Reviews
review by Deon van Heerden
| Published by Rebellion/Solaris
PB 384 pages
RRP £7.99 (Kindle £5.36)
The Recollection's interesting approach to light speed travel and its physical and emotional implications is convincing and well-sustained. Its three primary plots often interact in surprising - and, in one instance, startling - ways. |
From Issue 18 (Feb 2012) |
Posted in Reviews | 
Tags: Deon van Heerden, Gareth L Powell, Issue 18, The Recollection | 
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review by Karen Jeynes
| edited by Anne C. Perry and Jared Shurin
Published by Jurassic London
PB 288 pages
RRP £14.99 (Kindle £2.48)
I’ve always believed that giving writers a tight brief sparks them to greater heights of creativity and innovation, and this anthology is evidence to just that. This collection brings together a wide array of voices with writing inspired by John Martin’s apocalyptic paintings. Among the mix of contributors are South Africans Lauren Beukes, SL Grey, Charlie Human and Sam Wilson. |
From Issue 17 (Jan 2012 |
Posted in Reviews | Tags: Anne C. Perry, Issue 17, Jared Shurin, Karen Jeynes, Pandemonium | Comments Closed
by Vianne Venter
It’s been a very good year for reading. Bizarrely, this is largely due to the birth of my daughter, which forced me to sit still for the first time in, well, my life really. Just about the only thing you can do with a baby sleeping on your lap is read – terrible, I know, but I bore my sentence bravely. |
From Issue 16 (Oct 2011) |
Posted in Non-Fiction, Reviews | Tags: Cabin Fever, Chaos Walking Trilogy, Diane Awerbuck, Heart Shaped Box, Isaac Marion, Issue 16, Joe Hill, John Ajvide Lindqvist, Justin Cronin, let The Right One In, Patrick Ness, Peter Straub, Stephen King, The Passage, The Talisman, Vianne Venter, Warm Bodies | 1 Comment »
review by Joe Vaz
Published by Harvill Secker
“They catch up in two seconds and start bombarding us with apples. Grandpa stays steady through the pounding. We roll up the windows to protect ourselves. Sad, because we haven’t seen apples in a year and now they’re drumming all over us. Unthinkable, that people could keep apples from other people. Grandma leans in close to Grandpa as he squeezes through the traffic, trying to get away.”
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Posted in Reviews | Tags: Issue 15, Joe Vaz, Steven Amsterdam, Things We Didn't See Coming | Comments Closed
review by Sarah Lotz
| Published by Generation Next Publications PB 258 pages RRP R150 (Kindle £2.14) My father's funeral had been that morning, and Kevin thought a night out would be the best way to take my mind off how he'd died. It hadn't helped. All I could think about was that I hadn't been able to say good-bye or tell him that I loved him. I couldn't even get drunk and forget about it. I couldn't pretend that I was okay and put on a happy face for the sake of Kevin and his friends. As a result we cut the night short, which irritated Kevin's friends and I was once again the party pooper. Kevin had been gone for what seemed like a few seconds when everything that I knew and trusted in my life changed forever. | 
From Issue 14 (Oct 2011) |
review by Joe Vaz
| Published by Umuzi PB 144 pages RRP R150 (Kindle £1.49) The furniture is made for children. The parents I need to see are the ones who never come. Most of them are overly interested, clutching their handbags. 'Mister September,' they say, making my title - a common one on the Flats - sound like a caption from a calendar. Or, if they are men, are stepfathers, mustached and overbearing, smelling of the aftershave that announces them. They show their teeth and say, in a joke that is not a joke, 'You teachers. You have such nice lives. All those school holidays.' | 
From Issue 13 (Sept 2011) |
review by Vianne Venter
| Published by Angry Robot/Jacana PB 384pages RRP £7.99 (Kindle £3.59) buy from Kalahari.com In Zoo City, it’s impolite to ask. Morning light the sulphur colour of the mine dumps seeps across Johannesburg’s skyline and sears through my window. My own personal bat signal. Or a reminder that I really need to get curtains. Shielding my eyes – morning has broken and there’s no picking up the pieces – I yank back the sheet and peel out of bed. Benoît doesn’t so much as stir, with only his calloused feet sticking out from under the duvet like knots of driftwood. Feet like that, they tell a story. They say he walked all the way from Kinshasa with his Mongoose strapped to his chest. | 
From Issue 12 (August 2011) |
reviewed by Joe Vaz
Published by Corvus
HC 312pages
RRP £14.99 (Kindle £4.99)
buy from Kalahari.net
Dan is an angsty emo-kid who works in a deadly-dull shopping mall. He hates his job.
Rhoda is a junkie whose babysitting charge ran off while she was scoring cocaine. She hates her life.
Rhoda bullies Dan into helping her search for the lost kid, but as they explore neon-lit corridors behind the mall they find themselves in the bowels of the building, where old mannequins are stored in grave-like piles and raw sewage drips off the ceiling. The only escape is down.
review by Joe Vaz
| When discredited child psychologist Daniel Clay goes missing a few months after being implicated in the abuse of his patients, his disappearance leaves a lot of questions unanswered.< /br> Six years later someone is looking for those answers, and refuses to believe that Clay is dead. This is Merrick, the revenger; a father and a killer, obsessed with discovering the truth about his own daughter’s disappearance. Now Merrick’s actions have drawn others from the shadows, half-glimpsed figures intent upon their own form of revenge, pale wraiths drifting through the ranks of the unquiet dead. They are the Hollow Men. |  |