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October Dark by David Herter
Chosen by Brian
From acclaimed author David Herter, a new novel in the tradition of Ray Bradbury’s SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES and Tim Powers’s LAST CALL….
Halloween, 1931. The metropolis of Grenton. On the ruined canals, a clock tolls midnight. Willis H. O’Brien, the father of stop motion animation, seeks the base elements of a new animation. And Henri Mordaunt, the undying Phantasmagoria magician, will soon provide them. An uncanny bargain is struck, leading to betrayal and dire retribution, and an act of cinematic alchemy that echoes down the history of fantastic film.
Halloween, 1977. For thirteen-year-old Will and his best friend Jim — amateur animators and Famous Monsters of Filmland fanatics — summer darkens into mysterious autumn, with a black balloon prowling the skies of their suburban neighborhood, and supernatural images haunting the frames of their latest 8 mm epic, heralding doom. Everything leads to the edge of Grenton’s ruined canals, and the faded cinema palace where STAR WARS has been showing non-stop since late May, a gateway into the mysteries of Grenton’s past, and to a secret history playing out on either side of the silver screen….
“David Herter’s October Dark is a part of Earthling’s Halloween series. Books in that series typically come out in October. Herter’s book had some delays that year and didn’t come out until February. It’s a good Halloween book in the Tim Powers vein that deserves a revisit. I would love it if the books in the Halloween series were made available in affordable e-book editions.”
Brian
Other Books by David Herter
Ceres Storm
Evening’s Empire
On the Overgrown Path
Black and Green and Gold
Anthologies Including David Herter
Borderlands 4
Best New Horror 14 (The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror #17)
Check back every day through the month of October for our Halloween Cover Countdown – Come back tomorrow to see what Cory has in store for you!
GracieKat was the first co-host of Sci-Fi & Scary, Lilyn’s partner-in-crime, and sub-head of the Kali Krew. She reviews horror books, movies, and games for the site. She also does a weekly Focus on the Frightful feature, and is the site list-maker. She is also in control of the Sci-Fi & Scary podcast which will relaunch soon.