Available at Amazon.com

In young adult fiction, you’ve probably noticed a lot of urban fantasy and paranormal books hitting the market. Strange Angels, written by veteran author Lili St. Crow (You might recognize Lilith Saint Crow’s work from the Dante Valentine and The Night Shift series), is a dark exploration of what happens when a teenager named Dru finds herself lost, alone and in a fight for her survival.

Strange Angels is clearly, in my opinion, a novel that is right on target in its depiction of teenagers. The characters are not fully grown, beautiful and confident; they are awkward, tumbling and self-conscious. Dru is not the prettiest, or the most popular, or even the most sought-after girl in this small town. She’s a transplant who meandered around the country with her father hunting beings from the Real World, which is a world hidden beneath the surface of our own that houses all manner of creatures.

As the first book in the series, Strange Angels has a strong focus on characterization that is spurred on by tragedy. Early in the book, Dru experiences an unfathomable loss which shapes her character by affecting how she grows and interacts with the people in the world around her. The grief she experiences seems both fairly realistic and necessary for the story, because it allows St. Crow to offer a layer of storytelling that delves into Dru’s character background to explain her solitary way of handling things.

There isn’t a large “adult” presence in this book, so the primary focus is on Dru and Graves, who seems to have a bit more common sense than Dru does. Tall, skinny and awkward, Graves is the voice of reason in a world he can’t even begin to comprehend. When he does get thrown into that world — to see what others typically don’t see in a place Dru referred to as the “Real World” — he stumbles, falls and then steps out of it before he’s wrenched back in.

In my mind, these minute details aggregate into a cohesive, almost “believable” story. Here the characters take you by the hand and tell you what happened from a matter-of-fact teenage perspective, instead of asking you to put on rose-colored glasses. The sheer lack of youth’s romanticism is by far one of the best things about this book, because it provided me (as the reader) with the ability to feel more emotional contrast and identify with the characters. Dru’s sardonic nature is a strong complement to her life’s experiences, yet she often tries to “protect” Graves from emotional harm. On the other hand, the mysterious figure named Christophe is a bit more straight-forward, primarily because he spends much of the book off-screen. I felt this was one of the reasons why trust issues became central to the plot for Dru, Graves and Christophe later on in the book.

Because so much of the book is about a singular life-or-death situation, if I revealed any more about the plot I might spoil it for you. Instead, I will say that I had no problems with the pacing in part, because there are two primary mysteries that were handled separately yet almost simultaneously. First, the main character wasn’t the one to discover the “real world” — it was the secondary character Graves who experienced glimpses of it before he was thrown face-first back into it. Secondly, the mystery as to why someone would want to kill Dru ties directly into her character’s (and her family’s) past. If there weren’t any overlapping story arcs, the book would have lost my interest because it would have been too straightforward.

The paranormal powers in this first book is more peripheral, which made sense to me given the characters and what they were going through. Much of what I experienced was related to the choices Dru had to make when Graves was bitten by a wulf, which turned him into something else. Several mysteries are resolved as the book goes on, and there is a little bit of “tell” to bring you up to speed near the end. Although Strange Angels doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, I have to wonder if the story structure might change as the series goes on since there was a healthy amount of character growth in the first book.

As I mentioned earlier, there isn’t a large “adult” presence in this book even with the presence of the bully teacher (Bletchley). These kids are still teenagers, but I still had to wonder — does anyone care? Does a runaway and a transient student matter to these educators? To me, that was really the only detail that stood out oddly in my mind, but it may not to another reader in part because I’m not a teenager. The prose was exceptionally streamlined and clear and the book wasn’t exceptionally gore-heavy, which turns Strange Angels into a very, readable book for a broad audience — both teenagers and adults alike.

Like many supernaturally-themed YA books, you might expect that at some point Dru may develop powers of a sort. In Strange Angels, even though there are seeds that hint at what Dru might be (or what powers she might have), the magic doesn’t overcome the story because there is a “cost” to dealing with the Real World that may or may not be present in similar stories. In St. Crow’s universe, you don’t just walk past a sucker or a wulf and get away scot-free. You’ll lose something, but deep down inside you might find a piece of yourself that you didn’t know you had to beat back the things that lurk in the night.

For more about the author, visit the official website of Lili St. Crow.

Review by Monica Valentinelli

Venture Beyond the Threshold of Madness…

Dare to explore the shadows of a forsaken sanitarium that is haunted by the souls of the dead and plagued by the dark essence of evil. This sinister soundscape contains 21 tracks of ghostly melodies, pulse-pounding orchestrations and creepy sound effects to set a dark, nightmarish mood.

High upon the rocky cliffs overlooking the Miskatonic River, the hollow edifice of Blackthorn Asylum stands as a bleak monument to the horrors that once lurked within its desolate halls. Originally built as a sanitarium for the criminally insane, the asylum gained a grim reputation for conducting horrible experiments upon the most violent and deranged psychopaths in an attempt to extract the essence of evil.

Tall gates of stone and wrought iron surround the grounds like a prison wall, allowing no possibility for escape, and the bleak confines of the asylum held no mercy or hope for those condemned to a sentence within. Over the decades, the torments inflicted upon the inmates resulted in unlocking the demons from their minds, but as a horrific consequence, the tortuous experimentation also unleashed the vile malediction that now infests the abandoned corridors.

Blackthorn Asylum is available now at Amazon.com.

FlamesRising.com is proud to offer you a chapter preview for the book Demon Mistress by New York Times bestselling author Yasmine Galenorn. When we asked Yasmine about this new book in her Otherworld series, she mentioned that:

When I was writing Demon Mistress, it quickly became apparent that my tag line for it was going to be both awesome and bizarre. I told my editor that it was going to be, “Revenge of the Nerds meets Hell Boy, meets Lovecraft.” There wasn’t much she could say to that until it arrived on her desk and she read it. Then, she understood, and she loved it. I had a lot of fun with this book, and so far reviews are backing up my feeling that my readers will also love it, too. — Yasmine Galenorn

We hope you enjoy this preview of Demon Mistress, the sixth book in the Otherworld Series.

Chapter 1 of Demon Mistress

Written by Yasmine Galenorn

“Could you at least wait until I open the window to shake that thing?” Iris shot me a nasty look as I yanked the braided rug off the floor and started beating it against the wall. “I can barely breathe, there’s so much dust.”

Chagrined, I dropped the rug to the floor and gave her a sheepish look. Dust didn’t bother me, and sometimes I forgot other people had to breathe. “Sorry,” I said. “Open the window and I’ll shake it outside.”

Rolling her eyes, she lifted the sash and pushed it up as far as she could. I took over, finishing the job. A wash of warm summer air filtered through the open window along with the sounds of horns honking, blaring music, and laughter from a gang of street kids who were smoking weed in the back alley behind the Wayfarer. The air had a happy-go-lucky feel to it, a stir of excitement, like a street party about to spontaneously erupt.

I leaned over the sill, waving to one of the boys who was staring up at me. His name was Chester, but he went by Chit, and he and his buddies had become a fixture around the bar over the past few months. Too young to come in, they hung around out back, and every now and then I’d make sure they got a good meal from the grill. They were good kids—a little at loose ends, but they never caused much trouble and they weren’t gangbangers or druggies. In fact, they kept some of the less desirable elements away from hanging out in the alleys.

Chit waved back. “Yo, Menolly! What’s shakin’, babe?”

I grinned. I was far, far older than he, although I didn’t look it. But like a number of the younger FBH men I’d met, he flirted with every woman who looked under forty, especially if they were Fae. And though I was only half-Fae, and a vampire to boot, he treated me like I was just another one of the locals.

“Just getting around to some long-overdue cleaning,” I called down to him, waving again before I turned back to Iris, who was poking around an old-world trunk that had been hiding in a corner of the room.

Since I now owned the entire building the Wayfarer Bar and Grill resided in, I decided it was time to clear out some of the rooms over the bar and turn them into a paying resource. My sisters and I could furnish them, rent them out to Otherworld visitors, and make a nice chunk of change.

Even though we were back on the Court and Crown’s payroll, money was still going out faster than it was coming in. Especially since we were paying Tim Winthrop for his computer work he was doing for the Supe Community.

The Wayfarer’s second story held ten rooms, two of them bathrooms. And it looked like all of them had remained untouched for years. Piles of junk and thick layers of dust permeated the entire story. Iris and I’d finished one room, but it had taken us two nights to sort through the boxes filled with newspaper and old clothes.

I stretched, arching my back, and shook my head. “What a mess.”

The room had obviously been turned into a storage room, probably by Jocko, who wasn’t the cleanest bartender the Wayfarer had ever seen. Unfortunately the diminutive giant had met an untimely end at the hand of Bad Ass Luke, a demon from the Subterranean Realms.

Jocko had lived in one of the Otherworld Intelligence Agency’s designated apartments in the city and I was pretty sure he’d never slept at the bar. We hadn’t found any giant-sized clothes hanging around. At least not yet. But it was obvious that someone from Otherworld had stayed here at one time, because she’d left a bunch of her things here. I recognized the weave on a couple of tunics. They certainly hadn’t been made over here Earthside.

Iris snorted. “Mess is certainly the word, isn’t it? Now, if you’ll get your albino butt over here, I could use some help moving this trunk.” Hands on her hips, she nodded to the wooden chest she’d uncovered from beneath a pile of newspapers.

Shaken out of my reverie, I lifted the trunk with one hand and effortlessly carried it to the center of the room. Being a vampire had its perks and extraordinary strength was one of them. I wasn’t all that much taller than Iris—skimming five-one, I towered over her by a mere thirteen inches, but I could have easily lifted a creature five times her weight.

