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Operation Ice Bat
Some of the horror genre's biggest names join forces with talented newcomers for a benefit anthology to aid a friend in need. Edited by World Horror Grandmaster award winner Brian Keene, Operation Ice Bat includes horror and bizarro fiction from authors such as Christopher Golden, Kelli Owen, James A. Moore, Mary SanGiovanni, Robert Swartwood, J.F. Gonzalez, Mandy DeGeit, Robert Ford, Geoff Cooper, and many more.
- GenresHorror
201 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 20, 2014
About the author
Brian Keene
386 books3,013 followersBRIAN KEENE writes novels, comic books, short fiction, and occasional journalism for money. He is the author of over forty books, mostly in the horror, crime, and dark fantasy genres. His 2003 novel, The Rising, is often credited (along with Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comic and Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later film) with inspiring pop culture’s current interest in zombies. Keene’s novels have been translated into German, Spanish, Polish, Italian, French, Taiwanese, and many more. In addition to his own original work, Keene has written for media properties such as Doctor Who, Hellboy, Masters of the Universe, and Superman.
Several of Keene’s novels have been developed for film, including Ghoul, The Ties That Bind, and Fast Zombies Suck. Several more are in-development or under option. Keene also serves as Executive Producer for the independent film studio Drunken Tentacle Productions.
Keene also oversees Maelstrom, his own small press publishing imprint specializing in collectible limited editions, via Thunderstorm Books.
Keene’s work has been praised in such diverse places as The New York Times, The History Channel, The Howard Stern Show, CNN.com, Publisher’s Weekly, Media Bistro, Fangoria Magazine, and Rue Morgue Magazine. He has won numerous awards and honors, including the World Horror 2014 Grand Master Award, two Bram Stoker Awards, and a recognition from Whiteman A.F.B. (home of the B-2 Stealth Bomber) for his outreach to U.S. troops serving both overseas and abroad. A prolific public speaker, Keene has delivered talks at conventions, college campuses, theaters, and inside Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, VA.
The father of two sons, Keene lives in rural Pennsylvania.
Several of Keene’s novels have been developed for film, including Ghoul, The Ties That Bind, and Fast Zombies Suck. Several more are in-development or under option. Keene also serves as Executive Producer for the independent film studio Drunken Tentacle Productions.
Keene also oversees Maelstrom, his own small press publishing imprint specializing in collectible limited editions, via Thunderstorm Books.
Keene’s work has been praised in such diverse places as The New York Times, The History Channel, The Howard Stern Show, CNN.com, Publisher’s Weekly, Media Bistro, Fangoria Magazine, and Rue Morgue Magazine. He has won numerous awards and honors, including the World Horror 2014 Grand Master Award, two Bram Stoker Awards, and a recognition from Whiteman A.F.B. (home of the B-2 Stealth Bomber) for his outreach to U.S. troops serving both overseas and abroad. A prolific public speaker, Keene has delivered talks at conventions, college campuses, theaters, and inside Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, VA.
The father of two sons, Keene lives in rural Pennsylvania.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 8, 2014
A nice collection of stories.from some of the best writers in the horror field. This collection has everything from Lovecraft style stories to Splatter Punk. There is even a visit from Sherlock Holmes. All the money raised goes to help a friend of the writers involved in the collection. Nice price also. FYI some of these stories are reprints but you do get a new Brian Keene story as well as a half dozen or more other new stories. Highly recommended.
July 26, 2014
Operation: Ice Bat is something special. A group of talented writers coming together to help one of their their own. Each one contributing a story for this anthology with all of the the money made going to the cause. And at the same time, giving the reader a good time.
Eighteen stories from some of the best writers woking in the horror genre today.
The fun begins with a mining legend from Christopher Golden and "Breathe My Name." The first thing I realised while reading this piece is it's been too long since I last read Christopher Golden. A solid start to this strong anthology.
I won't mention every writer and story in this collection, you can easily check out the Table Of Contents online, but I will mention several of the standout tales.
Mandy DeGeit's cringe-worthy, "Inviolable," is truly disturbing, yet extremely effective.
James A. Moore's story, "Emily's Kill," combining Sherlock Holmes and a somewhat Lovecraftian tale, was very entertaining.
I also thoroughly enjoyed, "The Wretched Spawn," by Michael H. Antonio as he takes us from Land Sharks to something even more terrifying.
