Category Archives: Fiction Reviews

Review: “Triptych: Three Tales of Frontier Horror” by Richard Beauchamp

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I’ve never been a particular fan of traditional or mainstream Westerns, but the tropes of scorched plains, dusty towns, gunslingers and frontier justice provide a great canvas for a pulp horror story.

Having read Richard Beauchamp’s superb dystopian “War Born” last year (my favourite in the “Heavy Metal Nightmares” anthology), I thought his textured prose and talent for conjuring unforgiving wastelands would make him an ideal writer to smash these two genres together. Reading Triptych certainly proved that to be the case.



It opens with “The Courier” in which Jeremiah – the titular character – meets a sinister man in a snow-covered tavern. He is tasked with transporting a strange artifact across several states, in time for solstice eve, and delivering it to a known practitioner of the dark arts.

His journey takes him into the harshest of blizzards during which Jeremiah is stalked and attacked by men who try to warn him of what he carries. Townspeople – and even mountain lions – shy away from his presence, and what begins as a professional dedication to his job soon becomes a protective obsession. He regards the strangely-warm package as his talisman, and it seems to keep him going on his brutal journey long after any mortal should surely have perished.

This tale brings the classic setting of the loner traversing the American West on his trusty steed, but slowly morphs it into cosmic and visceral horror. I read it straight through, driven by a hungry curiosity that was masterfully stoked by the author, and the evocation of the frozen mountainous terrain is perfect. An intriguing and compulsive read with a devilish pay off, this is a sterling start to Triptych.

Following this is “Blood Gulch” which is by far my favourite piece of the three. It doesn’t hang around, immediately presenting an infestation of slug-like monstrosities that burrow into people’s spines and control them as hosts. Our protagonist is Maylene, a woman in search of her missing husband who has been taken by the foul creatures – along with countless others – to an ominous subterranean cave at Blood Gulch.

What awaits there is a wrenching vision of hell, and I wouldn’t dream of spoiling the surprise.

Maylene is a brilliant character – a gun-toting, sharp-tongued badass who will stop at nothing to look after herself and her own. Throw her into a story of revolting parasites against a backdrop of boiling sun, alcohol, blood and dust, and you’ve got an absolute winner.

It shines through its storytelling towards a satisfying epilogue, and the plentiful and gritty period language seems authentic, bringing a grounding realism to the sf/horror concept. With shades of Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian”, David Cronenberg, Calamity Jane and the Aliens mythos, “Blood Gulch” is worth the price of Triptych alone.

“It Comes For Us All” is the finale, co-written with Korey Dawson. Here we find a sharp-shooting indigenous bounty hunter called Sho’keh. He is transporting a dangerous criminal, Tom Dallion, across the bandit-populated desert and frontier towns of the Mojave to where he will finally meet justice.
But the wisecracking prisoner seems to be undergoing a strange transformation, and once the blood moon rises, pandemonium will be unleashed.

“Dallion’s eyes shone in the moonlight, somehow moving in the stillness of his smiling face, like silver coins in the bottom of a disturbed well.”

My complaint with this story is that I kept losing track of who was speaking, especially during the opening scenes, despite only two characters being present. This was mainly due to the overuse of character tags as well as their names (the older man said, the bounty hunter said, the man on the ground said…) which was confusing and unnecessary.

But the characters are solid, the dynamic between the two leads is convincing, and Dallion’s gruff retorts and escalating creepiness is a great foil for Sho’keh’s pragmatic patience. The foreboding tone slowly cranks up throughout their journey, building to a grisly “Splatter Western” showdown.

Richard Beauchamp has definitely climbed up my horror watch list with this release. Triptych brims with exquisite turns of phrase and slick dialogue, and he clearly makes an effort with historical attention to detail. The landscape becomes an integral part of the tales, essential with any quality Western, and the author’s knack for creating an immersive atmosphere is perfectly suited to this kind of fiction.

Merging the spooky eldritch with gore, it should please fans of both camps. As a devotee of both, I had a splendid time.

“Hell comes at High Noon” indeed.

Richard Beauchamp

Review: “Terrors from the Toy Box” – Phobica Books

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Hot on the heels of their excellent Heavy Metal Nightmares, Phobica Books have produced another quality themed anthology in the form of Terrors from the Toy Box.

The blurb promised “devil dolls and terrifying teddies, abominable action figures and gruesome games all lying in wait for the opportunity to be free to wreak terror” and it certainly delivers on that.

Some of the tales are obviously supernatural whereas with others, the horror is of the non-magical variety and born from obsession or the darkness that lurks inside people. Sometimes it’s both, and I enjoyed being kept guessing as each story began, as well as wondering what horrors were about to be unleashed when a toy made its appearance.

There’s a good range of styles from the selected authors and the chills are delivered in different ways be that malevolent atmosphere, gruesome shocks or emotional clout. There are also some interesting and subtle concepts that throw shade on the wider world as a whole.

Although I enjoyed all the fiction in this book, here are a handful of those that really stood out for me.

“Faux Joe” by M.J. McClymont is narrated by Tommy, a man concerned about his old friend Joe: a lonely character obsessed with his immaculate and pristine action figure collection. Joe believes his plastic figures to be perfect in every way, and Tommy slowly realises that his troubled friend has concocted a grim plan to improve his life by achieving this supposed perfection for himself. Relatable feelings collide with body horror to create a very compulsive read, and the final line concludes it perfectly on a wry and ominous note.

“Pooky” by Tim Jeffreys concerns Bethany, a girl who cajoles her divorced parents into buying her an old but collectible teddy bear, and it’s not long before things take a spooky turn. A voice seems to be heard talking to Pooky from Bethany’s room, and the child herself speaks of another girl in the house. It has emotional depth for what is one of the shorter pieces in the anthology – merging the stressful domestic troubles of the family with the lurking supernatural – along with some very haunting moments, and a nicely gauged pay off.

In “A Decent Guy” by Wil Forbis, we meet Bennett: a successful family man whose son has a new action figure called Justice Man. But we soon learn that Bennett, who is a loving father and a “decent guy” around his family and community, has a dark and sadistic side that must be assuaged by violence of the most disturbing kind. An increasingly unpleasant descent, the story is crafted into something ultimately very satisfying, all neatly bookended by its own theme.

“Enid’s Dollhouse” by Harriet Phoenix begins with a fairly benign tone as we find young Enid, a girl who loves to collect dolls and play with them, rebuffing her parents’ gentle attempts to dissuade her from expanding her growing collection. This is a very cleverly structured piece. At first there are things that don’t quite seem to make sense, but then everything falls into place, and there’s a cold and terrifying moment of realisation for the reader. With shades of The Twilight Zone, I immediately re-read it and got to enjoy the subtle nuances and pre-reveal attention to detail in a completely different way. Brilliant stuff.

