Horror World Book Reviews
February, 2010
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HORNS by Joe Hill, William Morrow; 2009; 384 pgs; $25.99
Joe Hill is one hell of a writer – literally. When the pages of Horns crack open, one senses a bit of their soul blackening every page.
The story begins with this line: “Ignatious William Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things.” He awakens at his girlfriend’s place, badly hung over, and discovers a set of horns growing from either side of his forehead. His girlfriend doesn’t react to his newfound growths in a typical fashion. In fact, she seems more intent on spilling her guts to him while scarfing down a boxful of donuts.
Horns begins in a satiric manner and gives the reader the sense that the story just might be a fun ride, a light romp that doesn’t dip too far into the bowels of hell but rather skims the surface with the flames tickling the horror bone without truly scaring. However, Hill has some surprises waiting. He tends to take the path less trodden at every (pitch) fork and with a novel about a guy who’s slowly turning into a devil expect many crossroads to emerge.
It appears that Ig (Iggy) did some nasty things at his dead girlfriend’s grave last night. Merrin wouldn’t have been happy to know he urinated on a Jesus and Mother Mary statue at her graveside and may just have angered the man upstairs. Or maybe it got the downstairs manager to take notice and sign up a new recruit. Either way, wherever he goes, people feel overcome with the urge to tell him of the horrible things they’ve done, what they really think, and while they notice the horns, don’t really have much to say about them.
With each encounter, Iggy transforms more and more into a true demon. The “horns” become more sensitive, and powerful, just like those of the musical kind his father and brother play so well. On his quest to uncover the truth about why his love was killed, he discovers many other evils within his town, including friends and family. At the heart of Horns is a tale which delivers just as much mystery and suspense as it does horror, humor, and heart-felt romance.
Hill writes with the storytelling aplomb of a Bradbury, Wilson, or Braunbeck where the narrative flows with little obstruction. Hill’s not out to impress anyone with tricky vocabulary or sentences which wind serpentine around the mind, needing to be disentangled in order to discern a new meaning. There’s nothing wrong with that, but he doesn’t seem to care if he becomes the new Straub or Campbell. He simply wishes to tell the story, whispering the tale in the reader’s ear with a bottle of beer in hand. That doesn’t mean there’s no meat to his soul. His observations on death and dying and God just might turn a few his way. At the very least, his Iggy infuses a little doubt into everyone’s moral compass and sounds pretty damn convincing. Pitchforks almost seem appealing by the time this book will close. Iggy comes to embrace his new identity but not in the manner a horror fan would imagine. The suppositions on religion, relationships, and family snake through rapidly turning pages and provide the mind-screws a great writer so naturally infuses into a story. Where he goes with his powers and what he decides to do will surprise but feels as smooth as newly scarred flesh.
This is book that will have readers cringing, laughing, and tearing up, often within the same hour. To thoroughly succeed with a demon as the protagonist takes a writer skilled enough to dance through all of Dante’s circles with dexterity, Joe Hill is that writer. It would be an insult to call Horns simply a horror novel. It’s much, much more and hopefully will burn the boundaries of the genres it melds so well. This is easily the first entry for best book of the year.
--Dave Simms
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AMERICAN FANTASTIC TALES: TERROR AND THE UNCANNY VOLUME I (POE TO THE PULPS) and VOLUME II (1940S TO NOW) edited by Peter Straub; Library of America; 746 pgs (I) and 713 pgs (II) $35.00 each
I have been a subscriber to the Library of America (LOA) since near its founding. The best description of what this non-profit organization does comes from its mission statement which reads, in part, “The Library of America was founded in 1979 to undertake a historic endeavor: to help preserve the nation's cultural heritage by publishing America’s best and most significant writing in durable and authoritative editions.” Therefore, LOA publishes Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Washington Irving, Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, and the work of many other familiar American writers in comprehensive, beautifully bound hardcover editions. They also publish less well remembered writers like William Bartram and Frank Norris. And, they publish American writers of fantastic fiction, too, like Philip K. Dick, Edgar Allan Poe, and H. P. Lovecraft.
In addition to single-author collections, LOA produces original anthologies. Two recent ones edited by Peter Straub recount the American literary tradition of the horror tale. American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny comes in installments: Poe to the Pulps and 1940s to Now. Each is over 700 pages long and loaded to bursting with rare gems. In his introduction, Straub discusses the distinction between a story and a tale, and how it informs his selections. “From a tale one expects a bit of wildness, of exaggeration and dramatic effect. The tale has no inherent concern with decorum, balance, or harmony.” So you see the idea is not to represent American authors over time but to showcase the American fantastic tale over time. Just what the title reads, in other words.
