Missing in Miskatonic by JP Behrens


Missing in Miskatonic by JP Behrens
Publisher: Crystal Lake Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Paranormal, Historical
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Step into the shadowed streets of 1928 Arkham, where Miskatonic University holds secrets darker than the night.

In this supernatural thriller reminiscent of Raymond Chandler and H.P. Lovecraft, Private Detective Travis Daniels is thrust into a harrowing investigation when a young woman disappears without a trace. As Daniels delves deeper into the labyrinthine mysteries of the storied New England city, he uncovers a web of sinister cults, ancient rituals, and eldritch horrors that threaten not only his own sanity but the fabric of reality itself.

Set against a city steeped in occult lore and clandestine experiments, Missing in Miskatonic blends elements of hard-boiled detective fiction with chilling supernatural encounters. Daniels navigates treacherous alliances and confronts malevolent entities lurking in the shadows, all while racing against time to unravel the truth behind the girl’s disappearance.

With a narrative that grips from the first page, this novella combines suspense, mystery, and cosmic terror in a gripping tale where every clue leads deeper into the abyss. From the enigmatic corridors of Miskatonic to the eerie gatherings of the Silver Twilight Lodge, Daniels must confront his own demons as he battles forces beyond human comprehension.

Mercy isn’t guaranteed.

Travis was an intelligent protagonist who made it impossible for me to stop rooting for him. I enjoyed seeing him push the boundaries of where he was supposed to go while he attempted to find out what happened to the missing girl. Every time someone thwarted his investigation, he doubled back and looked for a different way to gather clues, often while making others believe he might give up this time. He teetered on the edge of making risky decisions but never went so far that I thought he was overstepping or revealing his plan too early. This was a delicate balance to maintain at times, but it kept this cautious reader interested from beginning to end.

It would have been helpful to have stronger plot development in this piece. The setting was deliciously scary, but there wasn’t enough conflict to keep my interest levels high despite the fact that I was excited to read something inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s work. There was plenty of space here to add more details and flesh out the plot twists that were already included, and I would have happily gone for a higher rating if that had occurred. This was a world I didn’t want to stop reading about.

I enjoyed the dream-like qualities of many of the scenes whether they were subtle or overt. For example, the university was open for business and yet scarcely any students could be seen on campus. This was something that unnerved Travis – and honestly this reader as well – and yet the other characters behaved as if it were perfectly normal for a campus to be almost completely empty at what should have been one of its busiest times of the year. Later scenes at a local sanitarium were much more blatantly the stuff of nightmares, especially in the areas of that building that most visitors would not be allowed to explore, and I thought it was interesting to compare Travis’ reactions to them after seeing what he thought of the quieter signs that something was wrong with that community earlier on.

Missing in Miskatonic was moody and atmospheric in a good way. I look forward to reading any sequels to it that may be released in the future.

Here, Now, and Forever by J.S. Frankel


Here, Now, and Forever by J.S. Frankel
Publisher: Extasy Books
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Romance, Contemporary, Historical
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

A flight into danger. A portal to another world. Adventures, danger, a new beginning, and a romance that spans forever.

Carl Goodman, a Merchant Marine sailor during World War Two, is shipwrecked off the coast of China and a temporary visitor at an American airfield, finally scores a ride to India to ship out on another vessel. Accompanying him is Ruby Matthews, a black nurse with her own set of problems.

Bad weather forces their plane to crash on an escarpment high in the Himalayas. As the only survivors with minimal supplies, they take refuge inside a cave where they discover a portal that leads them into an almost Eden-like garden.

After starting at odds, Carl and Ruby come to an understanding, and romance builds over time. However, their peace is interrupted by the arrival of an alien called Norlok, who has an agenda of his own. Defeating him is only part of the problem.

When rescue finally arrives, they find that eighty-five years have passed, yet they’ve retained their youth—until they return to the US, where they begin to rapidly age. Getting back to their garden is of prime importance, but will they be in time?

Anything can happen during a war.

