MAKESHIFT MIRACLE is the hit comic from UDON Entertainment and creators Jim Zub and Shun Hong Chan! The first eagerly-anticipated collection arrives in May as a beautiful high quality hardcover graphic novel with a durable library-quality binding, perfect for teen readers and manga fans alike!

Makeshift Miracle is a new publishing initiative for UDON, best known for their licensed comics, manga, and art books. A completely original story, Makeshift Miracle has been serialized online at Makeshiftmiracle.com to an audience of more than 30,000 visitors since its launch! A steadily growing audience of fans of the work are building up intense interest for this title’s print release, with a built-in fanbase on the launch day!

“The online serialization has been a great way for us to get in touch with new readers and engage a wider audience before the book arrives,” says Erik Ko, head of UDON. “Readers, reviewers and librarians have had a chance to read a bit more of the story each week and see the beautiful art and story Hong and Jim have put together.”

Makeshift Miracle’s fable-like coming of age story focuses on Colby Reynolds, a disaffected teen left on his own for the first time. After an unusual, carefree girl named Iris comes literally crashing into his life, he discovers that she has strange powers and brings magic and menace in her wake! To protect her, Colby must avoid a enter a realm of dream and imagination, where nothing – not even his own sense of self – is what it first appears to be.

“The web-sized images we’ve posted online are great, but they don’t hold a candle to the lush new hardcover graphic novel edition,” says author Jim Zub. “Shun’s incredible atmospheric watercolors have to be seen up close to be believed, and we’ve filled out the hardcover with a dozen pages of new art and background sketches, and even a sneak-peak at volume 2! It’s going to be an amazing package.”

Makeshift Miracle Book 1: The Girl From Nowhere will premiere at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival May 5-6 (Torontocomics.com) before finding wide-release across North America on May 8th from finer comic shops and bookstores.

You can also check out the first two chapters of Makeshift Miracle at DriveThruComics.com!

Related posts:

1. Vampire Hunter D Manga Arrives at DriveThruComics.com!
2. Eldritch! #1 Arrives at DriveThruComics.com!

In November 2011, I took on the role of Marketing Director for Steve Jackson Games. I telecommute, which helps me get a lot more done than I would if I was down in Austin. I recently spent a week down there and talked about my trip when I returned from Austin on my blog. The experience reminded me of working for a restaurant or a newspaper because everything hinges upon product getting out the door in a timely fashion. For a small company with a big reputation, day-to-day operations can get pretty crazy especially when we’ve got a lot of new staff.

Staff Changes

Due to promotions and shifting positions, Leonard Balsera of Evil Hat Productions fame is now the new Munchkin Hireling. Angie, the former assistant, is now in Warehouse 23 customer service rep and Liegh, who was Phil Reed’s assistant, got promoted to Warehouse 23 manager. We’ve also got a new person at the head of MIB Control and in charge of convention planning. Kevin is way, way, way more organized than I could ever hope to be!

Valentine’s Day Promotion

Warehouse 23 is an online store where you can buy games and toys from a variety of publishers — including Steve Jackson Games. It is the sister store to the digital arm dubbed e23. For Valentine’s Day, the Sparkly Good Fairy dropped by the warehouse. The Official Munchkin Bookmark of Sparkly Good Monster Mayhem will be included with each order while supplies last. Customers who place an order of $75 or more will also get a Munchkin Fairy Dust Handbag of Holding, too! There are some items on Warehouse 23 that you can’t buy anywhere else. If you’ve never checked out this store before, I’d definitely take a peek at the Warehouse 23 exclusives for some Cthulhu-licious options.

I was happy we could put together this promotion because I’ve been learning how dedicated Munchkin fans are to this game line. To give you a hint? One rare Heart of the Anomaly Munchkin card was sold for over $1,000 dollars on eBay! My goal is to figure out how we can get promo cards and bookmarks out to fans. We’ve got a lot of ideas brewing that have to be balanced against convention season and getting new games and toys out the door. Did you know that Munchkin is now in Target? Yeah, pretty exciting stuff.

New for 2012

Several fans are eagerly awaiting the debut of the Plush Tentacle. It’s bendable and it has a belt loop, too. I’ve already heard some folks are planning on incorporating the tentacle into their Halloween costumes.

I’ve also been preparing for a few big releases this quarter. Munchkin 8 – Half Horse, Will Travel, which was drawn by John Kovalic, has two new fantasy races in the supplement to core Munchkin. Now, if you’ve been following John’s art from the beginning, you will notice a huge difference in the line art. The cards a lot more detailed due to his style enhancements. The Good, the Bad, and the Munchkin 2 – Beating a Dead Horse is the second expansion to come out this spring followed by Munchkin the Guild. Len Peralta, who draws the Geek-A-Week cards, is the artist for the Munchkin the Guild booster.

The other new release I want to mention is the Zombie Dice expansion dubbed Zombie Dice 2 – Double Feature. I haven’t played the alternative versions yet, so I’m anxious to see what they came up with. Zombie Dice has turned out to be a fun game when we’re entertaining folks. My brother loved it!

Revisiting 2011

I’m not sure if you’ve had the chance to check out what was released in 2011 from Steve Jackson Games, but I have two lists for you just in case. First, you’ll want to check out the GURPS releases in 2011 which includes GURPS Horror by Kenneth Hite. The cover was illustrated by Chris Shy, who has done a lot of work for White Wolf Publishing and other game, movie, and comic companies. Second, be sure to read the 2011 Steve Jackson Games release list to get a feel for what came out last year.

‘Til next time!

Related posts:

1. Sneak Peek at Zombie Chibithulhu, Munchkin Axe Cop, Munchkin Conan and more!
2. Inside ACD Games Day
3. Fat Dragon Games to publish Call of Cthulhu cardstock terrain sets

ReedPOP, creators and organizers of the New York Comic Con (NYCC), the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2), as well as other major events in the popular culture world, and Nerdist Industries, a multi-platform creator of genre and pop culture content, have today announced a continuation and formalization of a relationship that successfully began at NYCC in 2011 with the launch of the exclusive WHITE SPACE B2B conference. This new alliance provides for a wide range of strategic and cross-promotional activities that include Nerdist interviews with ReedPOP guests and a prominent role for Chris Hardwick, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Nerdist Industries, at ReedPOP shows. Hardwick, host of AMC’s Talking Dead as well as Nerdist specials for BBC America, founded Nerdist in 2008 and has nurtured its growth into a multimedia name now spanning blogs, a podcast, television, web-video, live-events and print. Chris will be a leading personality at NYCC, C2E2 and other ReedPOP events.

Nerdist Industries will have a presence on the floor of ReedPOP shows and will be significantly featured in several panels at these same events. Hardwick hosted The Avengers and The Walking Dead panels at NYCC in 2011, and he will emcee similar marquee content in 2012. In addition, Nerdist and ReedPOP will continue to work together to create another WHITE SPACE B2B conference this year as well as develop several live-events, tapings and podcasts at various ReedPOP shows.

