Zack Snyder’s Justice League – 5 Other DC Teams To Check Out

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League has revitalised interest in DC comics amongst cinemagoers and those that might not read comics much. With so much attention on the Justice League it might be a good time to check out some other DC hero teams, especially now thanks to the DC relaunch with Infinite Frontier, meaning that many of these teams have new #1 issues. Here are five worth checking out.

Teen Titans

Chances are you might have heard of the Teen Titans, due in part to the popularity of the animated series from 2003, and the recent follow up series Teen Titans Go!. Despite receiving more popularity in recent years the team has been around for a long while, originally appearing in The Brave And The Bold #54 in 1964. This version of team had only a handful of members, the original Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad, with Wonder Girl joining them a few issues later

The original Teen Titans were very much the sidekicks of the heroes who were starring in the Justice League series, and it wasn’t until a revival in the 1980s, named The New Teen Titans, that the team began to introduce new, original members. This included characters like Cyborg, Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy; characters that would become a mainstay of the title for decades.

Over the years the team has been through a lot of changes, with dozens of members coming and going. But whatever changes they’ve been through they’ve been a consistent favourite, showcasing some of the best younger heroes DC has to offer.

Suicide Squad

Another name that people may be familiar with thanks to the film of 2016, with a sequel in the works at the moment. The original version of the team appeared way back in The Brave And The Bold #25 in 1959 for a single appearance, before being revived the miniseries Legends in 1987.

The Suicide Squad, also known as Task Force X, is a team made up of villains from across the DC universe. However, they’re not a group of villains out to do bad, but instead bad guys who’ve been been forced to take part in secret government created missions. Overseen by the fearsome Amanda Waller, the team are sent into dangerous places, controlled by bombs in their necks, and tasked with completing classified objectives in exchange to a reduction in their sentences.

What makes the Suicide Squad stand out is that as well as being made up of villains, the team is also expendable, which has led to a number of members dying over the years. This means that there’s usually a good turnaround of members, even across a single volume. Over the years the team has included big named villains, as well as lesser know ones, including Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, King Shark, and Hawkman.

Justice League Dark

Whilst the main Justice League protects the world, a second league operates in the shadows, guarding the Earth from dark forces. One of the newer teams on this list, the JLD was formed in Justice League Dark in 2011, and saw a number of magical members of the DC universe coming together to face the kinds of threats that the regular League can’t. There have been two incarnations of the JLD so far, with a new run starting as a back-up feature in the new Justice League comic this month.

The first team came together in the wake of the defeat of the magical villain Enchantress, and included a number of characters over the course of its run, including the ghost Deadman, the shape-shifter Black Orchid, vampire Andrew Bennett, and magician and exorcist John Constantine as it’s leader for a while. The second incarnation featured a smaller roster, this time being lead by Wonder Woman, who discovered a deep connection to magic in her past. It also featured Zatana, Swamp Thing, and even the Batman villain Man-Bat.

As well as their appearances in the comics the Justice League Dark have had a number of animated outings on the small screen, with straight-to-DVD movies like Justice League Dark: Apokolips War.

Justice Society of America

The original superhero team, the Justice Society of America have been around since 1940, when they debuted in All Star Comics #3. Like the modern day Justice League, the Society saw several heroes that had already been established in their own titles coming together to form a team to take on bigger threats.

The original team featured a number of heroes, including Doctor Fate, The Spectre, Flash, Green Lantern, The Atom, and Sandman. Some of these heroes heroes didn’t originate with DC, however, and this marked the first inter-company superhero title, and team-up. As the team became more popular other characters would join the line-up, including Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.

Over the decades, as continuity changed, the JSA would be relegated to another Earth (Earth-2), and when eventually it merged into the regular universe the inclusion of some characters, Batman, and Superman, were retconned out. The team remains a mainstay of the DC universe, and features the ‘first’ generation of heroes, characters that inspired those who came after, and help to guide and teach the newer generations of heroes.

Doom Patrol

One of the weirder groups in DC, the Doom Patrol are a group of super-powered misfits who sometimes view their powers as a curse. First appearing in My Greatest Adventure #80 in 1963, an anthology book that was at risk of cancellation. Writer Bob Haney created the team in an attempt to give readers something new and interesting to grab attention.

Over the years the team has gone through a number of changes, but the core theme of a group of misfits who argue, get on each other’s nerves, but ultimately love each other remained the same. Since their first appearance the team have featured characters like Elasti-Girl, Robotman, and Negative Woman, as well as being the first book to feature Beast Boy, who would go on to join the Teen Titans.

Despite being something of a niche comic the group have endured for decades, and have even received a live action television series on HBO Max, which includes Timothy Dalton, Alan Tudyk, and Brendan Fraser amongst the cast.

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Harley Quinn #1 Comic Review

 

Harley Quinn has gone through a lot of changes in the last few years, and having now left the Joker behind and moved on to being her own person she's back in Gotham trying to make amends for her past deeds in the first issue of her new ongoing series. 

The last we saw the character, in Future State: Harley Quinn, she had gone through yet another change, leaving behind some of the wackiness and weirdness that have become synonymous with the character, and was being used by the forces of the Magistrate, and Jonathan Crane, to hunt down other Gotham criminals. Writer Stephanie Phillips had made Harley into an almost Hannibal Lecter like character who was being pumped for psychological insight whilst being held in her cell. This was an interesting new take for the character, and one I particularly liked.

Phillips has continued on with the character in this new series, and whilst Harley isn't at the same point she was in Future State she does seem to be on a similar path. The Harley presented in this issue is a woman who's put her crimes behind her, thanks in part to having her record wiped clean thanks to the Suicide Squad, and is trying to fix a lot of the wrongs she has done.

This is easier than said, however, particularly in a Gotham City where anyone who looks like a clown can become a target for mob vengeance. Despite this, Harley is trying to do her best, and we even get to see her trying to make up with Killer Croc, complete with gluten free cake. But despite the set-backs she faces as she has to deal with angry crocodile men, and even angrier citizens, she's determined to do good; and this is the real heart of the issue.

We get to see that despite not quite having everything together, with only a half-baked plan and a rundown apartment, she's genuinely trying. Even when confronted by Batman she refuses to back down and shows him that she's earnest in her goals, and that she truly believes that she's one of the good guys now. And even if she's not an official member of the Bat-Family yet she's still given the seal of approval from Batman, a nice toasty seal of approval.

