Category Archives: Collection

Midnight and Moonshine by Lisa L Hannett and Angela Slatter – review

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midnight-and-moonshine-web[2]Midnight and Moonshine by Lisa L Hannett and Angela Slatter

Published by Ticonderoga Publications

ISBN: 9781921857300

Angela Slatter and Lisa L Hannett have become well known for their collaborative short fiction work. Last year they won an Aurealis Award for it. They’ve also won plenty of awards for their individual efforts, including Ditmar, Aurealis and British Fantasy Award wins and World Fantasy Award nominations. So we’ve come to expect good things from these two, especially when they work together. And now they’ve worked together on an entire book – the mosaic novel, Midnight & Moonshine.

A mosaic novel is like a novel by stealth – a collection of individual short stories, each self-contained, yet featuring repeated characters, themes and consequences to make the collection a far greater narrative as a whole. For Midnight & Moonshine, Hannett and Slatter have retold the Norse mythology of Ragnarok, woven in with Faerie lore, in the new world of America.

I won’t give away any particular details. Suffice to say that the central recurring theme is the character of Mymnir, the white raven. And such a brilliant character she is, beautiful and terrible, immortal, powerful and sometimes all too human. To explain the general focus of the book, I’ll use the official blurb:

The gods are dead, but will not be forgotten.

When Mymnir flees the devastation of Ragnarok, she hopes to escape all that bound her to Ásgarðr — a heedless pantheon, a domineering brother, and her neglectful father-master, Óðinn. But the white raven, a being of memory and magic, should know that the past is not so easily left behind. No matter how far she flies, she cannot evade her family…

In planting seeds of the old world in the new, Mymnir becomes queen of a land with as many problems as the one she fled. Her long-lived Fae children ignite and fan feuds that span generations; lives are lost and loves won because of their tampering. Told in thirteen parts, Midnight and Moonshine follows the Beaufort and Laveaux families, part-human, part-Fae, as they battle, thrive and survive in Mymnir’s kingdom.

Midnight and Moonshine is a collection of interconnected tales with links between them as light and strong as spider-silk. From fire giants to whispering halls, disappearing children to evening-wolves, fairy hills to bewitched cypress trees, and talking heads to moonshiners of a special sort, Midnight and Moonshine takes readers on a journey from ninth century Vinland to America’s Deep South in the present day. Hannett and Slatter have created a mosaic novel of moments, story-tiles as strange as witchwood and withywindles.

The stories are told from a variety of differing viewpoints and in a variety of styles, but the powerful combined voice of Hannett and Slatter shines through consistently. These are two writers with a masterful touch for prose that is always enchanting, yet never prosaic. Each story is a complete and fascinating thing in its own right and, naturally, I preferred some more than others. Only one story didn’t really work for me on its own, but it still had important seeds of the greater narrative in it and was far from a bad story. Some of the high points for me were Kveldulfr, a really powerful horror story in its own right and an excellent insight into some of the smaller details of the greater narrative. The Red Wedding was another high point, as was Midnight, both excellent stories with memorable characters. Interestingly, these three stories appear in that order right in the middle of the book, so there’s definitely no slack in the middle of this collection.

Most collections are at their strongest in the beginning and the end, as that’s where editors usually put the strongest tales. With a mosaic like this, there’s a chronology at work that dictates the placing of stories. But this volume is only enhanced by that, as everything is informed by that which came before, adding the depth and scope.

Another favourite of mine is the final story, Seven Sleepers, that ties everything together and has a truly mythic quality, and is perhaps the most epic in scale. It leaves us without a certain amount of closure, yet a strong desire to know more. It’s clear there are more stories to be told about the Beauforts and the Laveaux, the two central families in these tales, and probably about Mymnir too.

This is an almost entirely original collection with only the penultimate story, Prohibition Blues, being previously published. That was included in the Damnation and Dames anthology (also from Ticonderoga Publications) and was, according to the Afterword, the catalyst for this entire book. So we have to thank Ticonderoga and editors, Liz Grzyb and Amanda Pillar, for putting together the Damnation and Dames anthology, which is itself a fantastic book. [Caveat – for purposes of transparency, myself and Felicity Dowker collaborated on a story called Burning, Always Burning which was published in Damnation and Dames.]

