Hello everyone!

It's book review time today.

I believe this is my first actual book review post that I've done for this blog, the first proper one anyway. And the book I'll be reviewing?

Magick by Judith Sonnet.

Magick by Judith Sonnet

Now, I will say off the bat that this is not really a book for the faint-hearted as it can get quite extreme at times.

But, if you were to look at any of Judith Sonnet's work, that is plain to see and she allows you to know what you are getting yourself into before you purchase.

It may be a surprise, but I'm a bit of a fan of a a good old splatterpunk horror and love many of the Troma films and this fits in well with that genre, and you can see that from many of her available books. It very much the case of them 'doing what they say on the tin' - to use an English saying.

Magick is a novella very much in the same vein, full of blood, gore and sex with a crew of pornographers turning up at a seemingly empty, haunted brothel and for everything to go as you'd expect when the ghosts get very much into sadism and letting their tendencies run riot.

There is a satisfying ending, of which I won't provide spoilers, and things are set up for a sequel, should Judith Sonnet wish. Magick in Space anyone? I could imagine it joining the ranks of the Jason and Leprechaun movies that went cosmic and us getting some hellish, gorey orgy, with lasers and anti-gravity. But I'm getting away from things.

From the Lucio Fulci films I've seen, I can well see that Judith Sonnet has been inspired by them, but unfortunately, I'm not an aficionado of his films. Much like with his films, he has a lot of style over function. There are a couple of bits that make no sense, like a ballet school having a room for barbed wire. But they are there, because of drama, and sexy gore reasons. The little bits that back no sense matter little, other than wishing to know a little more about them.

I would have liked to have known a little more about the main character, or the two paranormal investigators that provided and opening to the book, or more about the graveyard near the brothel that seems to be part of the premises, or who the cleaning crew were, but I really am not bothered by them. Finding out about all of that would have spoiled the flow of the story And with them, I probably would have felt that the story was bogged down with minutiae, so its good that explanations were left out. But that really is just me being petty. They would really just be there to satisfy a curiosity. Perhaps they would make curious little pieces of flash fiction for some deluxe or anniversary edition.

To conclude, I really enjoyed this book, its got a style to it that is really engaging and rattles on through the premises, presenting you with a panoply of gore and sexiness. It really is like something that could be made into a Troma film or some Indie Splatterpunk film. I'm kind of reminded of some of the old Grindhouse films from the seventies that Quentin Tarantino is so found of. Any down points to the book are not really noticeable and are a matter of curiosity that would spoil the 'page turner' effect if dwelt on and explained further. If you are going into the mindset of expecting the right things - that it's a stylish, sex filled gore-fest - then this is a fantastic book. Though of course, that isn't for everyone.

Now, for where to find Judith Sonnet. It can be found here for UK readers, and here for readers in the USA.

If you'd like to give her a follow, you can find her here on Twitter and here on Instagram. Any other subsidiary links can be easily found by following the relevant links on those sites. Take a look at some of her other work.

as a side note, I hope to do some other book reviews as and when I finish them. I had thought of doing some rating system, like a five star thing, or an out of ten. In short, I don't really want to. I think most of the time, liking a book is subjective to some degree. So including a rating system sort of goes against that. What I'll try to do is be honest about whether I liked the book or not and to include the whys and wherefores so that if you are have a similar taste in books, you'll have an idea of where it'd be enjoyable.

Anyway, enough blather, I hope you manage to get some reading in and enjoy yourself!

 Hi everyone!

I recently got a bit of a book haul and I thought I'd show it off a bit.

First off is a trio of books I've got from a fantasy author called Charles Moffat. I've been meaning to get some of his work for a while and I'm not fully sure why its taken so long for me to actually invest in his books. He's a self published author and his work can be found on Amazon. He's written a good selection of books to choose from already.

I managed to get Wulfric the Wanderer: Black Monoliths of Al-Kazar and The Adventures of Wrathgar: The Sunken Castle by Charles Moffat and they're stand alone novellas, while I also have a collection of Lilith Bloodstone stories in the omnibus. They should be enjoyable and all are set in the same world of Korovia, that Charles Moffat has built. I've had a read of the first few pages of The Sunken City in my excitement and its enjoyable enough at the moment, but of course, I'm not in a position to make any actual comment on them yet.

