Shores of Night

What do we mean by patriotism? It seems simple, a love of country, a pride in country that does not reach the heights of jingoism, or nationalism. My country right or wrong, but without the nastier connotations of superiority, ethnic cleansing or simple lunacy that these last two elements can contain. A love of country that draws the line at marching headlong and blindly into a war that will kill most of a generation, as it did in World War One. Is it so straightforward though; are we actually so blind as to hand-wave everything away under the strains of Rule Britannia or the Star Spangled Banner (or whichever national anthem you choose to mention)? A note here: I don't consider myself particularly patriotic. There are things I'm proud of, that happened in my country; I'm not sure if that's sufficient to make me dyed in the wool. In the way of these things, one of those internet quizzes you find at sites like Buzz Feed or Play Buzz, got me thinking about what it mea...

On Saturday Eve and I made our annual pilgrimage to Derby for Edge Lit, a one day convention for Fantasy, SF and Horror. It's a small affair, but that only makes it better and more impressive. This year it was particularly nice to see that despite the fact they've slashed the number of panels, the day was still busy and there seemed to be a bustling crowd, one that seemed larger than in previous years. Our first event was Mike Carey (now publishing under the name M R Carey, the R is because M J Carey takes you to an erotica writer on Good Reads apparently), as he did readings and a Q&A.  I'm not sure what the first thing he read was, beyond it being a very human tale of punishment in a prison, but the second was from the second book of short stories he has written with his wife and daughter, The House of War and Witness. Both tales were compelling and the imagery they evoked was stark and fascinating. The second story in particular was very strong, but I may have like...

I love vampires, though I do think they're overused. There's something iconic about them that is attractive and their games, the cut and thrust of vampire politics, coupled with their exotic, sensuous nature makes them attractive. I'm trying to stick to literature only here, so I'm skipping over the likes of Spike, Angel and the like . I do wish there were more strong female vampires, admittedly but the way the genre has evolved still harks back to Lord Ruthven and Lord Byron (upon whom Ruthven was based). Zillah: Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite A novel set in the sleazy, liminal, back worlds of the American nightmare, replete with runaways and auto eroticism, Zillah is in many ways the perfect vampire for the times.   Omnisexual, hedonistic and cruel, he is the leader of his pack, a surrogate father who guides their steps. The fact that he usually leads them to the next meal or debauchery is perhaps something we should overlook. His influence runs throughout the no...

The Strange & Numenera The Bestiary An alien machine A database of marvels… and monsters A quest to catalogue the fauna and flora of the multiverse Unlikely heroes lost in a web of worlds Join the quest to explore new worlds and catalogue their species. Plunge into the Strange Dark Energy Network A campaign for the Strange Will you ever make it home? Strange Horizons The bodies were found in a Rio de Janeiro nightclub A new drug was in their system Something that isn’t local…. That isn’t from Earth. Now the hunt is on for the source An investigation that will lead to new worlds New dangers A campaign for the Strange Run to the edge, don’t look back. Numenera: Impossible City A city in the middle of the desert A map to something strange And conspiracy lurking in the shadows Will you discover the city’s secrets? Will you break its code? Or perish amongst its ever changing avenues? Join the Univer...

A bleak novel, certainly bleaker than you might expect from a novel written in the 1950s Death of Grass centres on the spread of the Chung Li virus, which attacks rice initially before mutating to attack all known grasses causing a famine. The novel centres upon a family, the Custances, who flee London with some friends and with a mysterious and often overly helpful man named Pirrie, as the country slides into martial law and chaos when the starvation caused by Chung Li's spread starts to bite. The characters' goal is Westmorland Valley, in Cumbria, where John Custance's brother David lives. Along the way they suffer horrific attacks, traumatic events and worse. As with a lot of post apocalypse novels the cause of the apocalypse is less important than its fallout. The novel is a study in societal collapse, that old axiom that civilisation is three meals away from anarchy figures strongly in the narrative.Tribalism, distrust, and gang violence prosper as the famine bites a...