Not every story is great, but so many of them are. I know that to say there is something for everyone is cliche, but it's also true. Brothers fighting over their dead mother's reanimated corpse. A giant mouth that just wants MORE. A wonderful story of reaping what one sows. Yeti and a thirty-foot tall, mechanical penguin. If you thought clowns were scary, wait til you meet Mary SanGiovanni' s mime.
BTW, the award for best title in the anthology goes to Mike Lombardo's "I'm Dreaming of a White Doomsday."
Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Operation: Ice Bat ASAP. Available now from your favorite e-book retailer. You'll be doing something nice and you'll get a lot of bang for your buck.
Definitely recommended.
Eighteen stories from some of the best writers woking in the horror genre today.
The fun begins with a mining legend from Christopher Golden and "Breathe My Name." The first thing I realised while reading this piece is it's been too long since I last read Christopher Golden. A solid start to this strong anthology.
I won't mention every writer and story in this collection, you can easily check out the Table Of Contents online, but I will mention several of the standout tales.
Mandy DeGeit's cringe-worthy, "Inviolable," is truly disturbing, yet extremely effective.
James A. Moore's story, "Emily's Kill," combining Sherlock Holmes and a somewhat Lovecraftian tale, was very entertaining.
I also thoroughly enjoyed, "The Wretched Spawn," by Michael H. Antonio as he takes us from Land Sharks to something even more terrifying.
Not every story is great, but so many of them are. I know that to say there is something for everyone is cliche, but it's also true. Brothers fighting over their dead mother's reanimated corpse. A giant mouth that just wants MORE. A wonderful story of reaping what one sows. Yeti and a thirty-foot tall, mechanical penguin. If you thought clowns were scary, wait til you meet Mary SanGiovanni' s mime.
BTW, the award for best title in the anthology goes to Mike Lombardo's "I'm Dreaming of a White Doomsday."
Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Operation: Ice Bat ASAP. Available now from your favorite e-book retailer. You'll be doing something nice and you'll get a lot of bang for your buck.
Definitely recommended.
May 15, 2015
Quality collections of stories from a gaggle of different authors are difficult to find. In fact, I'd go so far as to say they're rare enough in the literary wilderness to be considered an endangered species. What a relief then to find one edited by Brian Keene that, after a slowish start, ends up being an excellent selection of mostly horrific tales. And better still, it's all in the name of helping out a friend of many of the authors included here, Dave "Meteornotes" Thomas.
Operation: Ice Bat opens strongly with Christopher Golden's BREATHE MY NAME, a tale of a group of miners trapped underground and slowly dying of asphyxiation, before taking a major downward detour with Kelli Owen's ho-hum, THE TIN BOX. Unfortunately things then go from mediocre to perhaps the worst story in the entire collection in the form of the almost-incomprehensible FOR WHOM WE MOURN by Geoff Cooper. It was right around here that I was sighing and shaking my head, ready to be disappointed by yet another short story collection.
Thankfully, Mandy Degeit's ultra-short and incredible effective INVIOLABLE righted the flagging ship, before Nate Southard knocked it out of the park with his excellent MOUTH (seriously, this one should be a novel all of its own). There follow a few average stories - including one very odd piece by Michele Mixwell that feels completely out of place when compared to what else is on offer in Operation: Ice Bat - though THE TASTE OF OUR INDISCRETION as Robert Ford's version of what death may be like is entertaining enough in its own right. Keene then slots in his own bizarre homage to all things Robert Howard with THE GUARDIAN OF TSALAL, which is too ridiculous to be taken as anything other than his practice run at writing weird fantasy before The Lost Level.
The back third of the book is almost all quality, however. EMILY'S KILL by James A Moore mixes Sherlock Holmes with H P Lovecraft to intriguing effect (at least until a massive cheat of an ending robs the reader of what should have been the best part); I'M DREAMING OF A WHITE DOOMSDAY by Mike Lombardo is another excellent tale depicting a different type of apocalypse featuring Santa in a way you'll never have seen him before; while Michael H Antonio's THE WRETCHED SPAWN hits all the right buttons in describing the opening minutes of Cthulhu's rise out of the ocean depths near a tourist-filled city.