A trio of books in the Korovia series
by Charles Moffat

Next up is a selection from DMR Books. These are off Amazon as well. I live in England, but ideally I would have got them off the DMR Books website, but it looks like they don't ship over seas anymore - at this time - because of some mishaps that have occurred during transit. Apparently, things have gotten lost. Anyone interested in they're books that live in america should still be able to purchase them from their website if they wish.

In this, Death Dealers and Diabolists has a good selection of stories and one by Keith Taylor of Bard fame. I've read one of the Bard tales before in Samhain Sorceries - also by DMR Books - and was suitably impressed. 

Heroes of Atlantis and Lemuria has a number of stories by Manly Wade Wellman and Frederick Arnold Kummer Jr, and also a story finishing it off by Leigh Brackett who penned Jirel of Joiry.

There is also Wulfhere, by A B Higginson, which is set during Anglo-Saxon ruled Britain and was originally serialised in Adventure Magazine in 1920, and hadn't been published since. I've already started reading this in bed.

In the photo, there is also a book that is, as far as I know, out of print and which I didn't get from DMR Books. Redbeard by Michael Resnick is a tale from and is a tale of a mutant barbarian from a dystopian future, written in 1969.

Redbeard by Michael Resnick
plus three anthologies by DMR Books

Up next are a trio of anthologies edited by Nathaniel Webb. Rakehell is a collection of swashbuckling pieces that look suitably rip-roaring. Wyngraf Volumes 1 and 2 are advertised as cozy fantasy. These all came recommended to me and I'm really looking forward to reading them. I'm curious to find out just how cozy is cozy fantasy. Now that the winter months are settling in, this sounds very pleasant.

Rakehell Magazine and Wyngraf issues

Next is Strawjack by Keith Page, which I bought as a recommendation from Amazon. I've had a flick through because I was curious to find that it was an A4 book and I found that it was a self-published graphic-novel. 

I'd bought it under the presumption that it was another novella, but I was wrong, and pleasantly surprised. It does look very entertaining. Its a tale of Georgian highwaymen in the vein of Reverend Syn. It should be enjoyable, even if it I wasn't expecting it. That'll teach me to actually read the product description better.

Strawjack by Keith Page

Another book I got off Amazon is The Averoigne Legacy by Pickman's Press. Its a collection - quick a large collection - of poems and tales based on the Averoigne setting that Ashton Clark Smith came up with, I have ordered the collected Averoigne tales by Clark Ashton Smith, but I got that off Ebay and it hasn't arrived just yet.

I have started reading this and I'm thoroughly impressed by Brian McNaughton's The Return of the Colossus. But more on that when I do a review. There must be about 35 tales and poems in this volume.

I'm familiar with Clark Ashton Smith's work, but its been a while since I read any of his work and of those stories I've read, only a small few must have been set in Averoigne, but I remember them most vividly. Clark Ashton Smith was one of those that was a pen pal of HP Lovecraft, Robert E Howard and Robert Bloch, so I'm looking forward to finishing this volume and the collection of Clark Ashton Smith's own tales set in the dark woods of Averoigne. I think I have also, many years ago, read Lovecraft inspired tales published in anthologies by Pickman's Press before, but its hard to tell. Some of the layout and writing style feels familiar, but its been years since I've even held those volumes.

Averoigne Legacy, based on the work of
Clark Ashton Smith

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll hopefully review these books properly once I've finished them. And also, I'll get to including some other books I have that I think are of interest. There are a few RPG books I'd like to review on here too, some of which I got from kickstarters.

But I think those are for another time.

Needless to say, I am still trucking on with getting stories sorted. I'm currently working on a story or two that were originally mean to be refresher stories and a break from a novella that I was writing. I needed a break from the novella because it was browing in size and getting out of hand, and now, the stories I'm doing to take a break are themselves getting out of hand. Who'd have thought that there'd have been so much backstabbing and treachery and war in Anglo-Saxon England hey? It puts Game of Thrones to shame.