“Kill The Dead” by Richard Kadrey (Voyager)

Sandman Slim rides again. Kills some zombies.

James Stark, a.k.a. Sandman Slim, crawled out of Hell, took bloody revenge for his girlfriend’s murder, and saved the world along the way. After that, what do you do for an encore? You take a lousy job tracking down monsters for money. It’s a depressing gig, but it pays for your beer and cigarettes. But in L.A., things can always get worse.

Like when Lucifer comes to town to supervise his movie biography and drafts Stark as his bodyguard. Sandman Slim has to swim with the human and inhuman sharks of L.A.’s underground power elite. That’s before the murders start. And before he runs into the Czech porn star who isn’t quite what she seems. Even before all those murdered people start coming back from the dead and join a zombie army that will change our world and Stark’s forever.

Death bites. Life is worse. All things considered, Hell’s not looking so bad.

It’s a little tricky to review this book, for two reasons. First, to go into too much detail will throw out a ton of spoilers for the first book. Second, I’d basically just be repeating all the praise I wrote in my review of Sandman Slim… Nevertheless, allow me to repeat myself…

Red Lanterns, Vol.1 – “Blood & Rage” (DC Comics)

Writer: Peter Milligan | Artist: Ed Benes | Inks: Rob Hunter, Rebecca Buchmann, Mark Irwin, Sal Regla & Dave Meikis | Colours: Nathan Eyring & Rod Reis

The Green Lantern Corps have existed for millennia, using the power of their will to protect the Universe. But the Red Lantern Corps, bearers of the red rings of rage, are much newer, and their mission far more destructive. The deadly alien known as Atrocitus formed the Red Lanterns to take revenge on the evil Guardian Krona, who was responsible for the death of his family and his world. But now Krona is dead, and mindless rage is all the Red Lanterns have left.

Collects: Red Lanterns #1-7

This is one of those series I waited for a long time before trying. I read the #0 issue, and thought it showed a lot of promise, so I picked up this first book. I still don’t think I really ‘got’ all of it, but it’s certainly an interesting title, and I think it has a lot of potential. It’s also made me want to try out all of the other Green Lantern-related series… So, as I’ve already got my hands on a copy of Green Lantern Corps, expect some more Lantern reviews to start appearing in the near future. Red Lanterns is pretty dark, well-written, and was a very enjoyable read.

Superboy, Vol.1 – “Incubation” (DC Comics)

Writer: Scott Lobdell & Tom DeFalcon | Artist: R.B. Silva & Iban Coello | Inks: Rob Lean | Colours: Richard & Tanya Horie & Hi-Fi

This first volume of Superboy takes us to the labs of Project N.O.W.H.E.R.E., where the scientists thought he was just an experiment – and a failed one at that. But with the combination of Kryptonian and human DNA, the Clone turns out to be more than just a set of data when his stunning powers was revealed.

Collects: Superboy #1-6

The first comics I read that featured Superboy were the first few Teen Titans issues. After a misplaced hesitation to read any of the series (the “-boy” made me wonder if it might belong in the selection aimed at younger readers), I decided to dive into the collected edition. And I was very pleasantly surprised.

Upcoming: “TRIUMPH OVER TRAGEDY” SFF Charity Anthology

Living in New York, it’s been impossible to miss the devastation left in the wake of Hurricane/Tropical Storm/Cyclone Sandy. With the Red Cross, Project Rubicon, Occupy Sandy and a considerable number of other official and crowd-sourced groups pulling together to help on the ground, author R.T. Kaelin decided to pull together contributions for a charity SFF anthology. The speculative genre has a history of pulling together to help worthy causes (I’m sure many of you will remember the hugely successful Genre for Japan initiative kicked off by now-Strange Chemistry editor, Amanda Rutter. To bring you more information about the Triumph Over Tragedy anthology, I asked Kaelin to write a few words, and also contacted a number of the authors involved to write a little intro to their stories (I’ll add more as and when they come in).

Over to Ryan …

by R.T. Kaelin

So, like many of you over recent weeks, I’ve been watching the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy after it ripped through the northeastern US. The images coming out from the region are astounding.

In past tragedies, I’ve donated some money to the Red Cross, but I’ve always felt like it was inadequate.

“Hey, you lost your home? Man, that stinks. Here’s fifty bucks. I gotta hop in my car now, get a cup of coffee and go off to work. What’s that? Your car and job are gone? Ooohh…”

This time, I had the idea to do more.

The idea was simple, really. Reach out to fellow authors and see if we could get some to write and donate some stories for an anthology. We would sell it and donate the full proceeds to the American Red Cross to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy (many of whom STILL do not have power).

The response was astounding. And thus, Triumph Over Tragedy was born.

