This is becoming somewhat of an annual tradition at this point. Reviews are often ephemeral, which comes across as rather paradoxical: Everything on the internet is there forever, but in the current landscape of heavy social media usage and algorithmic content feeds, review posts soon get buried. Sure they might receive a little boost when they’re initially posted, but they then fade into obsc...

I received a free advance reader copy/uncorrected proof of A Farewell to Humanity from the author. I also had the privilege of reading an early draft of this story that was much shorter and much lighter on details. I had really enjoyed that, and so when the offer came to read an ARC ahead of its release, I jumped at the chance. It has been fascinating to see how this story has changed in the...

A deliciously creepy yet cathartic dark fairy tale. Rebecca Crunden’s short stories and novellas are always a great time. I expected no different from Bailuchien, and I am pleased to say I was right on the money. Unfortunately at the time of writing this review, Bailuchien has been taken down temporarily, which makes posting the review to Amazon and Goodreads somewhat tricky (I literally can't...

There’s plenty to sink your teeth into this Indie August, with sales and bundles galore. Indie August often plays second-fiddle to its earlier cousin, Indie April, but it shouldn’t! It’s just as impactful for indie authors as the spring event, and this year, it’s determined to prove it. As usual, my books are involved in some of the big sales this month so I thought it would be helpful to list...

Historically I’ve not always been the biggest horror fan. Usually something has to get just the right mix of sci-fi and horror for me to be into it, like the Alien movies, Event Horizon, or Dead Space. Very rarely do I go in for some more traditional spooky ghost stories, and I’m happy to say that BestGhost was a great novelette to help me dip my toes into the genre...

I liked doing this reading wrap-up thing last year. It gave me an opportunity to showcase once again all the books I read and reviewed this year. Review posts are often ephemeral—even though they’re on the internet forever, once they’ve been posted on the socials, they’re quickly forgotten and buried. So this is a great chance to bring some more well-deserved attention to the books...

The second annual Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championships (SFINCS) is well underway and almost into its second round, and it’s an exciting time for all of this year’s entrants. It’s well worth keeping an eye on for some incredible novellas to add to your burgeoning TBRs. So I decided that it was high time I actually read some of the books from my fellow entrants from last year’s...

It’s release day! My cosmic horror novelette, The God Sun is out now. I freely admit this wasn’t a book I thought I would have written at this point in my author journey, much less actually released for people to read. I’ve had the title banging around in my mind for the last six months or so, and I thought it would become a new novel trilogy set in a completely different universe...

If you’ve been following my social media posts for the last few weeks, you’ll no doubt have seen it teased that I got into the Halloween spirit and spent the latter half of October writing something spooky. I had intended to finish and publish it before the end of the month, but as always things took longer than I expected. But, not two days into November, I finished the first draft...

Here’s my totally irreverent, irrelevant, and worst ever annual “Books of the Year” list for 2023! This is a terrible list of books. I mean, most of them aren’t even books. Why did I make this? I could’ve been playing Final Fantasy XVI, or hanging up the laundry, or literally anything else. But instead I am pleased to present to you my totally irreverent, irrelevant, list of awards to mark the end of the grand old year of two-thousand-and-twenty-three. And of course, it’s in a top-ten format.

I’m pretty happy with the amount of books I managed to read and review this year! So many were indie books, too, which was my goal. All in all, I read and reviewed 25 books up to the time of writing this post. Whenever I review books, in addition to this blog, I usually post them to Goodreads and Amazon, as well as sharing the link to the review on Twitter, Threads, Bluesky, Facebook, and sometimes Instagram (if I remember).

An excellent eclectic short story collection from J. Dianne Dotson. After finishing the Questrison Saga, I knew I’d be forever picking up J. Dianne Dotson’s books, because they’re a great lot of fun. I think there’s only one more book out that’s under the J. Dianne Dotson pen name: The Inn at the Amethyst Lantern, and from there on, her works will be published under the pseudonym Jendia Gammon.

Meghan Douglass’ short indie sci-fi horror that is dark, bleak, and utterly disturbing in all the right ways. Coming in at around the 50-page mark, I blasted through Humanity Lost really rather quickly. You might think that’s not enough time for a story to make your skin crawl, but, oh boy, this did exactly that.

I picked up Last Flight of the Necros Night by Eldritch Black & E.G. Seven for free on Amazon, and the premise sounded good, also I really dug the vibe of the cover art. I fancied a little taste of cosmic/sci-fi horror, especially since I recently played the new remake of Dead Space, so I’m on a bit of a kick at the moment. I’m sorry to say this one didn’t do it for me.

The fantastic speculative fiction short story collection from Gary J. Mack. Grab a punnet! One of the really unexpected things I’ve discovered since getting back into reading fiction is how much I enjoy anthologies. I started on that route with the excellent Nine Streams of Consciousness and was pleasantly surprised, and I’ve since added a few to my TBR list. Impossible Fruit by Gary J. Mack is my second such short story collection, and it is absolutely fantastic.