Whilst not a huge amount happens in this first issue it does a lot to set important groundwork. It shows readers the state of Gotham following the events of the Joker War, what's motivating Harley, and even sets up an antagonist for her in the final pages of the issue. Thanks to some artwork from Riley Rossmo and Ivan Plascencia that feels very playful and uniquely Harley-ish the book always feels bold and bright, even when it's set in dingy sewers and dirty apartments.

With so much exciting promise set up in Future State: Harley Quinn I'm super excited to see what Stephanie Phillips has in store for the character, and the places that she's going to take Harley.

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Colony by Benjamin Cross - Book Review

 

'Harmsworth. A remote, mist-shrouded island in the Russian Arctic. Archaeology Professor Callum Ross makes the discovery of a lifetime: a prehistoric ice mummy preserved for thousands of years by the sub-zero temperatures. Only, they didn't die of natural causes...

'As Callum races to unravel the mystery of the mutilated corpse, others race to sabotage the expedition, and he and his team are left stranded on the island. And they are not alone. Someone, or something, relentless is stalking them. As the arctic mist descends and the death toll rises, the team is thrust into a nightmare fight for survival, involving submarines, cyber warfare and Spetsnaz. But none of this can prepare them for the real terror that survives deep within the island’s heart: a secret so ancient it's been overlooked by time itself.'

Colony begins in the distant past as we follow the journey of a Neolithic hunter as he makes his way across the frozen expanse of the Arctic, searching for something. After falling into a deep ice cave he soon finds himself at the mercy of some unseen creature, one that makes short work of the brave warrior. With this one small scene writer Benjamin Cross sets the tone for a book that is steeped in atmosphere and fraught with danger.

Jumping forward several thousand years, we join archaeologist Callum Ross as he's pulled away from his holiday with his son by a colleague of his who needs Callum to take his place on an expedition to the remote Russian Arctic, where a team of scientists are exploring Harmsworth island as part of an investigation that could have a big impact for the Russian companies that want to begin drilling for oil on the remote wilderness.

Callum is just one of several scientists, from all kinds of fields, and expects to find little archaeological evidence on the island, but when he discovers the frozen remains of an ancient hunter it sparks a mystery as to what could have killed this man all those centuries ago. Unfortunately for Callum, he will get his answers when corporate sabotage and eco-terrorism leads to him and several others being stranded on the island when their ship is destroyed. Not only do they have to find a way to survive in the extreme conditions of the Arctic, but they're also being hunted.

Over the course of the book we begin to discover what these creatures are, though there's a pretty big clue early on that makes it an obvious leap of logic as to what these things used to be, though it's one that the actual characters seem to take a little longer to get to. It makes it somewhat amusing to see them trying to puzzle out what's really on the island using scientific processes, when if they took a step back a moment and took a less precise examination they'd get to the answer a lot quicker. But then a lot of the fun of these kinds of stories is being a step or two ahead of the characters and seeing them trying to play catch up with the reader.

In a lot of ways the book reminded me of the Meg series by Steve Alten. It deals with a group of scientists having to fight for their lives against vicious killer creatures that are the stuff from history and legend; and like some of the later books in that series and it's sister series The Loch, it takes place in a remote, frozen location. It definitely made Colony more enjoyable for me, reminding me of a series that I love, and much like those books it doesn't just rely in killer creatures to keep things interesting, throwing in corporate espionage and shady dealings too so that there's a much more recognisable and human enemy in the mix.

The characters make for an interesting mix of people too, and none of them are perfect. It would have been easy to have Callum end up being a big hero, for example, when things started to go wrong, but he's not. He's imperfect. He struggles in survival situations, having to grab for nearby weapons and hoping they'll work; he's not an expert gunman mowing down hordes of creatures whilst he protects his new girlfriend. He's also very human in his personal life thanks to the relationship he has with his son, and the struggles he goes through to try and be a good father whilst juggling his work. It makes him feel like an every-man, the kind of person you yourself might know and be friends with, and it helps to ground the more fantastical elements of the book.

The supporting characters are equally well made, and most of them get small moments to shine along the way. We get a good sense of what drives them, and quickly begin to learn how they're going to react in certain situations; who will step up to the challenge and who will falter under pressure. Even those characters who end up being revealed to have ulterior motives, who end up bordering on villainous, manage to make you feel something, and you end up rooting for them to do the right thing because you just don't want to hate them. There was one particular character in the book whose death actually made me cry a little, but I'm not going to tell you which one.

Colony is a fun book, one that takes a fantastical premise and takes it seriously throughout. It doesn't enter hammy or silly territory, and works so much better because of that. This is the kind of story that under other writers could easily be seen as ridiculous or over-the-top, but Benjamin Cross manages to make it engaging, tense, and emotional throughout.

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All The Murmuring Bones - Angela Slatter Interview

 

‘All The Murmuring Bones’ takes place in a world where the fantastical is real, where water creatures and spirits exist, yet it feels so grounded and realistic, how did you manage to walk such a fine line, and what real world inspirations did you draw from?

A friend of mine wrote an article about how you shift the reader into the “fantastic” – starting with the “ordinary world” first and making them feel at home, then introducing the unreal elements a bit at a time. I guess it’s a bit like the specious frog in increasingly hot water theory! Kelly Link does it brilliantly (“The Fairy Handbag” and “The Summer People”) and Neil Gaiman also (obviously) – the “Harlequin Valentine” is the one of his that stands out for me. 

So, I started out with a world that feels recognisable and like a version of ours (except Gothic-y and almost Irish-y), then I start adding in the destabilising details until it’s clear that the world is not like ours. Eventually you’ve got a critical mass of mer, selkies, wolf-boys, kelpies, ghosts, and the reader goes “Hey, wait! How did I get here? Oh, it’s too late now, I need to find out what happens…” And if you’ve done your job as a writer well, they’ll stick with you.

When I was looking for visuals of the location of Hob’s Head and the house of Hob’s Hallow, I found images online of Howth Head and Malahide Castle, both in Ireland. While what’s in my head isn’t exactly the same, these pictures gave me a shape to start with – it’s important to me as a writer to “see” a version of the concrete setting when I’m writing.

Malahide Castle, Ireland

There are a lot of fairy-tale and mythological creatures that appear in the story, were there any that you wanted to include but weren’t able to for any reason?