“Lillybet Lollipop” by Scotty Milder is a superb take on the old creepypasta theme. Here, a young man named Mark stumbles across a dusty and obsolete gaming console at a garage sale, along with the game of the title: an ultra-rare cartridge that was swiftly withdrawn from circulation after supposedly terrible things happened to the people who played it. This is a gripping and deftly structured read – switching between Mark’s experience with the malignant game and transcripts of an urban legend podcast about Lillybet Lollipop – as the author takes us on a dizzying and violent journey into madness.

“Kia stood a few steps behind the yellow line, clinging to her little brother’s hand, two over-stuffed rucksacks by her legs, and seriously considered letting go of him and walking out in front of the train that was rapidly approaching.”
Thus begins “A Sister’s Love” by Annie Knox, hooking me in from the start. Kia is a girl on the run with her younger brother Kevin after she has murdered their father for reasons that we don’t initially know. Desperate and out of her depth, she tries to protect him and find somewhere to stay, but is increasingly frustrated by how the young lad seems to talk to someone through various toys. A convincing portrayal of fragile and broken human psyches, this tragic spiral has pathos by the bucketload. It packs several heart-breaking punches, and is definitely the most memorable and powerful tale in the anthology for me.

Although these were my favourites, all the stories bring something to the party. For example, opener “Ma Gentry’s Dream Catcher” by Richard Beauchamp is thick with the evocative atmosphere of its rural witchcraft setting and “Little Red Case” by J Benjamin Sanders Jr has some masterful scenes of unnerving anticipation delivered by a haunted dollhouse. “Uncanny” by Mia Dalia nails the uncanny valley concept, and “A Toy For Zubin” by Galen Gower brings both dark humour and an insidiously nasty tone to the possessed toy trope.

There is much to like about Terrors from the Toy Box. The pieces are often character driven, which is something that can be overlooked elsewhere due to a prime focus on scares or ideas. Without investable or realistic protagonists, short fiction is difficult to care about, and Phobica Books clearly recognise that.

What I also enjoyed is that with such a childhood-related theme, nostalgic feelings inevitably abound, and some of the tales inspired wistfulness for times or toys that weren’t even mine which is a solid and impressive feat.

This is one of those books that I constantly wanted to get back to whenever forced to put it down because real life was dragging me away. Thanks to Phobica Books for the escapism, and I will definitely be keeping a close eye on their future output.

Phobica Books

Review: “The Last Night in Amsterdam” by Melanie Atkinson

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“After over indulging in an Amsterdam coffee-shop, Jennifer wakes in her hotel room to a terrifyingly vague emergency alert message on her phone. On the other side of town, the same alert saves Jonah from the world’s worst stag-do. Soon both of them will be fighting for their lives on the cobbled streets of Amsterdam.

Will these ordinary people overcome exceptional circumstances and be able to live with the choices they make? Will they even make it out alive? It’s not always survival of the fittest!”

I bought ‘The Last Night in Amsterdam’ because I wanted a lively outbreak story to devour, and having visited Amsterdam several times (including on stag-dos), the idea of nostalgic familiarity appealed.

And devoured it was. In the tradition of the best classic zombie stories, we don’t just get suspense, screaming and airborne entrails, but also a taut and sobering analysis of the human condition, tempered with heart and humour.

The book is largely narrated by Jennifer and Jonah in a deftly crafted flashback structure. We learn immediately that both have survived the zombie outbreak that ravaged the city, and are now pole-axed by PTSD and attempting to deal with the experience. It also becomes clear that as well as the trauma, they both engaged in activities that continue to haunt them.

You need assured writing for this to work, and the author presents two strong lead voices. Jennifer is single, travelling alone, and hoping the trip to Amsterdam will be a cure for her annual winter blues. Jonah is on a stag-do with his old football mates, but is struggling with the bar-hopping hedonism of the group and would rather be in a museum, or even better, at home with his girlfriend.

Both are investable, engaging characters and often droll with their outlook on life. They present that bridge between youth and sensible adulthood: still in possession of some adventure but with a healthy injection of cynicism and wisdom. But most importantly they’re believable, which is why we empathise, and the plentiful dialogue is natural and sharp.
The secondary players are just as real, even the ones we might dislike, such as best man Ross from the doomed stag-do who is a manipulative and irritating bell-end. Relatable feelings abound throughout, and it was largely this that immediately kept pulling me back to the book whenever I got the chance.

What also makes this story stand above many of its similar peers, is that I didn’t just want to find out what happened next. I wanted to know how the protagonists felt about recent events. I wanted to know how they would decide what to do, and how would they deal with the consequences. This level of character focus is what really elevates a piece.

The pace is perfect, nimbly changing gears as it moves from past to present. From breathless chases through the canal and corpse-lined streets of Amsterdam to atmospheric scenes of foreboding, the author gauges our anticipation perfectly. The zombie creatures, with their creative and horrific injury detail, are runners rather than shamblers, which elevates the pace to breakneck speed when required.

There’s a flavour to Melanie Atkinson’s writing, and the evocation of everything from smells to vibes to facial expressions is immaculately presented with crisp attention to detail. Similes aren’t intrusively overused, but the ones we get are lovely. For example “The thing moved in a disjointed hobble, like a ravenous marionette that had broken its strings and come to life” paints such a striking and ghastly picture of an approaching zombie that no further description is required.

Thanks to this skilled writing, we also get a feel for the city. It’s a palpable place in this story, which makes the descent into hell even more potent. There’s a scene at the start of the outbreak in which a morning crowd gathers beside of a canal to see a rising dune of waterlogged undead trying to scramble out, and it has such a beautifully nightmarish quality that it feels like an actual memory.

There are plenty of surprises towards the end, and the finale is satisfying and appropriate, bookending the whole thing with fiendish style.

I’ll certainly keep my eye out for Melanie Atkinson’s future work. Like some of the better zombie tales I’ve read, ‘The Last Night in Amsterdam’ isn’t carried purely by the violent gruesome elements. Although these are riveting and superb, the true darkness of the piece comes through the fragilities, instincts and actions of the characters. There’s so much relatable humanity here. Decision making, regret, survival instinct, friendship, peer dynamics, graveyard humour, hubris, guilt and social anxiety are rendered raw onto the page, all too familiar and utterly convincing. Try as we might, we can’t ignore the discomfort of wondering what we would’ve done in several of their situations.

But the author keeps it all from becoming too intense with dark humour throughout, and coming from the wry perspectives of our narrators, this keeps the book at just the perfect tone for peak enjoyment.

