Morpheus Tales Supplement Out Now!

The latest issue of the FREE Morpheus Tales Supplement is out now! It’s got an exclusive interview with Dan Abnett (Horus Heresy and 40K Legend!) and Nik Vincent, loads of articles and columns from the usual crew (marvellous!), and a load of book and film reviews including some from me (which are fabulous, obviously!).

http://issuu.com/morpheustales/docs/mt25reviews

Morpheus Tales #22 Supplement – Out Now!

Do I need to say more…

http://issuu.com/morpheustales/docs/22_reviews_supplement

Probably not, but I will anyway. This is the reason I haven’t posted any reviews in the last couple of weeks! This is massive, and I put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears to make this huge magazine (which is free by the way!) for you. Yes, for you! More author interviews than you can shake a stick at, so many reviews I can’t even remember writing some of them! Here’s an idea of what’s in store for you when you read it, and you must, you must read it, you must you must!

67 pages of genre non-fiction, including author interviews with Richard Kadrey, Jay Posey, Joseph D’Lacey, Eric S. Brown, Richard Farren Barber, James A. Moore, Scream Queen Heather Dorff, and Scares That Care’s Joe Ripple. Plus, Jim Lesniak offers opinions From The Catacombs, Edward Drake on The Warrior’s Journey, Simon Marshall-Jones offers his Ramblings of a Tattooed Head column, plus loads of horror, sf and fantasy film and book reviews!

http://issuu.com/morpheustales/docs/22_reviews_supplement

A free magazine you say? What more could you possibly ask for!

THE PSYCHOPATH TEST By Jon Ronson – Reviewed

Never judge a book by its cover, so goes the saying. Well, as far as I’m concerned that’s arse. The first book I picked up and bought as an adult (at the tender age of fourteen, but I consider that as adult as I’ve ever got) was a Conan book with a lovely cover. It wasn’t a Frazetta but it was that style, and it was awesome. The fact the cover didn’t have hardly anything to do with the contents of the book didn’t put me off at all. I continue to purchase books because they have great covers. I can barely put back on the shelf a book with artwork by Jon Sullivan.

What I would suggest though, is don’t pick a book because of a title. That’s how Jon Ronson got me. The Psychopath Test sounds like a quality book. There’s likely to be madness in it, and may be some murder. And there is, just not the sort I thought there would be.

Perhaps I need to explain a little further. I don’t read blurbs, those paragraphs on the back of the book that tell you what’s going to happen. Why would I? It’s like a film trailer, it shows you the best bits, it tells you what’s going to happen. If I’ve seen the best bits why watch the rest? If I know what’s going to happen what’s the point in reading the story? So I had no idea that this book was even non-fiction.

I also don’t read quotes, not before I start reading anyway. This book has quotes all over it. I can’t help but think they were reading a different book to me.

I didn’t realise this was written by the same bloke who wrote The Men Who Stare At Goats, that’s a film I’ve been meaning to watch because it has a great title. Ronson, it seems, is pretty good with titles.

So, what’s this book about? It’s about an investigative journalist (Ronson) searching out the meaning of mental health, or rather, psychopathy. He meets people in mental hospitals, he tells the stories of child bipolar disorder, he meets the man who created the psychopath test, a scientologist who believe psychiatrists are con-men, ex-dictators, and ex-CEOs. From the quotes all over this book you might expect it to be funny. I didn’t expect it to be funny until I read the quotes, and up until then (almost at the end), I had found some vaguely amusing parts, but nothing that made me do more than almost crack a smile. This isn’t Ben Elton or Stephen Fry.

So, what is this book?

It’s a look at the crazy world of the madness industry. It’s quite interest, mildly amusing in parts, quite frustrating in others. Repetitive, not particularly insightful, but quite short. Never judge a book by its title, a lesson learned.

Morpheus Tales #19 Supplement Out Now!

Hope you had a nice Christmas and New Year! I’m still recovering!

If you’re still in the mood for some Christmas Spirit (the snow’s in London is certainly helping me!) go read the Morpheus Tales Christmas Horror Special:

http://issuu.com/morpheustales/docs/christmashorrorspecial

It’s free, and it’s bloody good, and it’s got one of my stories in it!

BTW, have you got it yet? The Morpheus Tales #19 Supplement is out now, filled with reviews, interviews, articles and loads more!  It also includes a massive preview of Ripped Genes: The Biopunk Special Issue!

