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I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig

Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Genre: Horror

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Del Rey (April 29, 2025)

Length: 400 pages

Author Information: Website

I rarely miss picking up a new Chuck Wendig book, which is why I really wanted to love The Staircase in the Woods. I guess in some ways, I did—but it also took me way longer to finish than I expected. Despite a strong beginning and end, I found myself bogged down by the middle section which felt repetitive and a bit bloated, slowing down momentum.

Still, there’s no denying this book has one hell of a killer premise! It features a group of teenagers—Owen, Lore, Matty, Hamish, and Nick—who experience a supernatural tragedy one summer, reuniting decades later to confront the truth of what really happened. It all began in high school, when during one of their usual hangouts in the woods, the five friends stumble upon a strange spiral staircase rising out of the ground and leading to nowhere. One fateful night, buzzed on booze and bravado, Matty decides he wants to climb it—and he’ll even do it by himself, if the others are too chicken. Only, upon ascending, he vanishes without a trace. The rest of the group is left traumatized and grief-stricken, blamed by the community for their friend’s disappearance. Shattered by guilt and unanswered questions, they eventually graduate and go their separate ways.

Twenty years later, however, Nick reaches out to the others with dire news and a request: first, he has terminal cancer, and second, he wants to find out what happened to Matty. Reluctant but unable to refuse their dying friend, Lore, Owen, and Hamish agree to meet. They learn that Nick has found the damned staircase again, and this time when he leads them to it, they all make the climb. But the mystery of what befell Matty isn’t going to be solved so easily. In fact, things get weird fast. The friends find themselves inside a house that shouldn’t exist, a surreal place where each room forces them to face their deepest fears and relive their worst memories. They soon realize the house is playing with them, feeding off their pain. And while they have come to find Matty, it’s uncertain now whether any of them will make it out alive.

I’ll start with the positives. The supernatural elements in The Staircase in the Woods are certainly effective when it comes to the chill factor, even more so when I learned from the author’s note that he drew inspiration from real reports of mysterious staircases found in the middle of wooded areas, including one he personally encountered. While many of these sightings turn out to have perfectly rational and mundane explanations—like remnants of old photography and hunting platforms, or abandoned houses where the rest of the structure has fallen around the staircase and long since been reclaimed by nature—the idea still struck me as creepy. After all, the imagery itself is rather unsettling, making it easy to imagine other uncanny possibilities.

Clearly, much of the novel was also driven by tensions between the characters, a result of all their psychological and emotional baggage. As the saying goes, you can run but you can’t hide, and no matter how hard they’ve tried, none of the remaining four friends can move on from what happened to Matty. Even after achieving moderate success as a game designer, Lore remains deeply unhappy and feels victimized by everyone around her (and some of her political rants can be a bit much). Owen is a nervous wreck, and his anxiety has only worsened since his high school days. Hamish, the only one married with children, is nonetheless unsatisfied and self-destructive. And although Nick may act like a clown, the humor is merely a mask that hides the true desperation within him. To be honest, none of them are particularly likeable, but they are complex and feel genuine. I loved reading about their relationships in the past and in the present, and the most rewarding part was seeing how these connections are broken and healed again.

But now for the not-so-great. Like I said, not everything worked for me, particularly the story’s pacing. While it was smooth sailing for most of the first half, soon after, the plot started spinning its wheels. The characters end up splitting up, spending a long time moving through this house of horrors, with each room throwing more and more terrible things at them until these scenes begin to lose all meaning. At some point, it all feels done for the sake of shock value. The scares also blur together and become more of the same old, same old. I definitely struggled to get through this middle section, putting the book down multiple times then finding it hard to motivate myself to pick it back up again.

That said, picking it back up again I did, and I’m glad. Once the holding pattern finally breaks, the plot gets right back down to business, pushing forward rather than lingering in its own sluggish atmosphere. The payoff at the end of the book was well worth the wait, and the story’s resolution tied its themes of friendship, grief, and recovery back to the way things were for the characters before Matty’s disappearance tore them apart. Needless to say, I was happy with the conclusion, which was both satisfying and touching.

Despite my misgivings into its pacing issues, I would still recommend The Staircase in the Woods, especially if you enjoy stories about unexplained mysteries, haunted forests, and reunions between even more haunted friends. Admittedly, this one took a bit of a climb for me, but in the end there was still plenty to like.

Maggots (JO JO New Media, 2017)

50 films that I dug up on Tubi.

Enjoy!

Maggots (2017)

Despite usually taking the piss out of bad movies, I do have respect for filmmakers that actually complete them and get them seen. This brings us to Maggots — a horror/comedy that gets a couple of things right, and a lot wrong, but again I just can’t get mad at it.

The premise is simple; evil corporation dumping toxic sludge after fracking, bugs get mutated, bunch of disposables go camping.

The good stuff: the lead (Lawrence George) is good in his role as a nerdy science student who wants to expose the evil corporation, and the maggots are a lot of fun. They really reminded me of the Deadly Spawn, or naked Crites (from Critters). They are for the most part practical rubber effects, looking like fleshy windsocks with teeth.

The bad stuff: the script is terrible, and the acting goes from soulless mumble to shout. The director obviously thought one of his actors was hilarious, because we are subjected to his garbled nonsense throughout (this is comedy). We are told at the beginning of the film that his character suffers from ‘Sarcastic Tourette’s’ — so I guess I’m supposed to feel bad for disliking his banal schtick.

Anyhoo, we have the nerd, a tough female, a female willing to get her top bollocks out, a jock and a weirdo, along with a randy college professor and a pair of inept forest rangers, so the trope box is thoroughly ticked.

Honestly, I finished this one wanting to enjoy it more, and I can’t help thinking that if it had been played straight, and kept the goofy maggot puppets, this would have been a banger.

Fun fact — I gave it a higher rating than Rebel Moon on Letterboxd.

4/10

Lords of the Deep (Concorde Pictures, April 21, 1989) and Arena (Empire Pictures, March 29, 1989)

Lords of the Deep (1989)

Fancied some cheap-looking rubbish, and luckily Tubi has an extensive Roger Corman collection.

It is the future, and once again we have messed up the planet. Therefore humanity has turned to the depths for somewhere new to screw up, and we hang with the crew of an exploratory vessel as they look for something or other. Lots of blue jumpsuits and sparsely decorated corridors ensue, before it all goes a bit Abyss, and the aliens start doing their thang. The undersea aliens messed up their own world and are here to tell us, in condescending Gort fashion, to stop our shenanigans. The aliens, a cross between a badly-folded fitted sheet and a flip-flop, are actually nice — so why are crew members dying? Could it be something to do with shifty-looking Bradford Dillman? You’ll never guess.

Fun fact: while reading up about this flick, I learned that two-time Oscar winner Janusz Kamiński was the DP, but was fired for being too good. Roger also cameos in this, but then he cameos in everything, bless him.

All in all, a bit pants.

3/10

Arena (1989)

I wanted to chase the previous slice of Corman bunkum with one of his would-be heirs, and Charles Band has always been a reliable option. Empire Entertainment was catnip to weirdos like me in the 80s and yet, to my shame, I never got around to seeing Arena.

Well, I’ve fixed that oversight, and I’m jolly glad I did.

Empire is the company that churned out a ton of cheapo gore fests, normally with an incredibly daft premise, including beloved classics such as Ghoulies, Terrorvision, and Troll — and also produced stone-cold classics such as Trancers, Re-Animator and From Beyond.

Charles must have had decent cash flow going on, because he threw a bunch at this film — the production design is pretty good and the film is chockablock with prosthetics, animatronic beasties and derpy background artists. That said, one fun activity to do while watching is to count the mannequins in the medium crowd shots and the wiggling Q-tips in the wide shots. It’s all good though — clever mattes and inspired shot choices really pull this film together.

The story is about the heroically-named Steve Armstrong, a short-order cook who is handy with his fists. He ends up on the fighting circuit, and has the chance to be the first human in a long time to be champ. It’s all very Rocky, but everyone gives it their all, from Paul Satterfield as Steve, to Claudia Christian as his ‘owner’, Quinn. There’s a fun turn by Armin Shimerman under a couple of pounds of rodent rubber, playing a scummy henchman called Weezil, and Hamilton Camp playing a four-armed Nebulan called Shorty.

It’s all very silly, the actual fights are hilariously great and Richard Band’s music is on point. I had a fun time.

7/10

Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead (Nikkatsu, September 24, 2011)
and Mortuary (Film Ventures International, May 7, 1982)

Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead (2011)

This is the 25th review in our Tubi Dive, and we celebrate the quarter-century mark with quite possibly the most bonkers, disgusting, and hilarious film so far.

