News: Voiceworks magazine call for submissions

The new editor of Voiceworks magazine has issued the following call for submissions:

We're looking for fiction, poetry, nonfiction and visual art by the 17th of May. Here's EdComm's musings on POSTSCRIPT to whet your appetite:

I meant to tell you this before, but now there’s no time. Checking the letterbox everyday – nothing but bills and junk. Walking around, hours after the fact, you can’t shake that sentence. All of a sudden, mother changed her mind. Sorry, I don’t think I understand. Give them my love on a post-it note – something to remember me by. The Brontë sisters sit at the window, peering at the bleak moor. My grandfather crossed the sea to write a new story, to revise the past and remember things differently. But don’t worry, it’s not very important. What’s said or done doesn’t always follow what’s written. And finally, a parting shot, famous last words: how do I want to be remembered?

...but remember the Voiceworks motto:

• themed work: good
• good work: better
• good themed work: BEST

Go to our How to Submit page on the Express Media website for guidelines: http://www.expressmedia.org.au/vw_submit.php

Source: Bel Monypenny, Voiceworks Editor

News: The Bullsheet #86

The Australian Science Fiction Bullsheet #86, May 2009 edition is now available. This issue details various publishing news, and an overview of upcoming writing, speculative fiction and fan events.

Just a reminder - the web version of The Bullsheet is now hosted at www.bullsheet.sf.org.au.

Source: Edwina Harvey

News: Leigh Blackmore reading at Live Poets

Leigh Blackmore, highly respected Australian author of horror, weird and occult writing, will be appearing as special guest at the Live Poetry night at Don Bank in Sydney.

Leigh will be reading poems from his recent collection Spores from Sharnoth and Other Madnesses, and will also be featured in a panel discussion with publisher Danny Lovecraft (P'rea Press) and convenor Danny Gardner.

The night also features an open mic session, which will include fantasy novelist Margi Curtis.

Cost of admission is $7. Doors open 7.00pm, with performance to commence at 7.30pm.

The venue for Live Poets is a beautiful old sandstone cottage called "Don Bank", now preserved as a museum. Live Poets at Don Bank meets on the 4th Wednesday of the month from February to November.

Leigh Blackmore at Live Poets
Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Don Bank Museum
6 Napier Street
North Sydney 2065

Enquiries to: Danny Gardner: (02) 9896.6956/ mobile 0422 263 373.

Source: Leigh Blackmore.

Review: The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff

The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Release Date: October 2007

ISBN-13: 978-0312357498

A dark fiction novel able to keep the reader immersed in the story. A unique and compelling plot I was unable to put down until I’d read it in its entirety. It really is that good.

Robin Stone is pretty much invisible to her fellow students at the prestigious and historically rich Baird College. She’s not hideously deformed or socially inept. She isn’t rallying against the world, nor does she have lofty self perceptions that she’s better than everyone else. She’s from a broken family whose mother is a woman on the edge of insanity, and whose father gave up on them years ago, but out of guilt, paid for his first born to gain a first class education.

Robin took the Get Out Of Jail Free card as a chance to escape her old life, but now she knows she can’t. She’s not the same as all the high class rich kids who attend Baird. She has swapped one life of misery for another. It may be not be the mental anguish of home, but utter loneliness brings its own problems. All of this is conveyed up front, not in huge chunks of information dumping, but slipped into the dark images Sokoloff conveys and in the way the protagonist moves through the fellow student body. It sets a dark atmosphere for the book from page one.

Thanks Giving holiday is coming this weekend, and all the students will be going home for the four day break. Everyone, except Robin. The solitude becomes depressing, closing in on her, magnifying her fears until one single thought becomes crystal clear: she can’t take her existence anymore. Death’s embrace would be welcome.

Not wanting her sorority cast-off of a roommate to be the one to find her, she procures pills and alcohol and heads to the large central meeting place so a stranger can find her earthly remains. It is there, with the means of her destruction in the palm of her hand, that she discovers she isn’t the only one who didn’t go home. She isn’t the only misfit at Baird.

Including Robin, five students have stayed at Baird College for the long weekend. Five young lives that become inexplicably linked through terror, because something ancient has been summoned. An older than creation evil, bent on destruction and cruelty, which has been innocently unleashed on Robin and her new companions.

Nominated for the Horror Writers Association's Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel after being released late in 2007, this tale of an ancient evil is deliciously dark, extremely well thought out, and beautifully written in a simple prose that makes it a delight to read.

From the first page the reader swims into the deeply depressing life that is Robin Stone. We spend much of the first part of the book immersed in her sorrow and in the setting of Baird College. Introduction of the other four members of this cast is brilliantly done through excellent use of character interaction. Descriptions and comparisons carry the theme of five lives spiralling into oblivion in vivid detail and include very real and delicate nuances. Alexandra allows us to care for each character; to understand their flaws and a very real need for all of them to be understood by another. The reader is allowed to urge them onto finding their successes and becomes just as disappointed as the characters when another artful spanner is thrown into the mix. Like a rollercoaster ride without a harness, the journey is both terrifying and exhilarating.

Tension builds through a number of minor climaxes and false plateaus of calm to a thrilling and extremely satisfying conclusion. I was riveted. This book is a real page turner I enjoyed immensely. This is a first class horror novel I recommend whole-heartedly.

Book Review: The Necronomicon (3rd edition)

Abdul Alhazred (trans. James Ward), June 2009, Penguin Books Australia

That is not dead which can eternal lie
And with strange aeons even death may die

I was in two minds, after receiving an advance copy from the publisher, as to whether The Necronomicon actually warranted a review on HorrorScope; the book is, after all, a religious text of sorts (along the lines of The Egyptian Book of the Dead) rather than any sort of genuine horror-related publication; however, in the end, given that The Necronomicon has been so heavily mythologised and quoted by famed horror author H. P. Lovecraft and his circle, I figured that Mythos fans at least would appreciate the effort.

This edition of The Necronomicon, made available as part of Penguin’s current ‘reprint’ range of $9.95 ‘60s-style paperbacks, has been newly translated from the original tome (currently housed in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, according to the introduction) by James Ward. The text primarily takes the form of ‘fragments’ of verse (surviving from the original text, which was compiled circa 730 A.D.), with some prose, plus footnotes, all of which refer to dimensions and entities beyond the sight and understanding of mortal men. There’s no coherent plot, such as you might find in the Qur’an or Bible, but the contents are sufficiently weird and atmospheric to grab the reader’s interest. On a personal note, I found the imagery of several passages I read aloud disturbing enough to make me imagine stealthy movements in the shadows surrounding my computer desk, so I can certainly understand the fascination that The Necronomicon held for Lovecraft and his friends!

On the one hand, the price and availability of this legendary publication are sure to please Mythos scholars and fans alike, and it’s also a fairly decent read in its own right. On the other hand – and I know I’m nitpicking here – it would have been nice to see Penguin release an additional, more ‘upmarket’ version of the book; perhaps a limited-release bound hardback, for serious Lovecraft scholars and collectors. Speaking as a Mythos fan myself, the bland orange-and-white cover of the paperback version just doesn’t seem worthy of a book such as this.

That aside, I’d recommend The Necronomicon as a ‘must-own’ to anyone interested Lovecraft and his Mythos, if only for the novelty value of having it sitting on their bookshelf. I will add, though – again – that the contents of this book make for very unsettling reading, and perhaps should not be recommended to those of nervous disposition or overactive imagination: I’m still getting the distinct impression of movement in the shadows, and with the family away for the weekend, and an unusually dark and windy Melbourne winter night outside, it’s easy t

NAMELESS 20. Kaaron Warren.

There was a tear in her womb where the Junkie Stone had once sat, cold and hard and leaking junk juice like defrosting meat leaked blood.

