"Temporary Monsters"
"The power of Rogers' wit and the imagery that he manages to pack into such a tight little bundle, is much larger and well honed than a chapbook can possibly fathom to contain. It's a shame that the book wasn't longer, that's for sure, as Rogers only begins to touch upon something that begs to be fully fleshed out in a much longer format.
"The main character — Felix Renn — is among some of my favorite characters of all time. An anti-hero of sorts, Renn has unquestionable ability to hold his own as life slings crap at him from all directions, while delivering witty and sarcastic remarks pertaining to what is going on in the moment. His one liners are the stuff of a writers dreams, rarely ever achieved with such perfect timing and pinache. This is only one of the reasons why this story should be turned into a multi book series. Rogers has definitely created an incredibly memorable and interesting character with Renn. With an acerbic wit like that, I doubt anyone would be able to forget him any time soon."
Paperback Horror
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"TEMPORARY MONSTERS revolves around Toronto’s motion picture business, and has plenty of mystery, action, and intriguing characters, with a nicely textured relationship between Renn and his estranged wife. This definitely feels like an introduction for Felix Renn, who deserves a much larger story in which to conduct his sleuthing and monster-fighting, but Ian has just such a project up his sleeve and I’d advise some publisher out there to pick it up. This could be a series with a lot of commercial potential. And the story in this chapbook might make a good movie, too."
Jeffrey Thomas
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"I'm sure this one will earn Rogers more than a few comparisons to Jim Butcher -- and those are apt -- but Rogers' work hits just as close to the good old P. I. stuff you'll find in yellow-paged paperbacks. He's got the rhythm and the wryness ("He tossed me across the restaurant like a lawn dart..."), plus dialogue and description that snaps. Most of all, Rogers has a hardluck character in Renn who's a keeper. Here's hoping the next step for this young writer will be a collection, because it looks to me like he's got a bibliography that will fill up a table of contents page just fine."
Norman Partridge
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"It’s always thrilling to make a discovery like this. Ian Rogers’ “Temporary Monsters” introduces what promises to be an engaging saga, seething with vampires, werewolves, hardboiled dames and – notably – a soulfully wise-cracking detective named Felix Renn. More exciting ideas, more action, more chills and laughs lurk within this slim volume than you’ll find in any ten fat tomes on the current best seller list. Grab a copy. You won’t want to miss a ride this wild."
"TEMPORARY MONSTERS is a fun hybrid of P.I. noir, classic monsters, and some well done humor that doesn't overshadow the action. Nifty ending, too."
Read the full review at The Horror Fiction Review
"...a good read for anyone who is eagerly awaiting Season 3 of ‘True Blood’, the next ‘Twilight’ movie, or if you can’t get enough of that TV show ‘The Vampire Diaries’."
Read the full review at Lipstik.com
"Camp Zombie," Can'tLit: Fearless Fiction from Broken Pencil Magazine
"...a well structured narrative..."
"...darkly funny and unexpectedly poignant."
"Psong," Murky Depths #7
A psychic detective/hitman is able to detect the ‘Psong’ or inner history of inanimate objects in Ian Rogers’ moody tale. This special talent, like many, is both blessing and curse as he targets a high-profile hit. A second strand involves his recent break-up and the emotional consequences that particularly afflict him, leading to a swirl of action and introspection that made this more than just a tale of assassination.
“Psong” by Ian Rogers follows a psychic contract killer. He uses his power for his job and for other more important things. All in all, Rogers contributes a good story here.
"Leaves Brown," Shades of Darkness
And then I’m up to Ian Rogers, a writer I’ve not heard of before but which I’ll keep an eye open for more of. Minor quibble of shifting character viewpoints aside (and you could argue because of the protagonists’ “gifts” that this is not only acceptable but a valid contributory to the story) I enjoyed this very much indeed. His dialogue’s pretty much effortless and he gives us some appealing characters we’re happy to spend time with. The tale’s a postcard piece, really, but that doesn’t matter. Postcards can be enjoyable, don’t need great narrative leaps. Its got strength without pyrotechnics. I think we’re gonna see an awful lot more of this guy.
"The Kid Pool," The Written Word #13
In “The Kid Pool” by Ian Rogers, The Kid’s grandmother describes herself as:
...third-generation trailer-trash and she had the trailer to prove it. I was raised in a doublewide Airstream by a doublewide mamma she’d say in the slow, tired delivery of one who has told the same joke so many times it has lost whatever humour it once had.