“Where on earth are your sisters? I thought they were going to help.”

The Talon-haltija—Finnish house sprite—brushed a stray cobweb off her forehead, leaving a smudge mark from the grime that had embedded itself on her hands. Her ankle length golden hair had been pulled into a long ponytail and she’d carefully woven it into a thick chignon to get it out of the way. Iris was wearing a pair of denim shorts and a red and white gingham sleeveless blouse, with the ends tied together under her breasts. A pair of blue Keds completed her country-maid ensemble.

I grinned. “They are helping, in their own special ways. Camille’s at the store buying more cleaning supplies and dinner. Delilah’s out scrounging up a pickup so we can haul away some of this junk.” I’d left running the bar to Chrysandra for the evening. She knew where I was, and she was my best waitress. Luke was bartending and he’d take care of any jerks that stumbled in. Tavah, as usual, was guarding the portal in the basement.

“Special my foot,” Iris mumbled, but she flashed me a brilliantly white smile. She had good teeth, that was for sure. “Let’s see what this old chest holds. Probably dead mice, with our luck.”

“If it does, don’t tell Delilah. She’d want to play with them.” I knelt beside her, examining the lock. “Looks like we need a skeleton key if you don’t want me to bust it open.”

“Forget about keys,” Iris said. She leaned over and deftly inserted a bobby pin into the oversized hole, then whispered a soft chant. Within seconds, the latch clicked. I gave her a long look and she shrugged.

“What? Simple locks I can pop. Deadbolts, not so much. Life is easier when you don’t have to worry about locks and bars.”

“I would have to agree,” I said, opening the lid. As it softly creaked, the faint odor of cedar rose to fill the air. Even though I didn’t need to breathe, that didn’t mean I couldn’t smell—at least when I chose to—and I allowed the aroma to filter through my senses. Mingled with the fragrance of tobacco and frankincense, the scent was dusty, like an old library thick with leather and heavy oak furniture. It reminded me of our parlor, back home in Otherworld.

Iris peeked over the edge. “Pay dirt!”

I glanced into the trunk’s belly. No dead mice. No gems or jewels, either, but there were clothes and several books, and what looked like a music box. I slowly lifted the box out of the soft cushion of dresses in which it had been nestled. The wood was definitely harvested from Otherworld.

“Arnikcah,” I said, peering closely at it. “This comes from OW.”

“I figured as much,” Iris said, leaning over to examine the box.

Wood from an Arnikcah tree was hard, dark, and rich, with a natural luster that shimmered when polished. Easy to spot by its rich burgundy tones, the color rested somewhere between mahogany and cherry.

The box was fastened by a silver hinge, and I flipped it open, gently raising the lid. A small peridot cabochon, inset on the underside of the lid, flashed as the sound of tinkling notes fluttered out. Not pan-pipes, but a silver flute, sounding the song of woodland birds at the close of sunset.

Iris closed her eyes, listening to the melody. After a moment, it stopped and she bit her lip. “That’s beautiful.”

“Yes, it is.” I examined the contents of the music box. “My mother had a box similar to this one. Father gave it to her. I don’t know what happened to it, though. Camille would know if anybody does. The tune’s a common one, used to lull children to sleep.”

The inside of the music box had been lined with a rich, velvety brocade. I’d seen it used in the skirts of women who belonged to the Court and Crown. A deep plum, the cloth had absorbed the scent of the Arnikcah wood.

I shuddered, finding myself unaccountably sad as I touched the glowing gem fastened to the underside of the lid. Once more, the melody began to play, lightly trilling through the dusty room. I closed my eyes, transported back to the long summer nights of my youth when I would dance in meadow as Camille sang her spells to the moon, and Delilah chased fireflies in her kitten form. We’d come a long ways from those days.

Iris peered into the box. “There’s a locket inside.”

I gently set the box onto the floor and picked up the heart-shaped locket. Silver, embossed with a scrollwork of roses and vines, the heart sprang open as I touched the hinge, revealing a picture and a lock of hair. The photo was definitely Earthside in nature, and was of an elf. A man. The lock of hair was so pale it was platinum. No dye had ever touched these tresses. I held it out to Iris.

She closed her fist around the hair and squinted. “Elf, by the feel. What a pretty pendent. I wonder who it belongs to?”

“I haven’t the faintest idea,” I said. “What else is in the trunk?”

Iris lifted out the books and the pile of clothes. The books were obviously written Earthside—The Idiot’s Guide To Living Earthside, and American English For Elves.

The clothing had belonged to a woman. A tunic, several pair of leggings, a belt and jacket, a brassiere. I held up the undergarment. Whoever owned this had small breasts. The cloth was elf-weave, that much I recognized.

Beneath the clothes, in the bottom of the trunk, we found a journal. I opened it to the first page. The inscription read “Sabele,” written in a scrolling hand. The name was in English, but the rest of the journal was in Melosealfôr, a rare and beautiful Crypto language from Otherworld. I could recognize it, but not read it. But Camille could.

“This looks like a diary,” Iris said, flipping through it. “I wonder…” She stood up and poked around the room, rooting under the towering piles of debris. “Hey! There’s a bed here, and a dresser in the corner. Want to make a bet this was a bedroom; perhaps for whoever owned this locket and diary?”

I stared at the piles of old magazines, newspapers, and faded liquor boxes. “Let’s clear away all this trash. Just haul it into the next room for now. We’ll see what we find beneath it.” As I replaced the music box and clothes within the trunk, laughter echoed down the hall from the stairs and within seconds, my sister Camille stood at the door, two of her men in tow.

“Pizza!” Camille entered the room, gingerly stepping over a rolled up rug. As usual, she was dressed to impress, in a black velvet skirt, a plum bustier, and stilettos. Morio was right behind her, carrying five pizza boxes, and behind him—Smoky towered over everybody, looking bemused but not entirely thrilled to be tagging along.

Iris jumped up and wiped her hands on her shorts. “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.”

“Hush or Smoky might oblige,” Camille said, wrinkling her nose as she gave the dragon a playful look.

He might look like six-foot-four feet of manflesh with silver hair down to his ankles, but when he transformed, he was all dragon under that snow-white veneer. He ate horses, cows, and the occasional goat. On the hoof. He joked about eating humans, too, but none of us took him seriously, although I suspected there might be the occasional missing person we might attribute to him. Whatever the case, Smoky wasn’t just a dragon who could take human form. He was also my sister’s husband. One of her husbands.

Morio, a Japanese youkai-kitsune—fox demon, loosely translated—was her other husband. He wasn’t nearly as tall as Smoky, but he was good looking in a sleek, lithe way, with a pony tail that hung to his shoulders and the faintest hint of a goatee and thin moustache.

Camille had a third lover. Trillian, a Svartan, had been missing too long for comfort and I knew she was worried about him.

“You just hush about my eating habits, woman,” Smoky said, gently patting her shoulder. He indulged behaviors in her that would earn most people a one-way ticket to crispy critter land. Love was supposed to be blind, but I had the feeling in Smoky’s case, he’d come to accept that he’d better develop patience with my sister, or end up miserable.

I frowned at the pizzas. I’d give a lot to be able to eat pizza. Or anything, actually. My ever present diet of blood kept me going, but I wasn’t particularly thrilled with it. All salt, no sweets.

Morio’s eyes gleamed as he pulled out a thermos and handed it to me.

“I’m not thirsty,” I said. Bottled blood wasn’t exactly a taste-treat. Kind of like generic beer. It did the trick but in no way or form could you call it haute cuisine. When I wasn’t hungry, I left it alone.

“Just drink,” he said.

I cocked my head. “What are you up to?” But when I opened the thermos, the blood didn’t smell like blood. Instead it smelled like…pineapple? I hesitantly took a sip. If I ingested anything but blood I’d get horrible cramps.

But to my shock and delight, though it was blood that flowed down my throat, all I could taste were coconut milk and pineapple juice. I stared at the thermos, then at him. “By the gods, you did it!”

“Yes, I did,” he said, a victorious grin spreading across his face. “I finally figured out the spell. I thought piña colada might be a nice change for a first try.”

Morio had been working on a spell for some time which would allow me to taste foods I’d left behind when I died.

“Well, it worked!” I laughed and perched on the open window sill, one knee pulled up to my chest as I leaned back against the frame. As I drank, my taste buds doing a Snoopy dance, it occurred to me that this was the first time in over twelve years that I’d tasted something other than blood.

“I could kiss you for this.”

“Go ahead,” Camille said with a wink. “He’s good.”

Snorting, I set down the thermos and wiped my mouth carefully. More often than not, I ended up with a few spatters around my lips and I preferred not to look like some blood-crazed monster.

“With all due respect to your darling husband, I think I’ll leave his kisses for you. Not really my type,” I said, winking at Morio. “No offense intended.”

“None taken,” he said, grinning. “Next time we’ll try for some sort of soup flavor. What’s your poison?”

“Hmm…beef vegetable would hit the spot.”

Happier than I’d been in awhile, I glanced around the room. “While you guys eat your pizza, I’ll start clearing some of this junk out of here. Iris and I found something curious. Don’t trash anything that looks like it might have belonged in a bedroom or to an elf.”

I piled a stack of magazines in a box and carried them out, dumping them into the room across the hall. Smoky ignored the pizza and pitched in, helping me, as did Morio. Iris and Camille perched on a bench, digging into the Hawaiian style pie.

As we worked, Camille alternated between eating and filling me in on what I’d missed during the day. With the summer solstice so close, the time in which I could be awake and active had been severely curtailed. I was down to around eight hours per night between sunrise and sunset. I’d sure be happy to see autumn and winter again. It sucked having to be in bed by five-thirty in the morning.