Midnight and Moonshine draws deeply on Hannett’s PhD subject, both author’s skill at fairy tales and two of the best existing mythologies (Norse and Fae) to create something with lashings of style. Norse gods and Fae folk, bayou and voodoo, prohibition and giants, epic quests and personal triumphs and tragedies, this collection explores them all and more. A brilliant collection, well worth your time and money. It should also be noted that, as is usually the case with Ticonderoga Publications, this is a beautiful artefact of a book as well, with stellar cover art by Kathleen Jennings, herself the recipient of many awards and nominations for her art. In this age of crappy graphic design and homogenous cover art, it’s a pleasure to see a book that is so exquisitely crafted by its authors and so beautifully presented by its publisher.

There’s no question that this collection has leapt straight onto my Books Of The Year list.

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A Pad in the Straw by Christopher Woodforde – review by Mario Guslandi

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A Pad in the Straw by Christopher Woodforde

Publisher:  The Sundial Press 2012

ISBN 978-1-908274-09-0 (Hardcover)

First published in 1952 , “A Pad in the Straw” collects twenty ghost and supernatural tales originally told by Christopher Woodforde (1907-1962)  as bedtimes stories  to a group of boys at New College Choir School in Oxford. Thus, strictly speaking, this should be a YA collection , where, indeed, young boys are the main characters in most of the stories. Actually, this volume by Woodworde (a cleric and antiquarian mainly known for his non-fiction books about ecclesiastical stained glass)  has been compared , in terms of plots and atmospheres, to the work of the great MR James. The distinct antiquarian flavor and the frequent use of East Anglia as the setting for his eerie tales certainly may suggest such a comparison, although, of course, the quality of Woodforde’s  fiction is  inferior. On the other hand, to label his stories as an anemic version of James’ work would be simply unfair.

On average, Woodforde’s tales are elegant, enjoyable examples of supernatural  fiction, albeit sometimes a bit weak.  “Malcom” revolves around a cursed tree exerting its evil power long after it has been destroyed; “The Old Tithe Barn” and “Michael” are delightful traditional ghost stories; “The Mirror of Man’s Damnation” is a moral fable in the tradition of the deal with the Devil;  “Cushi” a classical yarn where a sexton takes his revenge from beyond the grave; “Lost and Found” a real tale of antiquarian horror.

Some tales, however, do stand up as fine, skillfully crafted pieces of dark fiction.

The title story, “A Pad in the Straw” is a gentle, Jamesian story where the events surrounding the unpleasant encounter of two boys with the  supernatural are painstakingly retraced by a group of scholars.

In the creepy “The Chalk Pit” inhuman, evil creatures haunt a country road, while in the sinister  “Colin, Peter and Philip” the uncanny reason for a young boy’s disappearance becomes clear only twenty years later.

“The Doom Window at Brechkam” is an excellent specimen of “antiquarian” story revolving around a glass window of an English church.

The enticing “Ex libris” describes the finding of an old book ,the unusual binding of which belongs to a rather vindictive subject.

Reprinted in a limited edition by Sundial Press for the joy of  any lover of classy, gracefully told supernatural fiction, the volume will provide many, pleasantly frightful hours of  good reading.

- review by Mario Guslandi

 

Bread & Circuses by Felicity Dowker – review by Greg Chapman

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DISCLAIMER: Thirteen O’Clock is managed by Alan Baxter, Felicity Dowker and Andrew McKiernan as Contributing Editors. While the Contributing Editors’ roles at Thirteen O’Clock are editorial and critique, all three are primarily writers. It is inevitable that their own work will form part of the Australian and international dark fiction publications which are Thirteen O’Clock’s focus, and as such it is also inevitable that their work will be reviewed at Thirteen O’Clock (to prohibit this would not only be unfortunate for Baxter, Dowker and McKiernan themselves, but for their hardworking editors and publishers).