“As another nerd leading a group of nerds creating nerd-centric events, I could not be more excited to welcome Chris Hardwick and Nerdist Industries to join forces with ReedPOP,” notes Lance Fensterman, Group Vice President for ReedPOP. “Our goal is to deliver great shows for our fans, but we also want to communicate the excitement, innovation and essential inner nerdiness of the pop culture spectrum to the world at large. This partnership with Nerdist Industries is a win-win, providing both like-minded organizations solid ways to amplify what we do through collaborating on new opportunities for our fans, our customers and ourselves. We’re both forces in the pop culture world, and we’re eager to see what amazing things we can accomplish together. I look forward to working with Chris and everyone at Nerdist Industries to make this a great continuing relationship.”

“I am THRILLED to be working with ReedPOP in an official capacity. I attended C2E2 last year, and, while still a young event, I was amazed at how well-organized and fan-friendly it was. Between C2E2, New York Comic Con and ReedPOP’s other events, this partnership makes all the sense in the world for Nerdist Industries. I know this because were we to not be in business with ReedPOP, I’d still be attending these events as a fan,” Hardwick said.

As noted, Hardwick’s first appearance on behalf of the joint promotional relationship with ReedPOP will be at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) which will take place April 13 – 15, 2012 in the North Building of McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, IL. He is scheduled to appear as emcee for special events on Friday, April 13, and he will also be available for a public autographing session. Specific details of his participation at the show will be posted in the near future on the C2E2 website. Hardwick will then present a live podcast from Chicago’s Vic Theatre on Friday night. Other guests who will be participating in C2E2 include Anthony Daniels, David Finch, Josh Gates, Adam Hughes and Joe Kubert. Many more guest announcements will be made in the coming weeks. For further information about these guests as well as purchasing tickets, please visit www.C2E2.com. For more on Nerdist Industries, visit www.Nerdist.com.

Related posts:

1. Josh Gates is First Entertainment Guest Announced at C2E2
2. Marvel Guests Announced for New York Comic Con
3. [Photos] Costumes and Artists from C2E2

Merchant princes and trader kings, masters of jade and emperor thieves; salesmen born with the trick of selling fire to the gods; genius tacticians and profiteers, hailed by the Fair Folk for their treachery; the Guild is the greatest roll of mortal merchants the world has ever known. For seven centuries the Guild has dealt in coins, chains, spells, and souls, confounding even the might of the Realm—what will it buy and sell to secure its survival in the Time of Tumult? Will the Exalted become its partners, its masters, or its pawns?

This book includes:

• An examination of the Guild by Direction, from the mammoth caravans of the North to the great merchant fleets of the West.
• Details of the Guild’s commerce with the supernatural, from the hungry Fair Folk to the restless ghosts of the Timeless Order of Manacle and Coin.
• The Creation-Ruling Mandate, a new system for telling large-scale stories of economics, empire, and warfare.

Masters of Jade is available now in PDF and Print formats at DriveThruRPG.com!

Related posts:

1. Exalted’s Return of the Scarlet Empress Now Available!
2. New Exalted Adventure from White Wolf
3. New Dark Tales for Exalted from White Wolf

Available at the RPGNow.com

The Dark Tower CD from Nox Arcana was developed solely by Joseph Vargo as a themed complement to The Dark Tower anthology series. The music composed for this particular collection seems to be more understated than their other offerings. There are two types of experiences I’ve had with Nox Arcana’s music. The first is evident through Blackthorn Asylum, The Necronomicon, Phantom of the High Seas, and the Theatre of Illusion.

After you hear the opening refrain, there’s typically a story threaded throughout the music so it’s often a bad idea to play the CD at random if you want the full experience. I found this was especially true for Grimm Tales, which is one of my favorite Nox Arcana CDs. In these cases, you become a more active (rather than passive) listener because you have to pay attention to not only the notes — but also the order of the arrangements and the story arc, too.

Mood-setting and ambiance is, what I would consider, the second way listeners can dive into this band’s music. I’d put this particular compilation squarely in the mood music camp because I felt Dark Tower was less complex and had less variety than their other CDs. When paired with the fiction and Vargo’s signature art style, Dark Tower is the perfect accompaniment to help readers embrace a Gothic horror mood while focusing on a story. On its own, I felt this would be a good introduction to Nox Arcana’s overall style, but may not necessarily stand out as much as their previous offerings that demand a listener’s full attention.

If you’re searching for dark and delectable music to play in the background, then Dark Tower is a good CD to help you do just that.

Review by Monica Valentinelli

Related posts:

1. Blackthorn Asylum CD Review
2. Shadow of the Raven Nox Arcana Music Review
3. Vampyre: Dark Genesis RPG Review

The design essay series continues with Matthew McFarland telling us about Dust to Dust, a new story supplement for Vampire: the Masquerade from White Wolf. Dust to Dust is a story supplement using the Storytelling Adventure System designed for use with Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition, and it acts as a spiritual successor to the classic story Ashes to Ashes.

Dust to Dust: Dirty Secrets

Probably more dramatic than absolutely necessary, but hey. You’re reading it now.

Dust to Dust wasn’t the hardest scenario I’ve ever had to write (that’d be “To Grandmother’s House” for Nights of Prophecy), but it certainly presented some strange challenges. The biggest and most obvious one, of course, was that I hadn’t touched Vampire: The Masquerade since 2004 or so (probably longer, since I think the last Masquerade material I wrote was for the Vampire Players Guide (well, other than the Vampire Translation Guide). The differences between Masquerade and Requiem are real (though much subtler than, say, the differences between the versions of Werewolf or Changeling) and I’d been working with Requiem and the rest of the new World of Darkness for six years. Getting myself back into an old — sorry, “classic” — World of Darkness headspace was harder than I expected.

And, to be honest, I resented that I had to do it at all.

When the 20th Anniversary Edition of Vampire was announced, I was thrilled. Not because I wanted to run right out and scoop up a copy — I didn’t have any plans to run Masquerade or any classic World of Darkness game. But I thought it was a cool idea, a great way to mark how far White Wolf had come and rekindle some of the fire that fans felt for such an influential game. Hearing about the Onyx Path, though, kind of annoyed me. I was afraid that White Wolf was backpedaling, like maybe the occasional Internet chatter (“NWoD sucks! OWoD is better! NWoD doesn’t sell — I was totally in my FLGS the other day and there were NO NWOD books at all! I talk mostly in letters!”) was getting to them. And honestly, too much blood, sweat and tears went into the new World of Darkness, in my opinion, for White Wolf to just give up.

But then I had a conversation with Eddy Webb at Origins (I think — maybe GenCon?) that set me straight. Eddy said that, in analyzing the sales, Requiem and Masquerade were selling about equally well. There was a fanbase for both games. They didn’t have compete.

We didn’t have to choose.

I often tell my daughter, “if someone offers you a choice of two things that you like, the correct answer is both.” Vampire just nicely underlined that.

So once I kind of got over myself, working Dust to Dust was a lot easier. At that point, all I had to do was write a Vampire scenario based on a 20-year-old supplement using mechanics, tone and metaplot with which I was largely unfamiliar. As they say on the Internet, facepalm. Dave Martin and the Wrecking Crew were nice enough to give me an outline to work from. The outline was pretty basic; it just suggested keeping Juggler and Modius (and Allicia, whom I wound up cutting), using Sullivan Dane as an antagonist, and raised the possibility of the “jar of ashes that turns out to be an elder Samedi” as a Macguffin, which I thought was just too cool to ignore.