“We finally got the wedding invitation from Jason and Tim. They’re holding it during the night just so you and Erin can make it.” She picked up another slice and held it overhead, letting the strings of mozzarella trail into her mouth.

“I’m glad they’re finally getting hitched. They make a good couple.”

Tim had won my respect a hundred times over when I’d had to turn his best friend, Erin. I’d sworn never to sire another vampire, but Erin would have died otherwise, and she made the choice. That’s how I ended up with a middle-aged human vampire daughter. Tim was her best friend. He’d come through when Erin and I’d needed him most, and my respect for him had soared.

“By the way,” I said, “Erin’s selling the Scarlet Harlot to Tim. She can’t work there during the day, so he’s taking over. He’ll open a computer consulting business on the side, now that he’s graduated from college.”

“I know. He told me,” Camille said. “I’ll be sad to see Cleo Blanco fade away, but then again, I never did think he made a very convincing woman. He’s much better looking as a man. Although, he did a good job lip synching to Marilyn Monroe’s songs.”

She licked her fingers and then added, “Oh, yeah, Wade called shortly before we left home. He said he has something he needs to talk to you about. I told him to drop by the bar, so he’ll be over in a bit.”

Shit. I didn’t want to talk to Wade. We’d been arguing a lot lately and distance definitely helped the heart grow fonder in this case. Whether it was the summer heat, or the overdose of sleep, I didn’t know, but we’d been getting on each other’s nerves and the problem wasn’t showing any signs of easing up.

“Great,” I mumbled. “Smoky, can you help me carry this rug? I can lift it, but it’s so long it’s unwieldy for one person.”

Smoky obligingly propped one end of the rolled up Persian rug on his shoulder and I did likewise to the other. We carted it across the hall and tossed it onto the ever-growing pile of debris.

“Where’s Delilah? We need to get some of this crap out of here before we end up with a fire. One stray spark and this place would go up like a match.” I kicked at the rug and it shifted.

“Patience, patience,” Smoky said. “Let me cast a frost spell in here. I can saturate everything with a layer of moisture and make it harder to burn.”

I groaned. “And turn it into a breeding ground for mold. Oh, go ahead. At least I won’t worry so much about fire then.”

An hour later, we’d cleared the bedroom of everything that didn’t seem to belong there. We’d uncovered a bed, dresser, trunk, writing desk, bookshelf, and rocking chair. Everything pointed to the original occupant as being a female elf.

“Who lived here?” Camille asked, picking over the remains of the second pizza. Smoky and Morio had settled into eating, and I could see that the other three pies were about to become history.

I shrugged. “I haven’t the faintest idea. Nobody at the OIA filled me in on whoever held the job before Jocko.”

Iris sat in the rocking chair, rubbing her hand over one of the polished arms. “Would the OIA have that information if you asked them?”

Camille shook her head. “Chances are, even though the organization’s back up and running, the files were most likely lost during the civil war.”

I had to agree with her. “Yeah. Most of the personnel have either been fired or arrested, depending on their loyalty to Lethesanar. Except, interestingly enough, the director of the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. Father told us he was a double agent, but I didn’t know whether or not to believe it. Damned if the information wasn’t correct, though.”

“Jocko’s dead. He can’t very well help us,” Camille said. “Any of your waitresses might know?”

“Doubtful, but that gives me an idea.” I jumped up and headed for the door. “I’ll be right back. Meanwhile, you guys search the room and see what’s in the closets and in that desk. Look for whatever you can find. Check under the mattress, too.”

I hurried down the stairs. While Chrysandra and Luke had come to work for me after Jocko’s death, there was still one person who remembered the gentle giant. Peder, the daytime bouncer, had been around during Jocko’s time. I flipped through the address book that we kept behind the counter and then picked up the phone, punching in his number.

Like Jocko, Peder was a giant. But where Jocko had been the runt of his family, Peder was smack in the middle of being height-weight proportionate for his race. After three rings, he picked up.

“Yef?” His English was still limited and his accent was atrocious, but I knew Calouk, the common dialect used throughout the more uncouth members of Otherworld, and I switched to it immediately.

“Peder, this is Menolly,” I said, my lips tripping over the rough words as I translated my thoughts into Calouk. “I know you worked for Jocko, but do you by any chance remember who was the bartender before him? Did an elfin woman run the bar? Her name would have been—”

“Sabele,” he said. “Yeah, Sabele was the bartender before Jocko. She went home to OW, though. She vanished one day. Never said nuthin’.”

Vanished? That seemed odd, considering the locket and diary left behind. “What do you mean, vanished?”

“She quit. That’s what Jocko told me when he came here.”

That didn’t ring true. I was fairly certain Peder wouldn’t lie to me, but that didn’t mean that what he said was accurate. Giants weren’t the brightest bulbs in the socket and Peder wasn’t the on the gifted end of the spectrum.

“Are you certain? I found a few of her personal things upstairs while cleaning out one of the rooms. Items I doubt she would have left behind.”

“That’s what Jocko told me. He said…he said the OIA told him that Sabele deserted her post. She was really nice, though. I liked her. She never made fun of me.”

His tone told me that—like Jocko—Peder was sensitive to ridicule. Giants were surprisingly emotional, not like trolls or ogres. Oh sure, they were oafs, but they could be caring oafs.

“Do you know if she had any friends around here? A boyfriend, maybe? Or a brother?” The image of the male elf’s face from the picture in the locket drifted to mind.

“Boyfriend? Yeah, she had a boyfriend. He used to come into the bar a lot. I thought they went back to OW together and got married. Lemme think…” After a moment, Peder sighed. “All I can remember is that his first name was Harish. And her family name was Olahava. That help you any?”

“Yeah,” I said, jotting down the two names. “More than you know. Thanks, Peder. And by the way, you’re doing a good job. I appreciate it.” Everybody needed strokes sometimes. Even giants.

“Thanks, boss,” he said. I could hear the glee in his voice.

As I replaced the receiver, the door opened and I looked up as Wade wandered into the room. His shocking bleached-blonde hair was even whiter thanks to a dose of peroxide, and he’d given up the glasses he used to hide behind. He was wearing a pair of PVC jeans—gods know where he got hold of those—and a white T-shirt. A thick shiny black patent leather belt studded with metal grommets rode low on his hips. I blinked. When had he gone punk?

A psychiatrist until he’d been bitten and turned, Wade Stevens was the leader of Vampires Anonymous, a support group for the newly undead. He’d become my first vampire-friend when my sister Camille insisted I join the group.

Lately though, he’d been on edge and snippy and I had no intention of wasting the energy to find out why. I had enough problems to deal with, without adding a moody vampire to the list. Anyway, I wasn’t the coddling-type. His mother did enough of that. In fact, his mother was one of the primary reasons I’d stopped dating him. A vampire herself, she was the perfect antidote to any attraction I’d felt for Wade.

He leaned across the bar. “We need to talk.”

“I’m busy,” I muttered. Avoidance wasn’t my usual M.O. but I had no intention of ruining my mood. “Can we do this later?”

“No. We need to talk now,” he said, his eyes shifting toward red.

Whoa. Touchy, touchy.

“Fine. In the back, where the customers won’t overhear us.” I led him into the office and closed the door behind us. “All right, what’s so damned important that it can’t wait for a few hours? Or days?”

I waited, but he remained silent. Irritated, I started to push past him, intending on returning to the bar but he stopped me, barring my way with his arm.

“Fine. I’ll just tell you straight out, because I don’t know how else to do this. I’ve thought this over and over for the past few weeks, but there’s no way to get around it. I have to put some distance between us or you’re going to ruin any chance I have of becoming regent of the Northwest Vampire Dominion.”

I stared at him, unable to believe what I was hearing. “You’ve got to be joking.”

“No.” He waved me silent. “I’m asking you to quietly withdraw from Vampires Anonymous. Don’t show up at the meetings. And don’t contact me in public…keep all of our communications in private. You’ve become a liability to me, Menolly. And to the group.”

Posted with permission from Yasmine Galenorn & Berkley Books.
Copyright 2009, Yasmine Galenorn. No reposting or copying.

Visit www.galenorn.com for more information on Yasmine Galenorn and her books. Yasmine is very active online, so be sure to follow her on Twitter or on MySpace.

Available at Amazon.com

By Graham McNeill
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Black Library

The noble Ultramarines epitomize the Space Marines, the genetically enhanced warriors who protect the Imperium from its foes. Newly returned from the Eye of Terror, Captain Uriel Ventris must redeem himself in the eyes of his battle–brothers, who fear he may have been tainted by Chaos. When the planet Pavonis is invaded by tau, what better opportunity could Uriel have to join his Chapter in combat and prove that his honour is beyond reproach?

Courage and Honour is the fifth book in the hugely successful Ultramarines series featuring the Courageous Captain Uriel Ventris and his Veteran Sergeant Pasanius.

This book is in many ways like coming full circle in the series. Uriel Ventris’ first mission as captain was to put down a rebellion on the Imperial world, Pavonis and this novel has the 4th company returning to the same troubled planet.

Following shortly after the events of The Killing Ground, we are shown flashback scenes of the testing of Ventris and Pasanius. Testing them both for purity: Mind and Body. After all, these two Astartes have been alone and fighting their way back from the Eye of Terror, a mission which should have most likely claimed his life (and possibly his soul).

For those not familiar, Uriel Ventris and Pasanius were found guilty of heretical deviations from the Codex Astartes, the penalty for which is death. In lieu of death they were bound by a Death Oath and exiled from the Chapter. Tasked to hunt down daemons by Marneus Calgar they embarked on a long series of adventures in the Eye of Terror, only barely surviving to tell the tale. For these stories see the Ultramarines Omnibus and The Killing Ground, same publisher, same author.