You can view and download is here:

http://issuu.com/morpheustales/docs/mt19reviews

Or get the pdf version from the Morpheus Tales website: www.morpheustales.com/reviews.htm

More reviews coming soon, just as soon as I

Morpheus Tales 18 Supplement OUT NOW! FREE MAGAZINE!

80 pages of hard work! Blood, sweat and tears! I can’t even tell you how hard I worked on this issue! Ok, yes, I can. It was immense, it almost killed me, but now it’s released! Onto you, the unsuspecting public! Do you know what you’re in for? Horror, SF and Fantasy; reviews, interviews, columns, and articles! Film, book and comic reviews! There’s so much in here, but we even added a massive exclusive preview of the stunning The Function Room: The Kollection by Matt Leyshon, which include the whole of the short story that set it all off, the original “The Function Room”.

How much are we charging for a marvelous 80 pages of entertainment?

Nothing, zilch, nada! It’s free. FREE I tell you. FREEEEEEEEEE!!!

http://issuu.com/morpheustales/docs/18reviews
Or download it in pdf format from the Morpheus Tales website: www.morpheustales.com/reviews.htm

Morpheus Tales #18 Supplement – Free Magazine Coming Soon!

It’s going to be bloody huge! The biggest FREE magazine we have ever produced! 8o pages of genre non-fiction, including author interviews, a sneak peak at Women in Horror and a massive preview of The Function Room: The Kollection by Matt Leyshon, the usual excellent columns by Simon Marshall-Jones, Jim Lesniak, and Trevor Wright, plus articles from authors Craig Hallam and Nathaniel Connors.

It’s going to be massive!  As always it’s complete free to view or download and the contents page is going to look a bit like this:

RIPPED GENES: THE BIOPUNK SPECIAL ISSUE Edited By Samuel Diamond
APOCALYPSE ISLAND By Mark Edward Hall
THE CORPSE-RAT KING By Lee Battersby
RACHEL RISING
B-MOVIE ATTACK By Alan Spencer
GREAT NORTH ROAD By Peter F. Hamilton
FADING LIGHT: AN ANTHOLOGY OF THE MONSTROUS Edited by Tim Marquitz
EYES OF WATER By Alison Littlewood
Matt Leyshon Interview
Ramblings of a Tattooed Head By Simon Marshall
LAST DAYS By Adam Nevill
THIRTEEN – VOLUMES 1 AND 2 Edited By Andrew Hannon
RESET
BESIGNED: BOOK ONE OF THE OUTCAST CHRONICLES By Rowena Cory Daniells
Violence as Entertainment By Tommy B. Smith
STORMDANCER By Jay Kristoff
MIND MGMT
Ripped Genes Preview By Samuel Diamond
ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! FIGHTBACK Created By Stephen Jones
SURVIVAL HORROR: A ZOMBIE STORY By Paul Johnson
THEY’RE BACK!!… By Trevor Wright
MONSTERS ANONYMOUS By Theresa Derwin
Greaveburn Comes to life By Craig Hallam
EVIL STALKS THE NIGHT By Katherine Meyer Griffith
THE HUNGER GAMES
From the Catacombs 11: Periodic Horror By Jim Lesniak
DON’T STAND SO CLOSE By Eric Red
Simon Bestwick Interview
A Journey to Publication By Nathaniel Connors
WINDIGO SOUL By Robert Brumm Jr
Alan Spencer Interview
SURVIVAL HORROR: A ZOMBIE STORY By Paul Johnson
HOFFMAN’S CREEPER & OTHER DISTURBING TALES By Cameron Trost
ASH By James Herbert
Brittney Scalf Interview From Women in Horror
The Function Room: The Kollection By Matt Leyshon
The Rape Waved Yellow
Who Begat Crow Man
The Function Room
The Butcher’s Confirmation
The Butcher’s Progress
Sac
The Butcher’s Scat
The Blood Promise
A Worrying of Sheep
The Earth is a Drinker of Blood
Leech
A Development
The Estate of Things
Disc Eyes
Zombie Ho!
GODsWILL

I told you, didn’t I? HUGE! The new issue of the MT Supplement will launch early October!

Get your free copy from:

http://issuu.com/morpheustales

Or here:

www.morpheustales.com/reviews.htm

 

 

MT #14 Supplement out now! FREE Magazine!

It’s finally arrived. After months of blood, sweat and tears it’s here. Like a new-born baby it seemed like a little bit of fun and then a lot of hard work. But after months of preparation the MT #14 Supplement is now out, ready to be read and downloaded completely free of charge! That’s right, all that hard work and we’re giving it away! The biggest, baddest and bestest issue so far, weighing in at a hefty forty-one pages, it’s filled with interviews, loads of reviews, some great columns, and more. Check it out right now.

