THE RISE AND FALL OF BABYLON, by Brian Keene and John Urbancik, Review by Jonathan Reitan

The Rise and Fall of Babylon, containing two novelettes from two new names that are quickly making a place for themselves in the horror biz, is crafted in the same manner as the old Ace Double type format books. After reading one story, flip the book over, and you have another one!

John Urbancik presents a wonderfully crafted mix of magic, romance, horror, and fantasy in his strange but highly entertaining, "Babylon Rising".

We are introduced to Gabriel as he is walking on a beach in present time. After encountering a strange old man, Gabriel learns he is headed to another realm, back in time to the ancient city of Babylon, a land where time doesn't exist.

Upon entering the city- busy with merchants selling silks, scents and dancing girls- Gabriel struggles with the reasons behind his unexpected time-warp. He meets a mysterious woman named Cool-Eyes, who guides him through a maze of corridors leading to soldiers dressed in turbans and robes. After being set up by Cool-Eyes, Gabriel flees for his life from the soldiers wielding swords.

As the soldiers continue looking for him, Gabriel finds solace in the darkness of a room where he meets a beautiful woman named India. She consoles him for she too does not belong there and was sent against her will. After befriending India, the two are separated when soldiers burst into their hiding place, capturing her as Gabriel hides in the shadows.

Just as an exotic woman foretells his future, the soldiers capture Gabriel and bring him to the Wazir, the Sultan's minister, who Gabriel recognizes as the old man from the beach.

After it is explained to Gabriel what is in store for him at the Wazir's lab, a battle ensues between two different forces, seeking to claim Gabriel. Amidst the chaos, Gabriel must find his love, India, and the way back home, far away from the city of Babylon.

As you flip the book over to read Brian Keene's story, notice Deena Warner's stunning wraparound cover art which gracefully ties both stories together. Warner is truly an artist to watch out for as she has made evident in her contributions to the horror genre.

If the war in Iraq wasn't fearful enough for you, Brian Keene cranks it up a notch in "Babylon Falling" where a group of nine soldiers, part of the 3rd Infantry headed to Baghdad, are split from the caravan with the help of a mighty sandstorm.

Unable to see the road a head of them, the soldiers are forced to abandon their vehicles and seek civilization amid the barren desert, the land where Babylon once stood. They are ambushed by the Fedayeen, Saddam Hussein's most ruthless military unit. The Fedayeen, headed by the same old man from Urbancik's story, are seeking to summon Kandara, a demon hungry for sacrifices, in order to stop the 3rd Infantry from entering Baghdad.

In "Babylon Falling" Keene magically merges modern events with elements from classic horror stories to create a gripping and skillfully written story that shocks and entertains.

The Rise and Fall of Babylon, limited to 400 signed and numbered copies, will certainly please fans of many genres; horror, romance, military fiction, sci-fi, and fantasy. This Siamese twin of a chapbook will give you a small sample of two very talented writers, and will lead you to read their longer works if you haven't already.
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SHIVERS, edited by Richard Chizmar, Review by Jonathan Reitan

Richard Chizmar, founder/publisher/editor of Cemetery Dance Publications is no stranger to editing books, having put together some of the most well received horror anthologies, including Night Visions 10, The Best of Cemetery Dance, October Dreams, and Subterranean Gallery. In Shivers (which premiered at the 2002 HorrorFind Convention) he brings together a cast of writers, both established authors and beginners in the field, to form one of the most memorable horror anthologies of the century.

Opening the anthology is Brian Keene's and Tim Lebbon's novella, "Fodder". The horrific images of this World War I story in which soldiers end up fighting much more than they expected on the battlefield will stay in your mind long after the book is put down. Next up, Jay Bonansinga offers a delightful tale, "Ice Box", a story of revenge where evil lurks in the form of a basement freezer. Two young men pay the price for their ultimate fantasies in Simon Clark's "The Hand of Glory" while the images of Bentley Little's vampire story, "Hermanos De El Noche", will remain in your nightmares for several weeks to come.