I try to not throw in too many creatures all at once or it just feels like fairy-tale soup, and it’s hard to distinguish one from the other. There are a lot of mythical sea creatures, but they’re in the same ballpark, so that felt to me like it worked well and helped weave the story together. I would have liked to do more with wolves, but it wasn’t really the right thing to make a focus of in this novel. But I’m doing something more with wolfish things that go sometimes on four feet, sometimes on two in a new novella called The Bone Lantern (also set in the Sourdough world), and with a character who appears in All the Murmuring Bones. And I think he’ll pop up in another story somewhere along the way … 

Folk stories and fairy-tales have had something of a resurgence in recent years, with modern retellings and updates, do you think that these stories lose something of their original meanings and intentions when this happens, or are they the next step in what are evolving folk tales?

I think they’re very much cyclical. They reflect the society they’re told into and they are changed by it and in spite of it, and I think they change it in turn. Folk and fairy tales are our oldest stories. I think they’re a kind of small revolution on the tongue and in the mind because every teller tells them differently, adds something, takes something away, adapts it as required. They get sanitised by the Brothers Grim, then Perrault, then Disney … and then we take them back. Writers like Angela Carter and Tanith Lee and Marina Warner bring out their inherent darkness again. And there’s a whole new generation of writers doing that again and again, and in different ways, for example Rivers Solomon’s The Deep, Cassandra Khaw’s “And in Our Daughters, We Find a Voice”, Christina Henry’s The Girl in Red, Alix E. Harrow’s A Spindle Splintered, the Cursed Anthology from editors Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane. That’s just to name a very few. They’re tales we always pass on and on – and they evolve. 

The book feels really Gothic, even when there’s nothing particularly spooky happening there are times where the story just drips with atmosphere, is this a genre that appeals to you? Did you know the book was going to have a dark quality before writing it or did it happen through the process of creating it?

I think anything I write will have darkness in it – it’s more just a question of how much! I don’t need to think about it – in fact, if I wrote something light and fluffy, someone would need to take my temperature and ask if I was feeling okay. As younger reader I read fairy and folk tales, myths and legends, and of course the full suite of the Brontës. Daphne Du Maurier, Shirley Jackson, Poe, Wilkie Collins, Henry James and M.R. James. It would have been a miracle if I hadn’t written something Gothic-y. I loved those stories as young reader even though they’re problematic – and I can see that now as an older writer, so what I try to do is reinterpret elements of those stories. Especially the really unhealthy fairy-tale “true love” elements in so many of them – hint: Mr Rochester was not a good catch! He was not misunderstood!

Miren is a really strong main character, one who always feels has a plan, who knows her own mind, even when others around her are plotting things or trying to manipulate her. Was it difficult writing someone like her, who is so competent and strong, yet is being pushed around by others?

She wasn’t difficult to write – I think we get so many heroines who are pushed around and so we’re only supposed to feel sorry for them when they’re get gin kicked. And we only expect them to become active after extreme ill treatment. I like to think that Miren actually starts plotting to extricate herself from this situation well before that – but things move more quickly than expected. She also thinks, for a wee while, that others around her might be reasonable – but once she realises they aren’t going to be, she becomes very pragmatic and ruthless to save herself. You’ve got this dichotomy with her that she’s been brought up to be obedient by someone she loves BUT that someone (or those someones) have also taught her to be strong and to think for herself. So Aoife and Óisín sort of made a bit of a rod for their own backs. And the example she had in front of her for her entire life was her grandmother Aoife, who was very strong and very wilful – and what you can see, you can be. So she picked the characteristics of her grandmother than would serve her best, but also I think rejected the ones that were really selfish and unfair.

I loved the journey Miren went on after she left home, and the things she encountered as she crossed the country, were there any other small adventures along the way that you almost included?

No, I had a very strong idea of this journey between two houses – and showing the differences between the two, but also the similarities. The fairy-tale version of story very much came out the way I had imagined it in the first place. 

The story had a lot happen in it, with Miren leaving her home, searching for her parents, and then the mystery that happens once she reaches her parents’ home, were you ever tempted to split the book up, to have one book with her journey to her parents and another on what she finds there?

Again, no. I felt it would not have stretched over two books. I wanted that contained adventure and a definitive ending rather than writing a never-ending series of sequels. I’ve written three mosaic collections set in this world and what I love is the nature of the shorter tales that are interlinked – so doing a “proper” novel in this world really only had one shape for me. And I really like the emotional highs and lows of this book, which I don’t think I’d have been able to maintain as well stretched over a larger frame.

Sourdough and Other Short Stories, & The Bitterwood Bible

‘All The Murmuring Bones’ is a part of the same universe as your ‘Sourdough’ and ‘Bitterwood’ story collections, what kind of things can readers who liked this book find there, and can we learn more about the briefly mentioned vampire kingdom in those books?

Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, and The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales (Tartarus Press) are all mosaic collections set in this same world. They stretch across several centuries, there are some long-lived characters who recur over the three books so we get to see them as young women, middle-aged women, then some as crones, but also some as eternal creatures. There’s also a novella called Of Sorrow and Such (Tor.com) that revisits some of the characters. Basically you’ll get fairy-tale creatures, witches, monsters, a lot of determined female characters who know their own minds and fight for what they want and need in the world. The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales actually has a cross-over with All the Murmuring Bones in the form of a character called Bethany Lawrence – you get her early story in the collection, but you can absolutely read them as standalones. Another thing you can have a look at and download a free ebook at the Brain Jar Press website – it’s a novelette called “No Good Deed” and it’s about the ancestress of Bethany Lawrence from way back in the Sourdough mists of time.

I guess my stories always have a darkness to them, but I also hope there’s hope for them. Characters come out battered, but I think wiser, but generally they do come out alive! 

Your blog features articles on other writers’ work, and you offer services to help others with story development and editing, is having a good sense of community in the publishing world something you believe in?

It is! I didn’t really find much of a one when I started writing. I didn’t come up through any fandoms so I had no connections or community. I try my best to encourage a sense of community and networking among writers. Just trying to be helpful where you can, sharing opportunities, helping to spotlight authors in different areas who don’t have the same chances for exposure. Trying to encourage other people too, to offer a hand to those lower on the ladder, so it’s not just about a few people all doing the helping, but something everyone thinks to do automatically. That’s a pipedream, obviously, but one lives in hope! And always remembering that this business is a game of snakes and ladders – one three-book deal doesn’t make a career, you won’t always be the top of the pile – but also, one three-book series that doesn’t sell well also doesn’t necessarily end a career either. So, be nice to people when you’re on your way up, because you mind want them to remember you kindly when you’re sliding down …

What can readers expect from you after ‘All The Murmuring Bones’?