She felt exhilarated and it took her back to the good times, those rare times when the place was safe and maybe there was someone who cared, so you could take the joy with no deep hard gnaw of worry.

That was not what she would take to the Night Brethren. She would take the bad times. The times she woke up with long, deep cuts in her arms which took forever to heal. The times too many when she started the day with a sore cunt and no idea, no fucking idea, who'd been up her. The loss of family and future, the filth she'd poured out; all of that she'd give them.

She needed help. Six helpers. Not one functioning addict. Not a businessman, not a mother of three with a talent for makeup. What she wanted were the ones who'd lost so much they had regained innocence.

She found:

A man so close to death he had rats gnawing at his naked, grey toes.

A woman skin and bones, all her flesh sucked out by the junk.

A girl full of spunk, full of spunk 22 times a day, all of it for the junk.

An old man. Five kids, the grandkids, every last one of them, curse his name like he was a disease.

A boy, all pretty with his pale skin, his pink lips, this boy lost all soul and brain cells. Toothless, gummy, like a baby pretty baby.

And the last one; she went home for that one. Her sister, a ten-year shut-in with the shit delivered and sometimes food, the stench of the baby who burned to death like a flesh bonfire settled in the house.

That was seven, and they walked on, forward, to fuck over the Night Brethren.


(Kaaron Warren)

Review: Promise Not To Tell

Promise Not to Tell by Jennifer McMahon

· Paperback: 256 pages
· Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (April 10, 2007)
· Language: English
· ISBN-10: 0061143316
· ISBN-13: 978-0061143311

Kate’s on three weeks leave but her life is suddenly very busy. Hippies, painful memories, murder, forbidden love, school bullies, memory loss and a ghost.

A wonderful, intricately woven tale encompassing the theme coming of age played out on an underlying thread of mystery and supernatural suspense.

I found this an easy read, finishing the book in two sittings. The plot was well paced with lots of foreshadowing throughout leading to big payoffs later in the book. The logic is impeccable making it simple for the reader to suspend their belief and escape into the world created by the author.

41 year old Kate Cypher reluctantly returns home to the hippie commune of her childhood to decide the future of her mother who is fast descending into the hell of Alzheimer’s. On the night she returns, a young girl is murdered in the woods, eerily similar to 30 years before when Kate’s secret best friend, Deloise Griswald, was murdered.

Nearly everyone who lived in and around the New Hope commune in Vermont, back in 1971, still lives there in 2002 when the new murder victim is found in the woods, the home of the town’s legendry ghost, the Potato Girl.

Moving between the past and the present, McMahon leads us through the school bullying of Del, the tribulations of 10 year old Kate trying to fit in, life in a commune, and of Kate growing up and moving away to fail at a marriage and at having a family of her own. It’s only when Kate’s mum becomes a danger to herself does she return to Vermont and history comes back to haunt her.

The plot twists are excellent and not telegraphed although I figured out who the killer was before the end. I didn’t figure out all the reasons behind the killings so it was still an exciting climax when the whole picture was revealed.

The revelation’s of the town’s legend was particularly well done. Del becoming the Potato Girl, a ghost haunting the surrounding area, fed from tales of the superstitious middle-America, showing how fiction can grow to become larger than life. Kate’s sceptical outlook laid a perfect platform for the introduction of the supernatural elements.

With sub-plots a plenty, twists and turns (many unseen), most readers should enjoy this. I did.

Review: Envy The Night

ENVY THE NIGHT by Michael Kortya

ISBN: 9781741755916
Australian Pub.: September 2008
Edition: 1
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Imprint: Arena
Subject: Crime & Mystery

Michael Koryta’s background has allowed him gather an impressive platform on which to base his crime writing career. He began the multi-award winning Lincoln Perry series when he was only 20. At 26 he has graduated from Indiana University, majoring in criminal justice. He is an award winning newspaper reporter, and now works as a Private Investigator at Indiana’s only certified legal business of that type.

His fourth book is a stand alone tale about Frank Temple – the third. Frank’s father (that would be FTII) was a hitman, a hired assassin of the finest calibre. He worked in the shadows with evil men such as Devin Matteson, but when FTII put a pistol in his mouth, an FBI agent drilling for the truth, fed an impressionable kid the lie that Devin was the cause. Unfortunately that kid was FTIII, not an ordinary kid by any stretch of the imagination. Frank’s dad had trained him to meet all the bad in the world head on; he had turned his kid into a weapon.

But FTIII wasn’t the same cold calculating individual his dad was. Frank had control over his inner demons until events conspire to drag him back to an idyllic spot in Wisconsin.

The first 100 or so pages were a slow burn, introducing us to the setting and the major players – and lots of background. There was no increase in pace. At the slightest indication of a heart beat, things were forcibly slowed down like a post heart-attack sufferer under instruction from an old time matron.

The middle third of the book picked up a little, introducing us more to Frank’s abilities, the dangerous situation he’d found himself in and hinted at the mystery surrounding everything.
Finally moving toward the climax, things are just believable enough to lead to a vaguely satisfying ending.

This is a coming of age, man facing his inner turmoil, hugely flawed but highly skilled leading man meets strong willed but vulnerable lady and does good, type of thing. The mystery was transparent, the characters predictable and amazingly well skilled.

Michael is lauded as one of the best in Mystery writing and a star of the future. Personally, I thought the prose simple and well written, but the plot slow and unengaging. The characters didn’t come across as real to me. Overall, I was disappointed.

Review: Garbage Man by Joseph D'Lacey

‘Garbage Man’ (Bloody Books, 2009) is the second novel from UK author Joseph D’Lacey. His debut, ‘Meat’, comes high on my list of recommendations for horror novels that resonate within your conscience well after you’ve turned the last page. This second novel has already been categorised under the blossoming ‘Eco-horror’ genre, as it addresses society’s over-consumption and the consequences of dumping just about anything into landfill; such a premise gave me tingles before reading.

The novel revolves around several townsfolk in Shreve, which has the country’s largest landfill dump. Anyone can pay to dump whatever they want inside. Even spare body parts. That’s starting to be a big problem. The earth has had enough. One of the main characters, Mason Brand, is a reclusive ex-celebrated photographer who has tried to live alone, revelling in the healing wonders of nature. He can sense that something is wrong. He is led to the dump upon hearing a familiar ‘calling’, and finds one of the pits oozing a black blood. Then, in grand horror fashion, there is a terrible storm, and soon a strange creature is at Brand’s rear gate. It is a foetus made of body parts and garbage. Brand knows it has come from the dump, but rather than kill it he sympathises, thinks it is part of a new generation to evolve out of man’s interactions with the earth, a generation he must nurture to save us all. As the creature grows in his back shed, feeding off blood and small animals, it returns to the dump each day and forages for bigger and better parts, and when it is big enough it raises an entire army. Brand begins to think that allowing it to grow may not have been as noble as he thought, because humanity is soon threatened to extinction, used as parts for the growing garbage creatures.

Unfortunately I am a rather mixed-bag about this novel. ‘Garbage Man’ is a solid horror novel, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that it has a lot more flaws than D’Lacey’s debut. For one, D’Lacey follows a Stephen King-style approach to developing a town of quirky characters. To begin with, this is wonderful – you really get a feel for the different townsfolk and how messed up most of their lives are (you just know something’s going to happen to them and constantly debate whether you’ll cry or cheer when it does). D’Lacey is very good at developing characters. The flaw here, however, is that D’Lacey spends way too much time on these developments, at the risk of having minimal plot. It is not until after the first hundred pages before things start to kick in – almost one third of a book is just way too much, padding in my eyes. D’Lacey’s first few chapters in ‘Meat’ were also quite slow, but they had more of a poignant impact on the rest of the novel.

