The Hematophages – Splatterings by Stephen Kozeniewski


The Hematophages – Splatterings by Stephen Kozeniewski
Publisher: French Press Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Historical, LGBTQ
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

In a galaxy riven by paranoid greed, profane forces marshal to consume humanity…

– On an abandoned ice moon, broadcasts from a long-dead civilization warp both body and soul.

– On a bizarre medical asteroid, a deranged physician discovers a gruesome “cure” for parasitic infection.

– On a deep space derelict, time becomes utterly meaningless and suffering transcends infinity.

– And on Earth itself, a lake transforms into pure blood and becomes infested with the hate-filled, eel-like aberrations known as…

The Hematophages.

With this quartet of short stories, Splatterpunk Award winner Stephen Kozeniewski is delighted to welcome newcomers to the brutal universe Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reviewer calls “the gold standard for the Space Horror subgenre.”

Meanwhile, veteran ink surfers will find a treasure trove of new material to broaden their event horizons, including extensive background information from the author and a never-before-published tale of alien terror.

So, strap on your boom suit, ready your eye spoon, and try to prepare yourself for…

Splatterings.

They’re the same universes but with bigger problems this time.

The protagonist in “The Blood-Red Lake” was awoken from a nap by his daughter, Marina, after she noticed the lake near their home had changed in some alarming ways. I liked the nightmare-like qualities of this short story and thought it was spooky, but I also found myself wishing that there had been a stronger explanation for the strange things that were happening in and near the water.

“Derelictus” showed what happened in the distant future when some scavengers found an ancient spacecraft that was launched by the country formerly known as the United States but that didn’t appear in any of the formal records of previous space missions. The mystery elements of the plot were well done, and I would have happily dove even more deeply into them. I also liked the main character’s stubborn streak and how it influenced his decision to explore this vessel and report back on what he found there.

Anneka was desperate to get out of quarantine to see her wife and newborn twins in “Blackfish.” The reason why she was stuck in quarantine is best left for other readers to discover for themselves due to how important it was to the storyline later on, but as I slowly pieced together the clues I was intrigued by how my opinions of all of the characters had shifted. There is definitely something to be said for playing around with the reader’s expectations only to trust us to land on the best answer in the end. I would have happily read a full-length novel about Anneka if one were written.

Imagine building an old-fashioned castle in outer space. “Gerstein” explored a partially-completed version of this blueprint long after the original investors had run into problems. This was the goriest story in this collection, and I thought each plot twist that revealed another layer of horror only made the entire thing more frightening. Just like in “Blood-Red Lake,” I once again found myself wishing for a deeper explanation of what the antagonists were hoping to accomplish, although there was enough here for me to make some pretty educated guesses about their motives. These are minor criticisms of a collection I thought was otherwise well done and memorable, and I look forward to hopefully reading more of Mr. Kozeniewski’s work in the future.

The Hematophages – Splatterings was deliciously scary.

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves by Author: Anonymous and Albert Seligman (Editor)


Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves by Author: Anonymous and Albert Seligman (Editor)
Publisher: Dulacebooks
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Historical
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The story is about two brothers whose father died and left them little. Ali Baba married a poor woman and lived frugally, but Cassim married a woman who soon inherited a fortune and lived in luxury. One day while Ali Baba was in the forest cutting wood to sell he saw a great cloud of dust approaching and the sound of many riders. He feared for his life, so he hid his three donkeys and hid himself in a tree. The band of forty riders and their leader stopped in front of a cave. When the leader said “ Open Sesame” the door of the cave magically opened. The whole troop went inside while Ali Baba stayed hidden. When he was sure they had gone, he approached the cave door and said “ Open Sesame” himself as the cave door magically opened to his command. Inside the cave he saw vast riches and golden coins, which he liberally took for himself and returned home with his donkeys, remembering to properly close the cave door with the “Shut Sesame “ command.

His wife was astonished at all the gold coins he brought home and wanted to count them before Ali buried them in his yard. As there were too many to count, she borrowed a measuring cup from her sister-in-law. She was curious as to what they might have to measure something, so she cleverly put some suet on the bottom to see what would stick. After the cup was returned with a gold coin stuck to the bottom, she called her husband Cassim to tell him what happened.

Cassim went to Ali’s house and demanded to know how he got a gold coin, and Ali told him everything, including the magic password. Cassim was very greedy, so the next day he set out with many donkeys to find the cave and removed as much treasure for himself as possible. In his haste, he forgot the magic words to open the cave and was trapped inside when the robbers returned. They killed him and cut his body in pieces.

