Havok’s new anthology promises to take us on a world tour of stories set around the Earth. For this Havok anthology, I rated each story based on three categories: story, mechanics, and theme. The story rating is how much it entertained, its creativity, the stakes/conflict. In essence, how moving was […]
Morgan L. Busse’s Blood Secrets is the second of the Skyworld duology. In SkyWorld, the land has been overridden with a green mist containing deadly spores that reanimate corpses. Called “The Turned,” these zombie-like creatures roam the countryside. But the mist hasn’t reached the higher altitudes, so many people live […]
Children of the Wild by debut author Krysta Tawlks is a historical fantasy about magic and creatures with a hint of steampunk. But what it’s really about is family, loss, guilt, and revelations. While the setting may adhere close to certain Steinbeck novels—a rare choice for a fantasy novel—the plot […]
Tim Powers is a name more people should know. His The Annubis Gates and Declare novels are essential reading to any speculative fiction fan. And his On Stranger Tides populated many of the ideas of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, not only the fourth one. Now he’s back with […]
C. Rae D’Arc continues her Sleeping Princesses series with the third entry, Little Red and the Lumpy Bed. This series mashes together famous fairytale princesses in a fantasy land known as Somnus. All is well until someone starts poisoning the princesses. The oldest princess, Garnet, administers a potion to slow […]
Legend of the Tempest Teaser is the third entry in the award-winning Stormwatch Diaries series. This MG / YA offering by Kristiana Sfirlea advances the characters and plot of the first two novels of a world populated by character angels, inherent magical abilities, ghost wargs, time paradoxes, sentient stormclouds, and […]
Award-winning author Beka Gremikova has written many short stories that have been published online and in anthologies. In Unexpected Encounters of a Draconic Kind and Other Stories, she collects several of her stories into one offering. A reader who enjoys a variety of speculative fiction will certainly appreciate this gem […]
Full disclosure that I’m a contributor in this anthology. This review focuses on the other stories in the collection except mine. Don’t Go in the Water is the third in the Classic Monster Series from Ye Olde Dragon Press. After tackling the wolfman and the Frankenstein monster, the publishers have […]
Abigail Manning writes fairytale and nursery rhyme retellings set in many realms: the Emerald Realm, the Ruby Realm, etc. In this story, she weaves a tale out of not only fairy tales but Halloween, including monster archetypes. Welcome to The Shadow Realm. The full title is The Shadow Realm: A […]
Potion is the first in a set of planned novels by Dorlana Vann in the Witchy Fairy Tale series. The narrative was assembled from a Kindle Vella offering into a novel for consumers who binge watch an entire series rather than week by week (raises hand). Melrose is a loner […]