I was thrilled to see Dane mentioned. I love Sullivan Dane. I used him in a lot of my old World of Darkness games, though I don’t remember him ever actually fighting characters, even in Vampire games. He was one of the first in a long series of Storyteller characters who were nominally antagonistic, but were too well-realized and useful to just kill (plus, my players really enjoyed the accent I used when playing him). He shows up in the very first thing I ever wrote for White Wolf (Giovanni Chronicles IV: Nuovo Malattia), just for a cameo, and I knew I wanted him in Dust to Dust in the same capacity I’d always used him: the unspoken threat. The guy had True Faith 8 in his original presentation, for crying out loud, if he wants a vampire dead, it’s dead. Even with the Faith rules cleaned up a bit for V20, Dane is a badass. The suggestion in the outline was for him to become blood-addicted, but that didn’t make any sense (again, True Faith). If Dane had fallen far enough to become a ghoul, the story would have to be about him to make any sense, and I didn’t want to do that.

So at that point I knew I wanted to use Dane, that I really liked the notion of a dormant elder Samedi in ash form, and that I had to make some kind of use of Gary’s political structure as presented in Vampire: The Masquerade and Ashes to Ashes. This isn’t an easy starting point. Political scenarios are hard to write, because they’re boring to read. Heck, opinion is sorely divided, in my experience, as to whether they’re any fun to play (my own opinion is yes, they can be fun to play if you have a group of players that favors dialog and improvises well, but if your players would rather go see supernatural craziness or have bloody brawls in alleys, politics is a poor substitute). And the other problem with political Vampire scenarios is that they’re slow. I needed a sense of immediacy.

From that need was born the theme that Gary is dying, and the characters aren’t fighting over a vibrant city so much as trying to use every part of the beast, so to speak. I tried to think like a vampire — vampires don’t care whether the city thrives, but they do want people to be in the city, so how to get them there? By increasing traffic, and then feeding off that traffic. The actual residents of the city are incidental.

That conflict let me rope in Modius and Juggler, but I needed, I felt, a good way to bring in my dusty old elder Samedi. Plus I wanted something more overtly supernatural. The notion of a city dying made me think of the idea that cities have souls and identities (very true in the World of Darkness, which is kind of animistic), and so if a city has a soul, it can have a ghost and thus be affected by necromancy, right? I have a soft spot for the Giovanni. I ran the first Giovanni Chronicles for my friends when I was in college, and it was a really awesome experience. I know the clan has some wonkiness about it (really, what in Masquerade doesn’t?), but the fusion of the Mafia and necromancy always seemed really cool. So I fused it with a slick, Los Angeles movie producer would be a good front for a Giovanni. I had her working on a zombie movie, complete with a zombie walk, because I wanted to highlight what vampires have become in the 20 years since Masquerade. Interesting, they’ve become something that the Camarilla might like — they’re sympathetic, non-threatening romantic figures. Sure, we get some threatening or dangerous bloodsuckers here and there (Colin Farrell in the recent remake of Fright Night, I thought, was pretty damned creepy, and though I haven’t watched much True Blood, I think there’s some good inspiration there), but for the most part, mention “vampire” to people nowadays and one of the first things that comes to mind is “sparkle.”

So maybe vampires aren’t relevant anymore? Maybe, as a monster, they’ve been usurped by their dumber, lurching cousins, the zombies? I didn’t want to make it an overt theme of Dust to Dust, but I did want the hint there that, perhaps, it’s time for the vampires to pass the torch. (Do note, though, that the scene following the zombie walk is Jean Lisle bursting out of his prison and killing everyone in the area, which I think is my answer to the question of whether vampires aren’t relevant anymore.)

I recognize that Dust to Dust is busy. Going through it again now, I’m thinking maybe I put a bit too much in the stew. But honestly, that was deliberate — Dust to Dust was meant to be, as the outline from the Wrecking Crew said, a sandbox. A troupe isn’t going to get through it in one session, not if they want to experience everything in it (this is why, when run at the Grand Masquerade, certain elements tended to get excised — I think Dane, sadly, was one of them). I’m happy with the way it turned out, though. As I was writing it, I found my mind separating Requiem (which I’d been running for several months at that point) and Masquerade, and thinking back to the games of Masquerade I ran before the end of the original World of Darkness. I think Dust to Dust is pretty representative of Masquerade rather than Requiem, and that, I think, was really the biggest challenge of the assignment.

Matthew McFarland – 2012

Dust to Dust is available now in PDF and Print editions at the Flames Rising Shop.

Related posts:

1. Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition
2. Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead Review
3. Another One Bites the Dust Review

Available at RPGNow.com

Mistborn Adventure Game: Sample Heroes

Whether you are looking for inspiration, want a few well-detailed NPCs to act as associates or rivals, or need a character (or whole party) in a hurry, this product will fill your purposes admirably.

Herein are eight fully-developed characters, set up as an integrated crew. Each one gets a couple of pages – one a filled-out character sheets with all the necessary game stats, and the other a write-up of the character’s background, including a brief history, notes on personality and motivations and even what he thinks about the other members of the group. There is also a sketch of the character to enable you to visualise him.

A fairly shady group they are, too. The leader is one Beck, a fixer – the sort of fellow who can get you whatever you want, no questions asked, provided you are willing to pay his price. The others are the crew who procure the whatever it is… a crew called Nine Eyes. Most people will find a character they’d like to play, if you are using them as your ready-made party. A wandering scholar, an urbane steward (or is he?), a kandra longing to return to her Homeland but honour-bound by her contract, a fugitive Mistborn noble lass, a Skaa con-woman who insinuates herself into noble society, a thief who is rarely as drunk as he appears to be, and a watchful bodyguard who burns with barely-controlled rage.

Between them, they form a group that is more than its individual members. They’d certainly make a good starting group (especially if you want to dive straight in to the game), else they may be exemplars of how you might create your own crew, or a rival crew to pit against your own players…

Mistborn Adventure Game Novel Characters: Vin and Sazed

Continuing the series of free ‘tasters’ for the Mistborn Adventure Game, here are two major characters from the novels on which the game is based, completely written up with game statistics and background details. Risky, as lovers of the stories likely have their own ideas – but for the enterprising GM who would like some of the characters from the novels featuring in their game, very useful. Anyone who has not read the novels yet should avoid this, thought, there are major plot ‘spoilers’ in the background text.

The first character portrayed is Vin. Her powers are at their height, with many of her defining exploits now in her past. After a full-page portrait, the first part of the write-up details her past up to the point chosen for the exemplar character. Next come her full game statistics, then a section on ‘Playing Vin’ which will help any GM to make her come to life as a powerful, potentially deadly, NPC – even as an ally, characters are advised to be careful, and she could make a formidable foe if they were to get on her wrong side… and rather helpfully, there are sections on how she’d behave as ally or enemy to make things easy for you. And there’s more… this is followed by notes and stats if you’d prefer to use her earlier in the story, as a young and inexperienced member of a crew, with little to hint of what she will become… could be interesting, and a route for drawing your own characters into pivotal events later on, when that unassuming Skaa girl they knew on the streets blossoms into her power!

The other character featured here is Sazed. Again, the main write-up is at the same time in the plotline as Vin’s, when he was an advisor and friend to her. The background explains how he got to that stage, while the notes on playing him bring out his tendency to be a voice of reason, a source of quiet and thoughtful advice. It’s quite hard to make an enemy of him. The second build depicts him earlier in life, when he was going through an interesting time.

