S. M. Beiko

I was slightly afraid, when Ash falls under Li’s spell and begins to ignore everyone and everything aside from her own obsession, that L&L might be heading toward Twilight territory, wherein the heroine sees her new love as the be-all and the end-all of everything. Happily, Bieko, beyond being an immeasurably superior writer than Stephanie Meyer, understands such fixations of youth as being potentially dangerous.

Where Meyer made her lead a passive object waiting to be rescued, Bieko show more explores through fantastical backdrops how such youthful passions can lead to peril, both emotional and physical. There are incisive parallels to addiction in Bieko’s narrative, and while reading may not appear as deadly a dependence as that of crystal meth, the powerful sway Li and the library hold over Ash’s personality holds the potential to be just as damaging to her psyche.

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Gothic Tales of Haunted Love by Various authors is a 2018 Bedside Press publication.

“Smoke from the doused candle swirled around the room and clouded my mind in a misty haze, the night was pungent with a thousand musky smells-time and again I felt the fire of his presence.
Kiss of the Serpent-The Sinister House of Secret Love #4 -1972

A combination of factors makes this collection of short stories a real treat for me. Not to sound redundant, but for those who do not know, I have a small show more collection of Gothic Romance/ Horror novels, and still love taking one down and reading it, no matter how dated they are.

Recently, I developed a real interest in graphic novels, comics and Manga, so when I saw this book up on Netgalley, I was immediately intrigued. As it turns out, back in the seventies, not only were the Gothic romance novels wildly popular, there was a brief period in which a small, limited number of Gothic romance/horror comic books were published.

These are rare and some collectors are asking five hundred to one thousand dollars per issue for first editions. Some reissued copies are a bit more affordable, however, but are not worth as much and are still hard to find.

This comic collection is an homage to those old Gothic romance and horror comics, but the stories have been updated to include a wide range of diversity.

This book has nineteen stories, all of them super short featuring murder mysteries, ghosts and other tales of the supernatural. The artwork is phenomenal, and the stories are all new and original. While many of the stories do fall into the pure Gothic category, some do not. While some are poignant tales, others fall squarely into the horror genre.

Overall, the writers and illustrators did a terrific job with this anthology. I can’t say I loved every single story in the compilation, but most of them are really cool, and they do manage to capture that 1970’s pulp horror and Gothic tone, which was a lot of fun for me.

4 stars show less

Scion of the Fox is the story of Roan Harken, a high school student in Winnipeg, who lives with her uncle and aunt in her grandmother’s house after her parents died in a car accident. Suddenly all sorts of odd things begin happening. A new student joins her class and when she looks at him she sees a disturbing vision of a rabbit. She sees a talking fox who wants to train her to save the world. Is she losing touch with reality or is reality not what it seems?

This is a fantasy novel, so show more clearly the latter.

In Scion of the Fox we find an entirely new world, but one that is the one we live in today, only with the revelation of ancient magical people, the Denizens. We discover a rich mythology involving the ancient animal gods with great power who together protected society until slowly driven underground and into hiding by the spread of humans, or Mundanes as they are called.

Roan discovers she was marked from infancy as a sacrifice to another ancient, a magical monster who lives in the river and to whom a blood sacrifice is made every year to keep the monster from wreaking havoc with floods and storms. Can she find allies from the other denizens who will help her defeat this ancient power and end the practice of blood sacrifice?

Scion of the Fox is a great start to what I think will be an excellent fantasy series. I think the most important element in fantasy is world-building and Beiko gets it right. She starts where we are and takes us to a completely new and different creation myth with far different implications, but they make as much sense as the various creation mythologies of history and of today. I like the characters who have a good mix of “I can’t believe this is happening” and “I’m in to save the world” courage, the kind of courage that is natural to adolescence.
What I like best of Scion of the Fox is that it is not comparable to “Harry Potter” or “Lord of the Rings” or any other fantasy series I have read. I am eager to read more.

Scion of the Fox is the first in the fantasy series “The Realms of Ancient”

Scion of the Fox at ECW Press
S. M. Beiko author site

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The Brilliant Dark is the third and final installment in The Realm of Ancients series by S. M. Beiko. In this last chapter of the series, the story is organized around Saskia, a Mundane who has been raised by Denizens. The Mundanes are the Muggles of Beiko’s world, but they are no longer in ignorance of the powers of the Denizens. This is our world revealed to have been created by the Ancient, a god whose silence has driven the world to the brink of disaster since a black moon rose in the show more sky and a black illness plagued the planet.

The five sister goddesses whose followers have powers derived from the elements are gone and the young Saskia believes she can fix things. She is a wizard with computers and technology. She was raised by Phae and Barton, from the deer and rabbit families of Denizens. The Mundanes are led by a genocidal fanatic who is seeking the pretext and power to destroy all Denizens and Saskia goes to work for him, hoping to exploit his project to save the Denizens and the world.

I loved The Brilliant Dark and the bold courage and determination of Saskia, especially when she finds the people she admires have lost their way. She does not give up on them, though, and hopes they can remember who they really are. There are deep themes about the power of regret, forgiveness, and memory. There is the power of narrative, or the Narrative, and whether it can be changed. There are many big ideas to think about. Sometimes, the ambition to explain the big concepts of myth-making and narrative submerges the story, but then it comes back to itself again, much like our heroes.

I received an ARC of The Brilliant Dark from the publisher through ECW Insiders.

The Brilliant Dark at ECW Press
S. M. Beiko

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