I’m finishing off another gothic fantasy for Titan (currently) called Morwood. I keep describing it as a kind of fairy-tale Frankenstein … has the character of Asher Todd travelling to a remote house to become a governess. The family there seems respectable – but of course they’re not really. But Asher has her own secrets and her own agenda. And there are the usual sorts of creatures you expect of a Sourdough world story, and a new city – the university city of Whitebarrow where doctors learn their trade and join forces with the princes of the church to try and wipe out witchcraft. But the university library holds some surprising secrets. And Asher will do some terrible, terrible things. So, a cheery little tome!

And as I said before, I’m finishing off a novella The Bone Lanter, which is three nested tales also set in the Sourdough world. 

After that, I have two uncontracted Sourdough novels to finish, The Briar Book of the Dead and The Crimson Road.

For anyone interested in seeking out more of Angela's work you can purchase her books Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, and The Tallow Wife and Other Tales from Tartarus Press, or via the links provided above. The free book Brain Jar is available for download from Brain Jar Press.  And Of Sorrow and Such can be purchased from Tor Publishing. You can also visit Angela's website www.angelaslatter.com where you can find information on all of her work, and her blog.

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All The Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter - Blog Tour

 

'Long ago Miren O'Malley's family prospered due to a deal struck with the mer: safety for their ships in return for a child of each generation. But for many years the family have been unable to keep their side of the bargain and have fallen into decline. Miren's grandmother is determined to restore their glory, even at the price of Miren's freedom.

'A spellbinding tale of dark family secrets, magic and witches, and creatures of myth and the sea; of strong women and the men who seek to control them.'

Mermaids, kelpies, and ghosts, oh my! All the Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter is the latest fantasy book to be released by Titan Books, and is full of dark and Gothic atmosphere.

The book tells the tale of Miren O'Malley, a young woman who's grown up in the sheltered confines of Hobs Hallow, the ancestral home of her family, the once rich and powerful O'Malley's. When the family was young they commanded fear and respect, their vast wealth and fierceness making them one of the strongest groups around; but over the years their bloodline has dwindled, and with it their fortunes. 

Miren is the 'last' O'Malley, the last member of the family born with the name, and the strongest claim to the blood. Over the centuries the family has expanded and the bloodline diluted, and whilst there are many who can trace their family back to the O'Malley's, Miren is the last of them. With her parents dead, she's been raised by her fierce and at times uncaring grandparents, but when her grandfather dies it begins to unravel things. 

With their debts mounting and their home falling into disrepair her grandmother, Aoife, hatches a plan. Miren is set to marry her cousin, Aidan Fitzpatrick, a rich merchant who has promised to clear the O'Malley debts and restore the family to a position of power. The only problem is, Miren doesn't want to marry Aidan.

The initial set up to All The Murmuring Bones is an intriguing one, and readers are introduced to this ancient family when they're at their lowest point. Once commanding great power, able to oppose the will of even the church, the family is a shadow of what it once was. Despite this, we see some of the greatness they used to have in Aoife, an imposing woman who still acts like she power and position to command anything. 

Despite having grown up under her influence, Miren is very much unlike her grandmother, and is used to the somewhat simple life she has. She doesn't crave power, or want the finest things, and sees the last remaining servants at Hobs Hallow as friends, if not family. She's a kind and decent person despite the things she's been through; and because of this those around her consider her weak, an easy pawn in their games.

This is one of the things that I really loved about Miren, the fact that at the beginning of the book people like Aoife and Aidan believe that they can do whatever they want, that they can force Miren to be anything they want, but are so wrong. The readers quickly get to discover that there's a whole lot more to Miren than we first realise; and it's little surprise considering the woman who raised her. Miren knows when to fight, when to deceive, and when if necessary strike out at others. She has a strength that she likes to keep hidden, one that makes her dangerous.

When events begin to spiral out of her control we begin to see this power that she has when she confronts her grandmother, when she defies Aidan. We see the defiance that lies beneath the surface, the woman who has learnt from her grandmother to never be a pawn in another's game, and who chooses to take matters into her own hands. Unfortunately, she's never fully in control, and when Aoife is killed and she's trapped in her home with her future husband she takes the only course of action she can, fleeing.

This is when the book takes a very different turn, as Aoife sets out to track down her parents, who she has discovered never actually died. From here the book becomes a story about her journey, and the dangers that she encounters on the way. Not only is this one of the more exciting parts of the book, and further continues to show the strength that Miren has, but has some incredible world building in it too.

We'd had hints of this before this, of some of the creatures that inhabit this world, but it's not until Miren sets out to find her family that we really get a sense of the kinds of creatures that are out there. Mermaids, kelpies, ghosts, and the undead are just some of the creatures that she encounters on her journey. 

There's a constant sense that we're only ever seeing the very surface of what this world has to offer, that there's a lot ore hiding in the shadows, just out of sight. Thanks to the things that Miren comes across, and the stories she tells along the way, we get a bit of a hint of just how frightening this world is. But it's not this that does the most world building, but the fairytales we hear along the way. Occasionally recounted by Miren to others, and other times simply remembered from her childhood, we get to see glimpses into the dark and twisted tales that she grew up with.

Where other books are happy to let readers discover things as they are encountered, or perhaps offer reams of background information and expository narrative All The Murmuring Bones takes a different, much more interesting approach. By showing us the stories that Miren, and others, grew up with we're seeing not just the kinds of things that inhabit this world, but the way people there are raised. They grow up hearing these stories, learning about these creatures. It's no surprise then that it feel like a much darker and more dangerous place, where everyone seems to be on their guard; it's because they've been raised since childhood to fear what lurks in the waters, the forests, and the dark corners of the world. The casual way that we learn there's a kingdom of vampires in a neighbouring country isn't even shocking come that point, because of course there are places like that in this world, where the dead and the monstrous rule all.

