The Terry Brooks interlude has turned into the Terry Brooks gap as a couple of computer issues ground myself and dragonfly’s book reviews to a halt. However one shiny new imac later and we are back and the Terry Brooks gap is two thirds bridged. So coming soon, reviews of the entire “Genesis Of Shannara Series” and lots of other stuff. Your reading is important to us, thank you for holding!!

Apologies for the delay in posting new reviews but normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. You see it’s all the fault of those pesky Orbit publishers who very kindly sent me a sparkly new copy of “The Gypsy Morph” by Terry Brooks, the only problem is I haven’t read the previous novel in the series “The Elves Of Cintra”. well what the hell thinks I, I may as well re-read and review “Armageddon’s Children” as well.

So there you have it friends, starting very soon, a triple bill of Mr Brooks. In the meantime I hope to post a couple of reviews of other genre stuff which you might like but which is slightly more off the beaten track. Hope you enjoy them.

My review of the forthcoming special edition of F&SF was overwhelmingly positive (you can read it here). Well just when you thought it couldn’t get any better I have been informed of a special offer open only to bloggers (and blog readers, so that’s all of you!).

You can get full details from here so now you can enjoy this excellent publication at even better prices.

Much as I hate to help the behemoth that is Tesco’s in it’s quest for world domination (well UK at least) it does have some cracking book offers at present including bargains on the Terry Pratchett paperback range, more details from here .

PS Publishing has an exciting lineup coming our way in the next few weeks, this from the publishers:-

Imminent releases and works in progress

Expected in within the next two or three weeks (for official launch at FantasyCon) are the slipcased special artwork edition of Postscripts #15, Ed Gorman’s CAGE OF NIGHT [hardcover , slipcased hardcover], James Barclay’s VAULT OF DEEDS [hardcover, jacketed hardcover], Steve Erikson’s REVOLVO [hardcover, jacketed hardcover], Mark Samuels’s GLYPHOTECH [aka PS Showcase #4 - hardcover, jacketed hardcover], Darrell Schweitzer’s LIVING WITH THE DEAD [hardcover, jacketed hardcover], Ian MacLeod’s THE SONG OF TIME [hardcover , slipcased hardcover] and Chris Golden’s THE HISS OF ESCAPING AIR (see the holiday report).

Postscripts #16 [paperback, hardcover] — a special all-spook issue for Hallowe’en — is expected in October, with #17 (and our specially commissioned subscribers-only novelette from Ramsey Campbell) just before Christmas [paperback, hardcover ]. Nick Gevers and I are working on making issue #18 an all-crime special number (some of it noir, some of it futuristic and maybe even some of it out-and-out fantastical… but all of it ‘crime’).

I haven’t read any John Saul in a while but he used to write a decent horror novel. Anyway, now you can judge for yourself the quality of his latest tome, “Faces of Fear” by visiting his website here and reading the first two chapters. the novel itself is published by Ballantine books on 11th August (UK).

My enthusiasm for Wordsworth editions and the “Mystery and Supernatural” series was obvious from my review of “The Haunter Of The Ring” so I am delighted that several new releases are on the cards. The following is from the publishers :-

