January Issue – Morpheus Tales Supplement

Been so busy working and reviewing for the next issue of the Morpheus Tales Supplement that I haven’t even had time to write a blog! There’s more still to come, but here’s a good idea of what will be contained in those hallowed pages…

MARAUDER By Gary Gibson
THE LORDS OF SALEM
Ramblings of a Tattooed Head By Simon Marshall-Jones
DREAM LONDON By Tony Ballantyne
THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW HORROR 24 Edited By Stephen Jones
MEAT By Joseph D’Lacey
GARBAGE MAN By Joseph D’Lacey
SHADES OF MILK AND HONEY By Mary Robinette Kowal
DRAKENFELD By Mark Charon Newton
SHAME THE DEVIL By Michael Lejeune
A BRIEF GUIDE TO GHOST HUNTING By Dr Leo Ruickbie
KNIGHT OF SHADOWS By Toby Venables
The Most-Visited Grave in Swan Point Cemetery By Hunter Welles
DEEP STORM By Lincoln Child
FROM THE FATHERLAND, WITH LOVE By Ryu Marakami
THE EIDOLON By Libby McGugan
THE CONJURING (2013)
DARK SKIES (2013)
JOYLAND By Stephen King
SPLATTERLANDS: REAWAKENING THE SPLATTERPUNK REVOLUTION By Various
ABRAHAM LINCOLN VS ZOMBIES (2012)
World War Z (2013)
THE WITCH’S DAUGHTER By Paula Brackston
THE WINTER WITCH By Paula Brackston
TIGER’S CLAW By Dale Brown
PLASTIC JESUS By Wayne Simmons
THE EMPEROR’S BLADES By Brian Staveley
BOUNTY KILLER
THE IRON WOLVES By Andy Remic

The FREE Morpheus Tales Supplement will be out in January… You can read and download the current and previous issues from the Morpheus Tales website: www.morpheustales.com

 

Free April MT Supplement – Coming Soon!

The April issue of the MT Supplement is well under way! Although less underway than we normally are with only a few days till the 1st of launch month! Due to circumstances beyond our control (or me being a lazy slacker) the issue is not ready yet, there’s still plenty of work to do, but it will definitely be ready by Easter weekend!

Here’s a preview of the contents. This is going to be the biggest ever issue of the MT Supplement as it will include a massive preview of 13: Tales of Dark Fiction preview and review section, plus the usual host of reviews, articles, interviews and columns. I can guarantee this is not the final order of contents, I need to do a lot more work before this weekend.

It will be out in early April, although possibly not the first.

Go check out the website for past issues if you can’t wait: www.morpheustales.com

VIVISEPLTURE Edited By Andy Remic and Wayne Simmons
DEAD HARVEST By Chris F. Holm
THE FACELESS By Simon Bestwick
LEST YOU SHOULD SUFFER NIGHTMARES: A BIOGRAPHY OF HERBERT VAN THAL By Johnny Mains
GREATSHADOW: BOOK ONE OF THE DRAGON APOCALYPSE By James Maxey
The Involuntary Spasm of Writing By Alan Spencer
BABYLON STEEL By Gaie Sebold
ROUGH MUSIC By Simon Kurt Unsworth
GIANT THIEF By David Tallerman
THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BODY HORROR Edited By Paul Kane and Marie O’Regan
FEARFUL FESTIVITIES By Gary Fry
Ramblings of a Tattooed Head By Simon Marshall-Jones
THE NOCTUARY By Greg Chapman
NEW DAWN FADES
DESOLATE (Kindle edition) By Robert Brumm Jr.
THE MUTILATION MACHINATION By Shaun Jeffrey
MILE 81 (Kindle edition) By Stephen King
VAMPIRE’S BLOOD (AUTHOR’S REVISED EDITION) By Katherine Meyer Griffith
SCREAM OF THE BANSHEE
DEADFALL HOTEL By Steve Rasnic Tem
DARKENING SKIES By Juliet E. McKenna
THE SEA OF FLESH AND ASH By Jeffrey Thomas and Scott Thomas
13:  Tales of Dark Fiction
Introduction to 13: Tales of Dark Fiction
Civil Beasts By Eric S Brown
Dirty Story By Gary McMahon
If You Lay Here Quiet Next to Me By Alan Spencer
Desperate Measures By Stanley Riiks
The Tax Collector By Tommy B. Smith
Organ Grinder By William R.D. Wood
The Machine By Fred Venturini
To Hear a New World By Matt Leyshon
Whatever it takes By Joseph D’Lacey
Wounder By Andrew Hook
Mongrel Days By Andy Remic
103 By Shaun Jeffrey
The Watchers at Work By Gary Fry
13: TALES OF DARK FICTION Edited By Adam Bradley
13: TALES OF DARK FICTION Edited by Adam Bradley
13: TALES OF DARK FICTION Edited by Adam Bradley

 

Morpheus Tales July Supplement – Line Up So Far…

Been working hard on this all morning, so I thought I’d share. The contents page is looking very much like this, and the free online non-fiction magazine will be launched in July to accompany the publication of Morpheus Tales #13.

