Tag Archives: 2020s

July 17, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Child of the Sea

Book cover for Child of the Sea by Elvira Dahl. Image on cover shows a young child with wet hair swimming in the ocean on an overcast day. The scene is grey and looks cold. Title: Child of the Sea

Author: Elvira Dahl

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 15, 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary

Length: 53 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

I’d had the dream for as long as I could remember: I’m standing on the edge of the jetty, under a steel gray sky, looking out over the inlet. Watching the waves crash against the shallow reef out in the bay. There’s a large, submerged rock in that spot, and in my dream, someone is standing out there, waist-deep in the water. A dark silhouette perfectly still among the waves. I know it’s watching me. It’s been watching me since I was a kid.” When Vendela arrives at her seaside childhood home to look after it while her mother’s away, she realizes that something’s not right – with the place, with her mom, even with herself. She makes a series of chilling discoveries that make her question everything. What do the recurring nightmares mean? Where has her mother gone? And who is the creature from the bay that’s haunted Vendela all her life? Child of the Sea is a dark fantasy/mystery story inspired by tales from nordic folklore.

Content Warning: Excema, drowning, and a brief reference to a possible rape. I will not go into detail about these topics in my review.

Review:

The ocean is full of mysteries.

I try to prioritize reviewing books that match the seasons, but that’s a little more difficult in the middle of summer given how much less common it is for the speculative fiction I typically read to be set on a warm, sunny day when the world often feels cheerful. There are exceptions, of course, and I was pleased to discover that this was one of them. While it isn’t set during summer, the beach is one of the most summer-friendly settings and the sound of crashing waves is something that makes just about any scene better in my opinion. The setting continued to surprise me as I kept reading, eager to find out exactly what it was about Vendela’s visit to her childhood home that was so unnerving for her.

It would have been helpful to have more context clues about which Nordic myth was being referenced in this tale. While I have a theory about which one it might have been, not knowing for sure was distracting and a little disappointing given how important this information was for understanding the cliffhanger ending that otherwise didn’t quite make sense for me as a reader. As much as i wanted to select a higher rating, this issue prevented me from doing so.

While there were definitely horror elements in the storyline, this was not at all gory or gross. Instead, it built up suspense and dread as Vendela discovered layer upon layer of things that weren’t quite right about her mother’s habits, life, and normally messy seaside cottage. This is the sort of horror I am drawn to because of how many parallels I can make between it and real life, say, when one visits a place they once knew intimately that has changed so much it feels slightly wrong even if you can’t necessarily put your finger on why you’re feeling that emotion at first. Maybe it’s too quiet, for example, or there are other details about it that are slightly but also jarringly different from previous memories of it.

Child of the Sea was intriguing.

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July 10, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Merlin

Book cover for The Merlin by Benjamin Parsons. Image on cover shows a drawing of a shirtless white man sitting on a rock. There is a hawk just about to land on his outstretched hand, and he is looking thoughtfully at the bird. The bird’s wings are still outstretched as it flies the last few inches to the human. Title: The Merlin

Author: Benjamin Parsons

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: January 9, 2023

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal, Historical

Length: 58 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Down-to-earth falconer Rowland is determined to marry his childhood sweetheart Rowena, just when her life is turned upside down by bereavement, illness and debt. A strange old jeweller forges the perfect engagement ring for the proposal, but Rowland refuses to pay the unusual price the jeweller demands. From that moment on, Rowland is drawn further and further into the realm of the supernatural, as everything he loves slips away from him. Part of the collection The Green Man and Other Stories.

Content Warning: Life-threatening illness and death. I will not discuss these themes in my review.

Review:

Everything has a price.

The most memorable scenes for me were the ones that took place when the jeweller was creating the special ring and then negotiating the price of it with Rowland. This happened early on in the storyline, so I feel comfortable talking about it in more depth here. There were so many magical  moments in those scenes that made me perk up and wonder where the plot might evolve from there. It was also interesting to see some of the protagonist’s personality quirks emerge during the course of that day as this was an excellent opportunity to show what he was like when he felt negative emotions like boredom or frustration. Wondering what the jeweller was up to also piqued my interest as the effort he put into creating the ring didn’t quite match what the protagonist or I knew about how jewelry is made.