When Cassim didn’t return, Ali feared the worst and returned to the cave to find him. He found his brother’s body and returned to town. He knew the robbers would find out if anyone had been murdered in such a fashion, so they sewed Cassim’s body back together and pretended he died a natural death.

The robbers sent scouts to town to determine if anyone had died and discovered Ali Baba’s house. The captain of the robbers disguised himself as an oil merchant and hid his band in leather jars planning to murder all the household. When Morgiana, Ali Baba’s clever slave girl discovers the ruse, she murders all the robbers. The captain flees, but soon returns in another disguise to take his revenge. Again she discovers him, plunges a dagger into his heart and saves her master.

Moderation is the key to survival.

I once again loved the way this tale transported me to a time and place in the past that I would otherwise know very little about. This is part of the reason why I continue to give new instalments in this series such high ratings. It’s not always easy to make a reader feel immersed in what they’re reading, much less give them a taste of what life was like for some people in the far east over eleven hundred years ago, but Mr. Seligman had all sorts of intriguing ways to close that gap for his modern audience that new fans should discover for themselves.

Many old legends are sanitized for modern audiences, so I appreciated the fact that not every character remained safe from harm and that there were choices made here that are less common in modern adaptations. That is to say, this is something I’d particularly recommend to readers who enjoyed the older versions of fairy tales before The Brothers Grimm began collecting and softening up their sharp edges for younger audiences.

It’s not necessary to know anything about the plot in advance, but readers who do might notice some interesting twists that often seem to be left out of more recent translations of Ali Baba’s life. I thought I knew exactly what to expect going in, but I was still pleasantly surprised by a few things I didn’t realize were part of this universe in at least some retellings. The editor excels at this sort of thing which is yet another reason why I try to read as much of his work as I possibly can. There’s nothing like learning new facets of old favorites thanks to fairly recently uncovered versions of them.

This is part of a series that does not have to be read in any particular order.

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves was a fantastic and beautifully illustrated adventure.

Movie Review: The Electric State


The Electric State
Directed by: Anthony Russo and Joe Russo
Writers: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Simon Stålenhag
Starring: Chris Pratt, Millie Bobby Brown, Woody Harrelson
Distributed by: Netflix
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Action/Adventure
Rating: 4 Stars (8 Stars on IMDB)
Reviewed by Dicentra

An orphaned teen hits the road with a mysterious robot to find her long-lost brother, teaming up with a smuggler and his wisecracking sidekick.

I’ve always been a fan of Millie Bobby Brown’s work since she initially rose to fame as Eleven from Stranger Things, so getting to see her in another Netflix production where she teamed up with Chris Pratt and Woody Harrelson (among others) was a no brainer. Based on Simon Stalenag’s The Electric State book, Michelle (Brown) is an orphaned teen who refuses to buy into the mass technology usage that has swept across the world following a war between the robots and the humans. With robots being exiled into an ‘Exclusion Zone’ after losing the war, Michelle’s life is thrown into a chaos after a robot from her brother’s favorite cartoon shows up on her doorstep (claiming to know where her brother is). A cross country trek ensues, where they must fight off those from the mega corporation pursuing them as well as those tasked with the eradication of robots in human territory.

The cast of this movie is certainly stacked. Along with Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, and Woody Harrelson, there are some other major players like Giancarlo Esposito, Stanley Tucci, Ke Huy Quan and Anthony Mackie. It took me a second to recognize some of them as they are playing robots, and their voices were a little digitized at times but their mannerisms are definitely there (even in a metallic body). Admittedly, there were some moments where Chris Pratt’s character felt less like the rugged smuggler he was supposed to be and more like Starlord from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (see the music included in the movie), but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the film.

While the plot of the movie isn’t that original (it reads like a much more dystopian version of Ready Player One), the emotion is. Chris Pratt’s comedic timing showed through in the movie, and helped lighten some of the more tense moments. And the way that Michelle and the Cosmo robot were able to connect with very few words was particularly impactful. I started crying during the last scene between Michelle and her brother Christopher (Woody Norman), with Ke Huy Quan’s character PC looking on.

Overall, this was a great movie and I was very entertained. I’m not sure why critics viewed it so negatively. It’s available through Netflix, and I recommend it to sci-fi movie fans who also enjoyed movies like Ready Player One.

Eden by Hadley Coull


Eden by Hadley Coull
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

‘How can we build such an ugly world, when life is so beautiful?’

London, 2063. As the Earth burns, the wealthy retreat into Eden, a dazzling mixed-reality simulation.