Mr. Frankel’s plot twists are one of the reasons why I have consistently requested his books over the years. He knows exactly how many hints to hide away in his stories to give his readers a taste of what is to come without making it too easy to figure out where he’s going next. This makes the reading and reviewing process effortless because I am always confident that he’s going to keep me on my toes and throw a few curve balls my way as the plot spins off in a new direction. As always, this was such a fun combination of genres, and I loved seeing how he used World War II to leap off into times and places I never would have otherwise associated with that era. Without giving away too many details, there is a peaceful garden in this book that I found especially surprising and relaxing.

I would have liked to see more time spent developing the military subplot. Their reaction to Carl and Ruby’s existence was intriguing at first but didn’t quite make sense to me later on. Having more information about why they responded the way that they did and how willing they were to go along with almost anything the protagonists wanted would have made this a stronger book in my opinion. It is a minor criticism of something I otherwise enjoyed reading quite a bit.

Some of the most memorable scenes for me were the ones that explored what it feels like to be part of a minority group, whether that’s related to race, gender, religion, or other factors. Not everyone who is part of one or more of these groups has the same experiences, of course, but there is overlap between them that I think is helpful for everyone to take note of. The more compassion we feel for each other as human beings, the better if you ask me! While I can’t go into details about exactly what these characters went through without sharing spoilers, it was well worth my time and is something I think readers from every background should explore.

Here, Now, and Forever was adventurous.

Europa by Greig Beck


Europa by Greig Beck
Publisher: Severed Press
Genre: Contemporary, Sci-Fi, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Horror
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Fern

The first mission to Europa—Jupiter’s enigmatic moon—has landed, and humanity’s darkest fears are about to awaken.

For years, mankind has speculated that this frozen world harbors a hidden ocean twice the size of all Earth’s oceans combined—an ocean potentially teeming with life.

Driven by this tantalizing mystery, they venture forth to unlock its secrets. But what they discover in the abyssal depths is far beyond anything they could have imagined.

Nearly four hundred million miles from Earth, their search for life has succeeded. But in their triumph, they overlook the most terrifying truth: what they have found is something far older and more horrifying than they ever could have conceived. Something has been trapped in the dark for eons—watching, and waiting, for them.

Now, the crew stands at the threshold of unimaginable terror, realizing too late that Hell, in its purest form, is cold.

For years mankind has speculated that the vast underground oceans on Jupiter’s moon, Europa, might be teeming with all forms of life. When the first Russian spacecraft to land on Europa loses contact, the American’s aren’t too far behind them. Only the life forms they discover are far older than anyone could have guessed, and they’re very, very hungry.

I have always been a massive fan of the various “monsters eat everyone” style of books and I was delighted by this new addition. Greig Beck has been an auto-buy for me for a number of years and while I find a stronger affinity for some of his books than others, this one is right up my alley and was a delight to read.

While there are definite horror themes in the story, I was pleased the action wasn’t too gorey and there was plenty of plot and discovery in amongst the monsters eating everyone in sight. I feel readers who like mystery/horror/monster books should find this story equally enjoyable as those who enjoy Sci-Fi or space exploration. And this is an absolute must for fans of Aliens – there’s quite a strong theme of that through this book as well.

I did find the set up and execution of this plot and the manner in which the story was told a little different and while I personally found it refreshing, I could understand if it wasn’t every reader’s cup of tea. In the beginning at least there is a little jumping around in the timelines and some different characters perspective, but I was pleased it settled down quite early on and the thrill of the discovery and adventures out on Europa quickly had me turning the pages.

A thrilling – and realistically terrifying – space story where the monsters are quite hungry and humans are not even close to top of the food chain; I found this to be an excellent read and a definite keeper for my shelf. Recommended.

