AVAILABLE NOW
A Dark Heritage:
The Nighthunter
Logan Bartholom, Nighthunter to the Emperor, wakes with Ghost-induced amnesia in a manor in Little Beddin, Ossyan. All he has from his previous life is a magical sword and a talking dog from Hell. To find his true identity and discover what happened to him, he must go on a dangerous journey to a land where magecraft is still legal, in the company of a child with terrifying powers and his own would-be murderer… who is falling in love with him.
On the way to Thosea they discover a cult which sacrifices people’s souls to a Ghost masquerading as a god. Logan finds out he can travel through time and to different worlds. And they encounter many individuals and beings who are attracted by Cailte’s budding magical powers…
A Dark Heritage is a fantasy / horror novel set in a magical world where prehistoric animals coexist with humans and the Dead return as different species of Ghost.
Hansen Adcock is a writer of short SF stories and novels. His most recent book is A Dark Heritage: The Nighthunter, available from Golden Storyline Books
Fletch, one of the Nighthunter’s unusual companions (from Book Two) has just gotten himself a Twitter account:
- Another Review: Les Femmes Grotesques by Victoria Dalpe
3.5 stars out of 5
Available from CLASH books, Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.com
This modern, feminist, short Gothic horror fiction collection will bring you out in goose-bumps.
A CREAK IN THE FLOOR, A SLANT OF LIGHT – There were some quirky details that put me in mind of Holly Black’s work. The tale had a delightfully gory legend about three girls trapped in a lift with something that bites, and a motley bunch of interesting characters sharing (often bizarre) accommodation in an industrial warehouse. In my opinion, the story ended too soon.
THE RIDER – The story began with a few paragraphs talking about a female character, but didn’t mention her name until the fourth paragraph. I liked the idea of the story with its reverse ghosts and the strange support group, but there wasn’t a lot of detail regarding the main character’s backstory.
THE GROVE – An interesting vignette on the nature of sickness, death, and the afterlife. Its tone made it almost like an old Japanese folktale. I particularly liked the poetry of the part where the mother told the daughter what would happen when she went to “sleep” in the ground and what she’d dream of.
FOLDED INTO SHADOWS – This is one of my favourites. Agnes decided to renovate an old Victorian house where her brother vanished when she was a child, a house that was a “scourge and siren” to the neighbourhood children, infamous for making most of its visitors disappear. I liked this one for its juxtaposition of the past and present, and of the mundane / kitsch with the cosmically horrible and inexplicable, the atmosphere, and mounting eeriness. The story preserved its weirdness and mystery even to the end and was all the better for doing so.
UNRAVELLING – This one was told in the first person by an ironic and world-weary character forced to reincarnate again and again. It had a YA thriller vibe. Another one of my favourites.
THE GUEST – I liked this one for the well-written Gothic tropes and the relatable main character, as well as the unique, sci-fi angle it had. Something odd about moss…
THE GIRL IN THE STAIRWELL – A strange little story about a compulsive liar and a woman falling down some stairs to her death. This was another one I particularly liked.
RIG RASH – Another favourite. This Western-themed, cosmic horror tale about the town of Sanctuary gave me goosebumps in all the right places. There were rumours of a huge, strange creature and a deadly infection. It gave off H. P. Lovecraft vibes.
DARK INHERITANCE – You’ve heard about buildings and places being haunted, but this story is about a haunted person. I liked this one as it introduced me to the concept of The Mara (or Mare, that rides on people’s chests as they sleep and gives them nightmares) and took that concept to a new and grisly level. I won’t look at the Sleep Paralysis phenomenon the same way ever again.
THE DROWNED SIREN – This was an interesting tale which fused a drowned ghost with the myth of the rusalka. The story would have been better if there was an explanation as to why the ghost chose the main character as her next victim.
THE HORROR ON SYCAMORE LANE – This story was unusual in the sense that although it was about a certain family, it was told through the third-person experiences of the small-town locals living around the family. This narrative method added an air of mystery that I liked.
THE RANCH – A longer, Western-set and horror-sci-fi tale concerning a traveller in the desert and a cattle rancher running unsettling experiments.
THE WIFE – A charming and bloodthirsty tale about a woman who wasn’t a woman but wasn’t exactly a Selki either…
MATER ANNELIDA – This was a bizarre and primal vignette of an unnamed witch (I assume) undertaking a private ritual and the birth of something that could change the world… literally.