Upon arriving on Pavonis things are awkward. The remaining characters from the previous time the Ultramarines were on Pavonis are still here, albeit much older. Not everything has gone as planned. Also present are a number of new characters which are rich and colorful. Thankfully Graham McNeill has done a wonderful job of giving each of the characters some “camera time” in order to really flesh them out. When reading any book I really want to have some connection to the characters. I don’t have to necessarily relate to them, but I have to at least care a little about them otherwise they are just names on a page, which is almost pointless. McNeill is a pro when it comes to this.

In addition to being “An Ultramarines Novel” you get to see several other things which some may love, and others may hate. There are two allied forces on Pavonis as well: the Planetary Defense Forces and a Regiment of Imperial Guard. Both are led by interesting characters who contribute in very cool ways to the plot.

The antagonists to the story are The Tau Empire. The insight in to the methodology of this Xenos race is fantastic. McNeill really nailed it. On one hand he makes the “Greater Good” of the Tau seem totally preferable to the (honestly) heinously fascist Imperium of Man…Yet on the other you see an insidious side that says “Join us…OR ELSE”.

Anyone who knows anything of the Warhammer 40,000 universe knows that it is DARK. It is a GRIM future where Humanity is beset on all sides by Chaos and Xenos races out to destroy it. The Imperium of Man is also of the mindset of “KILL THEM ALL” in order to insure the manifest destiny of the supremacy of mankind. The Imperium is a horrific place, without a doubt. It’s against this oppressive backdrop that the colorful characters, great deeds of selflessness, honor and courage are illuminated.

Graham McNeill does a wonderful job of peeking under the hood of the almost “altruistically good” seeming Xenos and showing both sides of that face.

As far as the battle scenes, they were good. Some were better than others. With any war novel it can seem like battle scenes take almost too long. Ironically many of the battle scenes could have been lifted from Team-Yankee by Harold Coyle or Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy. The smell of promethium or cordite, the taste of gravel, dust and muck. The blinding flash of tank rounds impacting and the destruction of buildings and bridges easily could have been from World War 2 or Vietnam. The scenes fit the setting, and were “real enough” to have come from actual reports of battle.

The novel definitely has a message. It goes over why Uriel Ventris’ decision to deviate from the Codex Astartes was ultimately wrong. It identifies this and in the end re-hashes it repeatedly. It’s kind of like being beaned in the head with the Codex Astartes. Now I realize that this is a story coming full circle. While the Ultramarines seem hidebound and rigid in adherence to the very letter of the law/ codex this novel reinforces the WHY of it in spades. My take on it is that it’s a little overdone, but I can understand why. In some ways it seems like it illustrates throughout the novel “Adhere to the codex= Success, Deviate from the codex =Fail”.

There ARE some interesting lessons learned. Hubris is possible in anyone. We see it in the antagonists, but we can also see it in the heroes. Self-Belief is good, but at some point it can turn in to arrogance…and we get to see that in some of the characters in the novel. It’s good to see how characters you admire or kind of like, can turn on you and go down a path that you feel awkward with and see that slippery slope down in to “evil”. Again Graham McNeill tells a story that has little snippets that can easily apply today. Issues that could easily be pulled from today’s newspaper. I can’t speak for everyone but I love that. It reminds me of TV shows and Movies that have stories that are fictional, yet speak volumes about the issues of the day.

Overall it’s a good novel. I burned through it in one sitting and only had one moment where I was lost (I had apparently skipped a page). I think Ultramarines fans will get more out of this than your general reader. It’s a good war novel, but in many ways it the standard Space Marine fare; a little less memorable than Graham McNeill’s other efforts. This is hard to grade because I’ve read books by this author that literally blew me away; knocked my socks off. So judging honestly, this novel on it’s own versus other novels (and a hint of what I know the author can do) I’m grading this one 3 out of 5 Stars.

Review by Jeff Preston

Available at RPGNow.com

Rather a long time ago, when I had just taken the Queen’s Shilling and the new game was Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, I thought about applying classic squad tactics to adventuring parties on the tabletop. War, after all, happens at least as frequently in a fantasy realm as it does in the real world, and small groups are the norm in both role-playing and Special Forces. So it is with a measure of glee that I find a book which has taken this route with the combat-orientated 4th Edition of D&D; providing both a rich but war-torn setting and ideas for building a special forces unit using the full potential of fantasy adventurers.

The Introduction explains precisely what is intended. Although it has the normal trappings of a standard fantasy campaign setting (and indeed if that is what you want you can play a normal fantasy game here), the intention is that player-characters will be members of an elite ’special forces’ style group called Wraith Recon; and that rather than normal adventuring activities they will engage in classic special forces missions, acing often on their own but under direction of their commanders.

The first chapter is Wraith Recon: The Strike Teams, and looks at the core of what makes this setting unique - the elite personnel of Wraith Recon. It looks at history and organisation, and at how the unit fits in to the way in which the Kingdom of Dardarrick wages war and maintains peace. It is a small and select unit, highly secret even as far as their own side is concerned; with the core being the 4-6 man team (how convenient, just the right size for your average party!). There are just 13 teams, most given at least a vague assignment with Team # 4 listed as ‘awaiting first assignment’ - this is the one designated for your player-characters. The core of their work is this: whatever they are tasked to do, they must succeed - whatever it takes, whatever the cost.

Scene set, the next chapter is Wraith Recon Four: Creating The Team. Starting with normal 1st-level 4e characters, they are assumed to have trained together until they are as close as a family. This is not a game for secrets within the party, everyone should know as much about their team-mates as possible. Think team-work, think about watching each other’s backs. As for equipment, there is a standard package everyone receives… and other items may be requested once a mission brief has been given. There are plenty of equipment lists, depending on character class and level, to enable each team member to be as well-equipped as possible - and it’s all top-grade stuff. Not to mention the edge, the secret weapon that is SpellCom - providing communication, intelligence and more by arcane means, to a level that would make most real-world operative jealous. Genuine innovation in utilising fantasy concepts in support of the special forces orientation of this game.

Next is a chapter on The World of Nuera, and is designed to set the backdrop for the campaign. Starting with an overview of the world as a whole, describing each of the continents. Then there is a detailed timeline that sets the context of the state of the world today. This is followed by a discussion of the gods, and what each requires of worshippers. Next, the Kingdom of Dardarrick, the most powerful state on Nuera and the one to which the characters, perforce, give alliegiance, is described with a detailed history and gazetteer. Naturally, as the supreme state it is often challenged by others and as the campaign opens it is yet again under threat…

The next chapter looks at the Military of Dardarrian. Elite forces you may be, but there are plenty of more conventional assests - and they are needed! The nature of the population is such that the armed forces are a popular and honoured career, with good civilian support for the military. There is a detailed breakdown of military organisation, which as elite forces the Wraiths are likely to know, even if they have been recruited directly from civilian life. Many, though, will have already seen service in conventional forces. For those who like a visual image, the uniforms and rank badges are detailed as well as weapons and training.

Hints have already been dropped that, despite all this power, Dardarrian is under extreme threat once more and now we find out why, as the next chapter explores the neighbouring Kingdom of Lorn. Second only to Dardarrian and historically their enemy, they are once again on the march. Again there is plenty detail in terms of history and geography, as well as prominent individuals. The Kingdom of Torres, a more subtle threat to stability in the region, next gets the same treatment. Another area, the Wastelands, is also covered.

As if these neighbouring states were not enough, the next chapter describes another threat - The Cult of Tomarsson, followers of a recently-deposed religious leader. Not content with being exiled, he is probably more of a danger now than he was as a loud-mouthed zealot at the head of Dardarrian’s religious establishment. This is followed by a selection of Minor Threats. Things seemed stacked against Dardarrian - perhaps Wraith Recon can tip the balance in their favour.

Background done, the next chapter Wraith Recon Missions looks at the creation and management of Wraith Recon missions from the DM’s point of view. Both the sequence necessary to design your own and a random generation system are provided. Anyone with military training will find the briefing phase familiar, the nature of the information, instructions and protocols to be provided. Everything is left open enough that you can fine-tune them to your own needs - even use the same model for this type of mission run in your own campaign world if you prefer - while promises are made about more detailed and specific missions in the sourcebooks to come.

Finally, Campaign 0: The Lorn Initiative presents a ready-made mini-campaign for you to cut your teeth on. Four short missions are provided, suitable for neophyte Wraiths of 1st level - and yet even now there are ramifications which could echo throught a long campaign if you want to pick up on them. Everything is presented clearly and while the missions are quite linear, there is plenty of scope for initiative (and - certainly for novice squads - real world special forces missions can be quite linear anyway!).

This is a masterful use of the combat-orientated nature of D&D 4e to drive an exciting game based around the innovative blend of special forces and fantasy.

Review by Megan Robertson

Available at Amazon.com

Developer: Terminal Reality, Threewave Software

What do you get when you take one of the most popular comedy franchises ever, bring back the original writers and actors who made it so great, and have the original writers come up with a new script tying it all together?

You get Ghostbusters: the Video Game, of course.

Ghostbusters: TVG had been plagued from developmental issues from the start. Passing from publisher to publisher, the game faced cancellation several times despite promising trailers. Eventually managing to be released by Atari, this game features voice acting from the original cast. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson reprise their roles as the classic supernatural investigators and eliminators.

