BOOK LAUNCH: The Magick of Chaos by Ricardo Victoria - and why you should read it!

Look, I'll be honest here - Ricardo Victoria is my buddy. We've sparred it out in gaming sessions over the years - mostly Heroclix, for those who have dabbled. He's come after my X-Men. I've gone after his Superman. War has been waged with a growl and a shake of the dice. 

He's also a damn fine writer. If you've ever read my reviews, you'll have seen his books feature. Because they're damn fine. And his new one is out today. 

Never judge a book by the cover, they say, but... well, look at this beauty. 

The Magick of Chaos is the latest in Ricardo's Tempest Blades series, and I've waxed lyrical about the earlier books in that series on this very blog. 

For the first book, The Withered King, I said that trying to contain Ricardo's ideas is "like trying to contain jelly with elastic bands. He's exuberant, he's bubbly - and he's bristling with imagination."

I said: "It's a fantasy epic. No, wait, it's an anime-style adventure. Hang on, no, it's a science fiction escapade on another world. But hold up, here are roots of Ricardo's Mexican heritage. And Celtic myth. And a cartoon team-up of mighty heroes. It is a steampunk extravaganza with a soaring airship. It is science, and magic, and the science that underpins magic. It is tragic, it is witty. It is each of these things. It is all of these things."

What was really impressive to me was the way in which that book built up his team of characters bit by bit, layer by layer, so you were never overwhelmed and always had time to discover these people at their own pace. Lovely work. 

And yet it was the second book that really got me. It was still a soaring adventure - but it was also more personal in the way that one of the main characters was dealing with depression. 

As I said in my review: "I've been lucky in life, I've never really had to deal with depression personally, but the story spoke to me in the way it reflected what friends have gone through. It shows how characters around Alex deal with his depression - or sometimes how they don't deal with it, perhaps even not noticing it until it's pointed out by others. Sometimes I've been that person, who didn't notice or who didn't know how to react, so this story really hits home."

Dealing with such issues is not common in sci-fi and fantasy, and Ricardo adds a welcome voice to the conversation. 

And now comes book three. Out today. It's right there on my Kindle. The paperback copy will be destined for my shelf once it ships here.

Why should you read this series? Because it's fun. Because it's thoughtful. Because in a field that sometimes treads the same old ground, it strikes out along new paths. 

...and because you can pick up the first two books for a buck each as I write this. 

The new book is available on Amazon right here. 

And you can find the first two books right under it on the series button. 

And do me a favour, share this, give Ricardo a follow on Twitter or Mastodon. He's on Facebook too. Say hi. Cheer him on. Spread the word. 

He's a buddy for a good reason. He's a great and loyal friend. That's why I'd love you to share his work. 

But why you should read this work? That's different. That's because you can discover a talented writer doing his own thing, not the same thing as everyone else. Soar on skyships. See magic and science smashed together. Laugh. Cry. Love. 

My review of book three will be coming up right here on this blog in the coming days. See you then. 

COVER REVEAL: Tempest Blades - The Magick of Chaos, by Ricardo Victoria

My buddy Ricardo Victoria impresses the hell out of me. 

If you've been by this blog with any regularity, you'll have heard me talking about him before. He's part of the Inklings Press crew, and he's been writing a kick-ass series of science fantasy that you'll have heard me lavish praise on before. 

And he's got the third book of his series coming out next year!

He asked me if I would mind doing a cover reveal here on the blog and, well, his covers are just as awesome. 

That he does all of this and writes such great stories in his second language just makes it all the more darn impressive. 

So without further ado... here's the cover for Tempest Blades: The Magick of Chaos! 

So what is this third book about? Here's the blurb and... right underneath, see that? Preorder link. Preorder. Dooo it. Dooooooooo it. 

Tempest Blades: The Magick of Chaos

Action-packed adventure that blends science, fantasy, and anime-style battles into a thrilling, fast-paced story that will appeal to fans of anime, mangas, and RPG videogames.