Fans of Tom Piccirilli will certainly not be disappointed in his beautifully poetic, "Whisper, When You Drown" and Brian Freeman demonstrates that he is a writer to watch out for with his, "Walking With the Ghosts of Pier 13", a tale of a world destroyed by terrorists and the ghosts that still linger there. Douglas Clegg sheds the secrets of Heaven in his wonderfully written, "265 and Heaven" while John Pelan's "The Sailor Home from the Sea" will without a doubt someday see print in a "best of" ghost story anthology. David B. Silva's wonderfully creepy, "This Is The End; My Only Friend, The End", is reminiscent of Richard Laymon's novel One Rainy Night with Silva's own unique twist. In the chilling, "The Wager" by Thomas F. Monetelone, rich old men take betting to the extremes when they wager their lives in being buried alive, making this a favorite of mine in the collection.

It is beyond me how two talented writers can share one brain and co-write a short story, but Peter Crowther and Simon Conway ("White-Out") and David Niall Wilson and Brian A. Hopkins ("That Extra Mile") did just that, with their brilliant contributions to Shivers.

In Robert Morrish's "Always Traveling, Never Arriving", carnival traditions come too close to home for Ken Rivers, a young man who's simple fascination with sideshow freaks and carnie folk leads to a research project that teaches him much more than he expected.

Geoff Cooper has reminded me in his story, "Bleed With Me: A Brackard's Point Story", that he is one of my favorite writers while another favorite, Nancy A. Collins, offers a Sonja Blue vampire story, "Tender Tigers", in which Sonja battles it out with a couple of ogres.

"My wife's body was empty again…" starts Ray Garton's "The Other Man", a love affair story with a unique twist involving astral projection and out of body experiences and Al Sarrontonio contributes a tale of a character whose haunting dreams affect his daily life, called "The Green Face".

Read what happens at a horror writer's convention with Kelly Laymon's "Throwing Caution to the Wind", a hilarious non-fiction account of her experiences at the infamous Keene Con. Edward Lee's "Portrait of a Sociopath" is way too short (4 pages) to satisfy his legion of fans, but we are rewarded with a huge surprise ending that is sure to please anyone. Also included in the book are two delightfully entertaining stories, David G. Barnett's "Spin Cycle" and Jack Ketchum's "The Holding Cell".
Shivers concludes with a lengthy story by Graham Masterton titled "The Sympathy Society" in which those recovering from the loss of a loved one are offered a chance to end their lives in the same manner as those whose deaths they've been greatly affected by.

The only theme Shivers seems to carry through all 22 stories, presented by the 25 amazing writers, is simply that all can be recommended highly to everyone who enjoys good old fashioned story-telling, the kind meant to be told around a campfire.
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RISEN, by J. Knight, Review by Jonathan Reitan

J. Knight proved the Warner Books marketing department wrong when they passed up his first book and said, "We can't sell horror from a new author." Knight then published his first book Risen as an e-book and it appeared on the Amazon.com bestsellers list at #3 and is now reincarnated as a Pinnacle Books release.

Risen is the story of Anderson, a small town which has undergone a mysterious shift. Ants feast on their eggs and crows devour mockingbirds. A man awakens on an autopsy table after having his throat slit from ear to ear by his unsuspecting wife. It is the story of a sheriff's deputy who, after a high pursuit car chase, is murdered by a teenage trouble maker and returns the next day to greet the boy in a diner.

The neat thing about J. Knight's version of the living dead is that they are not of the average zombie variety, gurgling and slowly limping along. When Knight's zombies rise, they walk and talk just as they did before their tragic deaths, leaving the residents of Anderson unable to distinguish between those risen and those not. Who can you trust when you're not able to tell if the person most close to you is of the living or living dead?
In the small town of Anderson the dead are rising and gathering in order for an ancient evil force to grow and wreak vengeance.