The Gift From Aelius by Michael Colon


The Gift From Aelius by Michael Colon
Publisher: TWB Press
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

In the not-too distant future, A191, a Codex with artificial intelligence, feels like a misfit in Paradise, a walled city in the middle of an endless desert where humans imprisoned his race long ago. He’s not like the others of his kind; he longs to meet humans and make peace with them so man and Codexes can be reunited in the world. These thoughts and feelings are not allowed in Paradise; he risks banishment to the desert by the Overseer A. I. who rules by fear and force. Complicating matters, A191 has a glitch in his programming that conjures up a human boy named Aelius who tells him to go to Old Haven where he will find freedom. However, he’s drafted into a rebellion against the Overseer, and as Paradise enforcers close in with orders to terminate him, he escapes the city to wander the desert in search of humans. The journey reveals the truth about his existence, the Overseer’s lies, and the consequences of mankind’s untethered technology.

Freedom is a gift.

There were some great plot twists in this tale that kept my interest level high. I liked the way Mr. Colon foreshadowed them gently while also trusting his audience to take note of what was going on. Hints don’t need to be strong in order to be effective, and this was a good example of how to assume the best about one’s readers and what we’re capable of picking up by ourselves.

I found myself wishing for stronger character development. Characters made decisions that I didn’t always understand, and I would struggle to describe most of their personalities in detail. While I wouldn’t expect everyone to be as well developed as A191, it would have been nice to know more about the habits, beliefs, and quirks of the supporting cast. This was even more true in the final third of the book when decisions that were made earlier began to have serious consequences for the storyline.

The world building was strong and intriguing. I was especially interested in how Paradise monitored, repaired, and occasionally replaced the robots in its society. They had strict protocols for just about anything that could go wrong with one of their artificial intelligence units, and I was impressed by how quickly the system responded to anything that didn’t fit their parameters.

The Gift From Aelius made me wish for a sequel. This was my first experience reading this author, but I hope there will be plenty more to come in the future!

Everyone! In the Dream! Is You! by Adam Dove


Everyone! In the Dream! Is You! by Adam Dove
Publisher: Last-Picked Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

In these six stories, full of dangerous magic, fragile men, and broken families, Adam Dove explores the macabre reality of masculinity and the lives it destroys.

A teenager becomes trapped in a cyclical dreamscape, turning a high school crush into an absurdist nightmare. A promising sculptor uses a new technique to mold his lover into the perfect woman. A deserted child’s search for his missing father leads him to the sinkhole on the outskirts of town—which his classmates say leads straight to Hell.

Spanning the breadth of genre and blurring the lines between reality, dream, and nightmare, the stories in Everyone! In the Dream! Is You! show us that beneath the hardened shell of masculinity is a broken, wailing humanity, desperate to be free.

Anything is possible in dream-like places.

In “Unstable Ground,” a deserted child’s search for his missing father in a sinkhole quickly spiralled out of control. I loved the dreamlike quality of this tale, especially as the main character wandered further into the sinkhole and discovered things that made this reader shudder. Every layer, both metaphorically and literally, of the underground tunnels and caverns he explored gave another clue about what was happening and made me wonder if my previous assumptions about what was really going on should be reevaluated. This was something I couldn’t stop reading until I knew how it all ended.

“Everyone! In the Dream! Is You!” continued the trend of making this reader feel like I was trapped in a nightmare, but this time the setting was a high school where the rules of physics and biology kept changing so quickly that I had trouble keeping up with what was going on. It would have been helpful to have a more defined plot in this story given how many other aspects of it were different from one scene to the next. This was a pattern that repeated in a few other stories, too, and led me to choose the rating I did.

A rotting, infected tooth caused such horrible pain for a character in “Heap” that he decided to take matters – and maybe even a molar – into his own hands. This opening scene set the stage for an exploration of a relationship that was placid on the surface but filled with mysterious and horrifying twists and turns the moment its surface was scratched. The vivid descriptions in it made me shudder sometimes, but I couldn’t possibly stop reading.

Everyone! In the Dream! Is You! was surreal.

