Complete Darkness - now an audiobook

 

Complete Darkness - Audiobook

Matt Adcock

"Audible version of this awesome book does not disappoint! The original grit and charm of the novel are captured in this excellent audio production. Narration is clear and concise with Nick also distinguishing voices of the different characters which helps to follow the storyline. I also love how the footnotes are presented. Inline with the overall vibe of the book and also help the listener to easily identify when they are listening to a footnote rather than main storyline." Audible listener

It's been almost five years since I found a publisher for Complete Darkness - and it's been a fantastic, fun ride ever since Burton Mayers Books signed me up. The launch event in Kings Cross where we had a satanist and a vicar discuss 'Hell' was just the sort of event I'd buy tickets for even if I wasn't the one putting it on!?

We sold 35 tickets, drank wine and played a wide game where those who came dashed madly around the pub (and the station) trying to find a member of the public who a. believed in an actual Hell and b. would come and explain why to the wine sippin book launch attendees.

It got written up in a national weekly newspaper (who made the book their paperback of the week - see below) and certainly helped add to the novel's sales.

Then during lockdown, an artist read the novel and we decided to see if we could turn it into a graphic novel - one chapter/comic at a time. At the time of writing, we are three issues in and it's going well!?

Now in 2024 the novel has finally made the jump to audiobook. I worked with ACX who have an intuitive interface which made the process easy. I put up a sample script, had 40 actors apply with their audition readings and with the help of my pal Simon Middleditch picked who we thought read it best.

Nick Cracknell was the 'chosen one' - he's a pro and his take on the novel really stood out as this early reviewer notes:

"My favourite book now in audio form! I’ve loved this book and I’m so pleased it’s now available on audiobook. It’s superbly narrated throughout and they’ve integrated the footnotes effortlessly. Listening this way has opened up the story for me in whole new ways. Go get it and listen!!" 

Audible listener

What I didn't know was whether there would be an audio market for a 5-year-old quirky sci-fi that identifies as cyberpunk... Well day one sales showed that there does indeed seem to be!? After 12 hours on sale, the audiobook had shot to top of this Amazon Best Seller chart and the next day began moving units not just on Audible but Apple Books too.

Day One Chart Topper

Best Seller Flag!

How the Apple Books Store Looks

So where do we go from here? Well it will be interesting to see how sales work out over the first year and it's certainly made we think about working with Nick again for future projects.

If you're Audiobook-curious - you can get a free five minutes of the prologue by clicking the banner below (or sign up for a free three-month trial and nab the whole book for nothing)...

>>> Imagine a world where the earth is becoming hell?

Click banner below to find out in my dark sci-fi novel 

(now an audiobook and becoming a graphic novel too)...

Conditions Are Different After Dark - Matt Moves to the Folkish Country

Conditions Are Different After Dark

Owen W Knight (@OwenKnightUK)

Reviewed by Matt Adcock (@cleric20)

"James and Faith sprung upright in bed as glass from the bedroom window crashed onto the sill and oak floor. 'What was that?' Faith cried. 'Someone's breaking in.' James rushed to the window. awake and alert in an instant from the shock. In the half moonlight, he saw a figure, wearing what looked to be a hooded cloak running away towards the far end of the garden and woods."

Come to the country they said. It will be peaceful and good for the soul. It's definitely not going to end up in a folk horror scenario either... Or will it!?

Conditions are Different After Dark is the new thriller from Owen W Knight (he of the excellent Another Life and The Visitors novels). And I'm delighted to say that Conditions is his best yet!!

If you're a fan of folky oddness with a darker tinge, such as The Wicker Man film(s), Midsommer, The Lord of Misrule et al, then you're absolutely in the right place... This is the tale of James and Faith, city slickers who move to a quaint country village in order to slow down and potentially raise a family.

Here is the official blurb: 

In 1660, a man is wrongly executed for signing the death warrant of Charles I. While awaiting execution, he asks to speak with a priest, to whom he declares a curse on the village that betrayed him. The priest responds with a counter-curse, leaving just one option to nullify it. Over four centuries later, Faith and James move to the country to start a new life and a family. They learn that their village lives under the curse uttered by the hanged man. Could their arrival be connected? 

Faith and James fear that their choice of a new home is no coincidence. Unexplained events hint at threats or warnings to leave, including the slaughter of their hens, an attic break-in and other menacing incidents. They become convinced the village continues to live under the curse despite denials from their new friends. Who can they trust, and who are potential enemies?

'the mind behind the fable'

Owen writes with a deliberate style, the book is very much dialogue driven and a key plot point is how the two leads don't communicate with each other very well... Slight trigger warning for anyone of a very sensitive disposition but as a horror aficionado, the is nothing here too gruesome, in fact, I'd have liked more - but then I'm a very sick minded person :)

Hopefully, you'll know by now if this is potentially your cup of tea. I recommend it and will put it into my very select pile of 'books I will probably read again!'

Out of a potential 5, you have to go with a Darkmatters:

ööööö

(5 - Another winner from Knight, his best yet!) 

