Adrian Tchaikovsky ★★★★ The Doors of Eden isn’t so much genre spanning as genre destroying. It begins with a pair of cryptozoologists hunting for birdmen on Bodmin Moor, and ends with… well, that would be spoiling it. Along the way, it flits through virtually every fiction genre going, with so many twists and turns that…… Continue reading The Doors of Eden
Category: Fantasy
Trying to Live Happily Ever After
Clive Lilwall ★ Trying to Live Happily Ever After is a shortish anthology containing 17 very short stories which aim to give an update and twist on old fairy tales and fables. Drawing from the works of such luminaries as Aesop, the Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen, Lilwall had a rich vein of stories…… Continue reading Trying to Live Happily Ever After
The Constant Rabbit
Jasper Fforde ★★★★ Nobody knows why or how The Event occurred, but in 1965, 18 rabbits were transformed into human-sized and vaguely human-shaped versions of themselves overnight. Since then, they have done what rabbits do, and Britain has divided into those who are happy with or ambivalent about our new lagomorphic citizens. When Constance Rabbit…… Continue reading The Constant Rabbit
A Cosmology of Monsters
Sean Hamill ★★★★★ I thought this was going to be an easy review to write, but so much of the story relies on the reader not knowing what’s coming. I’ve got a whole list of symbolism and elements [flashback to A-Level English Lit], and I can’t mention 99% of it because it would spoil the…… Continue reading A Cosmology of Monsters
Panik
Chris Selwyn James ★★ It starts in Oxford. At first, they thought it was murder, but it soon became clear that the victims were doing it to themselves. Cases increase on a nightly basis, for it is sleep that triggers the Panic. The only way to guarantee making it through the night is not to…… Continue reading Panik
Speak
Mary O. Paddock ★★★★ Instead of following her brother into the family business, Ellen made the stupid (according to her father) decision to become a journalist. Now she’s writing obituaries at a local paper, and living in her parent’s basement, avoiding contact with as many people as possible (especially if those people might be blind…… Continue reading Speak
Forgotten Ones
Edited by A. Robertson-Webb & M. River ★★ Forgotten Ones is a collection of more than two hundred tales, stories of the old gods, fabulous creatures and a cornucopia of beings from myths and legends all over the world. Two hundred stories in a single book? Surely not, the book would be enormous! Ah, but…… Continue reading Forgotten Ones
Cryptofauna
Patrick Canning ★★★★ Working as a janitor St. Militrude’s Home for the Insane and Elderly, Jim considers his existence to be meaningless, so decides to commit a clean, quiet and respectful suicide. Just before he swallows his pills, an elderly resident whisks him off down a previously non-existent staircase, and a few minutes later Jim…… Continue reading Cryptofauna
The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep
H.G. Parry ★★★★★ When Robert gets a middle-of-the-night call from his little brother Charley, he feels justifiably aggrieved: he’d been promised that it wouldn’t happen again. He had a case to take to trial in just a few hours, and instead of getting a decent night’s sleep he was dragging himself out of bed and…… Continue reading The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep
The Book Dragon 