I adored the way that Slatter interwove these moments of history with the narrative, and it meant that you never knew what was coming next, or what was important. Were these simply stories being told to pass the time, to reflect on this history of this world, or were these things that Miren was going to encounter and have to deal with? The book always managed to keep me guessing what was coming next, and the fact that by the time Miren manages to find the village where her parents settled there was still a good chunk of the book left took me by surprise. I was so sure that the book was going to be about her journey, the adventures she had on the road, that I never expected that there was going to be so much more to it than that; and that the dangers and mysteries had only really just began.

All The Murmuring Bones managed to pack in a ton of content, it wove a story that kept evolving and changing, yet never felt too ridiculous or far removed from what came before it. We got to know an incredibly strong and interesting female lead who demonstrated a variety of guises over the course of the story, who was able to demonstrate all of her strengths and prove that she was more than worthy of being a hero to aspire to be. It was a book that I was sad to see finish, because I'd come to love every moment of it.

Check back later today to read my interview with Angela Slatter. 

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Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley – Book Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

'Skyward Inn, within the high walls of the Western Protectorate, is a place of safety, where people come together to tell stories of the time before the war with Qita. But safety from what?

' Qita surrendered without complaint when Earth invaded; Innkeepers Jem and Isley, veterans from either side, have regrets but few scars. Their peace is disturbed when a visitor known to Isley comes to the Inn asking for help, bringing reminders of an unnerving past and triggering an uncertain future.

'Did humanity really win the war?'

Skyward Inn introduces readers to the Western Protectorate, a small part of Devon that’s rejected the fast evolving modern world outside of its walled borders, a world where people use AI implants and travel to distant planets. The people inside the Protectorate have chosen a simpler life instead, growing their own food, building their homes themselves, and relying on nothing from the outside. It’s here that we meet Jem, a woman who grew up in the Protectorate, but left her home for years to travel to the distant world of Qita, where humanity had begun expanding.

During her time on Qita she met and fell in love with one of the world’s inhabitants, Isely. Veterans from both sides of a small war that never was, they found friendship and comfort in each other, and Isely returned to Earth with Jem once her tour was finished. Now the two of them run the Skyward Inn, a small tavern overlooking the village where Jem grew up, a village she no longer really feels a part of. Having worked hard for the locals to accept Isely, and still working to reforge her relationship with her estranged son, Jem’s life is thrown off course when another Qitan who knows Isely arrives at the Inn, asking for their help.

Skyward Inn is a strange story, one that mixes together old ways of life, of remote rural living, with alien worlds and the fear of the alien and the unknown. It takes a very familiar, simple way of life that most readers will be familiar with, that some might even desire to pursue (no more social media, offices, or commutes sounds wonderful) and begins to add strange elements that alter this dream existence into something very different.

Despite presenting two opposing ways of life, the quiet life that shuns technology, and another where travel to the stars is possible, the book isn’t really about that. It doesn’t ask big questions about which way of life is better, or if there needs to be a balance between the old way of the world and the future; instead, it focuses on the people in the story, and asks questions about what it means to be human. The book is concerned about relationships, how people connect, and what it means to be a part of each other’s lives.

I feel like I’m struggling to describe the book, but I think that’s part of what makes it a really interesting read. It’s not a simple story. It raises questions and themes through metaphor. It bends time and perception in ways that you wouldn’t expect, and the story doesn’t follow a path that you expect. I’m sure that if you were to read it you would have a different experience of it than I, because it felt strangely personal, like the author had managed to get inside my head and was making me examine my own relation to the world and what certain things meant to me.

Skyward Inn might not be for everyone, it has a very leisurely pace, and twists narratives together in unusual ways that might not be to everyone’s tastes, but if you like the strange, if you like stories that are multi-layered and get under your skin, this is probably something that you’ll really like. With strong, well defined characters, and some big questions on the very nature of what it means to exist, Skyward Inn is a book that will get you thinking.

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Sacrifice - Paul Kane Interview

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

With the release of the new horror film Sacrifice, we sat down with Paul Kane, author of the original story that the film was based upon, and asked him a few questions about the film, his writing, and horror in general.

Amy Walker: Sacrifice is based on your story ‘Men of the Cloth’ from your collection The Colour of Madness. You’ve obviously drawn upon the works of H.P. Lovecraft for that story, but how did the seeds for the story begin?

Paul Kane: ‘Men of the Cloth’ does appear in The Colour of Madness, a tie-in which was put together when the movie was originally called that – it was changed a bit later on to Sacrifice – but the novelette first appeared in a collection called The Spaces Between back in 2013. It’s about ten thousand words, and I was having trouble placing it anywhere because of the length, so I put it in a collection of other longer pieces.

It was written a few years before that even, inspired by my time when I was teaching out in the community. I used to go out in the car to some really isolated places, teaching Painting & Drawing and Creative Writing. On one such occasion I was driving through a remote village and spotted all these scarecrows in the gardens that looked pretty terrifying, and that sparked the idea for a story about a man dragging his family back to England from America to try and find out more about his origins.

There’s actually very little Lovecraftian stuff in the original, other than a sense that something strange is going on in this community which is quite cult-like. A lot of that was put in by writer/directors Andy Collier and Tor Mian when they wrote the script for Sacrifice, as was transplanting the original English setting to Norway. There is a very Lovecraftian story in The Colour of Madness, however, called ‘Thicker Than Water’ – which is set in Innsmouth, and it doesn’t get any more Lovecraftian than that! People can buy the tie-in collection, which includes behind the scenes photos from the shoot and script extracts, from Luna Press here or there’s an audio version out from Encyclopocalypse which you can buy here.

AW: A lot of the stories that you’ve written seem to include a lot of cosmic horror, taking inspiration not just from Lovecraft, but people like Clive Barker as well; what is it about cosmic horror that keeps drawing you back to the genre?

PK: For me, it boils down to imagination, I think. Letting it run riot, go to places where you wouldn’t normally go. As Clive always says, ‘You’ve got to write your dreams!’ The main kind of cosmic horror I write about revolves around my creations The Controllers: one-eyed god-like things that manipulate humans from afar. The first story I wrote they appeared in was ‘Astral’ back in the 90s, so I guess you could say I’ve been telling stories about them for some time. I wrote the latest, ‘The Scoop’, a couple of years ago when Luna gathered together all the stories featuring those guys, which again you can find here. The other mythology that touches on cosmic horror, or at least beings who cross dimensions to mess with us, are the ‘Order of the Shadows’ tales. They span the whole of my career as well, beginning with ‘Shadow Writer’ – which has just been turned into a role-playing game by Distant Grey Gaming. The Sinister Horror Company are releasing a collection of all of those on 13 March called Darkness & Shadows and you can order that here.