But her co-workers aren’t much above that, vicariously living the misery of others for entertainment. The cast of characters buys into the pool, like the masses who tune into reality television. There is no happily ever after, but it has a satisfying conclusion.
"Inheritor," Cemetery Dance #58
Of all the stories in this issue of Cemetery Dance, only Ian Rogers’s “Inheritor” made me stop and shiver. It is surely a sign of an effective horror story that, even when read on a crowded commuter train on a bright summer’s day, the final paragraphs can leave a reader dread cold.
Daniel Ramis is estranged from his family, so on the death of his father, he is surprised to discover that he has been left his childhood home, which Daniel had assumed sold years before. Dragged back there against his better judgment, Daniel also discovers that he has been left some unfinished family business.
Rogers does a very fine job of building a sense of anticipation and dread as Ian is drawn from his safe city life back to small town America and the long-abandoned farmhouse. The ending is handled with a compelling economy that allows for chills but no histrionics. It is clever writing and effective storytelling.
"Relaxed Best," Not One of Us #38
Any small press publication that reaches thirty-eight issues is to be commended. A ‘zine that, like Not One of Us, edited by John Benson, can do so while publishing a bunch of strong fantasy stories that either play with or defy genre conventions, deserves a much wider audience.
Take Ian Roger’s “Relaxed Best,” the darkest story on offer, combining as it does the tropes of hard-boiled detective fiction with elements of paganism and witchcraft to create a horror story shaded with a sense of menace and creeped-out paranoia. Private investigator Ryerson is hired by Veronica Marchand—known as the Blue Fairy for her skill in playing the stock market—to investigate husband Jonathan, whom she suspects of straying from the marital bed. The alias signals Veronica’s true nature, and explains her success in predicting stock prices. It also suggests that there’s more to this marriage than Ryerson anticipated, with the possibility of some kind of demonic pact being hinted at as the story strays down the kind of horror/crime hinterland explored in fiction as diverse as William Hjortsberg’s Falling Angel and Jay Russell’s Marty Burns stories. Like Hjortsberg’s Harry Angel, Ryerson is soon way out of his depth and discovers too late the meaning of the term “relaxed best” as he pays the price for Marchand’s broken contract.
"Charlotte's Frequency," Horror Library, Volume 2
“Charlotte’s Frequency” by Ian Rogers has a science fiction slant. Morris, all set to enjoy his newly purchased big screen TV, instead discovers a modern-day Charlotte, a la Charlotte’s Web, feeding off something far worse than the crickets living around the water heater. Morris and his wife, Jude, both start to feel sick, weak, and dangerously vulnerable. Charlotte herself seems to be half organic and half electronic, spinning webs that feed off electricity and the people around her. This fable, however, doesn’t end with three happy children and their anthropomorphic porcine friend. On the cutting edge of today’s hi-tech world, stories like “Charlotte’s Frequency” will drag horror kicking and screaming into the new century.
"Horror Library Volume II is an excellent collection of short stories that can be enjoyed all at once or savored over many days. The pleasant surprise with the Horror Library is that in addition to stories covering familiar territory, as seen in John Rector’s "A Season of Sleep" and Kevin Donihe’s "Preacher Mike and the Black Cross Revelation ," there are also original ideas that result in enjoyable tales, such as "Charlotte’s Frequency," by Ian Rogers. The collection has no particular theme and the stories cover a wide variety of subjects. Although the stories in Horror Library Volume II vary in length and in theme, they are all strong, entertaining reads. Most are short enough that readers will find themselves easily starting another... then another... in fact, the book should come with the tagline "you can’t read just one."
"The Tattletail," Dark Wisdom #9
"The Tattletail" by Ian Rogers was a funny piece about a boy who summons a demon for elementary school show-and-tell. This, in itself, is not strange at all, for the boy solicits advice from his father as if he were doing no more than making a greenhouse to grow bean sprouts in styrofoam cups. Yet when we learn the demon takes on the form of whatever it eats, the story gets interesting, with a strong ending rounding everything out. This is a close second to "Acceptable Losses" and only loses out because of its humor element, oddly-placed for a magazine featuring dark fiction.
A positive review of the Dark Wisdom #9 in which "The Tattletail is listed as one of the "notable" stories.