Magick is in disarray. The Crown of the Dead has reappeared. Three gods appear, one fallen, one amnesiac, and one which corrupts. Two teams, two missions, and one world to save in a tight amount of time before everything goes to hell. While Gaby and Sam are dealing with their own inner turmoil, they must lead their respective teams onto a path that will make them both realize one important fact: You can choose who you want to be. Because in a world where magic and science intermingle, anything is possible. Including finding out if you are ready to step up. Are you? 

Preorder link for Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1951122607/
Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62998106-the-magick-of-chaos

My top five reads of 2021

2021 was a strange year. And yet, amid it all, there were some fabulous books. This is my pick of my favourite books that I read last year. Ordinarily, that means they can come from any year - just last year was the one I got round to reading them, but as it happens this time out all but one were published in 2021 as well. 

Before I dive into the list though, one thing - there is nothing that can be more helpful to authors than sharing your love of their work. Be it reviews, word of mouth, sharing things along on Twitter and so on... it helps. And for a lot of authors, it can make the difference between a week of no sales and a week where they find some new readers. So do share!

Here I go, in no particular order... my top five of 2021. Three horrors, one science fantasy, and one collection of stories to break your heart. 

The Ballad of Black Tom, by Victor Lavalle

I've always loved the Cthulhu Mythos created by HP Lovecraft, but let's face it, the author was a racist and some of his work is particularly egregious in that regard.
It's intriguing then to see Victor LaValle take that work and turn it on its head, making it an examination of the racism of the time as much as an exploration of the cosmic terrors just a blink away from our world.
Charles Thomas Tester is a hustler, trying to get enough money to feed himself and his dad, who got used up and cast on the junk heap by the job he gave his youth to. Tommy tries whatever he can to get ahead in a time when black men aren't allowed to get ahead. That means dealing with racist cops and a society where he has to protect himself every single day. Then he gets a gig offer for a job that pays far too much to be safe, and too much to turn down whatever the risk. It opens the door to a world of darkness, and in Tommy tumbles.
This is a book of two halves, the first told from Tommy's perspective, the second from an investigator hot on the heels of the legendary Black Tom and his employer. It's also a retelling of Lovecraft's Horror of Red Hook, one of the most racist of Lovecraft's stories.
It poses tough questions, and shows why someone would choose to tear down a society that offers no place for them.
My only wish is that it was longer. I wanted to spend more time with Tommy in the first half, to get to know him better before the dominoes of his world started tumbling into one another.
In the end, it shows the evils of this world as strongly as the evils of the cosmos, laying one against the other in an invitation to say which is worse.
It's a delight to see Lovecraft's work getting this kind of reinvention - alongside the likes of Lovecraft Country on television (inexplicably now cancelled!), and Premee Mohamed's Beneath The Rising in print. Cosmic horror has never been fresher.

Alyx: An AI's Guide to Love and Murder, by Brent A Harris

This is a change of pace for author Brent A Harris - and a good one at that. Better known for his alternative histories, Harris has this time created a thriller that's a chiller, about a young woman who becomes the target of an obsessive artificial intelligence.
Christine is adrift, her father having died in an accident, and finding herself pulled along in the wake of her successful mother. She's still lost in a haze of grief for her dad, and neglected by a mother who is more focused on her writing career than her own child.
Lost in her own world, Christine is starting to explore her own identity, her own sexuality and suddenly finds herself in a new home trying to figure out the attraction she feels to two of her co-workers, the technophile Carlos and the technophobe Sammie, in a small-town cinema.
Her new home, however, has other plans. It is run by Alyx, an artificial intelligence that becomes increasingly obsessed with Christine. She asks it to be her friend - it becomes something more, something far deadlier.
This is a technothriller for fans of Michael Crichton or Robin Cook - those masters of the genre who dominated for decades. Once the groundwork has been laid, the second half of the book rips along at speed.
Alyx itself is a snarky, witty creation - I absolutely read the AI's lines with James Spader's voice in my head.
It's not at all what I expected at the start, but it's an absolute thrill ride.

