Look Out For… Blighters by Tim Major
“Blighters is a peculiar and somehow very British take on the alien invasion theme.”
Them Blighters are everywhere.
They fell out of the sky last year, great horrible armour-plated slugs with razor-sharp fangs. But ugly as they are, they give the ultimate high to anyone nearby: a blissful, gleeful contentment that people are willing to kill for. Not Becky Stone, though. All she wants is to drink beer, listen to her dad’s old vinyl, and get her life back to how it was before everything was all messed up.
Blighters? Frankly, she could do without them.
Why We’re Excited About This Book: Tim Major is the author of the novella Carus & Mitch which we at This Is Horror loved. Now he returns with a new novella, Blighters, part of Abaddon Book’s ‘Invaders From Beyond’ range. The book envisages a peculiar and somehow very British take on the alien invasion theme: a plague of slugs fall from the sky.
Major has written that the book was inspired by John Wyndham’s ‘cosy catastrophe’ novels and that he wanted his mysterious gastropods to exude a sense of “dormant threat”. The book starts after the ‘invasion’ of the slugs, the world having adapted to them and moved on. They have just become another fact of life. But all that might be about to change…
Major is a talent to watch on the British horror scene, so check out Blighters soon.
Blighters is out now from Abaddon Books.
Look Out For… The Hidden Back Room by Jason A. Wyckoff
“Wykoff’s stories are elegantly crafted, aesthetically pleasing.”
The Hidden Back Room is Jason A. Wyckoff’s second collection exploring the eerie and wondrous across America. The fourteen tales collected here reveal the dangers awaiting those who wander unwarily on paths both well-lit and deeply shadowed.
Jason A. Wyckoff’s first published work was the short story collection, Black Horse and other Strange Stories (Tartarus Press 2012). His work has appeared in anthologies from Tartarus Press and Siren’s Call publications, as well as the journals Nightscript, Weird-book, and Turn to Ash. He lives in Columbus, Ohio, USA, with his wife and their cats. He still plays music on occasion.
Why We’re Excited About This Book:
Jason A. Wyckoff and Tartarus Press seem like a perfect match, with the writer’s elegantly crafted, aesthetically pleasing stories matching the publisher’s attractive and lovingly created books. They obviously both agree: The Hidden Back Room is the author’s second collection for Tartarus, Black Horse and other Strange Stories having been published four years previously.
The fourteen stories in The Hidden Back Room tell of all manner of haunting events, including strange portents of disaster (‘Details’), monsters trapped in office basements, and a disturbing parthenogenesis birth in a scrapyard (‘A Blood Without Blood’). Also included is the novelette ‘The Dreams of Pale Night’.
A highly recommended collection from a writer to watch out for.
The Hidden Back Room is available to pre-order now from Tartarus Press.
JAMES EVERINGTON