Treachery by Shirley Bigelow Dekelver


Treachery by Shirley Bigelow Dekelver
Climate of Fire Book 2
Publisher: BWL Publishing Inc.
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Romance
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

It is 2046, a year since Vancouver was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami. Taylor West, Carlie Fleming, Mai-Li Wong, and Willie Arbuckle, four young adults, and three children, twin brothers Rusty and Eddie Coleman, and Debbie, who has Downs Syndrome, lived in constant fear of the violent gangs. Making a life-saving decision they leave Little Mountain and walk to the Interior, hoping to find a better life.

The journey is fraught with unimaginable hardship and danger. Surviving a firestorm in the Wastelands, they clash with the Desert Rats, and lose one of their own. Heartbroken they continue their trek, finding an old, abandoned cabin near Mount Davis. Winter is rapidly approaching, and they decide to delay their journey until Spring. Taylor admits to Carlie he has feelings for her, but she rejects his advances, as she is unable to accept Rusty’s death. Willie is caught stealing food and is banished from the group. Realizing he might seek revenge; Taylor decides they cannot stay in the cabin, they must leave immediately.

Their progress is slow, the snow is deep and the steep mountain trails take their toll on the younger children. They arrive at Blakeburn, a deserted mining town, and meet Pete Johnson, a trapper and prospector. Pete is the Chief of the Similkameen band, who live in harmony with the Chinese people in Blackfoot, their destination. Relationships are tested time and again. Will they remain strong and what will shatter?

Love is stronger than fear.

I appreciated the character development in this book. Yes, the characters still sometimes made impulsive and illogical decisions, but they also showed signs of accepting the dangerous new world they lived in and of thinking ahead at times in order to have access to the food, shelter, and supplies they’d need to survive in it. Practice leads to progress, so I was pleased with how they’d matured since I first met them.

It would have been helpful to either have more attention paid to the romantic subplot or to not include it at all. It’s not something I thought the main storyline needed, at least at this point, and I was surprised the characters involved in it went in that direction due to the much more pressing conflicts and basic human needs they were struggling with. I would have liked to have stronger reasons to root for those two individuals to end up together. They were both interesting people on their own, I simply needed more information about why they’d be a good romantic match and why this particular moment in the timeline was the best time to go there instead of taking care of more urgent matters like having enough food and a warm, safe place to live first.

With that being said, I did enjoy seeing the characters become a found family and work together for the common good. It takes a lot of effort to look after children and people with intellectual disabilities in a setting like this, so I appreciated the descriptions of how everyone was kept (more or less) clean and fed under such difficult circumstances. That’s not something that’s always covered in this genre, but it’s one of those things I always hope to find in post-apocalyptic fiction as it would be such an important matter if something similar were ever to happen in real life.

This is the second instalment in a series that should be read in order for plot and character development reasons.

Treachery: Climate of Fire Book 2 was full of intrigue.

Paranormal Jelly: An Anthology of Whimsical Narratives Regarding the Comical Facets of the Occult by Zwahk Muchoney


Paranormal Jelly: An Anthology of Whimsical Narratives Regarding the Comical Facets of the Occult by Zwahk Muchoney
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Paranormal Jelly blends the bizarre with the everyday in the early internet era of 1996. Middle-aged author Albert runs a popular website, sharing tales of eldritch horrors, baby Sasquatches, cigarette-smoking ghosts, and dark cultists. A skeptic at heart, he dismisses it all as fiction—until reality starts to blur. Cryptids and hauntings become alarmingly frequent, always just out of the reporter’s sight, but impossible to ignore. As Albert struggles to document these strange events, he’s drawn into a web of the supernatural that threatens his very existence.

Both skeptics and true believers are welcomed here.

I loved the playful and humorous tone of Albert’s adventures. The fantasy and science fiction themes were subtle in some places, but that only made those scenes even more exciting once they popped up again and made me look at what just happened in a new light. It was a nice contrast to the more skeptical characters who didn’t always believe the stories about ghosts, cryptids, aliens, and other creatures they heard.

As much as I liked reading about the various characters in this novella, there were so many of them that only the protagonist was given a chance to become more well rounded. Even then, I didn’t feel like I got to know Albert as deeply as I would have liked to due to the relatively short length of this piece and how much was going on with the plot. With stronger character development, this could have been a four or five-star work as the storyline and themes themselves were fantastic.

