Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10 reviewed in Phantasmagoria magazine

There's an excellent review of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10 in the current issue of Phantasmagoria magazine, issue 27, by ex-editor of Fear magazine, John Gilbert. 

 

Adrian Cole - Weirdbook, Phantasmagoria magazine and the Elak of Atlantis Trilogy

Not only is the current issue of Weirdbook an Adrian Cole Special, but the next issue of Phantasmagoria magazine will have an article about Adrian Cole's Elak of Atlantis Trilogy by David A. Riley, plus all three collections of Elak books by Adrian will be reviewed. These will appear together with a plethora of illustrations from the books by Jim Pitts.

Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 6 Reviewed on Big Hits Radio UK this Sunday

Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 6 will be reviewed on Big Hits Radio UK this Sunday by Trevor Kennedy between 12 noon and 2 p.m. The review was originally published in Trevor's Phantasmagoria Magazine. You can read the full review here.

Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 6 reviewed in the latest issue of Phantasmagoria Magazine

Trevor Kennedy, editor and publisher of Phantasmagoria Magazine gives a great review of the 6th volume in our Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy anthology series. 

Many thanks to Trevor for giving us permission to quote his review in full:

NOW IN ITS sixth volume, editor and publisher David A. Riley and illustrator Jim Pitts’ “Swords & Sorceries” series of high fantasy anthologies returns with more of the sort of swash-buckling tales of epic heroes and dastardly villains, sorcerers, witches, gods and monsters that its fans have come to expect, some novella length, and penned by a team comprising of several of their regular contributors, alongside some newbies.
Proceedings get off to a very impressive start with Dev Agarwal’s ‘Land of the Dead’, an imaginative entry involving his recurring characters of the Stone Snake and Princess Irene being imprisoned as we join the adventure, and one which also features the haunting “Land . . .” of the title. This is followed by ‘The House of Bones’ by Carson Ray which sees his hero Knox out for vengeance against the delightfully monikered “Doctor Grimm”. Andrew Darlington’s ‘A Place of Ghosts’ is a superb story with a neat twist of an immortal being sent on a mission by a mage, while one of the S&S genre’s
finest sons, Adrian Cole, is featured in the series once more with his Atlantis-set ‘God of the Dreaming Isles’.

Other highlights would be ‘Wardark and the Siren Queen’ by Craig Herbertson, Tais Teng’s ‘Raiding the Graveyard of Lost Ships’, which is accompanied by a very nice illustration by the author, and ‘Golden Witch of Adzelgar’ by Scott McCloskey.
With no shortage of swords-for-hire, blood-soaked gore and battles, well thought out world-building, creatures of myth and legend, and other tropes aficionados of this particular brand of epic fantasy will surely enjoy, Riley and Pitts’ series continues to grow and give a platform to some of the best writers within this particular field, certainly contributing strongly to a resurgence of sorts within it at the same time.
I think it can be safely assumed that the Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy series is currently in a healthy position, with several more volumes in the planning stages, something that its regular readers will welcome with open arms, and swords and shields at the ready.
Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 6 is published by Parallel Universe Publications and is available to purchase from Amazon and other outlets. For more details please go to:
paralleluniversepublications.blogspot.com
—Trevor Kennedy

Phantasmagoria Magazine is available online from amazon and in certain selected shops, including some branches of Forbidden Planet. 270 pages of articles, interviews, reviews, fiction and loads of first-rate illustrations for a mere £13.99. Amazon.co.uk

A Handful of Zombies reviewed by Trevor Kennedy in Phantasmagoria magazine

Trevor Kennedy has written a review of A Handful of Zombies which is in the latest issue of Phantasmagoria magazine.

A HANDFUL OF ZOMBIES: TALES OF THE RESTLESS DEAD
(CHAPBOOK NO. 1) by David A. Riley

IF HORROR STORIES of the zombie variety are your thing – and it’s pretty obvious that David A. Riley rather enjoys them, too – then I would imagine that you would quite like this neat little near-60-page chapbook from the author, containing reprints of four of his undead tales, each one a different take on the sub-genre, and each with their own merits, the illustrations contained by regular collaborator and friend of Riley’s, Jim Pitts.
    The opening tale, ‘Dead Ronnie and I’, possibly my favourite of the four, sees two men attempt to escape the ensuing madness of the apocalypse in the UK by plane, but things naturally don’t go as planned.

    ‘His Pale Blue Eyes’ sees a young girl attempt to locate her parents and survive the wasteland, while ‘Right For You Now’ is a gritty one set in Britain and which also features Haitian voodoo practices.
    The chapbook is wrapped up with ‘Romero’s Children’, an obvious allusion to zombie maestro George (and which is also reprinted in the pages of this current issue of Phantasmagoria, by the way). It’s an interesting one which sees the populace infected by the “OM” virus, as opposed to the traditional zombie fare.
    The zombie sub-genre on film has seen something of a strong resurgence in the twenty-first century, from Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later though to several varying-in-quality Romero remakes, the Resident Evil series, and The Walking Dead, however in terms of literature I don’t believe it is a field that has ever really left us. David A. Riley is one of those authors who, it appears, is certainly attempting to ensure that it continues to stay around for a while to come.

    A Handful of Zombies: Tales of the Restless Dead (Chapbook No. 1) is published by Parallel Universe Publications and is available to purchase from Amazon and other outlets. 

Trevor Kennedy 

amazon.co.uk

amazon.com

Phantasmagoria magazine  

Amazon UK link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BXNBF1XK

Amazon USA link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNBF1XK