Digital bites: ebooks by Bryan Smith and Richard Wright

One problem I have found with the ebook revolution is keeping up with the number of books that come out.
I mean this in two ways:
Firstly, I still mainly read (and keep tabs on) books of the paper 'n' card kind - my sampling of ebooks being akin to occasionally dipping a finger into an ever-increasing torrent- so worthy horror ebooks frequently fly under my radar.
Secondly, when I do dip into that torrent I tend to buy up way too many (all those sub-three dollar books!), and never find the time to read but a small sample.

Nevertheless, while tree-killing books often take priority, I still have an interest in what's new out there in the digital stream, and should probably profile a choice selection more regularly. So here we go, a couple of recent ebooks that have caught my eye. (Also, "digital bites". Bites/bytes, geddit? *Ahem*)



Cuckoo by Richard Wright

From the blurb:
Gregory Summers returns home to discover that his wife no longer knows him, and is married to another man using his name. Pursued by a creature that cannot exist, his comfortable truths shattered, Greg finds his whole knowledge of the world questionable. If he does not even know himself, what else can he possibly trust himself to know? Only that the true fight to survive, is all in the mind... 


Previously published in 1999 and 2002, this new version is a "revised edition of the novel, ready for a new audience, in paperback and multiple ebook formats".
I have to admit that I'm a bit of a fan of the general subject matter: doppelgänger, replacements, sense of identity and self...
I have fond memories of Bernard Taylor's The Godsend (which really should have been called something very like 'Cuckoo') and Bob Shaw's The Two Timers (parallel universe shenanigans where a man tries to replace "himself"), and am even one of the few people who liked The Broken (relatively recent horror movie featuring doppelgängers/replacements from a mirror world); to name but a few examples.

Aside from this, the book has been well reviewed (SF Site, Ginger Nuts of Horror, Hellnotes, etc).

Buy it here (Amazon) or here (Smashwords).



Kayla & the Devil by Bryan Smith

Bryan Smith is fairly new to self-publishing, but he's well known in horror circles, mainly due to once being a regular feature in the popular Leisure Horror line. However, his most recent self-publishing endeavour is his first ever urban fantasy release, titled Kayla & the Devil.
Admittedly, I'm not huge on urban fantasy, but being by Bryan Smith I imagine this isn't the sparkly-vampire-and-handsome-werewolf-love-triangle kind. According to his blog it is more "...along the lines of Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden novels meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer (though it isn't about vampires)." If his horror novels are anything to go by, I imagine this will be a helter-skelter, fun novel.

Buy it here (Amazon) or here (Smashwords).

Note: You can also check out his "authorized version" of House of Bloodhere (99c!!) and Darkened, his previous self-release, here or here.