THE WOMAN OF THE WOODS – A lonely witch who could bring the dead back to life approached a romantic relationship with a stranger… in a preying-mantis fashion.
THE DARE – An excellent vampire horror story that brought together contemporary teenagers and a monster that used to be a bon vivant from the 1920s. There was a different explanation for the nature of vampirism within the tale — read it to find out!
THOSE BENEATH, DEVOUR – This tale began right in the middle of the action, shortly after someone had been consumed by something scorching through a university library basement floor.
THE NO PLACES – This began with the atmosphere and whimsy of a Neil Gaiman road-trip story, then turned sinister. A sacrifice had to be made, and a woman learned she was more than herself.
The writing in this short fiction collection had a lot of run-on sentences and could do with another round of proofreading.
Other than that, the narrative voice of these stories had a tone of private collusion with the reader, which I liked very much, and Victoria Dalpe’s descriptions engaged all of the reader’s senses. She used realistic dialogue and unusual ideas and details throughout.
- Dracula’s Guests (curated by Dr. Chris McAuley)
Available from HellBound Books, Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.com
4 out of 5 stars
This collection of vampire horror tales in celebration of Dracula’s 125th birthday will sate your bloodthirst. These are the stories that stood out for me:
Dracula in Recovery – Michael Zemecki: I loved this darkly humorous story featuring all the characters from the original Dracula in contemporary, corporate job roles. Vlad Dracula gets into trouble with HR and has to attend sensitivity training, then rehab his blood addiction. At the end, there is a definite “twist in the tail.” Pun intended.
A Final Supper – Trev Hill: This one has plenty of adrenaline-pumped action and fight scenes. The vampires in this story don’t suck blood, but they feed in a much worse way while their victims are still alive. There is a perfect twist in the ending.
An Interview in the Garden of Earthly Delights – Albert N. Katz : An interview with a wealthy and dangerous man by a person who used to torment him at school. His old tormentor receives a perverse punishment in this tale, which carries notes of “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Jekyll and Hyde” with a Great Gatsby atmosphere.
A Visit From Lady Lydia – Ken Goldman: This dark, tongue-in-cheek story is about a film class tutor being goaded into messaging a female “vampire” online by his students. However, it turns out that the real deal may be hiding in plain sight…
All the Way – Eamonn Murphy: Teenagers planning a Halloween party in a derelict mansion accidentally rouse a sleeping vampire. I liked this story for the humorous narrative voice, which put me in mind of something by Michael Lawrence or Dean Koontz.
Almost-Dry January – Judith Newlin: A dark and handsome stranger in a pub on a wintry night offers two women a certain drug to make their drinks taste better. It produces vivid hallucinations, and the main character begins to suffer lapses in memory… I liked the cold subtlety and seeming gentleness of the vampire in this story.
Be Like You – Jack Nash: A despairing, typecast film-vampire is visited and then stalked by a strange and malodorous fan.
Beer in a Bar – Jerry Purdon: I liked this one for its surreal, dream-like mood, and how the subtle arrival of the vampires is heralded by a heavy, thick fog, which is echoed in a bathroom mirror sometime later at an important point of the tale.
Black Harvest Moon – Terry Stock: A dystopian story in which vampires rule over a pack of dwindling humans. There is a lot of tension, drama, and action in this as well as emotion that will tear your heartstrings like a vampire can tear off a man’s head.
Clear as Dae – Sam Fletcher: This story is told from the POV of a misfit juvenile vampire in a gang of “teenage” vampires (though they range from 49 to 178 in ages) as they hunt for an ancient and bizarre non-binary vampire named Miksa. I liked this story for the interesting and varied characters and the writing-style, along with the cool, psychic vampire powers.
Curse of Avalon – Anthony Regolino: I love Arthurian tales, so was excited to read this vampire retelling of King Arthur’s journey to the Lady of the Lake to gain a sword.
Feeder – Rose Strickman: Set in a 19th century London brothel, a prostitute and her hungry ghost sister try to feed on a client, when things go horribly wrong…
Identity Theft – Elaine Pascale: Another tale of what the world would be like if human society fell under the tyranny of vampires. I enjoyed this one for the worldbuilding and the clever way the characters gathered materials to use against their captors, as well as the different, strict rules the vampires had about feeding.
Lilitu – Helen Mihajlovic: A freelance architect finds a new place to stay in a mysterious, Gothic-looking building. I enjoyed the descriptions of the building, its levels and interior, and liked the Biblical backstory of the vampire who owns it.
