New books by ST stars!

Well, by star writers who've had stories published in ST. We begin with Chico Kidd, whose story 'Cats & Architecture' graced the very first issue. It also introduced the character of Captain da Silva, a Portuguese sea captain and demon-seer of the early 20th century. Chico has written a lot of da Silva tales. The latest is a novella from Alchemy Press, and I'm intrigued. It tackles a fascinating but difficult subject - the kind of people who were generally paraded as sideshow attractions.

Charley Zriny wished he hadn’t hired the Siamese twins. Sure, they were a great draw, but they acted as if they were queen of the damn carnival. And that’s just the start. Besides the zombie there is a werewolf, a necromancer and ghosts. A maze of mirrors. And more zombies. Captain da Silva is at the centre of this – and all he wanted was a day out with his family.

 

The second book, going to print as I type this, is a new collection by Steve Duffy. There are far too few books by Steve out there, so The Moment of Panic is quite an event. PS Publishing are taking orders. Steve tells me that one of the stories here is 'A Serious Piece of Metal', which first appeared in ST#5. That was in 2003, for Pete's sake! It's taking far too long to get Mr Duffy's emanations between hard cover, in my opinion.

Well, there you go. A novella and a story collection by two very different, very gifted authors. I think that's our autumn reading sorted.