The whole thing is leading up to a crossover, similar to what was done with Clive’s Cenobites and the Nightbreed in the comic Jihad. I’ll hopefully be starting that sometime this year or maybe next, depending on what happens work-wise. Then of course you’ve got The Storm, which came out from PS Publishing last year… That short novel is, first and foremost, my homage to creature features and novels like Them!, The Crabs and so on, but there’s also cosmic horror in there because the monsters which appear – via a storm that occurs near a castle on the coast – come from somewhere not unlike The Controllers’ universe. This is just their way of testing the waters, if you’ll pardon the expression, and seeing if humanity is ripe for invasion. You can still get that one in trade hardback or signed, limited edition here.

AW: Horror sometimes seems to be a genre that people overlook and don’t consider to be a ‘serious’ area of fiction, despite it being hugely popular; what is it about horror that you feel makes it a good genre to explore sometimes complex themes and ideas?

PK: I think, like SF and fantasy, authors have always used horror to comment on certain things in society. You only have to look at the anxiety surrounding radiation in the 50s, or the fear of the family unit breaking apart which permeated horror in the 60s and 70s to see that. Or the recent home invasion trend, which reflects how insecure people are about something that used to be taken for granted: feeling safe in your own little world. If you look back on how political novels like Jack Finney’s The Body Snatchers and Jim Herbert’s The Rats were, or how Stephen King’s The Stand pared things down to ‘good vs evil’ by getting rid of the trappings of modern life, you’ll see the kind of thing I mean.

For myself, I think the more imaginative genres are perfect for drawing attention to issues that you feel strongly about. I recently wrote a story ‘Lifeline’ for a werewolf anthology called Leaders of the Pack, and that allowed me to talk indirectly about how abhorrent I find domestic abuse – whilst at the same time presenting strong female characters who find their inner-strength, or even inner-wolves, to combat this. It’s a subject I feel very passionate about, and a story I’m particularly proud of, so people who just dismiss horror as simply gore or violence for its own sake should probably take another look at what the genre’s doing. For me, it’s as important as any other kind of fiction and I hope one day it’s recognised as such by more people.

AW: Do you feel that British horror is different to horror stories produced in other countries, and if so what sets us Brits apart when we do horror?

PK: I think there’s probably a healthy streak of ‘just getting on with things’ in British horror. That kind of ‘oh, this is happening now so I’d better deal with it’ kind of mentality. You see this in all kinds of British horror books. The people caught up in The Storm, for example, are suddenly tackling giant eels or lobsters or whatever, but they just get on with fighting them – because what’s the alternative? Lay down and just give up? I think that British ‘can do’ attitude shines through in fiction like this, or maybe it’s just a quiet resolve? A realisation that you can’t change things, so you just have to roll with the punches and plod on. That and the swearing, of course!

AW: You’ve been promoting and sharing behind the scenes glimpses at Sacrifice on your social media for a while now; what was the process like seeing one of your stories being made into a film adaptation?

PK: Put simply: sheer delight! Anything that’s popped up connected with the movie, I’ve shared it – from the initial location scouting to filming the underwater bits, to the editing pics. I have been and continue to be equally fascinated by the whole process and I’m loving every single minute of it. After all, it’s not every day a writer gets something turned into a feature! It helps that I thoroughly enjoyed the finished thing, which I watched the other week – and I’m honestly not just saying that because I’m connected to it.

I thought there was a kind of uneasy dread running through the whole thing which reminded me massively of movies like The Wicker Man and Midsommar – and from some of the reviews I see I’m not alone. Plus the production values, the music and the performances were terrific. I really couldn’t be happier with the film. And the wonderful thing is this isn’t the first time… I mean, it’s the first feature, but stuff I’ve written has been adapted into short movies and TV before, as well as scripts I wrote being filmed. New Year’s Day is probably the biggest of those releases, based on my story ‘Dead Time’ and part of the Lionsgate NBC series Fear Itself which screened on primetime television in the ER timeslot. Things like that are kind of ‘pinch me’ moments for an author.

AW: Were there any changes that the team on Sacrifice made to your story that you found particularly good, or that you wished were in the original story?

PK: When I wrote the story I was conscious of length, and trying to sell it – and even then it wound up being quite long. Much longer than your average short story… So, I was quite envious of the way the writer-directors were able to flesh out characters and give us a fair amount of time to get to know them. With mine, a lot of it was done in broad strokes, so it was nice to see how the main characters developed over the course of an hour and a half. I love the way Isaac – played by Ludovic Hughes – goes from this really curious guy to someone who’s obsessed with the customs of his ancestral home.

Sophie Stevens is superb as his pregnant wife Emma, by turns terrified by what’s happening but strong enough to try and get out of a dangerous situation. While Barbara Crampton… What can I say? When I heard Barbara was in the movie I was just blown away; I’ve been a fan of hers since Re-Animator and From Beyond. And she really doesn’t disappoint in Sacrifice! Absolutely pitch-perfect, full of menace but with a wonderful sense of black comedy. That’s also something you can’t really pull off in fiction, no matter how much you try. Even if you write in quite a visual way, there’s nothing like seeing actors perform a story in front of you, bringing with them their own particular set of skills. Being a lifelong film and TV fan, I’m always in awe of the creatives who bring stories to life.

AW: There seems to be a growing trend in movies inspired by or based upon Lovecraft coming back into popularity at the moment, with things like Color Out Of Space, Underwater, and Sacrifice; what is it about these types of movies that you think keeps attracting people?

PK: I’m not sure, really. Maybe it just is that idea of something out of kilter, things which exist beyond our understanding and should definitely be feared. There’s that old saying about Lovecraft being unfilmable, isn’t there? Because he never described the threat in any great detail… So perhaps it’s just a case of the special effects catching up with what we can imagine. I know my jaw dropped when I saw the Cthulhu at the beginning of Lovecraft Country, and then the monster attack at the end of that first episode. There was a time of day when it wasn’t possible to show something like that on screen, and now we can; hell, if we can have a ‘realistic’ Hulk who looks like he’s stepped out of a comic, then anything’s possible. So maybe it’s that? Or maybe it’s just that good stories never really go out of fashion, and can continually change or be appropriated by new generations. Certainly with Sacrifice, for me it’s just really cool to see a cult who worship a weird creature with tentacles that lives underwater near their village.