Whilst it is nice to build, build, and then WHAM, have the creatures rise and attack, in the first one hundred pages there are too many developments that are wasted down the track. Why have a story about a father who fights an internal demon to give up looking at child pornography, only to have his sole involvement in the plot being to dump his crushed computer in landfill and be observed by Mason Brand? Why have a woman constantly dream about the foetus she had aborted if the creature never actually reveals itself to her when it grows into the Garbage Man? And so on. Too many characters are killed off instantly too – for all the fight you are led to believe they might have, the payoff is minimal.

To me, it feels like D’Lacey has written a novella and been told to convert it into a novel. If this had been trimmed down it would have worked wonderfully, because when the garbage creatures start to rise and take over then the horror is amazing, the story tense (it reminds me of several sci-fi/horror movies). If you can get past the points made above, you will read a great novel. I’m just not sure if people should have to do that. All things aside though, D’Lacey is not the first author to write like this. If Stephen King can take over fifty frustrating pages to describe thirty seconds of a husband being shot (yes, ‘Lisey’s Story’) then people must be a little forgiving.

I must also note that the editing is not as refined as D’Lacey’s counterpart’s new novel (Bill Hussey’s ‘The Absence’). Punctuation and short words are absent in places every 10-30 pages. This may be, however, because I received an early review copy, so I’m hoping these small details (because they don’t ruin the story) will be remedied.

What I can beam with pride about is D’Lacey’s choices as an author. He tackled a tough subject with his debut novel and now takes an even more important swing with this novel. He really is in the forefront of pushing us to think about the things blind faith would usually have us forget or dismiss. We should know where our rubbish goes, the mountains of waste we cause and the way this is effecting our earth (we have many problems in Perth with recycling trucks being caught dumping their loads in normal rubbish pits). D’Lacey reminds me why I love writing and reading horror too – you can tackle a big issue and haunt someone with it. You may spur them to make a change, or just scare the hell out of them. And the twist at the ending of this novel is superb – if you can get there, you’ll be glad you did.

News: Eclecticism #8

Issue 8 of the quarterly e-zine Eclecticism is OUT NOW. With a theme of 'Conspiracy' - plus an open section - the zine features five works of short fiction, three works of poetry, and three art works from the following talented creatives: Dianne Dean, Jacqui Dent, Stefan Fergueca, Emma Furness, Alice Godwin, Clyde Grauke, Nicholas Messenger, Melissa Mercado, Keith Nunes, Peter Tonkin - and the Featured Artist, Demitasse-Lover.

So download for FREE from the website now - and enjoy!

Source: Craig Bezant, Eclecticism Editor

News: Scary Kisses anthology

Western Australian publisher Ticonderoga Publications has announced the reading period is now open for their new paranormal romance anthology, Scary Kisses, edited by Liz Grzyb (with Russell B. Farr).

Submission guidelines

Do your kisses have bite? What mischief are the vampires, werewolves, and mummies getting up to now? Romance may be dead, but it’s still walking …

Send us your best stories in the paranormal romance vein. We are looking for submissions with romantic and paranormal or speculative elements.

1. Story length 1,000 to 8,500 words. (Longer stories may be accepted, although payment is capped at 5,000).
2. Original stories only: no reprints, multiple, or simultaneous submissions.
3. Stories may be emailed to the editors at scarykisses@ticonderogapublications.com with the words "Submission Scary Kisses" in the subject line.
4. Manuscript format: double spaced, large margins, sensible font.
5. The editors reserve the right to bend any and all rules for close personal friends.
6. Deadline: 1st December, 2009.

Reading period: The anthology is open to unsolicited submissions until 1st December, 2009.
Payment: 2 copies and Aus 2 cents/word (GST inc., maximum payment $100) on publication.

Scary Kisses is scheduled for release in 2010.


Source: Russell B. Farr

Review: Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry

My wonderful review-machine colleague, Chuck McKenzie, reviewed this novel some time back, and one of his closing comments was that he hoped it gained the distribution in Australia it deserved (Maberry’s Pine Deep trilogy was barely marketed down under, even with award nominations and wins). I was thankful to receive a promising review copy from Gollancz – in trade paperback – and it certainly looks ready to be distributed across Australia (23 April 2009), albeit an altered cover. I for one am thankful, because this certainly is a deserving novel.

For those who haven’t read Chuck’s review, let me remind you of the premise. The story is a mixture of thriller and horror (with some sci-fi and noir thrown in). Protagonist Joe Ledger, a Baltimore Police Department Detective, is part of a team who raids a warehouse, during which he guns down a man who tried to bite him. Shortly after, he is covertly whisked away to a secret base, where he meets a man codenamed Church. Mr Church offers Ledger a position in an even more secret team, the Department of Military Sciences (DMS), if he can handcuff or restrain a man in the next room. Only, that man is the same one Ledger gunned down in the warehouse, and he’s even more of a vicious, snapping monster. Yes, what we’d call a zombie. The DMS hopes the man is a Patient Zero, the first and hopefully last of a scientific experiment gone horribly wrong. But as Ledger leads a team into another warehouse, connected to a terrorist group the DMS has been watching, it soon becomes clear that an equally secret organisation has been experimenting with a radical prion strain for a long time. They have been rounding up men, women and children and turning them into the zombie-like creatures, all to test the release of a plague that could wipe out America, and indeed the world.

That’s a very simple explanation – I cannot do the story justice, because amongst the main plot is a spider-web of twists. Amongst Ledger’s team of five it soon becomes clear there is a plant/mole/spy – and you’ll be guessing for most of the novel just who that is (as does Ledger). It is also quite unclear who Mr Church is, and how he has so much pulling power with all the authorities. And it seems the terrorists linked to the plague have different ideas on how to use it. Throw in a subtle touch of intimacy between Ledger and another agent, not to mention that the team never gets a break in physical combat, and you have one hell of an interesting story.

The best part, for me, besides the never-ending onslaught of zombies and traps for Ledger’s team, was the realism in the combat scenes. Author Jonathan Maberry is himself a black belt in two disciplines – 8th level black belt in jujutsu and 5th level black belt in kenjutsu. That makes for some wonderful descriptions of hand-to-hand combat, which Ledger must rely on a lot (after he’s created a heaping pile of zombies with his gun). This may be a touch too much for some readers, but the descriptions are very accurate and gave me a deeper picture of what was happening. I also loved the main character – Joe is a smart-mouthed yet lovable guy who just won’t say die (although it was strange to have him in the first person perspective and the rest in third). The only writing decision that took some time to get used to was the use of larger sentences with connectives: ‘this happened and he did this and then they did that…’ Because it’s largely a thriller, short, sharp sentences would have worked better in some areas, but that is just my opinion – it does help to drag the tension out so you’re almost as breathless as Ledger.

The chapters move along at a breakneck speed – you’ll hardly want to put the book down. All I can add is support this writer in Australia – there are more Ledger novels planned for the future, and I’d love nothing more than to see them promoted here.

Review: Darker than Black Vol 1 (Japan, 2009)

The first volume in this new anime sci-fi/thriller series from Japan shows a lot of promise.

Set in a near future society, the series follows the story of the government’s attempts to keep secret the existence of supernatural assassins known as Contractors. For a long time the Contractors and the government have worked in unison, but when a masked killer known as the Black Reaper emerges taking out fellow Contractors and threatening to expose the supernatural existence to humanity a new age emerges.

Weaving a complex narrative together with explosive action and thrills, Darker than Black creates an engaging and thought provoking adult drama that thrives in a sea of moral ambiguity. It’s a series that is hard to categorise, shifting seamlessly between police procedural, superhero and sci-fi/thriller genres.

Volume 1 features five episodes that raise more questions than answers. But with a sharp, interesting narrative, and a storyline that sits somewhere between Blade Runner and the Long Kiss Goodnight, it does enough to suggest this is one worth making the long haul with.