I would have liked to see more character development for Rowland. Normally, I’d expect the protagonist in a tale like this one to have some glaring personality flaw that overshadowed his or her common sense at least on occasion, but this wasn’t what happened. Yes, Rowland could be a little too stubborn at times, but he had a good heart and was genuinely trying to do the right thing not only for himself but also for everyone around him even if his choices didn’t always create the desired effects. The ending didn’t quite sit right with me because of how much I liked Rowland. If there was a lesson to be learned here, I struggled to know what it might be as those scenes felt more like something that would occur in real life than in the fantasy genre.

One of the things I appreciate the most about Mr. Parson’s stories is how willing he is to take risks and bend the rules of the genres he chooses. This means that I’m never quite sure what to expect when I return to his work, whether that’s related to plot twists or which characters might get to live happily ever after among many other subjects. It makes the reading process exciting and is why I keep reviewing him here. He really knows how to keep his audience guessing.

This tale is part of a collection that does not need to be read in any particular order.

The Merlin was thought provoking.

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July 3, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Nude Descending the Stairs Forever

Book cover for Nude Descending the Stairs Forever by Shoyu Monsieur de la Défense Robotique:. Image on cover shows a white metal or plastic humanoid robot who has breasts bending over and dancing gracefully. Title: Nude Descending the Stairs Forever

Author:Shoyu Monsieur de la Défense Robotique

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: April 13, 2025

Genres: Science Fiction, Psychological Horror, Contemporary

Length: 9 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

When art historian Alix returns to a forgotten wing of the museum, she expects dust and silence—not the fractured echoes of herself or an AI installation gone strangely aware. Nude Descending a Staircase (Version 3.0) was once a dazzling tribute to motion and form. Now it glitches, watches, and beckons. As Alix is drawn deeper into the haunted corridors and corrupted code of the museum, she uncovers a terrifying truth: the installation isn’t just sentient—it’s a dam holding back the collapse of simulated realities. And it’s dying. To preserve the boundary between simulation and chaos, someone must take its place. A surreal blend of speculative horror, philosophical sci-fi, and aesthetic wonder, Nude Descending the Stairs Forever explores identity, recursion, and the high cost of consciousness.

Content Warning: Claustrophobia.

Review:

What is the purpose of art? Think carefully about your answer before reading this book or this review.

The question of whether there was genuine artificial intelligence at work in this piece kept my interest levels high. I normally do not feel interested in A.I. themes, especially if they’re used to described machines that can’t actually think for themselves, but this approach to the topic was well done and thought provoking. The questions it raised about how art can affect the viewer and what creators owe to their creations were complex and would require a book of their own to fully explore, but even a small taste of them was enough to keep me thinking as I wrote my review. That’s exactly the sort of reaction I hope for when I read science fiction!

I would have liked to see more time spent exploring why the installation was breaking down and how that may affect the characters in that work of art in the future. Knowing this information was important for plot reasons that I can’t go into a lot of detail here for spoiler reasons, but I never felt like I had quite enough information about how this was all supposed to work even though I loved the chilling descriptions of what was happening in the art gallery. Had this been explained better, I would have happily gone for a full five-star rating.

Alix made some decisions during the course of this tale that most people would find highly unusual, so I was thrilled to see how much effort was put into explaining her thought processes and the consequences of all of the choices available to her. I felt like I understood her perspective well and knew why she made the decisions that she did. Since that’s an important thing to have when reading about characters who make choices that cannot be undone, at least for me, I was satisfied by how it was all explained.

Nude Descending the Stairs Forever sent a tingle down my spine.