If you intend on weaving the novels’ plotline through your game, rather than just using the setting to tell your own stories, these could be useful NPCs. Even if not, characters who become themselves pivotal figures might meet them, or they can serve for ideas about how really powerful characters might develop. Plenty of scope here!

The Mistborn Adventure Game is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

Review by Megan Robertson

Related posts:

1. Epic Role Playing Game Manual Review
2. Interview with Game Designer Brett M. Bernstein

Available at Amazon.com

Title: The Hammer Vault
Author: Marcus Hearn
Publisher: Titan Books
Release Date: 2011
Pages: 176
Price: $34.95

This remarkable journey through the Hammer vault includes props, annotated script pages, unused poster artwork, production designs, rare promotional material and private correspondence. Hundreds of rare and previously unseen stills help to create a rich souvenir of Hammer’s legacy, from the X certificate classics of the 1950s to the studio’s latest productions.

Written and compiled by the official Hammer Films historian Marcus Hearn, and featuring exclusive contributions from the actors and filmmakers associated with the company, this is the most lavish book ever published on the legendary House of Horror.

Dying Breath: 4.5 out of 5
I have to be honest and admit I am not a big horror movie buff. I grew up watching some great films in the 80?s and 90?s, but not the Hammer movies. So when I was presented with this amazing book to review I was looking for 2 things, history and a list of what movies were Hammer Horror. This book delivered on the list front, and man did it deliver. Out of the 176 pages over 160 of them are dedicated to the films. I will get to the page design in a second, but basically this book is a timeline from start to finish, giving some information on the movies and showing off some of the great press material that was put out. So in terms of history you don’t get too much, but you do get enough to be content with. It’s like a tease that will lead you to want to know more and more. The design of this book is GORE-Geous. As a Graphic Designer, I can spot a great layout and the way these spreads are put together is a work of art. I found myself spending so much time just taking in all the material presented. From the posters, to the press books, to the on-set photographs this was just a great collection of items. I know that any Hammer Horror or even Horror Movie buff will need to have this as a part of their collection, and I am happy to say it is now a part of mine. This book presents a visual history of the Hammer Franchise that will now be preserved forever. Now if you will excuse me I need to go watch about 100 different movies.

Layout: 4.5 out of 5
Story: 4.0 out of 5

If you would like to buy or know more about The Hammer Vault you can find it at Amazon.com.

Review by Dan Royer

Related posts:

1. 2001 Maniacs Film Review

Imagine: A fantasy world, but not one based on Medieval/Dark Ages European culture and myth, but rather on the tropes of the Spaghetti Western and Chinese Wuxia. Add steampunk elements. Mix well.

A fantasy world that mixes the inspirations of Django and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon… The Good, The Bad & The Ugly and House of Flying Daggers… Fistful of Dollars and Fist of Legend.

A fantasy world that’s explored through a book series, a constantly-updated website, a tabletop role-playing game, comics, artwork, webseries and much, much, more.

This is FAR WEST.

Tales of the Far West is the first book in Adamant Entertainment’s Wuxia-Western mash-up, featuring a dozen all-new tales written by critically-acclaimed and award-winning fantasy, science-fiction, horror and adventure authors, including:

“He Built The Wall To Knock It Down” by Scott Lynch: A master teaches an unforgettable lesson in the pursuit of excellence in all things.

“In Stillness, Music” by Aaron Rosenberg: A wandering musician is all that stands between a village and a cattle baron.

“Riding The Thunderbird” by Chuck Wendig: A herd of giant, flightless birds, a young girl, and a sudden lesson.

“Purity of Purpose” by Gareth-Michael Skarka: Who seeks the secret of the Unsurpassed Weapons?

“Paper Lotus” by Tessa Gratton: A strange girl tasks a wounded man to deliver a crucial message.

“In the Name of the Empire” by Eddy Webb: A sheriff is charged with the murder of an Imperial Magistrate.

“Errant Eagles” by Will Hindmarch: A gunslinger faces the consequences of his past.

“Railroad Spikes” by Ari Marmell: A bandit finds that he’s robbed the wrong train.

“The Fury Pact” by Matt Forbeck: An inventor’s son faces the responsibility of his name.

“Seven Holes” by T.S. Luikart: An apprentice learns the true nature of demons.

“Local Legend” by Jason L. Blair: Red Phoenix was dead, and the bounty hunter tells the tale.

“Crippled Avengers” by Dave Gross: A band of fighters seek to take revenge on the steam baron who crippled them.

Tales of the Far West is available now in eBook format(s) at DriveThruFiction.com! For one low price you get the ePub, Mobi/Kindle and PDF formats of this awesome collection!

Related posts:

1. Chilling Tales Anthology Review
2. Pathfinder Tales: Prince of Wolves Review
3. Grimm Fairy Tales Graphic Novel Review

Ilona Andrews is probably best known for her Kate Daniels series, but she is also (along with husband and co-author Gordon) the author of a paranormal romance series about life on “the Edge,” a borderland between a world full of magic (the Weird) and our mundane reality (the Broken). (It should be noted that while I’m classifying the books as paranormal romance, due to the structure of each novel — the books each feature the love story of a couple who end up in a happily ever after at the conclusion — other reviewers have considered them “rustic fantasy” or “unclassifiable.” Thus, your mileage may vary.)

Edgers are a unique bunch, full of enough magic that they can pass between parallel worlds — usually. Some have too much magic to survive crossing into the Broken. Others don’t have enough magic to survive crossing into the Weird. Thus, the Edge is full of exiles, con artists, criminals, and people who are generally down on their luck. Those misfits make for compelling heroes, and with book three, the series has just started to hit its stride into an overarching plot, giving it a great potential to draw readers from beyond the paranormal romance readership.

On the Edge

When Rose graduated from high school, she made a mistake: at the party for all the Edger seniors graduating from Broken high school, Rose showed off the full extent of her magical talent. She flashed white — which means that she showed her magic was just as strong and skilled as the “bluebloods,” the nobles of the Weird. This made her a prize not only in the Edge, but also for prospective suitors (read: breeders) in the neighboring Weird. After attempts to kidnap and coerce her, Rose has given up on trusting anyone, and is focused on providing a home for her two younger brothers, George and Jack, with what little money she makes in the Broken. When Declan, a blueblood from the Weird, shows up on her door step, she thinks he’s just another source of trouble.

In fact, Declan and trouble show up in the Edge at the same time, but the real danger isn’t a blueblood interested in winning Rose’s hand, it’s a pack of evil, magic-eating hounds raised by a powerful magical artifact that has fallen into the wrong hands. Keeping her friends and family safe will take all of Rose’s magical talent — and will require her to put a little bit of faith in the mysterious blueblood. Unlike most paranormal romances, On the Edge never reveals Declan’s perspective, so while it’s no surprise that he’s the hero, his motivation is kept delightfully secret. The characters are fun, and Rose’s brothers feel like real children plagued by magical problems. The novel is a fun entry into a cool new world.

