I wasn’t planning to buy anything today, but I gave in and spent lots of pennies visiting the FlameTree Press table, the Wizard’s Tower table, and the Portal Bookshop table, as well as a couple of indie author tables
I have pretty much spent half my book budget and may need to reduce it further to get a suitcase to take them home in.
I’ve treated myself to three notebooks from FlameTree, some teas from the Bird & Blend shop, and a pocket watch from a jewellery maker.
I definitely need a waistcoat now.
I’m having a break in hotel room. I’ll go back to the con about half four for the 5pm workshop I’ve signed up for. Until then I’m resting amd writing.
In 1970, four boys on the cusp of becoming teenagers notice strange events occurring in Maplewood, NH, timed with the late-night arrival of an old magician who has taken up residence in a boarding house in their neighbourhood where one of the tenants is a reclusive pulp horror writer. The writer’s fears have kept him from venturing outside in over forty years, fears linked to the magician’s previous visit. As children go missing in town, the four boys try to piece together seemingly unrelated phenomena and realize dark forces are at work, but no one will believe them.
Elemental Forces is the fifth volume in the non-themed horror series of original stories, showcasing the very best short fiction that the genre has to offer, and edited by Mark Morris.
This new anthology contains 20 original horror stories, 16 of which have been commissioned from some of the top names in horror, and 4 selected from the 100s of stories sent to Flame Tree during a short open submissions window. A delicious feast of the familiar and the new, the established and the emerging.
Previous titles in the series, all still in print, are: After Sundown, Beyond the Veil, Close to Midnight and Darkness Beckons.
● Genre – contemporary horror > psychological thriller ● ISBN paperback – 978-1-78758-809-7 ● ISBN ebook – 978-1-78758-811-0 ● Pricing [USD] $16.95 (PB) / $4.99 (EB) ● Pricing [GBP] £12.95 (PB) / £4.95 (EB) ● Releases 11 June 2024 ● Published by Flame Tree Press ● Distributed by Hachette UK
SYNOPSIS It’s been ten years since the events of Until Summer Comes Around. Lucky to be alive, Rocky roams his beachside hometown, waiting for life to start again.
November Riley has never been far from the boy that stole her heart. She watches from the shadows, knowing she can never make things right between them, but just hoping they could try one more time…
A new documentary is bringing Gabriel Riley, the Beach Night Killer, back to national consciousness.
The dead serial killer has a trio of new fans that are ready to make Old Beach their home for the end of the summer season. When the new strangers in town discover Rocky’s relationship to the past of one of their own, he becomes their number one target. Can November protect him, or will these other vampires prove too strong?
When the night falls, blood will spill, and death will reign.
Fiction: FICTION / Science Fiction / Space Opera ISBN: 978-1-78758-886-8 Pages: 288 pp Imprint: FLAME TREE PRESS
It was meant to be an in and out mission…
Jubilee is a lawless, artificial world existing within its own parallel universe; a seething cesspool of vice ruled by an eccentric AI.
So they say.
Detectives Col and Danee are sent to Jubilee on a hastily organised mission to recover the body of a leading conservative politician (someone it seems, has been a naughty boy). But the corpse has been switched and the imperilled partners are drawn together. They might be falling in love, or they might be saving the galaxy– either way the authorities will not be pleased.
FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing Independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction and fantasy. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. Learn more about Flame Tree Press at http://www.flametreepress.com and connect on social media @FlameTreePress
● Genre – Fiction > Fantasy ● ISBN hardcover – 978-1-78758-840-0 ● ISBN paperback – 978-1-78758-839-4 ● ISBN ebook – 978-1-78758-841-7 ● Pricing [USD] $26.95 (HC) / $16.95 (PB) / $4.99 (EB) ● Pricing [GBP] £20 (HC) / £9.95 (PB) / £6.95 (EB) ● Releases September 12 2023 ● Published by Flame Tree Press ● Distributed by Simon & Schuster (US), Hachette Book Group (UK)
Blurb
A Sword of Bronze and Ashes combines the fierce beauty of Celtic myth with grimdark battle violence. It’s a lyrical, folk horror high fantasy.