The game expands on the Ghostbusters mythos. Set two years after Ghostbusters 2, the Ghostbusters have managed to stay in business and now work directly for the city. You are the Recruit, a nameless new employee who never says a word throughout the whole game. Together you work as a squad, investigating strange levels and trapping ghosts for money. Familiar faces return to menace New York, including Slimer, Gozer, and Walter Peck. The game’s plot continues with the events of the first two films. Ivo Shandor, a character mentioned off handedly in the first film, has set a chain of events in motion and the secrets behind Gozer, the Grey Lady, and other seemingly minor events are revealed as the Recruit has to work with the team to stop them.

The game itself is enjoyable. The controls are tricky to master at first, mainly with trapping ghosts. Even this is fun, as new ghosts represent new challenges on how to defeat them. The game introduces new equipment as well as your proton pack is upgraded throughout the game, and new weapons such as the Slime Thrower, the Dark Matter Generator, and Meson Collider help solve puzzles and defeat specific ghosts.

It’s not just about trapping ghosts as well. While combat is still a major factor in the game, you have to solve puzzles in order to advance and use your PKE Meter to track down hidden ghosts, Cursed Artifacts, and help guide your way through puzzles. The game is very much like Metroid Prime, as you can solve several puzzles by utilizing the different functions on your weapons or by moving parts of the environment around.

One of the more enjoyable aspects of the game are the cut scenes and the dialogue. Aykroyd and Ramis made the game like a true sequel to the films, with Venkman’s dry wit and the deadpan delivery from Egon helping to make the game more fun. The cut scenes are shown in the same way as the film, and the soundtrack combines music from the original movies and combines them with new mixes.

Now, there are flaws which have to be addressed. While this game is good, it has several important flaws which detract from the overall experience.

For starters, the length of the game was disappointing. I beat the game on basic difficulty within fifteen hours. I had found ¾ of the hidden items and had earned many of the achievements in the process. For $60, I had hoped the story mode would be much longer than that and last me for a while. While the multiplayer is fun, this can be a turn off for some players who enjoyed the single player campaign so much.

The game also suffers from some critical bug issues. I had to reload the game several times on the second level as Ray would inexplicably stop and rotate his torso around repeatedly. One time I lost Egon to a bizarre glitch where he was knocked out and part of him had fused with a nearby statue, and the game would not let me revive him. Perhaps a patch will be released that can correct these issues, but it can prove frustrating while you play. If you ever seem to get stuck and you’ve tried every task, just reload it.

Will the game scare you? Sure, the animated candelabras and Stay Puft Marshmallow Man might not scare you, but there is plenty of room for horror in the game. Shandor’s sinister plot to destroy the world combined with several dark twists in the plot bring fear and dread to the table. Several enemies are particularly terrifying, especially in numbers. Nothing gets your heart pumping like having a ghost leap out of a painting to your left while zombies leap about clawing at your face.

There is an issue on whether or not the game is canon with the movies, and until the new Ghostbusters movie is released this is still up in the air but thanks to Ramis and Aykroyd, this is felt more than a game set in the Ghostbusters franchise. This felt like Ghostbusters: the Video Game in every sense. From the spontaneous one-liners to the ability to interact with your environment I was hooked throughout the game, although very disappointed with how quickly I beat it. Even a casual gamer who is unfamiliar with the series might get excited about pulling on a proton pack and taking it to them.

Rating: 4/5

Review by John D. Kennedy

In a focused effort to give new readers an opportunity to discover Archaia’s unique library of titles, the publisher announced today a program to offer one new hardcover every quarter for the recession-friendly price of $9.95. Kicking off the venture will be the Vol. 1 hardcover collection of the acclaimed science-fiction thriller mini-series, The Engineer: Konstrukt, which will be available this August.

Keeping with Archaia’s tradition of publishing high-quality, high-concept titles, The Engineer: Konstrukt, co-created by Brian Churilla and Jeremy Shepherd, tells the story of a reluctant hero who frantically races to defeat an ancient creature eating away at the very fabric of space and time. To do so, he must travel across dimensions and put together the scattered pieces of the Konstrukt, an old-world technology that allows the user to manipulate reality itself.

Dave Baxter from Broken Frontier says, “The Engineer: Konstrukt is yet another out-of-the-park homerun hit for ArchaiaŠthe story is very, very fun [and] wholly entertaining.”

“In the great tradition that [Publisher] Mark [Smylie] started back in 2002, Archaia is still fully committed to bringing our fans the best quality product from cover to cover. And now with the $9.95 quarterly hardcovers, we are providing the best product for the best value,” boasted PJ Bickett, Archaia President.

“We are very fortunate that scheduling allowed us to start this program with The Engineer. Churilla and Shepherd are an amazing team and the book is just pure entertainment from start to finish!”

Archaia plans to release the next $9.95 hardcover in the fourth quarter of 2009. That title will be announced at a later date.

The Engineer: Konstrukt Ordering Information

To see a preview of The Engineer: Konstrukt, visit archaia.com/the_engineer.php.
Diamond Item Code MAY090650
ISBN: 1932386548
ISBN-13: 9781932386547
The Engineer: Konstrukt contains mild violence and is recommended for ages 10 and up.

About Archaia:
Founded in 2002, Archaia has built an unparalleled reputation for producing meaningful content that perpetually transforms minds. With a slate including such popular Eisner-Award winning titles as Mouse Guard and The Killer, as well as Awakening, Gunnerkrigg Court, Robotika, Killing Pickman, Artesia and the Publisher¹s latest additions of Titanium Rain, God Machine, Roddenberry Productions’ Days Missing, and The Jim Henson Company library, Archaia has become synonymous with quality content. For more information on Archaia or any Archaia titles please visit www.Archaia.com.

Available at RPGNow.com

Game books devoted entirely to the Art of Death, Destruction, and Detective Lieutenant John McClane rarely win me over. It’s a personal taste because I fully know that a handful of the players in my gaming group deeply appreciates the details that good combat manuals can offer. I assumed when diving into this book that it would be an updated version of the Combat book White Wolf released with their original run in the World of Darkness. That book always struck me as too much comic book and too little horror. Even the front and back covers had artwork that never matched anything else in any of the other lines. I must admit there were some flinchingly horrific pieces of art in that book that I’ll call Things You Don’t Want to Happen to You. Even with those minor high points, I felt cheated by that book.

That was then . . .

Armory Reloaded gets away from White Wolf’s Street Fighter RPG rules and tries to remain attached to the grit and horror of the setting. In the introduction, readers are told that “Combat is Horror.” The writers of this book don’t want to make the same mistake the miserable Combat made. The development of this project backs the statement through both its writing and artwork. Some questions arise at the end of the day though: Is the meatier (195 pages and one ad) look at vampire on werewolf violence (or Mage on Hunter) any better than its predecessor?

Does a focus on horror make this work any better? Let’s start with the look of the book.

White Wolf’s developers continue to reimagine their various lines while maintaining a certain look to each of them. On my first read-through of the book, I liked the bordering and watercolors throughout the bulk of the bulk; however, I hated the choices for the fiction sections (repeating images of a handgun, clip, and the word “gun). As I swung through the book a second time, these choices bothered me less. I do like the use of shell casings as breaks in the fiction, bullets if you will. It’s just the background that irks me no matter how many times I want to like it. It feels like the watermark to a brochure on the dangers of gangs and guns in urban America.

Printers are going to hate this book’s layout choices and I am fairly sure a printer-friendly version isn’t tagged along. One other point to make on the layout. The PDF’s bookmarks put the table of contents (pg 5) before the prologue (pg 4). If this is the non-annoying way to layout the book, why not actually layout the book that way?

The artwork of Armory Reloaded stands far above my expectations. Jim Pavelec’s cover art set me up to not like the book’s interior, not because it’s a bad piece rather the mood the art emitted. What the cover shows is a duo of soldiers facing off against something from one of Clive Barker’s nightmares (and may be a hint to what the major fiction in the book is about).

The chapter lead-in artwork proves excellent as well. Each picture in this book just seemed to belong, which is something I don’t believe I’ve ever said before. Even the art on page 151 of a broken arm, which I considered to be kinda silly, belonged (but I would have preferred one of those rare photographs for the pure shock value). Perhaps the stable of artists who provided such solid work to this were equally sickened by Combat’s Todd McFarlanesque nonsense. Whatever the reason, the mix of supernatural and realism works for me.

I normally find myself annoyed that White Wolf feels the need to put fifteen pages of fiction before the credits and table of contents; furthermore, I usually feel the fiction isn’t worth that attention. I truly like Hagen’s story in the prologue and epilogue. Also, I love how the fiction in the books now regularly ties directly into the gaming material. What Hagen finds in his twenty or so page adventure is a nasty, nasty little thing (which oddly ties to another recent White Wolf release as well. Nice.). The only thing worse than this weapon is what he finds in the epilogue, but that’s for you to read.

Chapter One, entitled “Storied Weapons,” let me know that this was not going to be the typical “gun locker” rulebook. The chapter is forty-two pages of stories about weapons. Here you find the history of the weapons, its stats, several plot hooks, and sometimes a picture (all of the weapons are also scored together on a handy graph). The weapons range from the expected (guns) to strange (strangling cords). Hands down, this is my favorite chapter in the book and fundamentally the most effective.

Next, Chapter Two details various “Fighting Styles.” This chapter echoes most closely to what I feared this book would be about; on the other hand, it evolves past those reservations quickly by offering just as many histories and ideas as the first chapter did. A layman’s understanding of various international fighting styles is detailed in tight writing. Of all the chapters, this one surprised me the most because I expected the least from it.