Max Fisher lives in a world of beauty and possibility, where painful memories can be overwritten by code. But something falters. Fragments of another reality begin to seep through, and the stories he believes in begin to unravel.

Eden is a work of speculative fiction scribbled in grief and glow, a story of our descent into images, and a meditation on love and tenderness in a dying world.

Perfection always comes with a price.

My favorite scenes were the ones that explored the reality of relying so heavily on technology and what we would refer to as the Internet for entertainment and socialization purposes. This is one of those topics that can be approached from multiple perspectives, and the author did a good job of providing nuanced and fair arguments for what they appear to think about this issue. If this were something I was discussing in a book club, the way the various characters approached cyber life would be the first thing I’d want to bring up due to how differently they all thought about it and how those reactions affected the storyline later on. Kudos for providing so much food for thought!

I struggled with the slow pacing of this novel. The main characters spent a good deal of time talking about their feelings which, while of course vitally important for character development, sometimes got in the way of developing the plot just as thoroughly. It will be interesting to see if readers who are well-versed in literary fiction feel the same way as I know that’s a common writing style for that genre and do hope it encourages some of them to check out other science fiction tales as well if they don’t already do so. There is definitely something to be said for mixing genres like this, but I simply wish a little more attention had been played to fleshing out the plot as it didn’t always have sufficient space to grow in my opinion.

On a positive note, there was a plot twist later on that reframed many of the things I believed I knew about the characters. While I can’t go into detail about exactly what that surprise involved due to how massive it was, I loved the way the author revealed it and thought it added a great deal of depth to the protagonist’s life in particular.

Eden was thought provoking.

Beautiful Nightmare by Katee Robert


Beautiful Nightmare by Katee Robert
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Genre: Erotic Romance, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Dicentra

For one awkward sleep paralysis demon, scaring humans should be simple—except Gemma’s first solo haunting goes hilariously wrong in this tantalizing dream of a short story by New York Times bestselling author Katee Robert.

When Gemma’s supposed to terrify her appointed victim, she ends up captivated instead. Caleb, a romantic who believes in all things supernatural, finds her adorably pink-skinned, horned form more alluring than alarming. But as their steamy night unfolds and unexpected feelings bloom, Gemma must choose between her demonic duties and the human who makes her feel anything but monstrous.

Katee Robert is one of my recent favorite authors, so it was exciting that she released another novella for the Scared Sexy collection from Amazon Original Stories. All of the Amazon Original stories are currently available on Kindle Unlimited as ebooks and audiobooks, centered around a theme, and designed to be able to be read in one sitting. It’s hard to explain, but the best way to describe Beautiful Nightmare would be a VERY grown up Monsters Inc. It’s also very similar to Richelle Mead’s Georgina Kincaid series (though those were released over a decade ago).

Sleep paralysis demon Gemma is at the end of her training, and it’s now time to cut the training wheels and go feed from humans on her own. Unfortunately for her, she’s not the best at harvesting fear. Thankfully, there are other emotions available for feeding on (if you know Katee Robert’s books at all it’s not hard to guess the alternate emotion). I really liked the ending, as it was a nice spin and I wasn’t expecting a twist like that in such a short book. The author also included conversations about consent, which I felt were important but also ate a lot of word count for such a short story.

Overall, this was a fairly entertaining read and I’m glad I picked it up. Andi Eloise did a good job bringing the story to life with their performance in the audiobook, but it didn’t keep me fully engaged. Think of this book as good for when you’re in a bind for something to read (i.e. doctors office, DMV waiting room, etc.) but not something you would necessarily have to go out of your way to pick up.

TV Show Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Season 2)


Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Season 2)
Distributed by: Disney+
Writers: Rick Riordan and Jonathan E. Steinberg
Starring: Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries, Aryan Simhadri
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Middle Grade (8 – 12 y.o.), Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.)
Rating: 5 stars (10 stars on IMBDB)
Reviewed by Dicentra

Demigod Percy Jackson leads a quest across America to prevent a war among the Olympian gods.

I just finished the second season of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians tv show on Disney+, and this is the adaptation that my forever Percy Jackson fan heart has been waiting years for.

It is obvious how much the showrunners and writers put into this book, especially with the easter eggs they dropped for die hard fans. Clarisse’s (Dior Goodjohn) storyline this season was also particularly impactful compared to the books, as you actually got to see some of the scenes that were only hinted at, such as when Ares (Adam Copeland) gives her the ship that they head to the Sea of Monsters on. I connected more to her portrayal of Clarisse emotionally than I did to the Clarisse from the books. Daniel Diemer’s portrayal of Tyson this season was excellent, and I really loved his brotherly relationship with Percy (Walker Scobell). It was a really impactful choice from the production team to never show Tyson with two eyes, as in the words of producer Dan Shotz everyone in the audience is a demigod now.

