Nerine DormanRezensionen

Original SF and fantasy. There's a lot of magical realism in here, or so I'm told. My favorites were "Mouse Teeth" and "Spirits of the Dead Keep Watch." YMMV.

Bloody Parchment: Blue Honey and The Valley of Shadow
Edited by Nerine Dornan
Anthology of short horror stories

What a wonderful way to be introduced to new-to-me authors that like to tell stories that are on the edge and creeped me out more than a little bit ;) Not so horrific it gave me nightmares but it did entertain and make me think.

"The Man with a House on his Back" — Elaine Dodge
*A visitor nobody wants to have come in the door…

"Get out of Death Free?" — E Garcia
*Who knew that a child’s coupon could save the day…or one’s life?

"Bernard Gets a New Job" — Nic Zav
*This one left me guessing…swimming should not be so dangerous!

"Mermaid" — Abi Godsell
*Be nice to those that are different & be true to yourself…who knew mer people could be dangerous?

"Stolen Kisses" — Toby Bennett
*Remember the frog prince fairy tale? A variation no princess would embrace!

"Ignatius" — John Paul Davies
*Life and death from an unusual perspective

"Exertion" — Dave de Burgh
*Ghosts should be feared…especially if done wrong

"Mastication (The Wendigo Children)" — Jason Mykl Snyman
*Creepy one…reminded me of the historical Donner’s Pass and other such situations…with a twist

"Midnight Screams at Holborn" — Icy Sedgwick
*Have you ever taken a dare, regretted it & been saved by a princess?

"Motherland" — Belinda Lewis
*Creativity knows no bounds – and what is created is – terrible

"The Valley of Shadow" — Bernice Mills
*Beware where you stay overnight!

"Host" — Austin Malone
*Work should not be so dangerous –just ask Alan-and those he will see when he gets back to work

"Blue Honey" — Benjamin Knox
*Invasion by killer bees – in more ways than one

Thank you to Elaine Dodge for this entertaining anthology of stories. I truly enjoyed it and know that if you like short stories that go bump in the night you will, too.

5 Stars

Bloody Parchment edited by Nerine Dorman
Anthology of Short Horror Stories

What a wonderful way to be introduced to new-to-me authors that like to tell stories that are on the edge and creeped me out more than a little bit ;) Not so horrific it gave me nightmares but it did entertain and make me think.

Liam Kruger – “The Phenomenology of Iceland: A Romance”
A trip that is taken at the end of life and what one person met when she arrived.

Michelle Barry – “Toast”
What if inanimate objects were not…and could feel and become something unbelievable?

Chris Limb – “Scratchmind”
Oh my…Twitter and tweets that lead one tweeter to unbelievable insights into herself.

Morgen Knight – “Gods of Old, Anew”
A modern take on love, Mayan mythology and beliefs that left me shaken.

Arno Hurter – “A Place in Time”
Imagine a time in the future when your home was programmed to new locations in space and time.

Abigail Godsell – “Ordinary Sound”
Alien reptiles introduced – would make an interesting book.

Matt Hayward – “No One Gets Out of Here Alive”
A cult of believers that some want to blow away and put behind them for good.

Doreen Perrine – “Foul Things”
Someone new in the neighborhood…abuse…and more.

Icy Sedgwick – “Something Wicked This Way Slithered”
Ancient artifacts and a mummy make a huge difference in the lives of a young woman and her aunt.

Monique Snyman – “Tokoloshe”
Sometimes folklore is more real than one might believe.

Joshua de Kock – “Aquarium”
Yikes – this one creeped me out!

Ruth Browne – “Beachfront Starter Home, Good Bones”
Crabs, pentagons and a cult – creepy indeed.

Thank you to the publisher for the copy to read – this is my honest review.

5 Stars

It’s the scene Crooked Fang fans crave. Vamp, Xan Marcelles, meets his match in a witty dance of dialogue with erotic author, Therése. The story switches back and forth between the two in a sultry give and take building to a climax that gives the title its name’s sake. For the price of only intoxicating your senses, Carrie Clevenger and Nerine Dorman deliver one hell of a story.

This is a combination school story/fantasy involving vampires, magic, witches, and a variety of spirits. It includes a school massacre, an attempt to persuade a powerful young magician that she would be better off in the Congo, the swearing of an oath to a powerful African spirit, and a schoolboy with dwarfism getting beaten up by the school bullies. There are also themes of family, internal family stress, and personal maturation that make this very different from Dorman's usual novel (although her normal theme of the alienated perpetually young male vampire is also present) and show that she is making a serious foray into YA territory. It is clear that there will be a sequel, and I look forward to it.