Bayou Moon

The second book in the series stars William, a changeling who shape shifts into a wolf, who was a pivotal secondary character in On the Edge. Raised in an orphanage and then a military boarding school that trained him to be a killer, William doesn’t believe he’ll ever be the type of man to have a family. He certainly doesn’t expect to get involved in a romance while he’s on a secret mission for the Mirror, the spies who work for the Weird kingdom of Adrianglia. Having been burned by the Adrianglian government once before, William isn’t eager to get involved, but the Mirror gives him the opportunity to hunt down a changeling butcher from the Dukedom of Louisiana, a monster named Spider who has literally traded his humanity for monstrous abilities. While William was in the Adrianglian military, he fought Spider twice before, failing to kill him both times, but surviving their encounters — a feat no other soldier or agent has matched.

The mission leads him to Cerise Mar, whose parents have been kidnapped by Spider and the Hand, the Dukedom of Louisiana’s secret service. Cerise and her family are fighters, descendants of exiles from the Dukedom of Louisiana and native magic users of the Mire, a swamp region where only the toughest can survive. Cerise practices an old form of swordplay — bending her flash around her sword blade to make it sharp enough to cut through any man or monster — that makes her almost as deadly as William.

The narrative switches perspectives to include both hero and heroine as they try to figure each other out — the more traditional paranormal romance style — but remains adventure (and horror) heavy for the genre. Spider and his minions are all modified by magic — some of them have tentacles, others have gills, and all of them are twisted beyond humanity into nightmarish creatures. But with heroes who are deadly — and who don’t mind killing when it’s called for — it’s good to have villains that are so utterly in need of killing.

Fate’s Edge

Book three ties together the first two novels by bringing Jack and George — now twelve and fourteen — back as major characters, while continuing the plot where Bayou Moon left off. The Hand and the Mirror remain engaged in their cold war, and the theft of an artifact from a neighboring nation sends both organizations scurrying to recover it. Kaldar, Cerise’s cousin and a scoundrel, is the Mirror agent sent to make sure it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. When he finds the thief, Audrey, he discovers that not only is she amazingly gifted as a lockpick, but she’s completely uninterested in a life of crime and is determined to go straight with a job in the Broken. The theft of the artifact was her last job — one she did only to keep her father and brother out of trouble. Because she refused to take part in the hand off after the job was finished, Audrey had no idea of the object’s power, or that so many governments would want it back. If the Hand were to get the artifact, all of the Edge would be in danger, and Audrey’s guilt over her part in the theft makes her agree to join Kaldar in getting it back. Stowaways Jack and George also make their first attempts as agents for the Mirror, making the romance novel into a spy thriller and a coming of age story wrapped into one.

The stakes rise throughout the novel, pointing to coming war between Adrianglia and the Dukedom of Louisiana. With two years of time passing in the world between each book, it won’t take long until the two scene-stealing kids of On the Edge grow up enough for their own adventures. In the meantime, it will be a long wait for book four — especially since the release date has yet to be announced!

Review by Alana Abbott

Related posts:

1. Flash Fire Mini-Reviews! (Second Attempt)

After a year of intensive development, the small indie team of Red Wasp Design have announced that their anticipated title, Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land has launched on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The game is a turn-based strategy RPG inspired by the works of cult horror writer H.P. Lovecraft and developed in co-operation with Chaosium, the publishers of the cult horror role playing game, Call of Cthulhu.

The game is now out on iTunes and is a universal iOS app so the same game works for iPhone and iPod Touch both SD & HD and for iPad, and carries graphics optimised for each of those platforms. It is priced $4.99, £2.99 & €3.99 for the full universal app. The game’s designer, Tomas Rawlings said, “We’ve put a vast amount of our time, energy and ideas into this game over the last year. It’s been a long journey for us because we want to get it right. We’re not a huge studio, but I hope that fellow gamers will appreciate what we’ve achieved with The Wasted Land.”

The game features nine 3D levels set in the trenches of World War One. The player controls a team of up to six investigators charged with uncovering a deadly inhuman conspiracy underlying the clash of empires of the Great War. Barbed wire, mustard gas and machines guns will prove to be the least dangerous thing that the investigators will encounter as they venture out into no-man’s land to solve the mystery of the Wasted Land. As the game progresses, the player can build up the skills, weapons and equipment of the team to suit their playing style. As well as the physical danger, the investigators must guard their sanity against the myriad horrors that threaten to destroy it.

To stay in touch with the developers and get updates on the game, help and strategy guides and more you may want to connect to Red Wasp Design on Facebook, Twitter (@redwaspdesign) and on their site at redwaspdesign.com.

Related posts:

1. Designing Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land
2. Call of Cthulhu Spawns on Mobile
3. [Call of Cthulhu] Snows of an Early Winter is available now!

Available at Amazon.com

Issue: One Model Nation OGN
Writer: Courtney Taylor-Taylor
Artist: Jim Rugg
Publisher: Titan Books
Release Date: Jan 2012
Pages: 160
Price: $24.95

“From US rock band The Dandy Warhols’ frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor comes an original graphic novel illustrated by indie super star Jim Rugg. A work of historical fiction set in Germany in 1977, it follows four young men who were to become the voice of their generation. This is the epic journey of art noise band One Model Nation, the final dark days of the Baader-Meinhof Gang, and the band’s mysterious disappearance only months later. Features a host of bonus extras: sketches, director’s commentary, deleted scenes and more.”

Dying Breath: 4.5 out of 5
If you want to talk about removing oneself from their comfort zone, than you can look no further than me taking a look at One Model Nation. Typically, I review horror books, this is not one of them. I am a Metal Head, this book is not about that genre of music. So why on Earth would I even take a peak at
this new OGN book from Titan Books and love it like I did?

Easiest way to start is to admit, I am not a big fan of the character designs here. While the style did not appeal to me personally, it did do something very right, which was fit the tone of the book. Rugg’s artwork does more than set the scenes, it captures a tone that I can only compare to something you would get from a movie soundtrack. High moments are depicted in colors to reflect the scene, while the down moments hit lower tones on the color scale. Visually this book is on point from start to finish.

The story though is the real winner. The sense of history, even though the band is fictional, places the reader (in this case an American reader) into a world that they might not be familiar with. I don’t know much about the music scene in Germany, but after reading this I get a feeling of what it might have been like. Taylor-Taylor crafts some fantastic dialogue that moves the story forward as it covers music and politics at a time where a movement was needed.

The more I find myself recalling this book, the more I see it playing out as a movie. I can’t say who this book would directly appeal to, but I think that anyone with any kind of interest in music and comics should check this one out. I am so happy I was given the opportunity to read this, because it has broadened my love for the music culture and how it has progressed to what we have today. An amazing read!

Artwork: 4.0 out of 5
Story: 4.5 out of 5

If you would like to buy or know more about One Model Nation OGN you can find it at Amazon.com.

Review by Dan Royer

No related posts.

Available at Amazon.com

Story: A teenage girl, Tory Brennan (related to the famous –or infamous—Temperance Brennan of BONES) becomes curious about a mysterious disappearance that happened well before her time. With several of her friends (Sheldon, Ben and Hi) they all begin to search for clues. To complicate matters, the kids hang out on an island that is home to numerous scientific experiments. Before long, they stumble upon more than they expect. Due to a series of events related and unrelated to their investigations, they become infected with an experimental virus that transforms them into werewolves – of a sort. Now, instead of being just friends they are a pack, bound to each other through good and bad. There’s a good mix of the scientific and the supernatural in this novel.