While I’m sad that some monsters from the book didn’t make the cut (the Hydra in particular would have been a CGI budget black hole), all of the changes they made from the book made sense. I especially appreciated more appearances from Sally Jackson (Virgina Kull).The contents of the last episode are almost entirely different from the book, but I think it worked out well and I’m excited to see how they take the adjusted storyline into future seasons (with season 3 set to premiere before the end of 2026). The show will resonate the most with fans of the book, but I highly recommend it to viewers of all ages who enjoy adventure, friendship, and Greek mythology.

A Symbol of Time by John Westley Turnbull


A Symbol of Time by John Westley Turnbull
Publisher: Self Published
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Historical
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Survival requires sacrifice. But what if the price is an entire world?

Their home is cold and dying, choked by the toxins of their own progress. Now, an advanced alien species looks toward the Third Planet—Earth—with hope and fear. They see a fertile paradise, but one that is hostile, hot, and dominated by massive, predatory reptiles.

The choice is stark: die in the heat, or remake this new world in their own image.

As they descend to alter the climate and purge the planet of its prehistoric masters, they set in motion a chain of events that will echo through geological time. A Symbol of Time weaves palaeontology and astronomy into a chilling tale of survival. As the new masters of Earth terraform the planet, the question remains: does high intelligence inevitably carry the seeds of its own destruction?

Nothing is more important than survival.

The world building was thorough and kept my interest levels high. I especially enjoyed gradually discovering the many physiological and psychological differences between this species and our own. Their expectations about everything from relationships to how to organize a society created challenges for them on the Third Planet that were as unique as they were critical to understanding later plot twists. Exploring a familiar subject through the perspective of a species so unlike my own is one of the reasons why I love science fiction so much, and there were certainly many opportunities to do so here.

It would have been helpful to have stronger character development, especially for Elthyris and the other protagonists. Sometimes I struggled to keep track of all of the secondary characters due to how many of them were introduced and how little I knew about them as individuals. Had this not happened, I would have happily chosen a much higher rating as there were so many other things I loved about this book.

There were multiple times when plot twists caught me by surprise. It was a great deal of fun to be surprised so often, especially given how many different types of twists and turns were shared with the audience. Various types of threats were included, none of which I can go into detail about here other than to say that they ranged from interpersonal conflicts to accidents to environmental issues that these characters couldn’t have predicted would happen in advance.

A Symbol of Time was an adventurous and imaginative read that made me want to hear more from Mr. Westley Turnbull.

The Door, The Key and the Kingdom by Emily-Jane Hills Orford



The Door, The Key and the Kingdom by Emily-Jane Hills Orford
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Fantasy
Rated: 4 stars
Review by Rose

Life is complicated enough when living in one era, but when Anne finds herself gravitating back in time to the sixth century, she’s not sure what to expect, or what to believe. Pulling the legendary Excalibur from its stoney sheath, she’s amazed at the power she possesses and the chance to make some things right for the post-Arthurian era.

This is a charming book…easy to follow and as I am a lover of all things Arthur and Merlin, I was really invested. It was fun seeing favorite characters from the legends and great seeing the new things the author did with the time.

It’s set first in the 21st century (I wish we had had more time to spend with her grandmother) and then during the 6th century after Arthur’s death and the fall of Camelot. The book touched on a lot of history during that time, and I loved how Anne fought to change the time and her people’s lives for the better. At times I was reminded of another old favorite, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

I absolutely loved this book, but unfortunately due to a number of easily fixable typos I have to give it a four instead of a five. I realize this is the editor in me and they are things that might not bother the average reader, but I would be remiss not to mention them as they did detract from my enjoyment of the book.

Well done…I would love to read more about Anne and her adventures in her court.

The New World by Shirley Bigelow Dekelver


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

It is 2047, two years since Vancouver was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami. Taylor West, Carlie Fleming, and Mai-Li Wong, and two children, Eddie Coleman, and Debbie Ross, fear retaliation from Willie Arbuckle who they banned from their group for stealing food and threatening Carlie. They leave their winter sanctuary and continue their journey to the Interior and arrive at Blackfoot and are welcomed by the Chinese and the Similkameen Band.

