Look Out For … Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
“Certain Dark Things is an original, innovative reinvention of the staid vampire novel.”
Welcome to Mexico City: an oasis in a sea of vampires.
Domingo, a lonely garbage-collecting street kid, is busy eking out a living when a jaded vampire on the run swoops into his life.
Atl, the descendant of Aztec blood drinkers, must feast on the young to survive and Domingo looks especially tasty. Smart, beautiful, and dangerous, Atl needs to escape to South America, far from the rival narco-vampire clan pursuing her. Domingo is smitten.
Her plan doesn’t include developing any real attachment to Domingo. Hell, the only living creature she loves is her trusty Doberman. Little by little, Atl finds herself warming up to the scrappy young man and his effervescent charm.
And then there’s Ana, a cop who suddenly finds herself following a trail of corpses and winds up smack in the middle of vampire gang rivalries.
Vampires, humans, cops, and gangsters collide in the dark streets of Mexico City. Do Atl and Domingo even stand a chance of making it out alive?
Why We’re Excited About This Book:
Certain Dark Things, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s second novel, promises to be that rare thing, an original, innovative reinvention of the staid vampire novel.
The vampires in Moreno-Garcia’s world are inspired not by the Western archetype but by Latin American folk-stories of the tlahuelpocmimi: a blood-sucking being that preys on the young. People are born as tlahuelpocmimi and their magical powers make them as much witch as vampire. The author has taken these creatures of rural legend and transplanted them to the modern-day, urban sprawl of Mexico City, and given the whole thing a noir twist.
Moreno-Garcia’s first novel, Signal To Noise, deservedly won all sorts of plaudits and if anything Certain Dark Things looks like it will be even better. You really need to pick this one up as soon as you can.
Certain Dark Things is out on 25 October from Thomas Dunne Books.
Look Out For … Faust by George W.M. Reynolds
“Faust is Reynolds’s take on the classic Germanic legend and features the Borgias, secret societies, the Black Death, mistaken identities, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, kidnapping, murder and of course, the Devil.”
To have everything your heart desires – what price would you pay?
From the author of Mysteries of London and Wagner the Wehrwolf comes a unique take on the legendary story of Faust. In the 1490s, amidst the secretive tribunals and power games of Europe, an impoverished student enters into a pact that will twist his mind and shatter his spirit. The promise of power, wealth and vengeance comes at a terrifying cost–but can true love conquer the demon’s hold? And what fate awaits a man who would sell his very soul?
This freshly transcribed and fully illustrated eBook serial is the only modern edition of Reynolds’ action-packed tale of deadly sin, imperilled virtue and political intrigue.
Why We’re Excited About This Book:
Manchester based publisher Hic Dragones have recently started publishing Victorian Penny Dreadfuls as ebook serials for the digital age. Many of these tales will be of interest to fans of the macabre, including their latest project, Faust by George W.M. Reynolds.
Virtually unknown nowadays, in his day Reynolds outsold both Dickens and Thackeray. Unlike the original Gothics, Reynolds’s tales were set in urban locations and, while sensationalist, didn’t shy away from showing the squalor and crime endured by the lower-classes. Faust is a retelling of the classic Germanic legend, and Reynolds’s version includes the Borgias, secret societies, the Black Death, mistaken identities, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, kidnapping, murder and of course, the Devil.
Hic Dragones are releasing the story in fortnightly episodes, so a modern-day audience can experience the cliff-hangers in the same way as Reynolds’s original readers. The episodes are available in all major ebook formats, although the publishers are keen to point out they won’t work on “difference engines, magic lanterns, phonautographs, phenakistoscopes, pyrophones or Joseph Faber’s Euphonia.”
JAMES EVERINGTON
