Tag: Horror

Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Starving Saints” Author Caitlin Starling

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date May 19, 2025
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Here’s a tip: If the castle you live in is under siege, and there’s no way to defend it, get out however you can, even if it means working with people you dislike.

Don’t believe me? Just ask the ladies at the center of author Caitlin Starling’s medieval fantasy horror novel The Starving Saints (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), who hate each other but must collaborate if they want to live another day.

In the following email interview, Starling talks about what inspired and influenced this story, as well as how this story was originally going to be told interactively.

PC PlayStation 5 Reviews Video Games Xbox Series S Xbox Series X

“DOOM: The Dark Ages” Review

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date May 9, 2025
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In the first Avengers movie, Nick Fury asks a member of the Security Council, “You ever been in a war, councilman? In a fire fight? Did you feel an overabundance of control?” It’s a line that kept repeating in my head as I played — or maybe survived is a better word — DOOM: The Dark Ages (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC), a ridiculously frantic but also ridiculously fun horror- and fantasy-infused science fiction first-person shooter.

And while yes, you can say the same about 2016’s DOOM and 2020’s DOOM Eternal (and the best Call Of Duty games, the Gears Of War series, the Halo games…), there are things about DOOM: The Dark Ages that make it especially unhinged and, well, out of control.

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Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Night Birds” Author Christopher Golden

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date May 6, 2025
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Given what’s going on with the world, you might think this would be a bad time to offer sanctuary to a stranger, even if they have a child with them.

But that’s exactly what Charlie does in Christopher Golden’s new folk horror thriller novel The Night Birds (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook).

And yeah, it ends up being a bad time. It’s a horror novel; not a warm and fuzzy novel.

In the following email interview, Golden discusses what inspired and influenced this horror story.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Skin” Author Kathe Koja

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date April 22, 2025
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William Shakespeare once wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” But not every player has everyone’s best interest at heart.

Originally released in 1993, Kathe Koja’s queer, body horror / weird fiction novel Skin is less a story and more a performance. Or so she explains in the following email interview about the new version of Skin, which Meerkat Press are rereleasing in paperback.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Cold Eternity” Author S.A. Barnes

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date April 10, 2025
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Sometimes we just need to get away, to be by ourselves, collect our thoughts, figure out what to do next.

But Halley may have taken it too far when she took a job as a caretaker on a spaceship full of cryogenically frozen people. And not just because the people-sicles are terrible conversationalists.

In the following email interview about her scary sci-fi novel Cold Eternity (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), author S.A. Barnes talks (non-spoilery) about what happens to Halley…and why.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Cut” Author C.J. Dotson

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date April 7, 2025
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It’s always annoying when a creative person refuses to admit that their work is similar to, or influenced by, someone else’s. “So, it’s a movie about a kid who learns he has powers and he uses them to take down an evil empire lead by the father he never knew, and you say it’s nothing like Star Wars!?! Really!?!”

Thankfully, author C.J. Dotson doesn’t try my patience in the following email interview about her psychological horror novel The Cut (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), in which she admits that this story, which is set in a scary hotel, “Yeah, I don’t think I could have written a hotel horror story without thinking of The Shining, too.”

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Blood On Her Tongue” Author Johanna van Veen

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date March 24, 2025
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As many writers of fiction have said, you sometimes have to go where the story tells you to go.

In the following email interview about her new novel Blood On Her Tongue (paperback, Kindle), author Johanna van Veen not only discusses what inspired and influenced this Gothic horror story, but also how it didn’t start out as a vampire tale.

PC PlayStation 5 Video Games Xbox Series S Xbox Series X

“Post Trauma” Hands-On Preview

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date February 12, 2025
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When Capcom and Konami released their respective remakes of their classic survival horror games Resident Evil 2 and Silent Hill 2, they not only updated the graphics, but the movement and camera controls as well, replacing the fixed position cameras and tank controls for a third-person, player-controlled approach. Which seemed to work out, given how some people — myself included — really appreciated these updated versions.

So it was rather surprising when, last week, I got the opportunity to play the upcoming survival horror game Post Trauma, and was told by producer Paul Wilson that it has controls and cameras similar to the original Resident Evil and Silent Hill games, not the remakes. And that it was done intentionally.

What follows are my impressions of my time with this game… and its controls.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Teeth Of Dawn” Author Marina Lostetter

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date January 28, 2025
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With The Teeth Of Dawn (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), author Marina Lostetter is concluding the epic fantasy with “a dash of horror” trilogy The Five Penalties that she launched in 2021 with The Helm Of Midnight and continued two years later with The Cage Of Dark Hours.

In the following email interview, Lostetter discusses what inspired and influenced this series and this final installment.