I’ve been a fan of Noboru Iguchi ever since I sat down to watch Machine Girl featuring the mind-blowing special effects of Yoshihiro Nishimura (who went on to direct Tokyo Gore Police), so imagine my delight when I stumbled upon a small collection of his films on Tubi. I’m going to watch them all — and I’ve started with this insanely offensive film.

Traumatized by the death of her sister, karate student Megumi has agreed to go on a camping trip with the usual group of stereotypes. One of her companions, Maki, is a self-absorbed would-be model, and her goal is to find a parasite in a fish, swallow it, and lose weight (not that she needed to). She succeeds, but the resulting tummy rumbles have her rushing to a disgusting outhouse in an abandoned village.

As she pops a squat to clear her bowels, she is attacked from below by a crap-coated zombie and, you guessed it, shenanigans ensue. What follows is some of the most ridiculous, stomach-churning, gory, and childishly fun action scenes you’ll ever see. Iguchi clearly couldn’t give a monkey’s about what anyone thinks of his films, and sets out to have a blast (no doubt satisfying some of his more ‘unsavoury’ tastes) by lacing the film with so many off-the-wall moments, homages to The Evil Dead, unnecessary nudity, hundreds of poop and fart gags, and sexually-charged monster attacks that border on live action anime.

Some shots are poorly done CG, but for the most part the creature and gore effects are practical and messy. I feel like my hyperbole might be getting in the way, but I seriously had such a fun time with this one — and I honestly can’t recommend it to decent folk.

For fans of poop, farts, blood and knickers.

9/10

Mortuary (1982)

Just had time to sneak in another old slasher before I carry on with more Japanese nuttiness, and here’s an old chestnut that tries to elevate the slasher genre with zero success.

Christie believes that her father’s drowning was no accident (it wasn’t), but no one believes her; not her red herring of a mother, nor her chad of a boyfriend. Eventually the truth is revealed, but not before some dull stuff happens. Mortuary has all the trappings of a typical slasher (group of friends, creepy backstory, ‘masked’ killer, unusual weapon) but doesn’t follow through on any of them. A shame really, as it could have been a decent romp. It does get bonus points though for featuring an adorable young Bill Paxton.

For completists only.

4/10

Dead Sushi (Alchemy/Millennium, 2012) and Tomie Unlimited (Toei Company, May 14, 2011)

Dead Sushi (2012)

Next on my Noboru Iguchi-thon is this diamond-encrusted slice of fried gold in video form. As equally bonkers as Zombie Ass, I didn’t enjoy this one quite as much, but don’t let that stop you from taking in this unique form of high culture.

In a nutshell (or seaweed cone), Keiko is the daughter of a famous sushi chef, but when she doesn’t measure up to his standards, she runs away to work as a hostess at a crummy inn. There she becomes embroiled in a surreal revenge story involving chemicals, dodgy sushi and dodgier businessmen.

Imagine for a moment how weird this film could possibly be. You’re dead wrong. It’s much weirder. In fact, one of the less weird moments is a tender scene between a girl and a slice of cooked egg.

Noboru really reminds me of Joe Dante, when Dante is on a live-action Looney Tunes kick (see Gremlins 2 or Twilight Zone), but with much less logic and much more in the way of farting and bosom fetishism.

Utterly stupid, and a whole heap of fun — the opening fight scene alone is worth your time. Watch it, you fools.

7/10

Tomie Unlimited (2011)

The Noboru-thon continues with his take on the classic manga series created by Junji Ito. In the graphic novels (and 9 film adaptations), Tomie is portrayed as a demonic force; sometimes a succubus, other times a vengeful spirit, but always she is the catalyst for much screaming, stabbing and head-scratching.

Noboru Iguchi, being a big fan of rubber puppets, really leans into the body horror and has a whale of a time, even if the film is slightly more serious in tone than Dead Sushi or Toilet of the Dead.

There are some astonishingly weird scenes (almost House weird) on offer, with just a few moments marred by dodgy CG. On the whole though, it’s creepy, disgusting, and sublimely daft. Tomie is played really well by Miu Nakamara — she is all angular cheekbones and lacerating looks, and Moe Arai is perfectly cast as her put-upon younger sister. She’s Phoebe Cates adorable, and it is particularly rough to watch her being hurt both physically and mentally.

Not the best of the Tomie films, but certainly worth a look.

7/10

Previous Murkey Movie surveys from Neil Baker include:

Tubi Dive, Part I
Tubi Dive, Part II
Tubi Dive, Part III
What Possessed You?
Fan of the Cave Bear
There, Wolves
What a Croc
Prehistrionics
Jumping the Shark
Alien Overlords
Biggus Footus
I Like Big Bugs and I Cannot Lie
The Weird, Weird West
Warrior Women Watch-a-thon

Neil Baker’s last article for us was Part III of Tubi Dive. Neil spends his days watching dodgy movies, most of them terrible, in the hope that you might be inspired to watch them too. He is often asked why he doesn’t watch ‘proper’ films, and he honestly doesn’t have a good answer. He is an author, illustrator, teacher, and sculptor of turtle exhibits. (AprilMoonBooks.com).

Camelot fantasy novels have always held a special place in our hearts, representing reading that…

The post Camelot Fantasy Novels | 6 Paths of Hope, Courage, Fairness and Justice appeared first on LitStack.

Thanks for the update but sorry that Book #4 is flowing as well as it might. I’m looking forward to next week’s guide on corporations & also Book 3 of course but still over six months away .

If you’re a regular reader of SFFWorld reviews you should know that we are usually HUGE fans of Joe Abercrombie’s fantasy writing. So, any announcement of a new book set in a new world (for Joe, anyway) makes us sit up and take notice. And this one has been on the cards for a while…

You’ve probably noticed that we really upped our design game at WMG Publishing in the past year. Some of that is due to the new designers we’ve brought on board, but some of it is because Stephanie Writt has a lot of design experience using modern tools like Canva.

In combination with Dean, whose done more book covers than anyone I know, they’re working together to come up with really pretty books.

Every Friday, they do a seminar together called Writer Direct, which helps writers go directly to the readers, through indie publishing and marketing. (It’s open to anyone for a monthly fee.) For the past six months, the writers who attend have asked Dean and Steph to do a workshop on covers.

Once they started brainstorming, they realized they could do workshops on covers and interiors and Kickstarter.

These courses are designed to take a writer who has never designed anything and have them making gorgeous books by the end of the class. I’m their guinea pig. (Dyslexic girl. If they can get me to do it, anyone can do it.)

The nice thing about these, though, is that there are design tricks in the new programs that long-time designers don’t know. So there’s an entire section for people who have been making covers and designing books for years.

The classes won’t start for a few weeks, but we’re offering an early bird sale on these, which is buy two and get the third free. (In other words, save $500.) Or just buy one and save $100 off the price. Find out more information here.

When you follow that link, you’ll see another class from me. I’m doing short classes on techniques that I can teach quickly. After finishing the difficult senses—smell and taste (which I taught together)—those who came to the webinar asked for similar classes on the remaining three senses.

So, I’m going from hardest to easiest. The next one is on touch. It starts right after I finish the in-person Gothic workshop next week.

Finally, Dean and I are finishing up the next installment in The Kris & Dean Show Goes To the Movies. We’re doing Ocean’s 11 (the 2001 version). I’m the one who picked that because I’ve been meaning to examine that film very closely.

Turns out it’s even more useful than I thought it would be. This class will teach you all about how to feed information to a reader so that they don’t notice the important stuff until you want them to. It’ll also show you how to establish characters quickly, and how to handle an extremely complicated storyline with verve and clarity.

We’re having a great time doing this one, and it’ll go live next week.

So take a look and see if there’s a class for you.

2,119 miles away from Elmwood

The right leg hurt, the left arm hurt, everything fucking hurt. There was alien slime dripping from his armor, and it stank like yesterday’s vomit.

The gate loomed in front of him. Elias McFeron stepped through it.

Blue sky. Finally. 

He took a deep breath and tasted home. That first gulp of Earth’s air. There was nothing like it.

Behind him the rest of the assault team staggered out. He’d force-marched them for the last two days, all the way from the anchor chamber. It was a hard pace even for the top Talents, and it took longer than expected because the markers they had placed to guide their way through the swamp had sunk.

The first responders dashed toward him with the stretcher. Elias let them get in position, lifted Damion Bonilla off his shoulders, and carefully deposited him onto the stretcher. The pulsecarver’s blood-smeared face was a mask of pain.

