Massive Eibonvale Press Sale Now Online

Hi everyone!  I have recently launched a massive sale featuring 30% or so off most eibonvale titles, including some of our most popular items.

The reason is that I and the press will shortly be moving, switching from Kentish Town to Hackney, London. I keep a certain stock of books to hand, even though most orders go through the distributors, and I am offering a sale now in an attempt to reduce that stock a bit. After all, every book sold is one less thing to turn my hair grey when it comes to moving!

So far, we have not offered many special deals like this so this is a good chance to get some books with a nice discount.  Quantities of these are sometimes very limited – in some cases a boxful, in some cases only one copy (first come first served!).  So pop over to the new sale page on the Eibonvale website and take a look.

Please note that as these books are so reduced and as I am posting them myself, I cannot offer free shipping! However, I can still offer some nice reductions, especially for larger quantities! See the website for more information.

Offer available until 29th February 2012

First Look at the Cover for A Glimpse of the Numinous by Jeff Gardiner

Another new title due out very soon is Jeff Gardiner’s dark and haunting collection A Glimpse of the Numinous, and here is the first public release of the cover art!  This will be available for preorder in a matter of days, so watch this space and listen out for news!

First Look at the “Where Are We Going?” Cover

Here is the cover artwork for Eibonvale’s next book – the anthology “Where Are We Going?” edited by Allen Ashley (Subtle Edens, Catastrophia).  This is an ambitious themed anthology based on the idea that the world we live in is still something of an unknown planet, with spectacular encounters, adventures and mysteries still very much possible.

Stay tuned for more information on this.  We shall be launching the book (with discounts) at the BFS Open Night on 2nd March at the Mug House, London and it will soon be available for preorder on the website.

The Horror Zine on The Silver Wind

The Silver Wind by Nina Allan has been reviewed in glowing terms by Kevin Hillman over at the Horror Zine website. He writes:

“I think I can safely say that this book has been my best read of 2011. The writing draws the reader right into the scenes, the characters are real and likeable even when they are engaged in discomforting actions and the storylines manage to make the bizarre entirely credible…
…The print and editing quality in The Silver Wind is first class, just like the writing it contains. If you like your stories full of complexity, with a puzzle to solve, then this is the book for you. It will challenge, it will confuse, but most of all, it will entertain you…”

Late Tackle On Blind Swimmer…

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water again, Eibonvale’s groundbreaking anthology Blind Swimmer has been reviewed by David Woodruff over at The Short Review. Working to the theme of “Creativity In Isolation”, Blind Swimmer was designed as a showcase for the varied talents of the diverse stable of writers associated with the press. Everyone tackled the theme in different ways, and in a sense it was a group project rather than an edited anthology in the traditional way. Surely no book has ever produced such a widely differing range of reactions. Every story has been both lauded and reviled by one reviewer or another over the last 15 months. David Woodruff discusses a few of the stories in detail and concludes by saying:

“Blind Swimmer is an intriguing and thought-provoking collection, filled with stories which often sit on the edge of genre classifications, sometimes defying our expectations, sometimes challenging them.”

Unpleasant Tales… an autopsy.

We have a late review in for Brendan Connell’s Unpleasant Tales. Robert Butterfield, writing in Dead Reckonings magazine says:

“… in Unpleasant Tales. Reading several of the stories… can only be compared to sitting at an autopsy table, wishing to turn away from the carnage, but being compelled to stay until the process has ended. If this sounds like something a semi-literate goremeister would hatch up for readers, think again; Connell is a stunningly good writer. He is capable of stopping readers in their tracks with a lyrical turn of phrase, yet he never seems to take one out of the story. In other words, Connell’s technical mastery does not invade upon his storytelling capabilities; it enhances them.”

Hellnotes on Feather…

Matthew Tait has posted a glowing review over at the Hellnotes website of Feather by David Rix. Matthew concludes:

“…It’s the final stories, however, that are the crowning jewels and where David’s talent as a writer is on full display. Displaying a less cerebral style but still showcasing a sharp sting, this is dark and urban gothic at it best as we follow Tallis through the streets of LjubLjana. A tale of bleak and functional spaces – and one that might remind a reader of Gary McMahon or even the early stylizing of Clive Barker traversing the streets of Liverpool.

Overall, this is like one of the more magical books one might read in high-school, but bristling at the intersection of Horror and Slipstream. A strange metaphor for the authors character itself – and at turns mythic and seductive.”

The Short Review on Nina Allan

The Short Review have just run an interview with Nina Allan in which she answers questions about her novel/collection “The Silver Wind”, here: http://www.theshortreview.com/authors/NinaAllan.htm
Also a review of the book itself by Mario Guslandi:
http://www.theshortreview.com/reviews/NinaAllanTheSilverWind.htm
Mario writes:
“…this is a spellbinding, magical book where Nina Allan displays all her powerful imagination, her incredible talent for solid storytelling, but also for rewriting the reality in such a way that things are clearcut yet blurry at the same time. She’s a writer and a sorceress, able to make the unbelievable believable, so real that the reader is enveloped in a fascinating web of images and words which are, at the same time, colours and music…”

Spotlight on Eibonvale Press

Ros Jackson over at the Warpcore SF website has run a spotlight on Eibonvale Press, reviewing the tone, style and character of the press as a whole. It’s famously difficult to see oneself as others see us, so we’re grateful for Ros’s perspective which points out that while we might not be selling (or making) millions, Eibonvale is a good source for fresh and original writing for those of you who have grown tired of the tired old mainstream and genre publishers pumping formula froth down your gullets. Ros writes:

“One good way to get an overview of the press is to read Blind Swimmer. This is a showcase anthology featuring all of the writers they have published since its origins around the winter of 2005 up until 2010. Three defining features emerge: the stories are frequently highbrow, weird, and occasionally intensely violent. Sometimes they’re all three at once.

When it comes to making readers think, it’s hard to pick out any single book from their catalogue that illustrates this better than the others, because none of Eibonvale’s authors are writing to a formula. Breaking the rules of what a story should be seems to be the rule. So in Feather David Rix plays with the idea of looking for meanings in stories, whilst in The Silver Wind Nina Allen keeps changing the details of her story until the five linked short stories she presents become much more than the sum of their parts. And then there’s Sylvow, Douglas Thompson’s ambiguous tale of environmental rebellion and relationship breakdown. This is writing that doesn’t shy away from being challenging and different, and the authors aren’t talking down to their readers.”

Do please check out the rest of the Warpcore SF article for a good independent perspective on Eibonvale Press.

Bloody War reviewed again…

Jay Eales has reviewed Terry Grimwood’s Bloody War over at the BFS (British Fantasy Society) site, saying the he was gripped enough to read it in a single sitting. Golly, hope it was a comfy chair! Jay writes:

“Bloody War is the debut full length novel from Terry Grimwood. It’s not a huge book, and I was able to read it almost in a single session; something I haven’t done in years. So, I guess you could say that it’s a page-turner. Very much inspired by 1984, although I also got half-remembered flashes of The War of the Worlds from it, with characters wandering through the rubble of a devastated urban landscape…

Bloody War features a corking central conceit… It certainly intrigued me enough to look for some of his other work.”