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June 19, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Anatomy of a Violin

Title: Anatomy of a Violin Book cover for Anatomy of a Violin by J.M. Taylor. Image on cover shows a drawing of someone - possibly the Statue of Liberty? - wearing a blindfold and a long, loose garment. They are standing in front of a yellow background and leaning back as they play the violin. The person looks like they are made of metal and painted with a shimmery metallic paint that looks blue, green, purple, and red depending on which portion of the body you’re looking at.

Author: J.M. Taylor

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: May 8, 2025

Genres: Horror, LGBTQ+, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 37 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

A musician finds the ultimate prize in Prague – an instrument that can make anyone sound like a virtuoso. But his obsession with the violin threatens not only his relationship but his sanity.

Content Warning: Murder.

Review:

Everything  can be fixed with a little elbow grease and patience.

The unnamed protagonist was a complex and fascinating man. I liked the fact that his flaws weren’t superficial but instead had real effects on both his life and the plot. That was exactly the right choice for this piece, and I commend the author for being willing to take the risk that readers might not like this character. This is something I wish happened more often in fiction as it really adds depth to a character, especially in cases like this one when the reader is supposed to be weirded out by what is happening.

I would have liked to see a little more world building in this piece. Specifically, I’m thinking about the origins of the violin and how it was passed around among various owners over the centuries. The explanation for how this all happened made sense, but having more details would have helped those scene come alive in my imagination as I read. There was so much more that could have been done with them to accelerate the horror elements of the plot, and I would have gone for a full five star rating if that had happened. This is something I’m saying as someone who otherwise loved this tale.

Honestly, it was easy to see where the plot was headed early on, but this wasn’t the sort of tale that needs to surprise a reader in order to entertain them. What made it so interesting was taking note of what the protagonist had and hadn’t figured out about his incredible new violin. He was so enamoured with the workmanship and beauty of it that nothing else could grab his attention. I’ll leave it up to other readers to discover what he was missing in those moments as they ponder whether they, too, might have made the same choices he did.

Anatomy of a Violin was delightfully scary.

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June 12, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Their Other Selves

Book cover for Their Other Selves by Benjamin Parsons. Image on cover is a black and white drawing of a river running through a city. The city is so dense that you can’t see any trees in it, just skyscraper after skyscraper right next to each other. Oddly enough, the water in the river is bright yellow. Title: Their Other Selves

Author: Benjamin Parsons

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: September 28, 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Historical

Length: 24 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 stars

Blurb:

Caletha isn’t ready to settle down until she meets someone who loves her as much as she loves herself. It’s a joke, but she half-believes it. Then one evening she and her father take a walk along the riverbank and meet themselves— their exact doubles coming towards them. Sudden tragedies follow this ominous encounter, which drive Caletha to doubt everything she used to believe. Are the misfortunes merely coincidental, or caused by the supernatural? And who was the mysterious figure lurking in the shadows behind the uncanny doppelgängers? Evenking, or Their Other Selves is a short folktale-inspired story, part of the collection Blaquoby: Country Town Tales.

Content Warning: Grief and death.

Review:

The mind is a powerful weapon.

Some of my favourite scenes were the ones that explored Caletha’s guilt and grief. She was an ordinarily bubbly and cheerful young woman who didn’t always put deep thought into how other people saw the world. While it was never done out of malice, she did have a blind spot when it came to how her actions affected others, and I believe she would have happily tried to change those interactions if given a second chance. I appreciate it when authors create characters who are likeable but whose flaws are issues that genuinely make life more difficult for them sometimes. In this particular case, that was precisely what the plot needed to move forward.

I found the doppelgänger storyline confusing, especially given the folklore surrounding why someone might have this experience and what they may have done to bring it on. Caletha was not a perfect person by any means, and she had made a hurtful decision early on in the storyline that I agree should not have happened. Still, the explanation of why she saw her double didn’t quite match up with what I learned about her as a person. If the decisions she made earlier were enough to trigger it, I’d argue that everyone deserves that same fate because none of us get through life without occasionally doing things, whether intentionally or unintentionally, that we later come to regret.