“Thank you, Guildmaster. I’m sorry.”

Elias nodded. “Nothing to be sorry about. Rest. You’ve earned it.”

The first responders carried Bonilla off. His legs were bloody mush below the knees, but he would walk again. The healers would fix him. They fixed anything except dead if you got to them in time.

This was the last time. Elias had promised himself that every time he went into the breach, but this time he meant it. He would strip off the armor, take a long shower in his hotel, board the guild jet with the rest of his team, and go home. He would eat well, sleep in his own bed, and then in the morning he would put on a suit, go into his office, and do paperwork like a normal fucking human being. That’s where he belonged. Running the guild, which had plenty of blade wardens without him.

The medics swarmed the assault team. A young kid with a healer’s white caduceus on his jacket ran up to him. Elias waved him off and squinted at the familiar orderly chaos in front of the gate, looking for the mining crew. He’d sent a scout ahead with the orders to wrap it up. The miners were on the left, stowing their gear. He counted them out of habit. 15 and 8 escorts. Good. Everyone was out.

A familiar tall, lean figure in a black Tom Ford suit tugged at his attention. Leo Martinez, who seemed to be born to wear elegant suits and be the public face of a guild, the only man standing still in the flurry of activity. His XO, who should’ve been back at HQ, 2,000 miles away. Something had happened.

Leo started toward him.

Elias made himself walk forward. Whatever it was, he didn’t want to deal with it but avoiding it would make things worse.

A sharp sound cut through the human clamor, like the noise of a thousand paper sheets being ripped at once magnified through concert level speakers. The gate collapsed.

Leo reached him. “Cutting it a little close, sir.”

“Happens.” Elias headed for the familiar black SUV. The back hatch rose as he approached, and he began stripping his armor and tossing it into the plastic-lined vehicle. “What is it?”

Leo kept his voice low. “We had a fatal event.”

He’d figured that. “Where?”

“Elmwood Gate. The assault team is presumed dead. We lost nine of twelve miners, four of the escorts, a K9 and handler, and a DeBRA.”

Elias stopped for a moment. Twenty-eight people. Good people. He’d approved the line up himself. It was a solid team that should’ve been more than adequate for the deep yellow gate. He’d personally trained them, he’d gone into breaches with them, and now they were dead. Half of them under the age of thirty. He’d sent kids to their deaths again.

This wasn’t a fatal event, this was a catastrophe. What the hell went wrong over there?

Leo’s face was carefully neutral. “The DeBRA is—”

“Adaline Moore.” The best DeBRA in the Eastern US died in their gate dive.

“Yes, sir. I’ve got the mining foreman, the surviving miners, and London under lockdown.”

“London made it out?”

The crisp line of Leo’s jaw got sharper. “Yes, sir.”

“Hm.”

“I’ve reported to the DDC,” Leo continued. “Cora Ward owes me a favor, so she will sit on it for as long as she can, but sooner or later this will get out and when it does, both the Hermetic Alliance and the Guardian Guild will scream bloody murder. The Guardians, in particular, have been vocal about our share of the gates.”

Adaline Moore had been in high demand. DeBRAs of her caliber were rare and monopolized by the DDC. Elias liked to know who he was working with, so he kept tabs on the assessors. Adaline was divorced, with an absentee ex-husband, two children, a cat, and her life revolved around work and family. The very definition of a noncombatant. Her children were now orphans.

Leo was right, the fallout from this would hit them like a hammer, but the political mess and the PR nightmare wasn’t important right now. He would deal with that later. “What does London say happened?”

“Humanoid combatants. Highest red level.”

“What kind of combatants?”

A slight edge slipped into Leo’s voice. “He doesn’t know.”

Perfect.

“His entire crew and the DeBRA are dead, and he doesn’t know. Did he see the DeBRA die?”

“He says he did. The mining foreman backs up his story.”

The foreman made it out, too. “What about the other miners?”

“In shock. They aren’t talking.”

Elias deposited the last bit of gear into the SUV and slapped it shut. The vehicle rocked. The control got away from him a hair.

Leo got behind the wheel, Elias climbed into the passenger seat, and they drove out, past the police barricade and the onlookers onto I-205, heading north, toward the airport, where the guild jet waited.

“From what London described, we will need the primary team,” Leo said. “Kovalenko is on loan to Texas’ Lone Star Guild and Krista is on vacation in the Caribbean. Jackson is in Japan.”

And they would have to wait for Jackson because they would need their best healer.

“Jackson has the longest travel but should make it within 48 hours. The real problem is the tank,” Leo said. “Both Karen and Amir are inside the gates right now, and both went in less than twenty-four hours ago. We can substitute Geneva, but she lacks experience…”

“No need,” Elias said. “I’ll take them in myself. Tell Krista I authorized triple rates. We can swing by Dallas and pick up Kovalenko. We have 28 people in that breach. We must recover the bodies so their families will have something to bury.”

If there was anything to recover. With the kind of delay they were facing, they could get there and find only bones stripped bare. Dead people became meat, and meat didn’t last long in a breach. He would shower and sleep on the plane. The office would have to wait.

“Are we pulling them to HQ or straight to Elmwood?” Leo asked.

“Straight to Elmwood. Nobody goes into that gate until I get there.”

“Understood.”

Elias looked at the city soaking in the dreary rain of the Pacific Northwest outside the window and glanced back at his XO. “Was London injured?”

A hint of bright electric lightning flared in Leo’s eyes, turning them an unnatural silver white. He pronounced words with crisp exactness. “Not a scratch, sir.”

“Hm.”

He had to get to Elmwood. The sooner, the better.

The post The Inheritance: Chapter 4 Part 1 first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Cover for The Star Pit by Tony Roberts
Cover for Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo by David Lee Anderson

Originally published in January 1989, the fourth Tor Double included John Varley’s Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo and Samuel R. Delany’s The Star Pit. Printed in the a tête-bêche format, David Lee Anderson provided the cover by Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo and Tony Roberts was the artist for The Star Pit.

The Star Pit was originally published in Worlds of Tomorrow in February, 1967. It was nominated for the Hugo Award. It lost to Philip José Farmer’s “Riders of the Purple Wage” and Anne McCaffrey’s “Weyr Search,” which tied each other. Coincidentally, McCaffrey and Delany share a birthday.

Vyme, a mechanic at the titular Star Pit, serves as Delany’s narrator. Rather than start with the present day action, however, Vyme opens his narration with memories of his own childhood and his life from several years earlier. Born on the backwater Earth in New York, he talks about his childhood and the ant farm he had as a child, which would eventually break.

He also talks about his life after leaving earth participating in a procreation group, a futuristic group marriage which was meant to make child rearing easier for both parents and children. Mostly talking about his kid-boy Antoni, who had an ecologarium, a sort of ant farm on a larger scale, it is clear that at best, Vyme is an absentee father, using the structure of the procreation group to allow himself to travel off world to take jobs as a mechanic and nursing his alcoholism, which eventually leads to him abandoning his group marriage.

Eventually, Vyme sobers up, but not before he can no longer return to his group family. Instead, he is on a Star Pit, a way station in space which is used to dock and repair spaceships. He is aided in this by Sandy and a young prodigy, Ratlit, who at thirteen has written a novel despite being functionally illiterate. Ratlit also helps out Alegra, a drug-addicted girl two years older than he is.

Vyme, Ratlit, Sandy, and Alegra are living their lives on the Star Pit in a world which has significant space travel, but in order for it to happen, people need to be identified as “the golden,” individuals who can pilot starships and are the only ones who can travel beyond the galactic plane without going insane, although their sanity is in question in any event.

According the Vyme, the golden are stupid and mean and the details of his interactions with them certainly bear that out, as well as a certain pettiness and a parallel society which normal humans can only watch and not fully understand. When one golden kills another in Vyme’s shop, Vyme and Sandy take it in stride. The surviving golden claims ownership of the dead golden’s ship and, not wanting it, hands it over to Sandy.

The plot of The Star Pit, such as it is, is secondary to the characters and their relationships with each other. Despite Vyme’s paternal tendencies toward Ratlit and his mentoring of Sandy, or Ratlit taking care of Alegra and making sure she is being treated for her illnesses, none of the characters seem to particularly like each other. They have been thrown together by circumstances and deal with each other as best that can.

