After a lengthy hiatus, Martin Cendreda returns with this collection of largely new, longer stories – along with some key earlier short works that fit well in this mix.  It's been a while since we last heard from him, so it's great to know he's still working and, of course, to witness the fruits of his labors.  Throughout the seven stories collected here – four new and three old – Cendreda demonstrates his distrust of the spoken word by entirely eschewing dialogue, limiting the use of text to only that which appears within the visual diagesis – as written on signs, screens and pages, etc. – sound effects (of which there are many), and the occasional extra-diagetic caption ("and so", "the next morning", etc.).  Taken together with the fact that the entirety of this collection is laid out in a nine-panel grid and rendered in a black & white with red color scheme means the reader is in for a strong and direct visual reading experience, one that Cendreda has designed to mercilessly drag those very same readers – this means you – into the bleak, relentless vortex of a largely – but, crucially, not wholly – malevolent universe where hallucination and horror mix it up with mayhem and murder and absurdity reigns over all.