Michele Lee

Northlanders: Sven the Returned by Brian Wood

ISBN: 1401219187, $9.99
Contains: Nudity, violence, gore, language

“A very long time ago…in the lands we call home…these things happened.”

So begins the first volume of Northlanders, the tale of Sven, a Viking warrior in 980 CE who leaves his plush Mediterranean lifestyle to claim an inheritance from the harsh cold lands of the North. But once there he encounters resistance from his uncle, Gorm, who is unwilling to hand everything over to Sven. Sven begins a one man war against Gorm and his men to get his money and his lands back.

Northlanders is a familiar tale of one man against a greater evil, dressed in brutal, vivid Norse clothing. The art is fantastic and explicit, bleeding emotion out in color. The story capitalizes on the hardest, most violent parts of Viking legends. But it has a soul too. Sven is a remarkable character, one worth following into the wilds of the world.

Northlanders is a solid addition to the libraries of horror, historical or Viking fans and a good graphic novel for those new to graphics to pick up.

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June 16

Private Lessons Chapter Six

Private Lessons is an explicit erotic romance with a horse-lover flavor. I will be posting consecutive sections on Tuesdays until the whole thing is posted. Then I’ll post it as a free pdf on my website. Do not click the link to read more if you are offended, or bored, by adults in explicit sexual situations.

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June 15

An Ice Cold Grave by Charlaine Harris

Paperback: 9780425224243, $7.99

An Ice Cold Grave is the third book in Harris’ Harper Connelly series, a dark mystery with feather-light touches of paranormal. For those who haven’t encountered it before Harper is a woman who gained the uncanny ability to sense the dead and read their last moment after being hit by lightning. After surviving a horrible, abusive childhood she and her step brother Tolliver travel around using her talent to survive.

In An Ice Cold Grave Harper and Tolliver have been called to Doraville, North Carolina where a woman, angry at the past sheriff’s handling of the disappearances of several teen boys, asks Harper to find the bodies of the boys that surely must be dead by now. Harper begins her hunt, and to her horror finds not only the six missing boys, but two others as well, all buried in what looks suspiciously like a serial killer’s dumping grounds.

Suddenly Harper finds herself not just blackmailed into staying nearby by the newly appointed sheriff, but a target of the serial killer’s outrage.

As usual Harris offers a tale that features a delicate thread of darkness. There is true horror in this book, but by the characters trying to block it out, move past it and not dwelling on it, even when it rises up and tries to claim them, it becomes secondary, and undertow rather than a flood of dark themes. The characters are Harris’ strength. They are complex, easy to sympathize with and as a reader you find yourself wanting things to work out for them.

This particular book is more scattered than the previous books, but it reflects the complexity of the serial killer nature. Despite the attention focused on Harris’ other series, this is her best. An Ice Cold Grave is satisfying, page turner that fans of dark fiction should definitely give a chance.

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June 15

Magazine Closings

Talebones and Lone Star Stories are both closing down. Both are good magazines with a history of good stories. Both owners site a loss of passion for the amount of work the magazines require. Talebones owner Patrick plans to continue the Talebones name as a yearly anthology in 2010.

This reflects a similar decision by Apex Publications owner/editor, Jason Sizemore, who has stated in several interviews that running the magazine, in print and digital form, has been the most time and money consuming aspect of his business and with the least return. Sizemore, showing more transparency than other places, cites the distribution system for print magazines as the main problem of running a magazine while most others on the front and back sides cite diminishing subscribers and interest in short fiction.

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June 12

Agnes Hahn by Richard Satterlie

Paperback: 9781933836454, $7.95

Though the plot centers around her and the book is named for her, Agnes Hahn doesn’t have a strong presence in this tale. Agnes lives a very solitary life after her Aunt Ella is placed in a home, suffering from severe Alzheimer’s, and her Aunt Gert dies. But all that is shattered when the local police arrest her for a series of gruesome murders.

Enter Jason, a reporter suffering from a broken heart and under pressure from his editor to deliver a good story or else. Agnes might be the central character, but Jason is the lead, whether he’s fighting the local cops for the big exclusive or falling for someone who might be a rare female serial killer.

While the tension sometimes falters and the characters are largely ordinary people, the mystery of Agnes Hahn is solid, a twisting tale of police procedure and psychology reflective of the genre’s forerunner, Thomas Harris.

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