Chapter Three “Future Weapons” kicks off with artwork that could have made the cover of Macho Women With Guns. Readers are treated to the future in weaponry (future can mean a month from now). I personally liked the inspirations for this chapter (the Aliens and Terminator movies, First Person Shooters, and others) because it gives a clear idea of how useful (and useless) heavy weaponry can play into a game of intimate horror. Much of this chapter discusses how to get players into storylines involving sci-fi weaponry and there are some classic no-brainers and fresh tidbits. Most of the chapter though reveals nasty, nasty weaponry to introduce into World of Darkness games. They are the kinds of weapons that would make a rookie look at a pack of rabid lupines and say “I can do this.” Much like the Discovery Channel (another inspiration behind this chapter), you’ll learn something about weaponry after reading it.

The final chapter “Combat Hacks” gives players and Storytellers the means to make the rules system a little less forgiving or a little more Hollywood. Some of the rules allow for near instant kills while others permit infinite ammo. It’s a matter of seasoning for various gaming groups. “Hidden Health” is a personal favorite of mine. Don’t you just hate it when players crunch their health score before each round of a fight just to see how much they can push it?

Well, “Hidden Health” fixes that boo-boo right up. With names like “Meat Shield” and “Knife to a Fistfight,” you’re going to have fun reading this.

And that’s really the recurring theme here. You’re going to have fun reading this. The mission for White Wolf wasn’t to reinvent the wheel. It was to polish it. And they did a damn good job. Go sell your copy of Combat at your local game store and use the money to pick up this book. My scores for Armory Reloaded are:

Layout: Three out of Five Dice (just some questions with the bookmarking and backgrounds)
Artwork: Five out of Five Dice (one of my favorite collections in one book)
Writing: Five out of Five Dice (so far beyond what I expected with this book. Easy to
underestimate)
Overall: Four out of Five Dice (again, easy to overlook)

Review by Todd Cash

Aye Dark Overlord! defies precise description. It is at once a board game, card game and has elements of a party game and role-playing games as well. The players take on roles of sniveling servants of the Dark Overlord, a vengeful chap whose patience with his inept followers grows thin…

Players begin by randomly drawing a hand of six cards – three hint and three action cards. One player is selected to play the role of Rigor Mortis; the Dark Overlord of the title. Once the players have their cards in hand, the Dark Overlord addresses one of them by saying something like “So my faithful minions; I ordered you to kidnap the princess. Has this task been accomplished?” The player indicated must then fabricate a brief story – using the elements illustrated on the cards in the player’s hand — explaining why the task was not completed, and in so doing shifting the blame for the failure to one of the other players. The player must also play an Action card – indicating the direction in which the blame shift will move – along with the Hint card. If the effort to pass the buck has been successful, the player ends her turn by drawing a replacement hint card. The new servant under the Dark Overlord’s glaring eye must now come up with a tale of his own, or suffer the Dark Overlord’s wrath!

If at any time the Dark Overlord is unimpressed with the story, or the player is not able to deflect blame, the DO hands the player a Withering Look card. The upside to the Withering Look is that the receiving player discards her hand and draws three new hint and three new action cards. Players can only survive receiving two Withering Look cards; the third means the DO’s patience has run out, and the player’s character has been turned to ash or destroyed in some other painful and unpleasant fashion. The doomed player may beg for mercy at this point by playing an Action card with any symbol except a skull icon in the upper left corner; if the DO feels generous and grants mercy, the doomed player may draw a new action card, and play continues. If not, the player’s character is eliminated and the game ends. Players now count up the Hint cards they’ve played, and the winner is the player who has the most AND did not die at the hands of the Dark Overlord.

Aye, Dark Overlord tends to be a pretty free-form game; it works well with a group that is either familiar with each other, or is comprised of total strangers. There is much opportunity for humor and amateur theatrics here, but group newcomers might feel uncomfortable throwing themselves completely into this game. The game tends to be quick – half an hour or less seems standard. At four to six players, Aye, Dark Overlord! isn’t a tremendously versatile game, and the downside is that one person completely loses due to their character being killed, while the others only mostly lose by not having the most played cards in front of them. This could be a real bummer of an outcome of that one person…

Aye Dark Overlord! has been produced by no less than nine different publishers, including the Italian firm Stratelibri and, most recently, by Fantasy Flight Games. Its lack of overwhelming popularity might be due to the free-form nature of the game, which some die-hard gamers might find difficult to master. At the same time, it’s been in print for a number of years and stubbornly refuses to die, suggesting it’s worth a second look. Aye Dark Overlord! is an amusing game, and for the right crowd it could help foster a memorable evening’s entertainment.

Review by Bill Bodden

People often say that there are no such things as monsters. They are wrong. Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and other unnamable horrors co-exist with us. Watching us. Using us. Preying upon us.

Welcome to Pinebox, a sleepy little East Texas town with a lot more than its share of trouble. Whether it’s the haunted diner luring weary travelers, the unexplained ‘alligator attacks”, or the crone who just might be hexing neighborhood kids, trouble always seems to be hidden just below the surface. Buried, but not forgotten.

Join Editor Matt M. McElroy and unearth these tales of rural horror from a dozen voices of the macabre:

* Jason L Blair
* Preston P. DuBose
* Trey Gorden
* Derek Gunn
* Jess Hartley
* Shane Lacy Hensley
* Charles Rice
* Monica Valentinelli
* David Wellington
* Ed Wetterman
* J.D. Wiker
* Filamena Young

Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas is available at Amazon.com (print) and on the Kindle.

There is also an eBook format available at DriveThruHorror.com for $4.99.

Available at Amazon.com

Alara, once a beautiful land mass enriched with all the colors of mana, is now a shattered remnant of its former self. It is now divided into five separate planes, each one lacking in certain mana and overly abundant in others. Each plane takes on defining characteristics from each of its mana sources, making life on the planes a fight for survival.

The five planes are Bant, Esper, Grixis, Jund and Naya. Quickly to describe each plane here is a quick summary of each plane. Bant lacks black and red mana. Its citizens follow justice and a very high standard of nobility. Esper is a plane lacking Red and Green mana. Its plane is filled with tumultuous waters, mages and beautiful Sphinxes said to rule and offer great insight and guidance to those they feel worthy of talking to amongst the plane. Grixis is the dead plane, lacking white and green mana. This planes is filled with the practitioners of death magic. Necromancers, fleshcrafters and vampires all take life from the very plane itself. Jund is the plane which lacks blue and white mana. This is a land of dragons and fire. Jungles and wild denizens rule this plane. Naya lacks blue and black mana. Its citizens include Elves, leonine and many hedonistic humans. If it were not for the giant fearful beasts sometimes worshiped as gods this plane could be a paradise.

The guide itself does a very nice job breaking up the different planes. It gives quick rundowns on all the species you would find there, some brief history as well as each plane wishes to see. It also gives a very good indication of the dangers of traveling to each plane. A traveler can get a good sense of how to understand the culture they find themselves in.

After an overview of all the planes it also gives a well rounded layout of planeswalkers that can be found on each plane. It includes their species, current residence, home, and magic specialties. There is only one plane that does not have a listed resident planeswalker and that is Grixis. It is very clearly stated that Grixis should be a place to travel to study only, and to not make your home their too long. Death and plague rule the land, so it makes sense nobody wishes to live amongst that.

There are no maps included in the guide. That means a planeswalker has to rely on either citizen directions, or their own knowledge of navigation.

On the artistic side, the drawings and pictures offered in the book are amazing. As always Magic the Gathering has done a wonderful job in illustrating their world. There are both color as well as travel sketches of people, artifacts and monsters throughout the book. Many different artists offer a variety of styles and each plane that is depicted has a different feel as well. Each piece flows and offers a wonderful visual aid to help your imagination while reading of faraway lands.

This book a good read for many different reasons. For the geek in all of us, it is a setting for Magic the Gathering. How much geekier can you get then actually portraying dueling planeswalkers in certain lands, narrating your actions, magic and monsters? For those of us that appreciate art there is plenty of visual eye candy. For some of us that just like reading the stories that expand our imagination, roleplaying language or storytelling ability, this is a good reference for inspiration.

Some of the drawbacks are that the basic information about the mana in each plane is very hard to find. I had to flip around the book to find it. There are also no maps, not even one for how Alara is layed out. That can get kind of confusing when you think about how planeswalkers would travel around, which is one thing I questioned. Then again I am not a planeswalker, so that information may not be privy to me anyway.

The breakdown of the book, information within each chapter, and the visual aids all in this book make it definitely something worth checking out. It added more to my plain dueling decks I bought in this setting then just epic Angel vs. Demons battling it out. It gives meaning to many of the flavor texts, art and overall concepts to the deck. Another addition to this book would be the planes based decks, such as Bant on the March and Grixis Shambling Army.

Review by Crystal Mazur

Cubicle 7 Entertainment and Adamant Entertainment are pleased to announce they have formed a publishing partnership.

The deal sees Cubicle 7 handling production and marketing for Adamant’s print products, starting with Mars: Savage Worlds Edition in September. This fantastic Savage Worlds setting features sky-corsairs, ancient cities, warrior tribes and albino apes – the Mars of pulp fiction and Saturday morning serials.

Following in October is Thrilling Tales – a great blend of classic pulse-pounding excitement from the pulp magazines and cliffhanger serials of the 1930s and 40s, again using the award-winning Savage Worlds system.

“Adamant Entertainment are an Origins and Ennies Awards nominated company and Gareth-Michael Skarka is a visionary in the gaming field so we’re obviously delighted to have him, and his company, on board,” said Dominic McDowall-Thomas of Cubicle 7, “creating a partnership between the two companies has been something we’ve long spoken about and with the plans that Gareth has in place for the next few years I’m overjoyed that we can part of that process and dream.”