And Now… An Important Message From Trevor Wright
EMBEDDED By Dan Abnett
ZOMBIE, OHIO: A Tale of the Undead By Scott Kenemore
Wayne Simmons Interview By Stanley Riiks
HELL RIG By J.E. Gurley
CORSETS AND CLOCKWORK Edited By Trisha Telep
SCREAM 4
UNGRATEFUL DEAD By Naomi Clark
STRANGE MEN IN PINSTRIPE SUITS AND OTHER CURIOUS THINGS By Cate Gardner
ZOMBIES AND POWER TOOLS By Alan Spencer
SKULLS By Tim Marquitz
Guidance from the Dark Scribe: When It’s NOT Writer’s Block By Ty Schwamberger
THE DAMNED BUSTERS (Book One of To Hell and Back) By Matthew Hughes
SKYLINE
HAUNTING BLUE By R.J. Sullivan
ABRAHAM LINCOLN VAMPIRE HUNTER By Seth Grahame-Smith
THE ABOLISHER OF ROSES By Gary Fry
The New Publishing Model: Benefits and Drawbacks: Book Promotions and Marketing By Cyrus Wraith Walker
SUCKER PUNCH
DAMAGED By Yolanda Sfetsos
RUBBER
BLUE FIRE BURNING: TALES OF THE PAHLEEN By Hobb Whittons
Julie Anne Interview By Trevor Wright
AS I EMBRACE MY JAGGED EDGES By Lee Thompson
ETHEREAL TALES #11
TRILOGY OF BLOOD
Some of the Best Zombie Series on the Market By Eric S. Brown
MONK PUNK Edited By A. J. French
DOA – EXTREME HORROR ANTHOLOGY Edited By David C. Hayes and Jack Burton
TORMENT By Greg Chapman
THE CONCRETE GROVE By Gary McMahon
Interview with Ben Baldwin
DANCING WITH THE VELVET LIZARD By Bruce Golden

The free magazine will be available in July to read, view or download. Check out the website for the current and past issues:

www.morpheustales.com

FLU By Wayne Simmons – Reviewed

A few years ago zombie novels were like gold-dust. Now they’re ten a penny. Most are bog standard zombie rehashes, offering nothing new. The king of zombie fiction is Brian Keene, whose zombie novels create a sense of undeniable dread and looming, unstoppable danger. So the question is, does Simmons have anything to offer, and can be usurp the king?

Sadly the answer is both yes and no.

Flu is a post-apocalyptic zombie novel, focusing on the further spread of the disease which kills and then brings you back, and the few survivors in Belfast as they try to stay alive as long as possible, seeking out supplies, grouping together with other non-dead humans, and having to deal with the dead-fucks. The story uses sectarian issues and guilt, police, army and civilian survivors in a nice mix, which gives the book its edge.

This isn’t The Walking Dead rehashed in Belfast. Although there are clear homages to Romero’s trilogy and other zombie movies.

The story has some brutal and some disgusting moments, which help take it beyond the average, but what really put this book ahead of most of the rest is Simmons easy and efficient writing style (polished to within an inch of its life), and his characters, all of which suffer their own personal demons they have to battle along with the zombies. The humans really are the heroes of this novel, a tough sell, but one that works in this case.

The UK is bereft of zombie novels, the only decent one I can remember is the composite novel created by Stephen Jones and loads of others, Zombie Apocalypse, the exceptional London-based zombie novel told ingeniously in a series of documents.

While Flu isn’t an inventive as Jones’ effort, it still works very well and is a massively satisfying zombie novel that creates a dead world you want to explore further, and leaves enough questions for us to want to read the sequel, Fever, coming in the summer. And Flu definitely shows Simmons’ massive potential to become Great Britain’s crown prince of zombie fiction.

Not perfect, but a damn good try. Zombie fans will love it, horror fans will love it. Simmons writes like a demon, smooth and dangerous. Zombie fiction with an edge.