With that being said, I did enjoy the fairy tale qualities of this piece. It felt like the sort of story people might have told to their children generations ago in order to explain why it’s important to keep promises and what sad fates might await those who break them too easily. There was nothing at all gory or gross here, but there were themes that included stricter rules for etiquette and interpersonal relationships than many modern people are held to today. This gave the plot a timeless feeling in the sense that it could have occurred 80 years ago or 800 years ago with few if any changes to the fates of the characters.

This is the fifth book in a series that does not need to be read in any particular order.

Their Other Selves was thought provoking.

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May 29, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of More Money Than Brains

Book cover for More Money than Brains by Rudolph Kohn. Image on cover shows a lifelike drawing of the inside of a spaceship. Thick undles of wires have been tied together against the wall next to some large metal pipes. At first I thought they were some sort of bug-like alien crawling the wall because of how many wires were sticking out of the bundle in various directions. This is an unsettling image that makes me wonder if the electrician knew what he or she was doing as it doesn’t appear to be all that neatly arranged. Title: More Money Than Brains

Author: Rudolph Kohn

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 11, 2024

Genres: Science Fiction

Length: 13 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

Aric and the Misevelin Salvage crew find themselves in a dangerous situation when they try to rescue a captain with way too much money and not enough brains or common sense. The ship’s abysmal condition is almost entirely due to the captain’s neglect, and his bad habits get everyone into a much more dangerous situation!

A short, free introduction to the Derelict Project universe, a far-future hard science fiction setting that focuses on derelict ships and the people who find and investigate them. “More Money than Brains” is a humorous short story that provides a taste of one of the Derelict Project’s main groups of characters: Aric Misevelin, Verene “Bill” Resteford, and Lewes Otracht.

Content Warning:

Review:

Nothing can be neglected forever.

There’s nothing like walking into a disaster at work that could have been easily prevented if small issues had been taken note of and looked after immediately. No matter what type of job you may have, the frustration of people who must deal with the repercussions of others who refused to pay attention to detail and keep up with basic maintenance and cleanliness is universal. I nodded along as this crew realized the long lists of problems they needed to solve to prevent this ship from destroying itself and tried to prioritize the most urgent needs first while continuing to find even more issues along the way. It made me wish I had their specialized knowledge and could help them get things sorted out faster!

This was a fast-paced, plot-centred work that didn’t require much introspection from the characters in order to get its point across. Still, I did enjoy the little moments that showed how Aric, Bill, and Lewes reacted to the nonsense they were dealing with. The combination of their obvious breadth of knowledge on the topic of ship repair and their humorous responses to everything going to hell in a hand basket was delightful and rang true to the repair people in my own life who have had similar reactions to things they wish had been done properly and maintained steadfastly the first time around.

I also loved the ending of this piece which brought the hard science fiction elements of the storyline even further into the spotlight and made me wonder what might happen next. This is something other readers should discover in detail for themselves, but I liked the way it explored both the technical nature of the work as well as all-too human responses to machines as well as other humans that don’t always do what the experts wish they’d do. Bravo for a job well done, Mr. Kohn!

This is a standalone tale from a series.

More Money Than Brains was perfect.

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May 15, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Jade Cargo

Book cover for Jade Cargo by Rudolph Kohn. Image on cover shows blue, green, and yellow Northern Lights dancing in the sky at dusk. Title: Jade Cargo

Author: Rudolph Kohn

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 18, 2024

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror

Length: 14 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

A security officer on a routine patrol finds a small lone ship floating in the middle of nowhere. The ship’s systems tell him that it’s dead–a derelict, fated to float aimlessly until it is pulled into the gravity well of some heavenly body. However, the officer’s investigation turns up strange facts one after another, until he discovers the one fact that explains it all–perhaps too well.

Content Warning: Death.

Review:

Anything can happen in space.

