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y tale of twin sisters brindglais and brandguin and a couple of magic swords in what i have come to call my a world of gods and monsters series quite likely a book in the making the sequel sisters of the swords will see publication in the future from sarob press came the ghosts scholars book of landscape figures edited by rosemary pardoe which reprinted all i ever see in a lovely limited edition hardback i shared the toc with old friends david sutton and john howard along with many other notable authors and it was quite a privilege to be published in such a prestigious volume then there was phantasmagoria magazine 24 and the second part of my swords and dinosaurs serialised novel presently of no fixed title beyond the ghost caves we meet the remaining two protagonists witness more cross time oddness and know that soon all of the characters disparate paths will cross issue 25 published an interview of yours truly conducted by allison weir and sarah graven weir in what was little more than a broom cupboard at cherry red s in birmingham at the alchemy press 25th anniversary get together which also celebrated certain significant birthdays for some attendees and the 50th anniversary of my first published short story designs of the wizard in the bfs magazine dark horizons for which i published a very limited edition chapbook of the story with cover artwork by jim pitts no one at the place was allowed to leave until they took one i also turned up on lee benson s sunday lunchtime radio and streaming show listen with lee on black country xtra making very little sense i suspect even for a sunday and as if that wasn t enough alongside alchemy press supremo peter coleborn i co edited an anthology of strange fiction for ps publishing shadowplays with fiction from stephen volk ray bradbury rosanne rabinowitz nancy kilpatrick paul kane robert bagnall colleen anderson tom johnstone gary mcmahon steve rasnic tem gail nina anderson tim jeffreys marion pitman bret mccormick kc grifant garry kilworth john linwood grant wendy purcell joanne anderton and reggie oliver it s a book of which i feel justifiably proud a signed limited edition hardback will be available in 2025 the major event of 2024 however was me dipping my toes into self or independent publishing the first was a slim volume drawing down leviathan collecting all three stories featuring to date anyway the submarine uss oswin cradle of the deep echoes of days passed and the previously unpublished title novella my plan was to make all the mistakes and learn from the experience before launching into a novel hail the new age a fantasy thriller in the sub genre spies and sorcery which i invented maybe with any luck reviews for both books follow with permission so i ll not say another word about them lyndon perry tule fog press mike chinn s 3 novelettes collected in the volume drawing down leviathan is simply fun wholesome pulpy adventure the action takes place on a new experimental us submarine set in the late 1930s at the ramp up to ww2 these tales are high sea battle romps with enough navy lingo to lend credibility and verisimilitude but not so much as to get in the way of the story first two tales cradle of the deep and echoes of days passed involve a bit of sea monster mystery man vs supernatural beast trope entertaining nothing ground breaking but they definitely hit the right notes of cinematic nostalgia think of the childhood excitement of shows like voyage to the bottom of the sea or 20 000 leagues under the sea the opening story features the author s pulp styled action hero protagonist damian paladin and his enigmatic sidekick leigh oswin and it ends with a sly bit of nomenclature humour i was hoping for a return of paladin in the second story but the tension and mystery weren t lacking even though the focus switched to the submarine captain and his crew btw paladin appears in a couple different collections of the author s stories namely the paladin mandates and walkers in shadow worth looking up if you enjoyed cradle of the deep in the final story drawing down leviathan we have an encounter with a dangerous female bad guy the captain admiral of a floating fortress i liked the steampunk feel to this story my mind going to jules vern s famous antagonist captain nemo action packed and satisfying i d like to read more stories where our brave submarine captain and crew go up against this evil mastermind if you re on the lookout for some quick adventure about 100 or so pages that brings back the pulpy action heroics from your childhood this short collection is just the thing trevor kennedy phantasmagoria magazine sea monsters and nazis just a couple of the perils faced by the crew of the submarine the uss oswin named after pulp hero leigh oswin who along with her dashing pilot partner damian paladin appear in the opening story of author mike chinn s new trilogy of nautical fantasy adventure tales it s 1936 and chinn s recurring characters serve to help introduce the reader to the crew of the submarine cruiser helmed by captain dave bannon and commander brad munrow in the first story cradle of the deep the new team assigned to the prototype sea craft are assisted by damy and leigh and together they soon encounter a strange sea beast echoes of days passed sees the oswin boarded by navy top brass just as they face off against another terror of the deep and in the final title story they come up against a nefarious world conspiracy involving nazis and a huge fully armed ship gun battles of a seaborne nature and within the air ensue drawing down leviathan is some old school pulpy enjoyment and exceptionally well researched at the same time chinn really does know his stuff in te rms of naval and aviation terminology and technical details of the era along with other relevant historical knowledge this of course lends an air of authenticity and believability to proceedings plainly inspired by irwin allen s voyage to the bottom of the sea this is strongly recommended for those of us who are into these types of underwater adventures from a seemingly bygone age something that the author himself clearly still has a strong enthusiasm for this being made quite clear inside the pages of drawing down leviathan chris morgan birmingham science fiction group newsletter ninety years ago agatha christie s murder on the orient express was published now mike chinn has written a great fantasy version of it in a more or less 19th century world where wizardry competes with science and technology a railway track has been laid between ramini s two major ports scan leroth and scana carsofi the inaugural two week train journey is about to begin on board are the technological genius responsible for the project professor alva and a small number of invited guests they are meant to be celebrating the technological innovation of the steam railway but nothing is as it seems to be and at least one of the guests is secretly a wizard they are now out of power and beyond the law determined to make the journey a total failure the hercule poirot figure here who must work out who is who and prevent the failure of the trip is wilonek scilli dare i say that all the characters have been given silly names an unprepossessing youngish man he has survived years of training at the wizards seminary without becoming a wizard or in any way favouring them he s also rather like a us crime fiction investigator in that he s often beaten