“I’ve been continually impressed by the talent, drive and enthusiasm that the Cubicle 7 crew bring to their projects, and I’m pleased that Adamant can now be a part of that,” added Gareth-Michael Skarka, Director of Adamant Entertainment. “We’ve been on the same metaphorical page for a few years now, offering each other advice and assistance from time to time, so having the partnership ‘go public’ is very exciting.”

About Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd
Founded in 2006 Cubicle 7 Entertainment was set up by Angus Abranson and Dominic McDowall-Thomas, two gaming entrepreneurs who wanted to create a games publisher fostering some truly iconic brands. Since then the company has published role playing games from a growing list of properties including Victoriana, SLA Industries, Starblazer Adventures (based on DC Thomson’s 80’s Starblazer comic series) and 7th Circle’s Chinese fantasy Qin. In June 2009 Cubicle 7 announced it had joined the Rebellion Group.

Victoriana is a fabulous fusion of Victorian adventure and fantasy myth, SLA Industries is a gritty futuristic urban horror fuelled by classic British punk imagery, whilst Starblazer Adventure is set firmly in the heart of classic 80’s space opera where gigantic fleets prowl the starlanes and devilish scientists operate enormous engines of destruction. The English translation of French publisher 7th Circle’s Qin propels players in to the epic fantasies and tragic events of ancient Chinese legend.

About Adamant Entertainment
Adamant Entertainment has been at the forefront of the electronic publishing segment of the games industry for five years, offering innovation and standard-setting performance for digital delivery of RPGs. In 2007, Adamant was featured in an Associated Press article spotlighting the growth of the ePublishing industry, which was carried in publications ranging from the Washington Post to the South China Morning Post, and online via dozens of sites, including, CNNMoney, ABCNews.com and the Nintendo Wii News Channel.

Adamant Entertainment’s expanding list of RPG properties include the critically-acclaimed Thrilling Tales pulp series and the forthcoming Tales of New Crobuzon, a licensed fantasy role-playing game based in the world of acclaimed author China Miéville. The company is currently developing a number of web series properties, which will including RPG support among other merchandising options.

Available at RPGNow.com

Blood Drive ($6.99 PDF) is the newest installment from White Wolf’s Storytelling Adventure System. This Hunter: the Vigil adventure offers an action-oriented romp for slightly seasoned characters (XP 25-29). This adventure plays on a personal favorite of mine. It’s the classic tale of the supposedly “easy job” that becomes something else altogether. At eleven scenes and forty-six pages (none of which are ads), this is a healthy night’s adventure or (more likely) multiple sessions of fun.

The direction of this adventure, like other White Wolf products I’ve recently reviewed, continues to impress me. The layout of the adventure offers both the detailed story, which the Storyteller will have to go over and a collection of Scene Cards to act as Storyteller cheat sheets.

You keep the full file on a nearby laptop while just maintaining a few scant pages of Scene Cards at the game table. How easy is that? There are also a few handouts to be printed for those gaming groups that enjoy a tangible clue every now and then. The layout of the adventure looks great and no distractions. I especially like the look of this adventure’s Scene Cards.

The art of the adventure lends itself to the artwork in other Hunter: the Vigil books. Most are sketches while one is an enhanced photo. Matt Dixon’s piece on page 25, which depicts a priest forcing a confession, is doubtlessly my favorite bit of artwork in this adventure. Like most of the SAS line, artwork takes a backseat to story. Most of the text’s artwork is reserved for character pics and props. I think this makes perfect sense from the publisher’s perspective and contributes to an overall better product. I’ve seen too many modules with plenty of art and sporadic writing. That just doesn’t work.

I’ve already mentioned that this adventure works best with seasoned characters. There are two reasons for this. One, the threats in the game aren’t to be sneezed at. Two, this adventure works really well as part of an on-going campaign. The gist of the story is this: the players are “given” a vampire to transport from Philadelphia to Chicago (it isn’t paramount that these two cities are used, but the distance should be roughly the same). Most Hunters would just want to kill the bloodsucker; however, this particular vamp claims to seek redemption and also promises to reveal some high-level supernatural secrets.

Of course, there is a small amount of lies tied into things as well.

Before the players know it, they are being tailed by multiple entities seeking to kill their “package;” furthermore, their secret-laced penitent has his own agenda to complete. What works about the writing to Blood Drive is the care to make it make sense. In a relative small amount of space, it addresses a yawning stretch of possibilities. Multiple bits of information is possible for the vampire to offer the team (not to mention what individual Storytellers may incorporate). There is also discussion on each compact and conspiracy in regards to how they view this story of redemption and information. Some care about both; most don’t. The feeling is that everyone is playing the characters. Perhaps there is a reason for that. I was surprised that this adventure didn’t offer a bit more to its mental and social ratings.

The scores are mental (2), physical (5), and social (2); however, it doesn’t really feel like this will always turn into that sort of adventure. I saw it more as a mental (3), physical (4), and social (3) adventure simply due to its depth.

At the cost of a movie ticket, this PDF will provide more than a night’s entertainment. It’s an excellent SAS addition and probably the one I’d most recommend from those I’ve read. My scores for it are:

Layout: Five out of Five Dice (No Waste)
Artwork: Three out of Five Dice (character pics were somewhat uninspired)
Writing: Five out of Five Dice (intricate plot)
Overall: Four out of Five Dice (lots of potential)

Review by Todd Cash

Wizards of the Coast LLC today announced the October 6 release of its first-ever Magic: The Gathering graphic anthology, Path of the Planeswalker. This 192-page action-packed collection combines the entire Planeswalker web comic series, as well as a never-before-seen bonus comic for MSRP $19.95.

In this popular anthology, readers get adventures from all their favorite planeswalkers including battles between mind-mage Jace Beleren and the impulsive pyromancer Chandra Naalar. The mercurial necromancer Liliana Vess tangles with the savage Garruk Wildspeaker and readers learn more of the artificer Tezzeret’s past with the Seekers of Carmot.

Path of the Planewalker represents the high quality story-telling readers have come to expect from the world’s most popular trading card game, Magic: The Gathering. It features lavish illustrations by some of the industry’s best known artists such as Mark Texeira, Christopher Moeller, Jason Shawn Alexander, and Aleksi Briclot. For more information on Path of the Planeswalker and other Magic novels, visit www.wizards.com/magicnovels.

About Wizards of the Coast:
Wizards of the Coast is the leader in entertaining the lifestyle gamer. The company holds an exclusive patent on trading card games (TCGs) and their method of play and produces the premier trading card game, MAGIC: THE GATHERING(r), among many other trading card games and family card and board games. Wizards is also a leading publisher of roleplaying games, such as DUNGEONS & DRAGONS(r), and publisher of fantasy series fiction with numerous New York Times best-sellers. For more information, visit the Wizards of the Coast website at www.wizards.com.

Science.
Research.
Knowledge.

The human intellect knows no bounds because of them.

We’ve built cities and nations upon them.

We’ve stopped the spread of terrible diseases because of what we’ve learned from them.

Lives have been saved . . . but lives also have been lost.

Now those lives have returned from the grave, seeking revenge.

Sometimes . . . science goes wrong.

Death.
Destruction.
Zombies.

Featuring the terrifying tales of 13 authors, Dead Science brings you stories of the undead unlike any you’ve ever read before. Prepare to go behind-the-scenes and learn about the causes of various zombie uprisings and the havoc these creatures wreak upon the living.

Stories by: Gustavo Bondoni, Eric S. Brown, Michael Cieslak, Lorne Dixon, Anthony Giangregorio, Glen Held, Becca Morgan, Mark Onspaugh, Gina Ranalli, Vincent L. Scarsella, Jason V. Shayer, Ryan C. Thomas and Adam J. Whitlatch.

Dead Science is available in eBook format at DriveThruHorror.com.

Available at RPGNow.com

“The Malleus Monstrorum: Creatures, Gods & Forbidden Knowledge” is a supplement for the Call of Cthulhu RPG by Chaosium Inc. The book includes entries on all of the creatures described in the works of H.P. Lovecraft as well as other authors who dabbled in the Cthulhu Mythos, such as Ramsey Campbell and Clark Ashton Smith. Also included are some of the critters created specifically for CoC adventures and supplements.

Overall the Monstrorum is an excellent book, not only for CoC players, but for any fan of Lovecraft or the Mythos. It is a great source of adventure ideas just in reading the creature descriptions and story excerpts. Fans of the source material will enjoy having so many bizarre creatures in one volume, while those new to the Mythos will find themselves looking up the source material to learn more about the Elder Gods and their servants.

The Monstrorum gives a small fiction excerpt at the beginning of each entry, then a more in-depth description of the creature and how they fit into the Mythos. Special attacks are described as well as unusual or unique abilities. Each entry also gives complete CoC stats.

The Mythos creatures are divided into a few main categories, grouping most of them as Servitor Races (those that directly serve the Cthulhu Mythos), Independent Races (those that are just bad on their own), Deities (which include the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods), and unique and mythical beings.

There also is a section on mundane animals, in case your investigator ever needs to wrestle a squirrel or step on a scorpion.

Several extra sections are included, such as a pronunciation guide while helps you correctly say “Ycnagnnisssz” (ee-kannig-NISZ) or “Yig” (YIG). There also is a section on describing the indescribable, creating your own horrid abomination and one on The Dreamlands.

The only area of disappointment for me in the Monstrorum was the section on more “traditional” supernatural menaces, like vampires, mummies and werewolves. In all honesty, this was the most boring section of the book. Each creature is presented in the most “classic” depiction, which we’ve seen hundreds of times before. I was excited to see a Cthulhu-twist on vampires and werewolves, but instead found them very flat and see no reason to ever have one of these critters in a CoC game when I have more than a hundred better critters to choose from.