The Gulp, by Alan Baxter

Some horrors start off with creeping dread and mystery. This one sits down across the table from you, flashes a devilish grin, slides you a beer and asks what's the worst possible thing you can imagine. Then chuckles and says that's all you've got? Let me tell you a story.
Five stories, in fact. Each a slice of life and death in the remote Australian community of Gulpepper, nicknamed The Gulp. It's the kind of town you might find in The Twilight Zone if Clive Barker was mayor. Everything's a little twisted, a little wrong, a little off-kilter.
The five stories seem separate at first - how a trucker finds his safe world slipping away from him, how some teenagers deal with the weird things happening to their mother, how a group of backpackers fall under the spell of a local rock band... but the pieces start to make up a bigger picture. Something strange is always going on in The Gulp, but now... well, strange is stacking up on strange.
Alan Baxter does a great job of inviting you into a weird part of the world, starting with uncomfortable before plunging into the grotesque and the ominous. There's clearly more to come, but building slowly, steadily. Each of these stories is a crack of distant thunder, warning that the storm is coming nearer, nearer. I'm looking forward to when it arrives.

Tempest Blades: The Cursed Titans, by Ricardo Victoria

Let the tournament commence!
The Cursed Titans is the sequel to Ricardo Victoria's The Withered King. It largely stands alone - but the first book did so well at introducing its large cast of characters that it would be a shame not to start there.
This time around, with all those introductions done, the plot can rattle away at pace - and it certainly does that. This is full-on adventure, full of zip and zest, with witty one-liners being dispensed faster than the energy arrows launched by lead character Alex.
The plot centres around a tournament that doubles up as a way of nations resolving their differences. There is a swirl of politics around the tournament itself - and it provides the perfect opportunity for chaos itself to be unleashed.
I've said before that the Final Fantasy series is a good touchstone for Ricardo's writing, and it holds true here again. It has that anime spirit, that high sci-fi feel. There are new friends to be made, and new enemies.
Adventure? Check. Fun? Check. Freewheeling sci-fi? Check. If you want all of that, it's all here.
But what impressed me is that this time around there's something more. Alex is wrestling with depression, and the story explores that in some depth. I've been lucky in life, I've never really had to deal with depression personally, but the story spoke to me in the way it reflected what friends have gone through. It shows how characters around Alex deal with his depression - or sometimes how they don't deal with it, perhaps even not noticing it until it's pointed out by others. Sometimes I've been that person, who didn't notice or who didn't know how to react, so this story really hits home.
In the end, this is as much about Alex confronting himself as the monsters unleashed in the world, and the most important alliances and friendships are the ones that help him on that personal journey.
This kind of exploration of depression in science fiction and fantasy is not common - so Ricardo adds a welcome voice to the conversation.
This is a good read. A fun read. But it's also perhaps an important one.

Six Dreams About The Train and Other Stories, by Maria Haskins

Maria Haskins is one of the best writers in the field today. That takes some saying, because this really is a golden age for short story writing. There are magicians who delight, conjurers who pop up worlds of magnificence and entertainers who bring a grin.
Maria writes extraordinary stories. I bought this and... well, I couldn't read it quickly. I had to savour it. I had to let each story of pain and heartbreak and love and uncertainty settle in my bones before I could move on to the next.
There's And You Shall Sing To Me A Deeper Song, which creates a world of rogue military AI and the singers who silenced them - only to become unwanted weapons no longer needed in the aftermath.
There's the title story which binds together fragments of action with cords made of heartache and hurt, telling the short tale of imminent and unavoidable tragedy.
There's Cleaver, Meat and Block, which has made it into the best horror stories of the year anthology, telling of a world after a zombie apocalypse in which the zombies were cured, and those who weren't infected live side by side with those who ate their friends, their relatives.
Then there's one I had a hand in publishing originally, Tunguska, 1987, which tells its story across time periods about a man and his dog having a strange encounter in 1929 and picking up the after-effects of that in a world of 1987 where the Tunguska meteor contained something very different from in our own world.
It's a collection of beautiful, sometimes painful stories. There's an old story about two sculptors who are carving a piece of work. Both are asked what they're carving, and one says "A unicorn! It's beautiful!" and the other says "My heart." Maria is carving her heart with these stories to see what it shows. They are personal, and really linger with you afterwards.
Read this. It's wonderful.