It is not surprising, then, that both famous and not-so-famous names appear here, and that the particular work of each author included is not typically their most popularly celebrated effort. This approach works for the better. I was delighted to read stories here for the first time by some of my favorite authors that I had never gotten around to reading before or, in a couple of cases, that were completely unfamiliar to me. The second volume is heavily weighted toward newer work and contains stories published up through 2007. I expected to see contemporary stories by the likes of Thomas Ligotti, T. E. D. Klein, and Joyce Carol Oates, but I did not necessarily expect such brand new stories as those from Benjamin Percy, Tim Powers, and Gene Wolfe. In the end, after reading them, I have to say the editor was right: they all hit the mark.
Speaking of the editor, Peter Straub is an excellent choice to compile these books. I have read most of Straub’s published work and have never been disappointed. His choices in these volumes are impeccable in their variety and representativeness. I give both these anthologies my highest recommendation. Along with these two, check out the LOA website and see what else they have to offer. You will at the very least want to look over the contents of the Lovecraft volume. While the Poe volumes are complete, Poe is relatively easy to find elsewhere (I prefer the LOA editions over any other). There is a good deal of gothic literature available in the LOA catalogue and many other thrilling choices. Consider subscribing to the press. The prices are lower that way, the books come in slipcases instead of dust jackets, and they arrive in your mailbox. LOA is a noble cause that we, as readers, should support.
--Wayne Edwards
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WASTELANDS, edited by John Joseph Adams; Night Shade Books, 2008; 333 pgs; $15.95
I’ve always been an easy mark for post apocalyptic, end of the world stories. Be it at the movies with such films as the classic Road Warrior, the little known; The Quiet Earth, the cheesetastic 80’s flick; Night Of The Comet; the insane A Boy And His Dog, and the best of three movies based on the same amazing novel; The Omega Man. Then there are the classic novels. Starting with the book aforementioned Chuck Heston movie was based on; I Am Legend, Stephen King’s masterful The Stand, Robert R. McCammon’s equally wonderful (and in some ways better), SWAN SONG, and one that many don’t know of and that’s a tragedy, Simon Clark’s Blood Crazy. So lucky for me editor John Joseph Adams has collected 22 of the best end of the world stories ever to come out into one book. So if you clap your hands at the thought of A-bombs a-dropping (fictionally, of course) then come with me and lets brave the Wastelands together.
The book begins with Stephen King’s “The End of the Whole Mess” so it starts off with a bang. Instead of telling you about it, I’ll just say that if you haven’t read this one by now, shame on you and you really need to do so at once. I have never read a story by Paolo Bacigalupi before reading his “The People of Sand and Slag”. After reading that sad, strange tale of humanity barely recognizable as itself I will have to seek out more of his stories. Another great one, perhaps my favorite of the book, is George R.R. Martin’s “Dark, Dark were the Tunnels” a terrifying subterranean tale, easily the most horrific in the anthology. A far quieter story (pun intended) but one just as strong is Octavia E. Butler’s “Speech Sounds”, set in a world where mankind has lost the ability to speak. Yes, something as simple as silence, no nukes or killer flu, just the loss of speech is turned into a great tale of humanity coming apart at the seams. Another one that stands out in my mind is “Judgment Passed” by Jerry Oltion where a group of astronauts return to Earth after a long space mission only to fine that while they were gone Jesus Christ had returned and the Rapture had taken place. While this story holds the potential to offend some, I loved the odd tale immensely. Another oddly entertaining tale is "When Sysadmins Ruled the World" by Cory Doctorow. In this story terrorist unleash mass destruction and it’s up to the internet nerds and IT guys to keep the world alive.
While there are a few stories that didn’t work for me in this collection that can be said of any anthology. As always the question is, “Was there more good than bad?” I can easily answer that with a resounding, “Hell yeah!” If you are a fan of stories where it’s the end of the world as we know it then you have to pick up this collection. If you don’t then when the bombs drop, the flu flies, and the radioactive three-eyed mutants come for your daughter, you are sure be sorry, let me tell you.
-- Brian M. Sammons
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THE DEVIL NEXT DOOR, by Tim Curran; Severed Press; 2009; 333 pgs; $12.95
When it comes to apocalyptic fiction, Tim Curran’s stories should rank high on reading lists; it would be a safe bet that no other author takes as much delight in having civilization come to horrible and bloody conclusion as Curran does.
