LOST GIRL

Adam Nevill’s latest novel is a story so grounded with its intricate and intimate descriptions and yet so worldly in its narration that it can’t help but be an intoxicating read. Lost Girl sets itself in a nearby future where much of the world has become something of a dystopia, fraught with environmental damage and countries becoming impossibly full due to refugees. However, one man, a lonely father, can barely notice these things as he is lost in a desperate hunt for his daughter, snatched from him several years ago. With the world in the state that it’s in, no dependable police force has the time or manpower to rescue one little girl, leaving the father almost completely alone in his search. But in such a broken state, how far may he go to find his daughter?

Throughout the novel Nevill shows that he’s a master of pacing. The more the story develops, the more the reader discovers about this ruin of a world, which is eerily similar to today’s world of refugee crisis after refugee crisis. That deepening of how unbalanced the world in Lost Girl is heightens the father’s own disturbed frame of mind. That’s all we know about the main character name-wise as well – he spends his time in the novel simply known as the father. Such a tactic either makes the father a vague character, and sends the novel spiralling into some kind of self-inflicted mess, or lends the novel an enriching sense of tense insanity, depending on how far the reader is willing to travel down this subtlety horrific road.

Lost Girl is sublime in its jaggedness. There may be times when it becomes too self-indulgent for its own good, but Nevill concocts a unique, paranoid vision of dystopian drama that’s nigh impossible not to get sucked into.

LOST GIRL / AUTHOR: ADAM NEVILL / PUBLISHER: PAN / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 22ND

 

VOICES OF THE DAMNED

In her first novel, The Venus Complex, Barbie Wilde took us vividly into the mind of a sexual psychopath equally obsessed with art and murder. As a follow up to The Venus Complex, this collection of eleven short stories confirms Wilde as a foremost author of erotic horror fiction and is a more-than-worthy successor to that stunning debut. In his foreword to the collection, Fangoria editor Chris Alexander describes Wilde’s literary world as one of “sex, death and madness”. Boy, he’s not kidding.

Wilde kicks off with Sister Cilice, which, drawing on the mythos of Clive Barker’s The Hellbound Heart, reads almost like the backstory of Wilde’s own Female Cenobite in Hellraiser II: Hellbound. Sister Cilice is an icon of transgressive female sexuality and Wilde returns to her twice more in the collection, forming the philosophical backbone of the book. Along the way there are semen-hungry neo-vampires, miracle-performing dime-store preachers, insomniacs visited by demons straight out of Fuselli, a vengeful female fury who trusses up the scrotum of a hapless home invader with plastic ties, and oversexed train-riding Zulu zombies. All delightfully perverse and shot through with Wilde’s trademark black humour. Especially written for this collection, Valeska stands out (alongside the splatterpunk/medical horror Polyp) as the tale ripest for novel-length treatment (Wilde is currently adapting Zulu Zombies into a screenplay – can’t wait to see that one at the local multiplex), constituting, as it does, a total rethink of vampire mythology.

As to be expected with a collection that spans early publications to more recent work, some tales are more accomplished than others – but when taken as a whole, it’s the sheer force of Wilde’s vision that impresses most. Wilde’s writing reminds us that the unbridled imagination is, in the words of David Cronenberg, “beyond politics, beyond society – a threat to civilisation!”

As filmmakers Jen and Sylvia Soska remark in their afterword, Wilde’s stories are like “perverse fever dreams”, illustrated throughout with visionary artwork by Clive Barker, Nick Percival, Daniele Serra, amongst others, Voices of the Damned are precisely that.

