Over to the right and possibly up a bit is a poll.
Vote for your favourite story from issue 32!
Winning story gets a princely sum of slightly more than 25 Euros!
The poll closes on 30th September, so you've got plenty of time.
Unless you're reading this in October, in which case tough luck.
Tuesday, 23 August 2016
Saturday, 20 August 2016
Apologies and sort-of news...
I'm sorry I've really neglected this blog of late. I've been busy and/or ill quite a lot of the time, and work on ST 33 has fallen behind schedule. I've also not been reading/watching much that I can review here, because of the work/health issues. However, I can confirm that the Autumn issue will be published in the actual autumn, which seems reasonable, and that it contains some excellent stories. More news very soon!
Wednesday, 17 August 2016
Explaining the Runes
Anyone interested in the background to M.R. James classic tale 'Casting the Runes' might like to know just how complicated (and somewhat bonkers) the Runic universe was.
Monday, 8 August 2016
Preacher (2016)
Genre TV drama has been having a vintage season of late. The Living and the Dead re-established the BBC's reputation for innovative ghost stories. Now from America comes Preacher, a show that has a Buffy-esque energy and inventiveness, but an altogether more adult take on all things magical.
The setup is simple. Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) is the preacher in the small Texas town of Annville, where life is dominated by the local cattle baron, the violent, bonkers atheist Odin Quincannon (Jackie Earle Haley). Jesse is a frankly poor preacher but he took over the church out of a sense of duty to his father - who was killed in the line of preacherly duty - and because he has nowhere else to go. It soon emerges that the Rev Custer is a lot better at beating the crap out of people than preaching because he has been a career criminal.
Three characters then enter Jesse's life. There's Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun, formerly of Emmerdale, apparently), an Irish vampire fleeing the forces of justice and/or revenge. There's Jesse's former lover Tulip O'Hare (Ruth Negga) who wants him to join her in a question for vengeance against a former member of their gang. And there's a thing from another world that possesses Jesse and gives him a superpower. The latter's arrival allows Jesse to do God's work in Annville, or so he thinks, but life quickly becomes complicated. Then two angels arrive, seeking to extract the divine being from Jesse, one way or another.
That's the bare bones of the story, but the great joy of Preacher is the way in which a gritty and brutal main plot is interwoven with the bizarre, Texan-Gothic world of of Annville. This is a show whose character list features a certain 'Arseface', which is an accurate description of Eugene, the Sherriff's son. There are also excellent running gags, such as the feud between Annville's town macots, one PC, the other not. Throw in two rogue (and very British) angels who have a literal hotline to God, and you've got a very strange mixture. There's a whiff of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials in the overall theme, too.
Preacher is not for everyone. I suspect that many people who enjoyed the old-world charms of The Living and the Dead will be turned off by Preacher's sex, violence, and wise-cracking approach to the occult. But for me its a breath of sort-of-fresh air after so many promising supernatural series turned out to be just another load glorified fan fiction. Anyway, here's a mid-season trailer. Did I mention that it's visually superb, with various nods (explicit, in yet another running gag) to the Cohn Brothers?
The setup is simple. Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) is the preacher in the small Texas town of Annville, where life is dominated by the local cattle baron, the violent, bonkers atheist Odin Quincannon (Jackie Earle Haley). Jesse is a frankly poor preacher but he took over the church out of a sense of duty to his father - who was killed in the line of preacherly duty - and because he has nowhere else to go. It soon emerges that the Rev Custer is a lot better at beating the crap out of people than preaching because he has been a career criminal.
Three characters then enter Jesse's life. There's Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun, formerly of Emmerdale, apparently), an Irish vampire fleeing the forces of justice and/or revenge. There's Jesse's former lover Tulip O'Hare (Ruth Negga) who wants him to join her in a question for vengeance against a former member of their gang. And there's a thing from another world that possesses Jesse and gives him a superpower. The latter's arrival allows Jesse to do God's work in Annville, or so he thinks, but life quickly becomes complicated. Then two angels arrive, seeking to extract the divine being from Jesse, one way or another.
That's the bare bones of the story, but the great joy of Preacher is the way in which a gritty and brutal main plot is interwoven with the bizarre, Texan-Gothic world of of Annville. This is a show whose character list features a certain 'Arseface', which is an accurate description of Eugene, the Sherriff's son. There are also excellent running gags, such as the feud between Annville's town macots, one PC, the other not. Throw in two rogue (and very British) angels who have a literal hotline to God, and you've got a very strange mixture. There's a whiff of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials in the overall theme, too.
Preacher is not for everyone. I suspect that many people who enjoyed the old-world charms of The Living and the Dead will be turned off by Preacher's sex, violence, and wise-cracking approach to the occult. But for me its a breath of sort-of-fresh air after so many promising supernatural series turned out to be just another load glorified fan fiction. Anyway, here's a mid-season trailer. Did I mention that it's visually superb, with various nods (explicit, in yet another running gag) to the Cohn Brothers?
Saturday, 6 August 2016
Tuesday, 2 August 2016
Best Horror of the Year Long List .
Ellen Datlow's Long List for the latest issue (Volume 8) of her justly-famed anthology is out, and ST is well-represented. Here are the contenders, all pretty darn good in my book. Place your bets! And remember, all issues of these spiffing magazines are still available. Click on the link to the Buy page above.
Read, Jane “Service Charge,” Supernatural Tales 29, spring.
Schliewe, Jeremy “Distance,” Supernatural Tales 29, spring.
Parker, Rosalie “Selkie—A Scottish Idyll,” Supernatural Tales 29, spring.
Duffy, Steve “Even Clean Hands Can Do Damage,” Supernatural Tales 30, Autumn.
Golaski, Adam, “Wild Dogs,” Supernatural Tales 30, Autumn.
Grant, Helen “30” Supernatural Tales 30, Autumn.
Rucker, Lynda E. “An Element of Blank,” Supernatural Tales, 30, Autumn.
Johnstone, Tom “What I found in the Shed,” Supernatural Tales 31, Winter 2015/6
Read, Jane “Service Charge,” Supernatural Tales 29, spring.
Schliewe, Jeremy “Distance,” Supernatural Tales 29, spring.
Parker, Rosalie “Selkie—A Scottish Idyll,” Supernatural Tales 29, spring.
Duffy, Steve “Even Clean Hands Can Do Damage,” Supernatural Tales 30, Autumn.
Golaski, Adam, “Wild Dogs,” Supernatural Tales 30, Autumn.
Grant, Helen “30” Supernatural Tales 30, Autumn.
Rucker, Lynda E. “An Element of Blank,” Supernatural Tales, 30, Autumn.
Johnstone, Tom “What I found in the Shed,” Supernatural Tales 31, Winter 2015/6
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