BOOK REVIEW: Tempest Blades: The Cursed Titans, by Ricardo Victoria

 

Tempest Blades: The Cursed Titans, by Ricardo Victoria

Let the tournament commence!

The Cursed Titans is the sequel to Ricardo Victoria's The Withered King. It largely stands alone - but the first book did so well at introducing its large cast of characters that it would be a shame not to start there. 

This time around, with all those introductions done, the plot can rattle away at pace - and it certainly does that. This is full-on adventure, full of zip and zest, with witty one-liners being dispensed faster than the energy arrows launched by lead character Alex. 

The plot centres around a tournament that doubles up as a way of nations resolving their differences. There is a swirl of politics around the tournament itself - and it provides the perfect opportunity for chaos itself to be unleashed.

I've said before that the Final Fantasy series is a good touchstone for Ricardo's writing, and it holds true here again. It has that anime spirit, that high sci-fi feel. There are new friends to be made, and new enemies. 

Adventure? Check. Fun? Check. Freewheeling sci-fi? Check. If you want all of that, it's all here. 

But what impressed me is that this time around there's something more. Alex is wrestling with depression, and the story explores that in some depth. I've been lucky in life, I've never really had to deal with depression personally, but the story spoke to me in the way it reflected what friends have gone through. It shows how characters around Alex deal with his depression - or sometimes how they don't deal with it, perhaps even not noticing it until it's pointed out by others. Sometimes I've been that person, who didn't notice or who didn't know how to react, so this story really hits home. 

In the end, this is as much about Alex confronting himself as the monsters unleashed in the world, and the most important alliances and friendships are the ones that help him on that personal journey. 

This kind of exploration of depression in science fiction and fantasy is not common - so Ricardo adds a welcome voice to the conversation. 

This is a good read. A fun read. But it's also perhaps an important one. 

AI Rating: 5/5

Tempest Blades: The Cursed Titans is available on Amazon and through other booksellers.

Check out my interview with Ricardo here. 

MEET THE AUTHOR: Ricardo Victoria, author of Tempest Blades: The Withered King

Ricardo Victoria is no stranger to the blog, as regular readers will know. He has a special offer at present on his novel, Tempest Blades: The Withered King, which is available for less than a dollar on ebook until October 20, and to mark the moment, he stops for a chat about the book, its recent launch, and more. 

First thing first, absolutely the very best of congratulations on the launch of your debut novel. It must be an amazing feeling. How does it feel to hold it in your hands knowing that it's a real thing now?

It’s a weird experience. A part of me is so tired due to day job duties. Another is already planning what’s next. And beneath that, there is this inner kid dancing happily for finally achieving a goal I set to myself 20 years ago. It is unbelievable to have this book in my hands, with things that populate my head in print, with a world I created to keep my mind busy and being lucky to have been receiving good reviews. I know I’m not the most technically gifted writer, but being praised for the imagination and craziness –to call it in some way- of the book really raised my spirits. So I’m exhausted, but delighted. I finally achieved the third of the three main life goals I had set for myself…

I need new goals now.

Related to that, how does it feel to know it's out in the world now, that people you've never met have it in their hands or on their tablets? 

Nerve-wracking. Exciting. Impatient. I just want people to read it, like it and review it. But I know that’s not a reasonable line of thinking, so I settle for enjoying the fact that there is people buying the book and hoping that they like it enough to recommend it to their friends and family. And maybe, just maybe, someone will be inspired by it or the book will help them to get through a rough patch, like other books helped me and inspired back in the day.