Rating: four stars

Darker than Black Vol 1 is released through Madman Entertainment. DVD special features include commentaries, cast auditions, character bios, galleries and trailers.

Review: Darker than Black Vol 1 (Japan, 2009)

The first volume in this new anime sci-fi/thriller series from Japan shows a lot of promise.

Set in a near future society, the series follows the story of the government’s attempts to keep secret the existence of supernatural assassins known as Contractors. For a long time the Contractors and the government have worked in unison, but when a masked killer known as the Black Reaper emerges taking out fellow Contractors and threatening to expose the supernatural existence to humanity a new war begins.

Weaving a complex narrative together with explosive action and thrills, Darker than Black creates an engaging and thought provoking adult drama that thrives in a sea of moral ambiguity. It’s a series that is hard to categorise, shifting seamlessly between police procedural, superhero and sci-fi/thriller genres.

Volume 1 features five episodes that raise more questions than answers. But with a sharp, interesting narrative, and a storyline that sits somewhere between Blade Runner and the Long Kiss Goodnight, it does enough to suggest this is one worth making the long haul with.

Rating: four stars

Darker than Black Vol 1 is released through Madman Entertainment. DVD special features include commentaries, cast auditions, character bios, galleries and trailers.

Review: Hammer of God

Hammer of God is the third book in Karen Miller’s Godspeaker trilogy (the first books being Empress of Mijak and The Riven Kingdom).

The trilogy as a whole focuses on two separate lands – Mijak, a harsh desert country ruled by warlords and their scorpion god, and Ethrea, a more traditional lush European-influenced land. The first book in the trilogy focused completely on Mijak, and its Empress’ rise to power, while the second book introduced Ethrea and its first female ruler, Rhian.

Hammer of God sees Rhian in power and beginning to face the threats that endanger her country, the most disturbing of which is ravening Mijak, which is conquering the world country by country. In order to save Ethrea, she must immerse herself in political intrigue and trust those who should, by all rights, be enemies.

Miller’s strength is worldbuilding, which shines especially in the scenes taking place in Mijak. This country is unique in fantasy fiction, and compelling because of this. Ethrea feels much like dozens of other countries, and is less interesting in comparison.

Miller does do a good job of filling out her characters – the reader is never left wondering as to a character’s motivation thanks to a lot of internal dialogue. Sometimes it feels like a good deal of this could easily have been left out of the book to no detriment, saving the need to wade through a lot of talk to get to the action. The characters do sometimes descend towards cliché, especially Rhian as she fills the role of warrior woman, though this is hardly unusual for the genre.

This is, in some respects, the weakest book in the trilogy. There isn’t much action for the length of the book, and some of the plotlines conclusions seem almost glossed over. The whole series seems to be concluded almost too easily, with no satisfying resolution to some of the subplots.

That said, most of these issues are relatively minor in the scope of the book (and are common to much fantasy fiction). Miller’s prose is always well-crafted and easy to read, and it is a simple thing to get lost in the worlds of Mijak and Ethrea.

Hammer of God is published by Harper Voyager.

News: SpecFic Course at Olvar Wood Writers' Retreat

Olvar Wood Writers' Retreat is running a speculative fiction course starting 6 July 2009. Taught by award-wining author Nike Bourke, the course is designed for those wanting to develop novel-length speculative fiction work.

The course is structured around interactive and in-depth tuition: a productive cycle of feedback, encouragement, and inspiration over five weeks: four weeks as part of an online course, and a one week intensive retreat in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. Within a small group, you’ll explore the various sub-genres of speculative fiction, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, slipstream and weird writing You’ll focus on world building, structure, audience expectations and engagement, setting, character, and the perils of publication. By the end of the course, you’ll have a gripping first chapter and synopsis, a clear plan for finishing your novel, and new set of writing tools to help you get there.

The course runs 6 July – 14 August. The full cost is $3000, including all tuition, tuition materials, as well as all accommodation, meals and outings while on retreat. Book and pay by 6 June and pay only $2000.00.

For more information, visit the course website.

Source: Karen McKenzie and Olvar Wood Writers' Retreat

Review: No Dominion by Charlie Huston

Charlie Huston’s No Dominion is the second of the Joe Pitt books (the first being Already Dead).

Joe Pitt is an independent Vampyre living in a New York City that has been carved up into territories by Vampyre Clans. Joe, down on his luck and down to his last few bags of blood, asks his old boss at the Society Clan for some work. The contract seems simple enough: track down the source of a new drug that’s addicting Vampyres. Simple, until Joe’s investigations draws him into the territories of rival clans and into the sights of too many people who want him dead.

Huston’s gritty vision of vampirism is refreshing in a world of books where the vampire has mostly become the seducer. Here, Vampyres are victims of a virus, and the societies they build are fascinating and all-too plausible.

Some of the formatting of the book – namely, the lack of quotations marks – is off-putting initially, but becomes less of a problem as the fast-paced story takes off.

Reading the first book is recommended before reading this one, if only to get a good grounding in Joe’s world.

No Dominion is highly recommended, especially if you’re tired of reading what seems to have become the standard urban fantasy tropes.

No Dominion is published by Orbit Books.

News: A Night Of Horror 2009 Festival Award Winners

A Night Of Horror International Film Festival have announced the winners of the 2009 Festival Awards.

• Best Film: Splinter
  
• Best Foreign Language Film: No Morire Sola (I'll Never Die Alone)
  
• Best Australian Film: I Know How Many Runs You Scored Last Summer
  
• Best Director: Adrián García Bogliano No Morire Sola (I'll Never Die Alone)
• Best Australian Director: Ursula Dabrowsky (Family Demons)
  
• Best Female Performance: Olga Fedori (Mum and Dad)
  
• Best Male Performance: Shea Whigham (Splinter)
  
• Best Special Effects: Splinter
• Best Special Effects (Short Film): Treevenge
  
• Best Short Film: Una Storia Di Lupi (A Wolf's Tale)
  
• Best Short Animation: The Strange Case of Mr Hollow
  
• Best Lovecraftian Film: AM 1200
  
• Best Short Australian Film: A Break in the Monotony
  
• Best Music Video: More Control - The Heist and the Accomplice (Dir: Steve Daniels)
  
• Directors' Choice (BEST FEATURE): Reel Zombies
  
• Directors' Choice (BEST SHORT): Allure
  
• Independent Spirit Award (FEATURE FILM): Finale
  
• Independent Spirit Award (SHORT): The Red Hours
  

Feature Screenplay Winners:

• 1st - Terminal - (Paul Campion & Elisabeth Pinto)
• 2nd - Children of the Night - (Harry Basil)
• 3rd - Footage - (Duncan Samarasinghe)

Short Screenplay Winners:

• 1st - Brother Moose's Broken Shorts - (A. J. Mitchler)
• 2nd - Fragments of Normal - (Gwyn Fassnacht)
• 3rd - Mr. Roach - (Frank Zuanic)

Source: Sue Brown and www.anightofhorror.com

News: 'Stephen King: The Non-Fiction'

Australian Horror Writers' Association member Rocky Wood is pleased to announce his new book, Stephen King: The Non-Fiction, is now shipping from Cemetery Dance. The book is co-authored with Justin Brooks.

Stephen King: The Non-Fiction
by Rocky Wood & Justin Brooks

Stephen King: The Non-Fiction is over 600 PAGES in length, easily making it the most comprehensive review of Stephen King's non-fiction works, many of which you've never read or even heard of before -- and it even includes the complete text of a very rare essay written by Stephen King! This signed & slipcased oversized Limited Edition is Rocky Wood's official companion volume to the fan acclaimed Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished so make sure you order a copy today to complete the set!

Stephen King: The Non-Fiction is the first significant review of King's Non-Fiction. Most fans and readers know King has written three non-fiction books and may have noticed his introductions and Author's Notes to his own works, but few know of his hundreds of columns, articles, book reviews and criticism.