AW: What upcoming projects of yours should people keep an eye out for if they want more of your work?

PK: Oh, all kinds of things! I’ve mentioned Darkness & Shadows, which I’ve been putting together with Justin Park of Sinister for a while now – that comes with an introduction by Mike ‘MR’ Carey, who wrote The Girl with All the Gifts, and cover photography by Michael Marshall Smith. It arrives on the back of a few books I’ve had out, including a collection of Body Horror stories called Traumas from Black Shuck Books; that one has an intro by John Llewellyn Probert and a cracking cover by Les Edwards and you can buy it here. The second of my PL Kane thrillers came out not long ago as well, Her Husband’s Grave from HQ/HarperCollins which you can find here. That sold out not once, but three times on Amazon and once on the Waterstones site!

Gestalt Media also brought out the tenth anniversary edition of my supernatural serial killer novel The Gemini Factor, which includes a new introduction from me, the original one from Peter ‘Hellbound’ Atkins, a prequel short story and the first episode of a TV adaptation of the book. You can get that from the publisher directly here or Amazon here. I’ve just finished an outline of a possible sequel, so we’ll see how that goes. Then there are more collections on the horizon, a couple of general ones and a themed one, plus anthologies… Our last one was Cursed from Titan about a year ago, so Marie and I are itching to do another. All this and some audio drama work, more film and TV scripting… So watch this space basically!

Paul Kane is the award-winning, bestselling author and editor of over a hundred books. Find out more at his site www.shadow-writer.co.uk.

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Zack Snyder’s Justice League – 5 Justice League Books To Check Out

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Zack Snyder’s Justice League finally gets its release, giving audiences a film years in the making, and the Justice League story that people have been craving, but what to do if you want more stories involving the Justice League? Well, here are five that are definitely worth checking out.

JLA: Tower of Babel

One of the ideas that’s been around in the DC universe for a long time is that with enough preparation time Batman could take down anyone. JLA: Tower of Babel takes this idea and runs with it when the various members of the Justice League begin to be picked off one by one. Martian Manhunter is infected with nanites that cause him to burst into flames, Plastic Man is frozen solid, Aquaman is made afraid of water, and Superman is exposed to Red Kryptonite and becomes overwhelmed, to name just a few of the heroes taken off the board.

It’s discovered that all of these plans were put into place by Batman, who made contingencies in case any of his teammates ever turned against the world. Unfortunately, these plans were stolen by the villain Ra’s al Ghul. Whilst the league are able to stop Ra’s and his plans it leads to a rift in the team, who feel that Batman can no longer be trusted.

DC: The New Frontier

A six issue limited series, this book was written and drawn by the late Darwyn Cook and received a number of awards, and an animated film.

DC: The New Frontier is set during the 1950s, and sees a version of the Justice League coming together during that period. As the book is set during the Golden Age of DC’s comics, the characters have a much more simplified look, reminiscent of the members of the Justice Society of America.

With a strange island called The Centre that’s home to strange creatures and dinosaurs, bizarre incidents begin to take places across the globe, thanks in part to the cult that seems to worship it. It’s whilst investigating this that Batman comes across the Martian Manhunter, who’s hiding out in Gotham. Together the two detectives try to get to the bottom of this mystery, recruiting several other heroes along the way.

Justice League: Generation Lost

Featuring characters that once made up the Justice League International, Justice League: Generation Lost picks up decades after that series came to and end, and is a direct consequence of the end of Blackest Night.

When the villain Maxwell Lord, who was responsible for the murder of hero Blue Beetle, is returned to life at the conclusion of Blackest Night he amplifies his psychic powers to remove all memory of himself from the minds of everyone on Earth. Fortunately, a handful of members of the JLI seem to remember who he is, and sets out to capture him.

The series ran for a year across twenty four issues, and featured some lesser known heroes like Booster Gold, Captain Atom, Power Girl, and Rocket Red. The series proved to be incredibly popular, and gave a spotlight to members of the Justice League from the 80s and 90s.

Identity Crisis

A seven issue limited series, Identity Crisis appears on dozens of top ten comics lists thanks to its hard hitting story and strong writing by thriller novelist Brad Meltzer.

The story begins with the brutal murder of Sue Dibney, the wife of hero Elongated Man. One of the most beloved people in the hero community, her death rocks heroes from around the world. The heroes come together to hunt for Sue’s killer, but when several members of the Justice League seem to place the blame on Doctor Light for no apparent reason it’s revealed that there is a dark secret at the heart of the League, one that’s coming back to haunt them.

Identity Crisis has been considered controversial for some of the directions the story takes, but it remains one of the most impactful and upsetting comics DC has produced, and has had lasting consequences for several characters.

Justice League: Origin

Justice League: Origin was the first story arc in Justice League following the company wide relaunch The New 52, which saw a new continuity introduced to the DC universe. This story tells the new origin for the team, and is the book that most resembles the story-line for the new movie.

In this new origin the team no longer features Martian Manhunter, bringing Cyborg in as a founding member instead. Other than Green Lantern, the team is the same as in the Zack Snyder film. Also like the Snyder film, the team no longer come together to combat the villain Starro, but to prevent an invasion of Earth by Darkseid and the forces of Apokolips. If you enjoy the Snyder film, this is definitely a good place to try out a Justice League comic.

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Sacrifice – Film Review

Originally published on Set The Tape 

Sacrifice is the latest horror film to be released that draws inspiration from the work of H.P. Lovecraft, though in this case it’s less running away from otherworldly tentacle monsters, and more of a slow building psychological horror that will work its way under your skin.

Based upon the short story ‘Men of Cloth’ by horror writer Paul Kane, the film sees young married couple Isaac (Ludovic Hughes) and Emma (Sophie Stephens) travelling to a remote Norwegian island when Isaac’s mother dies. Travelling to settle the estate and sell the house that Isaac hasn’t seen since he was a small boy, the couple begin to discover things about the island they could never have imagined.

Whilst Isaac begins to explore his family history, including the fact that his father was murdered in their home, and learning about the strange cultural practices of the island, Emma begins to have an increasingly awful time. Desperate to get off the island before she’s too pregnant to fly back to the US, she begins to experience strange nightmares and disturbing visions that she at first blames on her anxieties but begins to suspect might be connected to something bigger. As Isaac seems to slip further away from her and begins to embrace the islanders, Emma is left alone to face the horrors that surround her.