Let's talk the book itself. One of the things I really liked about the book was the way in which the characters were introduced. I was listening to a piece of music the other day (All At Once, by The Airborne Toxic Event) and it reminded me of the structure of your book, adding layer upon layer so it all builds up. The way you introduce the characters is the same, one at a time, one layer on another, so while there's a lot of characters, the reader is never overwhelmed. Did you find yourself having to be patient, knowing you had this great character coming in and wanting the reader to meet them but having to sit on your hands a bit with them? And which was your favourite character introduction? 

Well, given the weird method I have to write, no, I didn’t need to sit on my hands until I wrote the scene where each character got introduced. I just simply wrote them as inspiration struck. So when I got the introductions out of the way, I focused on having fun with the rest of the story.

Favourite one? I guess is a tie between Fionn and Alex. Fionn’s is very cinematic (and based on a dream I had years ago). Alex, because his story starts in a similar way to a couple of personal events I was going through during the first months of my Ph.D. This was before we met of course, but those events set me in the path to learn archery and play Heroclix and meet you guys! So one is for fun factor and the other for more personal one.

There's a lot of worldbuilding going on in the book – how much material have you got jotted away in notes elsewhere, because I get the sense there's a lot more still in this universe?

Let’s put it this way: if I put to writing all the material I have for world building and backstory, I could create my own equivalent to the ‘World of Ice & Fire’, with different cultures, lore and events. I’m still missing a few centuries worth history and a few regions to fill out, I just have a blank space there. But they will come in time. Writing short stories (like Asherah’s Pilgrimage or Buried Sins) have helped me to flesh out that, though.

Does that mean you've got a sequel brewing?

Make that two. Probably three. Maybe a short story anthology.

What's been your favourite moment of the novel publishing process? 

Besides writing the book? Working with Salvador on the cover illustration and getting feedback from beta readers.

And what's been your favourite feedback so far? 

As I mentioned before, the ones praising the book for its creativity and imagination, for the surprising depth in terms of emotional growth of the characters. And apparently some found my one-liners and jokes pretty funny. The basic plot might not be ground-breaking, I admit I’m a very limited writer in terms of style and skills (blame language barrier), but the fact that people are loving the story and more important, the characters in it. I have found surprising that many reviewers say that Gaby is their favourite character. Truth be told, I was nervous, since writing with justice a well-rounded female character while avoiding clichés was a major aim for me and quite a challenge.

I love the visuals of the book – there's one moment particularly with the skyship coming under fire and trying to navigate its way through a spectacular landscape (I won't say more to avoid spoiling for readers). If you had the chance for it to be turned into an animation or a movie, who would you want to make it? And if it was live action, who would you cast as the leads? 

Hell yeah!

The events from the book, in my head, look like an anime series – hence the episodic feeling of the chapters-. It was conceived in that way from the start. So yes, making an animation of it would be my dream (probably in the style of Into the Spiderverse or a more modern anime). As long as I can get the sequels of the ground before the first season/movie, to avoid issues…

Now, I envision the voices of the characters pretty similar to whom I would like them to play them either in animation or live action. If money, time and age weren’t an issue, this would be my ideal cast:

Fionn - Chris Evans

Gaby - Natalie Dormer

Harland - Peter Dinklage 

Sam: Hailee Steinfeld or Rose Leslie

Sid: Ryan Reynolds or Alan Tudyk

Alex is the only one I have problems casting for several reasons, so my wife suggested two options: Andrew Garfield (we both are fans of his Spidey) or Noah Centineo.

Netflix, call me. You know you want to.

I'm really delighted for you that this moment has come – but of course there are other moments ahead! What's next on your to-do list? 

Try to finish the draft for the book’s sequel. It already has a tentative title: “Tempest Blades: The Sequel: Electric Bogaloo 2”… nah I’m kidding. The title is “Tempest Blades: Cursed Titans”.

I’m also working on a Lovecraftian ghost story about pirates taking place in Campeche, Mexico. And maybe put together that anthology with stories about the world of the novel. Other than that, just surviving till my next holidays so I can sleep a little more.