I loved the foreshadowing in this short story. It struck the perfect balance between hinting at what was to come without giving the reader too many clues about why this ship is floating alone in the middle of nowhere. I had a rough idea formed in my mind of what might be going on, but even there I had plenty of  opportunities for surprise as the unnamed narrator continued to search the abandoned vessel for possible treasure.

This is one of those cases when readers don’t need to know much about the protagonist in order to empathize with them. Their sex, race, age, and other identifying characteristics were never mentioned because their expertise in this field was what made their observations so valuable. Readers from any demographic group could imagine themselves in this character…and they just might be right! The protagonist knew something was wrong but didn’t have any concrete proof to back up their gut feeling. I both understood why they wanted to gather more information and kept hoping they’d listen to their urge to run away and never come back.

The ending was what convinced me to give this a perfect five star rating. No, of course I won’t spoil it for anyone reading my review. All I can say is that it tied up the loose ends from earlier beautifully while also making me wish for a sequel so I could see how things played out from that point. The horror themes popped out nicely here without ever needing to describe the visceral details of it in order to show the audience why we should be so scared. Now that’s the kind of horror I like to read when I do indulge in the genre!

Jade Cargo was utterly perfect.

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April 24, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Heart of Water and Stone

Book cover for Heart of Water and Stone  by EE Ottoman. Image on cover shows some small white wildflowers growing next to stream that has a rocky bed in it and some stones piled beside it, too. The water is rippling slightly as if it’s a somewhat windy - but not stormy - day. Title: Heart of Water and Stone

Author: EE Ottoman

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: March 12, 2025

Genres: Fantasy, LGBTQ, Romance, Historical

Length: 68 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Girin is a troll, content with his simple, quiet life in the forest—a life thrown into chaos when he stumbles across an unconscious human on one of the mountain paths. The human is not an ordinary one either, but a witch—tortured, branded, and mere steps from death when Girin finds him. Unable to leave him there to die alone, Girin takes the human home to nurse him back to health. But he quickly learns that keeping one stubborn human alive is a far more difficult task than he first surmised …

Content Warning: Historical references to slavery, torture, and the belief in witchcraft.

Review:

Goodness comes in many forms.

Trolls aren’t common protagonists in fantasy, so I was excited to meet one here. It’s always nice when authors purposefully seek out themes and types of their genres that are not currently in vogue. Yes, it can be a risk in some cases depending on how audiences react, but I’d argue it’s one worth taking. It’s much more interesting to read tales that flip the reader’s expectations around and play around with who we’re supposed to sympathize with than it is to read one that sticks closely to the tropes. (Not that tropes are bad things, of course! There’s simply something to be said for thinking critically about why specific ones are being used).

I would have liked to see more world building in this piece, especially as it was related to Girin’s communication with the mountain during a point of conflict in one of the later scenes. There were so many things I wanted to know about how their relationship worked and what the mountain might be capable of doing to help him. If this had been explained better, I would have happily gone with a higher rating.

The slow-burn romance worked well for the characters and storyline. Both Girin and Ronan had plenty of reasons to be cautious about falling in love, so it made perfect sense for them to build a strong friendship first. This also meant that the romantic elements of the plot were often overshadowed by the fantasy and adventure themes which was a positive thing to this reader. A dash of this sort of content is plenty for my tastes most of the time.

Heart of Water and Stone made me smile.

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April 17, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Darkness in the Cyclone

Book cover for The Darkness in the Cyclone by Barnabas Soon and hyperhop. Image on cover shows an aerial shot of a tornado beginning to form. The clouds are swirling together tightly and menacingly. Title: The Darkness in the Cyclone

Author: Barnabas Soon and hyperhop

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: March 12, 2025

Genres: Speculative Fiction, (very mild) Horror, Contemporary

Length: 3 pages

Source: The authors gave me a free copy.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

What happens when a natural disaster hits the Gold Coast? As cyclone Alfred hits, a man is trapped in his home without power. What lovecraftian horrors does he imagine as he is cut off from the rest of civilisation and only the howling wind and rain as company?