No Man’s Land – Stephen Patrick: During the war in 1916, a group of British soldiers in French trenches share stories of what scares them, and it is revealed that something in no man’s land stalks in the night, feasting…
Wolfsbane – Greg Patrick: The writing in this story has an excellent poetry to it, like a painting in red, silver, black, and white. Fantastic use of imagery, and it reads like a gothic, courtly romance.
The Precarious Politics of Modern Vampirism – Stephen Loiaconi: A vampire gets into politics and aligns with the President of the USA, who is disturbingly reminiscent of Donald Trump. I liked the use of press interview transcripts in the story to reveal more about the character, his ambitions, and his flaws. (N.B. Bobby Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers is such a cool band name).
Steel and Fangs – Josh Darling: A woman who is assaulted and blinded becomes the top student of Krav Maga at a school for the sight-impaired and faces hordes of vampire familiars. There is a twist in the end and her attacker gets his comeuppance. Trigger warning: contains rape, abduction, and torture. - Review: Bleak Midwinter: The Darkest Night
Edited by Damon Barrett Roe and Cassandra L. Thompson
Available from Quill & Crow Publishing, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com
4 out of 5 stars
This collection of dark Gothic horror tales will make your skin creep off your flesh and slither under the door to hide somewhere – in a GOOD way.
The Utburd, Robyn Dabney – A disgraced nature photographer is out in the Arctic wilderness trying to gain a shot of a huge, albino reindeer. But something else also waits for him in the woods…
The mood and description of the Arctic night in a Lapland forest was absorbing and engaged all the senses, and I also loved the usage of Finnish words and myths. I also learned a new word (berm) and the use of the camera as a light source with which to view the source of Jaska’s creeping terror was a fantastic storytelling device.
The Forest’s Call, Aliya Bree Hall – A Red Riding Hood retelling in which the forest is described as a character in its own right, almost the archetype of spring in contrast to the separate nature character, Father Winter. I also liked the author’s way of describing emotions as if they were animated and affecting certain body parts.
Don’t Say a Word, K.R. Wieland – A story that plucks the heartstrings, told alongside the lyrics to a well-known song. Trigger Warning: involves labour / birth and difficulties in childbirth along with some gory medical stuff.
Where Ghosts Walk, Trevor James Zaple – A story set in the Great War during times of rationing, when a put-upon housewife caring for an abusive father and her children notices strange footprints in the snow around their home. The tale introduced me to a beautiful saying, “Where ghosts walk, there is loving or thieving.”
All Her Little Bones, R.A. Busby – Written as a log for future readers to find, this story has a tone that put us in mind of Dean Koontz. It concerns a very weird shelter on a hiking trail which does disturbing things to time and space, and some gory ghostly apparitions. In spite of the terror, the ending was touching in a weird way.
Fading, Sarah Hozumi – What is a man to a tidal wave? If only we could know… A man suffers disturbing hallucinations (are they hallucinations?) after witnessing his wife’s sudden and painful death in a winter filled with violent strangers, a decaying world and societal collapse. I liked the author’s unique turns of phrase and how she showed the derailment of the narrator’s mind by subtle degrees.
Relke of the Russet Hair, KB Willson – I enjoyed the worldbuilding and winter ritual in this story, as well as its almost ancient, archetypal quality. It put me in mind of something Ursula Le Guin would write.
The New Moon Through Glass, E.M. Linden – They say it’s bad luck to first view the new moon through glass. In this story of two evacuees billeting with a childless couple, there are some weird qualities to the evacuee named Georgie, and his presence nags at Rose’s memory of a distant disaster, in the end making her know herself for the person she never thought she would be.
The Prisoner and the Robe, Amelia Mangan – I loved the author’s voice and vocabulary in this story, and the gory but beautiful Mervyn Peake-style world she has created. It also put me in mind of Gene Wolfe. (This story is NSFW, trigger warning: self-harm, sadomasochism, BDSM, torture, murder.)
Arno, Mason McDonald – A fascinating story about an ancient house and barn in a landscape that holds Giants prisoner, a bereaved woman seeking shelter from the winter weather with her frostbitten children, and a disturbing, neglected child who is a monster. This story reminds me of H.P. Lovecraft.
You can also reach Hansen at hansentorauthor@gmail.com
Nightwalks 