An Interview with BRENDA COOPER

Brenda Cooper’s next novel, The Creative Fire, has been receiving a fair bit of buzz around the corner of the blogosphere that I frequent. With the arrival of a copy of the book, too, I thought it would be a great time to interview Brenda, to get some more insight into her writing and work, her thoughts on the genre and more.

“Bloodsworn” by Nathan Long (Black Library)

The final novel in the Ulrika the Vampire trilogy

Returning to Nuln after her adventures in Praag, Ulrika finds the Lahmian vampires preparing for war. Across the Old World, their rivals, the sinister von Carsteins, attack their strongholds and lead the witch hunters to their hidden lairs. Spurned by her sisters, Ulrika forms an uneasy alliance with the von Carsteins in a plot to destabilise the Empire by striking at its very heart – they plan nothing less than the assassination of Emperor Karl Franz. With enemies on all sides and the Empire in flames, Ulrika must decide whether her future will see her living among the humans, or as their enemy.

This is the final installment in Nathan Long’s Ulrika series, and it goes out with one hell of a bang. It runs the gamut of the fantasy genre – moving from urban-based mystery to epic battles and exaggerated magical conflict. It’s tightly plotted, populated by engaging and interesting characters, and is a great end to the series. Long is still one of my favourite fantasy authors, and I am a little sad to be saying goodbye to Ulrika.

Covers: “Fortress Frontier” gets a British Jacket

It should be no secret by this point that I’m a fan of Myke Cole’s Shadow Ops series. The second in the series, Fortress Frontier, will be published in the US in a couple months, to follow a little afterwards in the UK. This means we get a new cover, too…

I really like this, and I think it matches the style of the UK edition of Control Point very well. It’s another great job by Larry Rostant.

Here’s the synopsis:

The Great Reawakening did not come quietly. Across the country and in every nation, people began to develop terrifying powers — summoning storms, raising the dead, and setting everything they touch ablaze. Overnight the rules changed... but not for everyone.

Colonel Alan Bookbinder is an army bureaucrat whose worst war wound is a paper-cut. But after he develops magical powers, he is torn from everything he knows and thrown onto the front-lines.

Drafted into the Supernatural Operations Corps in a new and dangerous world, Bookbinder finds himself in command of Forward Operating Base Frontier — cut off, surrounded by monsters, and on the brink of being overrun.

Now, he must find the will to lead the people of FOB Frontier out of hell, even if the one hope of salvation lies in teaming up with the man whose own magical powers put the base in such grave danger in the first place — Oscar Britton, public enemy number one...

Fortress Frontier will be published in January 2013 in both the US (Ace Book) and the UK (Headline).

More on CR: Control Point Review, Author Interview & Guest Post

Upcoming: TERRA NOVA Anthology

Sense of Wonder, one of the other blogs I read, has been putting together a Spanish-language anthology of contemporary science fiction: Terra Nova.

The anthology will be published simultaneously in Spain and Argentina this December. An eBook edition with English translations of the short stories originally written in Spanish will follow shortly thereafter.

The amazing cover art (at top) was done by Ángel Benito. Here is the anthology’s table of contents:

Foreword, by Luis Pestarini and Mariano Villarreal

“The Paper Menagerie”, by Ken Liu (USA)

“Deirdre”, by Lola Robles (Spain)

“Memories of a Zombie Country”, by Erick J. Mota (Cuba)

“Light a Solitary Candle”, by Víctor Conde (Spain)

“Bodies”, by Juanfran Jiménez (Spain)

“A Day Without Dad”, by Ian Watson (United Kingdom)

“Memory”, by Teresa P. Mira de Echeverría (Argentina)

“The Lifecycle of Software Objects”, by Ted Chiang (USA)

Two of these stories have received a good deal of attention already: Ken Liu’s “The Paper Menagerie” won the 2011 Nebula Award for Best Short Story and also the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Short Story. It was also a finalist for the 2012 Locus Award for Best Short Story and 2012 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and a nominees for the 2012 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story. Ted Chiang’s “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” won the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Novella and 2011 Locus Award for Best Novella, and was nominated for the 2010 Nebula Award for Best Novella.

The paperback edition (about 250 pages) will be €15 in Spain (rest of the world, please contact), with subscriptions available for residents in Spain. Ebook editions in Spanish and English (the latter including only the Spanish and Latin American stories) will be published in early 2013.

For more, be sure to check out Sense of Wonder, and follow its writer on Twitter.

Artwork: “All-New X-Men” & “Deadpool” #1 Variants that I really, really like… (Marvel)

I just think this is great. It’s by Skottie Young:

And here’s the art for Young’s Deadpool variant:

Interview with ADAM McOMBER

I came across Adam McOmber through a recommendation from James Oliver, via Twitter. I did some digging, and thought his work sounded really interesting. So, naturally, I thought it would be a good time to interview Adam, and find out a little bit more about his writing, working practices, and what makes his writing tick…