But for sheer creeping dread, the reader need look no further than Mary San Giovanni's THE MIME. I'm not sure how up to date her horror-film viewing is, but if I were her, I'd be asking my lawyers to take a fairly close look at the recent film, It Follows, to determine if she has a viable case of plagiarism on her hands. Finally, the collection concludes with another clever (though considerably less creepy) story, this time in the form of NOOGLE KNOCK by Robert Swartwood.
I haven't quite mentioned every story within Operation: Ice Bat, and truth be told, I didn't overly love any that I've missed singling out. But they were all absolutely fine; they just did not shine next to some of the excellent tales specified above.
In terms of number crunching, there are eighteen stories collected within Operation: Ice Bat. I truly loved four of them, really enjoyed six others, found five to be distinctly average, and really disliked three. For me, with my penchant for longer horror fiction, those are some pretty damn fine numbers.
So do yourself a favour, help out a good cause, and pick this one up. It's well worth it.
4 Sidelong Glimpses of a Creepy as Fuck Mime for Operation: Ice Bat.
Operation: Ice Bat opens strongly with Christopher Golden's BREATHE MY NAME, a tale of a group of miners trapped underground and slowly dying of asphyxiation, before taking a major downward detour with Kelli Owen's ho-hum, THE TIN BOX. Unfortunately things then go from mediocre to perhaps the worst story in the entire collection in the form of the almost-incomprehensible FOR WHOM WE MOURN by Geoff Cooper. It was right around here that I was sighing and shaking my head, ready to be disappointed by yet another short story collection.
Thankfully, Mandy Degeit's ultra-short and incredible effective INVIOLABLE righted the flagging ship, before Nate Southard knocked it out of the park with his excellent MOUTH (seriously, this one should be a novel all of its own). There follow a few average stories - including one very odd piece by Michele Mixwell that feels completely out of place when compared to what else is on offer in Operation: Ice Bat - though THE TASTE OF OUR INDISCRETION as Robert Ford's version of what death may be like is entertaining enough in its own right. Keene then slots in his own bizarre homage to all things Robert Howard with THE GUARDIAN OF TSALAL, which is too ridiculous to be taken as anything other than his practice run at writing weird fantasy before The Lost Level.
The back third of the book is almost all quality, however. EMILY'S KILL by James A Moore mixes Sherlock Holmes with H P Lovecraft to intriguing effect (at least until a massive cheat of an ending robs the reader of what should have been the best part); I'M DREAMING OF A WHITE DOOMSDAY by Mike Lombardo is another excellent tale depicting a different type of apocalypse featuring Santa in a way you'll never have seen him before; while Michael H Antonio's THE WRETCHED SPAWN hits all the right buttons in describing the opening minutes of Cthulhu's rise out of the ocean depths near a tourist-filled city.
But for sheer creeping dread, the reader need look no further than Mary San Giovanni's THE MIME. I'm not sure how up to date her horror-film viewing is, but if I were her, I'd be asking my lawyers to take a fairly close look at the recent film, It Follows, to determine if she has a viable case of plagiarism on her hands. Finally, the collection concludes with another clever (though considerably less creepy) story, this time in the form of NOOGLE KNOCK by Robert Swartwood.
I haven't quite mentioned every story within Operation: Ice Bat, and truth be told, I didn't overly love any that I've missed singling out. But they were all absolutely fine; they just did not shine next to some of the excellent tales specified above.
In terms of number crunching, there are eighteen stories collected within Operation: Ice Bat. I truly loved four of them, really enjoyed six others, found five to be distinctly average, and really disliked three. For me, with my penchant for longer horror fiction, those are some pretty damn fine numbers.
So do yourself a favour, help out a good cause, and pick this one up. It's well worth it.
4 Sidelong Glimpses of a Creepy as Fuck Mime for Operation: Ice Bat.
December 9, 2014
The anthology is a tribute to Brian Keene's long term friend Dave Thomas, who is suffering through some really hard times. I originally picked up this ebook without really thinking twice, because I enjoy helping out Brian Keene and his friends whenever I can afford it. Much to my surprise this anthology contains a new Brian Keene story you can't find anywhere else! While I plan to read the entire ebook, this review will focus on the Brian Keene story only.