The issue version of the MT 14 Supplement is available here:

http://issuu.com/morpheustales/docs/mt14supplement

You can also download a pdf copy here:

http://www.morpheustales.com/mt14supplement.pdf

Now that’s out of the way, work begins on the MT#15 Supplement! I’m currently reading Redlaw by James Lovegrove in preparation. No rest for the wicked! More reviews soon!

Morpheus Tales Supplement – Coming in April

The Morpheus Tales Supplement will be coming out in April! This issue accompanies MT#12 which is available now for pre-order and will ship before the 1st of April!

The MT Supplement is a free non-fiction genre (horror, SF and fantasy) magazine, available to read or download from the website: www.morpheustales.com

It will be filled with reviews, interviews, columns and loads more! It’s currently at 24 pages, but this is likely to rise to around 30 pages, depending on how many more books I can read in the next month and how many late reviews we get!

The contents page looks  a little like this:

DEATH’S DISCIPLES By J. Robert King
HARBINGER OF THE STORM By Aliette de Bodard
WHAT THEY HEAR IN THE DARK By Gary McMahon
POINT By Thomas Blackthorne
AS I EMBRACE MY JAGGED EDGES By Lee Thompson
THE SAMARITAN By Fred Venturini
Interview with Mathew Freyer
ETHEREAL TALES #10
DOCTOR WHO: THE COMPLETE GUIDE By Mark Campbell
The New Publishing Model: Benefits and Drawbacks: Author Advances and Royalties By Cyrus Wraith Walker
KING’S JUSTICE: THE KNIGHTS OF BRETON COURT II By Maurice Broaddus
ROMAN HELL: A Novel By Mark Mellon
Life Serial By Trevor Wright
ENGINES OF DESIRE By Livia Llewellyn
MOLD!
SEA OF DUST
BLACK SWAN
SEASON OF THE WITCH
The Next Big Thing In Horror? By Eric S Brown
GREEN HORNET
Guidance from the Dark Scribe: Agent or No Agent? By Ty Schwamberger
VAMPIRES SUCK
INFERNAL DEVICES By K. W. Jeter
DARK VALENTINE (Issue 2)
ESTRONOMICON (Hallowe’en 2010)
BENT STEEPLE By G. Wells-Taylor
THE FORT PROVIDENCE WATCH By Henry P Gravelle
THE NAMELESS ONE By Kathryn Meyer Griffith
THE GREEN MAN By Lee Mather
SERIAL KILLERS INCORPORATED By Andy Remic

We also have a scream queen teaser interview lined up and Jim Lesniak’s excellent From The Catacombs column! The only things I can guarantee are that this isn’t the actual order and that there will be more coming!

Go check out the website for free copies of the previous issues, and wait with baited breath for the April issue! It’s all good and it’s all free! What more could you ask for?

www.morpheustales.com/reviews.htm

DOWN UNDER By Bill Bryson – Reviewed

I bought this book just before going to Australia myself and never got round to reading it. I have to say that although it’s an interesting account of Bryson’s travels around Oz, and his amusing anecdotes offer a little insight into the country, I didn’t really miss much.

It’s an interesting book rather than fascinating. Amusing rather than funny.

The problem is exactly what drives people to read Bryson’s books, their very ordinariness. His adventures (using the term loosely) around Australia were almost as exciting as mine. The places he visited similarly to mine, although I didn’t get to the outback or Perth, I definitely saw more of Melbourne than he did, and my brief trip to Sydney seemed to encompass more than his.

The insights aren’t anything special either. You only have to talk to a couple of Australian and visit their cities to see the issues they have with the Aborigines.

Australia is an interesting and very new and empty country, and you get that idea from Bryson’s book. His travels around the country offer an insight if you haven’t ever been, but it’s much more fun to explore yourself. You’ll likely come to similar conclusions.

Where Bryson’s book does excel is his research. There are some fascinating histories in here amidst the middle-of-the-road traveller’s adventures. He seems to spend every evening in a bar having a beer, a traditional Aussie past-time perhaps, but hardly exciting for the reader.

Down Under isn’t a massive success, nor is it a massive failure. It’s difficult to get excited about the book either way. I neither feel compelled to read another of his book, nor bothered to remember not to.

Unlike a guidebook you don’t feel the sense of exciting of discovery, and Bryson’s mild excitement isn’t really enough to make you want to discover more.

May be this is one of his off books, and may be they’re all like this. I just can’t be bothered to find out.