Recommended.
Amazon Kindle link

Review: The Vanishing Point #6

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“Welcome to the Vanishing Point, that place on the horizon where the lines of reality and imagination intersect. In that place is a promise of excitement, dread, intrigue, and suspense. The Vanishing Point is a triannual literary magazine for works that bend reality. Horror, Sci-fi, Dark Fantasy, and all things speculative are welcome here.”

I wasn’t familiar with this magazine, picked up the latest issue, and was happy to discover that it lived up to this promising blurb. The 6 short stories are varied and good quality, and it was the perfect way to start a grey and rain-drenched morning.

“A Strange Night in Sabbatville” by Joseph Hirsch kicks things off. This supernatural account concerns a man whose car breaks down in the semi-rural town of the title and finds his way to an old-fashioned B&B. Beautifully told, it has an engaging 1st person voice and a spooky and palpable sense of place.

“Tomorrow’s Agony” by Spencer Nitkey is narrated by a man who is captured by thugs and must pay an inherited debt that belonged to his late father. I enjoyed this very dark short, which succeeds through its original chilling concept and downbeat conclusion.

In “Bugs” by Paul O’Neill we meet Nick, a man on the verge of losing everything to his drug addiction, who is infested with some strange bugs under a bridge and discovers that they might help him out of his rut. An unpredictable sf/horror that hooked me from the off, it has the feel of an escalating nightmare with a satisfying and sharp sting in the tail.

“The Chitters” by Keith LaFountaine begins with tragedy, as family man Frank watches his young son suddenly die during a baseball game, and through childhood flashbacks realises that the reason for the death comes from his past. Immediately investable through attention to detail, this is a good old-school chiller.

“The Double” by Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece is told by a woman trapped in a besieged city who sees a doppelganger of herself whilst attempting to board an evacuation train. An intriguing tale in which all is not as it seems, it ensures you don’t stop until the haunting and elegiac finale.

Finally, “Hurts to Breathe” by Scott J. Moses is the story of a healthcare worker revisiting her abandoned home during some kind of gas-induced zombie apocalypse. It’s a melancholy horror piece, nicely balancing violence with emotion, and concludes the issue on an appropriate high.

All the stories here are well written with muscular ideas and satisfying payoffs. There’s a pleasing range of dark speculative fiction, some mysterious and offbeat, some horrific and suspenseful, and the mix of authorial tones and directions make for an interesting read. I’ll definitely be revisiting The Vanishing Point again for more.

Available in print and electronic versions, visit the website here.

Review: “Join Me in the Club” by Matt Shaw

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There are two kinds of extreme horror writer. One type thinks that graphic gore, bloodshed and nastiness are all that is required. The other realises that you need characterisation and investment for the aforementioned scenes of horror to have any impact. Matt Shaw is definitely one of the latter.

“Join me in the club” is an immediately engaging story based around an interesting dystopian concept. The world is over-populated and low on resources, so the government has decided that the solution is to prune the unfortunate population. They hold special events at “the club” for which people are randomly selected via the receipt of a red or white token. The red tokens will die, but as a farewell bonus, they get to be in charge of how they spend their last night. They are paired with a white token who will survive, but have to fulfil whatever the red token’s desires might be, as well as being instrumental in their death which is conducted in the manner of their choosing.

The main character is Gary, a regular family man, who has received a white token, and the story begins with the build up to his night at the club. Rather than going straight for the jugular, the tale shows how an ordinary family are preparing for the potential fallout from such an event. This could include damage to Gary’s marriage, as some red tokens insist that the white tokens sleep with them before they die, and Gary’s wife is understandably upset about this possibility. And although he will survive, how will they continue as normal after he has killed someone?
The realistic concerns, frustrations and arguments of a couple forced into this horrible situation are handled with aplomb, and we are drawn into their predicament before the horror has even kicked off.

The timeline jumps back and forth between the club night and the domestic events leading up to it, which creates a pleasing pace, and we also learn a little about Mary: Gary’s red token partner for the night. There’s some real darkness in her soul, and this sets a suitably ominous tone.

The book also features the plight of Justin – a pleasant man and a doomed red token holder – and his wife Emma. Palpable and tragic, this section is a beautifully written vignette with an elegiac tone that both contrasts and elevates the gruesome shenanigans about to be unleashed.

As this is extreme horror, the last section of the book naturally becomes quite inventively brutal. I wouldn’t dream of spoiling the grisly surprises that lay in wait, but strap yourself in. Because we’ve already invested in these characters, it becomes an uncomfortably powerful read, and the tale ends on an open yet very satisfactory note. There’s certainly potential for a sequel – which would please me no end – but it works as a standalone piece regardless.

I enjoyed “Join me in the club”. It’s a short book of novella length, and very easy to fall into and devour in one sitting. If you’re a fan of extreme horror, you’re probably familiar with Matt Shaw and will demolish it too.
If not, but you’re feeling adventurous and would like to dip your toe into this controversial sub-genre of horror fiction, I’d say this is a good place to start. The author brings quality storytelling and emotional depth to a fascinating concept, and while the graphic elements are shocking – and quite rightly so – they are undercut with a psychological darkness that takes it to a whole new level.

Party like there’s no tomorrow.

Review: “Heavy Metal Nightmares” – Phobica Books

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I’ve been a fan of both horror fiction and heavy metal since I was a kid, so this release from Phobica Books was bagged and devoured the moment I clapped eyes on it.

I was pleased to find that beneath that perfect cover lurks a wild and varied selection of twenty stories. They feature the genre staples of monsters, ghosts, curses, possessions and dark whimsies of all kinds, but there are also nightmares of the non-supernatural variety and a couple that feature futuristic and grim speculative concepts.

Most importantly, the overall vibe of the book very much captures the different aspects of heavy metal and its many subgenres. The tone swings from bleak and haunting moods right through to horn-throwing, tongue-in-cheek horror shenanigans, and everything in between.

Heavy Metal Nightmares has an air of celebration. As you can imagine, the authors have a passion for the music – some of them being metal musicians themselves – and this love bleeds from the writing. And although there are song and band references scattered throughout that will delight the metalheads, they don’t intrude or overwhelm if this isn’t really your actual scene.

Here are a few of my standout favourites.

“Phantoms” by Tim Jeffreys is the muscular opening act of the anthology. It is told by the frontman of a rock band called Phantoms, who acquires an ancient song from a mysterious groupie, as well as a spooky picture of an old house. Both these things become instrumental in the band’s swift and almost overnight success, but bad things soon happen and people start to die. Riffing on the classic curse trope, it becomes compulsive, uneasy reading with a potent sense of inevitable doom.

I really enjoyed “Metal Bones” by Mia Dalia. A band called Cerberus decide to build a catacomb-styled ossuary of real bones in which to record their demo. They plunder graveyards for the skeletons with which to construct it, but their actions aren’t without consequence. Told with rich prose and smooth attention to detail, I particularly loved the unexpected, brutal yet emotively elegiac climax: possibly the best finale in the anthology.