Characters: Unlike the female leads in some YA books, Tory Brennan is a strong, intelligent girl that doesn’t let her emotions get in the way of discovering the truth. Her friends are all boys, but that doesn’t stop her from being herself. As for the rest of her crew, (Sheldon, Ben and Hi), they are equally interesting characters and it’s entertaining to read along with their adventures.

Overall: While the story itself was pretty good – who doesn’t like an underdog, heh, heh – I will say that I wasn’t too fond of the ending. It was pretty predictable and somewhat disappointing in that. But then, it’s YA, written for a tween/teen audience, so I guess a little predictability is to be expected. Also, the point of this novel is to establish characters and a situation that will play into other stories later, so again the weak wrapping-up of the ending can probably excused.

I would recommend it for anyone interested in YA, especially teens.

Review by Nancy Greene

Related posts:

1. Strange Angels Fiction Review
2. The Summoning Fiction Review
3. Midnight Alley Fiction Review

Who willingly walks into a haunted house?

Our readers do!

Since we launched Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror in October we’ve received some excellent reviews and recently we won an award for the anthology. Here is a quick recap of some of the comments we’ve had from readers:

Dave at Hellnotes.com says:

Ghost hunting isn’t something that most people think of as a career, but there are people out there who solicit these types of services legitimately. They’re not just the stuff of horror fiction and films any longer, as attested by ghost hunter Jaeson K. Jrakman in his introduction. Daniel Defoe even wrote a book on the subject called The Secrets of the Invisible World Disclos’d in 1735. Still, whether the stories are true or made up, they make for great entertainment, and Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror is no exception.

Joe at Wickedlilpixie.com says:

With the sheer number of ghost hunting shows that are littering the television landscape these days, not to mention in the movies, its nearly impossible for this book not to exist. It was only a matter of time. That being said, there is no doubt a need for a book like this in the market. While not a die hard Ghostbuster myself, the genre is part of my chosen areas of speciality. Also, as it was produced by a local small publisher and had several of my favorite authors – several of which were local – the choice for me to pick it up was an easy one.

Hunter from Ravenousmonster.com writes:

I think ghost stories are the hardest kind of horror to write. I love body horror, but it’s easier; a disease that causes you to sprout hands in random places, a woman with shark heads instead of breasts. . . .Sure it’s creepy, but there’s something a little Mr. Potato Head about it: stick enough body parts where they don’t belong and you’ve got instant scariness. A really good ghost story requires patience, atmosphere, and most of all pacing. The best ghost stories infuse mundane imagery with terrifying implication. The mundane trappings have changed–EVP and Polaroids replaced spirit writing and séances–but the would-be ghost story writer still has to take an old house or graveyard or ship and a dead guy who won’t suck your blood or eat your brains and imbue them with netherworldly horror.

Brian posted his review on DriveThruFiction.com and says:

“Haunted”, the debut anthology of FR Press, delivers an excellently paced collection of mysterious and terrifying tales. The collection focuses on stories about hauntings and the ghost hunters that investigate them. All eleven stories in “Haunted” possess their own merits, and are distinct enough that the anthology avoids the pitfall of having eleven different stories trying to do the same thing.

Typically I am not a fan of anthologies. Usually when I set aside time to read I want to be able to delve into a novel and lose myself for a few hours. The constant shifting of gears and restarting that occurs as you move from story to story in an anthology always makes me feel tossed about. “Haunted” however, has avoided (or the very least minimized) this problem for me. The eleven stories in the collection are laid out in such a way that it feels like you are traveling through an entire pot arc, not just eleven short, disparate plots.

Gerard over at Goodreads.com has a review that says:

Given that I have spent the last two years gorging on post apocalyptic books I thought it was time for a break and so I chose to read Haunted: 11 tales, these tales all infer a connection to Ghost Hunting. Many of us have seen this on TV and normally revolve around a few guys with tattoos jumping at the sign of moth; I was interested to see what writers would do with the genre. I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised; this is a great anthology by a group of writers which were largely unknown to me before and I will certainly be buying books from some of the contributors. The whole anthology flows really well with no real repetition.

We also just found out that Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror won the Best Anthology category in the Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll. The P&E Readers’ Poll is an annual event hosted by the Critters Writers Workshop where readers and fans can vote on their favorite books, authors and publishers. Thanks to our readers we took the top spot in this year’s event and we’re honored that so many would vote for our little collection of horror.

Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror is available in eBook (PDF, ePub and Mobi/Kindle) and Print formats at DriveThruFiction.com. It is also available at the B&N Nook Store.

Related posts:

1. Haunted: Black Friday Special Offer!
2. Announcing Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror
3. Wisconsin Road Guide to Haunted Locations Review

In the near future, on the western coast city of New Metropolis, an evil that has lain dormant for centuries is about to be awakened to the 21st century. Forces of darkness and magic strive to unleash a horror upon the Earth unlike any mankind can remember. The only forces capable of stopping it are rendered impotent by an age-old fear and hatred. Will humanity set aside their differences and stand as one against the darkness? Or will this be humanity’s Final Twilight?

Trinity, the first series, follows a trio of souls whose fates are intertwined. Mark Jarus, the last classically trained mage, fights the good fight as a vigilante in city overrun by crime! Kerra Neil, a young woman and skilled hunter stalking the shadows for murderers and magic-using blights upon humanity! And the enigmatic Charles Faust, whose cool and calm demeanor belie a centuries old heart of darkness and unnatural lust for power!

Final Twilight is an urban-fantasy expandable card game. In it, players take on the role of characters, modern knights and mages, dueling in the shadows, carrying on a war that has lasted for centuries! Players construct their own decks with characters from the setting, each with their own skills, powers, and tactics, in a wide assortment of cards, competing to take back the night or to claim it for themselves!

Final Twilight is NOT a Collectable Card Game! Each series allows players to select just what they want and not buy another thing! Trinity opens with a 2-player starter kit and from there players can purchase Expansion Packs, containing four copies, the playable limit, of an array of cards suited to that theme. Build any deck you can imagine quickly and easily from your own collection or share your collection and duel with friends!

Game Play

Players construct decks around the major characters featured in Final Twilight’s storylines. These characters determine the powers, abilities, and cards the player can utilize. Game play takes place within the city of New Metropolis with a series of Location cards, set up at the start of the game as a game board. Cards are played at a given Location as both players navigate the city in search of their opponent for a final showdown.

Cards are played using a pair of resources: Money, for “real world” allies, effects, and abilities; and Moren, a mage’s life force, for special powers, supernatural creatures and effects, and more. Players start with a base amount and grow and weaken as they play cards and abilities and win and lose in combat.

Combat is performed with a die roll. Modifiers from weapons, armors, ancient devices, and more influence the outcome. Each player tallies their totals and compares results; the winner is the one who deals damage, not just an “attacker”, making combat risky and uncertain and giving even “weak” characters a fighting chance.

The winner is the last player left standing: players who run out of Moren (life) lose, as do players who exhaust their deck of cards. Additional play-modes allow groups of four to play teams or even allows one player to go solo against an opposing character!

Download an Introduction at RPGNow.com!