While Vyme presents his background at the beginning of the novella, the other characters’ stories are only slowly revealed, and, while Vyme is not necessarily an unreliable narrator, the explanation for Sandy, Ratlit, Alegra, and, eventually the young golden Androcles, are all viewed through Vyme’s point of view. When Androcles show sup looking for a job, it is clear that Vyme sees him, at least in part, as a surrogate for his own long lost son, Antoni.

There is a certain disjointedness to The Star Pit, perhaps representing the fact that Vyme is not entirely comfortable with his own position and the difficult relationships he has with Sandy and Ratlit, one of whom appears to represent his own failures and the other of whom represents the possibilities a young Vyme drank away and squandered.

The Star Pit postulates a galaxy in which humans have spread, but its tight focus makes the galaxy feel like a very small place. While the golden have the ability to travel, most humans are limited as to where they can go, which is a response and reaction to all the stories of galactic empires and humanity expanding throughout the galaxy and universe.

Rich Horton discussed The Star Pit in the essay “An Evocation of the Science Fiction Dream of Exploration: ‘The Star Pit’ by Samuel R. Delany” in Black Gate in December 2020.

Worlds of Tomorrow 2/67 cover by Gray Morrow
Blue Champaign cover by Todd Cameron Hamilton

Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo was originally published in the John Varley collection Blue Champagne by Dark Harvest Press in January, 1986. It won the Seiun Award in 1992.

Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo was originally published in the John Varley collection Blue Champagne by Dark Harvest Press in January, 1986. It won the Seiun Award in 1992.

Like The Star Pit, Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo takes place on an outpost, although it isn’t as distant as the one in Delany’s story. Instead, Varley’s focus is on a space station in orbit around Earth’s moon and the story opens with the remains of a dead dog being expelled through the station’s airlock, which is noted by a satellite which in stationed to track anything that comes out of the space station.

It turns out that the space station had been struck by a virus, Neuro X, thirty years earlier and quarantined. The expulsion of the dog is the first indication the Lunarians have that there is anything still alive on the space station. Varley story follows Anna-Louise Bach, a recruit/apprentice at the New Dresden Police Department on the moon and Charlie, a young girl who is living alone on the space station in the company of dozens of dogs.

The first half of the story deals with an assessment of the situation, Bach trying to figure out how to make contact with whoever might still be living on the space station and Charlie living her life surrounded by dogs and the station’s computer Tik-Tok, and becoming aware that someone is trying to contact her from the outside world. Eventually, contact is made and a resolution to the situation must be found. That resolution is made more difficult by information that Varley slowly reveals.

In the space of the novella, Varley creates three different societies to various degrees. The most obvious ones are the simple society that surrounds Charlie on the space station, with her interactions with the dogs, the chores that she must do, and the way she comes to terms with growing up. The second is the Lunarian society, which is clearly separate from that of Earth, beginning with fashion, but continuing to attitudes. Finally, Terrestrial culture is represented by Bach’s acquaintance Megan Galloway. Galloway is a celebrity on Earth who has a history that involves Bach. They don’t like each other, but find the can use each other to achieve their ends.

The nature of the story, following Charlie and her dogs and switching to follow Bach, means that Varley is essentially writing two intertwined stories. Charlie’s story is one of someone living on an abandoned space station, content and understanding of her world, until outside forces intrude and try to force their way of thinking on her. In many ways, Charlie is an alien race that the humans of Luna are attempting to colonize, although they wouldn’t see it that way.

The humans on Luna see themselves trying to understand the fate of a failed human colony on the Tango Charlie space station. The know that the disease that eradicated the station’s population could cause a deadly pandemic on the moon or Earth if it were released. At the same time, they have discovered that Charlie (and the dogs) have somehow managed to survive it and could offer hope for humanity if they could be studied. Unfortunately, the security system in place to make sure no contaminants escape the space station make it difficult to explore those possibilities.

As the novella progresses, Varley hints that something about Charlie may provide clues to either immortality or the impeding of aging. He also offers information about the nature of the Neuro X virus and the future of Tango Charlie, the space station upon which Charlie is resident. Some of the ideas Varley offers up in the story are seen to fruition while others are abandoned, leaving the story feeling a little unresolved, even as Varley does offer a resolution to most of his plot points. This also means that Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo feels like it is part of a larger world.

Steven H Silver is a twenty-time Hugo Award nominee and was the publisher of the Hugo-nominated fanzine Argentus as well as the editor and publisher of ISFiC Press for eight years. He has also edited books for DAW, NESFA Press, and ZNB. His most recent anthology is Alternate Peace and his novel After Hastings was published in 2020. Steven has chaired the first Midwest Construction, Windycon three times, and the SFWA Nebula Conference numerous times. He was programming chair for Chicon 2000 and Vice Chair of Chicon 7.

 

Five Gifts for the Blacksmith's Wifeby Lyonne Riley
What is it about:When her village faces a winter of starvation, Sita draws the shortest straw. Now she’s to be given to the orcs across the river in exchange for food and supplies so her family can survive. Given the chance to choose her own husband from among the eligible orc bachelors, she selects Gurrek, the reluctant blacksmith, who clearly doesn’t want her. He’s the safest option.
Gurrek has always wanted a wife of his own, but not like this. Now he’s saddled with a human woman who needs new shoes, new clothes, and can’t even speak his language. He wants nothing to do with her, and yet her sweet, strong personality draws him in closer with every passing day.
As Sita and Gurrek try to find a place to fit within each other’s lives, attraction begins to bloom between them. But Gurrek refuses to touch a woman who never wanted to be his in the first place. Can Sita break through the blacksmith’s high walls to become his true wife, mind, body, and soul?
This is a sweet, cozy, steamy orc romance that features an arranged marriage, a grumpy/sunshine dynamic, a slow burn, a virgin sexual encounter, and a winter holiday vibe. Please check the content warnings on the author's website.
What did Voodoo Bride think of it:I read a Romance with Orcs that turned out to be Urban Fantasy, and although I really liked it, I wanted to read a Fantasy Romance with Orcs. So I tracked this one down, as I love the grumpy/sunshine trope.
And this turned out to be a nice read.
I really loved Gurrek and rooted for him to get a Happily Ever After. I had a bit more trouble with Sita. At times she felt... too young. I mean: she's adult in years of course, but in her behavior she sometimes felt like a child to me. Maybe it's me and I'm getting old, but because of how she felt to me I had a hard time believing in their romance.
Still, the writing was nice, Gurrek a grumpy sweetheart, and I enjoyed the read.
I might try another one of Riley's books.
Why should you read it:Grumpy Orc! 

Haunted Halloween ’86 from Spirit Halloween

The only thing I like better than blowing a whole day playing video games, is playing retro video games. Of course I love movie-quality HD graphics, but little pixelated Lego-people give me a case of the warm fuzzies. I did some digging and discovered I’m far from alone. The global retro gaming market has experienced significant growth in recent years. For instance, the NES Classic Edition sold 2.3 million units in less than a year, and the SNES Classic Edition surpassed 5 million units globally. The Sega Genesis Mini also exceeded 1 million units sold worldwide in its first year. Additionally, the arcade gaming sector, closely tied to retro gaming, was valued at $19.0 billion in 2023.

But when I think of one of my favorite retailers crossing over into retro-gaming, I most definitely get the fan girl squees.

Spirit Halloween, the annual haunt-headquarters that pops up every fall in the unused strip mall space near you, has just announced Haunted: Halloween ’86 – Spirit Edition, a pixelated plunge into Halloween nostalgia brought to you by Retrotainment Games.

Set in the cursed town of Possum Hollow, Haunted: Halloween ’86 is the lovechild of old-school beat-’em-ups and platforming games. You’ll tag-team as Donny and Tami, two tweens armed with fists, feet, and some serious determination to save their town from ghoulish doom. The Spirit Edition adds an additional storyline that brings the action from 1986 into 2025. Two modern-day characters don costumes at Spirit Halloween and are magically transported to 1986 by none other than Jack the Reaper himself.

Yes indeed, it is as delightfully weird as it sounds.

For $59.99, the Spirit Edition comes with a custom NES cartridge, a retro-style game box, and a user manual (because no one remembers how to work an NES anymore).

Not rocking an NES? No problem. Haunted: Halloween ’86 is also available digitally on the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Steam. These versions deliver the same 8-bit thrills without the struggle of blowing dust out of your console.

Haunted Halloween ’86

Call me naive, but I honestly believe this isn’t just a nostalgic cash grab. Retrotainment Games built Haunted: Halloween ’86 using authentic 6502 Assembly language, sticking to NES hardware specs. The game serves up modern mechanics like combo moves, upgradeable power-ups, and physics-based momentum. Add seven sprawling levels and some gnarly bosses, and you’ve got a treat worth trading all your Halloween candy for. Digital formats are coming this summer, with no specific release date announced as of now. But if you’re after the collectable cartridges those come directly from Spirit at their website and they literally sold out in a couple of hours. Restocks are coming, but no date on that yet either.

