The Book Plank

Chapter Six by Stephen Graham Jones   "Chapter Six", by Stephen Graham Jones, is an anthropological zombie story about Crain, a grad student, who has a theory of mankind’s evolution. As he and his former professor scavenge on bone marrow left behind by the local zombie horde, he makes his well-reasoned argument. I was really in the mood for some scary fiction, browsing to my reading list for something in those lines and came across Chapter Six by Stephen Graham Jones,  I was really taken by the idea of something antropological. I have read plenty of stories and watched movies where you have a high focus on a zombie invasion but I felt that this story might just give me more. And it did. Very much. The story of Chapter Six picks up with Crain who is out and about with his professor Dr. Ormon. Yes his professor, Crain is a grad student who is doing research on zombies. It is still possible after an apocalytpic event. Crain and Dr. Ormon are out in the field gathering...

The Museum and the Music Box by Noah Keller A neglected museum gradually succumbs to the elements. A music box rusts beneath a bell of glass. Fragmented texts are pieced together which tell the history of a lost love, the destruction of a civilization, and the origin of the museum. I have been a big fan of Tor.com's short fiction supply as many who read my Short Fiction Friday feature. I actually just visited the site on a whim, felt like reading something and I was presented with a new story. Let me say this story gave me goosebumps and put a smile on my face at the same time. Yes this story falls in the category of "hauntingly beautiful ". The story never mentions a name of the character that you follow also in the narration you don't glimpse any name which only adds to great something of a more mythical feeling to the it. So the story picks up with the mentioning of the protagonist walking through a museum, not any museum but a abandoned museum where it i...

A Kiss With Teeth by Max Gladstone    Vlad has grown distant from his wife. His son has trouble at school. And he has to keep his sharp teeth hidden. By now you all should know who Max Gladstone is and that he is currently one of my favorite authors. His Craft Sequence series is just pitch perfect. Though he has already written 4 full length books in the series there aren't yet (hint) any short stories set in this universe. Instead Max Gladstone has written two stand alone short stories, The Angelus Guns, which I reviewed a month orso back and one that came out just last week A Kiss With Teeth . For me it is by writing such a diverse set of stories that Max Gladstone does mark himself to be a very all-round author. So without going all fanboyish on his Craft Sequence story here are my thoughts on A Kiss With Teeth . I was always very averse to vampires until I read the story James Lovegrove which showed them in a pretty cool light. In A Kiss With Teeth , Max Gladsto...

Short Fiction Friday: Dragonkin by Lavie Tidhar There are kin and there are –kin. There are not many dragons, but there are many who think they are, or want to be, or claim to remember being. I am not that familiar with the stories of Lavie Tidhar, I have only read The Violent Century so far, which is very interesting to say the least. It is unique in many ways and definitely have set him apart from many different authors, so while I was browsing new short fiction to read and I came across one of Lavie Tidhar stories I directly dived into it and just as what I read in The Violent Century , the story of Dragonkin is unique and definitely one of a kind. Lavie Tidhar really knows how to create one-of-a-kind stories with a awesome setting.  Last week I read The Angelus Guns by Max Gladstone which was a show but not tell kind of story, Lavie Tidhar kicks off his story in the same manner.  The story begins with a rhyme that doesn't make that much sense but does let you thi...

Short Fiction Friday: The Angelus Guns by Max Gladstone During a celestial civil war, an angel-like soldier searches for her missing brother.  If you now say the name Max Gladstone to people, they will immediately respond with Craft Sequence or one of the titles of his books. In the last few years max Gladstone has, for me, really put himself on the bookmap with his Craft Sequence, they are terrific reads and give a refreshing air to the current fantasy books. I was looking for short stories set in this series but couldn't find any instead I stumbled upon the single short story that I could find from him, The Angelus Guns and as you can see from the top, it has a very short introduction. It is often with only a single sentence that it proves to be less is more and by this it really piqued my interest. A celestial war and angel-like soldier. The Angelus Guns is quite something different from his Craft Sequence, written with a different style and of course theme. But as a short ...

SFF: Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden’s Syndrome by John Scalzi A new near-future science fiction novella by John Scalzi, one of the most popular authors in modern SF. Unlocked traces the medical history behind a virus that will sweep the globe and affect the majority of the world’s population, setting the stage for Lock In , the next major novel by John Scalzi. Last week I kicked off a new feature for the blog the SFF (Short Fiction Friday) and I mentioned that I was looking for recommedations, Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome was recommended to me by Tiemen Zwaan. As you can read from the short synopsis above, Unlocked: An Oral history of Haden's Syndrom is a prequel to John Scalzi's Lock In which will be released later in August, the 14th to be exact. With this short story John Scalzi builds up the framework for Lock In, showing just all what has transpired so far surrounding the Haden's Syndrome.  The first thing that false to note is the...