Find out more about Final Twilight at Kickstarter.com:

Related posts:

1. Shroud of the Ancients RPG Kickstarter
2. Fantasist Enterprises launches Kickstarter Campaign for Fantastical Visions V
3. The Final Kill

Available at RPGNow.com

As we have come to expect, a wealth of resources for fantasy games – what with archers (and arrows for them) heading up the character-based resources for players, adventures for GMs to run and ideas to help them hone their skills. The focus is on Pathfinder, but there is material for other rulesets (and much can be translated with little effort, provided you are reasonably familiar with the game mechanics of the system of your choice).

The Editorial introduces the issue focus on archery, with an account of how fictional archers inspired the editor, Wolfgang Baur, not only to play archer characters but to learn how to use a bow himself. He asks for our archery stories… um, well, I used to have a line manager who practised archery and occasionally threatened to shoot the site manager and told me that he reckoned he could hit him out of his office window… hmm, let’s get on with the review!

For those seeking to play really good archers, the best place to start is an elf. Archery kind of goes with elves, and so there’s a whole new racial base class, the Elven Archer, for Pathfinder. Suggestions are offered for ways in which the class could be varied: perhaps you don’t want pointy ears, or prefer to use the crossbow – the underlying mechanics can be readily amended (and you are shown how) to make the class work as well for your concept as for the original suggestion. There are also notes to help you embed your elven archer into Open Design’s Midguard campaign setting, even if your game is not set there the ideas can be modified to suit your campain world instead. If the new feats are not enough, the next article Arrows of the Arbonesse adds a wide range of arrows beyond your standard clothyard arrow with bodkin tip. Fill your quiver with the glass-tipped and magical acid splash arrow, fire a fisher’s filament arrow over the next battlement you wish to scale or play really nasty with the razor’s filament arrow or the silent night one (that flies so quietly it is hard to notice the archer who fired it). These and others enable the archer to do more than just shoot the opposition or bring down a deer for dinner.

If your characters prefer a more scholarly approach, the next article on Derro Ooze Magic is aimed at alchemists and mages seeking to improve their spell components by somewhat dubious means… the Ooze School of magic, complete with its associated powers and spell lists. But you may need to ‘harvest’ eyes or bile or other body parts from halpless humanoids to get it all to work properly. Sorcerers can take an Ooze Bloodline to access the same powers. If you have faced off against an ooze or similar and been jealous of their capabilities, fret no longer. You too may have them… and specialists in this magic may even attract one to become their familiar! I think I’ll stick to my owl, but it could be an interesting choice… just imagine having a gelatinous cube or an ochre jelly trundling alongside you.

If that’s too tame, the next article – Servants From Beyond – suggests some very unusual allies you might care to summon from the Lesser Planes, showing how you can engage with them to good effect. Each one is presented in full detail, not just stat-block but background, personality and motivations so that they can be role-played properly once summoned. Astute GMs can mine this for ideas for featured adversaries or at least beings that might be encountered, or they can go to the next article, which presents four creatures from nightmare, the Night Terrors of the changling moth chrysalis, the dire naked mole rat (escaped from Ron Possible’s pocket, no doubt!), the cephalic parasite, and the pishtaco – four monsters right out of the worst nightmare brought to life for your campaign, complete with ecology, life-cyle and a wealth of detail to enable you to make them an integral part of events, rather than just the next monster.

On to game theory, as Monte Cook talks about The Power of the Game Master. It’s something I’ve noticed, particularly as most of my games are now run online with people I don’t know outside of the gaming community on whatever site we are playing, how they regard their GM as someone special, rather than just another gamer who happens to be running the game rather than playing in it. This may be commonplace in groups where one person habitually GMs, but my local tabletop groups all consist of people who are equally happy either side of the GM screen. Is the GM God? Just another player but with a different role? Or is the GM God but only as long as the other players let him? Thought-provoking, and no real answer, at least not in the right or wrong sense – consider what works for the particular group and that’s the right answer for you.

Now, the first adventure, Captured in the Cartways by Christina Stiles (Pathfinder, 5th-level) based in the tunnels under Zobeck and letting the characters bargain their way out of trouble by undertaking a small task… Naturally, you could transplant it to any city with a sub-surface counter-culture if Zobeck’s not in your game world. A nice short jaunt to spring on characters who thought that merely exploring the Cartways was dangerous enough!

Back to game ideas… and are all adventurers fit young men and women out seeking fame and fortune? Putting the Band Back Together is an intriguing article about what happens when retired adventurers decide, for whatever reason, to get back into action… or have it forced upon them. One interesting thought is that you could dust off old adventures – particularly if you are using a party of characters that have actually been played by the group and since retired – and see how the locations and inhabitants have changed over the 20 years or whatever since the party last was there. Whilst older characters may now be less physically vigorous, they can draw on experience in ways that younger adventurers cannot: and several feats are presented that seek to codify the advantages that veterans have over their younger and more nimble counterparts. More ideas follow – fancy a hunt that takes you through the Margreve woods and beyond? Then read Fey Hunters and Shadow Hounds, finding that just who is the hunter and who the prey may be open to debate. Those fey have plenty nasty ideas and tricks to play, with spells, items and exotic poisons in their arsenal.

There’s a brief article about character specialisations for the AGE system, and an interview with Christina Stiles – fascinating, particularly as I once had the pleasure of co-authoring a book with her but have never actually met her! This is followed most appropriately (Christina and I both love the character class!) by The Bardic Arts, a piece about honing the abilities of your D&D 4e bard with some tangible rule mechanics built around the performer/entertainer aspect of being a bard, often left to the role-playing abilities of a bard’s player (I had a DM who made me sing at the table…) rather than made an integral part of the ruleset itself.

In Ask The Kobold, Skip Williams takes a detailed look at how poison actually works, then there’s a piece Small Spirits: 5 Nature Spirits for Any Campaign, some enchanting primal nature spirits that your characters might encounter if they are really observant. A nice touch is that good ideas are backed up by game mechanics for both Pathfinder and D&D 4e, and adventure hooks abound. If you are a gnome, tiefling or minotaur, there follows some racial powers (D&D 4e stats) that may be discovered by those ready to delve into their ancestral heritage. Next, back to game design theory with an article on how to create ‘time pressure’ in an adventure and use it to good effect with a haste point mechanic that can be applied whatever ruleset you are using. Now it is not pure GM fiat that determines if the characters arrive in time! And if hurrying makes you hungry, how about some magical seafood? No really, there’s an article on Fish of Legend (and yes, you can cook and serve some of them, if you catch them!).

This packed journal rounds off with a page about The Ruins of Arbonesse… and if you are a fantasy gamer, you are going to find at least one thing of interest within this issue. Me, a cheerful song whilst preparing a seafood dinner for a party of veteran adventures I’d like to coax out of retirement…

Review by Megan Robertson

Related posts:

1. The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design Review
2. Kobold Quarterly 16 Review

Figure the English Civil War is all about dashing Cavaliers and dour Roundheads? Think again…

Solaris is proud to announce it has acquired Gideon’s Angel by Clifford Beal, due for publication in 2013, which takes the seemingly familiar history of the mid 17th Century but introduces an infernal plot that makes this much more than just a history lesson!

Described as The Day of the Jackal meets The Devil Rides Out, this swashbuckling historical fantasy set in the aftermath of the terrible English Civil War sees science and alchemy as strange bedfellows with witchcraft and magic.