Some of my favorite scenes were the ones that provided scientific explanations for why things like orbs sometimes appear in photos and why certain types of people are more – or less – likely to believe in conspiracy theories and the paranormal in general. There are many different reasons why strange things happen and why people can have a wide variety of responses to the same event. I thought these passages treated both believers and skeptics fairly and assumed the best of everyone. That makes these sorts of stories so much more interesting to read as I knew the author had good intentions and wanted everyone to think critically about what they’ve read, heard, or maybe even seen with their own two eyes.

Paranormal Jelly: An Anthology of Whimsical Narratives Regarding the Comical Facets of the Occult kept me guessing.

8 Canterbury Tales by Albert Seligman (Editor)


8 Canterbury Tales by Albert Seligman (Editor)
Publisher: Dulace Books
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Historical
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

What the Canterbury Tales Are

The Canterbury Tales are one of the great classics of all literature. They were written by Geoffrey Chaucer, poet, warrior, diplomat and royal pensioner, about 1387, and are famous for the pictures they give of life in the 14th century. The tales were supposed to have been told by various members of a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral in England to while away the time. John Erskine, celebrated author of The Private Life of Helen of Troy, now relates these tales delightfully for the readers of The American Weekly, and Edmund Dulac, famed English painter and etcher, makes them vivid with his incomparable art.

These eight illustrations were published in The American Weekly magazine in 1942. John Erskine provided his interpretation of the Tales and his essay about the Canterbury Tales from his 1928 The Delight of Great Books is included.with additional illustrations. There is a further reading section which also includes illustrated editions from the early nineteenth century to the present.

The 8 Canterbury Tales included are-
The Student’s Tale of Patient Griselda
The Knight’s Tale of Emily’s Lovers
The Miller’s Tale of the Carpenter’s Wife
The Squire’s Tale of Canace and the Talking Falcon
The Wife of Bath’s Tale of the Amorous Knight
The Merchant’s Tale of the Doting Husband
The Man of Law’s Tale of What Happened to Constance
The Second Nun’s Tale of Saint Cecilia

All the original artwork for the covers has been restored, and a crop of each image follows the tales. This was a difficult undertaking for Dulac, who moved out of London due to the bombing during the war. The illustrations had to be sent by ship to America, and avoid Axis warships and submarines looking to sink any Allied vessel.

Dulac never before tried to illustrate either King Arthur, his 1940 American Weekly series, or Canterbury Tales, unlike many of his famous contemporaries. I would speculate that Hearst approved these two series to rally the Americans to help the English during their hour of need by showcasing two of their most well known and liked classics.

The classics are for everyone.

I enjoyed the author’s commentary on Chaucer’s work in both the introduction as well as sprinkled through the later sections. It felt like sitting in a university literature class and hearing what the professor thought of these famous stories. Sometimes he had sharp takes on certain characters or themes, and his strong opinions about them echoed in my mind as I read them for myself. There is definitely something to be said for knowing in advance what you’re getting into before diving into this collection.

I was surprised to learn how often these stories have been marketed to kids and teenagers over the years. Some sections showed rare pages from vintage youth-friendly magazines that printed them with gorgeous illustrations of the most important scenes. This wasn’t something I was expecting to find, but it made me read the sometimes-violent passages in a new light as I imagined what sorts of lessons young readers might be expected to learn from them. This is one of many reasons why I’m always excited to see new submissions from Mr. Seligman as he has consistently taught me all sorts of things about literature, art, and history that I was not previously aware of.

One of the things I liked the most about the Canterbury tales themselves were the glimpses they shared with the reader about medieval life. Yes, human nature has remained the same, but many social conventions and cultural expectations of how someone should behave have not. This was especially interesting when it came to things like explaining why some people were poor or why certain sexes or social classes were expected to behave in different ways than others were.