Thirteen O’Clock will always have a third party contributor review the Contributing Editors’ work. Such reviews will be unedited (aside from standard corrections to typos and grammar), posted in full (be they negative or positive), and will always be accompanied by full disclosure of Baxter, Dowker and McKiernan’s place at Thirteen O’Clock. At no point will Baxter, Dowker or McKiernan review their own work.

Bread and Circuses by Felicity Dowker.

Ticonderoga Publications June 2012, ISBN 978-1-921857-08-9 (Paperback)

I’ve always maintained that horror is one of the most powerful emotions us human beings can experience, but when combined with love, hate and revenge, as is the case with many of the tales in Felicity Dowker’s collection Bread & Circuses, horror can also reveal our souls.

Bread & Circuses is rich with themes, motifs and mythology and of course Dowker’s lyrical prose. Having only ever read one of her short stories before (and I won’t be making that mistake again), I went into the collection completely blind – and I’m glad I did because the journey is one I won’t forget anytime soon.

One of the major themes in Dowker’s collection – and she freely admits this fact many times after each tale – is revenge. The characters in her stories are either seeking it or succumbing to it, sometimes in very real or fantastical situations. But I think underneath all the revenge there is an equally strong element of love too.

The title story “Bread & Circuses”, is a zombie tale about two women forced to live in a cemetery commune. To survive, members of the commune are rounded up to take on the zombies in a battle royale. Inevitably this couple is torn apart by a wave of violence and the reader can’t help but feel their pain, but love wins out in the end, in a gruesome, yet touching way.

“Jesse’s Gift” is another tale with love and friendship at its core. Girl meets boy; boy and girl meet demonic ice-cream man. Again there’s a finely-tuned interplay between dark and light, love and despair and Dowker uses horror to expose all our other traits with incredible skill. In fact her willingness to talk about her past in each of the afterwords only serves to heighten the impact intended with each story.

Dowker also reveals a lot about herself in her stories and even uses her own personal memories as inspiration. There are several tales revolving around a child that has either been subjected to physical violence or witnessed it. Dowker describes it with considerable courage and heart and still manages to craft unforgettable stories with “Us, After the House Came Back”, being one of the stand outs.

The power of Dowker’s writing shines in “Berries and Incense”, a wonderful dark fantasy piece which flows like a slow-burning hallucination. Animals associated with the dark arts are given human qualities and we see that they too can fall in love, suffer and die.

Other favourites were the deliciously dark “Phantasy Moste Grotesk” and its companion tale “The Blind Man”. Both tales would make the likes of Clive Barker proud and again the themes of revenge, love and their dark sides are on display.

I could say much more, but Bread & Circuses speaks for itself. Dowker was named Best New Talent at the 2009 Ditmar Awards and rightly so. She has a striking imagination and is not afraid to exploit human emotions through horror. Put simply, we need more writers like her.

Do yourself a favour and get a copy of Bread & Circuses now.

- review by Greg Chapman

 

Night Terrors Anthology edited by Karen Henderson – review by Greg Chapman

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DISCLAIMER: Thirteen O’Clock is managed by Alan Baxter, Felicity Dowker and Andrew McKiernan as Contributing Editors. While the Contributing Editors’ roles at Thirteen O’Clock are editorial and critique, all three are primarily writers. It is inevitable that their own work will form part of the Australian and international dark fiction publications which are Thirteen O’Clock’s focus, and as such it is also inevitable that their work will be reviewed at Thirteen O’Clock (to prohibit this would not only be unfortunate for Baxter, Dowker, and McKiernan themselves, but for their hardworking editors and publishers).

Thirteen O’Clock will always have a third party contributor review the Contributing Editors’ work. Such reviews will be unedited (aside from standard corrections to typos and grammar), posted in full (be they negative or positive), and will always be accompanied by full disclosure of Baxter, Dowker, and McKiernan’s place at Thirteen O’Clock. At no point will Baxter, Dowker or McKiernan review their own work.

Night Terrors Anthology
Editor: Karen Henderson
Publisher: Kayelle Press
ISBN: 978-0-9808642-8-1 (pbk.) / 978-0-9808642-9-8 (eBook)
Published: 13th April, 2012
Pages: 256

If you’ve never read horror before and are looking for a good place to start, then Kayelle Press’ Night Terrors Anthology might be for you.