up and bleeding his weakness is this his wizardry training has left him needing a liquid drug chavet every day or two or else he suffers awful withdrawal symptoms all the power of wizardry on this world emanates from crystals of abaston a rare mineral of which wizards control the supply an important part of their training is the handling of abaston aboard the train are a marvellous group of eccentrics there s the artificially created heteromorph batrix currently in female shape who is a military lieutenant commander in charge of the venture with whom scilli has numerous encounters trying to convince her that they re on the same side others include thryme alva s mentor senator nachollni dr tork a medical man and scendik boz a fiction writer from a nearby country also present is major rengalet a former military hero and current alcoholic who commands a group of about a dozen sharpshooter militia who seem to be non speaking characters only there to be killed this being 19th century ish the sharpshooters all have muskets while most of the others carry repeating pistols another alva invention which are sometimes reluctant to work properly the journey is beset with a multitude of problems there are appearances by various swamp creatures and other monsters the main train driver or pilot as chinn would have it is sanej a planted detective and a great friend of scilli when he is killed scilli is accused of the crime the steam driven locomotive is revealed to be abaston powered there are crashes and uncouplings of carriages as characters and their pasts are revealed every scene contains tension excitement and surprise just when you think the novel is ending along comes an advert for a second exciting adventure starring scilli and batrix hail the new age is privately published with a wonderful cover illustration benjamin kurt unsworth british fantasy society online given the popularity of the murder mystery genre it is always nice to see a new spin on it one of the latest of these comes in the form of mike chinn s hail the new age set in a world where the fantastical and technological have been clashing in civil war the ramini republic has emerged most of the magical chrysomancers have been weakened and distrust prevails but the herald of the new technological dawn is the novandik a train whose inaugural coast to coast journey is beset by spanners in the works of which a wizard determined to end the novandik s journey and many a backstabbing metaphorical or otherwise are just the start the ramini republic manifests like a serrated version of a studio ghibli universe vibrant and with the steampunkish mix of societies coming across smoothly and without delay however whereas studio ghibli leans more into the world of dragons capes and breathtaking vistas chinn s universe is a drastic step in the other direction the protagonist wilonek scilli a not wizard but with wizard training and an addiction to a drug called chavet finds himself being beaten up at every turn as he tries to stop the novandik being sabotaged less the hercule poirot figure his role as detective feels more an involuntary manoeuvre since the whole affair is styled less like agatha christie s murder on the orient express and more eugenio martin s horror express you can picture telly savalas playing many of the grumpy affronted characters in a film adaptation although chinn s prose is attuned more to action than description the fantasy realm bleeds off the page in a no holds barred sort of way and for readers who naturally go towards the crime or horror sections of the bookstore it s a nice segue into a fantasy universe and yet for all its vibrancy there s a deathly sense of chill running through everything the characters opposite scilli all possess the kind of internecine causticity you d expect from a disgruntled werewolf and lieutenant commander batrix aboard the novandik embodies that although batrix functions as quite a nice metaphor for non binary or gender fluid people being a heteromorph who flicks between genders on a semi regular basis they re also impossibly distrusting and you can t help except imagine their many speeches prefaced by a scowl and an angry hiss as a murder mystery though it does keep you on your toes and the action sequences some of which do involve fantastical beasts never detract from that even though they re the overriding aspect not to say some of the surprises you can t see coming but there are also enough there which feel fresh and distinctive to keep you turning the pages and the fantasy elements are never used as a deus ex machina rather a tool to enhance the tension and make chinn s prose that little bit more vivid and unexpected ultimately it leaves each genre time to stand on their own and make its mark however as a mix of the two its smorgasbord of gritty fantasia achieves something greater both breathtaking and savage with to the point prose for what seems like a very unassuming novel the almost romantic sense of bitterness is very much at the fore and as you turn the pages because don t worry you will feel compelled to do so its crisp sense of humanity or perhaps inhumanity knows how to beat you down reading this is a fabulous way to spend a few hours i ll just leave you with a taster for 2025 proving i learned nothing from the above experience i plan to publish two more books warriors of the boundless more heroic fantasy which i am proud to say will feature artwork by argentinian artist enrique alcatena who drew some of my fantasy scripts for dc thomson s starblazer digest comic and an introduction by another old friend adrian cole then there will be a sequel to hail entitled citadel of the moon and featuring batrix and scilli once again rooting out enemies of the ramini republic at december 26 2024 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels anthologies novellas novels peter coleborn ps publishing quique alcatena saladoth productions sarob press starblazer the alchemy press tule fog press voyage to the bottom of the sea thursday 8 september 2022 swords n stuff i ve recently gotten back into writing sword and sorcery fiction again don t know why although by a strange coincidence s s does seem to be getting popular again so maybe for once i m tuned into the zeitgeist i dug out some old stuff and gave it a good polish or major re writes to be fair and miracle of miracles actually had some of it published in two of parallel universe s swords sorceries anthologies and an edition of phantasmagoria naturally spurred on by this i just had to have a crack at some new stuff the story published in issue 18 of phantasmagoria in 2021 face of heaven eyes of hell was set in a corner of my own multiverse known variously as the internection the boundless the infinite tiers where immortals have finally tired of their immortality and descended to the earthly plane in order to fight themselves into extinction causing inevitable mayhem among humans as they go they d call it collateral damage these days at some point i even jotted down a few notes a grandiose term for the odd sentence or even just a word or two for more tales set in the same milieu building up to a grand finale with hints of the magnificent seven or more appropriately the seven samurai recently i needed to submit something to a writers group i m involved with and firmly believing that no one should suffer alone rattled off a second tale set in this universe now labouring under the trite and i hope temporary title of t...