Strap on your seatbelt for “War Born” by Richard Beauchamp: an epic and deafening slab of industrial cyberpunk horror that took my breath from its first page to its last. The setting is a radiation-drenched, dystopian nightmare that makes Mad Max look like a children’s fairytale. We follow guitarist Tjal setting off on tour with the War Born: the heaviest and loudest band in the world, who are feared and despised by the ruthless military powers that be.

The author builds an incredible world, full of superb imagination and textured prose, as we are dragged along on a nasty and colourful ride through a boozy, chemical wasteland of biomechanical mutants, twisted tech, atomic-powered subwoofers and vast speaker towers laying gruesome waste to all before them. The chaos is held together by a neat subversive theme as the band plan to play a literally city-wrecking gig on the doorstep of the world’s ruling magistrate. Never have scenes of visceral, apocalyptic hell been so exciting and enjoyable, and this was my favourite of the anthology.

In “Bloodlines” by Paul Sheldon, we meet Joe, a guitarist in a band who audition a new Flying V-wielding guitarist called Mike. Although he slays like a metal legend and seems like a nice bloke, Joe becomes jealous of Mike’s skills and realises something is not quite right about him: nobody in the scene has heard of him or seen him before. It keeps us guessing with “deal with the devil” type suggestions in a tale that has strong character dynamics and a wicked glint in its eye of which the metal gods would approve.

“Black-Metal Baker” by William J. Donahue is a very well crafted story about Jared, a croissant-master who runs a small, independent bakery, and has a black metal band as a side hustle. After he is interviewed by a local magazine, we realise that one of his band mates takes the whole satanic misanthropy mindset much more seriously than him. Written in an enjoyably sharp and evocative style, this is a satisfying piece full of horror and devilry (and baking) that never quite lets on about which direction it’s going to take, and concludes on a melancholy, pitch-perfect note.

“A Darker Sound” by M. J. McClymont features the plight of Angus, driving home, who ends up lost out in the middle of nowhere. He stops at an isolated farm, owned by an old man who is fascinated with the occult and extreme satanic metal, so of course it’s not long before things take an upsetting turn. Full of slick storytelling, deft turns of phrase, and thick with atmosphere, this is nice mixture of old-school quiet horror and the modern violent variety. It would make a great episode of “The Twilight Zone”.

“A Cold Slither Killing” by Angelique Fawns requires no gore or supernatural activity to pack its chilling punch. We meet Glenna and Michelle, two work colleagues who are both fans of a shock rock band called Cold Slither. After an incident with a snake in a river, in which Glenna saves Michelle’s life but only after some hesitation, their friendship is damaged. So they attempt to repair it by going to see Cold Slither perform live together. This story has a beautifully timed dark reveal that makes the early snippets of detail fall cleverly into place, and boasts a conclusion that neatly bookends the whole thing. All this combines with convincing characters and dialogue to make it a very powerful and memorable piece.

I’ll also mention “In Extremis” by Sally Neave. Here, the drummer for the eponymous band wakes up, terribly injured and locked in a storage room below the stage where his band are playing a very important gig. It’s an immediately engrossing, straightforward short with a stinging twist that I’d half-guessed by the end, but still thoroughly enjoyed due to the vivid writing and claustrophobic sense of desperation.

This is only a handful of what is on offer, just being those that particularly spoke to me, but there wasn’t a story in Heavy Metal Nightmares that didn’t bring something to the hellish party.

Given the theme, several of the stories naturally describe gigs in some detail and the lurid rock and roll lifestyle of groupies, drugs and booze. This can get a little samey occasionally, but there’s enough variation in the tales to break it up and I was never bored.

The protagonists and characters are generally well written, whether likeable or nefarious, and we often find ourselves in their corner despite their shortcomings. The stories tend towards strong finales, be them concrete or open, downbeat or gleeful, and there’s some pleasing classic shock twists.

If you like horror fiction or heavy metal, you’ll find something to enjoy in this anthology. If you like both, you’ll find plenty to love. They make excellent bedfellows.
I’ll leave you with the words of the back-cover blurb:

“Get in the mosh pit, rock your head, throw those devil horns in the air and get ready to turn your fear up to eleven!”

Review: “Into the Yellow and Other Stories” by Barbara Davies

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“Visit ancient Rome, lunar settlements, and alien worlds. Meet zombies and vampires, mermen, dragons, and demons. Experience nano-technology and watch history happen from a time machine. Barbara Davies explores the spectrum of speculative fiction in this collection of entertaining and thought-provoking stories.”

This collection is a few years old now, but I purchased it on a whim for my Kindle because of this very blurb. I discovered an offbeat and vivid cauldron of fantasy, science fiction and horror with lots of heart, crisp prose and imagination delivered in style.

It opens with the title story “Into the Yellow” which turned out to be one of my favourites. This concerns Kesho, a member of a community of chameleonic lizard-like creatures in a glacial mountain region, fed up with her lot and consumed by the desire to explore. She decides to leave her isolated community and row across the “yellow” – a poisonous and lethal expanse of fog – beyond which lies the possibility of meeting other creatures. Full of creative attention to detail, character investment and feeling, this is a charming adventure, tackling the passion and discontentment of youth, and enhanced by expertly woven moments of jeopardy.

“Lone Wolf” introduces a werewolf hunter called Tarian who also has darkness within herself. Along with Peter, a mild-mannered bookseller, she faces a challenging night in a small village churchyard. A neat tale with plenty of action and scares.

“Morris Dancing” made me smile, in which a medieval pilgrim is attacked by a dragon he believes to be Satan. This humorous short cuts straight to the chase and is elevated by POV switches between the beast and its religious prey, and a perfectly gauged comic tone.

In “Cordie and the Merman”, Cordie is a fishing boat skipper – a woman in a very masculine environment – who accidentally snags a merman and is torn with what to do with the injured creature. It’s unpredictable, twisting and turning like a slippery sea creature itself towards the conclusion.

“Caverns of the Heart” concerns Mira, a girl resigned to working in the dangerous mines on an alien planet. She finds something unusual that inspires a change of heart in an adventure full of inspiration.

“Babalawo’s Drum” transports us to Elizabethan times in which Rob, a young English boy, is forced into serving a new master after the death of his rogue father. But after settling into his new life with an apparently benevolent master, he discovers something both illegal and horrific is going on. It’s an atmospheric period horror with a deft sense of escalating dread.

