Rise Reviews

December brings us Albedo One issue #39, bringing with it six stories, one of which being from Mike Resnick. A quick glance shows that a few of them even have awards pinned on them. 2009 Aeon Award winning story “Frogs on my Doorstep” by Annette Reader starts us off with a tale about a girl [...]

I was very excited to get a chance to review this anthology. It is the first in a series of anthologies about Bad Ass Faeries, and who doesn’t love a book about Faeries who kick some ass? There is so much room for creativity in writing about faeries, and most of it should be about [...]

Review of The Future Fire, Issue 2010.20 By Mark Burgh In her opening editorial, guest writer Natania Barron, writes, “The queer issue of The Future Fire resoundingly represents the goals of the Outer Alliance,” a support group of LGBTQ speculative fiction writers.  These goals are to combat bigotry and to raise the voices of writers [...]

It’s difficult to know what to say after finishing a book like The Orange Eats Creeps. So many contradictions and difficult images spring from this novel that it’s tough to nail down where the story ends and begins. So many allusions to the horrible, creepy underside of human existence are present that it becomes jarring. And It may be the point of the novel to inspire such unsettling feelings. Anyone who reaches the last page will have done so with great constitution.

Steve Erikson says in the introduction that this novel “takes leave of not its senses but rather of sense, and it demands the reader do the same. This novel is an onslaught, a bombardment before which attempts at refinement must be doomed.” An apt summation given that the following 180 pages is the semi-coherent memoir of a self described “Slutty Teenage Hobo Vampire Junky.” Our un-named heroine describes in surrealistic overtones her experiences on the road with a pack of such creatures.

TITLE: 2020 Visions PUBLISHER: M-Brane Press RELEASE DATE: November 18, 2010 PAGES: 284 ISBN: ISBN-10: 0983170908 / ISBN-13: 978-0983170907 PRICE: $13.95 (PB) The concept behind 2020 Visions is to portray Earth in the immediate future. Sixteen authors have been chosen to answer the question ‘Where do you see the Earth in ten years?’ and the [...]

Everyday Weirdness bills themselves as a bit of weird every day. This is weird in the sense of strange, in the sense of “relating to the supernatural” and in the sense of magic. Which weird it is depends on the piece you choose to interact with . A selection of the most recent gives one [...]

In Panverse Two, we enjoy five more novellas of fantasy and science fiction. Long enough to satisfy, short enough to read all in one sitting, these five are very satisfying, each in their own way. I actually enjoyed this one more than the first Panverse, and I think it is because my tastes run more to fantasy than science fiction. However, these are just superbly good, and I recommend them to you all.

Near and dear to the heart of the most discerning daily commuter is the short fiction podcast. For those who are not enthralled by the antics of the local “Morning Zoo” and not impressed by the narrow playlists of today’s FM stations. For those who cannot be entertained by simple background music and find talk radio a depressing past time. It is for us that the audiobook and it’s more recent short format cousin, the podcast, were born.

Anyone familiar with audio fiction will immediately notice something remarkable about the Drabblecast. Its production quality is impeccable. The levels and equalization are spot on and will come through crystal clear whether your audio system is setup for gangster rap or classical. Norm Sherman gives the podcast flare with music and sound effects that makes listening to the stories a very different experience from a standard reading.
Anyone familiar with audio fiction will notice something remarkable about the Drabblecast. Its production quality is impeccable. The levels and equalization are spot on and will come through crystal clear whether your audio system is setup for gangta rap or classical. Norm Sherman gives the podcast flare with music and sound effects that makes listening to the stories a very different experience from a standard reading.

My biggest complaints about this anthology from Rogue Blades Entertainment are it’s too big and several stories are similar enough that they blend together. The result was that I found myself frustrated by the amount of time it took to read because the stories started blending all together in my mind. And I also felt [...]

After their only child, Eddie, is murdered by a group of young boys, Rob and Becky buy a house to fix up, hoping it will help them get through the agony of losing their son. While renovating, they find a room that is not in the plans of the house. They call it “The Quiet Room,” because the room is completely sound-proof. Nothing can be heard in there, not even the sound of one’s own voice.

Rob starts dreaming about the room and comes to believe there’s something evil inside. But Becky believes her son is in the room, so she starts spending a lot of time in there. Rob worries for Becky’s mental health and safety but she refuses to accept there is anything wrong with the room.