In fact the Authors review over 560 published works of non-fiction (more than a dozen are revealed here for the first time) and a further nine unpublished non-fiction pieces. Stephen King: The Non-Fiction fills all the gaps, providing significant detail on each of the most significant of these Non-Fiction Works; and a review of every other piece!

Authors Rocky Wood and Justin Brooks spent five years compiling this outstanding reference work, with the assistance of many of the leading King researchers, collectors and 'super-collectors'; and access to Restricted Non-Fiction Works in King's papers at the University of Maine, Orono.

Covering all King's published and known unpublished works from 1959 to mid-2006, Stephen King: The Non-Fiction reveals for the first time dozens of pieces of non-fiction and their appearances that were previously unknown to King researchers.

If you've ever wanted to know more about King's amazing and often controversial non-fiction, this is the reference work you must have. This is the ultimate volume to accompany Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished.

Stephen King: The Non-Fiction is a must-have for every Stephen King collector, and we expect it to sell very quickly!

Visit the publishers page for Stephen King: The Non-Fiction for a full table of contents, and more details of rare and exclusive non-fiction!

About the Authors

Rocky Wood is the co-author of three major King works: The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King (2003, 2004), Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished (2006, for which he received a Stoker nomination) and The Stephen King Collector's Guide. He has spoken at numerous conventions on King, including the SKEMER Con in Colorado (2003), Continuum 3 & 4 (2005, 2006) and the 2nd Annual Stephen King Dollar Baby Festival in Bangor, Maine (2005). He has published non-fiction articles about King in the US, UK and Australia, is an Active Member of the HWA and is recognised as one of the world's leading King experts.

Justin Brooks holds a B.S. Degree in Interdisciplinary Social Science. He has been collecting and researching King for the last decade and has interests in several specific areas of study, including Stephen King.

Praise & Reviews

"For Stephen King: The Non-Fiction, Rocky Wood and Justin Brooks hunted down 500-plus published articles and a handful of manuscripts, from sports writing and a high school newspaper piece on band uniforms to book introductions and controversial Bangor Daily News columns, and compiled them into an impressively weighty tome that any King completist would be thrilled to have on the shelf."

— Publishers Weekly

"Wood and Brooks are to be commended for undertaking this research effort on behalf of King aficionados. It will, no doubt, prove an invaluable research tool for some, and a pleasurable read for others."

— April Gutierrez, greenmanreview.com

Source: Rocky Wood and Cemetery Dance Publications

News: 2009 Ditmar Award nominations now open

Nominations for the Australian SF Awards (commonly known as the Ditmar Awards), for Australian works of speculative fiction published in 2008 are now open. Unlike the Australian Shadows and Aurealis Awards, the Ditmar Awards are the only national Australian horror/science fiction/fantasy awards that are determined by votes from the general public.

The current awards categories are:

• [Professional Categories]: Best Novel; Best Novella/Novelette; Best Short Story; Best Collected Work; Best Artwork.
• [Fan Categories]: Best Fan Writer; Best Fan Artist; Best Fan Publication in any Medium.
• [Special Awards]: Best Achievement; William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review; Best New Talent.

The following categories have changed this year:

• 'Best Fan Publication in any Medium' replaces 'Best Fan Production' and 'Best Fanzine'.
• 'Best Achievement' replaces 'Best Fan Achievement' and 'Best Professional Achievement'.

Nominations for works by Australians published in the 2008 calendar year will be accepted until May 4 from "natural persons active in fandom" or full/ supporting members of Conjecture, this year's national SF convention (natcon).

Where a nominator may not be known to the awards sub-committee, the nominator should provide the name of someone known to the sub-committee who can vouch for th nominator's eligibility. SF convention attendance or membership of an SF club/group (Ed. such as the Australian Horror Writers Association) are among the ways to meet this qualifying criteria.

Nominations can be made via:

• Email to ditmars@conjecture2009.org.
• Post to 'Ditmars' 6 Florence Road, Nedlands WA 6009.

The Ditmars will be awarded at Conjecture in June.


Source: Australian SF Bullsheet

Review: Voices

“In every hotel room, there is a story.”

Voices, edited by Mark S. Deniz and Amanda Pillar, consists of a series of stories, with the only connecting thread between them the setting: a hotel room. This shared setting works well, giving the reader the sense that they are wandering through an old, shadowed hotel, getting glimpses of the stories that lie within the identical rooms. The stories all seem fragmented, and yet part of a greater whole. It leaves one feeling like there are empty rooms lying between those occupied ones, pieces of the greater story that are as yet untold.

A further sense of connection is given by Robert Hood’s series of interconnected pieces which frame the book as epilogue and prologue as well as being part of each of the four sections – these pieces really give a true feeling of unity to the anthology.

Each piece in this anthology is vivid and eerie, running the gamut from the faintly creepy to the truly disturbing. Many have an almost dream-like (or perhaps nightmare-like) quality, making the most of their few words to paint truly vivid pictures.

The stories vary in tone. Paul Kane’s “The Suicide Room” is haunting and poetic, and one of the most evocative pieces in Voices. Martin Livings’ disturbing “Bedbugs” and Todd Edwards’ “Paris” are pure horror (and will make you think twice the next time you lay down in that hotel bed or take those pills). Shane Jiraiya Cummings’ work is excellent as always, with the vivid and disturbing “A Picture of Death”.

Every story in Voices is of high quality, and the editors should be commended for their high standards. This is one of the best anthologies of dark fiction to have been released recently, and is highly recommended.

Voices is published by and available from Morrigan Books.

News: National Australian Fan Fund 2009

The National Australian Fan Fund (NAFF) was created to assist fans to travel across Australia to attend the National Convention (Natcon). NAFF assists fans to travel to the Natcon and covers the costs of airfares and accommodation. A convention membership is donated by the Natcon.

The Natcon for this NAFF race is the 48th Australian Natcon, Conjecture, and will take place in Adelaide, South Australia over the weekend of 5-8 June 2009. Fans residing in all states and territories except South Australia are eligible to be nominated for NAFF.

To be on the ballot, each interested fan must be nominated by three fans, including at least one from their own state/territory and provide a bond of $20. In addition, each nominated fan is required to provide a 100 word (max) description indicating what they could bring to interstate fans and a brief description of their past experience in fandom. It is expected that the winner will produce a report of their trip, engage in fundraising to support future NAFF races, and to help administer the NAFF race for the following two years.

Nominations can be sent to NAFF at fanboy@gmail.com or given in person to one of the NAFF representatives at any one of the many functions you might find them. Representatives are Sue Ann Barber (VIC), Emma Hawkes and Grant Watson (WA). For more information please contact Grant Watson at fanboy@gmail.com. Previous unsuccessful applicants are welcome to re-nominate. Please pass this information on to any friends who may be interested. If any nominees or nominators are unknown directly to the administrators we may contact you for further information.

Nominations must be received by Friday 24 April 2009. Voting opens the following Monday, the voting period concludes on Friday 15 May 2009.

Please make all cheques payable to NAFF or National Australian Fan Fund. Please email if you would like to pay via direct deposit or paypal. Remember to include your cheque / money order and to attach your nomination platform!

For news as it happens, keep an eye on the Australasian Science Fiction Fan Funds community on Livejournal.

Source: Grant Watson

News: Kim Westwood reading on Terra Incognita podcast

Author Kim Westwood is currently featured on the Terra Incognita Australian Speculative Fiction podcast, reading her story ‘Nightship’.

