Reminiscent of Stephen King’s classic, bestselling book Different Seasons, Paul Kane gives us an unforgettable collection of four novella-size stories. Each story is refreshingly original and delivers an emotional impact that is rarely seen in today’s literature. Dark and moody, clever and well-written… Pain Cages is speculative fiction at its best. INCLUDES: PAIN CAGES - Our protagonist Chris is in a little bit of a situation, in that he's been kidnapped and locked in a hanging cage. He's not alone, as there are several other cages with varying occupants surrounding him. HALFLIFE - documents what happens to teenage werewolves when they grow up and are forced to deal with the consequences of their misguided youth. A hunter stalks the secretive group of middle-aged lycans, picking them off one by one without any hint of his reasoning. SIGNS OF LIFE - revolves around a passenger train derailment and how it affects each survivor. The scenes are spliced with horoscopes, the signs determined by which character will be focused on in the upcoming passage. THE LAZARUS CONDITION - focuses on Matthew, a man trying to put the pieces of his past back together. A brilliant tale, weaving trauma, distress, religion and death into an intricate tapestry affecting our hero and all of the supporting characters.
Author
Paul Kane has been writing professionally for almost fifteen years. His genre journalism has appeared in such magazines as Fangoria, SFX and Rue Morgue, and his non-fiction books are the critically acclaimed The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy and Voices in the Dark. His award-winning short fiction has appeared in magazines and anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic (as well as being broadcast on BBC Radio 2), and has been collected in Alone (In the Dark), Touching the Flame, FunnyBones, Peripheral Visions, Shadow Writer, The Butterfly Man and Other Stories, The Spaces Between and GHOSTS. His novella Signs of Life reached the shortlist of the British Fantasy Awards 2006, The Lazarus Condition was introduced by Mick Garris - creator of Masters of Horror - RED featured artwork from Dave (The Graveyard Book) McKean and Pain Cages was introduced by Stephen Volk (The Awakening). As Special Publications Editor of the British Fantasy Society he worked with authors like Brian Aldiss, Ramsey Campbell, Muriel Gray and Robert Silverberg, he is the co-editor of Hellbound Hearts for Pocket Books (Simon and Schuster), an anthology of original stories inspired by Clive Barker's mythos - featuring contributions from the likes of Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola, Kelley Armstrong and Richard Christian Matheson - The Mammoth Book of Body Horror (Constable & Robinson) - featuring Stephen King, James Herbert and Robert Bloch - and the Poe-inspired Beyond Rue Morgue (for Titan). In 2008 his zombie story 'Dead Time' was turned into an episode of the Lionsgate/NBC TV series Fear Itself, adapted by Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) and directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (SAW II-IV). He also scripted The Opportunity which premiered at Cannes in 2009, The Weeping Woman - starring Fright Night's Stephen Jeffreys - and Wind Chimes (directed by Brad '7th Dimension' Watson. He is the author of the novels Of Darkness and Light, The Gemini Factor and the bestselling Arrowhead trilogy (Arrowhead, Broken Arrow and Arrowland), a post-apocalyptic reworking of the Robin Hood mythology gathered together as the sell-out Hooded Man omnibus. His latest novels are Lunar (which is set to be turned into a feature film) and the short Y.A. book The Rainbow Man (as P.B. Kane). He currently lives in Derbyshire, UK, with his wife - the author Marie O'Regan - his family, and a black cat called Mina. You can find out more at his website www.shadow-writer.co.uk which has featured Guest Writers such as Neil Gaiman, Charlaine Harris, Dean Koontz, John Connolly and Guillermo del Toro.
