Short Story Sunday – Page 2 – Baskerville Book Reviews

Review: Dracula’s Guest: And the Squaw

Beware Walpurgis Nacht! – when lightning rips across black skies, wolves lurk in snow-covered cemeteries and the dead rise up from their tombs. On this treacherous night, a daring, but naive, English Tourist stumbles across a deserted village and is drawn into a macabre circumstances beyond his wildest imaginings. Is the timely rescue by a great wolf mere luck or the supernatural act of the mysterious count who dwells nearby?

From the creator of Dracula comes this fantastic tale of terror as well as The Squaq – the tale of a man who after cruelly mistreating a cat’s litter gets his just deserts when the mother cat extracts her revenge. These two tales of terror, highlighted with 15 black-and-white illustrations by Eric Shanower, make this CLASSIC FRIGHT™ sure to have even the most intrepid readers blood run cold.

Review: Randomize

In the near future, if Vegas games are ingeniously scam-proof, then the heists have to be too, in this imaginative and whip-smart story by the New York Times bestselling author of The Martian.

An IT whiz at the Babylon Casino is enlisted to upgrade security for the game of keno and its random-number generator. The new quantum computer system is foolproof. But someone on the inside is no fool. For once the odds may not favor the house – unless human ingenuity isn’t entirely a thing of the past.

Andy Weir’s Randomize is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

Review: As You Wish (Short Stories From Antaloor)

In Antaloor verbergen sich viele Geheimnisse abseits der Pfade, die Sie als Abenteurer im Two Worlds Universum durchstreifen. Freuen Sie sich auf ein Wiedersehen mit bekannten Städten und Charakteren – oder lernen Sie Antaloor völlig neu kennen, unabhängig von der Spielwelt. Mal düster und voller menschlicher Abgründe, mal humoristisch und überraschend – die Novellen atmen den Geist der beliebten Quests des Rollenspiels – und sind doch etwas ganz Eigenes. Erleben Sie in vier Kurzgeschichten mörderische Intrigen aus der Perspektive einer fahrenden Theatergruppe (Der große Auftritt), verfolgen Sie die wendungsreiche Beschwörung eines Flaschengeistes (Ganz nach Wunsch) und lassen Sie sich kalte Schauer über den Rücken rieseln in der Gruselgeschichte”Sharad”.

GANZ NACH WUNSCH
Der verhasste Doktor Khamarsh ist die letzte Person, die der Quacksalber auf seiner Türschwelle erwartet hätte. Doch bald befinden sich die Feinde auf einer gemeinsamen Mission zur Beschwörung eines bösartigen Flaschengeistes. Ihre Reise führt sie in die dunkelsten Keller von New Ashos.

+ Ein Wiedersehen mit New Ashos
+ Vom Autor der Two Worlds II Quests Jaromir Krol
+ Vorkenntnisse sind nicht erforderlich

Bislang sind vier Two Worlds II Novellen erschienen: Ganz nach Wunsch, Sharad, Eine heikle Flucht und Der große Auftritt. Die Kurzgeschichten sind einzeln oder als Sammelausgabe erhältlich.

Review: You Have Arrived at Your Destination (Forward collection)

Nature or nurture? Neither. Discover a bold new way to raise a child in this unsettling story of the near future by the New York Times bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow.

When Sam’s wife first tells him about Vitek, a twenty-first-century fertility lab, he sees it as the natural next step in trying to help their future child get a “leg up” in a competitive world. But the more Sam considers the lives that his child could lead, the more he begins to question the choices he has made in his life.

Review: Try the New Candy

Taste a new horror.

Which foul flavor amongst these 10 tales of torment and otherworldly strangeness will please your palate? An imbecilic man is taken advantage of for decades before finally considering an act of sweet revenge. A single, soon to be mother experiences a bizarre sequence of events triggered by her artificial insemination. A wide-eyed boy goes along to housesit with his poor excuse for a father, only to find out the property harbors some disturbing secrets. A newly married couple that enjoys pushing their limits to the extreme gets access to a special museum exhibit that is not quite finished. A pervert accidentally slays his mistress during an outlandish sex act, but did she deserve it? Two girls head out to the club to celebrate reaching the legal drinking age only to encounter the most hellish nightlife imaginable.

Choose from all these and more. Step into the shoes of the disturbed fringe of society and explore the potential for evil in humanity. Your misery awaits…

Review: Musings of the Muses

Sing O Muse, of the rage of Medusa, cursed by gods and feared by men…

From the mists of time, and ages past,
The muses have gathered; hear now their songs.

A web of revenge spun ‘neath the moon;
A poet’s wife who breaks her bonds;
A warrior woman on a quest of honor;
A painful lesson for a treacherous heart;
A goddess and a mortal, bound together by the travails of motherhood.
And more.

Listen to the muses, as they sing aloud…HER story.

Musings of the Muses, 65 stories and poems based on Greek myths, is an anthology of monsters, heroines, and goddesses, ranging from ancient Greece to modern day America. They, like the myths themselves, cast long shadows of horror, fantasy, love, betrayal, vengeance, and redemption. This anthology revisits those old tales and presents them anew, from her point of view.