In The Devil Next Door, Curran centers his story on a baby boomer by the name of Louis, who by most accounts is enjoying a pretty darned good life. Louis has a nice house, a secure job, no kids to worry about, and a wife who is not only attractive, but who loves the heck out of him. Without a whole lot of stress in his life, you could say that not only were things going well for Louis, but his future looked pretty comfortable too. And it was, until one day on his way home from work he sees a young boy on a bike brutally assaulted, and then killed.
Fearful of intervening, Louie calls the police. When the cops arrive, they seem to take the whole episode in stride. They appear to be ambivalent about the boy’s death, make sarcastic jokes, and even go as far as to step on the young boy’s battered body to insure that he is indeed dead. Louis is confused, and decides to leave when the cops start acting even stranger. It’s a good thing Louis did take off; the cops wind up getting a shovel and scooping up the remains of the boy and throwing them into a wheel barrel. Then, believing they are doing the honorable thing, they wheel the boy’s body back home to his mother.
Once Louis arrives at his own house, he begins to notice other odd occurrences. His neighbors are acting strangely, to the point of becoming deadly. Soon he discovers that the entire world has succumbed to some type of strange virus causing people to revert to a primitive, animalistic state. After some horrible encounters with his neighbors, Louis, along with a young teenage girl, set out to find Louis’s wife and the girl’s mother, both of whom are missing.
For those familiar with Curran’s past novels, The Devil Next Door, is a departure from his usual style. This novel is hardcore horror, to the max. It is written in an extreme style reminiscent of authors such as Wrath James White, and Ed Lee. I can honestly say there are some intensely hardcore scenes in The Devil Next Door that I have not read anywhere else that may make some readers nauseous. But to Curran’s credit, he makes it work with excellent characterization, a coherent plot, and almost non-stop action.
Horror fans might have also noticed that the plot of The Devil Next Door could be considered similar to J.F. Gonzalez’s, Primitive, also released in 2009. But, while the basic plot of people regressing to an animalistic state is the same in both novels, the stories are miles apart. In Gonzalez’s novel, the catalysis for the change is different, and it is also is heavy with religious and social commentary. Curran’s novel is pretty much all action oriented, is much more explicit with its sexual and violence scenes, and touches only briefly on moral issues.
Fans hungry for apocalyptic fiction will find that The Devil Next Door will be right up their alley and it should more than satisfy their cravings. It will also make readers scratch their heads and wonder why Tim Curran’s name is not yet all that recognizable, and why he hasn’t been picked up by the mainstream press yet. This may change shortly however as Curran will soon be included in an eagerly awaiting release as one of the collaborators in a weird western collection called Four Road Out along with high profile authors Brian Keene, Tim Lebbon, and Steve Vernon.
The Devil Next Door is a horror fans delight and a great place to discover Curran if you are not familiar with his catalog. Needless to say, The Devil Next Door is highly recommended to those fans who love extreme horror fiction, and to those who just enjoy watching the world go to hell in a hand basket.
- T. T. Zuma
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BY BLOOD WE LIVE, edited by John Joseph Adams; Night Shade Books; 490 pgs; $15.95
By Blood We Live, Editor John Joseph Adams' massive Vampire anthology, somehow manages to sift through the thousands and thousands of Vampire stories written over the last thirty years, and skim the cream from the top. There's truly something here for everyone, whether their tastes in bloodsuckers leans towards the Gothic Vampire, the savage, mindless blood-drinking machine Vampire, or the Twilight Vampire. (Yeech!)
Adams presents 36 stories (For some reason, the back cover says there are only 33.......) that run the gamut from passable to excellent. Standouts include:
Neil Gaiman's amazing take on the Snow White fable, snow, glass, apples, which remains as chilling today as when I first read it 15 years ago.
Stephen King's One For The Road, a short story that takes place in 'Salem's Lot. I probably have 10 or 15 different anthologies that feature this story, and every time I see it, I plan to skip it. I've read it enough, at this point......But I always read it, and it always gives me a chill.
Harry Turtledove's delightfully blasphemous Under St. Peter's, which will certainly damn all who enjoy it to a special corner of Hell.
Tad Williams' amazing Child Of An Ancient City presents a Vampiric spin on Scheherazade, as a group of Muslim Ambassadors must tell stories entertaining enough to occupy the strange creature preying on their band until they can reach safety. It's a strange, gripping narrative that would make one hell of a movie.
This Is Now, Michael Marshall Smith's contribution, never explicitly mentions Vampires, but the brief glimpse we get at the strange creatures dwelling in the isolated cabins his protagonists stumble across will stick with the reader just as long as they stick with the narrator.
Barbara Hambly's Sunrise On Running Water tells the surprisingly clever tale of a Vampire attempting to cross the Ocean...on the Titanic. Hambly takes this seemingly one-note premise and runs with it, and crafts a pitch-perfect story.