Chief Pete Johnson and Mai-Li, now ruler of the Chinese, tell Carlie she must exonerate Willie, as there’s no room in Blackfoot for resentment and malevolence. Taylor tells Carlie he loves her, but before they can be together, she must confront Willie. Without informing her, he leaves with Pete on an expedition. Unable to forgive Willie, Carlie is banned from Blackfoot. She returns to the cabin and Lance, Pete’s grandson, goes with her. He talks about the culture and traditions of the Similkameen people and confesses he has feelings for her.

Taylor and Pete arrive at the cabin; Lance must return to Blackfoot to undertake leadership of the Band. Carlie refuses to return and is left on her own. She discovers an interest in wildfires and while exploring one day, is captured by Lars, a violent man from Taylor’s past who has a grudge against him. She escapes and is injured when she falls from an embankment. Will help arrive in time, will she find the strength to absolve Willie, and find peace and contentment with the man she loves?

Letting go of the old ways is the only way to survive.

The foreshadowing was handled nicely. While Carlie continued to make some decisions that she really should have thought twice about given everything that had already happened to her, I liked the way Ms. Bigelow Dekelver used those lapses in judgement to push the storyline forward. Everyone makes mistakes, after all, and there is something to be said for seeing what happens when someone had advanced warning that certain choices aren’t the best ones but insists on taking that route anyway.

Just as I mentioned in my review of the second instalment, Treachery, I once again found myself wishing that the romantic subplot had either been given more space to grow or left out of the tale entirely. I was happy to see a little more attention paid to it this time around, but it still didn’t have enough development for this reader’s tastes. This was especially true due to how many other conflicts Carlie was juggling simultaneously. She had such limited free time even before romance came into play. Of course I wanted her to find true love and live happily ever after, but at this point in her life she didn’t seem to have much energy to devote to a longterm relationship.

One of the things I’ve consistently appreciated about this series is how much effort it puts into describing what life would be like if society as we knew it disappeared. That is to say, Carlie and every other survivor had to adapt to a world where there were no stores left to buy essential things like medicine, food, or clothing. The social safety net that still existed in this universe relied upon small groups of people taking care of each other and sharing what little they had which meant that something as ordinary as falling off of a horse could have much more serious consequences than it would in the before times when doctors and hospitals still existed.

This is the third book in the Climate of Fire series that should be read in chronological order for plot and character development reasons.

The New World made me hope that we’ll someday have a fourth instalment!

The Stars Must Wait by Carmelo Rafalà


The Stars Must Wait by Carmelo Rafalà
Publisher: Guardbridge Books, Scotland
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Historical, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Carmelo Rafalà writes stories that are profound, surprising, and beautifully realised. He imagines fantastic worlds and protagonists of immense complexity, subtlety and depth. His stories do not give easy answers, but stimulate and absorb the reader.
In this collection of science fiction and fantasy stories you will find:

A zealous convert, a woman of rumour and myth, and a dangerous pilgrimage across pirate filled seas.
A warrior travels to a far land to mourn and put his violent past behind him, but strange gods of an even stranger people intrude.
Abandoned in the Ozarks, sisters face a malevolent presence reaching out from the darkness.
Two friends struggle with their strained relationship, but reconciliation may literally require other realities. These are stories of identity and belonging, and our deep-seated desire to control our own narratives.

Everyone deserves to tell their own tales.

Lord Banning had spent nearly his entire adulthood in battle, and now that he was growing older it was time for him to reflect on his choices in “Heart of the City, Heart of the Sea.” The character development in this piece was what drew me so deeply into it. Some of Lord Banning’s decisions were difficult to understand until I got to know him better and discovered a few of the secrets surrounding his life. I only wish I could know what happened to him next.

I did struggle to connect to with some of the short stories in this collection due to some confusion I had about their world and character building. “The Clarity of Ice” was one such example of this. Performing what were essentially farming and terraforming duties while in outer space was a unique way to introduce Karlyn to the audience, but I struggled to understand what motivated her to choose this career and what she hoped to gain from it. I also had some trouble understanding the project she was working on, especially when she made references to possibly bio-engineering humans to better suit certain environments. Had this scene and similar ones in other tales been given more detailed explanations, I would have happily chosen a higher rating as I thought Mr. Rafalà had a vivid imagination and a fresh take on some common tropes in this genre.

My favorite instalment was “Slipping Sideways” which explored Džemo and Leo’s grief after the death of their friend Rachel. The science fiction spin to such a common but heartbreaking part of life made me smile. I’ve often wished for the same solution that these characters talked about as they mourned her passing, and I thought the ending fit the themes beautifully. This was a short piece which only made it all that more powerful.

The Stars Must Wait was memorable.