VOICES OF THE DAMNED / AUTHOR: BARBIE WILDE / ARTIST: VARIOUS / PUBLISHER: SST PUBLICATIONS / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 31ST
 

ASYLUM

In order to appreciate William Seabrook’s Asylum, a book first published in 1935, it is necessary to understand a little about the author. Seabrook was at heart an adventurer, but an adventurer keen to explore the darker and, as he saw it, more interesting aspects of human nature. His books covered topics such as Witchcraft, Haitian Voodoo and Devil Worship. He had a lifelong interest in the occult and sought out evidence to prove the validity of such practices, which he later declared not to have found. Seabrook is also credited with introducing the word zombie into popular culture. There is no doubt he was an interesting man but alongside his “academic” obsessions there were also more personal demons; Seabrook was an alcoholic.

In 1933, with the help of some friends, the author had himself committed to the Bloomingdale Mental Institution near New York and wrote about his seven month tenure there in Asylum. Despite the outwardly serious nature of the subject, being the author’s life threatening affliction, the book is a witty read. Seabrook is always candid and honest to a fault when recounting his thoughts and feelings, although he does admit his recollection of certain events to be somewhat cloudy. Behind the anecdotes though, you get the impression of a frustrated sadness in his words. Seabrook is effusive in his praise of much of the work undertaken by the staff at Bloomingdales, but there is a desperate sense of futility to it. At a time before Alcoholics Anonymous, incarceration was the only option open to those with a serious drink problem, and though acknowledged as a disease it was seen as one that could be cured completely. Seabrook was even advised upon release he could now safely drink again. He died just ten years later.

Despite the occasional “did they really just do that?” moments that will make your jaw drop open aghast, Asylum is a fun and entertaining read, and one that, like the institution it describes, once you get inside is difficult to get out of. An interesting account of an interesting man’s very personal experience.

ASYLUM / AUTHOR: WILLIAM SEABROOK / PUBLISHER: DOVER PUBLICATIONS / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 30TH


 

PLANETFALL

Emma Newman’s Planetfall focuses on the story of Renata Ghali, a woman who followed cult leader Lee Suh-Mi into the stars to find an alien world. She and her fellow travellers left a polluted, war-ruined Earth behind, believing that they could unlock the secrets of the universe. Twenty-two years have passed since they founded their colony on this distant planet, planting their base at the foot of a strange alien structure under strained circumstances. Life in the colony changes when a figure who could well be the son of Su-Mi arrives, someone who was clearly born on this world. 

One of the things that science fiction does very well is provide a fantastic framework into which we can make even the most mundane story fantastic. The genre is rich in metaphor and this allows a skilled author to put many layers into the simplest stories, turning a tale of one personal tragedy into something much deeper and more engaging. Newman’s tale of secrets and distant alien worlds serves as a backdrop for a far darker and intensely personal tale. Planetfall is a science fiction novel that uses the future as a way of reminding us that people don’t really change.

The main protagonist is a powerful and sympathetic character. Renata’s skills primarily involve building and repairing things for the colony; she can manufacture whole organs using something akin to a 3D printer. Everyone in the colony has the best toys, from self-sustaining homes to mind implants that allow for a sort-of text message-based telepathy, and they have a peace of sorts. With the arrival of the stranger, however, things quickly unravel. The charming stranger throws things into sharp focus and the lies and self-deceit that the colony is built on begin to reveal themselves.

Planetfall is a book about broken things; people, places, memories and dreams. It is no coincidence that the central character is responsible for repairs. She may have the power to change matter but secrets and self-delusion have eaten away at this colony and the reasons behind this form much of the focus for the novel.


Planetfall is a gentle science fiction thriller that will draw you in slowly and shock you throughout. It’s a powerful journey into the human psyche and one well worth the trip.

PLANETFALL / AUTHOR: EMMA NEWMAN / PUBLISHER: ROC / RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 5TH


 

THE BRONZE AGE OF DC COMICS

For many of a certain age, the Bronze Age of DC represented a turning point in the history of comics. Vietnam and Watergate had ushered in a new sense of social awareness, a loss of innocence, and DC Comics were quickly swept up by all of these changes. Comics would never be the same again. In came sexuality, religion was no longer taboo (although did we really need The Bible comic?), and even (shock, horror!) ethnically grounded characters. Comics finally had something useful to say. Something that reflected the world that readers actually lived in.