8 Canterbury Tales was a well-rounded introduction to these famous stories.

Bright Green Futures: 2024 by Susan Kaye Quinn, Editor


Bright Green Futures: 2024 (Solarpunk Anthology) by Susan Kaye Quinn (Editor)
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, LGBTQ, Romance
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

SHORT STORY COLLECTION
The Bright Green Futures: 2024 anthology is a collection of short solarpunk stories from guests of the Bright Green Futures podcast, where we lift up stories to build a better world. These hopeful climate-fiction stories include clicky space centipedes, sentient trees, a flooded future Rio de Janeiro and characters trying to find their place in a climate-impacted world. Each story imagines a way for us to survive the future, together.

Bright Green Futures: 2024 contains six short stories plus a bonus prose-poem.

The Doglady and the Rainstorm by Renan Bernardo
What Kind of Bat is This? by Sarena Ulibarri
Centipede Station by T. K. Rex
A Merger in Corn Country by Danielle Arostegui
Ancestors, Descendants by BrightFlame
The Park of the Beast by T. K. Rex
Coriander by Ana Sun
Good times are on the way.

Joseana was healing from a tragedy in “The Doglady and the Rainstorm.” I loved the world building in her tale and would have happily read something full-length about how this character navigated the extensive flooding in Rio and dealt with her painful memories of the past. Her love of dogs was another nice detail that added depth to the plot and gave her a good reason to face her fears when something unexpected happened.

“Centipede Station” showed what happened when Pebble and Moss woke up from cryosleep much later than they had intended to. The planet they had arrived at didn’t fit their expectations either due to the strange plants and animals they found living there. I enjoyed seeing their reactions to every plot twist as they once again had to adjust their expectations of what their lives would be like. There’s something to be said for characters who are willing to adjust to anything that comes their way, especially given how carefully they’d planned their journey before it began. Yes, I know I’m being a little vague here, but I want other readers to be just as delighted as I was once they figure out what’s going on.

Every homeland evolves over time. As Aster explored the country her great-grandmother left as a child in “Coriander,” I took note of the differences between how it had been a few generations ago versus how it was by the time the protagonist was able to visit. The nostalgia in this piece was strong, but I also liked seeing how the characters had adapted to climate change and the way it affected which types of food were still available for the average person. Science fiction doesn’t talk about food enough for my tastes, so I was quite happy to dive into the topic here.

Bright Green Futures: 2024 (Solarpunk Anthology) overflowed with hope for the future which is exactly what I needed to read.

Numbered Love – A Story from American Buddha by Maysam Yabandeh


Numbered Love – A Story from American Buddha by Maysam Yabandeh
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Romance, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Nam never stopped thinking about the girl who once held his heart. For thirty years, he kept her memory alive through ancient romantic tales from the Far East. But when he returns to America to find her, his hopeful search unravels into a journey full of unexpected turns as he confronts the realities of love in modern times.

There’s nuance to everything in life, even love.

The plot twists kept me on my toes, especially when it came to the relationship between Nam and Livia, his young friend who promised to fall in love with him once they both grew up. Just when I thought I’d discovered the most unusual places this childhood vow took these characters, they ended up in a slightly to dramatically stranger place than they’d been just a moment before. I’d like to tip my cap to the author for taking these sorts of risks as they make reading – and reviewing – so much more fun!

It would have been nice to have a deeper exploration of Nam’s personality as he didn’t feel well-rounded to this reader. He came across as someone who was unaware of how sexist he was but who would have been mortified and possibly changed his ways if he were better at noticing his own flaws. His intelligence and willingness to work hard were easy to spot, but I needed more details about him in order to sympathize with the double standards he set when it came to how men should behave versus how women should behave.

With that being said, I enjoyed the sections of this short story that discussed what Buddhism has to say about suffering, the consequences of one’s actions, and how people should live. There were several nuggets of wisdom there that I can’t go into detail here for spoiler reasons but that made a lot of sense to me. It’s always nice to walk away from characters with something to ponder over.

Numbered Love was a wild ride.