Looks like we all really love the retro experience.

Like to read? Like to knit? Like socks? Like fantasy?

Then this is the Kickstarter project for you.

Here, in a nutshell, is what it is:

Socks & Sorcery will have four themed collector’s boxes, each delivered three times over the course of a year. Every box contains:

•  A Surprise fantasy novel in the format of your choice (ebook, paperback or audiobook)
•  100g skein of exclusively dyed fingering weight yarn inspired by something from the book
• A 20g contrasting mini skein perfect for crafting heels and toes
• Delightful surprises to enhance your reading and crafting journey. 

Mix and match any of the four themes—Dragons, Familiars, Witches and Vampires, or Faeries—or get them all for a box delivered each month for a year!

There are lots of great writers contributing books to this project including T. Thorn Coyle, Anthea Sharp, Leslie Claire Walker, and Thomas K. Carpenter. The first book in my Fey series, Sacrifice, is also a part of the project.

This project is a lot of fun, and I’m pleased to take part in it. I hope you join us!

 

Official Author WebsitePre-order Only A Grave Will Do over HEREAdd Only A Grave Will Do on Goodreads
Today we have super thrilled to be part of the cover reveal for the last book of the Malitu trilogy by James Lloyd Dulin, 
Feast your eyes on the gorgeous cover for ONLY A GRAVE WILL DO by artist Martin Mottet, the book released on June 24th 2025 and you can checkout the blurb below:

OFFICIAL BLURB: On the march towards war, blood is both a promise and a gamble.

Newly dubbed the Hero of Anilace, Kaylo is thrust into leading a rebellion against insurmountable odds. His people are dying, if not in labor camps, in occupied cities as everything that makes them Ennean is stripped away. In two generations, the Great Spirits will be legends and Ennea will be yet another conquered territory. People look to Kaylo and the myth growing around him to stem the rising tide.

Sixteen years later, a trivial rebellion, a reclusive nation, and a vast empire march towards a battle to decide the fate of Ennea and her people. The actions of the small folk go unseen. Those who want to serve; those who have given up; those imprisoned; those who will fight at any cost; and those who will protect the people they love with every breath will tip the scales. Ennea is not done fighting.

Isn't it gorgeous?

There will also be a blog tour for the book release and you can check out all the details in the graphic below

What if you could have one last meal with someone you’ve loved, someone you’ve lost?…

The post Spotlight on Gourmet “Aftertaste” by Daria Lavelle appeared first on LitStack.

 

Illuminationsby T. Kingfisher
Rosa Mandolini knows in her heart that her family are the greatest painters of magical illuminations in the city. But the eccentric Studio Mandolini has fallen on hard times and the future is no longer certain.
While trying to help her family, Rosa discovers a strange magical box protected by a painted crow. But when she finds a way to open the box, she accidentally releases the Scarling, a vicious monster determined to destroy the Mandolini family at any cost.
With the aid of her former best friend and a painted crow named Payne, it’s up to Rosa to stop the Scarling before it unmakes the magical paintings that keep the city running, and hopefully save her family in the process!

Prologue I

From: Leo Morningstar: A Critical Analysis. Baen Historical Press. Daybreak. Year 307.

Given his importance to the events of the critical period that reshaped the Daybreak Republic/Empire in a manner few beyond all hope of repair, it is perhaps not surprising that generations of historians, psychologists, and revisionists have visited and revisited the early years of a man who was both a catalyst for change and, at the same time, an earnest fighter for a conservative system that had not always been very kind to him. There is no shortage of commentary and analysis on his early career, ranging from detailed military histories to personality assessments that veer between the reasonable to the outrageous. Leo Morningstar has been branded a hero, a villain, and everything in-between. Indeed, it is a curious take on his life and career that he was both a great hero and a villain.

There is little doubt about the outline of his early life. His father was a war hero who died in action, leaving him under the care of his mother and the patronage of Captain – later Grand Senator – Grand Senator (Admiral) Sullivan. Although of common birth, at least as far as Daybreak was concerned, the combination of parentage and patronage ensured that Leo Morningstar would not only attend the Naval Academy but also survive a fight with then-Senior Cadet Francis Blackthrone that would otherwise have seen in expelled. The relationship between Leo and Francis Blackthrone would not end there, and their rivalry would cast a long shadow over the events of the following decade.

Seemingly having learned his lessons, Leo threw himself into training and graduated at the top of his class three years out of four, barely missing the chance to claim the Marty Sue Prize For Extreme Cleverness through a percentage point. A bright future beckoned for the young man, only to be swept away when it was discovered that he was having an affair with Fleur O’Hara, the wife of Commandant O’Hara. Unwilling to allow Leo to take part in the graduation ceremony, unable to find a way to demote him for bringing the Academy into dispute, Deputy Commandant Horace Valerian engineered an early promotion for Leo that came with a sting in the tail. On one hand, he would be put in effective command of RSS Waterhen, an outdated destroyer whose captain had effectively abandoned his post shortly after his assignment. On the other, he would be expected to take his new ship to the Yangtze Sector – hundreds of light years from Daybreak – and go into de facto exile.

It was not the first time that Leo’s libido had gotten him into trouble. It would not be the last.

His enemies thought they had engineered his effective destruction. They severely underestimated their target. Leo threw himself into doing his duty, escorting convoys, hunting down pirates, and eventually uncovering a plot to separate the sector from Daybreak and either demand better treatment or outright independence. Despite some missteps, including allowing himself to start a relationship with a young woman who later turned out to be one of the masterminds of the rebel plot, Leo successfully defended Daybreak’s presence in the sector and convinced his superiors to send reinforcements.

This may not have worked in his favour. The reinforcement squadron was commanded by Commodore Alexander Blackthrone, an uncle to Lieutenant-Commander Francis Blackthrone, and he wasted no time putting Leo in his place. His nephew was put in command of RSS Waterhen and Leo himself was expected to serve as his rival’s XO. The deployment did not go smoothly. Francis Blackthrone was ill-prepared for command, and made a handful of mistakes that eventually resulted in the near-destruction of the ship. Waterhen was only saved by Leo’s quick thinking.

One might expect this to win some plaudits and respect from a commanding officer. Instead, Francis Blackthrone assigned Leo to serve as naval liaison officer on Boulogne, a planet on the verge of civil war. Leo rapidly found himself on the front lines of a war when one side took advantage of Daybreak’s distraction to try to renegotiate the peace agreement that had been forced on them at gunpoint. Facing the near-total destruction of Daybreak’s allies, Leo devised a plan to turn the war around and decapitate the enemy forces. This plan was successful … but, in the meantime, Waterhen had been hijacked by rebel forces. Leo was forced to gamble everything on returning to his former ship, defeating the rebels, and returning to report to his superiors.

This victory did bring him some respect from Commodore Blackthrone. Leo’s command of Waterhen was confirmed (Francis, severely injured, was transferred to medical facilities on Yangtze). However, the ship was severely damaged by the final engagement and her crew – including Leo himself – were allowed a few weeks of leave before returning to their vessel. It should have been a time to relax. For Leo, a man of action, it was deeply boring. He was chaffing at the bit within a week.

Thankfully, unknown to him, he was about to meet a man who would be of singular importance in his future career… and embark on a mission that would change his life forever.

Prologue II

Gayle burned.

It was hard, very hard, to keep the rage and frustration from showing on her face as the shuttle neared her destination. She’d spent nearly a decade, since her father had brought her into the fold, working to undermine Daybreak’s control of the Yangtze Sector and ensure a better deal for locals who would otherwise be ruthlessly exploited by the most expansionist empire in human history, only to see the whole edifice come crashing down through the determination of a lone starship captain. Not even a real captain, to add insult to injury. Gayle didn’t pretend to understand the politics that had put a young man, barely out of his teens, in command of a warship, but she had to admit Daybreak had made a good call. Leo Morningstar had exposed the plot, destroyed several rebel warships, killed her father and forced Gayle herself to flee. And to think …

She ground her teeth, feeling the anger gnawing at her. She’d worked hard to present herself in a manner that would appeal to his prejudices, to make him want to like her and try to save her, and it had all come crashing down. She had known it was a gamble, when the rebels had taken Leo Morningstar into custody, but she’d thought she had it all under control. He hadn’t realised she was more than just a pretty face, not until it was too late, and she’d hoped their relationship would convince him to join her. The plot had always been risky – and they’d known they could easily lose right from the start – and the open support of the ranking officer in the sector could have made the difference between success and failure. And she’d failed. Her world remained in Daybreak’s clutches, her father was dead and the family corporation under new management … and she was on the run. She didn’t know if Daybreak knew she’d survived, but they hadn’t found a body. They’d be wise to assume she was still alive.

