Work by LTR Durkin

[LTRDURKIN_AUTHOR]

Welcome to August!

View attachment 1052
(Cover of "The Magazine of Fantasy & SF", August 1963)

(Last month's discussion of Fantasy/Horror books is HERE. )

It is the usual message here - this thread is where you tell us about what you've been reading in Fantasy/Horror this month.

Remember, good or bad, we still want to know what you think.

Hobbit/Mark

If your fantasy taste sits somewhere between Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, House of the Dragon, Fourth Wing and ACOTAR, this is probably the easiest way I can explain Heaven’s Gate.


It has the scale and war of epic fantasy, the dragons and political tension of something like House of the Dragon, the darker angel mythology of Lucifer or Supernatural, and the relationship pressure and romance you’d expect from modern romantasy.


But it isn’t a copy of any of them. The whole series is built around its own world, its own dragons, its own mythology and a six-book story that keeps widening as it goes.


The paperbacks are heavily reduced at the moment because I’m trying to get more actual fantasy readers into the series. I’m making very little on each copy at that price, but right now I care more about readership and genuine reviews than margin.


So if you normally spend your time with big fantasy worlds, dragons, morally messy characters, wars, dangerous relationships and stories that don’t stay small for long, have a look at Heaven’s Gate.


Read it properly. Compare it to the books and shows you already love. Then tell me where you think it stands.

 

[LTRDURKIN_AUTHOR]

Have you read them back-to-back, Atramentous?

They are quite intense!

M.

If you like The Ritual, Annihilation, The Descent, The Last of Us or the kind of horror where the landscape itself starts to feel hostile, HALCYON is worth a look.

This is survival horror built around isolation, dread and the feeling that the people at the centre of it are already much deeper into trouble than they understand.

It isn’t really about cheap jump scares. The tension comes from being somewhere remote, realising something is wrong, and watching every attempt to regain control make things worse.

The closest comparison is probably The Ritual for the wilderness horror, Annihilation for the unease and sense that the environment cannot be trusted, and The Descent for that trapped, increasingly hopeless survival pressure. If you like The Last of Us, there’s also that same appeal of ordinary people being forced to keep moving when stopping feels just as dangerous.

I wrote it to feel cinematic and claustrophobic at the same time — the sort of story where you can picture the film while you’re reading it.

If that sounds like your kind of horror, search HALCYON by LTR Durkin on Amazon.