In “High Flier” we meet Jeff, a young man starting a job with a lunar transport company, who gets his first girlfriend. Of all the pieces in this collection, I thought this had the slowest start and wasn’t immediately easy to engage, but I enjoyed the evocation of the moon colony and how it speculates that workplace dynamics and young relationships in the future are no less awkward or full of pitfalls than those of the present.

“Journey to Niskor” introduces Viro, a somewhat snobby, travelling magical healer, who needs to cross a vast frozen expanse. He hires a local peasant woman named Ajysyt to transport him with her sled and team of huskies. Viro finds his male viewpoint challenged by his expert female guide, and it soon turns into a survivalist journey into the bitter cold. The cruel environment of snow and trees is beautifully evoked, and I enjoyed learning about Ajysyt’s techniques of keeping both themselves and the dogs alive in such extreme conditions. Although Viro can be entitled and sexist, this is all part of his journey and there is hope that he learns a lot from the expedition.

“Time and the Maid” involves a machine that can access the past, and when a drunk student alters Joan of Arc’s timeline by pretending to be an angel, Professor Marcus Williams has to try and fix it. It ignores the true impact of the butterfly effect, as most time-travel fiction tends to do, but it’s neatly crafted and the ending is pleasing and unexpected.

“Throwback” concerns Milos, a young vampire who is struggling with the discovery that he’ll never be able to fly like his friends due to impurities in his ancestral bloodline. But one night, when followed by some vampire-hating human lads, it appears his supposed flaws might be the key to getting them out of trouble. The author has fun with the traditional tropes of the vampire myth, and it’s actually more about teenagers coming of age than monsters.

In “A Question of Gender,” we find a group of scientists studying an alien race who discover that they have unpleasant views regarding the roles of males and females. But when one of the scientists is gifted a female alien from the male warlord, supposedly for his harem, things take a dark turn. This is thoughtful and exciting science fiction with some interesting biological science and clever surprises up its sleeve.

We are transported to a haunted house in ancient Rome for “The House on the Via Aurelia”. It follows Quintus, a household spirit, whose ordered routine is upset by the arrival of a troublesome and deceitful family ghost. Although I found the story somewhat wordy and overly detailed, I enjoyed the dialogue which has been considerably modernised – I suspect deliberately – for entertaining effect.

“Dog and Kat” is a futuristic tale told through two 1st person perspectives: Dog, a genetically-enhanced dog that belongs to a troubled artist called Heather, and Kat, a woman with whom the artist has as an extra-marital affair. The perspectives work well, particularly that of the innocent and empathetic dog and his constant attempts to understand what he is seeing, and things soon descend towards a shocking conclusion. Although thought-provoking and sharp, be warned that the ending is very unpleasant, and it was the only piece that made me feel genuinely cold.

“The Creature in the Cut” follows a group of boatpeople who discover that a murderous monster of some kind is living in one of their canal tunnels. As they plan to burn it or lure it out of hiding, this turns into a creature feature, with solid characterisation and action.

Finally, “Demonsbane” is an erotically charged ride in which Brad, an ordinary student, meets a rock band and their manager – Regan – and is caught up in a supernatural world of shapeshifting and demoncraft. It’s colourful and noisy, and the somewhat vanilla character of Brad perfectly elevates the strong and mysterious Regan, who has dark talents way beyond what he might have imagined.

I enjoyed Into the Yellow. The stories are short, largely well-crafted and easy to fall into, and there’s a distinct sense of originality throughout. Horror, sf and fantasy can be very well beaten paths when it comes to plot and setting, yet with this book, I often had that pleasing feeling that I was wandering into fresh territories of imagination.

Barbara Davies’ storytelling style brings her worlds into very clear focus, the prose generally being vibrant and evocative without intruding on the stories, and she can inject immediate whimsy, humour, threat or darkness as appropriate with just a few concise words. I also like that she includes brief notes with each piece that explain the inspiration.

Whether the setting is a modern, historical, fantasy or alien world, the characters are real and their plights often investable. And although many of the stories have wry humour and warmth, there are plenty of chills to remind us that life isn’t always like that.

Just as the blurb promised, a thought-provoking and entertaining collection. The yellow is waiting for you.

Barbara Davies

Bedazzled Ink – Mindancer Press

Review: “Corpsing” by Kayleigh Marie Edwards

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“From murderous children to nightmarish trips to an ill-fated zombie apocalypse, Corpsing will send you running for the light switch, but smiling as you do it.”

The blurb on this varied collection of eight stories from the Sinister Horror Company pretty much sums it up. I love a good meld of comedy and scares, and it soon became clear that as well as the writing ability, Kayleigh Marie Edwards has both the requisite glint in the eye and the passion for horror to make this work.Starting things off is “Bitey Bachman” in which we meet an asylum security guard named Brian. When a patient accidentally receives a mystery injection, the scene is set for a zombie apocalypse, and Brian is ready. He’s spent a lot of time thinking about such eventualities, but unfortunately, it kicks off while he’s in the middle of taking a shower. This tale is a good showcase for the author’s humour. It’s full of sharp prose and neat references to zombies in popular culture, and the finale is a refreshing change from the usual path of outbreak stories.

“Bits and Bobs” tells of hospital worker Steven, hoping to secure a job at the Body Farm: a unique U.S. morgue where unclaimed corpses are used to train CSI teams. After failing the interview, Steven gets drunk and decides to sabotage one of their fake crime scenes with his own DNA and thus ruin the next training exercise. But during his inebriated vandalism, things take a horrific and bizarre turn. There’s shades of Jasper Bark here, and a double-whammy of gruesome extremity is written with such nonchalance – and followed up by playful humour – that I had to applaud.

“Siren” follows the plight of Lucy, eleven years old and moving to a quiet lakeside home with her mother. She hates the house, misses her dad, and wants to leave, but there’s a spooky little girl living in the lake with other ideas. Lucy’s perspective of all things adult is spot-on, as is the pathos, and although comedy takes a back seat to the creepy atmosphere this time around, it still has a pleasingly wry finale.

There’s no ceremony or build-up in “Now You See Them” in which we find a terrified boy tucked up in bed, trying to keep quiet and terrified of monsters in the dark. Excelling in evocation, this is a ghastly short.

“Skin” features fifteen year old Amy, full of insecurities and angst. Her life capsizes after she’s bitten by a spider and becomes horribly infected, and then discovers she’s pregnant. Dumped, short on friends and grounded by her furious and disappointed father, I was drawn into Amy’s miserable plight. Sporting a real aura of claustrophobia and helplessness, this story tackles attitudes of shame towards teen pregnancy, self-harm, and nails the emotional whirlwind of its protagonist. But it’s certainly an adult piece, trickling in physical horror elements and finishing on a sour twist.