Not that there’d be much to recover from an exploding starship, she thought, the anger giving way to bitterness. Her father had died on the outdated heavy cruiser, his body vaporised. They’d done what they could to convince investigators every named figure in the plot had been on that ship, but the story was just a little too convenient. And they know there’s a growing rebellion even if they don’t know everyone involved.

It would be easy to give up, she reflected. She was a young woman with plenty of useful skills … skills she’d been careful to hide from Leo Morningstar, at least until the masks were off and they saw each other clearly for the first time. Her papers marked her out as a qualified technician and starship engineer, ensuring she could make a living almost anywhere. She could even find a homestead on a stage-one colony world, running a farm and raising a small army of children and stepping out of history once and for all. She wasn’t tempted. She knew how much her father had sacrificed, and the rest of his allies, in a desperate bid to save the sector from the empire. If they had been able to secure their position, and ask for membership as an autonomous world …

Bad rolls of the dice are inevitable, she thought, sourly. Leo had said that once, when he’d talked about his exile from Daybreak. An exile to glory, more like. If Leo wasn’t the most famous young man of his generation, it was a reflection on the enemy’s media rather than the young man himself. You just have to pick yourself up, learn from the experience, and move on.

She let out a breath as the shuttle docked, the gravity field shivering slightly. She wasn’t one to give up. Daybreak knew they existed now, true, but they wouldn’t change their approach to the sector just because some locals objected to being annexed. There was even a theory going round the underground arguing that Daybreak had deliberately baited the rebels into striking, in order to expose and destroy them. It might well be true. Leo hadn’t known anything of it, Gayle was sure, but he was hardly the most subtle thinker. His superiors might have had more in mind when they sent him into exile than just getting rid of him. Even if they hadn’t … it had paid off for them.

The hatch hissed open. A masked figure appeared, beckoning for her to stand and follow him. Gayle unbuckled herself and stood, feeling the deck shifting slightly below her feet … a slightly lower than normal gravity field, unusual beyond the edge of civilised space. It frustrated her, sometimes, that she had no idea who their backers truly were, but she understood the importance of secrecy. Daybreak wouldn’t hesitate to drop a hammer – or a flurry of kinetic projectiles – on any world that backed the rebels, and very few autonomous worlds could stand up to the Daybreak Navy for long. Their backers had to remain unknown, even to her. What she didn’t know she couldn’t be made to tell.

Her escort led her through two airlocks and into a space station. The bulkheads were bare, scoured of anything that might identify the station’s designers. It was probably pointless – most ships and stations in the region had passed through several pairs of hands before reaching their final destination – but it was better to be careful. Daybreak’s investigators had uncovered a handful of assets Gayle, and her father, had thought well-hidden. If they got a solid ID on a ship or a station, they might just be able to trace it back to the buyer.

The conference room was as bare as the rest of the station, a simple metal table flanked by two metal chairs. A tray sat on the table, holding a jug of water and a pair of simple plastic glasses, but there were no other comforts. There wasn’t even a holographic projector. Gayle’s lips twitched as she took her seat. The Cognoscenti – it was the only name she’d ever been given – were taking paranoia a little too far. If the space station was uncovered, and the crew failed to destroy it, the barren compartment would be the least of their worries.

She took a moment to calm herself, then looked up as the other hatch hissed open. A figure stepped into the chamber, wearing a mask and robes that made it impossible to get any idea of everything from their gender to their figure. They could be a heavy-worlder with a genetically-engineered body, making the outfit very tight, or they could be a tiny space-dweller wearing garb that looked and felt like a tent. There were no markings on the outfit, nothing to suggest their homeworld. It crossed her mind to wonder if she were dealing with aliens. There were no intelligent races in the known universe – save for humanity, and humanity’s intelligence was often in question – but it wasn’t impossible. Dozens of worlds had given birth to higher-order animal life forms. Why not an intelligent race?

Not impossible, she told herself. Just very unlikely.

“Greetings,” the representative said. She’d expected a toneless voice, but the figure spoke with a very definite Daybreak accent. That little detail would put the cat amongst the pigeons, if she were captured and forced to talk. The accent was probably designed to taunt the investigators. It was a little too stereotypical to be wholly real. “I am Cognoscenti.”

“Greetings,” Gayle said, as the figure glided over and sat facing her. The voice was masculine, suggesting she was dealing with a man. Or a woman with altered vocal cords or a simple voice changer. Either was possible. “Thank you for seeing me.”

“We have supplied ships and repair services to your forces,” Cognoscenti said, without any further pleasantries. “You have lost several vessels in engagements with Daybreak. Worse, Daybreak is now aware that someone is funding your operations. Why should we continue to support you?”

Gayle took a moment to calm herself before answering. The tone was flat, rather than accusatory, but somehow that made it worse. She hated the thought of being dependent on anyone, let alone a mysterious group hiding behind a strange name, yet there was little choice. Yangtze had barely started to rebuild her space-based industry when Daybreak arrived and she’d been one of the most advanced planets in the sector. There was an entire underground economy, true, but there were limits to how much it could provide. Gayle wouldn’t care to trust a vessel produced in a secret yard, even assuming the yard managed to put a starship together in the first place. They needed their supporters, despite the risks.

“We lost a battle,” she conceded, without allowing a hint of her angry and frustration into her voice. “There’s no point in denying it. However, the war is not lost and the ultimate cause of the war remains unaddressed. If we do not fight, this sector will be annexed completely and you, whoever you are, will remain under their thumb. Forever.”

She waited, studying Cognoscenti. His mask hid his reaction and yet … he had to be worried. No autonomous world truly believed they would be allowed to remain autonomous forever, no matter the terms of their annexation into the empire. Daybreak had spent decades pushing its military and economic power into every last incorporated sector, ensuring its corporations had the edge over their local counterparts, and it was just a matter of time before they started doing the same to the autonomous worlds. They had to be tempting targets. Planets like New Washington and Edo were extremely wealthy, by interstellar standards. And they didn’t have the military power to defend themselves if Daybreak wanted the wealth for themselves.

“We still have a large reserve of manpower,” she added. “The United Front has been recruiting aggressively. We have thousands of motivated starship crewmen and soldiers, ready and willing to fight for the cause; they just needed to be trained, armed, and supplied with ships they can use to take the fight to the enemy. If you support us, we can liberate ourselves.”

Or ensure a constant running sore that’ll keep Daybreak from bullying you while they’re dealing with us, she added, in the privacy of her own mind. She wasn’t blind to the simple reality the Cognoscenti wouldn’t be funding the United Front if they didn’t stand to gain from their victory. Or even a prolonged and ultimately inconclusive conflict. If we buy time for you, you can make best use of it while our mutual enemy is distracted.

“Every ship we send does raise the spectre of the vessel being tracked back to its point of origin,” Cognoscenti pointed out. “Can you ensure it doesn’t happen?”

“The ships have passed through so many hands that tracing them is a difficult and ultimately impossible task,” Gayle pointed out. “Quite frankly, if that was a concern you wouldn’t have supplied us with any ships.”

She winced, inwardly. Her father and his allies had created a network of shell corporations and other measures to obtain some ships, passing the vessels through several hands to obscure their origins as much as possible. It wasn’t clear how well they’d covered their tracks. It was clear that many of those vessels had been outdated, dangerously vulnerable to modern warships. They’d refitted the starships as best they could, but still … Daybreak had the edge. That had to change.

Cognoscenti spoke with a quiet intensity. “It is vitally important that you move to destabilise the sector as much as possible, and for that we will increase our efforts to supply you. Daybreak must be distracted.”

Gayle allowed herself a tight smile. “If you continue your support, Daybreak will be more than just distracted,” she promised. The plan was risky, but what wasn’t? And if it allowed her to get a little personal revenge into the bargain …  “I have a plan.”

“Very good,” Cognoscenti said. “Do not fail us.”

Chapter One

Leo hated to admit it, but he was bored.

