Black Static

I'm having another clearout, and so five more books get moved from the 'might be reviewed' pile to the scrap heap for books that have been sitting around too long without getting read.

Day By Day Armageddon (Pocket Books paperback, 200pp, £8.99) by J. L. Bourne just got lost in the tidal wave of zombie apocalypse books sweeping down on TTA Towers. If the dead ever do rise we'll drive them back into the grave by throwing zombie novels at them, which is not to say that I don't like the occasional zombie treat and won't be reviewing any more, because I do and I will. Just not this one, it seems. J. L. Bourne is a US naval officer on active duty, and he's described by author Brad Thor as 'the new king of hardcore zombie action'.

I've read and enjoyed some of A. J. Kirby's short stories but didn't get round to Bully (Wild Wolf Publishing paperback, 222pp, £8.99), which is the tale of a man returning from the war in Afghanistan to confront the demons of his past. I'm not sure when the book was published. According to Amazon it was issued in May 2009, but I had it listed for June 2010 and the copy I got sent has the cover from the Kindle edition. Either way, it's now too old for review, but on Amazon it's got plenty of five star reviews and, at only 69p, the Kindle edition is worth a punt if you're at all tempted.

I thoroughly enjoyed Rebecca Levene's Tomes of the Dead offering Anno Mortis and her story in the Solaris anthology  The End of the Line (reviewed in #22), but all the same never got round to Infernal Game: Ghost Dance (Abaddon paperback, 279pp, £7.99). The book is part of a new series from Abaddon, set against the backdrop of the Cold War and giving matters a supernatural twist.

It seems like I was in the minority as regards liking Christopher Ransom's debut novel The Birthing House, but all the same it shifted copies by the truckload. Ransom's second outing The Haunting of James Hastings (Sphere paperback, 448pp, £6.99) sounds intriguing from the back cover blurb, with its intimations of a man haunted by his dead wife. Of course, back cover blurbs are supposed to entice the reader in, and alas, now I won't be finding out if the book lives up to the blurb's promise.

Blood and Ice (Vintage paperback, 512pp, £6.99) by Robert Masello seems to have been hanging round for ever. I originally got sent the trade paperback in March 2009, then reallocated to the mass market edition when that came out, but now it's past time to let it go. A tale of vampires in the Antarctic, the book's been compared to Carpenter's film The Thing and praised by the likes of Lisa Gardner and Kim Stanley Robinson.

As ever, I'll try to find some reviews online for each of these titles and provide links below.

And also as ever, writers and publishers are reminded that I receive more books than I can review, and an expression of interest in seeing any particular title is not a guarantee that a review will be done. You can, of course, query me via whitenoise@ttapress.com