My Goodreads Reading Challenge aim for 2021 was to read 200 books, having missed that number by four in 2020. It was a fairly lofty target, given that I’d closed my business down for a couple of months in 2021 due to Covid-19, which gave me so much more time to curl up with a…… Continue reading The Five Star Reads of 2021
Category: Short stories
Seasonal Reading Suggestions
Yule blessings, merry Christmas, happy holidays – basically, whatever flavour your late December may be, have a good one. If you’re looking for something seasonal to read, then I humbly recommend the following mixed bag of offerings. The Christmas ThingyF. Paul Wilson Eight-year-old Jessica Atkins wants a monster for Christmas. Not a big, mean monster;…… Continue reading Seasonal Reading Suggestions
The Essential John Wyndham: The Pulp Fiction Collection
John Wyndham, edited by Christopher Broschell ★★★ Whether they realise it or not, most people will be passingly familiar with at least one John Wyndham work, even if they’ve only seen it on film or TV and took no notice of the writer’s name in the credits. The most common is probably The Day of…… Continue reading The Essential John Wyndham: The Pulp Fiction Collection
Howls from Hell
Foreword by Grady Hendrix ★★★ The HOWL (Horror-Obsessed Writing and Literature) Society came to being as a subreddit gathering of horror fans and writers, and, as the saying goes, the rest is history. Howls from Hell is their first anthology, featuring sixteen emerging authors. Anthologies are always a mixed bag, but they are a great…… Continue reading Howls from Hell
One Day All This Will Be Yours
Adrian Tchaikovsky ★★★ “Nobody know where they were when the Causality War started.” At some point in the past, the Causality War began. Nobody knows who started it, when it was started, or exactly how it was started. It was not a war of bombs and guns, but a war that weaponised time itself. Once…… Continue reading One Day All This Will Be Yours
Urban Enemies
Edited by Joseph Nassise ★★★ Anthologies are a wonderful way to find ‘new’ authors, and are a bit like a day trip. You get to dip into new worlds, have a quick look around, and decide if you’d like to return for a proper holiday. Sometimes all the authors are unknown to you, other times…… Continue reading Urban Enemies
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
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
The Neighbour’s Cat
J.S. Ellis ★★★ In the short story The Neighbour’s Cat, Ellis introduces us to Theodore, a little black-and-white cat who just so happens to be owned by a serial killer. Theodore’s owner develops a worrying fixation with the married woman living in the opposite house leaving the cat, fearing for her life, no option but…… Continue reading The Neighbour’s Cat
The Book Dragon 