After all that horror, “S-day” changes the mood. We are cordially introduced to a whining child named Bobby who, on this occasion, has decided that he wants some chicken soup. When refused by his exasperated mother, Bobby starts to pray. But such is his talent for irritation, he even annoys God who loses his rag with appropriate biblical theatricality and rains down a mighty plague-flood of meaty soup upon the world before anyone has even had time to build an ark. A mischievous fable, this balances the darker pieces in the collection.

In “Barry’s Last Day” we find a construction worker on the cusp of retirement. But rather than being happy about his imminent freedom, Barry is fed up at the prospect of having to spend more time with his wife and stoner son, neither of whom he particularly likes. On top of that, he’s also perpetually annoyed that a 20-something graduate called Todd – of all things – had recently stolen his promotion.

So Barry decides to get last day revenge on young Todd with a cunning plan involving some magic mushrooms and a flask of coffee, but naturally, things don’t go the way he planned. Barry’s an entertaining miserable git of a lead, and I was won over by twists, turns and a splendid conclusion. This would’ve sat proudly in a Pan Book of Horror, as indeed would a couple of the other pieces here.

Finally we have “’Twas the Night before Christmas” in which two young boys realise that their Christmas tree is not only possessed, but also a nocturnal killer. Obviously nobody believes them, and it’s to the author’s credit that we roll with the outrageous concept. This tale has a light style, which makes the grisly elements more amusing yet strangely darker.

I read Corpsing in one sitting, not just because it’s a svelte 150 pages, but because it’s so easy to digest. The author lures us in with intriguing ideas, forces us to invest through convincing characters and dialogue, then takes us on all kinds of horrific and uncomfortably comical descents in which we’re up to our necks with the hapless protagonists whether we like it or not.

This is character-driven horror, and the people we meet are flawed and real, their perspectives tight regardless of age or gender. It has both new ideas and twists on old tropes, and of course, plenty of macabre humour. This sometimes causes a smile, other times a visceral wince, but generally both at the same time. With such a well gauged tone in place, I found it impossible not to be charmed.

Review: “Fountain of Drowned Memories” by Erik Hofstatter

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Lorcan Carmody is scared. He can’t understand where he is or why he’s there. Strange people surround him… and a monster lurks in his room. Is the monster real or imagined?

Fountain of Drowned MemoriesThis tale from Frightful Horrors – a UK small press dedicated to our love of weird fiction chapbooks but presented in easy digital form – is quite a triumph given its length. It took less time to read than to write this review, but leaves quite a melancholy malaise upon putting it down.

We meet Lorcan Carmody, trapped in a strange bedroom and losing his memory. He becomes obsessed by the shifting stains on the ceiling and also the sink in the corner – which he knows as the fountain – as he struggles to recall words, the past, and even his own identity.

At first, the fountain seems to have healing properties and is the only thing to bring him peace in his confusion. But when it sprouts monstrous tentacles, Lorcan begins to wonder if the fountain is actually draining his precious memories. He’s occasionally visited by other people, but is suspicious that they’re colluding with the fountain and his insidious loss of recall.

This short story took me by surprise. It’s instantly engaging and easy to empathise with Lorcan’s fear and frustration. The prose is robust, evoking the rain, the trees and figures that he glimpses out of the window, and suffusing the whole account with loneliness. This elegiac tone is accentuated by glimpses of normality – such as memories of drinking in pubs and the smell of bacon – but nothing lasts, and even these brief snippets only bring him more misery as they become tainted and dissipate.

Any piece like this initially keeps the reader guessing as to his plight. Is Lorcan a prisoner? On drugs? A mentally ill patient with paranoid delusions? Suffering from dementia? Or perhaps he’s being menaced by actual supernatural horrors? It gauged my subconscious questions well, and everything falls neatly into place.

Fountain of Drowned Memories certainly leaves a mark, laying bare the fragility of mental health. Whether any of what Lorcan believes is actually true – the fountain’s tentacles, the conspiratorial visitors – almost becomes irrelevant. His claustrophobic existence is all, and this story presents how trapped someone can become by environment and more importantly, their own capsizing psyche.

I was lost to Lorcan’s descent as the tale progressed, and the last few pages are heart-breaking. It’s rare that a work of this length (only about 14 pages) can elicit such feeling and Erik Hoffstatter ensures that he has finished wringing you out before most poignant fiction of this kind would’ve even got into gear.

A slick combination of Lovecraft and McMahon, it’s available for free on kindle/pdf download here.

Review: “Aliens: Bug Hunt” edited by Jonathan Maberry

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“Is this going to be a stand-up fight, sir, or another bug hunt?”

If you recognise this quote – spoken by Private Hudson in James Cameron’s 1986 blockbuster Aliens – then Bug Hunt might be a book for you. If like me, you heard it in Bill Paxton’s disdainful voice, pictured the scene below and smiled fondly, then it definitely is.Set in the military and corporate milieu of the films, this collection from Titan Books peeks into the lives of colonial marines and other space-folk sent to remote corners of the universe where all manner of toothsome threats lurk. Some tie directly into the films – mainly Aliens – while others choose to run with an original take on the concept.

It’s not a spotless collection, suffering editorial oversights and the odd plot point that doesn’t add up, but I very much enjoyed it overall. And even if you’re not a disciple of the franchise, there’s enough imagination and chills to entertain anyone who likes their protagonists in a pickle and their looming jaws dripping with slime.First up is “Chance Encounter” by Paul Kupperberg in which a compulsive gambler gets more than he bargained for on a discovery expedition to a low-gravity planet. The local alien wildlife has adapted – making them both enormous and good in the air – and there are some excellent gob-smacked perspectives from those new to such a species. Apart from one bizarre reference to an alien egg as being “oblong” (I know queens are nails, but even she isn’t popping something out with corners on it) this is a satisfying start, thick with scares and evocation.

In “Reaper” by Dan Abnett (of Alien: Isolation fame) we join a squad of marines visiting a stormy planet used for bulk crop production. They’re investigating a colossal harvesting unit – an interesting creation itself – after contact has been lost, but upon arrival, they discover that the crew have sealed themselves inside. While many of the stories in this collection feature the oil-black, chitinous aliens we love from the films and comics, or something in a similar vein, this is one of the few that has a different menace lying in wait. A well written piece, it succeeds with a taut hill-climb and an urgent finale.

One of my favourites follows with “Broken” by Rachel Caine, the title referring to Bishop: the benevolent artificial person from Aliens. It’s a captivating story, commencing with his “birth” and his feelings of being different to the other synthetics from the moment he’s booted up.The main thread presents a terrorist hostage situation – a nice change from alien action – and injects some breathless excitement into an escapade already glowing with its android point of view. Bishop’s thoughts and morals are flawlessly portrayed, and a couple of other brief cameos bring fond nostalgia in addition to tying it neatly into the canon. “Broken” engaged me completely, and I didn’t want it to finish.