BUY YOUR COPY OF CONDITIONS ARE DIFFERENT AFTER DARK HERE

>>> Imagine a world where the earth is becoming hell?

Click banner below to find out in my dark sci-fi novel 

(now an audiobook and becoming a graphic novel too)...

The PSYCHO Films (reviews)

 We All Go A Little Mad Sometimes...

The PSYCHO films

Reviewed by Matt Adcock (@Cleric20)

"They're probably watching me. Well, let them. Let them see what kind of a person I am. I'm not even going to swat that fly. I hope they are watching... they'll see. They'll see and they'll know..."

The Psycho films have a special place in the pantheon of horror films - Hitchcock started a whole new breed of 'mental illness as a danger to society' genre - and he did it with such power and style that it became an icon. 

Several sequels of varying quality followed plus an infamous 'shot-for-shot' colour remake in '98. There is even a lesser-known, and highly quirky '87 TV movie featuring Jason Bateman that was supposed to kick off a Bates Motel series way before the excellent Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore series redefined the early years of Norman Bate's life.

As is often the case - my ranking of these might differ to the 'accepted' version - for me, a film can be rated highly for many things not just the 'craft' with which it is made... So read on if you dare as I explain my feelings for each of the Psycho films to date:

Psycho IV: The Beginning 

Directed by Mick 'Critters 2' Garris

Psycho IV hit in 1990, it was very much a TV movie and the quality was lacking. It does have Anthony Perkins reprise his role as Norman Bates for one final time (he died two years after this movie was released). It's an hour and a half mostly filled with Norman calling in and dumping his psychological baggage to a seedy late-night radio show - will it help?

There are some fun flashbacks to Norman's childhood and teenage years, young Norman (played by Henry Thomas) tries and fails to please his overbearing mother, Norma (Olivia Hussey). Norman himself has moved on and married but can he outrun his demons? Bates grapples with his unsettling feelings for his mother and considers a career change into stabbing young women to get his manhood back...

It's fine, but nothing special.

Out of a potential 5, you have to go with a Darkmatters:

öö1/2

(2.5 - Worth a watch for die-hard psycho fans )

Bates Motel (1987) 

Directed by Richard 'writer of Universal Soldier' Rothstein

Before Freddie Highmore, there was Bud Cort (HEAT) who stars not as Norman but as Alex West, a young man who had the pleasure of being locked up in the same asylum as Norman Bates, who becomes a sort of father figure to him. What could possibly go wrong after Alex is released and left Bates Motel. 

But the motel isn't empty... Squatting there is Willie (a pre Tank Girl Lori 'Point Break' Petty) and maybe also the ghost of dear old Norma Bates!?

It all gets a bit Scooby Doo as things go bump in the night and there is a literal double unmasking scene at the end. But there is lots to enjoy here if you like quirk, and can handle the less-than-stellar production values.

Out of a potential 5, you have to go with a Darkmatters:

ööö

(3 - Weirdly fun '90s oddity )

Psycho III  

Directed by Anthony 'Lucky Stiff' Perkins

Strap in folks - here's a massive fun '80s horror movie which has Perkins pulling double duty as both director and star. Additionally, Diana Scarwid (Rumble Fish) steals the whole movie as a literal 'nun on the run' and the cast is stacked with quality bit players.

Written by Charles Edward Pogue (of the excellent The Fly remake fame) and boosted by some pumping synth murder music Psycho III to many fans is the peak of everything the Psycho franchise strives for. It's certainly a really good time, it's nasty enough, but has goofy bits, it's sweaty too but also not as predictable as some of this franchise. 

Can Norman have a love interest and not end up carving her? It's compelling to find out...

Out of a potential 5, you have to go with a Darkmatters:

ööö1/2

(3.5 - Decent 3-quel that is definitely worth a look  )

Psycho II

Directed by Richard 'Road Games' Franklin

Psycho II, one of the few films that has unnerved me - I was 12 when this came out in '83 and I saw it unsupervised late one night with a mate. Ooooo baby - this has everything you could want from a sequel to a classic. It got the green light when Hitchcock's estate allowed Universal to continue the Psycho franchise. 

Perkins returns and totally nails his Norman Bates after a 22-year hiatus along with original cast member Vera Miles. This movie was the start of my Meg Tilly infatuation - cemented by Masquerade in '88.

So Bates Motel stumbles back into life after Norman is deemed fit to leave the institution but the local populace aren't convinced that he's all there. When Mary (Tilly) befriends him, you can almost feel his madness pulsing in his mind but maybe, just maybe it IS all in his mind?

When very real dead people start being found around the Motel Norman's grip on reality begins to slip and it makes brilliant viewing! Psycho II is well served because it keeps you guessing and presents some sympathetic elements to Norman - so he pretty much becomes a 'horror hero' here. 

Out of a potential 5, you have to go with a Darkmatters:

öööö

(4 - Top psycho-em-up sequel stuff!  )

Psycho (1998) 

Directed by Gus 'Good Will Hunting' Van Sant

Ah, the Psycho film that people love to hate... I count myself as one of the very few folks out there who love Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot 1998 remake of Psycho. It flips some of the vibes of the original which some have knocked for having Perkins as a queer baddie - by having the wonderful gay rights trailblazer Anne Heche play the errant wife on the run, who makes the mistake of stopping over at the Bates Motel run by Norman (a genius bit of against type cast in Vince 'Swingers' Vaughn). 