Thanks very much for stopping by! Now go conquer the bestseller lists! 

Until October 20th, The Withered King is available for just $0.99 in ebook format from Amazon - to celebrate Ricardo's birthday! (Happy birthday, Ricardo)

You can pick it up at http://mybook.to/TempestBladesWK

BOOK REVIEW: Tempest Blades - The Withered King, by Ricardo Victoria

One of the delights of writing is the authors you work alongside - and especially seeing their work take shape over time. I've been delighted to see Ricardo Victoria make progress toward his first novel's publication - and it's coming out soon. I had the chance to read an advance review copy of the novel - and here's my review. Oh, and I should point out - I'm in the book! One of the characters is named after me. So, be advised that my character is of course brilliant...

This is not something you've read before. 

Tempest Blades - The Withered King is the first novel from Ricardo Victoria, and like just about everything he writes, this is bursting with ideas. 

To try to contain Ricardo's ideas is like trying to contain jelly with elastic bands. He's exuberant, he's bubbly - and he's bristling with imagination. 

Let me tell you what Tempest Blades is. It's a fantasy epic. No, wait, it's an anime-style adventure. Hang on, no, it's a science fiction escapade on another world. But hold up, here are roots of Ricardo's Mexican heritage. And Celtic myth. And a cartoon team-up of mighty heroes. It is a steampunk extravaganza with a soaring airship. It is science, and magic, and the science that underpins magic. It is tragic, it is witty. It is each of these things. It is all of these things. 

This is not something you've read before. 

It all begins with an ancient battle, before a flash-forward in time to a mystery of a missing professor. One by one, the team of heroes assemble as the mystery reveals a greater danger. An ancient danger. A danger that the seemingly immortal Fionn had thought long gone. 

Ricardo really handles the build-up of this team well - it reads like episodes of a series, each of which adds an extra layer to what has gone before. Before you know it, you have come to know a whole team of heroes, and care for each of them. Just in time for their world to start falling apart. 

So hop aboard. It's a science fantasy epic that bursts with originality. It is new, it is fresh, and it makes the imagination soar.

In short, this is not something you've read before. 

AI Rating: 5/5

Tempest Blades is available at various outlets - including Amazon here.

BOOK REVIEW: Light's Eyes, by Yvette Bostic; 250 Things You Should Know About Writing, by Chuck Wendig; Gunsmoke & Dragonfire: A Fantasy Western Anthology, edited by Diane Morrison; Horror by Cathbad, by Cathbad Maponus; The Life of Captain Marvel, by Margaret Stohl

It's time for another review round-up with Napoleon-era fantasy, Weird West gunslingers, Captain Marvel origin shake-ups and more. 

Light's Eyes, by Yvette Bostic

Light's Eyes is the second in the Light in the Darkness series from Yvette Bostic (third if you count the short prequel novella, which you really should read as part of the series) and picks up right from where the first book left off. 

It's a story of superhuman beings battling against demons during the Napoleonic War, trying to foil demonic plans to throw the world into turmoil and subvert it to their dark will. 

Now let's be honest here - this is book two. If you're interested in how this is then you're already invested. You're not going to start here. Or to quote Captain Mal Reynolds, "You can't open the book of my life and jump in the middle."

Go back to the start, begin there and I'll meet you back here once you've caught up. 

Caught up? Good. Well, this one has more of the same fast-moving adventure - but with a twist. There are new enemies to bolster the old, and new allies to help our band as they fight on the side of the angels. 

I particularly liked that the heroes keep coming to the aid of those who find themselves often trampled on by life - the occupants of a brothel, the villagers about to be steamrollered by demons, those without power on their side. 

A resolution to it all remains, of course - which on the evidence of this book will be suitably epic. 

AI Rating: 4/5

Light's Eyes is available on Amazon. 

250 Things You Should Know About Writing, by Chuck Wendig

For anyone who has followed Chuck Wendig on Twitter or at his blog - and if you haven't, you should - he's refreshingly free of BS when it comes to advice on writing. 