Two weeks of shore leave felt like agony, and he was only halfway through. There was little to do on Yangtze that didn’t bring back memories of Gayle, and just how much of a fool he’d made of himself when he’d thought her a sweet young lady unfairly held back by her society, and in truth he would sooner be throwing himself into Waterhen’s refit than sitting in the bar nursing a glass of beer and feeling sorry for himself. He had no idea if Commodore Blackthrone was genuinely trying to punish Leo by insisting he took leave, or if he were genuinely trying to help, but it didn’t matter. He was bored and lonely and just plain desperate for something – anything – to happen.

He sighed as he sat back in his seat, allowing his eyes to wander the bar. It was a spacer’s bar: the air heavy with tobacco smoke, the drinks high in price and low in quality, spacer rotgut competing with local beer and a handful of dubious-looking bottles of wine. Leo had never heard of any of the brands, particularly the bottles marked Caballus Eniru, but none looked worth half the price. The barmaids didn’t look worth it either. Spacers going on leave after weeks in interstellar space developed new standards of beauty, but there were limits. Not that it would matter to a merchant spacer, he supposed. The spaceport strip was meant to separate the spacer from his money as quick and pleasantly as possible, and it did it very well. It just wasn’t suitable for him.

You’re being an ass, he told himself, curtly. Stop it.

His mood darkened. There was little to do. He didn’t fancy the brothel, or the entertainment complex, or even going for a wander around Yangtze City. It had expanded rapidly in the last six months, so quickly that Leo had wondered if he’d landed in the wrong place when he disembarked from the shuttle, but it still served largely as a transhipment point rather than a settlement in its own right. The new colonists were being farmed out as quickly as possible, rather than being allowed to remain in the city. It would be decades, at best, before the planet started developing real cities. Some planets never did.

Two men started shouting, loudly. Leo looked up, half-expecting a fight. He’d been in enough bar fights during his misspent youth and … he shook his head, cursing under his breath. He really was too bored. The days in which he could trade blows with a merchant spacer, spend the night in the clink and be released the following day to face a stern lecture from his instructors were over. He was Commander Morningstar now. He had to set a good example for everyone else.

Sure, his thoughts mocked. You can set an example of what not to do.

The brief conflict died away as the barmaids hurried over, breaking up the fighters before they could do more than shout at each other and separating them with practiced skill. Leo was mildly impressed. The barmaids back home generally hid behind the bar and called the Shore Patrol, who could be relied upon to stun first and ask questions later. But then, Yangtze was nowhere near as developed as Daybreak and there were still relatively few spacers passing through. It would change in the next few decades, he was sure. The sector had a great deal of potential. A little investment and technological help and it would be well on the way to success.

“Leo Morningstar?”

Leo flinched, one hand dropping to the pistol at his belt. The newcomer had snuck up on him while he was fighting … Boothroyd would make fun of him, respectfully of course, if he ever heard about it. The Sergeant Major was on a forced march with the new recruits, drilling them ruthlessly; Leo wished, suddenly, that he’d asked to accompany them. The march would be many things, but it wouldn’t be boring.

“Yes,” he said, looking up. “What can I do for you?”

The newcomer smiled and sat facing Leo. He was a middle-aged man, appearing to be in his late forties. The streak of grey in his brown hair leant him an air of simple dignity, as well as marking him as a Daybreaker. It was possible to use cosmetic surgery to turn yourself into the most breathtakingly attractive person in the world, but such vanity was frowned upon on Daybreak. His tunic was Daybreaker too, so plain Leo knew it was part of a deliberate attempt to present himself in a certain way. The only adornment was a service pin, pinned to his collar, that proved he’d done his service and earned citizenship. It could be anything from front-line combat to cleaning the sewers, Leo reflected, but it deserved respect all the same.

“I am Senator Tiberius Quinton,” the newcomer said. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Leo blinked, then straightened automatically. He’d never been that keen on memorising the names and faces of citizens who ran for elected office, particularly the ones who’d done their service and retired rather than keeping their skin in the game, but even he had heard of Tiberius Quinton. He was not just a ‘new man,’ a man whose family had never entered politics before him; he was one of the very few senators who’d campaigned without support from the long-established families and patronage networks. His victory had been one hell of an impressive achievement. It had to have rankled some of the older families the wrong way.

“Likewise,” he managed. Quinton would have had military experience, then. His opponent would not have failed to make a song and dance about Quinton lacking moral fibre, if he hadn’t put his own ass in the line of fire once or twice. “I had no idea you were coming.”

“I’m travelling incognito,” Quinton said. “You’d better check my ID before we go any further.”

Leo felt himself flush as he took the badge of office and pressed it against his wristcom. It had been months since he’d seen a news report with Quinton’s face and it was just possible he was dealing with an imposter … the answer came back a moment later, the military datanet confirming Quinton’s true identity. Leo returned the badge and sat back in his chair, feeling oddly unsure of himself. Normally, there would be a ceremony for a senatorial visitor. The fact Quinton had apparently refused one was … interesting.

“You appear to be you,” he said. It wasn’t that uncommon for senators to brush shoulders with their constituents on Daybreak, but that was hundreds of light years away. “Why didn’t you announce your arrival?”

“I’m on a fact-finding mission, and it’s sometimes easier to learn what’s really going on if you don’t arrive as dramatically as possible,” Quinton said. He had a personable air that made Leo want to like him. “It’s very easy to find someone willing to tell me what they think I want to hear, harder to get the truth.”

“And many people can’t handle the truth,” Leo said. Commodore Blackthrone had not been pleased by Leo’s report covering his nephew’s many failings, although he’d been man enough not to punish Leo for imprudence. Unless the shore leave was punishment … “What sort of truth do you want to hear?”

Quinton reached into his pocket, produced a privacy generator, and placed it on the table. Leo felt a faintly uncomfortable sensation brushing against his eardrums as the generator activated, creating a faint haze of visual and electromagnetic distortion that should make it impossible for anyone to overhear them. Even lip-reading was supposed to be impossible. Leo reminded himself not to place too much faith in the device. The security and intelligence services of a dozen planets would be trying to find ways to beat the field, if they hadn’t already succeeded. They wouldn’t gloat about it if they had. They’d keep it to themselves as long as possible.

“Tell me,” Quinton said. “What do you think of this sector? Politically speaking?”

Leo kept his face under tight control. Daybreakers were taught to be direct … and Quinton had clearly taken those lessons to heart. And he’d opened with a tricky subject … Leo could easily get in trouble for answering honestly, although he had an excellent defence. It was a major crime to refuse to answer questions from a senator, if he posed them. He’d be fined heavily at the very least, and given he had enemies back home the consequences would likely be a great deal more severe.

“It’s hard to say,” Leo said, after a moment. “Some locals have accepted the annexation and are trying to work with us, to ensure the process is beneficial to both sides. Others resent the loss of their independence, fear what we might do to them, or … simply don’t like us. Most governments, from what I’ve seen, aren’t very pleased even if they benefit from our presence. Their people rarely support us.”

Quinton cocked his head. “How many demands do we make of them?”

“Obedience,” Leo said. “The sector doesn’t have that much to offer, not yet, but we demand they follow our rules and … I imagine it rankles, even if there are good reasons behind the rules. We push them around a lot, imposing our laws and demanding that they grant our people and corporations extraterritorial rights.”

“I don’t think you need to imagine at all,” Quinton said.

Leo sucked in his breath. Quinton was perceptive.

“No,” he said. “I know it for a fact.”

He sighed, inwardly. It was easy to understand what had driven Gayle and her father to take such desperate measures, gambling everything on a plot to force a better deal from the all-powerful empire forcing its way into their sector. He was a loyal Daybreaker, and he understood the reasoning behind the creation of a de facto empire, but he couldn’t help feeling they were storing up trouble for themselves. Daybreak had brought some benefits to the sector, from saving failing colonies to hunting down pirates, yet it had also brought severe disadvantages. And the benefits and disadvantages had not been spread evenly.

“No,” Quinton agreed. “Do you think there’s anything we can do about it?”

“No,” Leo said. He shook his head. “I mean … we could stop being us, but …”

He shrugged, helplessly. The Great Interstellar War had taught the human race a very important lesson. Political disunity could not be allowed, and while many worlds could handle their own internal affairs without interference they couldn’t be permitted to do things that would cause interstellar incidents, perhaps even a second war that would bring humanity to the brink of extinction once again. Sure, there were small changes that could be made, but … it would be difficult to convince Daybreak to change course. Too much money and political power was tied up in keeping matters just the way they were.

“We could keep from giving our corporations protection as they force their way into local markets,” he mused. “But will they go along with it?”

“They may have to,” Quinton said. “The current situation is unsustainable.”

