Review: A Blade to Silence the Screams

A Blade to Silence the Screams by Tom Deady
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Blade to Silence the Screams is a quick, fun read. I haven't read a lot of "old West horror" but Tom Deady really delivers in this ~85 page book, touching on both the horror of mental illness and more "traditional" horror elements. The town of Sundown is the perfect setting for the connected pair of novellas and showcases Deady's obvious love for westerns.

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Review: The Third Rule of Time Travel

The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received an early copy of The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi from #OrbitBooks through #NetGalley. I had gotten about 1/3 of the way into the story, reading briefly before bed each evening, and then I picked it up over the weekend and I could NOT put it down...This is an absolutely fantastic, mind-bending, fast-paced story. It has the feel of classic science fiction brought into the 21st century with a unique twist.
I'll be ordering a physical copy.

The Three Rules of Time Travel
First: Travel can only occur to a point within your lifetime.
Second: You can only travel for ninety seconds.
Third: You can only observe.
The rules cannot be broken.

Before his tragic death, Dr. Beth Darlow and her husband Colson achieved the impossible and found a way to make a form of time travel a reality, and managed to secure the backing of a mega-corporation to continue their research to understand and control their creation.

Beth and her daughter Isabella have mostly managed to move on with their lives in the year since Colson died, but strange events both in and out of the research lab have Beth wondering how well she really understands the machine she helped create, and whether her goals and the goals of those she works for are aligned... As pressure mounts to deliver results she wonders who she can trust, what else will be taken from her, and how much more she has to give ...

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Review: Commodore

Commodore by Philip Fracassi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sabbath is an idyllic town. The perfect place to raise a family. The perfect place for kids to grow up. Perfect. Perhaps too perfect. I recommend limiting your visits to the daytime .. and maybe avoid the local cuisine...

A group of boys heads out on an adventure to find a fabled black car rumored to be hidden somewhere within the town dump... a place that they know is off-limits. From the start you know this won't end well, but how bad could it get?

This short story by Philip Fracassi is a great way for readers new to Fracassi's work to get a taste of his story-telling talents, and a welcome addition for those who are already familiar with it.

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Review: Galaphile

Galaphile by Terry Brooks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fans of Terry Brooks' Shannara stories are in for a treat when Galaphile: The First Druids of Shannara gets released in 2025. This long awaited tale of the origins of the Druids, and of their fortress Paranor, provides readers with the details of the early life of Galaphile Joss and the events that led him to commit his life to establishing peace in the Four Lands and to create a place where the races could work together to preserve knowledge.

Longtime readers have often wondered how the Druid order came about, and how magic became such a potent force in the Four Lands. Galaphile provides a fantastic start to filling in the gaps between the end of the Great Wars and the time of the Druid Bremen and the first King of Shannara.

As usual for a Terry Brooks' tale, this book is well written and well paced. There is more than enough danger, excitement, quests and battles, not to mention references to familiar beings, creatures and places to satisfy the Shannara faithful,. The story is complete enough to draw new readers into the Shannara universe, although these readers would be better served by starting with the original Sword of Shannara and reading the entire backlog in publication order.

#Galaphile #NetGalley

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Review: A Child Alone With Strangers

A Child Alone With Strangers by Philip Fracassi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Child Alone With Strangers by Philip Fracassi is a fantastic read. A thrilling ride that tells the tale of Henry, a young boy, who is recovering from a horrific incident that claimed the life of his father. While recovering from his physical injuries he realizes he also has gained insight into the emotions and feelings of those around him, but he soon adapts to living with his aunt and uncle, and life returns to something approaching normal. Normal, until, Henry is abducted and taken to a secluded cabin in the woods by his kidnappers to wait while their ransom demands are met. But Henry, and his captors, soon learn that something powerful doesn't want them at the cabin and will do everything it can to get them to leave.

I really enjoyed this story. It could easily have been told as "Home Alone In the Woods with Scary Monster", but that would have been mediocre at best. Instead, Fracassi provides plenty of terror and unpredictable twists, and complex, multidimensional characters I both loved and loved to hate. A Child Alone With Strangers speaks to the power of both love and hate, the need for redemption after failure and the universal desire to protect one's own.

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Review: Rose Madder

Rose Madder by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

King doing what he does best... creating characters and placing them in situations where you care about what happens to them. Rose Madder is one of a number of King's stories where domestic violence features prominently in the horror of the book...

I read this when it originally came out years ago. This time through I listened to to a recorded version from Audible. I liked the production EXCEPT for the musical interludes between chapters, which only distracted from the tale.

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Review: Dark Doors

Dark Doors by John L. Davis IV
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Dark Doors, by John L Davis IV, is a collection of short stories that provides tasty, bite-size horror snacks. Most of these are set in future dystopian worlds and I'd love to see some of these story lines expanded so we can learn more about what happens to the characters before and after the events described.

Zombies are featured in several of the stories - full disclosure: I don't care for zombie stories... I loved George Romero's Night of The Living Dead when I first saw it back in the '70s, but I think there's been such a glut of zombies in movies, television & books, that they've become somewhat boring for the most part (I reserve the right to change my opinion if I become the one being pursued by zombies). All that being said, I found that I actually enjoyed Davis' take on the zombie tales he shares in this collection. Although each are just a few short pages those stories sucked me in and made me care about what might happen to the characters.

The longest story of the bunch, Searching for Stephen King, is a tale of a man who goes to great lengths to find the missing books in his collection, and will resonate with King fans and collectors alike.

Mountain Nightmare: A Christmas Tale, is my favorite of the collection. It tells the story of a man trying to protect and provide for his two young children amid the harsh and dangerous conditions of a world gone mad. It goes beyond a typical dystopian story as it tells of the father's efforts to give his children something to look forward to in the weeks leading up to Christmas. The ending leaves it up to each reader to decide how the story continues.

Recommended.

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