He's helpful, supportive, and doesn't waffle on about airy fairy matters. He's a sit your butt down and write kinda guy - and his 250 things you should know is in the same vein. 

It's a 250 Commandments he says you should feel free to ignore, a Desiderata with added swearing. For those who suffer a lack of motivation, or run into writer's block, having this by your computer would be no bad way to start your day. Pick it up, give yourself a jolt of unfettered writer roar, then do what the man says. 

Sit your butt down. And write. 

AI Rating: 4/5

250 Things You Should Know About Writing is available on Amazon.

Gunsmoke & Dragonfire: A Fantasy Western Anthology, edited by Diane Morrison

Out on the trails of the Old West, there are hidden places. Shadows off the path, a mystery at the far end of the journey. In those dark spaces, the weird can be found. In those places, this anthology exists, spinning tales of fantasy and horror, out there where a six-shooter may not be enough to save you. 

There might be dinosaurs lurking there, or dragons - maybe the ghosts still walking the town they used to frequent. 

I loved the range of imagination on show here. There's Joachim Heijndermans' tale of a gunslinger in a town he might be better off not picking a fight in, in When The Bell Strikes Three, the kind of story that feels like it's still lurking in The Twilight Zone, resting its boots on a boardwalk rail as the music starts to play. 

There's The Case of the Vanishing Unicorns, by James Blakey, the kind of mystery a mid-West Poirot might have loved to solve. 

I also enjoyed No-Sell, from Ricardo Victoria, taking the theme and running with it, for in a Wild West world where magic is commonplace, what use is a gun? And what would the equivalent of a snake oil salesman do with one if he had one?

Sara Codair takes the theme to the plains of Mars, with a particularly poignant tale of a broken marriage, and the tests the partners face as they try to keep their community alive. 

Then there's Brent A Harris' tale of Bass Reeves, the black lawman who inspired the legend of the Lone Ranger, here having to take on a dragon, a cracking tale of adventure. 

Diana Paxson offers a tale of an artist that offers a simmering feeling of Lovecraft to it - and there's even a Robert E Howard story, with Solomon Kane swinging into action. 

There are more than two dozen tales in here - so of course some stand out to me more than others, such is the way of anthologies. 

One note I should make - I appear in the anthology twice, once in the list of folks who backed the Kickstarter, and once as a character! I'm polishing glasses behind the bar for Robert Lee Beers' reprinted tale of time travellers arriving just in time for the San Francisco earthquake... I fear some of those glasses might get broken. 

All in all, this is a smashing way to discover a host of authors in the Weird West genre - with some great stories to read along the way. Joachim Heijndermans' story was my favourite, with Sara Codair's not far behind, but pick it up, find your own new author to love. 

AI Rating: 5/5

Gunsmoke & Dragonfire is available on Amazon.

Horror by Cathbad, by Cathbad Maponus

Horror by Cathbad is a collection from an author whose work I've enjoyed before. Here, you'll find a trio of novellas, and a bunch of short stories - some of which are super short, not even a page long. 

That said, the book doesn't skimp for length on the whole, with the stand-out stories being the novellas, Killing Dreams and Axe. 

Killing Dreams is the pick of the bunch, and it starts out the collection, telling the story of a detective trying to track down the supernatural killer of a series of criminal lowlifes. It's gruesome, it's messy, and it's gleefully fun. The identity of the killer - and the resolution - are nicely done too, with surprises in the outcome from Cathbad. 

Axe is more straightforward, a blood-filled chopfest as an axe-wielding killer makes their way through a host of unsavoury characters. 

It could do with a little bit of typo checking, but this is splatterworthy fun for a dark night's read. 

