Darkness Falling, A Review of Peter Crowther's Latest Novel

Darkness Falling
Peter Crowther
Angry Robot Books
US/Canada 27 Sep 2011
400 pp trade paperback $12.99 US/ $14.99 Canada
UK 6 Oct 2011
464 pp B-format paperback    L7.99
ebook 27 Sep 2011 L4.99/$5.99

As and editor and publisher, Peter Crowther has few peers.  His accomplishments in these fields have overshadowed his work as a writer.  He tends to write primarily in the horror genre, and this latest novel is no exception.

The publisher classifies it as science fiction on the book's webpage, and I have no argument with that designation.  However, I've chosen to review it here rather than on Futures Past and Present, my science fiction blog, because as a scientist I'm a little skeptical about some of the things that happen.  Since Angry Robot classified Roil as a fantasy and I reviewed it as science fiction (which I maintain it is), I figure this just evens things out.

With Halloween approaching, this book fits the season well.

How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse, Viking Style

Viking Dead
Toby Venables
Abaddon Books, 351 p. $9.99

We're rather fond of vikings here at Adventures Fantastic, so when I saw this in the store, I knew I had to at least consider giving it a try.  After reading a sample in the middle, I took it home (after paying for it, of course) and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

While I've not gone in much for the current zombie craze, that might start changing, especially if I can find more stuff that's this well written.  For a first novel, Toby Venables sets himself a hard act to follow.

The story concerns a grew of down on their luck vikings, led by a man named Bjolf.  The book opens with a raid on a small village.  The only problem is a rival crew of vikings got there first.  Bjolf and his crew end up fleeing for their lives, but not before acquiring a stowaway, a thirteen year old boy from the village named Atli, who just wants to escape his overbearing father.

Pursued into a fog, Bjolf and and his men lose their bearings and are only able to find land after a raven lands on their ship and they follow it to shore and into a fjord.  They're not sure where they are, but it's no place they want to be.  This is something they quickly discover when one of the crew is attacked by a draugr, an animated dead body.  Seems the woods are crawling with them.