A darker tone is presented in “Reclamation” by Yvonne Navarro (author of the splendid Aliens: Music of the Spears). This features a pre-Aliens Dwayne Hicks and his wife, a fellow hard-ass colonial marine, in a tale of anger, grief and loss. The characterisation is solid – essential in such reflective storytelling – but my problem is that Hicks’ behaviour in Aliens would’ve been very different had these events preceded it. Michael Biehn’s character clearly had no history with the aliens – certainly not such a personally traumatic one – so it doesn’t quite fit. However, if you are willing to ignore that, there’s a powerful emotional resonance that the other efforts in this collection don’t manage. Hicks is a bit of a mythos legend, and the author does his character justice. The violence is truly tense, and when you hear an alien’s shriek perfectly described as “a monstrous combination of a hyena’s scream and an elephant’s roar” you know this is going to be quite the evocative ride.

Next are two more stories with a direct link to Cameron’s film. This time it’s through Cynthia “We got a live one!” Dietrich, the stalwart medic, and it’s nice to see a minor character getting some development. You could possibly argue that the marines of Aliens were not quite as familiar with extra-terrestrial bugs as these two Dietrich stories would have us believe, but as it’s not integral, I’m going to let it go.“Blowback” by Christopher Golden (author of Alien: River of Pain) sees her – along with Hudson, Apone, Vazquez et al. – on another Company-sponsored bug hunt. As this takes place on a planet with a propane atmosphere and airborne, inflammable wildlife, readers should prepare for some crazy pyrotechnics and noise. Naturally, the Company – lovingly referred to as “Weyland-fucking-Yutani” – have royally shafted everybody, and it’s great seeing the gang back together again in combat. The irreverent dialogue to which we became accustomed in Aliens is back with a flourish – “I hear your voice in my sleep, Sarge” – and although I felt it ended rather abruptly, this is an entertaining read.

The second Dietrich adventure is “Exterminators” by Matt Forbeck. This time she’s with Private Ricco “Arcturian poontang” Frost, getting drunk in a backstreet dive at a remote refuelling station that is attacked by parasites. It concludes on a jokey punchline that seemed somewhat forced, but apart from that, this is a pretty tight siege thriller. I enjoyed the seedy vibe of shadowy figures necking tequila in a ramshackle bar, and it also scores points for subtly referencing the scene in Aliens when Frost complains that he’s got a bad feeling about this and Crowe responds “You always say that.” Well, apparently he does, because he says it here too. Nice touch.

There’s a dark comic book feel to “No Good Deed” by Ray Garton. We’re back on LV-426 and Hadley’s Hope (the colony in Aliens) following a bounty hunter on the trail of two escaped convicts: a crime lord and his lab-enhanced sidekick.Upon arriving at the storm-lashed colony, they discover that the lights are still on but all is quiet. Of course we know what eventually became of the colonists, but here, the infestation isn’t quite complete. This is a slick all-rounder for place, characters and chills, weaves itself seamlessly into the background of the film, and saves a wild surprise for the showdown.

“Zero to Hero” by Weston Ochse introduces a corporal in charge of a small marine contingent on the remote moon of LV-666. He’s not a gentleman who thrives on action – quite content playing video games and enjoying the peace – so is most disgruntled when an SOS signal comes from the moon’s network of mines. This story wriggles free of tropes by having its menace in the form of a very creepy infection, presents some unsettling moments of horror, and boasts a strong character journey for its protagonist.

Any fan of Aliens will recall the scene when clammy, corporate snake Carter Burke betrays Ripley, scarpers alone, and is last seen whimpering as an alien strikes. “Dark Mother” by David Farland sees him being taken away and cocooned: a fate that was originally filmed but dropped as it didn’t gel with the xenomorph life cycle. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting gap to fill, and we watch Burke trapped in the nest and trying to escape while Ripley charges about with her flamethrower, adding another layer to the film. I also like the way Burke – true to form – immediately tries to negotiate with the alien that takes him. A Company man through and through, it made me chuckle that he’d even take a punt at bribing such a creature. The author also trickles in backstory of Burke’s privileged but dysfunctional upbringing, helping to explain the man he is and also the kind of people who work for Weyland-Yutani.The main problem with “Dark Mother” is editorial, summed up by a slab of editor’s notes that somehow made it into the text. Also, the issue with the alien life cycle still very much remains, and the accidentally-included notes only draw more attention to this. There are other confusing errors such as a pursuing alien on Ripley’s tail being described as being on “Ridley’s tale” which wrenched me out of the moment as I paused to work it out.  The final page also has the air of being unfinished, but the earlier mistakes make it difficult to be sure. Yet despite all this, David Farland presents some brittle and stark scenes, and does very well with presenting a protagonist that everybody hates. Or loves to hate.

“Episode 22” by Larry Correia is certainly the most quirky read of the collection. Rather than standard prose, this is a journalistic article about the history of the M-41A pulse rifle. While that might sound bland, it’s a neat piece of writing. There are quotes from marines, discussions regarding weapon development, and the timeless problem of corporations making budget shortcuts while the frontline are simply trying not to die. The humour is well gauged, and this line from a lance corporal regarding the nickname of “pulse rifle” is among many that made me grin.

“The problem with calling the M41 that is always some dumb boot hears we get issued pulse rifles and gets all excited thinking it’s going to be shooting laser beams or something. What do they think this is? Sci-fi?”

In “Deep Background” by Keith R.A. DeCandido, the corporate ruthlessness hinted at in “Episode 22” is taken to expert levels. We find a journalist conducting an investigation of Weyland-Yutani by tagging along with a unit of marines called into action. It’s punchy, tackles cover-ups from an interesting perspective, and delivers a sting in the tail.

Mood piece meets psychological drama with Brian Keene’s “Empty Nest” as we join a lance corporal who discovers a surviving woman in a xenomorph nest.But something’s not quite right, neither with her nor the nightmarish surroundings. The author skilfully plants a sense of unease in the reader, and this plays out in an off-kilter, intriguing story that lets you guess some of it along the way, but still saves an emotional and visceral sucker punch or two. This is quality writing with a haunting tone.

We’re treated to a comic-book style yarn with “Darkness Falls” by Heather Graham, concerning an ex-marine captain retired to a pleasant terraformed planet. But after people are attacked in a local mine, she’s lured back into action by a solemn but wise police officer. The whole thing has a pleasing monster-movie feel, helped by the particular species with which the xenomorphs have birthed (Aliens “DNA-fix” and take on some of their host’s physical characteristics) and I won’t spoil that outrageous surprise. There’s a couple of editing hiccups, but it’s a cinematic ride with memorable characters that manages to be a blast without losing the darkness integral to the films.

