A QUESTION OF BELIEF by Brett McBean, Reviewed by David Wilbanks

With its red cover displaying a primal woodcut print by George Walker, its black silk endpapers and pink linen pages, Brett McBean’s “A Question of Belief” is quite the handsome chapbook; one that any horror collector would be proud to hold in their collection. Hats off to Biting Dog Publications for the care they put into it.

But what about the short story within this deluxe packaging?

It begins with the Reverend Bill Blight finding a strange man standing on a cliff edge. The man is obviously simple and in need of medical attention, so the Reverend takes him to his secluded home. But the Reverend finds out soon enough this man is not what he seems and by the time he figures everything out, it’s too late. The inescapable horror has arrived.

Brett McBean puts across this suspenseful little tale in such a manner that it is sure to produce shivers in the reader. It’s a lot of fun in the ‘weird tale’ tradition, and is sure to find fans.

The run on this limited edition appears to be 125 signed copies, so the next time you order your horror books, tell them to toss in one of these. You won’t regret it.
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BULLETPROOF SOUL by Steven L. Shrewsbury, Reviewed by David Wilbanks

Meet Dack Shannon: tough-guy albino agent for Majestic Services, a secret cabal that can’t be easily traced. He’s been assigned to central Illinois as punishment for a mysterious mistake he’d made in his past, and he’s the star of this book of short stories (a few so short as to seem fragments) and it’s all about thrills, adventure and violence in a hard pulp style.

In these noirish pages Dack and his fellow agents go up against drug dealers, a powerful psychic, a mad scientist, a pyromaniac, a cannibal cult, satanic anarchists, and plenty of other evil criminals. With the aid of his hacker apprentice (who is also a stripper), plenty of hi-tech devices and his trusty silver .45 automatic, the cold-hearted Shannon never hesitates in his mission to rid the world of scum, or at least the scum indicated by Majestic Services. Most of Shrewsbury’s characters have strong personalities and are a kick to read.

My only quibble is that it could have been edited better (“mellow drama” for “melodrama”--c’mon guys!). Otherwise, Shrewsbury has a harsh style that matches his tales, so mean and potent that I’m glad I read them and look forward to his upcoming Dack novel.

If you like your reading served cold and harsh with a sprinkle of humor, then this book may be for you; but be warned, there’s no warm fuzzies here. Those with a taste for “men’s adventure” stories should not hesitate to purchase.
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DARK SHADOWS ON THE MOON By John B. Ford, Reviewed by Hertzan Chimera

When the history books remember the works of the third millennium, you can bet your afterlife, this collection of stories from the mind of one Britain's best kept writing secrets will be among them. Pain, death, suffering and mental unrest literally ooze from the pages of this dark tome. The cover art by Ken Withrow is suitably tortured.

Usually, when I read a single-author collection I truly only 'like' (as in regularly and willingly reread) about 30%-40% of the stories. I have read and reread to a peak of windswept satisfaction a greater percentage of stories in this one collection than in any of the other collections from great writers such as Haruki Murakami, Kurt Vonnegut, William Gibson, even Clive Barker or Stephen King.

The book opens with a gushing forward from none other than Simon Clark who informs the reader of Ford's literary heritage and the term homage comes up with relation to how these stories came into being. But this (as Clark points out) is so much more than flowery imitation of the likes of Hodgson, Shiel, Lovecraft, Chambers and Poe.

Shadows (obvious from the title) feature heavily in the collection. But these aren't mere shadows where no photon is cast, a blind spot in the boiling stare of the sun; these are worrisome shadows brimming with horrific potential and trembling with ill portent. Nature too is obviously very dear to Ford's black heart and he spends a great percentage of his time contemplating it and its prowess.

With evocative titles like "The maze for jaded brains", "In the house of chained souls" and "My other self" John B Ford stamps his personal view of reality onto the hapless reader and once he's got his hooks in you, there is no redemption.

"The illusion of life" for me is the star of the show by a Yorkshire mile. An audience member watches a magic show. The illusionist brazenly exhibits the most hideous defiance of death ever seen on stage - things that actually look impossible. Real deaths and resurrection from death. It is a mesmerizing spectacle for our audience member until the illusionist turns his attention to him. "What does death mean for you?" he asks in truly haunting tones....
Over a period of prolonged immersion, this book does very strange things to a reader - it is (some would say) over written, but by God I love that in a book. It's actually an intelligent read that doesn't pander to the lowest common denominator - as with so many of today's books that offer little more than a cheap narrative thread, the stories in Dark Shadows On The Moon pay and pay with page after page of stunning testimony from the edge of sanity. The rhythms of the sentences are in themselves and as a whole quite hypnotic, pulling at your sense of reality such that as you read you truly start to fall into Ford's dark alter-world. The walls shift. The owls hoot. The trees brush against your window. Take this as an example of how rich the prose is:

"Where the blossoms are black, and all men are but shadows; where night is eternal and destiny weeps for her lovers - here in the Everlasting Night."

It makes one want to dash off into the blustery hills and produce wild rants of gothic terror, it makes one want to kill someone and store them in a room until their soul dies of love, it makes one realize that there are only so many great writers in the world, and John B Ford is one of them.