The originality and haunting imagery that spews from the pages of Risen will leave you unable to put the book down until it's finished, and even then, the likeable characters and unforgettable monsters will linger in your mind for days. Risen is a stellar performance from this first time novelist and an effort equaled to the early works of Stephen King.
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THE ATTRACTION - by Douglas Clegg, Reviewed by Mark Justice

Between childhood and my young adult years I saw a lot of great movies at the Corral Drive-Inn Theater in Flatwoods, Kentucky. When I was small, the movie never mattered because I was just thrilled to be out at night in the car eating popcorn and drinking gallons of soda. When I was in high school, the movie didn't matter because, well, you know why. In between I was looking for three things: monsters, action and naked women. Sadly, the Corral Drive-Inn is gone, but I fondly recall those days any time I think of women in prison, slasher flicks and kung-fu fighting.

The Attraction is Douglas Clegg's drive-in movie.

Clegg, who normally uses his gift for a poetic turn of phrase to gradually crank up the suspense, dedicates The Attraction to Edward Lee. That's the first clue that this ain't your usual Clegg.

This is a meteoric novella, a format that suits Clegg particularly well. He quickly introduces us to five college students in the 1970s. We've got the jock, the slut, the nerd, the stoner and the smart chick, who pile into The Pimpmoble for a road trip from Virginia to California.

Somewhere in Arizona, the quintet comes across a roadside attraction, which features what is purported to be the small misshapen, mummified corpse of an Aztec god.

But you can call it Scratch.

I'm not spoiling anything by revealing that Scratch wakes up, and that's where the fun really begins.

A big chunk of The Attraction is set in the desert and it shouldn't be a surprise that Clegg can even make even empty spaces terrifying.

This would have made a great half of a drive-in double feature or one of those dusk to dawn spectaculars. If you read The Attraction, do yourself a favor. Pretend you're watching the story unfold on a tattered outdoor movie screen, surrounded by the crunch of children running on gravel and the greasy smell of three-day old burgers and hotdogs. Believe me, it will be worth the effort.
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IN SILENT GRAVES by Gary A. Braunbeck, reviewed by Darkomik77

This book was originally titled: The Indifference of Heaven. And boy, as Jerry Garcia used to say, what a long strange trip it's been. This can be compared to a lot of things: the classic Twilight Zones, Lovecraft, Lord Dunsany, Robert Browning, Brothers Grimm, and many others too numerous to mention. And yours truly will tell you, you could no wrong with this book by Braunbeck.

The book opens with an eerie and in turns creepy invocation of the character by the name of Robert Londrigan. And he began his tale with the crime scene where some of the bodies were found. And the mystery only deepened with two clues: a folded piece of paper tucked in the corner of the dingy mirror and the big envelope taped to the bottom of the desk drawer. What were the contents in the envelope? No cop would tell you. For it's too crazy to be believed.

Robert Londrigan is a television reporter who finally found fame and ratings, only to come home with an argument or two from his pregnant wife, Denise. She was about to come to term.

It was only later after his nightly walk back home did he discover his wife dead. That's when the world around him crumbled. Darkness descended upon his consciousness and soon afterwards, the nightmare begins. When Robert is at the morgue, he is attacked by a man known as "Split-face" because of the Halloween mask he wears. This is a second encounter and a violent one.

After recovering from his injuries, going to his wife's funeral and seeing ghosts of his past, a reader might wonder if Robert is beginning to crack under the strain of dreams or are they dreams? Is it a descent into madness? Robert seemed to think so initially.

As the story progresses, he discovers by now things are not what they seemed. The fairy tales, he read or half-recalled or listened to, are real. He also finds out who Split-Face really is. Who? That would be telling.