Kim Westwood was born in Sydney‚ Australia‚ and spent several years of her childhood in New Zealand. She has always written‚ secretly and obsessively‚ while doing other more acceptable things; but that changed when her story ‘The Oracle’ won a 2002 Aurealis Award. Since then‚ more stories have appeared: in anthologies such as Agog!‚ Eidolon I and Dreaming Again‚ as well as in Year’s Bests in Australia and the USA‚ and on ABC Radio National. She is the recipient of a prestigious Varuna Writer’s Fellowship for The Daughters of Moab‚ her first novel.

The podcast is presented by Keith Stevenson, and brought to you by Coeur de Lion books.

Source: Keith Stevenson

News: Call for articles for Aussiecon 4 blog

The following call for non-fiction submissions has been issued by the Aussiecon 4 team:

We here at Aussiecon 4 want to make the blog an interesting, fun and informative place for people to come to. To that end, we're looking for articles to post on the blog. What we're looking for are articles that speak to Worldcons, Aussiecons in particular, our Guests of Honour (Kim Stanley Robinson, Shaun Tan and Robin Johnson) and Australian science fiction.

Possible topics include - Flavours of Worldcons (what differences come from the different locations), Memories of Worldcons or Aussiecons, Why I want to come to Aussiecon 4, Why Australia 2010 was a good idea, environmental issues, the growth of graphic novels or history of Australian fandom. You might have better ideas than these and if so, then shoot us an email to discuss them with us.

Send your articles, or article ideas, to nicole@nicolermurphy.com so they can be considered. The blog is here: http://community.livejournal.com/australia2010/

Source: Nicole R Murphy

Review: Shards by Shane Jiraiya Cummings

West Australian short story scribe and HorrorScope creator Shane Jiraiya Cummings takes readers on a literary journey into the depraved depths of monsters, murder and mayhem in his debut collection of horror works Shards. Featuring 40 flash-fiction morsels (tales that are 1000 words or less) and spanning Cummings career to date, Shards is a beautifully illustrated [by Andrew J. McKiernan] collection of horror-themed works that highlight the emergence of a rising talent in the Australian horror scene.

The decision to create a single author collection in the flash fiction art form is a risky one, given that it is a form equally loved and hated by authors and readers because of its often stripped-back, one-scene nature, but pays handsomely for an author who has become one of the country’s premier writers in the form. Cummings has long been an advocate for the style, and Shards shows that when done right, the micro form can be as powerful and lasting as any form of longer works.

The book itself is divided into themes, cataloguing a breadth of work that ranges from dark and twisted to subtle and perverse. As with any single-author collection that deals an expanded timeframe of an author's work, the strength of individual stories vary from piece to piece, but given the in-and-out nature of the format, it is very easy to quickly find something that you like.

Standouts likely to tickle your fancy include the excellent Stealing Fire, Spin the Witch Bottle, On Dark Clouds Borne, the Cruel Summer series, Congo Jenga and Wrack.

At its finest, Cummings' work possesses a King-like quality, creating rich and colourful characters in a handful of words, and using a well-restrained hand that suggests that dark and subtle supernatural horrors are at play with well-timed exits, but others may be drawn to his black humour and strong exploration of themes and morals.

As with all collections, some of his work – particularly a few of those exclusive to the collection – miss the mark, but for the most part, this is an impressive and encouraging work that says just as much about the author as it does the art form. Well worth a read.

Shards is available through the Brimstone Press website for $17.95.

Review: Jar City (Iceland, 2008)

A vicious murder leads an elderly inspector down the path of a long-forgotten cold case full of twists and turns in this slow-burning police procedural.

When an elderly man is found murdered in his basement flat, a photo of a young girl’s grave at the scene leads police to a small isolated village, where a bungled 30-year-old murder investigation was performed by a corrupt former officer. Working to string together the threads between the two crimes, the investigation leads Inspector Erlendur to the national genetic database – and a startling secret that is threaded into the bloodline of an entire country.

A box office hit in its native Iceland, this taut thriller manages to engage the audience with an array of morally-grey characters and a central crime that is in some ways less despicable than those who attempt to uncover its secrets. Inspector Erlendur is a breath of fresh air, a hardened cop with a no-nonsense approach that stomps on toes and pushes moral boundaries in his quest for the truth. Yet his foe, are equally as dangerous and as a viewer you find yourself drawn into the mysteries of not only one, but a number of crimes.

After such a strong set up, Jar City’s eventual conclusion – which is much less violent and conspiracy based we are set up for – is somewhat of a let down. Still, with its haunting bleak scenery and small town secrets this one will be right up the alley of fans of Insomnia and Fargo.

Rating: three stars

Jar City is released on DVD through Madman Entertainment. Special features include the original trailer.

Book Review: Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror #3

Ed. Angela Challis, 2009, Brimstone Press

I found it difficult to review Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror Volume 3 without simply regurgitating most of what I’d said about its predecessor, ADF&H 2007, because the latest instalment of this anthology series is every bit as wonderful as (if not better than) the last, and for virtually the same reasons. If you want to know what those reasons are, you can read that review of the earlier publication here. Yes, I’m a lazy bastard. Deal with it.

While it’s virtually impossible for any ‘Year’s Best’ anthology to include every piece of short fiction deserving of that description, ADF&H#3 at least includes a marvellous cross-section of the very best of all the varied types of horror fiction produced by Australian writers in 2008: here, you’ll find tales of zombies, giant monsters and ghosts, of alien invasion, scientific experiments gone wrong (or – more disturbingly – right), and an assortment of religious nutters, cannibals, and other people you wouldn’t want living next door to you. Style and tone also varies tremendously, ranging from quietly unsettling psychological pieces, to full-blown blockbuster-style apocalypses, to surrealist nightmares, and other, less definable terrors. The range of this anthology speaks volumes not only of the current high standard of dark writing in this country, but also of the continuing professionalism of editor Angela Challis and the good folk at Brimstone Press, who have put aside personal preferences in order to deliver an anthology that literally has something for everyone.

Of course, I ain’t that professional, and will thus mention a few personal favourites:

Rick Kennett’s ‘The Dark and What It Said’ (a tremendously frightening ghost tale that draws as much terror from the Australian bush setting as from the supernatural content); ‘The Wildflowers’ by Marty Young (ditto, and sometimes I wonder if Australian writers are doing our tourist industry any favours whatsoever); Martin Livings’ ‘There Was Darkness’ (a brutal tale of life long after the Triffids); and Miranda Siemienowicz’s ‘Lion’s Breath’ (a grotesque tale of hidden suburbia). Special mentions also go to Gary Kemble’s ‘Dead Air’ (which was really just a big, fun, Hollywood-style zombie flick in prose format), Matthew Chrulew's 'Between the Memories' (about a disturbingly erotic dysfunctional relationship), and Jason Nahrung’s ‘Kadimakara and Curlew’ (again with the scary Australian bush, and a smattering of scary indigenous folklore – plus one hell of a scary big beastie), but truly, it was difficult to rate even those I’ve mentioned here above any of the other tales in this anthology, such was the quality of all entries.

Suffice to say, this is a volume that demands space upon the bookshelf of any serious reader of horror fiction, providing as it does a terrific historical snapshot of Australian genre fiction in absolute top form.

Review: 13 Game of Death (2005, Thailand)

A down on his luck music salesman (Puchit) is given the chance to win $100 million by completing a series of 13 challenges in this tense Thai thriller.

Combining elements of the Phone, the Game and Saw what begins as a series of relatively simple tasks turns into a sick and twisted game that pushes Puchit to the limits of human morality.

Told with a snappy pace and consistent rising tension Game of Death comes close to being a perfect thriller.

Puchit is the perfect protagonist, a quiet and caring man who is pushed to his very limits, while the tasks range from disgusting and demeaning to outright deadly.

After such an engaging two acts, the film falters in the final minutes with a Saw like twist, and tacked on conclusion that attempts to justify the game as a by product of human nature, but this disappointing end is easily outweighed by what comes before it.