Following on from his companion books focussing on the golden and silver eras, Paul Levitz has created a truly definitive tome on this period with The Bronze Age of DC Comics. The first thing to strike you is the lavish feel and quality, which together with the exquisite binding present something that oozes quality from cover to bronze foiled cover. The Bronze Age of DC Comics covers the years 1970 up until 1985, when Crisis on Infinite Earths, and Whatever Happened to The Man of Tomorrow brought down the curtain on the era when comics grew a set of balls and threw off the shackles of the Comics Code.

Levitz looks to all of the greats to weave the tapestry of this saga. Dennis O’Neil, Joe Orlando, Len Wein, Bernie Wrightson, Dick Giordano, Robert Kanigher, Joe Kubert, Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, and many more. Levitz tells the tale of the era in parallel with the contribution made by these comic book legends. Coupled with a mixtures of classic covers, iconic moments, and genuine curiosities – All beautifully restored and printed for future generations to easily experience.

You are taken back to a time when ISIS was a superheroine battling the evil Scarab. Lois Lane would change colour, and immediately start jive talking. Wonder Woman changed into an Emma Peel knock off. Superman put on the boxing gloves for a match with Muhammad Ali, and in the real world Neal Adams designed the ultimate Superman Theme Park. Levitz covers the outlandish meeting the real world with aplomb, and rightly gives great kudos to the ground breaking team-up of Green Lantern and Green Arrow, which scooped awards with its introduction of complex social issues of the time. By comparison in the modern DC New 52, Roy Harper has never been a junkie, merely previously overdoing the vodka Red Bulls.

By the time Frank Miller’s Dark Knight returned the party was well and truly over. The Bronze Age of DC Comics takes you back to when the party was in full swing and anything felt possible. The greatest compliment I can give this book is the stern look I gave to my iPhone, whose ringing had broken the spell after being engrossed in this joyous book for two hours. It’s a bronze foiled time machine. Buy it. Be happy.

THE BRONZE AGE OF DC COMICS / AUTHOR: PAUL LEVITZ / PUBLISHER: TASCHEN GMBH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

THE SECRETS OF DREARCLIFF GRANGE SCHOOL

Kim Newman has managed to build himself a name in the fantasy/horror genre over the years. The recently published An English Ghost Story was critically acclaimed and this, his upcoming release The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School, is likely to follow in its footsteps.

The story focuses on the character of Amy, who is sent off to a boarding school after a strange occurrence happens at home. It soon starts to pick up pace from there, as more mysterious events occur within the school. She soon learns about the unique characteristics of the girls in the school. Then when things take a mysterious twist, it is up to Amy to solve the mystery surrounding a conspiracy within the school.

This novel seems very different to Kim Newman’s other novels, seeming more of a thriller than an overall horror novel. The suspense that Newman creates allows for the pages to turn effortlessly. Some characters are more developed than others, but here, instead, he focuses on the mysteries in the plot, which actually enhances the novel. The author has always known the correct balance between character development and a suspenseful plot. He manages to yet again show why he is regarded as a master within the genre.

This novel is a nice one-off quick read for of fantasy elements with a thrilling plot. It will also serve as a good starting point for people interested in Newman’s work. The book is simple enough to get into and with only 400 pages, it can be a quick read before moving onto Kim Newman’s other critically acclaimed novels and series. Full of mysterious events and likeable characters, a must read for fans of many genres.

THE SECRETS OF DREARCLIFF GRANGE SCHOOL / AUTHOR: KIM NEWMAN / PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 23RD

 

FUTURISTIC VIOLENCE AND FANCY SUITS

The fate of the world is in the hands of one rather smelly cat and his unfortunate owner, as Zoey Ashe finds herself suddenly thrown into a world of nightmarish villains and bewildering superhuman powers, the likes of which she’s never even dreamed of. But for one team of well-dressed power players it’s just another day at the office in futuristic Tabula Ra$a.