An epic adventure in the tradition of Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane, it is set in England in 1653. Colonel Richard Treadwell, an exiled Royalist officer in the service of Cardinal Mazarin, returns home in secret from France on a self-appointed mission to assassinate Oliver Cromwell, now king in all but name. He quickly learns however, that his is not the only plot in motion.

A secret army run by a deluded Puritan is bent on the same quest, guided by the Devil’s hand. When demonic entities are summoned, Treadwell finds himself in a desperate turnaround: he must save Cromwell to save England from a literal descent into hell. But can he convince the man sent to forcibly bring him back to the Cardinal? A young king’s musketeer named d’Artagnan.

“Not only is Clifford’s novel a rip-roaring blood and thunder horror fantasy,” said Jon Oliver, editor-in-chief of Solaris, “it is also a brilliant historical thriller. His sense of history and depth of narrative really transports you deep into a post-civil war London. It’s always a real joy to discover an accomplished debut novelist, and I know that Gideon’s Angel is really going to make its mark on the genre.”

About the Author
Originally from Providence, Rhode Island, Clifford Beal is an award-winning journalist and the former Editor of the authoritative London-based international news magazine Jane’s Defence Weekly. He worked as a defence journalist for over 20 years in both the US and the UK before he began writing books.

Beal is the author of Quelch’s Gold, the true story of a little-known but remarkable Anglo-American pirate of the 18th century who was the first man to be tried in a British Admiralty court outside of England (Praeger Books, 2007).

And writing realistic sword fighting scenes in fiction is second nature to Beal. He began medieval style armoured combat at the age of 17 in the US and later, in the mid-1990s, he organised a group of friends to begin the practical study of renaissance rapier and dagger techniques. This became the Sussex Rapier Society and is now the Sussex Sword Academy in Brighton. Gideon’s Angel is his debut novel.

Related posts:

1. Bradley P. Beaulieu on The Winds of Khalakovo Debut

The author behind Abaddon’s fastest-selling title of 2011 is set to return with a follow-up novella and a brand new series.

Abaddon is delighted to announce that Chuck Wendig has signed up to write an ebook sequel to the popular Double Dead, as well as create a brand new series for Abaddon in 2013.

An October 2011 release from Abaddon, Double Dead was Wendig’s first original novel and became the fastest-selling Abaddon title to date, with a particularly strong showing as an ebook.

The freshest take on the undead for years, Double Dead saw the vampire Coburn awaken during the zombie apocalypse, only to realise that if he wants to survive he has to protect his food source from the undead hordes.

Now Wendig is set to return to the world of Coburn later this year with Double Dead: Bad Blood, an ebook-only novella sequel. It will be released on May 14th on all e-platforms.

Wendig is also working on an exciting new urban fantasy series for Abaddon Books, bringing gods and monsters onto the city streets in a thrilling new-take on classic genre tropes. The first in this new series is due for release in 2013.

With his prominent online presence, including his popular blog TerribleMinds.com on which he is not afraid to give his opinions on the process of writing and the industry at large.

“It’s wonderful to be welcoming Chuck back to the Abaddon team,” said Jon Oliver, editor-in-chief of Abaddon Books. “He’s certainly one of the most exciting new writers around and Chuck is going to build on the success of Double Dead while bringing a brand new series to Abaddon.”

“The vampire Coburn kicked his way out of my skull and onto the pages of Double Dead,” said Wendig, “so it’s great to be revisiting that cantankerous old bloodsucker. And I’m utterly geeked to be working with Abaddon to help birth this brand new series of gods and monsters.”

Related posts:

1. Preview of Chuck Wendig’s Double Dead

Available at Amazon.com

Gwen Frost is back at Mythos Academy, and she’s got a new attitude. In Touch of Frost (reviewed here), Gwen was a poor little Gypsy girl, stuck out of place at an academy full of warrior kids and wishing for her old life. While Gwen is still no warrior — and still wishes that her mother’s death had never happened — she’s got a new mission: get awesome, fast, so she can live up to the expectations of Nike, her patron goddess. At the end of the first book, Gwen was chosen to be Nike’s champion, and she has no intentions of failing.

Unfortunately, someone is trying to kill her.

Unwilling to run to the authorities for help, Gwen plans to solve the mystery of the person attacking her on her own. In order to keep herself relatively safe — and to keep tabs on her suspects — she has to go on the school winter holiday to a ski resort, which she’d previously been hoping to avoid at all costs. Valkyrie BFF Daphne is thrilled that Gwen is coming, and assures her that the trip will be just the thing she needs to get over the broody Spartan, Logan, who professed feelings for Gwen but insists on tongue wrestling with another girl. And, in fact, Gwen meets a cute guy on the trip, but he disappears any time he might be spotted with her. Something fishy is happening, and it’s up to Gwen to get to the bottom of it — and maybe find some new allies in the process.

In Touch of Frost, Jennifer Estep created a fun new world that mixes world mythologies in a delightful mashup, with Loki and his Reapers of Chaos as the ultimate villains. In Kiss of Frost, Estep raises the stakes: Gwen is more involved in the world now, and more willing to accept that this life-or-death situation is her new reality. For better or for worse, Gwen Frost is a part of something bigger than herself — and Estep does a great job of making that both a moral decision and a personal one. But although the main movement of the story is mythical, Gwen’s concerns are grounded in a teen reality: she feels like the third wheel when she hangs out with her friends; the boy she has a tremendous crush on doesn’t seem to want her that way; and her desire to put her nose into other people’s secrets always causes her more trouble than she wants. In Gwen’s case, that last normal problem is enhanced by her gift of psychometry — the ability to see memories held in an object — and it’s that gift that gets her off to a very dangerous start in Kiss of Frost.

One of the best parts of Kiss of Frost has less to do with Gwen’s personal tale and more to do with free will and fate. In one of Gwen’s classes, there is a discussion about how even monsters have free will — even the creatures twisted by the Reapers have the potential to choose their own fates. The idea of free will vs. fate is one that has strong mythic resonance; in Greek mythology, especially, a person is governed by the Fates and has no choice about his or her destiny. Estep’s work playing with this concept takes the books beyond a fun, lighthearted urban fantasy series for teens and moves it to the next level.

Kiss of Frost is a great sequel, and in many ways a stronger book than the first entry into the world. With four more books to look forward to in the series, it’ll be a fun ride — maybe with a topsy turvy version of Ragnarok to close things off!

FTC disclosure: I received the e-ARC of this novel from the author.

Review by Alana Abbott

Related posts:

1. Exploring the Mythos Academy with Jennifer Estep
2. Touch of Frost Fiction Review
3. The Darkest Kiss Fiction Review

Find out more about SOPA and PIPA:

Sopablackout.org/learnmore

Fightforthefuture.org/pipa

Money.cnn.com/2012/01/16/technology/sopa_wikipedia/index.htm

News.yahoo.com/reddit-admins-announce-january-18-blackout-protest-sopa-062713699.html

NYTimes.com/2012/01/18/technology/web-wide-protest-over-two-antipiracy-bills.html

Flames Rising will resume our regular schedule tomorrow with new Horror & Dark Fantasy Reviews, News and other goodies. In the meantime read more at the links above and spread the word.

-Matt M McElroy

No related posts.