Also different this time round is that it's in colour, and has the awesome supporting cast of Julianne Moore, Viggo Mortensen, William H. Macy, and Philip Baker Hall. The film looks beautiful and sounds great too with Danny Elfman reworking Bernard Herrmann's original score. 

Psycho '98 is fun to watch, and for me is the most re-watchable of all the Psycho films. The cast put their own spin on their readings of the characters, with more room for fun and because they keep most of Stefano's original script - it allows you to appreciate just how good it is.

Hate on it if you want but I urge you to give it another shot. Is it necessary? Not at all. Is it a campy slice of horror excellence - oh yes!!

Out of a potential 5, you have to go with a Darkmatters:

ööööö

(5 - One of my all-time fav remakes!  )

Psycho (1960) 

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Just pretty much a perfect film. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was picked by the American Film Institute as the most suspenseful film ever made. Variety recently named it the best movie in the history of all cinema. 

Almost 65 years old, and it holds up as a masterful viewing experience now, as much as it ever did. Hitchcock must have known that he was channelling magic when he created the uberly iconic shower scene. But Psycho has it all - a  Gothic haunted house, THAT staircase, THAT silhouette, THAT knife, THAT screeching Bernard Hermann score. 

If you've never been a fan of black-and-white movies, this is the one that could change your mind. It's tense. It's frightening. And Norman Bates is an icon. 

STUNNING STUFF...

Out of a potential 5, you have to go with a Darkmatters:

ööööö

(5 - The grandaddy of horror, epic and wonderful!! )

>>> Imagine a world where the earth is becoming hell?

Click banner below to find out in my dark sci-fi novel 

(now becoming a comic too)...

Matt is Scarred... Review

Scarred 

 

Jon Richter (@richterwrites) 

 

Reviewed by Matt Adcock (@cleric20)

 

‘The sword laughed as it slid into his belly, its blade strangely cold, as though he had impaled himself on an icicle. He closed his eyes as he felt his stomach open, blood and bile and the vitriol of years suddenly dispersed, like the opening of some monstrous release valve…’

 

You are not ready for this.

 

Forget your standard Fantasy novels – old master Richter who has delivered superb, crime, horror and cyberpunk books, now rewrites the rules, subverts and expands the fantasy genre. And he does it in fine style!

 

As Hugh Hefner once said: ‘one guy, through living out his own fantasies, is living out the fantasies of so many others’ – and I think that may well be appropriate for Scarred as there is an infectious joy of the subject covered bursting from the pages of this new novel.

 

I won’t trouble you with the plot too much, all you really need to know is that it’s a kind of quest tale, we follow lowly young serving girl Freya (who has the titular ‘scar’ on her face). If you’re a fantasy book fan then you can have a fun side game of fantasy world cliché bingo as the Richter delivers them in spades but due to his excellence with the craft, he manages to make even trolls and knights feel fresh again.

 

There’s much to enjoy here and its one of the few books that will make its way into my ‘reread at some point’ pile – I can’t give it much higher praise than that!

 

My advice is to do whatever you need to in order to get yourself a copy of Scarred, find a cozy nook and maybe a quality glass of wine and settle in to have your heart and soul transported into a weird but wonderful new kind of Oz.

It's been said already that this evokes classic quest sagas such as The Wizard of Oz and Stephen King's Dark Tower series, with a dash of Kazuo Ichiguro's The Buried Giant and Hugh Howey's Wool, Scarred balances stirring prose with a fast-paced and gripping narrative - and I can't argue...

Want to know more about rascally deviant Jon Richter? keep reading:

He is the writer of dark fiction, and is the author of four crime thrillers (Chains, Rabbit Hole, Never Rest and Deadly Burial) as well as three collections of short horror fiction (Jon Richter's Disturbing Works: Volumes One and Two, and his latest release DARK FICTION), cyberpunk thriller Auxiliary, and psychological techno-thriller The

Warden.

Jon lives in London and loves immersing himself in all things dark and sinister, whether they're books, films, video games or even board games – any way to tell a great story!

If you want to chat to him about this, or about anything at all, you can find him on Instagram @jonrichterwrites; he’d also love it if you would check out his website at www.jon-richter.com.

 

I have the privilege of being Jon’s co-host on the cyberpunk podcast ‘Hosts In The Shell’ and was fully prepared to give him a hard time if Scarred had been weak but I’ll not get to rib him on air because he’s flippin smashed it! Enjoy…

Out of a potential 5, you have to go with a Darkmatters:

ööööö

(5 - Richter is has made the Fantasy Genre his gimp at first attempt!) 

BUY SCARRED HERE

>>> Imagine a world where the earth is becoming hell?

Click banner below to find out in my dark sci-fi novel 

(now becoming a graphic novel too)...

This review was part of the excellent Zooloo Book Tours