Started off the year with 6 in January.
1. Anno Dracula by Kim Newman was a lot of fun, probably as much for seeing how many of the characters I could identify (not many, as my knowledge of the genre, both literary & cinematic, is dwarfed by Newman’s) as for the story itself. AD is an alternate history where Dracula defeats Van Helsing and goes on to marry (& convert) the queen of England. Jack Seward (from Dracula) is Jack the Ripper, slaying young female vampires in the hope of starting an uprising of the ‘warms’ against their vampire oppressors. 4.5 / 5
2. The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories, Vol. 5. I thought they started to run out of steam with Vol. 4. Vol. 5 was a little better. 3 / 5
3. The Coffin Maker’s Book of Dark Tales was a collection of 12 stories, half by Curtis Lawson & half by Joshua Rex, inspired by the old Creepshow comics, though I don’t think the authors went near as overboard as the original comics did. I liked the stories, which IMO ranged from good ( most of the stories) to great (one story, ‘…..miss Athena’ by Lawson, concerning the lives of two teenagers after they escape their upbringing in a Lovecraftian cult). A good place to start for anyone looking to check out the work of two up & coming authors. 4 / 5
4. Road of Bones by Christopher Golden follows a down on his luck documentarian looking for a break through hit about the Russian road of bones. Along with his intrepid camera man (to whom he owes a good amount of money to) they arrive (along with an interpreter & a stranded motorists) at the ‘coldest village’ in the world, only to find the town empty except for one non-communicative little girl. Soon they are fleeing the village, chased by forces that were initially thought to be natural, but which soon show themselves to be of the supernatural. I liked ROB, which, after a couple of lackluster efforts, I found to be a return to form for Golden. 4 / 5
5. Inspector Lestrade: The Black Temple & Other Stories was a collection of stories centering on the character of Inspector Lestrade from the original ACD Sherlock tales. Basically these were Sherlock Holmes stories without SH (though he does make an appearance in one of the stories).
This was a typical collection of stories by William Meikle; if you’re a fan of his work, you’ll probably like this collection. If you’re not, this probably isn’t the collection to make you one. 3.5 / 5
6. The Black Company by Glen Cook is a historical fantasy about a group of mercenaries who fight for whomever is willing to pay them. It seemed with The Black Company that Cook was trying to weave a fine line between gritty realism and epic fantasy. In this reader’s opinion, sometimes he pulled it off and sometimes he didn’t. 3.5 / 5
B
1. Anno Dracula by Kim Newman was a lot of fun, probably as much for seeing how many of the characters I could identify (not many, as my knowledge of the genre, both literary & cinematic, is dwarfed by Newman’s) as for the story itself. AD is an alternate history where Dracula defeats Van Helsing and goes on to marry (& convert) the queen of England. Jack Seward (from Dracula) is Jack the Ripper, slaying young female vampires in the hope of starting an uprising of the ‘warms’ against their vampire oppressors. 4.5 / 5
2. The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories, Vol. 5. I thought they started to run out of steam with Vol. 4. Vol. 5 was a little better. 3 / 5
3. The Coffin Maker’s Book of Dark Tales was a collection of 12 stories, half by Curtis Lawson & half by Joshua Rex, inspired by the old Creepshow comics, though I don’t think the authors went near as overboard as the original comics did. I liked the stories, which IMO ranged from good ( most of the stories) to great (one story, ‘…..miss Athena’ by Lawson, concerning the lives of two teenagers after they escape their upbringing in a Lovecraftian cult). A good place to start for anyone looking to check out the work of two up & coming authors. 4 / 5
4. Road of Bones by Christopher Golden follows a down on his luck documentarian looking for a break through hit about the Russian road of bones. Along with his intrepid camera man (to whom he owes a good amount of money to) they arrive (along with an interpreter & a stranded motorists) at the ‘coldest village’ in the world, only to find the town empty except for one non-communicative little girl. Soon they are fleeing the village, chased by forces that were initially thought to be natural, but which soon show themselves to be of the supernatural. I liked ROB, which, after a couple of lackluster efforts, I found to be a return to form for Golden. 4 / 5
5. Inspector Lestrade: The Black Temple & Other Stories was a collection of stories centering on the character of Inspector Lestrade from the original ACD Sherlock tales. Basically these were Sherlock Holmes stories without SH (though he does make an appearance in one of the stories).
This was a typical collection of stories by William Meikle; if you’re a fan of his work, you’ll probably like this collection. If you’re not, this probably isn’t the collection to make you one. 3.5 / 5
6. The Black Company by Glen Cook is a historical fantasy about a group of mercenaries who fight for whomever is willing to pay them. It seemed with The Black Company that Cook was trying to weave a fine line between gritty realism and epic fantasy. In this reader’s opinion, sometimes he pulled it off and sometimes he didn’t. 3.5 / 5
B
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