With Dust Shall Cover - O'Neill

 

 Thirteen horrifying tales from the award-winning author of The Nightmare Tree.

 A board game from hell. A cursed heavy metal band. Beings that live in the ceiling. A magical forest that refuses to let go. An artifact that delivers the stuff of dreams. A burden that must be taken.

 Dare you roll the dice?

Contains the chilling stories:

The Shatter Box

Station Master

Midnight Machine

The Swirly People

Green World

Time’s Shadowy Tide

The Competition

The Fresh Blood of Birds

Mister Sleep

Keep Your Head Down

For Always

On Dream-Wings Float

With Dust Shall Cover (novella)

     

                   

 My Thoughts

 Whoo, where to start with this one?!?

 First things first, it's not often I come across a short story with no weak link at all but With Dust Shall Cover is certainly an exception to that rule. Starting with 'Jumanji on steroids' story  The Shatter Box these just seemed to get better with each one. 

 The only thing with shorts is that it's all too easy drop spoilers so all I can do is say if you like punchy, sometimes disturbing horror that has you looking over your shoulder and under the bed this is one for you.

  I haven't read any Paul O'Neill before but you can bank on it that I'll be looking out for more of his books soon as I've finished writing this review - he really is that good.

 And then there's the cover - how cool is that!!

Highly Recommended 5/5*

Thanks to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the Blogtour. Please have a look at the reviews by the other bloggers (below)

Dredd Vs Death, audiobook

 

The crime is life! The Judgement is death! When Judge Death enters Mega-City One from a parallel dimension, his plan is simple: to find every single living cit and sentence them—to death!

 As someone who grew up with Judge Dredd and 2000AD from the very 1st prog (ok Ol' Stoney Face didn't appear until Prog 2 but you get my drift) reviewing this classic in audio form was an easy choice to make. The series was the first appearance of possibly JD's greatest foe and one that has always stuck with me but all these years later would it still hold up as a story?

 Well, that's a definite yes from me. The actual ideas of Judge Death's 'all crime is committed by the living therefore life is a crime' actually makes a kind of sense in a way but when he comes from his dimension to Mega City 1 to judge the citizens there JD has something to say on the matter.

 As well as introducing the first of the Dark Judges DvD also gave us Judge Anderson of PSI Division who went on to have her own stories in later editions of 2000AD. There were also references to other everyday MC1 things (the one that got me first was BOING) that triggered happy memories, left me thinking 'wow, I'd forgotten all about that'

 So, how about the actual audio recording itself? It took a bit of getting used to as I don't often listen to these and the voice of Dredd wasn't how I imagined Dredd to sound but that's nothing to do with the voice actor, just my opinion and by the midpoint of the story he WAS Dredd. The key thing I guess is that I kept having 'just one more chapter' so it's obvious I was enjoying it. So much so that I'll be looking out others in the series.

Recommended 4/5*

There are other titles in this Black Crow Blogtour (above) and the various bloggers (below) have given their thoughts on these so please have a look at those.