Ghosts In A Desert World - Review

Matthew Tait is one of those Australian speculative and horror fiction personalities that has always intrigued me. He's a smart guy, and his views and opinions of what is going on in Australasian literature are worth noting. I was pleased to pick up a copy of his freshly released collection of short stories Ghosts In A Desert World

It's currently free on Amazon, but they tend to only allow you a free give away for 5 days at a time. The collection is worth acquiring, even if you do end up paying for it.

There are names that get tossed about when one is reviewing horror writers. Matheson is a good example, I've been compared to the late master myself. Tait does have some of the classic gore elements of Matheson present and very correct, but he also has that wonderful element usually found in the short stories of Joe R. Lansdale.

Remember when Lansdale wrote really fucked up fiction? His collection BY BIZARRE HANDS remains one of my favourite short story collections. The comparisons between Tait and Lansdale come when you experience the dread that both manage to so easily create. Tait's stories put us in a world that could be just around the corner for any of us. The country road, the small town, the invevitable outcome of too much popular culture, and a complete disregard for the sanctity of human life.

If I have one gripe with the collection it is that it is too Americanised. There are stories set in Australia, but they have American protagonists. The ones set in familiar locations of the USA are fine, but I wonder if they were written for an American market, which is disappointing as there is a good market for Australian horror of quality.

Tait loves gore, there's nothing here that focuses on suspense or only superanatural elements. It's visceral, every fleck of blood, every carefully orchestrated slash of a throat, or a wrist or a disembowling (which seems to be a personal favourite of the author) is well choreographed and adds to the intensity of the story. Not two characters are the same in this collection. The only common ground they share is folks from various walks of life finding themselves in situations that they didn't plan on, facing foes so unspeakably fucked up that you understand them thinking that this is some nightmare they have to wake up from.

Final verdict, a good gore filled collection of strong horror stories. The writing is competent and imaginative. The stories deliver and the blood just drips from every page.

Read it. You shouldn't be disappointed.

Subject of Scholarly Research

This is a book report written by Cameron Barnes (of Alloa, Scotland) Age 14

Tankbread
By Paul Mannering

The front cover of this book is well designed. It has a green background and what looks like bubbles of chemicals and a DNA helix at the front. Then at the top you have the title TANKBREAD in bold letters. The cover makes me want to read as the author has thought about the colours and the detail very well and made it look fantastic. The blurb tells us that the book is set in a post-apocalyptic world where zombies wreak havoc. It also tells us about an outlaw courier and a cloned woman called Else and their desperate quest across the wasteland of Australia.
The blurb gives you a good image of what the book will be like and pulled me into reading it. The first chapter tells us where The Courier is and what he’s doing. It also tells us that there are two kinds of zombies. There are Zombies that are more intelligent and can talk and ones that are more typical shamblers. The first chapter gives us an insight into the mind of Mannering. It’s dark and gruesome in here! The first chapter want me want to read more as it sounds like a thrill ride.

Tankbread Reviews

I got three pre-published reviews for Tankbread.

One from Jonathan Maberry. one from David Moody and one from Rocky Wood (President of the Horror Writers Association and best selling author in his own right).

They all loved Tankbread. It's the best thing about horror writers. Even though it's a cut throat market out there, they are always prepared to write a good review of some little fish's book. I hope one day I can be in their position and do the same thing for someone else.

Cover Review

Tankbread

on Google+

You have to push yourself in writing and publishing to get the results you want. Successful writers work their arses off and do things that might be unexpected in order to succeed. Not every thing works, but somethings do.

Case in point, I now have a few fine words from New York Times best selling author Jonathan Maberry for the cover of Tankbread. He liked it.

After Lights Out

I'm going to write a series of short story essays. Kind of an author's notes for the stories found in my short story collection.

The first story is 'After Lights Out.'

Set in a private boys school, this story explores the issues of discipline and the generation gap that exists between adolescents and the senior teachers. My family went to boarding school. My brother was a senior when I started at Nelson College. It was very Lord of The Flies. I could write an entire book about it - but it might end up banned. I only went to boarding school for one year. After that my parents decided to move me and my older sister back to a co-ed school in the city we had moved to from the farm I grew up on.

Violence is common in boarding schools. Angry young men in a strict hierarchical system it's quite Darwinian. I broke another kid's leg in a fight. 


Because it's fiction I take the story of After Lights Out to a different level. I like the idea of insanity from the madman's point of view. I think there is a definite sense of clarity in irrational acts. It goes beyond justification - the truly crazy are doing exactly what they know to be right. It's an evangelical state of mind. Everything becomes black and white and the consequences are irrelevant - because the absolute knowledge that you are right.

So we are treated to a clear descent into madness, or senility or is it just the kind of discipline that the youth of today really need? It's the complete calmness of the protagonist that is the unsettling element.

Amazon Reviews

It occurs to me, reading the Amazon reviews of books that I might buy - anything in the 4-5 star strata is automatically ignored. Those people have ignored the faults in the book.

The 3 star raters are apologising for not drinking the Koolaide and loving it.

But the 1-2 star reviewers. Those are the people who read critically.

The ones who hated you since Kindergarten - well they stand out and can be ignored. But this is the reviews you should be reading. They are the ones that note the faults, the flaws and the stupid editing you did.

I often click Yes this was helpful in the reviews - because it is from our critics that we learn. It's a kind of tough-love for a lot of writers.

The recent ROFL of the internet community over Big Al's review of The Greek Seaman is a classic example. The author should have read the review, and gone back and used it to critically edit her own work. Instead she got into a flame war that destroyed her credibility as a writer and invoked an enthusiastic popcorn-munching crowd of specators revelling in someone publically humiliating themselves, over and over again.