The story I did read was the short novella called "The Guardians of Tsalal" by Brian Keene. As some already know I am a huge fan of Mr. Keene's work and his ongoing Labyrinth mythology. While this story doesn't contain any bits of Labyrinth mythos, it does take a very interesting departure for his standard usual work. If I was to sum the plot up in as few words as possible, I would describe it as "Space tomb raiders who fight against a army of Yetis and a giant robot Penguin." The plot kicks off into high gear when a group of explorers encounter hostile Yetis, when being refused safe passage to a temple protected by a guardian. The plot is goofy, fun and has a science fiction campy feel to it.
The main character's name is Kilmar and his pink furry side kick is Uronymus. Prior to reading this story I knew nothing about it. Much to my surprise these two characters might become my new favorite Brian Keene duo, (Sorry Tony Genova!)The two of them work well off of each other, both of them share a long history together. Kilmar is the bad ass alpha male human character, while Uronymus is the goofy yet lovable pink panther humanoid. Kilmar and his sidekick are the only survivors of a group of friends, both of them battle weary from a long journey to find hidden Temples that are protected by gigantic robotic guardians. The friendship between the two of them is very believable, I really felt like these two characters cared about each other.
My only minor complaint is that this seems more like a prologue then a stand alone story. We are left with a excellent set up, however we are offered no real satisfying conclusion as to what the end mission really is. If I had to guess Brian Keene is setting up the building blocks to a future science fiction epic. I sincerely hope this isn't the only time we witness the adventures of Kilmar and his furry pal Uronymus!
If giant robot penguins and pink furry sidekicks aren't your thing then you really need to lighten up! I give this little short story a five out of five!
"TEKELI-LI..... TEKELI-LI...."
The story I did read was the short novella called "The Guardians of Tsalal" by Brian Keene. As some already know I am a huge fan of Mr. Keene's work and his ongoing Labyrinth mythology. While this story doesn't contain any bits of Labyrinth mythos, it does take a very interesting departure for his standard usual work. If I was to sum the plot up in as few words as possible, I would describe it as "Space tomb raiders who fight against a army of Yetis and a giant robot Penguin." The plot kicks off into high gear when a group of explorers encounter hostile Yetis, when being refused safe passage to a temple protected by a guardian. The plot is goofy, fun and has a science fiction campy feel to it.
The main character's name is Kilmar and his pink furry side kick is Uronymus. Prior to reading this story I knew nothing about it. Much to my surprise these two characters might become my new favorite Brian Keene duo, (Sorry Tony Genova!)The two of them work well off of each other, both of them share a long history together. Kilmar is the bad ass alpha male human character, while Uronymus is the goofy yet lovable pink panther humanoid. Kilmar and his sidekick are the only survivors of a group of friends, both of them battle weary from a long journey to find hidden Temples that are protected by gigantic robotic guardians. The friendship between the two of them is very believable, I really felt like these two characters cared about each other.
My only minor complaint is that this seems more like a prologue then a stand alone story. We are left with a excellent set up, however we are offered no real satisfying conclusion as to what the end mission really is. If I had to guess Brian Keene is setting up the building blocks to a future science fiction epic. I sincerely hope this isn't the only time we witness the adventures of Kilmar and his furry pal Uronymus!
If giant robot penguins and pink furry sidekicks aren't your thing then you really need to lighten up! I give this little short story a five out of five!
"TEKELI-LI..... TEKELI-LI...."
October 6, 2014
This short story collection is really good. Not every story was great, but there were only one or two that I did not completely enoy. This book provides a variety of horror stories, ranging from slow burning Lovecraftian styled tales to more gore stained gonzo violence entries, but the bulk of the stories fall somewhere in the middle. The editing and arrangement of the stories added to the entertainment because if you did not like one story the story following it would be a different styled horror to keep it interesting. A must for the modern day horror fan.
September 27, 2014
A solid anthology with varying degrees of horrors sub-genres. One or two of the stories didn't match my tastes, but overall it was an entertaining group of stories. That is usually the case with any anthology. For the ebook price, the cause and the variety, Operation: Ice Bat is a sure bet if you're looking for some horror reads.
September 23, 2014
A lot of good short stories. I enjoyed most of them with the exception of one or two that didn't quite click with me. Over all a good read.
November 23, 2014
nice mix of stories but sometimes I wish the end just didn't seem so rushed but I think that's an anthology issue. still a fun collection that could make awesome shorts.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews