Saturday 27 June 2015

Family Man & Time by Andrew Lennon




This starts off with the story of a man losing his family in a shocking way, but begs the question of why.

It then switches to two teenages, Gavin && Paul, with very opposing families but both boys striving to be good.

The story is full of violence with lots of questions as to why this is happening, but no real ending or reason for the violent occurrences.

Whilst I do love the was AL writes, its so concise and full of promised, this little story really lacked any direction for me but I think with some more twisting and background this could be a really great full length novel, in a twilight zone type of way.

There is just something missing currently.


Family Man






Told in the first person, this story begins with a young man, in a happily married situation coming home to a “special meal”.

The first paragraph was a little contradictory, the narrator talks of his house and the soon to be baby room etc but then feigns ignorance when the wife says no wine for me over dinner! 

I thought the next few sentences a little cliché but went with it as I am learning to love this author and his precise way of describing each minute thing. Then something strange happens and all known elements are changed.

I wasn’t really sure if I liked this story or not. It takes a very complex disease and glosses over it but it also has a feeling that this could be a really intricate story if pulled our slightly and the missing parts addressed.  It almost felt rushed and not thought through properly but still has some real writing/story telling skill.

Time

Sunday 14 June 2015

Collateral Damage (Demon Squad 8) by Tim Marquitz




The acknowledgements at the starts of books are always lovely, however the story behind one the characters in this book is heartbreaking; way to go TM on supporting amazing people.

This chapter of the Demon Squad universe starts off in the usual TM tongue in cheek humour way!  Frank and Karra have finally got their little bundle of joy, Abigail.

However, peace never reigns for long in the Trigg household as Trinity, the new murderous baddies on the scene, raise the roof and bring mayhem and murder.

Trinity (you know, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost) are on a mission for revenge and blood but they are not alone, in fact they have some old enemies of Triggs to back them up and make his life miserable, as he has to move back into Hell to live everything is relative.

Some nice little reminders of previous goings on are cleverly interjected to bring readers up to speed and refresh memories of characters, doings and places.

TM still manages to weave a complex, yet easy to follow, web of intrigue deftly laced with religious “history” making use of folklore to his advantage.

I am always delighted to see that CB (Chatterbox) is still going strong, he of the fine voice and maggoty eyeballs.

Grenade boy wins the most gruesome death award in this book – eeeeew. Although another character does come to a rather sticky end late in the story.


Bonus Content – short story of Lucifer
Lucifer is busy killing other “Devils” on alien planets, all at God’s Will to thwart the onslaught of the Aliterean Consortium gaining ground, and enjoying it.

A 20min read of wonderful fight sequences and the brilliant imagination of TM as he thinks up new critters on foreign worlds.

The reason behind the advancing forces of the Consortium finally being revealed, but to what end?

2nd Bonus Content!
A little ditty called the Great Brain Robbery! Just enjoy :)





Saturday 6 June 2015

The Bear Who Wouldn't Leave by JH Moncrieff





I have to comment on the cover, it’s one of the scariest things I have seen in a long time. It was cruel of JHM and her cover artist Scott Carpenter to do this to a much loved childhood item, 43years later I still have my Grey Ted, the magic bear. If I thought he might grow teeth or do some of the horrific things that Edgar does I would be devastated.

Josh is the narrator of this particular childhood fears book, in what promises to be a superb series from Samhain publishers. 

Still deeply grieving the sudden death of his Father Josh is reluctant to take the ugly bear that Michael, the new man in the house, new husband and very unwanted stepfather, has given him.  

Edgar is an ugly, evil looking bear, and far to childish for the nearly grown up ten year old Josh to play with.  Edgar is soon banished to the closet, but he is a bear who wants to play whether you want to or not. 

Had to love Sean the substitute best friend and his strange swearing combinations, what a fabulous character.

Soon Edgar the Ugly is up to no good and Josh gets the blame and subsequent severe punishments.

I often felt that the real monster was clearly the step father who does some seriously grotesque and torturous things to a young boy, clearly still grieving the loss of his beloved father. A father who is still very present in Josh’s life via dreams and fear induced hazes.

Initially I felt all the hocus pocus was in Josh’s imagination but things soon take a real turn for reality, or supernatural!  A brilliant little scare tactic.

As Josh and Sean hatch plans to murder the bear in several ways I could not help but find the humour in it, JHM has a clever way of writing that makes even the serious have an edge of humour.

Murdering an evil bear though is not that simple, each attempt seems to come back with added extras for poor Josh.  The ending is left ambiguous – usually I hate when that happens but this has been written in such a way that to tidy the end would have taken some of the eeek out!

This is a first novella for JHM and I hope its not the last, her writing is very clean with great characters and a clear story line, attention to detail has clearly been taken.