Brian Lumley's E.C.-esque Necros has a neat twist, and even if you see it coming a mile away, he delivers it so perfectly that you won't really care.
The rest of the stories tend to lean towards the very good, with contributions by Joe Hill (His Abraham's Boys doesn't actually feature any Vampires, instead focusing on the relationship between an aged Abraham Van Helsing and his two young sons.), Michael A. Burstein (Lifeblood, a Rabbi vs. Vampire story), Nancy Kilpatrick (The Vechi Barbat, a creepy Romanian Vampire that's quite different from what we're used to reading about...), Norman Partridge (Do Not Hasten To Bid Me Adieu, another Dracula follow-up, this time focusing on Quincy Morris's exploits...), and Jane Yolen (Mama Gone, a Hillbilly Vampire story...).
There really aren't any bad stories in By Blood We Live; All the contributions are told skillfully, but mileage will vary depending on your favorite Vampire type. I don't care for the Twilight/Emo Vampire, so stories like Anne Rice's The Master Of Rampling Gate, Carrie Vaughan's Life Is The Teacher, L.A. Banks' Finders Keepers, and Kelly Armstrong's Twilight just didn't appeal to me. There was a tad too much "Supernatural Romance" there for my tastes. The rest of the book tended towards the well-told but forgettable, especially John Langan's fascinating but deeply flawed The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and David Wellington's perplexingly pointless Pinecones.
And just to show you CAN judge a book by it's cover, By Blood We Live features an outstanding cover painting by David Palumbo.
John Joseph Adams has been doing a great job with his Night Shade anthologies, and By Blood We Live is no exception.It's a massive book, and there's bound to be quite a bit here to please any Vampire fan.
--Daniel Reilly
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IN THE CLOSET, UNDER THE BED by Lee Thomas; Dark Scribe Press; December 2009; 270 pgs; $16.00
Lee Thomas knows where monsters hide.
Sometimes they are supernatural creatures, which we find terrifying because their mere existence is beyond belief. Other times, the monsters poison the minds of people, which can be just as scary because we are forced to confront the reality of issues, like mental illness or prejudice. Issues that many of us would like forget do exist in the real world.
In the Closet, Under the Bed is a collection of fifteen short stories (nine of which are original) that won’t allow readers to turn a blind eye to either type of horror.
The collection opens with All the Faces Change. In this piece, Thomas examines the power parental influence can have over someone’s life. Tim denied his homosexuality and lived the life his father approved of. With his father’s death looming, Tim seeks comfort in an unlikely place and is forced to face who he really is. What will hurt more? Accepting the truth or paying for a past sin?
In An Apiary of White Bees, a vault is discovered on the grounds of a swanky hotel during an attempt to repair some broken plumbing. The repair crew opens the vault and finds a stash of fine liquors, presumably hidden during Prohibition. Oliver, the hotel’s owner, becomes obsessed with an unmarked crate containing six bottles that resemble glass honeycombs. But what will happen if he dares to drink the mystery liquor? Oliver intends to find out.
As I read this collection, I found myself enjoying each story more than the one preceding it. Each story has a unique voice, true to its setting and characters. And while some of the underlying themes may be similar, Thomas hits on these themes from a different perspective. Each character’s journey is different, their thoughts and reactions are distinct. For those who like stories packed with an emotional punch, watch out. Thomas does not hold back when he shows the reader who each of his characters are.
My favorite piece in this collection is They Would Say She Danced. Diedre, a widow, listens to the radio and waits for the announcer to confirm the execution of a serial killer named Sean Michael Walters. The reader is left to wonder what the connection is between the old woman and the sadistic killer. Why does she want him dead? The answer to that question is heartbreaking. I can’t think of another moment in a story that caused me to think back and reflect on the circumstances Thomas set up more than this. It’s been hard to get this one out of my mind.
In the Afterword to the collection, Michael Rowe writes about the bias against “gay horror” and wonders what “gay horror” really is. Is it “gay horror” because the of the author’s sexual orientation? Or is it because the characters are gay? Rowe writes about the desire to attract readers from the mainstream. After reading this collection, I still don’t know what “gay horror” truly is or if that is what Lee Thomas writes. I do know that I like this assessment Rowe gives, “I write what occurs to me, and I’d love it if ‘mainstream readers’ wanted to read it, too…this is what I write. And I think it’s pretty scary.”