At first I thought that Sacrifice would be Isaac’s story, as it’s about him returning to the island where he was born, and discovering more and more about his past, but it soon becomes apparent that the real focus of the film is Emma, played exceptionally well by Sophie Stephens. Emma seems to be the only person who can see the strange effect that everything is having on her husband, and is the only rational voice on the island. It’s an interesting subversion that I wasn’t expecting, as most horror films in the vein would tend to focus on the male lead in this scenario, having to fight to save his pregnant wife from the horrors just below the surface.

I think this is one of the things that the film does really well, subverting your expectations, and directors Andy Collier and Tor Mian do a good job of weaving a narrative that feels both familiar and very new. You’re able to predict certain steps the story takes, but never the final destination, and even those parts you do manage to predict happen ever so slightly differently to how you expect them to go. This is one of the things that’s quite common in cosmic horror, especially those based around Lovecraft’s work. As mentioned earlier, the original story was written by Paul Kane, who’s well known for his unusual, cosmic horror, and who has written some great stories inspired by Lovecraft, and you can definitely tell that this story comes from a place of love for the source material, and that the filmmakers wanted to create something that would appeal to those kinds of fans.

This seems to extend to the casting, with horror veteran Barbara Crampton appearing in the film in the role of local police officer Renate. No stranger to Lovecraftian horror, Crampton is a cult favourite thanks to her work on films such as From Beyond and Re-Animator. Her inclusion instantly evokes memories of these films, and lends the production a sense of legacy as it includes such a popular horror actor. She’s not just a throwaway piece of stunt casting though, as she delivers a stunning performance as the sinister yet lovely Renate, a character who you’re never sure if you should trust or not. It’s also clear that she put a lot of work into her Norwegian accent, and sounds phenomenal next to the other Norwegian actors, never once feeling out of place or fake.

Sacrifice does a great job of building tension and keeping the audience in suspense. It will throw nightmare sequences and strange visions at you until you’re questioning whether what you’re seeing is going to be real or not, much like the characters. It’s got some damn good performances in it, even from characters with very minor parts who are only in one or two scenes. It looks beautiful thanks to its location shoots, and really evokes feelings of isolation and horror in its audience. Whether you’re a fan of Lovecraft or not, there’s a lot to love with this film, and is definitely one you should be seeking out.

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Demelza and the Spectre Detectors by Holly Rivers - Book Review

 

'Demelza loves science - she loves it so much that she stays up late to work on her inventions. But she soon discovers she's also inherited a distinctly unscientific skill: Spectre Detecting. Like her grandmother, she can summon the ghosts of the dead. But when Grandma Maeve is kidnapped, Demelza and her pasty-faced best friend, Percy, must leap into action to solve the deadly mystery ...'

Science loving Demelza Clock lives with her grandmother Maeve in her small cottage, inventing weird and wonderful devices by day, and dodging her stern headmistress at school by day. Despite having lost her parents at a young age Demelza is a happy child, and loves her grandmother deeply, possibly due to the fact that her grandmother allows Demelza to pursue her aspirations to become an inventor, never stifling her granddaughter's creative spirit.

One night Demelza is awoken by strange noises in the house, noises that she can't track down to any logical source. Convinced that it must be people trying to break into her home she invents a new device to trap them, and ropes her friend Percy in to help her. Percy is a little nervous about sneaking out at night to assist Demelza, due to him being allergic to almost everything and having been kept indoors by his father for years, but agrees to go along and help.

However, when Demelza discovers a strange trap door in her grandmother's greenhouse she discovers a secret that will change her world forever. She learns that her grandmother is a Spectre Detector, a person capable of summoning spectres from the land of the dead back to earth, where they can be given the change to say goodbye to their loved ones. Not only that, but Demelza has these powers too, and they've begun to awaken.

Now that Demelza had begun to discover that she has amazing powers she begins to learn about the world of Spectre Detecting, and things seem to be going well for her. But, she learns that a mysterious figure has been kidnapping young apprentices and killing them, trying to force them to bring someone back from the dead fully. When her grandmother is taken and Demelza receives a ransom note demanding that she surrender to this person she has to call in every ally she can to help save her grandmother.

Demelza and the Spectre Detectors was not the book I was expecting it to be. My partner read it before me, which is something she never really does as she doesn't do much reading, but read the whole thing in two days and was raving about it. So, I decided to pick it up and give it a go, knowing only that it was about a girl called Demelza who loves inventing things. If I'd had read the blurb I'd have been less shocked about the ghosts (sorry, spectres!) but that's on me.

One of the things I really enjoyed about the book was how despite it being about magic powers, about ghosts and mystical rituals, Demelza is a girl who believes in science. She not only loves inventing, but comes to things from a scientific viewpoint. She wants to see proof of things before she believes them, and as such discovering a world of magic and spirits is probably more shocking to her than anyone else, as it's so outside of her sphere of understanding of the universe than anything that's come before. It makes a nice change to see a young protagonist not just simply believing fantastical things, but coming to it from a more adult place of wanting proof and evidence first.

However, once she does come to accept that spectres are real she soon finds that she has a flare for the work, and seeing her learning to bring spirits into the world is a fun part of the book, and Holly Rivers has created some interesting rules for this world and outlines how things work in a way that's pretty simple to grasp, yet has some complexities to it. Compared to some middle-grade books I've read that try to add too much complexity to their magic it's much easier to understand, and I think younger readers will get on board with it pretty quickly.

Despite having a fun tone to it, with a sense of silly and whimsy that you'd find in the more fun children's fantasy books there are some moments of genuine tension scattered throughout, such as Demelza having to hide from kidnappers, or the startling revelations that come in the final confrontation. These moments help to ground some of the more fantastical and whimsical parts of the book, and give the story an added weight and sense of danger that would otherwise be missing. And whilst I'm not going to talk about the final part of the book in any detail as it can't be spoilt, oh my god, I yelled out loud at what happened because it was so, so good.

Holly Rivers has written a wonderfully engaging and imaginative book, one that really draws the reader in with lovable characters and a sense of wonder. I hope that this is just the first of many books with Demelza as the lead, because I'd be extremely happy to go back to this world for several more adventures.

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