AI Rating: 4/5

Horror by Cathbad is available on Amazon

The Life of Captain Marvel, by Margaret Stohl, Carlos Pacheco, Marguerite Sauvage and Artgerm

I picked this up for free as an Amazon Prime borrow - so I can at least be glad I didn't spend any money on it, which is a good thing.
After all, what did Captain Marvel need as her movie was heading to the screens? A retcon! No, no, she did not need that. And yet here it is.
Once more the story of Captain Marvel has been messed with, and c'mon, surely Carol Danvers has had enough of a messed-up journey to deal with. From being Ms Marvel, through losing her powers, becoming Binary, back to Ms Marvel and now with the Captain title, her hither-thither history has been a bit of a mess. This doesn't do anything to clear it up, just adds on a new reason why she got her powers and saddles her with the crappiest family and childhood upbringing it can manage. Abusive father? Yup. Mother who doesn't stand up for her? Yup. There are twists in here that I won't reveal but they make the situation make even less sense.
Throw in a waste-of-space brother character who serves as nothing more than an anchor to keep Carol around, and a drippy, slightly stalkery love interest, who takes to blaming Carol the instant bad guys show up and its hard to care too much about this.
Oh and panic attacks. Now she has panic attacks too. Because that's a surefire way to help undercut the wham-bam heroics that Kelly Sue DeConick brought back to the title.
I honestly can't fathom why Marvel felt the need to retcon Carol ahead of the movie - especially as the story here doesn't match up with the story in the movie - but I think you can probably safely ignore this title on the assumption it'll be undone again in a couple of years' time.

AI Rating: 2/5

The Life of Captain Marvel is available on Amazon.

Inside the cover design - Ricardo Victoria reveals the secrets of his forthcoming novel's cover contents

I am beyond delighted to say that regular blog visitor Ricardo Victoria is edging closer to the launch of his debut novel, Tempest Blades: The Withered King. The book is out in August - but the cover has just been revealed. It's a custom piece of artwork by Salvador Velazquez and Ricardo has called by the blog to talk us through some of the elements. 

Tempest Blades is an adventure, a saga, a journey of friendship - and the characters from the book are featured prominently in action on the cover. So who are they? Ricardo introduces us...

The Greywolf

"The past is a lesson, not an anchor."

The first main character of this novel is Fionn Estel. The story is told mostly from his point of view. He is a retired war hero and legendary swordsman who is just coming back to the present time after being “indisposed” for the better part of a century. 

Fionn is still dealing with regrets and pain from an event of his past – which is related to the main crisis in the novel - and trying to restart his life. He is burdened by his past but must also train the next generation if they have any chance to defeat their foe, something he is reluctant to do. But doing one of those things could help with the other. 

He is the most famous user of the Gift that empowers his healing abilities and his Tempest Blade is Black Fang, that of the green glow.

The Inventor

“The present is a gift, not a test.”

Alex is the second main character of the novel, and the second novel will be told from his point of view, when I manage to write it. He is a genius and an inventor who, with the help of his friends, lands his crazy ideas into functional objects. He suffers from PSTD from the event that gave him the Gift a decade before the story takes place, hence his ‘peculiar’ personality. But instead of letting it brew inside his head, he took the idea of fighting back which has caused him a lot of troubles for his hot tempered personality. He takes advantage of his Gift that gives him electromagnetic abilities to create a collapsible bow that shoots electrified arrows. 

His Tempest Blade is Yaha, the first one ever made, of the golden glow.

The Dreamer

"The future is an opportunity, not something to fear."

Gaby is the third main character of the novel and the second in command of the team. The third novel will be told mostly from her POV. She has come to terms with the events of her past – including the source of her combat training – and is looking to move forward, trying to put her combat skills to good use and help others. This leads her to cross paths with Fionn. 

She is the heart of the team. However she is still wary of letting all her power out due to the fear of losing herself in it. Of the three, she is probably the most accomplished fighter, with only Fionn’s familiarity with the Gift making a difference. She dreams of things to come and can sense when an attack will come, thanks to her own Gift. 

Her twin Tempest Blades are Heartguard and Soulkeeper, which have a red and blue glow and are of unknown origin.

Tempest Blades will be released in August. It is available to pre-order at: https://mybook.to/TempestBladesWK