The illustrations throughout are fantastic, and could easily act as player aids. All are presented as historical artifacts which depict the subtle and insidious influence of the Mythos on all aspects of humanity, from artwork on pottery to wood carvings to newspaper clippings to old-time traveling circus posters that hint at things obscene and wicked.

Another incredible part of the book are the journal entries of Sir Hansen Poplan. Scattered throughout the book are these excerpts from the works of an explorer who skirted the edge of the Mythos throughout his career, uncovering dark secrets and attempting to inform and warn future investigators. Again any of these journal entries could be used as player aides or the starting point of an investigation.

I have to give this book high marks, high enough in fact to say this is a necessity for any Call of Cthulhu game (simply for its reference and game aids) or any H.P.Lovecraft/Mythos fan.

Review by Michael Erb

To celebrate the launch of his new book, The Dragon Hunters, author Paul Genesse is offering a trailer designed to tell you a little bit about this fantasy book. If you’re a fan of Paul’s work, you’ll want to follow up with him at the GenCon 2009 Writer’s Symposium and in Author’s Alley to get your book signed.

Be sure to visit the official website www.paulgenesse.com for more information.

It’s difficult to imagine the miniatures world without Privateer Press in it, yet this company has been in existence for less than seven years. With their breakout hit Monsterpocalypse and their solid Warmachine and Hordes skirmish-level combat lines, Privateer Press is well-situated to be a force in the industry for years to come.

The Warmachine and Hordes product lines mesh well with dark fantasy, as they have a number of factions tailor-made for people of such inclinations. A perfect example is the Gorax, a light warbeast from the Circle Orboros faction in Hordes. The Gorax, looking very troll-like – or even like an Oni from Oriental mythology – strains at the chain that holds him to a large boulder. The pose is interesting and well-executed, and the figure’s rippling musculature and tufts of scraggly hair combine to give this model a ton of character. At a $17 MSRP, this model is a smidge pricey, but a first-class sculpt never the less.

Two factions in particular caught my eye amongst the Warmachine product line: Cryx, the faction of industrial zombies, and Mercenaries. From the Cryx faction we have two representatives: a Pistol Wraith and Revenant Pirates. The Pistol Wraith is an independent model, and this pose shows the fearsome creature firing one pistol with the other held in reserve. For my money, this is a beautiful sculpt – well-proportioned and animated – you can almost feel the wind that’s making its scarf and cloak billow. The pose itself is nothing special, but the level of detail lavished on this figure is stunning. One small complaint: the head of this model seems a bit small for the body. At $8, this fellow seems a bit on the pricey side, but only a little.

The Revenant Pirates are very handsome figures. Created by the half mechanic, half necromancer Cryx necrotecs, these undead sailors crew the notorious blackships. The models I received had separate arms and heads, but no spares. This allows for a modest amount of creativity in personalizing the models by switching around heads and arms, but an extra arm or head thrown in would be nice to allow for more variety. Their swords are huge compared to their bodies – a popular design choice these days, but to me they look out of place. $10 for two is a pretty reasonable price for these guys.

Lastly we have the Mercenaries faction, represented by the Risen. Based on characters from the original Iron Kingdoms setting book and adventures, these undead served the teen-aged necromancer Alexia Ciannor in her quest for revenge. The Privateer sculptors have a true flair for undead, and these boys are no exception. The pack I received included three models, all unarmed, all wearing ragged clothing with bits and pieces of armor. The poses look natural if not too dynamic, and at a $10 MSRP for three figures, the Risen pack is the best deal among those packs I received.

Privateer is clearly doing things right; they have a devoted and growing following, and their models are first-rate quality. In the future I would love to see them give more credit to their sculptors; With Privateer Chief Creative Officer Matt Wilson as a name artist in the industry himself, I would think he’d be more keenly aware of the power of name marketing. While they do credit their sculptors in their bi-monthly magazine No Quarter, having something on the package itself might be more direct.Privateer’s sculptors are good enough that it’s worth noting who they are in order to buy more of their work. Privateer’s products are worth noting too; they bring solid craftsmanship and fun, well-designed games to the table.

Visit www.privateerpress.com for more information.

Bill Bodden

Available at DriveThruHorror.com

Most players enjoy something tangible given to them in a game. It can be as simple as dice, poker chips, and a character sheet; nevertheless, the experience deepens when newspaper articles, photos, and varied memorabilia are also handed out. People are bound by their senses.

The more senses used during a game greatly intensifies the overall experience. Attack them all. While the Testament of Longinus (PDF $7.99) won’t smell like a centuries old text, it’s still a masterfully fun little addition to the World of Darkness (and you can always check-out an old book from the library to relate that old smell for your players). This psudo-document follows the story of a self-described “antichrist” as he moves from criminal to vampire to . . . something more.

I normally go over a game’s layout first, but I’ll tackle artwork first today. The reason is simple. The nature of this product permits it to have no artwork. While it is true that some holy texts do have classically rendered art plates within them, most don’t. The “no artwork” decision works perfectly for this little manifesto. I italicize that statement because the cover is still a piece of fantastic art. Its design reflects the soft aged leather of a forgotten book, obviously using the Bible as inspiration. I hope White Wolf offers a print run of this tidy little beast as most self-printing jobs will not do it justice. After all, this is billed as an “in-game prop.”

Layout still exists. A problem exists when creating these great little in-game props. With marketing woes, there has to be some indication of the copyright, authors, PDF ownership stamp, and so forth. The layout of this book permitted this to be a very minuscule distraction. The PDF has several blank pages, which were a little annoying to me. Overall, the positives outweighed the negatives when it came to the final product. The book looks and reads like a cross between the Bible and a journal of religious essays. The structure of the book lends perfectly to this.

Since the Testament of Longinus is pure text, it seems a bit unfair to judge its layout. Only through sheer incompetence would this project get messed up and White Wolf isn’t known for blanket failures like that.

One deeply amusing thing about reading this book is the journal portion of the book. In it, the writers critique the pseudo-religious text, bickering about the changes in authors and so forth. The writers did a fantastic job sounding like different authors, spanning across hundreds of years. In a sense, the journal portion of the book offers a rich review of the testament portion.

Fun, fun stuff.

Fans of White Wolf’s other prop titles like the Book of Nod will get the most from this product. On the flip side, it is also the rare kind of RPG accessory that can garnish the wrong kind of attention. Although it pains me to admit it, there are things in the book that could easily fuel the anti-rpg or Bible-beating community. For those who forget that it is pure fiction, the account of a horribly debauched criminal can become a case study of the kind of “ideals” gamers strive towards. Coupled with the unique treatment and layout of the book, it could be a conversation starter. A full reading of the book would discredit them right away, but full readings don’t always occur. I only mention this because I was one of those kids with worrisome parents. The Book of Nod caught all the wrong kinds of attention from them over ten years ago.

Defending one’s hobby can be a good thing though, especially when you’re prepared for it. The crowd that may not appreciate this book are those seeking out hard-game material. There is nothing in the book to stat out Longinus. No graphs. No weapons lists for Roman Centurions. This is pure fiction.

The material in the book can quickly put characters on a quest for the mystical Longinus. He’s another Caine, Christ, or Boogeyman. His story and accomplishments are envied by too many factions for this book not to have impact in most Vampire or even Hunter games. With the correct angle, it could even be brought into a fully different system. Who is to say a Delta Green cell wouldn’t want to find and destroy such a sanity-splitting tome?

All in all, I think this book is a great addition. I’d prefer it to be a print release just because it would feel closer to its intended purpose. My scores for this gaming prop are:

Layout: Five out of Five Dice
Artwork: Five out of Five Dice (Loved the worn look to the tome)
Writing: Four out of Five Dice (Mostly engaging)
Overall: Four (and a half) out of Five Dice (Might be too dry for some tastes)

Review by Todd Cash

Available at Amazon.com

The latest book in the ongoing saga of vampire hunter Laura Caxton, 23 Hours details the most harrowing and dangerous battle yet. Laura has to not only deal with savage vampires and the violent “half-deads” that serve them…she has to do it with almost no weapons, no back-up and an ever dwindling time-line.

While this book does change in scene from the previous books, Laura still gets to hunt vampires while outgunned and lost in the dark. This time she is confined to a maximum security prison that has been overrun by the monsters. She hardly has any weapons and no communication with the outside world. To make things more interesting, she made “friends” with some very nasty inmates early on the story…naturally, they are on the loose as well during the battle and they don’t want to make things any easier for Laura or her allies.

The action keeps going in this volume, even more than the previous book, Vampire Zero. In that book readers got to know a few new characters and learn a little more history regarding Jameson Arkely and his family. In this book Laura has to keep moving and keep fighting pretty much non-stop. She is on a deadline (hence the title) but she never knows just who or what is going to be waiting around the corner.

The primary antagonist in this story is Justina Malvern, the old hag of vampire who has been around since the very beginning of the series. This time she has consumed enough blood to be mobile and no longer needs to be carried around by younger vampires. This makes for a very, very dangerous opponent. She does have several half-deads and even turns a couple of hard-core prison inmates into vampires early on in the story. I don’t want to spoil very much, but some of these folks are very, very nasty.

The book ends on a massive cliff-hanger that had me slightly frustrated (I want to know what happens next) and somewhat happy at the same time (hey, we get another book!). Laura’s adventures are not over and she has a little more hunting yet to do.

So, if you are looking for a violent, bloody vampire hunting tale, this series is worth the investment. I’d highly recommend starting with 13 Bullets and working your way through them. You certainly can read this book as a stand alone tale, but you’ll miss out on the personal history between Laura and Malvern that gets deeper throughout the story.

Review by Matt M McElroy