Kanda has a good life until shadows from her past return threatening everything she loves. And Kanda, like any parent, has things in her past she does not want her children to know. Red war is coming: pursued by an ancient evil, Kanda must call upon all her strength to protect her family. But how can she keep her children safe, if they want to stand as warriors beside her when the light fades and darkness rises?
Promise collects Christi Nogle’s best futuristic stories ranging from plausible tech-based science fiction to science fantasy stories about aliens in our midst: chameleonic foils hover in the skies, you can order a headset to speak and dream with your dog, and your devices sometimes connect not just to the web but to the underworld.
These tales will recall the stories of Ray Bradbury, television programs such as Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone, and novels such as Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin or Under the Skin by Michel Faber.
They are often strange and dreadful but veer towards themes of hope, potential, promise.
● Genre – Fiction > Dark Fantasy > Fairy Tales, Folklore & Mythology ● ISBN hardcover – 9781787588431 ● ISBN paperback – 9781787588424 ● ISBN ebook – 9781787588448 ● Pricing [USD] $26.95 (HC) / $16.95 (PB) / $4.99 (EB) ● Releases July 11 2023 ● Published by Flame Tree Press ● Distributed by Simon & Schuster
SYNOPSIS
A must-read dark fantasy debut for fans of “The Witcher”, woodland survival guides, the gruesome original Grimm Brothers stories, and dark folklore from around the world…
A journey into the wild woods with a character who just needs a break—and the terrible things that stare back at her.
When curious nomad Anna hears about Whisperwood, a town that’s not on any maps, that nobody goes to, and nobody comes from, she sees an opportunity to hide from her violent witch-hunting ex.
But not everything is peaceful in the isolated community. A vanishing town, a gruesome funeral rite, an emergency field surgery—these surprises and more test Anna’s resolve.
Prevented from leaving the frontier settlement by folk magic she doesn’t understand, Anna lends helping hands everywhere she can, but quickly finds that investigating the forest too closely could end up being the last thing she does.
Amira Valdez’s adventures continue in the sequel to The Sentient,as she finds herself in unprecedented danger. The ruthless new leader of the fundamentalist Trinity Compound seeks to understand his strange neurological connection with Amira and unleash an army on an unstable North America. The first human clone has been born, but thanks to the mysterious scientist Tony Barlow, it may unlock the secret to human immortality– or disaster. Together, Amira and Barlow form an uneasy alliance in pursuit of scientific breakthroughs and protection from shared enemies.
But new discoveries uncover dark secrets that Barlow wants to keep hidden.
My Review
Thanks to Anne of Random Things Tours for organising this blog tour, and to Flame Tree Press for sending me a copy of the book.
Oh my goodness me! I just finished reading this novel (28th May 2022), I read the remaining 250 pages of this 310 page book today after getting started on it earlier in the week but being too exhausted to read for most of the week. I think I read most of it in about 4 hours, which is about normal for me. It was a real page-turner, though, because once I got settled with food and fluids, I didn’t move until I finished reading it.
Amira and friends return some months after the end of The Sentient, the first book in this series. After being cleared by Westport Police of any crimes, Amira has been tagged by the Aldwych Council to prevent her escaping before they could bring her to trial. The opening is tense and moving as Amira deals with her fears about what would happen if she was found guilty on spurious charges. She copes by getting drunk the night before her trial and hiding in an ancient vertical farm. Found and returned to civilisation by her friends D’Arcy and Julian, she finds she has more friends than she thought, or at least people who need her for things, including Dr Barlow. Amira also gets a boyfriend, despite her fears and internalised guilt.
What follows is a rollicking adventure that bounces from calm to tension to explosions and back again several times before an ending that is totally unexpected. There are several gun and ship battles, and once again Amira goes into space and has to do some high level clambering around buildings.
The plot was gripping and I liked the character development of Amira as she realises that she can be someone other than the ‘compound girl come good’ through seeing the manipulation of power players in the city. We learn more about the history of the Pandora project and the Cosmics, and see more of the world post-Cataclysm. There’s an eight year period which demands it’s own novel, from Lee, D’Arcy, Maxine or Hadrian’s POV.
There were some minor typographical errors, couldn’t tell if the author meant to use ‘commandeered’ when ‘commanded’ would make more sense. I can see why, in the context, it would sometimes be appropriate, but not always and it could be a mistake.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 