Gerry Paige Smith

In the near future, London labors under the rule of a brutal king. Suicide cults, spawned in America, are making their way around the world on a mission to kill animals as part of their path to ascendance. While technological marvels abound, access to them has been corrupted in ways that reward the rich and punish the poor.

At the bottom of this decadent society exist the Indigents, a growing segment of people addicted to an insidious hallucinogen, Flôt. Among the lowest of these poor and lost is Cuthbert Handley, whose life was upended when a childhood accident claimed his beloved brother decades earlier. Now homeless and deep in the clutches of a Flôt addiction, Cuthbert begins to hear the voices of animals in the London Zoo, which has become the last repository of many species on Earth. Their calls drive Cuthbert to an action that will either plunge society into chaos, or save it.

A magnificently textured story, Night of the Animals benefits from author Bill Broun’s liberal use of Midlands dialect, which reinforces Cuthbert’s unshakable connection to his past and its native folklore. Likewise, the animals’ speech is tethered to their origins and experience. As the distinction between the voices of the creatures and the internal whispers of Cuthbert’s addiction fades, Broun maintains a remarkable balance between magic and madness. This strange tale is both cautionary and captivating.

This article was originally published in the July 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Debut Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Science Fiction & Fantasy Debut Fiction

Such devoted sisters

Review by Gerry Paige Smith

by Gerry Paige Smith

Brutalized by an abusive mother, Imogen and her younger sister, Marin, dreamt of the day when they could flee her control. But only one girl managed to escape, and the cost is a decade of separation from the sister left behind. When Imogen, now a published writer, and Marin, a rising star in the ballet world, are both accepted to a renowned retreat for artists, they seize the opportunity to reconnect beyond their mother's cruel reach.

Boasting alumni that populate the highest levels of the art world, Melete offers a magical New England setting that cultivates the maximum potential from its resident artists. But as Imogen and Marin immerse themselves in the community, they find the village's postcard facade hides a symbiotic connection with the land of Faerie. Melete shimmers and blurs with otherworldly murmurs, scents both fragrant and foul, and faces shifting toward sharp edges that are not entirely human.

Imogen and Marin find their newly rekindled relationship tested when they are compelled to compete against each other for the opportunity to become indentured to the Faerie for a seven-year term, with a guarantee of fame and success at its end. Love and pain have the power to drive each of them toward the prize as well as the power to drive them apart.

In her debut novel, Kat Howard deftly punctuates Imogen's narration of events with brief yet lyrical fairy tales that draw aside glamorous fabrics to reveal the more visceral textures of traditional “happily ever afters.” With refreshing vision and style, Howard diverges away from expected outcomes in search of deeper exchanges in this lush story. An enchanting literary exploration that is both sensual and sober, Roses and Rot explores the high cost attached to the unbridled pursuit of love, success and escape to create a fairy tale unlike any other.

Fiction, Science Fiction

Fiction Science Fiction

An exciting beginning to a trilogy that blends sci-fi and romance

Review by Gerry Paige Smith

by Gerry Paige Smith

When the starship Galileo makes orbit above the colony Volhynia, the ship's crew is more than ready to take a brief but long overdue shore leave. Galileo's chief engineer Elena Shaw, still stinging from a lover's betrayal, is especially eager to find time away from the ship. Once she and her shipmates are settled in a colony bar, the normally reserved Elena meets Treiko Zajec, a former captain in a rogue military counterpart to the Central Corps. Their connection is immediate and soon evolves into a enthusiastic one-night stand.

But upon returning to her ship, Elena is rocked by the news that her crew mate and former lover, Danny, was killed during their overnight leave in the colony below. In that instant, she becomes both a person of interest and an alibi—because the suspect the authorities have arrested is none other than Captain Treiko Zajec.

When the local authorities resist her efforts to have Treiko dismissed as a suspect and and make no move to seek Danny's true killer, Elena launches her own investigation. Soon, she's tugging on the strands of a much larger web of conspiracy and corruption: a web that becomes a deadly snare for anyone wandering too close to the truth.

Ignited by romance and driven by a powerful blend of military sci-fi and vintage crime noir, Elizabeth Bonesteel's debut novel is the first of a planned Central Corps trilogy. Here, she has crafted a shifting stellar landscape that finds humanity stretching its limbs into a frontier still full of risk and mystery. Her on-point exploration of human dynamics in close quarters and masterful manipulation of a layered mystery offer a firm foundation for this exciting new trilogy. The Cold Between navigates the dangerous paths between the stars, the blind spots between friends and lovers and the distance that comrades will go to save one of their own.

Elizabeth Bonesteel's electric debut novel blends romance, science fiction and noir to launch an exciting new trilogy.