Content Warning: Natural disaster (cyclones).

Review:

Are you afraid of the dark?

Some of the most interesting scenes in my opinion were the ones that described what it’s like to sit quietly at home during dangerous weather. This experience can be lonely, boring, terrifying, and/or even a little entertaining depending on how violent the weather is, how many supplies one has, and how prepared their home is for the many different things that can go wrong when the wind is raging outside. What is a mild inconvience for one person or place can be much worse under a different set of circumstances, and I appreciated the fact that the author allowed for every possibility before revealing Alfred’s fate.

It would have been helpful for the horror elements of this tale to be given more time to shine. I hesitated to even label this under that genre because of how subtle it was here.  Other readers are free to make up their own minds about how far these hints should be taken and what was really going on, of course, but I personally needed a little more substance and grit in order to feel connected to Alfred’s dilemma.

On a positive note, this is a gentle introduction to the horror genre for people who are easily startled or who don’t generally gravitate in that direction. The scary stuff is confined to Alfred’s thoughts and hobbies as he waits out the storm alone in his house for a few days. Yes, thoughts can be frighting sometimes, but there wasn’t any blood or gore here to amp up the suspense which did help this tale feel more realistic. I mean, who hasn’t occasionally felt afraid during a bad storm or on a particularly dark and gloomy night when the power is off thanks to bad weather? It’s such a common experience that it makes sense to explore it in fiction.

The Darkness in the Cyclone is a thought provoking thing to read during storm season…whenever that season may be where you live.

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April 10, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Metallurgy of Graham Rhenium

Book cover for The Metallurgy of Graham Rhenium by Alastor Velazquez. Image on cover shows a sketch of some sort of engine or machine that has what appears to be multiple black buttons or gears moving up and down on it. Two analogue clocks are drawn as well, one on each side of the machine. This was set against a background that looks like an old, yellowed sheet of paper that has splotches of ink and coffee stains on it from many years of use. Title: The Metallurgy of Graham Rhenium

Author: Alastor Velazquez

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 17, 2024

Genres: Science Fiction

Length: 20 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

First there is a spark. When friction converts kinetic energy to thermal. Molecules vibrate at the surface. That spark combusts the air molecules around it, transforming into heat and light. A chemical reaction born from speed faster than sound. When the atoms catch and connect. When the world feels the flame that is made. When it licks at anything and everything it can touch. For it craves life. It craves to keep burning and burning. And burning. And burning.

Content Warning: Grief and terminal cancer.

Review:

Nearly anything is possible with a little elbow grease and science.

The steampunk aesthetic fit Graham’s dilemma perfectly. No, of course I won’t be saying what troubles he was dealing with as figuring out that piece of the puzzle was left until a little later on in the storyline. It’s better for other readers to learn those details when I did and for them have their own opportunities to realize what was going on. What I can say is that his solution made me wish this could be a short film as I would have loved to see how a director would interpret the detailed description of it that was provided in the text. Would it stick to the original themes, lean more heavily into the science of it, or do something else entirely? With steampunk stuff, one never really knows in advance, and that’s half of the reason why it’s so fun.

This short story struck the perfect balance between providing enough details for this reader to understand what was happening while also leaving plenty of room for the audience to fill in the blanks when it came to matters that were interesting but not vital for character or plot development. That is a difficult thing to accomplish, so I must congratulate Mr. Velazquez on not only pulling it off but making eveything seem effortless. While this was my first time reading him, I certainly hope it won’t be my last based on what a good time I had soaking in his polished words. 

While this isn’t what I would label a romance per se, there were romantic elements to the plot that were beautifully written and integral to understanding the characters as individuals. This is one of those cases where I was glad to see a little romance in my science fiction, and I’m saying that as a reader who has far more often not been thrilled by the mixing of these genres to say the least. For me to compliment it is a rare treat and one that the author has earned many times over today. Bravo for making the sum greater than its parts and for convincing this skeptic!

The Metallurgy of Graham Rhenium was a wild ride. 

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