The 256-page anthology offers up 17 short tales of horror by authors from across the globe, including three classic stories.

As a whole the anthology delivers on its promise in providing some scares and suspense, but to me some of the tales were a little under-developed.

Perhaps there were a few too many vampire-related stories (three in all), but at least the vampires didn’t sparkle! JC Hemphill’s vamp story A World Not Our Own certainly delivered on mood and atmosphere. Hunting Shadows by Mike Brooks, had a Buffyesque quality to it, but the story’s hook – the introduction of the enigmatic aelfar – is over far too quickly. Maybe Brooks plans on returning to them in a longer format. The third vampire tale, Like Father, like Daughter, also had a lot of promise, but again was too short.

Don’t get me wrong there were a number of stand-out stories: Depths, by CJ Kemp was a very engaging tale about two boys who find an imaginary cave where they can stretch their imaginations. But this “Aladdin’s Cave of Wonders” becomes all the more menacing when one of the boy’s uses its power to rid himself of an abusive stepfather. Kemp gives the boys plenty of depth in the tale.

Hangman by Lisamarie Lamb was a delightfully disturbing twist on the Hangman game. This particular version of the game, however, is a favourite of a band of monsters who live in an attic of her new school. Things take a delicious turn when the little girl realises that if she spells out the name of one of her bullies, they meet a tragic end.

The only werewolf tale, Last Night in Biloxi, by Robert J Mendenhall, is a satisfying story of survival in the tradition of some of the old EC Comics: ignorant jerk intimidates poor old man, only to sufferer the severest of consequences; some of Mendenhall’s passages are truly blood-curdling.

Other stories worth noting were The Lucky Penny by Tim Jeffreys and Product 9 by Lindsey Goddard – the only tale with a sci-fi horror bent.

My pick of the bunch however (and this is solely based on the merit of the story) is the very last tale – Andrew J McKiernan’s White Lines, White Crosses. The story deals with the all-too-present horror of road deaths and the inevitable danger reckless youth can put themselves in behind the wheel.

McKiernan’s horror is more subtle and rooted in the psychological than its predecessors, focussing on the dire consequences of risk and how one tragedy can create an unstoppable domino effect. There is a supernatural element to the story, but if anything it takes a back seat, which IMHO was a good way to round off an anthology that maybe relied a little too much on common horror tropes.

- review by Greg Chapman

The Last Days Of Kali Yuga by Paul Haines – review

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“The Last Days Of Kali Yuga” is the third short story collection from Melbourne-based New Zealander, Paul Haines. It’s published by Brimstone Press.

Paul Haines is an outstanding short story writer, a truly unique voice. His stories often feature a character called Paul Haines and it’s never really possible to know where the author ends and the character begins. And within these stories, Haines explores every dark, dirty, nasty facet of the human condition.

This book is the definitive Haines collection. All the uniquely Hainesesque “backpacker horror” stories are here, along with a broad range of other subjects, from the fantastical to the horrible to the downright human nasty and every combination thereof. We also have the dystopian sci-fi novella “Wives”, originally published in the awesome X6 Novella Anthology from Coeur De Lion Publishing. “Wives” alone is worth the purchase of this collection, it’s an absolute masterpiece of fiction, a work of art in storytelling. But you should really buy X6 and read the others in that book, too.

By no means, however, should that suggest that you don’t need to buy this book too. I’m not going to go into each individual story in the volume, simply because they’re all outstanding and need to be experienced. Each one is followed by a bit about it from Haines himself, talking about the inspiration or the development of the tale. It’s a fascinating insight into the artist and I wish more writers would include this kind of thing with their collections. All the stories are reprints, bar one unpublished piece – the last story, “The Past Is A Bridge Best Left Burnt”. This is the story that most blurs the line between the artist himself and the character, and is a work of genius.

You must read this book, because you’ll never read short fiction anything like that of Paul Haines. There will always be a part of you that wishes you never had read the short fiction of Paul Haines, but ignore that sensible and happy bit of your brain.

Everyone needs to explore the darkness. Everyone needs to experience the horror. Everyone should read Paul Haines.

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