Leo blinked. He’d heard it before, from rebels and dissidents, but to hear it from a Daybreaker was shocking. Quinton wouldn’t have completed his service, let alone run for office and won, if he hadn’t been deeply committed to making the system work. And yet, he was calling the existence of the entire system into question?

“The autonomous worlds are increasingly resentful,” Quinton said, quietly. “We tax them, we supervise them, we ensure they labour under the burden of unequal treaties … and yet, they have no say in our government. We strip them of their best and brightest, leaving them with the dregs as our society benefits from skilled, capable and determined immigrants. And when they dare complain about it, we send the military to give them a spanking. Why should they not hate and resent us?”

He paused, letting his words hang in the air. “And those worlds have at least some degree of freedom. What about the colonies and settlements that have no freedom at all?”

Leo felt disorientated, as if the discussion had taken a turn in a very unexpected direction. It was … part of him wanted to stand up and leave, fearing that Quinton was leading him into very dangerous waters, and part of him knew he had to listen. The whole affair was so strange he felt as though he’d walked through the looking glass into a world where up was down, white was black, and two plus two equalled banana. The Navy was comparatively understandable, if only because he’d been in uniform for the last five years. This …

He sucked in his breath. “Should you be talking to me about this?”

“Interesting question,” Quinton said. “You were the ranking officer in this sector. You’re a loyalist, and no one can suggest otherwise, but you’re also young enough not to be wedded to the way things are. And you’re clear-eyed enough to see the trouble we’re storing up for ourselves.”

Leo shivered. He’d had the exact same thought.

Quinton smiled, a brief sharp expression crossing his face before fading again. “And I am a Senator, with the right to ask questions of whomever I please,” he added. “Who can argue otherwise?”

“True,” Leo conceded. “But I am only one man.”

“And a hero, back home,” Quinton said. “Your word could influence the debates, when they take place.”

“If they do,” Leo said.

“I’m going to put my hat in the ring for Consul, in the next few years,” Quinton said. “It will be an interesting election season, to be sure. If I win, or one of the few who agree with me wins in my place, the matter will be raised. I suspect the vast majority of Daybreakers don’t understand how bad things are getting, even a mere few light years from home, and the debates will make the problem clear to them. Your voice will help influence matters, when the final vote is taken.”

My patron may have something to say about that, Leo thought. Where does he stand on the matter?

It wasn’t a question he could ask. Not openly.

“If you do, I’ll be happy to testify,” he said, instead. The Senate could compel testimony. There was no point in trying to resist. “However …”

“We will be going up against some very vested interests,” Quinton said, interrupting. “I won’t deny it. There are a great many politicians and military officers who benefit greatly from the current situation. But the constitution is not a suicide pact. We work to unite the human race to prevent another catastrophic war and laying the seeds for future conflict will eventually undermine our project beyond the point of return. We dare not fight a civil war. Even if we win, we lose.”

Leo nodded, slowly. The Daybreak Navy was powerful enough to take on every other navy in the known galaxy and win, but the cost would be high and there’d be little left of humanity’s former unity when the dust settled. He couldn’t even begin to work out how such a war would progress, or what would happen when – if – the combatants started using planet-killing weapons. Again. There were worlds that had been destroyed during the last war, their populations slaughtered ruthlessly, and few had recovered to the point they could be resettled. And planet-killing weapons were a hell of a lot more destructive now.

“Someone is already playing games,” he mused. “We still don’t know who is backing the rebels.”

“I could give you a list of suspects,” Quinton said. “If Intelligence has narrowed it down any, they haven’t told me.”

Leo made a face. Intelligence would have told Quinton, if they had a solid idea of just who had sold warships and weapons to the rebels. They would have been relieved to prove their worth after successive failures, too. But if they didn’t know … whoever was behind the operation had covered their tracks very well. There would be a breakthrough eventually, Leo was sure, but when? He had no idea.

“That has to be stopped,” Quinton added. “Our hard-liners are already using it as an excuse to avoid granting more latitude to incorporated worlds, and if we don’t hunt the rebels down and identify their backers they’re only going to get worse. The citizens won’t listen to pleas for mercy and understanding if they’re mourning their dead and counting the cost. Why should they?”

He leaned back in his chair. “I don’t mean to place all this on you,” he added. “And I don’t expect you to take a stand against your patron, if he chooses to do so. But if there is anything you can do to help defuse this ticking time bomb before it’s too late, please do. We have no idea when the bomb is going to explode, but it will.”

Leo nodded, his insides churning. “I understand.”

“Glad you do.” Quinton picked up the generator and pocketed it, then stood. “It was nice to meet you, Commander, and I hope I can count on your vote when the time comes.”

He strode away before Leo could answer, walking out of the bar. Leo stared after him, unsure what had just happened. He’d missed something, he was sure, but what? The whole conversation had left him on edge, as if he knew he was in trouble without being entirely sure for what. It was just … strange, and yet … he finished his drink and stood himself, brushing down his tunic. He’d go back to Naval HQ, read the news reports, and then wait for the call to duty.

But he couldn’t help feeling unsure, as he made his way into the open air, if he’d dodged a bullet …

Or stepped right into the line of fire.

In reply to Alicia W..

Yes, you can (slightly) increase essentia capacity through conditioning and strength training. But it’s usually not as much as people would like, and you eventually hit a point of diminishing returns where you can’t realistically push it any higher.

In reply to Kevin.

Good spot on your part. Yes, and you’ll find out the details this autumn when Book #3 comes out.

In reply to Skeeve.

There are some methods, though they’re pretty esoteric and aren’t in common use.

Emily Maguire’s new novel, Rapture, takes as its inspiration the legend of Pope Joan, reworking key elements of the myth to create a brilliant work of great power and beauty.

The story starts in 9th-century Mainz, Germany, where Agnes lives with her father, an English priest. Although his vows include celibacy, Agnes’s father has slept with a local Saxon woman, but her death in childbirth has left him with the responsibility of raising his daughter. Unusually for that time, Agnes is given an education, listening to the intellectual debates at her father’s dinner table. At one of these dinners, she meets Brother Randulf, a monk from Fulda Abbey, and thus begins their relationship. After her father’s untimely death, Randulf agrees to help Agnes disguise herself as a man to become a Benedictine monk. As Brother John, Agnes starts down the path that will lead her to becoming the head of the Roman Catholic church.

There is so much that is compelling about this novel. The writing is absolutely beautiful and often poetic in its intensity. Characterisation is intimate and believable, and Agnes’s perspective gives us a close insight into her views and feelings. The power of the novel lies in this range: Agnes is a person of huge intellect, but it is also her journey to womanhood, something that she initially represses, that becomes a key focus – with tragic consequences. The novel always bears its research lightly; we see the often-conflicted world of the monasteries, alongside the disintegration of the Carolingian dynasty after the death of Charlemagne and the terrible consequences of the ensuing civil war. Maguire depicts some horrific moments with artistic sensitivity and, as much as violence is a part of this world, its inclusion is never gratuitous.

This is a fabulous book for any serious reader of literary historical fiction. Very highly recommended.

The post Rapture appeared first on Historical Novel Society.

Singapore, 1963. What can you say about a young woman, Siew Li, who walked away, without warning, from her twin children and husband? Jeremy Tiang says a lot as he weaves an always gripping and mostly grim story of people caught up in the long conflict between the forces of the right and left.

That the right won and steered Singapore through a rapid and rare transformation from third world to first is well-known. The story of the communist insurgence in Singapore and Malaysia has faded from public memory, despite works such as Anthony Burgess’s Malayan Trilogy and Yeng Pway Ngon’s Unrest. State of Emergency is a rich addition to this meagre literature.

Told from multiple viewpoints, linked stories connect small, human acts and place them against a larger narrative of ordinary people trapped in times when torture, murder, and massacre are condoned. From the opening scene, the historical MacDonald House bombing, to a fictional end in which Siew Li’s son gets as close to her as he ever will, this is a remarkable blend of the sweep of history and the minutiae of people’s lives.

There is a version of history which peddles the idea that the American invasion of Vietnam could have learned much from the more successful British-led intervention in Malaya. The survivors of Batang Kali (one of whom becomes a narrator for a while) would, of course, disagree. This novel gives them – and the dead – a voice.

I was left wanting to know much more about Siew Li than the author has revealed, even though she tells the story for some stints. There are surprising bloopers about the time zone in Thailand and a jungle being silent at night. On the balance, these are immaterial defects in this great work of historical fiction.

The post State of Emergency appeared first on Historical Novel Society.