Issue 6 of our groundbreaking Horror magazine Black Static: Transmissions From Beyond has gone to press and will be out in a couple of weeks. As usual, the cover (and all original interior) art is by David Gentry. Click it to make it bigger.

Stories are by Simon Avery, Melanie Fazi, Peter Tennant, Nina Allan, Paul Meloy and Ray Cluley. Usual columns by Stephen Volk, Christopher Fowler and Mike O’Driscoll, plus news, a huge amount of book and DVD reviews by Peter Tennant and Tony Lee, interviews with Scott Sigler and the directors of [REC]… and free stuff! More details closer to publication.

Tags: Black Static • books • Christopher Fowler • David Gentry • DVD • Horror • Melanie Fazi • Mike O'Driscoll • Nina Allan • Paul Meloy • Peter Tennant • Ray Cluley • REC • Scott Sigler • Simon Avery • Stephen Volk • Tony Lee

EARTHBOUND BY RICHARD MATHESON
(Tor Books paperback, 224pp, $4.99)

David and Ellen Cooper return to the beachside community where they spent their honeymoon more than twenty years before in an attempt to rescue a marriage placed under severe stress by David’s infidelity. But whenever Ellen is away David is visited by Marianna, a young and beautiful woman to whom he is powerfully attracted. He finds himself drawn into a passionate affair, the very last thing that he needed in the circumstances. David’s undoubted love for Ellen plays in deadly counterpoint to his desire for Marianna, as their bouts of frantic lovemaking leave him drained physically and mentally, deepening the rift between husband and wife. Another resident of the area warns David that Marianna is not what she seems to be, and slowly doubt gives way to the realisation of who, or rather what, he has invited into his bed and life. (more…)

Tags: Black Static • Book Reviews • Earthbound • Peter Tennant • Richard Matheson

BANQUET FOR THE DAMNED by ADAM L. G. NEVILL
(Virgin paperback, 410pp, £7.99)

The author of several works of erotica under the pseudonym Lindsay Gordon, Nevill moved into the supernatural arena with this superbly crafted novel of terror, which previously appeared in hardback from P S Publishing Ltd in 2004 (this review originally appeared in The Third Alternative #39 at the time of that publication). (more…)

Tags: Adam L. G. Nevill • Banquet for the Damned • Black Static • Book Reviews • Peter Tennant

Out in June…

FEATURES:

White Noise
news

Interference by Christopher Fowler
comment

Electric Darkness by Stephen Volk
comment

Blood Spectrum by Tony Lee
DVD reviews plus competitions

Night’s Plutonian Shore by Mike O’Driscoll
comment

Case Notes by Peter Tennant
book reviews, including Jack Ketchum featurette and interview

•

STORIES:

How Deep Is His Loneliness
Kathleen Winter

The Second Death of Johan Kluge
Tim Casson

Night Game
Tony Richards

The Rising River
Daniel Kaysen

Winter Journey
Joel Lane

Slap
Gary McMahon

Less A Dream Than This We Know
Christopher M. Cevasco

Tags: Black Static • Christopher Cevasco • Christopher Fowler • Daniel Kaysen • David Gentry • Gary McMahon • Jack Ketchum • Joel Lane • Kathleen Winter • Mike O'Driscoll • Peter Tennant • Stephen Volk • Tim Casson • Tony Lee • Tony Richards

NIETZSCHE’S KISSES by LANCE OLSEN
(FC2 paperback, 244pp, $15.95)

This short novel chronicles the last hours of the great German philosopher’s life when, after many years’ illness, he had retreated into a solipsistic fantasy world and his literary heritage was in the hands of his fascist sister Elizabeth. (more…)

Tags: Black Static • Book Reviews • Lance Olsen • Nietzsche • Peter Tennant

THE ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE BY MAX BROOKS
(Duckworth paperback, 254pp, £8.99)

This book has an intriguing concept. Subtitled “Complete Protection from the Living Deadâ€�, it operates under the premise that zombies are real, the victims of a virus called solanum, albeit their existence has been covered up by the authorities, and that an outbreak could happen near you at any time. In themed chapters Brooks details how to recognise when an outbreak is occurring, the best weapons to use against zombies, how to run from them and hunt them down, the difficulties posed by various types of terrain, the best structures to offer protection from zombie attack, surviving in a zombie world, should the worst case scenario ever come to pass. And so on and so forth, all of this delivered deadpan and with a potted history at the end of various zombie outbreaks during the course of history (more…)

Tags: Black Static • Book Reviews • Max Brooks • Peter Tennant • Zombie Survival Guide • zombies

NO-MAN AND OTHER TALES by TONY RICHARDS
(Pendragon Press paperback, 340pp, £9.99)

This collection of four novellas will be reviewed in Black Static #3, due out later this month, but one of the novellas, Postcards From Terri, was previously reviewed in The Third Alternative #39 back in 2004, when it appeared as a hardback from Sarob Press. Rather than repeat myself, I’ve decided to post the original review of that novella on the website (more…)

Tags: Black Static • Book Reviews • No Man and Other Tales • novellas • Peter Tennant • Tony Richards

The Case Notes section of Black Static #2 will contain a review of the short story collection Little Moscow (Tindal Street Press pb, 272pp, ¬£7.99) and an interview of sorts with author Mick Scully (a regular contributor to Crimewave). To whet your appetite for that, here’s Mick reading from one of his stories:-

Pete reviews many more books, and interviews authors, in Black Static. Subscribe now!

Tags: Black Static • Crime fiction • CRIMEWAVE • Mick Scully • Peter Tennant • Tindal Street Press

THE PAST IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY by GIANRICO CAROFIGLIO
(Old Street Publishing hardback, 288pp, £12.99)

Giorgio is a young man with a promising future, but then he falls under the spell of the charismatic Francesco, who lures him into a life of debauchery. Francesco teaches him how to cheat at cards, and at first they only swindle those who deserve or can afford to be gulled, but then as easy marks become hard to find anyone is a target. In other areas of his life Giorgio is persuaded to compromise on his own standards, abandoning his studies to be a lawyer and cheating on his girlfriend, getting drawn ever deeper into a life of crime and lulled by the ease with which everything falls into his lap. Concurrent with this is another plot strand in which a lieutenant of caribinieri is investigating a series of attacks on women, with the violence mounting each time. As the two strands near each other, Giorgio faces hard choices about his future and must question where his own boundaries lie. (more…)

Tags: Black Static • Book Reviews • Crime fiction • Gianrico Carofiglio • Italy • Peter Tennant • The Past is a Foreign Country

NECROSCOPE: THE TOUCH by BRIAN LUMLEY
Solaris paperback, 672pp, £7.99

When Ben Trask and the talents of E-Branch investigate the case of a grotesquely deformed corpse it‚Äôs the start of an affair that will bring them into conflict with the Mordri Three, alien philosophers who destroy inhabited planets in their attempt to provoke God to respond and prove His existence, and Earth is next on their to do list. Posing as faith healers they amass huge sums of gold, while an army of slaves work on their spacecraft at Schloss Zonigen in the Swiss Alps. Fortunately another alien is on hand to help stop the Mordri‚Äôs plan, as is Scott St John, a young man with a personal grudge against one of the Three, who appears to have inherited the powers of the Necroscope. With E-Branch on site to deal with the human threat, a band of heavily armed mercenaries, the battle for Schloss Zonigen and the survival of mankind begins in earnest. (more…)

Tags: Black Static • books • Lumley • Necroscope • Peter Tennant • reviews • Solaris