• The Werewolf Pack - edited by Mark Valentine -The wolf has always been a creature of legend and romance, while kings, sorcerers and outlaws have been proud to be called by the name of the wolf, so it’s no wonder, then, that tales of transformation between man and wolf are so powerful and persistent. This original collection offers some of the greatest, rarest and most unusual werewolf stories ever. From the forests of Transylvania to the ordered lawns of an English country estate, here are all the classic aspects of the tale. You will encounter shadows that lope under the moon, chilling howls, family curses, crimson feasts, the desperate chase and the deathly duel. But you will also find the werewolf in less expected guises - as an adversary for Sherlock Holmes, as a myth of the Wild West, and as a figure restored to its origins in folk and fairy tales. With an informative introduction by Mark Valentine that follows the traces of the werewolf in literature, and its links to Dracula, Jekyll & Hyde, and The Hound of the Baskervilles, this superb collection will make you fear the full moon.
• The Black Veil and other tales of supernatural sleuths - edited by Mark valentine - Selected & Introduced by Mark Valentine. The Gateway of the Monster… The Red Hand… The Ghost Hunter-To Sherlock Holmes the supernatural was a closed book: but other great detectives have always been ready to do battle with the dark instead. This volume brings together sixteen chilling cases of these supernatural sleuths, pitting themselves against the peril of ultimate evil. Here are encounters from the casebooks of the Victorian haunted house investigators John Bell and Flaxman Low, from Carnacki, the Edwardian battler against the abyss, and from horror master Arthur Machen’s Mr Dyson, a man-about-town and meddler in strange things. Connoisseurs will find rare cases such as those of Allen Upward’s The Ghost Hunter, Robert Barr’s Eugene Valmont (who may have inspired Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot) and Donald Campbell’s young explorer Leslie Vane, the James Bond of the jazz age, who battles against occult enemies of the British Empire. And the collection is completed by some of the best tales from the pens of modern psychic sleuth authors.
• The Witch Of Prague - by F. Marion Crawford - This unique collection contains all the supernatural works of the prolific F. Marion Crawford (1854 - 1909), including his classic chillers For Blood is the Life, The Upper Berth and The Screaming Skull which was based on a true horror legend. The title story in this volume is his amazing novel The Witch of Prague ,which Dennis Wheatley described as a ‘classic of occult fiction.’ For a potent blend of horror, fantasy and fear Crawford’s tales have rarely been surpassed. Most of these stories have long been out of print, so this collection is a special treat for all lovers of supernatural mysteries.
• Night Shivers - by Mrs J.H Ridell - Night Shivers presents a treasure trove of the stories of Mrs J. H. Riddell, one of the greatest Victorian writers of ghost stories. These tales, many of which have been out of print for years, take the reader on fearful journeys into the gloomy haunts of old neglected houses, into a world of prophetic dreams, out onto the wild terrain of Ireland to encounter a frightful banshee and even down into Hell itself. In these fourteen short stories and one novella, The Uninhabited House, there is the distillation of the best and most effective of Riddell’s spine-tingling supernatural fiction.
• All Saints Eve - by Amelia B. Edwards - Over half a century before the rise of the great ‘Queens of Crime’, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, Amelia B. Edwards was an expert practitioner of crime fiction and murder mysteries, of which the best dozen are included in this volume. These gripping tales range from ingenious ‘whodunnits’ - All Saints’ Eve and The Tragedy in the Palazzo Bardello - to encounters with homicidal lunatics - Cain and A Railway Panic - clairvoyant visions preventing disaster or imminent murder - The Professor’s Story and A Night on the Borders of the Black Forest - and ghost stories The Four-fifteen Express, Number Three, In the Confessional, Sister Johanna’s Story and Was It An Illusion? - in which supernatural visitations explain earlier crimes and murders. These tales, many of which have been long out of print, are an ideal read for those who like their mystery stories tinged with a touch of the supernatural.
• Tales Of Mystery and The Macabre - by Elizabeth Gaskell - Elizabeth Gaskell is better known today for her pioneering social novels such as Mary Barton (1848), or the popular Cranford stories but she also wrote some fascinating tales of the supernatural and the macabre, which are collected here in this volume. The real charm of this dark anthology is its variety. Unlike so many writers of this kind of material, Gaskell allows the story to fit the style rather than the other way around and as result there is a charming freshness to each tale. This remarkable author uses different voices, tones and topics to engage her readers and as you turn from one story to the next you cannot be quite sure what to expect.

Once again thanks to Wordsworth for digging up such a wide variety of genre classics, many of which I have not heard about before. I hope to review a few of these in the future but in the meantime more info can be found at Wordsworth’s web site here .