Deucalion was once the first of Victor Franken­stein's creations. In 200 years, the monster has grown wise and ethical. He learns that Victor also still lives—Vic­tor is creating a New Race in New Orleans, a race of su­per­hu­mans loyal to him, who will destroy ordinary humanity. Some of the New Race are not quite as loyal to “Father” as he thinks; some are veering far off their prescribed courses. Victor is the true monster here, the ultimate mad scientist.

The premise is in­ter­est­ing, but …continue.

In Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula relocates from Tran­syl­va­nia to London. Asking themselves, what would Dracula have done in London before he was killed by Van Helsing, 18 authors wrote un­con­nect­ed short stories. Dracula meets the Prince of Wales, he is observed by the servants, he terrorizes Aleister Crowley and Charles Fort and Ellen Terry, he even takes the lead in the Pirates of Penzance.

The stories are uneven. None is out­stand­ing.

Maine PI Charlie Parker is asked to warn off Merrick, a father looking for answers, from harassing his client. The case leads him to uncover a decades-old project of sexually abusing children who've fallen through the cracks.

At­mos­pher­ic and disturbing, as Connolly's novels tend to be.

In 1845, Sir John Franklin led an expedition to find the fabled Northwest Passage, connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific via the Canadian Arctic. HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were never heard from again. Later rescuers found some notes in a cairn, indicating that the ships had been trapped for a year and a half in the ice, and the crews had finally abandoned ship, making for the south.

Dan Simmons builds a tale of horror from all the known historical facts: the frigid dangers of …continue.