Nothing is more hellish than a scuttling facehugger intent on ramming its ovipositor down the nearest throat, and “Hugs To Die For” by Mike Resnick and Marina J. Lostetter certainly nails the horror.Set in a time when alien organics are used in construction and engineering, it involves an unfinished egg vault facility containing hundreds of facehuggers that inevitably escape. And hurrah for that! Unfortunately, the manner of the breakout was too easy for me. Surely the tanks would be appropriately designed given the extreme danger, but the beasts manage to melt and bash their way out. I suppose human idiocy and complacency are all part of the point, as is the nature of the alien as one of chaos that refuses to be contained, but it could’ve been more convincing. That niggle aside however, a hugger swarm is quite the blood-curdling spectacle, and I love it that they are capable of strategizing en masse. Combining biological and behavioural science with violence, this is a thrilling short.

Jonathan Maberry’s “Deep Black” revisits Fiorina “Fury” 161 – the bleak ex-industrial penal colony – with a refreshing change in film. Despite it being long abandoned after the events of Alien 3, somebody has suddenly turned on the power. Nicely utilising a first-person perspective, we join Harper and his small but tough squad of soldiers on a mission to make sure that none of Weyland-Yutani’s competitors are sniffing around for alien leftovers.Described as a “pimple on the devil’s taint” by one of the squad, this story deftly evokes the grim atmosphere of that isolated and malignant place. It has frightening scenes, an authentic military feel through Harper’s voice, and there’s plenty of reference to Ellen Ripley and her legacy. It also begs the question “When will Weyland-Yutani ever learn?” Hopefully never!

“Perkins was looking right at Callaghan when her head exploded inside the hard shelter of her environment helmet.”

Thus begins “Distressed” by James A. Moore (author of Alien: Sea of Sorrows) dropping the reader into battle with no regard for ceremony. We meet Callaghan, part of a marine squad investigating a supply ship which has fallen to a bizarre mech-alien attack that is consuming everything, including the ship itself. This is sumptuously written, a good example being the description of blood, body parts and debris floating around in zero-gravity as “It was like being inside a madman’s snow-globe.” There’s a palpable mythos feel even though it doesn’t feature traditional aliens, and another wry nod to the Company’s methods of employee “incentive”.

When beginning this collection, I really hoped someone would write from a xenomorph’s point of view, despite how difficult it could be to make this work. I was delighted to discover that Scott Sigler has succeeded mightily with “Dangerous Prey”.Told in the present tense and immaculate in tone, it follows an injured alien – the protector – during an attack on a human installation. The sheer otherness of thought – its intelligence and the machinations of the hive mind – are superbly conveyed. The text brims with detail, such as the protector viewing marine armour as their “mottled green carapace” and the human installation as an “alien hive”. Naturally, xenomorphs don’t really understand technology and guns, so I loved the distinction our protagonist makes between its unarmed enemies and those with the “loud stingers” which ties into the title.

“The protector launches itself high into the air just as more flashes from the loud-sting tear into the others behind it. The dangerous prey angles the loud-stinger up, but it is too late…”

Yep, armed human beings are the dangerous prey to which it refers. We’re the aliens here, and not only did I find myself gripped by the chaos of war from such an exquisitely foreign perspective, but also cheering the protector on. You know how when you’re watching a nature documentary, you’ll empathise with whichever survival story is being told, regardless of whether that’s the lion or the wildebeest? Rather wonderfully, I found that the same happened here, despite my own kind being the “enemy”. Nudging me into species-based treason – in a matter of seconds – is quite an authorial achievement.“Dangerous Prey” triumphs because we learn about the insectile society and chilling physiology of aliens without ever feeling lectured. The instinctive awakening of eggs is beautifully done, as is the reign of the queen, the author using imaginative science without ever dulling the excitement. Quite the contrary, it only serves to deepen our understanding of these most fascinating of monsters and improve the reading experience. From the protector’s frustrations to its use of sound and pheromone communication, I absolutely loved these few precious minutes inside an alien’s terrible, elongated head. My favourite piece of the collection, and one to read again.

That just leaves “Spite” by Tim Lebbon (fresh from Alien: Out of the Shadows and the superlative Alien vs. Predator Rage War trilogy). It made sense to save a writer with such niche experience for the finale, and in “Spite”, he brings back old favourite Major Akoko Halley from the Rage War. Along with her elite squad of Devil Dogs, she lands on an artificial habitat to discover that things are burned and melted, and while this might seem familiar at first, the damage is the work of a much more explosive species. Abundant firestorms await, and some world-beating treachery that would make Carter Burke raise an eyebrow. While I might’ve preferred old-school aliens for the collection’s incendiary showdown, this is robust storytelling and concludes the book on a high.Although Bug Hunt is reasonably strong overall, there are a few glitches. Having completed it, some of the numerous firefights we’ve enjoyed blur into one, and a couple of the tales – while decent enough – don’t really feel like Aliens stories. As dedicated fans, we bristle at anything that doesn’t seem to share our passion and we want the mythos to be at the very heart of the fiction, not just a garnish. Some of them also don’t slot into the timeline well enough to be regarded as canon. While this is mentioned in the introduction, and the lack of authorial constraint has resulted in some interesting off-piste wanderings, that doesn’t always stop it from jarring.

The main problem is editorial issues, which is something I’ve never experienced with Titan Books before. Perhaps it was rushed for the release of Alien: Covenant, but typos and text errors pop up throughout, and it’s occasionally clear a line has been cut without smoothing over the rough edges. There is also the absolute whopper of the printed editorial notes I mentioned earlier. Although it wasn’t enough to spoil my reading, it’s unacceptable in a mass-market release, and sadly loses marks for that.

But gripes aside, this is a compulsive tome with something for casual sf horror readers and alien aficionados alike. Even the flawed stories bring something to this most gruesome of parties, and the true winners – such as “Broken” and “Dangerous Prey” – are genuine 10 out of 10s. It’s value for money at 400 pages, and the vision of the talented contributors keeps it sufficiently varied. It might also please those who have wearied of Ridley Scott’s philosophical creationism in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant by concentrating on the gunfights and horde attacks of yore. There’s action, mood, pathos, horror and corruption aplenty, and while die-hards might get annoyed by the lack of purist effort made here and there, they’ll also find plenty to devour.Over the last couple of years, Titan Books have done a grand job of keeping us infused with acid blood and death by face-jawing. Aliens: Bug Hunt shows a reassuring dedication to the cause. Long may they continue, and all involved in this mission should get extra cornbread with their rations and be allowed to play on the power loader.

Enjoy, and stay frosty.

(Screencaps taken from Aliens (1986) and Alien 3 (1992) – 20th Century Fox)