Overall, the story was well written, the characters are believable and very three-dimensional. You start to care for these characters. It had everything: Rod Serling and Richard Matheson in their Twilight Zone days, a bit of cosmic horror of Lovecraft, the irony and the fairy tale weirdness of Lord Dunsany, dark fantastic grimness of Grimm. The pacing was fairly steady, taking time to build up to a climax. That's my opinion.

It is a very dark story but not without the light at the end of tunnel. Despite all the despair and hopelessness, there's always hope.

I strongly recommend it. It's a weird tale that could make you flinch at certain scenes but makes the reader really care about the characters. This is the kind of tale that can haunt you long after you just finished it.
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MIDNIGHT MASS by F. Paul Wilson, Review by Mark Justice

For the most part, I haven't enjoyed a vampire novel since Salem's Lot. I've tried Anne Rice and her numerous doppelgangers. No offense to fans of those books, but the tortured poets in their puffy shirts have never worked for me.

They apparently don't work for F. Paul Wilson either.

These aren't your mama's/sister's/girlfriend's vamps. Wilson's creatures are monsters. Evil with the capital E. They're supernatural abominations that lust for blood. Everything else is a distant second.

Most of the vampire movie myths hold true here. They don't show up in mirrors and
they can't stand sunlight, garlic holy water or crosses. The last point is a sticky one for two of the novel's human characters, a Jew and an atheist, who witness the power of Catholic icons, and find themselves doubting their own beliefs (or non-beliefs).

In the world of Midnight Mass, the dissolution of the Soviet Union has made the vampires of Eastern Europe aware of each other and they band together to remake the world. When the novel opens, the vampires have conquered Europe, learning a few lessons along the way, lessons like "don't turn all the humans into vampires, or we'll have nothing to eat".

Now the vamps have moved to the United States, taking over the eastern seaboard and setting up their headquarters in the Empire State Building, the only lighted structure in and otherwise darkened Manhattan.

In Lakewood, New Jersey, the vampires have desecrated the local Catholic Church and turned its priest into one of them. One of the few surviving Jews goes in search of the parish's former assistant pastor, a man falsely accused of molesting a child. Zev, the rabbi, wants to bring his friend Father Joe home to Lakewood, show him what the vampires have done to his church, and, hopefully, give hope to the dying community.

What follows is perhaps Wilson's most action-oriented novel, a real page-turner that doesn't let up until the last page. Along the way Wilson touches on serious questions of faith and of what makes us human.

The long drought for fans of good vampire novels is over. Midnight Mass deserves a place on your shelf between Salem's Lot and I Am Legend.
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THE UPRIGHT MAN by Michael Marshall, Review by Mark Justice

The Upright Man is the sequel to The Straw Men, the novel praised-deservedly so--by everyone from Stephen King on down.

The sequel's title refers to the serial killer from the first novel, a man with a strong connection to former CIA employee Ward Hopkins. In The Straw Men, Hopkins had his first showdown with the titular group, a highly organized group of killers who use others-such as The Upright Man-to procure victims for them.

Hopkins is back for this round, along with former L.A. cop John Zandt and FBI agent Nina Baynam. Relationships twist and turn as the trio, separately and together, encounter The Straw Men.

From the opening scene on a lonely stretch of desert, Marshall immediately lets the reader know that this time the ante has been upped. Hopkins and company are dealing with an evil that is far removed from anything they have experienced.

It is only in the new novel that we learn of The Straw Men's true motives (if the teller of the take can be believed). It's in the crafting of the Straw Men mythology that Marshall displays his genius. Without spoiling the surprise and pleasure of this book, the roots of the Straw Men go deeper than anyone suspected. Myth-building is tricky territory, but Marshall carries it off.

Along the way he even offers up a unique explanation for a popular piece of American folklore. In a lesser author's hands this could have been ridiculous. Marshall makes it chilling.

I haven't even mentioned Marshall's prose, which is as detailed and poetic as in the previous novel. The Upright Man will delight readers and, perhaps, cause more than a little envy among other writers.