Imagine a world where every aspect of your life is played out for the world to see on the most popular wearable technology feeds, where you could be watching the world’s newest supervillains showing off their latest weaponry for millions of followers at the mere blink of an eye. To Zoey Ashe, the world of an all-seeing social network couldn’t be more terrifying, and it’s certainly not helped when she finds herself becoming the latest target for Tabula Ra$a’s gangs of villains.


Zoey wasn’t expecting to spend her evening fleeing in terror from a superhuman villain who wants to munch on her bones for his blink feed, but she suddenly finds herself on the run and at the mercy of her estranged father’s team of suited power players, as she’s become the most wanted person in Tabula Ra$a, and all she wanted to do was save her rather stinky cat from the roof of her trailer.


Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits follows our unexpected hero on her journey to the richest and newest city in the world, Tabula Ra$a, as she goes on the run, facing off countless unknown superhuman powers from an ever growing list of enemies she’d never even heard of, in a world where fame and social media status are as glamorous as futuristic super powers and weapons.


With plenty of unexpected twists and turns along the way, you’ll almost be sure that you forgot to plug your blink feed in, as we face even more perils than Zoey Ashe could have dreamt of, and that’s just the holographic Christmas decorations. A sofa clutching read from beginning to end, and a great look at the constantly growing world of social networking.


FUTURISTIC VIOLENCE AND FANCY SUITS / AUTHOR: DAVID WONG / PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW


THE HAPPY READER #4

This is a neat and clever little magazine that in each issue is divided into two halves. The first half is devoted to an in-depth interview, whilst the other provides different views and viewpoints inspired by a piece of classic literature.

In this edition, the main interview is with Alan Cumming, who had a regular role in the TV series The Good Wife as a political campaign manager, has appeared on stage in productions of Hamlet and Cabaret and featured in such diverse films as Eyes Wide Shut, GoldenEye, Spice World, The Smurfs, and X2. He talks about his meeting with literary figures, his own writings, his career and what books he likes to read.

The book under scrutiny is The Purple Cloud by M. P. Shiel that began life as a serial in 1901. It is a (proto) science fiction tale about a clairvoyant who reads a notebook written in the future by the last man on Earth. This tells of him surviving a poisonous Volcanic cloud that kills everyone on the planet, because he is in a remote part of the Arctic at the time. He then goes on to recount burning down cities and dressing like a Sultan – as you might well do if you are as psycho as he is!

The Purple Cloud provides the opportunity for articles about the Arctic, the meaning of the colour purple (not the film we hasten to add), doomsday movies, bathing in wine, atomic bombs, volcanoes and a second-hand science fiction bookshop in New York City. That should be eclectic enough for anyone!

The magazine is described on its website as celebrating the pleasure of reading offline, and it certainly does warmly embrace you in the world of literature. Though it does have a nod to the world of the internetty place, because words underlined in the magazine are associated with titbits of information in the margins, more in the style of a hypertext link than a footnote or traditional reference.

We look forward to seeing what future works of literature it will explore.

THE HAPPY READER #4 / EDITOR: SEB EMINA / PUBLISHER: PENGUIN CLASSICS / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 22ND

 

CRIMSON PEAK: THE ART OF DARKNESS

Crimson Peak is arguably one of the most anticipated films of 2015, but then any new cinematic offering from Guillermo del Toro is something of an event. As with many of the big studios’ high concept or prestige genre movies, Crimson Peak has an ‘art of…’ tie-in book, and just like del Toro’s movies, Crimson Peak: The Art of Darkness is a thing of beauty.

