A Review of Brad Sinor's Where the Shadows Began

Where the Shadows Began
Bradley H. Sinor
Merry Blacksmith Press
tp, 182 p., $13.95

I'd intended to run this review in conjunction with an interview I conducted with Brad and his wife Sue.  Unfortunately, Brad suffered a stroke about the time I finished transcribing the interview, so he hasn't had a chance to check it for accuracy (there were a couple of places where the recording isn't clear).  I have no intention of rushing him.  I'd much rather he focus on getting back on his feet.

In the meantime, I will run this review, partly as a show of support for Brad and partly because I try to find things I think the readers of this blog will enjoy.  And there's plenty here to enjoy.

Bradley H. Sinor is mainly a writer of short stories.  This volume contains 15 selections, plus an afterward telling a little about how each story came to be written.  There's a wide variety here, from Lovecraftian horror, to alternate history, to Arthurian vampires.

Rather than give a synopsis, even a one line synopsis, of each story, I'll highlight some of my favorites.

Vampires of the Carribean

Cast in Dark Waters
Ed Gorman and Tom Piccirilli
various ebook formats, $2.99
Kindle  Nook Smashwords

In spite of the fact that this is a fairly short piece of fiction (less than 19,000 words), Cast in Dark Waters is one of the best weird pirate stories I've ever read.  The characters, particularly the protagonist, Crimson, seemed to almost walk off the page, they came across so real. 

Crimson is a lady pirate, widowed, who is the toughest, most dangerous buccaneer in the Carribean.  The plot is straightforward.  An Englishman, having taken up the life of a Virginia tobacco farmer, has found out that his daughter has run away from finishing school in England with a notorious pirate.  He and his wife have come seeking Crimson's help in finding her.  The pair of lovers are rumored to be staying on an island with a dark reputation.  Supposedly the undead also inhabit the island.

And Crimson's former husband may be among them.

Sailing on the Carpathia

Carpathia
Matt Forbeck
Angry Robot Books
UK/RoW
1 March 2012
384pp B-format paperback, £7.99

US/CAN
28 February 2012
384pp trade paperback
$12.99 US / $14.99 CAN

eBook
28 February 2012, £4.49

That movie by James Cameron a few years back kind of cooled my interest in the Titanic.  Matt Forbeck has rekindled it.  It seems the shipwreck was only the beginning.  The real nightmare started after the Carpathia picked up the survivors.  The ship was infested with vampires trying to return to the safety of the  old world.  Can you say smorgasbord?  Now why couldn't Cameron have filmed that part of the story?  It would have made a much more interesting movie than that sappy love story.  Oh, well.  To each his own.

This is the story of Quentin Harker, Abe Holmwood, and Lucy Seward (perhaps you've heard of their parents?), who are traveling to America.  Abe and Lucy, engaged to be married, will travel the continent until Lucy starts college in the fall, at which time Abe will return home to England and wait for his bride-to-be to finish school.  Quin will seek employment in a law firm in New York. 

She Takes After Her Parents More Than Her Brother Does

The Third Section
Jasper Kent
Pyr Books
Trade Paper, 479 p., $17.95

Okay, I know what I want for Christmas.  A time machine.  That way I can go forward in time and pick up copies of the next two volumes of the Danilov Chronicles and read them.  Now.  Because I don't want to wait.  Jasper Kent says on his website that the next two books won't be out until 2013 (provisional title, The People's Will) and 2014 (provisional title The Last Oprichnik).  The world could end before then (like next year, maybe?), and then what would I do?

Oh, well, nothing much I can do about publication schedules.  Instead let me encourage you to start reading this series if you haven't already.  Each book is different than the last, but if Kent continues to maintain the quality he has so far, this series will be greater than the sum of its parts.

And if you haven't read either of the preceding books, Twelve and Thirteen Years Later, reviewed here and here, this review will contain spoilers for those two but not The Third Section.

Sins of the Fathers

Thirteen Years Later
Jasper Kent
Pyr Books, 511 p., $17.00

...He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.
                                                    Num. 14:18b (NAS)



I recently reviewed Twelve, the first book in what is being called the Danilov Quintet.  In that review, I stated that I thought Twelve was one of the best vampire novels I had read in a long time.  So the question to be addressed now is:  Does Thirteen Years Later live up to the standard of Twelve?

Not Your Daughter's Vampires

Twelve
Jasper Kent
Pyr
446p., $17.00

I generally avoid new offerings in the vampire genre the way vampires avoid garlic.  Not that I don't like vampires.  I kinda do.  I just don't like what Stephanie Meyers and her imitators have made of them.  Call me a traditionalist, but I prefer my undead to be evil.  They can be alluring to some of the characters because that adds to the danger and suspense in the tale, but as long term or safe romantic interests, no thanks.

I picked this book up on the basis of the cover.  It's eye catching, and the blurb about the story being set against Napoleon's invasion of Russia piqued my interest.  I was not disappointed.  This is one of the best books I've read in a while, and one of the best vampire books I've read in years.  The vampires are vile, evil, not to be trusted, and for the most part, not romantic.  They don't glitter in sunlight, they burst into flame, and they have no romantic appeal.  Just the opposite, in fact.  In other words, these are not your daughter's vampires.  These are the real thing.  So to speak.