Book-One of the “Venus Unchained” anthologies brings us two tales of demonic possession and fantasy matriarchy from Estelle Marchant and Fred Finley. In Ms Marchant’s shorter horror tale, “A Woman of Carpathia”, we are told a story of the dark occult that stretches from the world of old Europe to the present day North American continent. A horror of instant enslavement and human bondage that, for one recently divorced man in New York whose blood finds itself on the lips of another, will result in a lifetime of service to his new owner – should he prove pleasing enough. A Carpathian owner who, surprisingly, is not a vampire… She is something much older and far MORE demanding! Mr Finley follows this with his novel-length story “A Girl From the Dark Realm”, a tale of witchcraft and fantasy that opens with a young woman and her first-date as the date himself is about to get violent after she resists his amorous advances. Only for her to be rescued by a group of strange but powerful women who, it turns out, are visible to her but not her abusive date and who not only describe themselves as witches but ride the stereotypical broomstick into the bargain. This while assuring the rescued girl that their means of transportation itself has powers almost as great as their own and are in common usage back on their own world… A world to which they offer to transport her and where no man would ever dare lift the lightest of fingers towards a woman! Two works of female-led fantasy and horror.