyed reading this book and following along with the Hunters on their quest. I am looking forward to the conclusion of the trilogy.

I strongly recommend the series for anyone who enjoys good stories that are action packed. Of course it helps if the reader likes dark vampires, but these books would be enjoyable for anyone.

Revolution City by Darren James Review

By Darren James
Panic Press
ISBN:978-4467945517
Review by: Chris Bartholomew
Review posted 07/19/2011

This story is written in beautifully descriptive language. First person POV's are not my favorite but when the story is written with such vivid scenes, it hooks me from the start.

This is a story about an out of body experience. The death of the body of the person this one came from is so well told that I want to know more, bringing me through the experience feeling like I was there. The writer is able to pull you in and keep you there so this is like a shared experience.

'If I was not really there, then was I moving through the world, or was the world moving through me?' This quote from the book says a lot. Was this happening, was this not happening, what would be next?

By chapter three we are following a Hudson J Shirow. The book goes into a different POV and I'm able to follow it better, the great writing continues throughout the book. The writer keeps you wondering throughout the book... is this an awakening or a death. Are the experiences real in some future world, or just the mind?

The only thing I didn't care for are the single quote marks for dialogue. Though the story flows well, I am used to double quote marks and the single is a distraction. Other than that, this is a great read and to me it's a mixture of Suspense, Literary, and Science Fiction.

Alienology – Tales From The Void Edited by T. Patrick Rooney and D.G. Sutter Review

Edited by T. Patrick Rooney and D.G. Sutter
Library of Horror Press
ISBN:978-1461169529
Review by: Ronnie Tucker
Review posted 07/04/2011

Alienology – Tales From The Void is an anthology of 28 Sci-Fi/horror short stories ranging in length from just a couple of pages to a couple of dozen pages for a couple of stories.

The book starts with a short poem which is an ode to the movie Alien then it's off and running with the first short, Devil's Hole. From Devil's Hole through to, and including, The Conservators (which is roughly the half way mark in the book) the stories are all good stuff with equal amounts of alien and gore. I particularly liked Devil's Hole (which is 100% Lovecraftian in nature, and my favourite out of the whole book), Space Freaks, Fuck You ET (good action, but lame ending), Blind Encounter (good Matrix-style idea, but, again, the ending was a bit lacklustre), Salt And Copper (which, like several other shorts, shows how many Sci-Fi authors are terrified of human-eating aliens), Midnight In A Small Town (good 80's B-movie idea, but let down with a saw-it-coming slushy ending), It Came From Outer Space (reminded me of Silent Hill for some reason, and has a nice sick ending), Jacob's Bad Day (another nice idea with a sick ending), Heavenward (one of the better shorts in the last half of the book), and The Fruits Of Incubation was pretty sick too.

The only down side with Alienology is that, in my opinion, it seems that the editors have put all the good stuff in the first half with all the mediocre stuff in the last half so, for me anyway, the last half of the book is a bit of a drag. The majority of the stories all tried to have a twist ending which remind me of either The Twilight Zone, or Outer Limits (no bad thing), but, for reasons unknown, a couple of the shorts just seemed to end. Almost as though the author left it unfinished. Very odd.

All in all though the first 150+ pages were very enjoyable with some nice ideas and kudos to those authors who went for the sicko ending. They're always my favorite.