Tuesday, March 31, 2026
Book Review: The Ganymedan R.T. Ester
Book Review: A Spectre is Haunting Texas by Fritz Leiber
A Spectre is Haunting Texas by Fritz Leiber
197 pages, Ace Books Mass Market Paperback
First published, 1968
Full review on the way.
Book Review: Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
163 pages, Hardcover
Published August, 2025 by Tordotcom
Full Review on the way...
Book Review: Horror Library, Volume 9 edited by Eric J. Guignard
340 pages, Paperback
Published February 3, 2026 by Dark Moon Books
special guest-artist's gallery of Michael A. Livolsi!
Eric and Dark Moon books are consistent. Like Death, Taxes, and quality short horror fiction. Eric didn’t start this series, and I not even sure with which volume he took over, but I know he has been the editor for the last couple of editions.
One thing you can bank on is that the stories will be excellent, dark, and from diverse sources. Guignard has experience doing international anthologies, and as an active member of HWA, he is able to pull authors from around the world. One thing I noticed right away was a couple of very exciting names in this line-up.
Brian Evenson (who I think is the best living short story author), Poppy Z. Brite, Bentley Little, and Delilah S. Dawson. It was also nice to see So-Cal locals in Jo Kaplan and KC Grifant. For long-time horror-heads, the appearance of Brite and Little is “no way” inducing.
30 stories and about 300 pages, will tell you many of the stories are short, but they all provide a serious punch.
Highlights for me include Eyes without Lids by Jo Kaplan, which got me even more excited for her Clash Books title Midnight Muse. This story is a creepy story about a who wakes up a captive. The mood and setting of this short but powerful story completely hooked me. Found You by Poppy Z. Brite was a quick, evocative tale that reminds fans of this classic author why they are so beloved.
Bentley Little’s Before His Time is a fun little Hollywood tale, and Evenson’s tale is about Opera and it was great, although I felt I might have been missing knowledge that might have helped it. Delilah S. Dawson’s story does the most with the shortest word-count in that sense; it reminded me of RC Matheson (his story Red Shortest most effective horror story ever). Grifant’s Mask-off had a traditional Tales of the Crypt feel to me.
Some stories didn’t hook me as strongly, but I only skipped a couple of stories whose tone didn’t catch me. +Horror Library+ is a series that continues to be the mark of high quality. Those of you who want more markets for short horror fiction…if you want a place to find new authors, and you want a market, you gotta support it, buy short horror.
Book Review: The Gatepost by Tim Weed
264 pages, Paperback
Expected publication: May 26, 2026 by Podium Publishing
Very rare that an author comes out of nowhere for me. Tim Weed was an author I admit I never heard of before last year, when his novel the Afterlife Project, showed up in my mail. I was not prepared for the scope of it. Part Generation Ship story, this novel dealt with environmental issues by telling our story over centuries. I loved this novel and thought it was a wonderful surprise.
So when another Tim Weed novel was offered to me, I jumped on it. The Gatepost will interest many of my Dickian fans, but I have to admit it is a topic that is a bit of a turn-off for me. This novel might work better for others, and could be a classic case of “it’s not you novel, it’s me.”
The back cover compares says it is “Perfect for fans of Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, Emily St John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility, and Richard Powers’ Bewilderment.” Three books I admit I know nothing about. While it might sound hypocritical, Mesoamerica shaman mind expansion is just not a fictional topic that hooks me.
In the second half, there is a serious exploration of reality, and Weed does this by jumping in timelines. Esme is our point of view character and she is on the hunt for her missing father. The narrative investigates the disappearance, through his journals and high doses of Psilocybin Mushrooms.
The novel also starts with a chapter that is “Told” and not shown. Show don’t tell to me is a fundamental of storytelling, and Weed’s Afterlife Project had a built-in excuse to violate this rule; The Gatepost didn’t. The opening sentence, “Esme Weatherhead kept catching herself talking to a ghost.” This is a fine opening for the novel, but imagine if we were experiencing the conversation? What if it felt like a normal father-daughter conversation, and we slowly realized he wasn’t exactly alive?
This missed opportunity within the first pages colored my experience. There are neat revalations and interesting ideas in the novel for sure. It didn’t work for me as well as the Afterlife Project, a novel I thought was great. Now that being said, your mileage will vary. I have a feeling this book will connect with some readers deeply, it just didn’t totally work for me. Weed is a talented writer and I will continue to read his work.
Monday, March 23, 2026
Book Review: The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck
112 pages, Paperback
Published November, 1995 by Penguin Books
So I found this book in a tiny library in my neighborhood, and I am sorry to admit I didn’t know it existed. As the author of The Last Night to Kill Nazis, I was a tad embarrassed. This book interested me for many reasons. Clearly, I enjoy WW II fiction in general. I like political fiction, and unlike some readers/writers, I don’t think the word propaganda is a dirty word, as I have written lots of well-intentioned propaganda in my life.
You can’t blame Steinbeck for wanting to write something that helped the cause after he helped farm workers with The Grapes of Wrath. When this was written in 1941 and published in ‘42 no one was sure the Nazis would be defeated. I think it is easy to say in hindsight, hey Steinbeck, keep politics out of your novels.
The origin of this novel is very interesting. Steinbeck wanted to do something to help with the war effort. He wanted to write something about what effect fascist occupation would have on people. The first draft titled “The New Order” (also the name of a thrash metal album by Testament), had a more speculative nature and was almost pre-Red Dawn. It was set in a cold unnamed American town. This is of course, would have given the novel a more Man in the High Castle, or It Can’t Happen Here feel than it ultimately did.
Steinbeck submitted this to the OSS (which ran spy efforts in World War II), which had a Foreign Information Service, which was also doing Radio Free Europe and making flyers to drop. Wild Bill Donovan, the founder of OSS appealed to Steinbeck, suggesting that American defeat in fiction would be bad for morale. This led to an interesting artistic choice in the next draft. At this point, Steinbeck implied that it was set in Norway, but the invading army is not named.
The Moon is Down is a moralistic fable focused on a small town and how it deals with military occupation. It is a short and fantastic drama, even if I think the first draft sounds more interesting. The message is front and center and often directly on the nose, but to me, this was part of the power. Several lines are quotable and stand out.
How you handle defeat…
“Free men cannot start a war, but once it is started, they can fight on in defeat. Herd men, followers of a leader, cannot do that, and so it is always the herd men who win battles and the free men who win wars.”
Being the spark of resistance…
“I am a little man, and this is a little town, but there must be a spark in little men that can burst into flame.”
When you lose, and you lose again…
“Defeat is a momentary thing. A defeat doesn't last. We were defeated and now we attack. Defeat means nothing. Can't you understand that? Do you know what they are whispering behind doors?”
Humanity of your enemy…
He paused for a moment, and then he said, “Hunter, I'm a good, loyal man, but sometimes when I hear the brilliant ideas of headquarters, I wish I were a civilian, an old, crippled civilian. They always think they're dealing with stupid people. I don't say that this is a measure of their intelligence, do I?”
Courage in the face of occupation…
The mayor spoke proudly. “Yes, they will light it. I have no choice of living or dying, you see, Sir, but I do have the choice of how I do it. If I tell them not to fight, they will be sorry, but they will fight. If I tell them to fight, they will be glad, and I, who is not a very brave man will have to be a little braver.”
The Moon is Down may not be the pure classic of Grapes of Wrath or Of Mice and Men, but it is a powerful piece of propaganda, and my opinion is that there is nothing wrong with that. I personally consider this an important, but I really wish we could read The New Order.
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