13 Game of Death is a welcome surprise; that for the most part succeeds where others have failed. Catch it now before the inevitable US remake.

Rating: Four stars

13 Game of Death is released on DVD through Madman Entertainment. DVD special features include making of featurettes, trailers and a stills gallery.

Review: Tokyo Zombie (Japan, 2005)

Writer/director Sakichi Sato brings the much-loved Laurel and Hardy style zombie invasion Manga of the same name to the big screen with mixed results. Marketed as a Japanese Shaun of the Dead, and released hot on the heals of the British hit, it’s a film that shows loads of promise early, but ends up biting its own foot with a frustrating tonal shift half way through that undoes all its hard work.

Tokyo Zombie is essentially two films in one – a witty, slapstick zombie invasion and an unsuccessful look at a post-zombie society. The first half – which deals with the impending invasion – is by far the best, introducing us to two bumbling fire extinguisher factory works with a love of jujitsu who must use their martial arts skills to escape a zombie hoard. Told with a wry wit and buckets of blood, the oddball buddy movie is fresh and funny and held together by a lovable pair of screwball lunatics.

But following the zombification of one of the main characters about 45 minutes in, the film then shifts nine years into a stark Mad Max: Thunderdome meets Land of the Dead style society where the rich have enslaved the surviving population – and zombies – and use them for a series of bloodthirsty fighting games for their entertainment. While potentially an interesting film in its own right, the futuristic vision lacks the biting humour of the previous act, missing the buddy act that made the story so engaging.

Tokyo Zombie is brimming with potential, but for all its efforts it never quite gets there. Still, with its trademark style, including an anime interlude, and mostly fun mix of screwball humour it’s sure to find a home on cult cinema shelves.

Tokyo Zombie is released on DVD through Madman Entertainment. Extras include a making of featurette, Q and A session and original trailers.

Book Review: The Strain

Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck Hogan, 2009, Harpercollins Australia

When a Boeing 777 landing at JFK International Airport fails to respond to radio hailing, officials fear a terrorist situation. Further investigation by Dr. ‘Eph’ Goodweather and his colleagues reveal that all but four of the passengers aboard are dead, felled instantaneously by some agent that has left odd markings on their necks. There are no signs of biological contamination, radiation or gas: nothing to indicate a deliberate attack. And the only piece of luggage aboard that seems at all out of place is a large wooden box filled with soil. Before long, Eph discovers that something very old, evil and deadly has come to New York – but will he be able to convince the authorities, or even protect his own family, before the rapidly spreading Strain consumes all of New York City, and, from there, the rest of the world?

In this, the first of an apocalyptic trilogy, moviemaker Del Toro and thriller writer Chuck Hogan have produced a genuinely frightening addition to the vampire subgenre. Some elements of the plot will seem familiar to readers, having been drawn directly from such classics as Stoker’s original Dracula, I Am Legend, and 'Salem’s Lot, as well as from Dawn of the Dead and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but there’s also a great deal of freshness, with all the disparate elements drawn together to create a beautifully complex framework upon which hang both the plot and the mythology of Del Toro and Hogan’s vampires. Here, the creatures are depicted as supernatural in origin, while nonetheless conforming to some wonderfully bizarre yet credible biological restrictions: this is the vampire as a literal cancer, a plague and a parasite, as an instrument of terror that creeps into suburban households to absorb our neighbours, friends and family.

The authors aren’t shy about tapping into various current cultural fears, which gives the action- and tension-filled plot an added edge. Characterisation steers away from stereotyping, and, while The Strain works well as a self-contained novel (albeit one with an open ending), plenty of intriguing characters and subplots are set up throughout to ensure a strong readership for the two remaining instalments of the trilogy.

One of the best vampire novels I’ve ever read.

Movie Review: Quarantine

Dir. John Erick Dowdle, 2008

As this movie is directly based upon (and indeed, copied almost shot-for-shot from) the Spanish movie REC (reviewed by myself for HorrorScope here), I’ll not go into any detail about plot. Instead, I’ll simply address the one question that always seems to be asked (and rightfully so) of any English-speaking remake of any foreign film: Is it any good?

Well, yes. It is.

As I’ve said, the US version is almost identical to the foreign source material in every way, with a few minor changes thrown in: a couple of new characters included, a few from the original film deleted, the inclusion of a ‘conspiracy’ theme, with all public knowledge of the incident being more obviously suppressed, and (spoiler) blame for the outbreak lying with local doomsday cults rather than with a misguided Vatican. Apart from that, pretty-much the same film.

I’d suggest that perhaps those who haven’t seen REC will enjoy Quarantine more, if only because they won’t have to put up with subtitles. On the other hand, if you’ve seen REC already, perhaps don’t bother with Quarantine: you already know when all the scary moments are.

Movie Review: Monsters vs Aliens

Dir. Rob Letterman & Cameron Vernon, Dreamworks, 2009

Voice talent by Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Keifer Sutherland, etc.


It’s bad enough that Susan has just been struck by a meteor on the very day she’s set to marry her self-obsessed fiancé, but the situation worsens as radiation from the meteor causes her to grow to massive proportions, after which she finds herself re-christened ‘Ginormica’ by the US military and carted off to share cell-space with all the other ‘monsters’ rounded up over the past 50 years: a gelatinous mass named BOB, Dr. Cockroach (whose experiments have transformed him into a human/insect hybrid), the simian/amphibian Missing Link, and the Daikaiju-sized grub, Insectosaurus. Their shared captivity is short lived, however, after General W. R. Monger arrives to offer the group their freedom – in exchange for dealing with a slight ‘invading alien’ problem...



Despite this movie being an animated sci-fi/adventure flick largely aimed at kids, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to review it on HorrorScope as there are numerous pop-culture references throughout to 1950’s horror flicks (such as The Fly, The Blob, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon), as well as to a multitude of more recent genre offerings.



In a nutshell, this is possibly the most perfectly entertaining movie – animated or otherwise – I’ve ever had the pleasure to see: funny, witty, intelligent, engrossing, and genuinely exciting, with various messages to convey (such as the importance of personal identity and empowerment, and the fact that even the most hilariously incompetent villain – or even, say, Head of State - can still be scary when in possession of sufficient power and technology). MvA never makes the mistake of talking down to its target audience, nor of alienating adults with childish humour (indeed, there are some jokes here that only adults will get). Even the 3D stereoscopic format (available at selected screenings) turned out to be magnificent: those crappy bi-coloured cardboard glasses of the past replaced by fitted plastic specs, allowing audiences to enjoy the movie without distraction.



One niggle: do US animation studios really think Australian audiences are so parochial that we need some local personality to re-voice characters for the local release of a movie? Tracy Grimshaw in Shark Tale, Mark Mitchell in Chicken Little, and now David Koch in MvA. Studios don't reshoot live-action actors for local releases, so why do it for animation? Or, if re-dubbing with an Aussie accent is deemed vital, perhaps try to place the re-voicing where it won't stand out like a big, red, sore, irritating thumb (in the case of MvA, giving an Aussie accent to a US TV news anchorman was probably not the best move).

That aside, Monsters vs Aliens is a brilliant movie. Go see it immediately, with or without your kids.

News: Dymocks Southland Bestselling Horror Titles for March ‘09

Dymocks Southland is a general bookshop in Cheltenham, Victoria, boasting an extensive range of genre stock. Below are listed the top 10 bestselling horror titles for March 2009.

1. Eclipse Special Edition - Stephanie Meyer
2. Twilight Special Edition – Stephanie Meyer
3. New Moon Special Edition – Stephanie Meyer
4. Living Dead in Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse) – Charlaine Harris
5. Drood – Dan Simmons
6. Handling the Undead – John Ajvide Lindqvist
7. Midnight’s Daughter – Karen Chance
8. The Mother – Brett McBean
9. Zombie Tales (Graphic Novel)
10. The Book of Lists: Horror – ed. Bradley, et al

Dymocks Southland also publishes a monthly SF, fantasy and horror newsletter – Dymensions - which can be subscribed to here.

