News flash! Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son. Yes, that Stephen King. Although, if you’re reading this review, chances are that this isn’t news to you. The secret has been out on Mr. Hill’s real identity for a while now. I guess you have to credit the guy for not coming out of the gate riding his immensely famous father’s coattails. Talk about an in! The truth is that he didn’t need to ride his father’s coattails, nor anybody else’s for that matter.

Ah, the wonderful world of bizarro fiction. A place where anything is possible. Anything at all. Located in a universe where the laws of physics and the rules of logic have little if any influence. For the uninitiated, an intimidating and often overwhelming place, to be sure. A place where the inexperienced traveler would do well to follow the lead of a tested and sure footed guide. And who better to the lead the way through such a strange and, on occasion, inhospitable land than one who has been there many times before and has returned each time to tell the tale?

Welcome to Hades. Again.

Author Jeffrey Thomas is back with a short story collection set in the mythical, nefarious realm previously explored in his novel, LETTERS FROM HADES. Ever wanted to experience the many torments and terrors of Hell without actually dying and going there? Well, here's your chance. And you need not have read the novel that came before to enjoy—if you're the twisted sort of individual who actually enjoys this sort of stuff—the stories presented in this collection.

At a gathering of the city’s oldest and most powerful vampires, high within an ultra-secure skyscraper, a most unusual and terrible crime is perpetrated. An ancient and beautiful vampire named Vanessa is kidnapped from within the midst of the gathering, and the head of security hired to protect those assembled there is found brutally murdered. How such an act could have been committed is a mystery. There is an even bigger mystery concerning the person behind it. Who could possess the skill and cunning to do such a thing? And what is the point of such an act?

When we first meet Rebecca Mines within the pages of Weston Ochse’s near future science fiction thriller, Velvet Dogma, she is the proverbial stranger in a strange land. After spending twenty years in a federal prison, much of it in isolation, for attempting to hack into and share secret government files with the general public, she finds a world radically changed from the one she knew before her incarceration, much of it to the point of unrecognizability. Advances in technology have occurred which she could not have possible predicted.

The debut issue of "Trunk Stories" is a black-and-white forty-four page print zine filled with fiction, reviews, a poem, and a smattering of artwork. This is a publication that, from a content standpoint, is trying to do something a little different, something slightly unclassifiable. Fans of D. Harlan Wilson's strange and surreal stories should enjoy this magazine as they will feel right at home with some of the bizarre premises and realities contained within the tales presented here.

Jeff Long, author of a number of excellent books including The Reckoning, Year Zero, and the amazing subterranean adventure, The Descent (no, nothing to do with the British horror movie of the same name) is back with his latest novel, The Wall, a thriller set on and around El Capitan, the three-thousand-foot-high rock formation located inside Yosemite National Park. The story centers around a duo of fifty-something climbers, Hugh and Lewis, who have reunited for one last ascent of the titular wall, their first climb together in about thirty years.

Vampires. Ah, yes, those good ol' bloodsucking fiends. Those undead creatures of the night. Those immortal hunters of man. Popularized, oh, those many years ago by one Mr. Bram Stoker. Could he have suspected the impact of his novel upon future generations of horror writers? Probably not. Could he have imagined the sheer volume of tales written about his titular monster's brethren? Again, probably not. The vampire has become a mainstay of modern horror. It has become what the dragon is to fantasy, what the robot is to science-fiction. Dare we call it a cliché?

"Chilling tales from the Great White North." So it says across the top of the front cover of Tesseracts Thirteen. "Chilling" because all of the stories presented within this collection would all be classified as "horror" or "dark fantasy." And "from the Great White North" because everyone involved with the project—including editors Nancy Kilpatrick and David Morrell, the twenty-three contributing authors, and the publishers themselves—are Canadian.

Guillermo Del Toro (yes, that Guillermo Del Toro) and author Chuck Hogan (Prince of Thieves, Standoff, The Killing Moon) have come together to create The Strain: Book One of the Strain Trilogy. Beforehand, one might think that the book would resonate with otherworldly, fantastic themes as one of its co-authors is the director of such films as Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth, not to mention the upcoming adaptation of The Hobbit. There are no elves here, though, no magical spells or friendly demons. What we have here is—wait for it—

OVERVIEW: Gauntlet Press's re-release of the classic Richard Matheson novel. Also included is Mr. Matheson's original screenplay adaptation of the book.

The advent of print-on-demand publishing has certainly changed the landscape of modern literature. Now, if a person has a few hundred bucks lying around he or she can have their book published by any number of companies out there. Unfortunately, this means that a great number of books that should have never seen the light of day are finding their way into the marketplace. (And into my review stack.) On the other hand, there have always been those quality works which have, for one reason or another, failed to find a home at an established publishing company.

OVERVIEW: A modern vampire novel set in New York City featuring Alek Night, a dhampir—a type of evolved vampire that is capable of interacting with both worlds of darkness and light.

OVERVIEW: A collection by Jack Ketchum that includes the novella Right to Life plus two short stories, "Brave Girl" and "Returns."

Johnny Frieze is a young man down on his luck. A one-time hotshot poker player, he finds himself betting and losing the last of his life savings during a card game with a vastly inferior player named Jimmy the Gunn. Then, in a moment of utmost desperation, Johnny excuses himself from the table, heads for the bathroom, slams his face against the edge of the sink there, pulls the gold tooth from his mouth, and returns to the game. And loses again. Sometimes fate, or whatever it is that controls the cards, just isn't on your side, it seems.

I have a short list of writers whose new work I always find myself anxious to read. This would include, in no particular order, Joe Lansdale, Chuck Palahniuk, Edward Lee, China Mieville, and . . .

Tom Piccirilli.

The author of such novels as A Lower Deep, The Night Class, and A Choir of Ill Children always manages to create works that are simultaneously dark, bizarre, often poetic, and always entertaining. A tradition he continues admirably with his latest offering, November Mourns.

OVERVIEW: A collection of sixteen short stories and fifteen poems by one of the leading and most consistently creative voices of modern dark fiction.