Book Review: Flashing Steel, Flashing Fire by Matthew Quinn

Guest post by Kieran Colfer.

If books are food for the brain, then a short story collection is like a buffet table. Small, bite-sized portions of stories the reader can pick and choose from (or eat them all!), enough to whet the appetite, hopefully enough to give the reader a taste for other tales by the same author.  As with all buffet tables, not everything on the menu may be to a particular person's taste, but if one particular morsel doesn't satisfy, you can easily move on to the next one.

So, how does Flashing Steel, Flashing Fire by Matthew Quinn fare on our culinary tour of the world of fiction? Will we still be hungry at the end or will it be enough to sate our palates? Read on and find out!

The book is divided into ten stories, of roughly even length:

"Coil Gun" - The Cold War between the USA and the Afrikaaner Confederation has turned hot, and an American missile silo commander has to engage in a duel of wits with an intelligence officer on the other side. At stake? The world!

"Lord Giovanni's Daughter" - A princess is being held captive by the evil snake-men. Who can rescue her before the snake-king has his wicked way with her?

"Nicor" - Every Viking has his coming of age, his first ever raid. A young Dane experiences something terrifyingly out of the ordinary on his.

"Melon Heads" - Urban Legends are just that, legends. Aren't they?

"Picking up Plans in Palma" - It was supposed to be a quick in-and-out job, retrieving the plans for the new Confederation wonder-weapon. it was also supposed to be a job for a trained spy though...

"Illegal Alien" - Sometimes when you're trying to cross the border illegally, being caught by the authorities isn't the worst thing that can happen to you.

"The Beast of Bosphorus" - A Lovecraftian tale in a very non-Lovecraftian environment - can this strange and unsettling book help the Emir in his war with the hated Venetians?

"I am the Wendigo" - There are two sides to every monster story - here, the beast gets his turn in the limelight for once.

"Lord of the Dolorous Tower" - In a land of magic devastated by a long-ago cataclysm, a couple of young adventurers decide to see if the old tales are true.

"Westernmost Throne" - On the eve of the Presidential election, a young campaign assistant finds out that her boss isn't the man she thought he was.

Some of the buffet items here are like tasters for the main course where you are eager to find out more - why are the Afrikaaners and the USA in a cold war for example, and how? Who is our strange barbarian adventurer, and why does he want to build a library? These feel like they deserve a book of its own, if not a series. Some of the stories however seem like the portions are a bit too small for their own good, and could maybe do with a bit more fleshing out, like the "Wendigo" and the "Lord of the Dolorous Tower". Each story, however,  has its own little twist or subversion on what you would normally expect in a story of its ilk, and while at first glance it seems to be a rather eclectic collection of tales with no common threads, there are thematic links between each story that bring the whole thing together.

So, in short, should you decide to dine at this table of fictitious delicacies, you are sure to come away with something that is to your taste....

New Releases 6/10/14

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Hardcovers

California Bones by Greg van Eekhout

When Daniel Blackland was six, he ingested his first bone fragment, a bit of kraken spine plucked out of the sand during a visit with his demanding, brilliant, and powerful magician father, Sebastian.

When Daniel was twelve, he watched Sebastian die at the hands of the Hierarch of Southern California, devoured for the heightened magic layered deep within his bones.

Now, years later, Daniel is a petty thief with a forged identity. Hiding amid the crowds in Los Angeles—the capital of the Kingdom of Southern California—Daniel is trying to go straight. But his crime-boss uncle has a heist he wants Daniel to perform: break into the Hierarch's storehouse of magical artifacts and retrieve Sebastian's sword, an object of untold power.

For this dangerous mission, Daniel will need a team he can rely on, so he brings in his closest friends from his years in the criminal world. There's Moth, who can take a bullet and heal in mere minutes. Jo Alverado, illusionist. The multitalented Cassandra, Daniel’s ex. And, new to them all, the enigmatic, knowledgeable Emma, with her British accent and her own grudge against the powers-that-be. The stakes are high, and the stage is set for a showdown that might just break the magic that protects a long-corrupt regime.

Extravagant and yet moving, Greg van Eekhout's California Bones is an epic adventure set in a city of canals and secrets and casual brutality--different from the world we know, yet familiar and true.

Paperbacks

Flashing Steel, Flashing Fire: A Short Story Collection by Matthew Quinn

The vivid imagination of Matthew W. Quinn has carried him far from our mundane world to places of mystery, wonder, and terror. Now is your chance to join him on ten adventures ranging from Dark Age Denmark to a world where North America and Europe face off against the Indian Ocean in a Cold War to the forgotten and frightening corners of our own present day...

COIL GUN-On the opening night of the Third World War, an American spaceport official plays off against an Afrikaner intelligence officer with the fate of the world in the balance. Previously published in PRESSURE SUITE: DIGITAL SCIENCE FICTION #3.

LORD GIOVANNI'S DAUGHTER-A scholar and adventurer must rescue his employer's daughter from the fierce Talassos, prince of the serpentine Naga.

NICOR-A teenage Dane on his first Viking raid encounters something fiercer than the Anglish. Previously published in HEROIC FANTASY QUARTERLY.

MELON HEADS-A pair of young lovers in Ohio discover what they thought an urban legend is very, very real...

PICKING UP PLANS IN PALMA-An American spy infiltrates the brutal Afrikaner Confederation to retrieve vital plans, not knowing the terrible fate awaiting him...

ILLEGAL ALIEN-A group of undocumented migrants seeking the American dream encounter aliens of a different sort...

THE BEAST OF THE BOSPORUS-After the destruction of the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto, Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha seeks power of a different sort, power that puts him at the mercy of powers beyond human comprehension.

I AM THE WENDIGO-Many tales have been told about the wendigo, the man-eating fiend of the northern woods, but when has the wendigo ever spoken for himself? Previously published in CHIMAERA SERIALS.

LORD OF THE DOLOROUS TOWER-In a world wracked once by a celestial impact and then again by a fierce Dark Lord, two adventurous teens go treasure-hunting in the Dark Lord's tomb...

WESTERNMOST THRONE-On the eve of the U.S. Presidential Election, a campaign receptionist finds out her boss is much more than he says he is...

Sherlock Holmes - Gods of War by James Lovegrove

1913. The clouds of war are gathering. The world's great empires vie for supremacy. Europe is in turmoil, a powder keg awaiting a spark. A body is discovered on the shore below Beachy Head, just a mile from Sherlock Holmes's retirement cottage. The local police are satisfied that it's a suicide. The victim, a young man, recently suffered a disappointment in love, and Beachy Head is notorious as a place where the desperate and depressed leap to their deaths. Holmes, however, suspects murder. As he and Watson investigate, they uncover a conspiracy with shocking ramifications.

To fans, authors and publishers...

Is your story going to be published in time for the next New Releases? Contact us at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.  We are looking for works of alternate history, counterfactual history, steampunk, historical fantasy, time travel or anything that warps history beyond our understanding.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.