Review: Dead in 3 Days (Austria, 2006)

I KNOW What You Did Last Summer gets an Austrian reboot in this impressive debut by director Andreas Prochaska.

When Nina and her friends receive an SMS message telling them they are all going to die within three days they think it’s a joke. But when her boyfriend is found ties to a concrete block at the bottom of the lake, the group realise all they’ve made the list of a vicious killer hell-bent on revenge.

A slick looking slasher, with some good artistic direction and a snappy pace, Dead in 3 Days makes the most of a well known troupe to create a fun and suspenseful ride. The film suffers from the inevitable shock twist ending, and at times borders the predictable but Sabrina Reiter (Nina) does well in her debut role as the venerable victim as her friends are picked off one by one.

Dead in 3 Days doesn’t offer anything new, but is comfortable in that fact and a clear cut above other recent slashers. And with some clear nods to the forefathers of the genre you could do much worse.

Rating: three stars

Dead in 3 Days is released on DVD through Madman Entertainment.

Review: Donkey Punch (England, 2008)

CONTROVERSIAL British thriller Donkey Punch does its best to shock audiences with uncensored sex and senseless violence in this disappointing low budget effort.

A festival favourite marketed on boobs and blood, the film tells the story of a group of hot young vacationers in Spain who hook up on a luscious yacht for an afternoon of drugs, drinking and sex. But when one of them is accidently killed and an alibi made, the paranoid group turn on each other in a fight for survival.

But despite some strong street cred, and some strong reviews, even the lure of a hot young cast can do little to hide the shortfalls of a clichéd story, bland, boring direction and a script void of any real tension.

Sure the film pushes boundaries, but is it enough to simply shock an audience anymore?
The film’s highly-publicised nudity is sure to see it do on rental shelves, but those looking for some kind of substance best look elsewhere.

Rating: Two stars

Donkey Punch is released on DVD through Madman Entertainment. Special features include a making of documentary, interviews, deleted scenes, storyboard comparisons, trailers, TV spots and a stills gallery.

NAMELESS 19. Lucy Sussex.

To wake from a sleep brought by a bitter crying jag is to taste dry salt on the lips, to feel eyelids swollen, as hard to pull apart as if they had been sewn. And for a moment, Leah also felt a blessed, amnesiac oblivion. Then the night dreams completely fled in the light of waking and the memories came crashing down upon her like an avalanche.

The Junkie Stone heavy in her hands, her chest, her gut - elongated arms, clawing grabbing at her - a syringe in the neck - Siekan's kisses, poison-sweet - the wrenching, tearing unbearable pain, at the moment of giving birth...whether to monster or baby.

She shuddered. Never ever to feel that pain again, for the rest of her life, that was what she wanted. A small resolve, but it was something to cling to, like a lifeline. Hand over hand, she pulled herself actually and emotionally to a standing position, ready for action. Any muscle with the remotest connection to her stitched belly turned torturer here, but she gritted her teeth, got herself finally upright, feet on the cold, dusty concrete floor. She spat into her hands, ungummed her eyes. Light came from a trap door at one end of the cellar, beneath it a twisted flight of stairs. She climbed up, into the familiar urban wasteland, the half demolished warehouse, shadowed by a freeway overpass, even at this early morning hour thundering with commuter traffic. Naked as she was, she squatted and pissed a yellow river. Car horns sounded from the overpass, and she lifted one hand without looking up, gave the commuter pervs the finger: May-you-crash-in-flames!

From the sound of it, they did.

She grinned, something she had not done for a very long while. Then using any muscle except those in her belly, she stood again, walked stiff but proud back to her lair. In the cellar again, she hooked the filthy blanket up with her toes, pulled it around her, and stood for a moment regarding her reflection in the shard of mirror that hung dagger-like over her cot. Well, she'd looked worse. The reflection was death pale, except for the hair, even the dyed red ends darkened by dirt, and the river-trails of kohl down her face. But her eyes were angry, their grey tempered into the hardest of steel.

"Mother," she whispered into the mirror.

A flash of light, a figure appearing over her shoulder. Karolin/Caroline, the Trashwife.

"Watch my back, Mother, with the sharpest, deadliest, dirtiest of your blades. Because I'm going after them. To get them, give them a taste of their own medicine. The drugs they sell, they'll feel in their arms, their gut, their brain. Never enough, a continual withdrawal, worse than any birth pangs because they last forever, and ever and ever. Amen."

The figure over her shoulder mouthed a word at her, then vanished.

"Unsex? Myself? Why gladly, Mother."


(Lucy Sussex)

Review: MageSign by Alan Baxter

MageSign by Alan Baxter, is a fast-paced ride through a visceral reality which holds a mirror up to today’s apathetic society.

This is the sequel to RealmShift, which I enjoyed reading, but had enough issues with to mark it a 3/5 on the Amazon scale of reviews. MageSign scores an easy 4/5 on that same scale. Although Baxter drops enough background story to make this more-or-less stand on its own, I recommend you read RealmShift first – it will add to the overall experience.

Again the story revolves around Isiah, the central character for both books, but this time he’s not working for the mysterious entity known as The Balance, he’s doing a little project of his own. In the first book, we were introduced to Samuel Harrigan, a particularly nasty piece of work, and we learn of his ability with blood magic. In MageSign, Isiah has decided the world could do without more Harrigans and sets out to destroy The Sorcerer, Harrigan’s teacher of the black arts. In the second book, Baxter gives us enough information to know who Harrigan was, but to gain a true understanding of how bad this guy really was – read the first book.

But three years has passed between the books. The reader is led to believe Isiah has been kept busy maintaining the balance of all things, while the Sorcerer has been far from idle. Now his organisation is truly global and fast-tracked toward reaching an horrific goal, a goal hidden to everyone and everything – including the Balance.

Stepping in and out of countries ranging from Australia, England, the USA, and even Tibet, Baxter creates an intricate plot, laced with wonderful scenic descriptions. His knowledge of the martial arts also shines through with excellently choreographed fight routines, and more subtle references to Asian fighting style disciplines and everyday way of life.

Isiah is still a superman of a character with amazing abilities and inner strength, but the story allows a greater showing of his human side – including a growing affection with a new leading lady. But it also better depicts his understanding of the need to keep balance between all things. His reasoning behind choices and actions within the book, truly paint a man made to keep the balance without having to be amoral – a difficult thing to accomplish.

The sentence structure is again short and sharp in places, unusual and something which takes a little getting used to, but I was ready for it this time after having read RealmShift earlier. This is obviously a style choice by Baxter and works for him more often than not.

But Baxter’s true claim to fame is his final climaxes. In the first book, the build up was very well done although the aftermath and character reactions were disappointing – not the case here. The mounting tension is exquisitely handled, built up to a crescendo of amazing proportions. Nothing is missed on this ending, including all the character reactions. It is a fitting ending to a thoroughly good read.

Accepting the sentence structure as a style choice, I’m happy to let that pass, but the Balance still feels the need to shout in capitals. Thankfully, the entity has a much smaller part to play in this book and so yelled conversations are short and sparse.

The only other issue I had with this book was one scene between Isiah and his mate, Gabe. It came across as inserted slapstick in the middle of a dark fantasy novel. It was not required, and tended to make a mockery of the two characters Baxter had painstakingly built up, both in this book and in RealmShift, and almost made me put down the book there and then – I’m glad I didn’t, but it was a close thing.

Ignoring that one scene, Baxter has delivered a book which is better than the first one, which was pretty good to start with. If this trend continues, I’ll be looking forward to the next instalment.