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, this book was quite something! I am going to give it 4 STARS. I recently read another book that had to do with Egyptian Mythology that I really enjoyed, but this was a whole different style book. “Inkarna” is dark and AWESOME! I am not sure if there is going to be a sequel or if this book will be a stand-alone novel, but either way I was happy with how it ended. Of course, I would love it if there was a sequel because then I would just get to find out more about these incredible characters!

Lizzie Perry was supposed to be reincarnated as a 3 year old girl…but she wasn’t. Nope, instead she is reincarnated as Ashton Kennedy – Goth/rocker-wannabe/trouble maker. A female reincarnated as a male, fully aware that she was reincarnated, was definitely something Lizzie needed to get used to. She needed to learn how to live Ashton’s day to day life, and also how to stay away from the trouble that Ashton caused in those days. In the beginning of this book I was thinking of Lizzie as “in Ash’s body” and towards the end I was just thinking of her as Ash.

Nerine Dorman definitely had me thinking more about reincarnation. I always wondered if it were true and if I would be reincarnated one day. I hope that if it is real then I don’t have the same complications as Lizzie!

“Inkarna” was a great read that was full of emotions and conflict. I loved the detail the author put in to everything and I loved her characters. I hope there is a sequel so I can learn more about them and everything else going on. Ms. Dorman definitely did her job in keeping me interested.

Brianna Lee Book Reviews
http://www.briannaleereviews.blogspot.com

Lizzie, or Nefretkheperi, is an inkarna, a person whose spirit can knowingly return from the dead to inhabit another body. Dying in 1966, she is meant to return in 2007 to take over the body of three-year-old Catherine van Vuuren. Instead she finds herself waking to life in the body of Ashton Kennedy, five years later. Kennedy is not a very nice fellow. Elizabeth finds that he has a lot of enemies and a steady girlfriend. She also finds that the South Africa she left behind has changed a lot. She handles the changes almost too well, which is a weakness in the novel. She also finds that there are intrigues that she has to handle and occult war that she has to fight, both with the shade that she has displaced, and with a rival occult house. In the process she also has to deal with past love and rivalry and present love.

It's a well-told tale, by a novelist whose skill is developing, and who manages here to straddle dark fantasy and romance with real ease.

What happens when two musicians meet? When one is a goth guitarist vampire and one is a folkie fiddler quite a bit. Add a dash of intrigue, the effects of rebound, and Dorman's home town, Cape Town, and you have an excellent tale. Especially as Dorman's skill as a writer is developing.½

Chloë's hosband has died. Then her friend Belinda's husband dies and among his effects are letters from Chloë's husband written months after his death from a village in Namaqualand. Chloë sets off in pursuit. Once more Nerine Dorman writes a dark fantasy, this time with a female protagonist, and she draws us effectively into the story.

I wrote this novel a good few years ago after a little old lady accosted me in the street, pretty much the same way Jamie gets his goat up at the start of the novel. That's pretty much the "A-Ha" moment that birthed Khepera Rising. Once again, I'll say who this novel will appeal to: lovers of dark and urban fantasy, and folks who have a fascination with the occult and supernatural. Primarily, this is a story about revenge, but also touches on concepts of what's good and what's evil. When I started writing this novel, I asked myself: What happens when the bad guy is the good guy. The rest, well, it's a mad-capped romp through Cape Town's underbelly.

While it's a bit disengenuous for an author to review her own work, I do feel I have to say why I think people would enjoy this story. This is book two of my Khepera series, which is set in contemporary Cape Town, South Africa. I reckon it will appeal to lovers of dark and urban fantasty with an occult crime thriller mood. Jamie, or James, as he now prefers to have people call him, is living with his uneasy symbiosis with a mysterious entity known only as The Burning One. While trying to get his life back on track, he gets roped into helping the police solve a missing persons' case which quickly devolves into a hunt for a murderer. I can't really give away any more without spoiling the story but have to warn that there's a fair amount of splatterpunk to please some and horrify others.

James Edward Guillaume, "tthe wickedest man in South Africa" returns in another story of gothic-fantasy-cum-horror. Having only just recovered from his previous adventure, he is rudely awoken by Detective Botha of the South African Police. Someone is killing schoolgirls, and Botha wants to use Jamie (who no longer likes that name) as a consultant. By the time the novel is over, James seems to have become a bit more mature, the power behind the murders has been exposed, and a series of threads that lead towards at least one more novel in the series are exposed. Dorman's development as a novelist of gothic fantasy seems more assured, and her control of her protagonist as he evolves much more sure.½

Gothic (in more than one sense) horror novel set in contemporary Cape Town. A dark Wiccan bookseller finds himself and his friends the target of a murderous plot.