The book is divided into six chapters with the first four providing an insight into the characters of Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska), Dr Alan McMichael (Charlie Hunnam), Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) and Lucille Sharpe (Jessica Chastain), respectively. Not only do these chapters provide a background of the dramatis personae, but they reveal just how much detail del Toro goes into when he develops his characters, their motivations and flaws, and their childhood. There’s personal insights from the actors about their characters, and the production crew and artists revel in the detail that goes into the casts costumes and props that the audience will never see or consciously notice.

The fifth chapter charts the creation of Allerdale Hall, or rather the sets, and again this is another example of del Toro’s attention to detail. The sets are ceilinged, which created a challenge for the director of photography as he had to use a window, fireplace or other ambient source to light the sets. Then there’s the hall’s main corridor that is deliberately skeletal in design. There aren’t any green screen sets here, they are real, tangible and functional with a level of artistry that is breath taking.

The final chapter reveals just how vital a component colour is to del Toro in his film making process. The colour of the sets and how they are lit, the characters clothing, and in this case the ghosts themselves. They are truly terrifying creations and their colour depicts the manner of their deaths. Again, CGI is only used to augment the ghosts, as actors (del Toro alumni Doug Jones being one of them) bring the spirits to… life?

Filled with striking concept art and stunning photography, the book also features a number of special removable items, Victorian daguerreotype photographs, a booklet that showcases the film’s amazing costume designs, the film poster and potted histories of the characters that resemble journal pages and Victorian pamphlets.

Author Mark Salisbury has created an exemplary work that explores the creation of, what will hopefully be a sinister del Toro masterpiece. There are just one or two very minor niggles, however. The text is a silvery colour, which is fine on a dark page, but on a couple of the pages you may have to awkwardly angle the book in order to read the page. Also, sound is described as an important aspect of the film yet there is nothing mentioned about composer Fernando Velázquez’s score, and as all soundtrack enthusiasts know a good score can be a character in its own right.

CRIMSON PEAK: THE ART OF DARKNESS / AUTHOR: MARK SALISBURY / PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

MODERN HORRORS: AN A TO Z OF HORROR MOVIE REVIEWS

Modern Horrors is a Kindle eBook with an alphabetical collection of more than 800 reviews by US critic Scott Weinberg, which cover horror movies released from 2000 to 2015.

As Scott notes in the preface, in the late 1990s he dreamed of being a film critic and he found that the Internet was the best way to get exposure for his reviews. Over the past 15 years websites have come and gone, so as a consequence his reviews are scattered all over the Internet or no longer available.

To compensate for the vagaries of the Internet, this compendium gathers his work together in one place and showcases the sheer scale of his determination to improve his reviewing skills and share his love of horror cinema.

James Wan (director of Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring) in a short introduction reveals how he value’s Scott’s writings because “he champions the little guys”. As a budding film director, a review by Scott gave him a glimmer of hope and he appreciates the fact that “his writing is filled with honesty, wit and biting sarcasm, but it’s never mean-spirited.”

You can see what James means when you read Scott’s one-liners, like “It’s the kind of flick you watch while you’re playing a video game and you’ll look up only when the shark starts eating people” (2-Headed Shark Attack); “You need a lot more than five actors, a van, a forest, a camera, some lights, and a sound effects program to make a decent film – as Alien Abduction clearly and repeatedly shows”; and “There’s a tongue-in-cheek absurdity to the flick that, after a rough start, actually started to win me over” (Bikini Bloodbath).

As a horror film connoisseur Scott clearly identifies the best and worst of these movies, a case in point is his review of Jurassic World. Many reviewers have dismissed it as a pointless sequel but Scott appreciates its great set pieces consisting of “chases, scrape, escapes and all-out-dino-frenzy action”. For him there is always a glimmer of gold in even the worst movie.

Scott loves horror movies and he makes you want to see all 800 plus of them that are reviewed in this volume.

MODERN HORRORS: AN A TO Z OF HORROR MOVIE REVIEWS / AUTHOR: SCOTT WEINBERG / PUBLISHER: THE HORROR SHOW LTD / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 31ST