"I am the Jester. I sit before you a humble man." - Calum

New kids on the block Cohesion Press get their catalogue happening with a new collection from Kaaron Warren. The Gate Theory contains five tales from the pen of one of Australia's most gifted dark dreamers and in a concise fashion details why Kaaron Warren is an award winning writer. In this collection you will run across psychos, ghosts, an ash mouth man, vampire dogs, and a recurrent Warren theme. But don't worry you won't be treading familiar ground, this Author takes the genre tropes and gives them one hell of a shake.

Been a while since anyone on the site has sat down with a Kaaron Warren book of any description, and looking at her published work we're about two books behind. Talk about letting things get away from you! So I was more than pleased to receive an epub version of The Gate Theory from Cohesion Press and get my Warren on once again. While all five stories have been previously published they had never been grouped together in one book previously, and even better I hadn't actually read two of them. So not only did I get to re-read three above average tales but I also got to rock on with two completely new, to me at least, yarns that underlined how good Ms Warren is and how her themes have developed over the years.

Opening the collection is a rather odd sociopathic tale, Purity. I hadn't read this story previously and simply couldn't put the e-reader down as I followed this mesmerising story that epitomises Kaaron Warren's post Faery tale style of dark myth creation. I'm not even going to attempt to define what this story is about; you need to experience the mood and atmosphere first hand. After reading the final page, it's a long story kids, I'm still not entirely certain if we got a happy ending or something else entirely.

Regular readers of Ms Warren will no doubt be aware of her haunting tale That Girl, which kind of mixes in a ghost story with some astral projection and a hell of a lot of pathos. This is one tale that will stay with you and leave even the most hardened dark genre voyager with a lump in their throat. There is no redemption here only suffering, and Warren nails it. For mine one of the best story's to have been written in the dark genre in this Country this century. I defy even the harshest dark genre critic to read this tale and then argue horror cannot achieve art. Yes the story is that good, one of my favourites of all time to be honest. Once again I'm not going to say too much, read the story, The Gate Theory is worth a purchase on this tale alone.

Dead Sea Fruit is all about Kaaron Warren's ability to create urban legends that read like they have always been with us. Think "Bloody Mary" or the "Banshee", Warren introduces the Ash Mouth Man into the horror Parthenon in a similar way to Clive Barker's fabled Candyman, except of course it's never going to be that easy with a Warren tale. What is considered evil may not be truly evil and of course can be undone from an unexpected source. I wasn't quite sure who exactly was the protagonist and who was the antagonist in this yarn, but then again that probably isn't the point of the tale. Another excellent example of Kaaron Warren being able to take reader expectations, give them a twist, and present us with something completely new.

Another tale I hadn't stumbled across previously was The History Thief which once again proved Ms Warren can take a standard dark genre approach shake it up a bit, add some ideas from other genres, and generally play around with it in an entirely convincing fashion. This ghost story shows a recurrent theme of Ms Warren's work, the protagonist pretty much ends up on the wrong side of the deal regardless of their actions. In simple terms, bad things happen to good people, toughen up Princess this is the horror genre. While that may be the case don't be confused into thinking Kaaron Warren is a nihilistic writer, as this tale proves it's all on an individual basis. The History Thief is one of the best stories from Ms Warren I've read, and yes it comes with a twist, though those with their horrordars on will pick where things are going.

The collection is rounded out with The Gaze Dogs of Nine Waterfall an altogether satisfying if surreal read that has one of the best hooks I've ever come across in a horror story, vampire dogs! Yes I know there was that "B" grader Zoltan Hound of Dracula, but this story is talking dogs that drink blood, draining their victims in the process, and not some half arsed notion out of Boredwood. I should point out that in this story we again have a victim who arrives at her fate through no wrong doing, I'm going to leave it at that to avoid spoilers. If Kaaron Warren ever wants to develop a book with the main character from this story as the central focus, I'm pushing pensioners out of the way down the local book store to get it on publication date.

On top of the five stories detailed somewhat above we get an introduction from Amanda J Spedding to get you in the mood for what you are about to devour, yes folks The Gate Theory is one of those instant page turners that will have you fixed like a deer to its literary headlights. Now I know there's some debate as to the worth of introductions, have you ever read one where the writer didn't claim the Author was like awesome? - but I generally like intros and take my time with them. Ms Spedding nails it far more eloquently than my rambling notions, so if in doubt over the book read the intro, you'll be purchasing the collection immediately afterwards however.

This review has speed past like a tween chick rushing to get the last One Direction concert ticket available. I really didn't get time to fully gush over Kaaron Warren's writing style, the fact that the collection covers both her Australian writing and her Fijian period, or the fabulous scenarios she cooks up on the page. The only warning I'm going to issue is if you read The Gate Theory you are going to be hooked on Ms Warren's writing style and want to read everything she has ever written, which is starting to amount to a sizeable body of work by the way. I've already diagnosed a couple of poor people with Warrenphobia, the fear that there might be a story of Kaaron Warren's out there they haven't read, so this is like our public warning kids, proceed with caution. Full recommendation on The Gate Theory, a collection ever horror fan should have in their library, go buy a copy right now!

You can pick up a copy of The Gate Theory via the official Cohesion Site. If in the U.S the book will set you back $2.99, if in the U.K then 1.99 pounds. Versions seem to be restricted to the Kindle mobi format, but there are a godzillion readers and converters out there to either read the book or convert it to something like epub or pdf. While on the Cohesion Site check out a few more of their titles, you just never know what you might stumble across.