If you’re the type of reader who might normally avoid the label “gay horror,” I’d encourage you to give Lee Thomas a try. If labels don’t phase you, then I hope you’ll agree that no matter what the label, the stories contained within this collection are “pretty scary” and to true horror fans, that’s what really matters.
-- Martel Sardina
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STRONGER THAN DEATH by Steven Shrewsbury; Snuff Books; 2009; 279 pgs; $15.00
Steeped in action, gore and straight-ahead horror, STRONGER THAN DEATH delivers one of the most brutal, terrifying and, ultimately, satisfying reads you’re likely to find this year.
Author Steven Shrewsbury sets up a terrific and original premise: the souls of Union soldiers from the Civil War are trapped within a Confederate artifact called The Black Ribbon of Josephine. When freed, the angry spirits want some old-fashioned payback.
Caught in the middle is downtrodden Sam Stuart, an alcoholic factory worker who Is drinking his way through the end of his marriage. He suffers from visions of the Civil War, along with warnings from an ancestor about the menace that is approaching.
With his dead relative’s help, Sam discovers that the ghostly soldiers have inhabited dead bodies, and they’ve captured Sam’s teenage daughter, who will become part of a plan to release an ancient evil into the world.
Once again Shrewsbury proves himself to be the reincarnation of Robert E. Howard. Sam Stuart, like many heroes in Howard’s works, faces a bloody and brutal trail of horror before the final page.
If you enjoy dark fiction that is quiet, atmospheric or vague and surreal, then find another book to read. Stronger Than Death delivers the blood-soaked goods at the speed of light.
-- Mark Justice
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DARK JESTERS, edited by Nick Cato & L.L. Soares; Novello Publishers; 122 pgs; $11.00
I’ve often said that there’s nothing that brightens a person’s mood quite like reading a story about a Werewolf Hunter who convinces people that they’ll be safe from attack if they wear a silver buttplug.
Unfortunately, no one ever believed me.
Until now.
Luckily, Jerrod Balzer has written just such a story, So now, when I impart that bit of wisdom to people, I can show them Wolf Plugs, his laugh-and-cringe inducing contribution to Dark Jesters: An Anthology Of Humorous Horror.
Editors Nick Cato & L.L. Soares have done a masterful job of assembling some truly hilarious stories for Dark Jesters. I’ve never really been one to laugh at printed material…..I’ve chuckled occasionally over a passage in a book, but real, solid, belly laughs are few and far between.
I laughed reading Dark Jesters.
I laughed A LOT.
To the point where I had to explain to a co-worker just what I was laughing AT. Not a fun conversation when what you’re laughing at is a man covering his neck in his own fresh, steaming poop, in order to fend off Count Dracula, as seen in James Roy Daley’s Curse Of The Blind Eel. Daley gets extra points for using just about every scatological nickname in the book, and then inventing a few new ones.
I also busted a gut over Robert Guffey’s bizarre Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag. I really can’t even begin to describe this story…..Let’s just say it involves a ghostly apparition of James Brown. It’s probably one of the weirdest stories I’ve ever read, and it’s also one of the funniest. I’ve read it three times already, and it gets, in the words of Beetlejuice, funnier EVERY…SINGLE…TIME!
There’s the welcome return of Mark Justice’s Deadnecks, there are Zombie Englishmen, Zombie Cavemen, an orphanage for baby monsters, a Boogeyman forced to work a 9-to-5 job……there’s something here for everybody. Out of the ten stories, there was only one that I didn’t love, and that’s a pretty good success rate.
Not to get all schmaltzy, but Dark Jesters brightened up a very bad day for me, and that’s something pretty special. Cato & Soares have served up the most enjoyable book I’ve read in a LONG time.
Here's hoping they can round up the same crew for a sequel, ASAP.
-- Dan Reilly
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BLACK JACK DERRINGER, BOOK I - THE ACE OF SPADES by Karen Koehler; Skullvines Press; 104 pgs; $16.95
Albinos and mutants and gunfights, oh my! Black Jack Derringer Book One has all this and more, but luckily author Karen Koehler knows how to weave all this together into a strong narrative and populate her story with interesting characters, so we get much more than just oddness for oddness’ sake.
“Wild” Alice West is a bounty hunter in a post-apocalyptic weird western setting, seeking to legitimize her business, considered “man’s work” in this chauvinistic world, by pairing up with Mr. Treen, an albino card shark. Mr. Treen, however, has other ideas. Oh, and there are plenty of genetic mutations running around, just to keep life interesting.
So what have we got now? Post-apocalypse. Wild West. Mutants. Guns. Albinos. And poker. Call it genre-hybridization, cross-genre storytelling, whichever you prefer, it’s a difficult feat to pull off without seeming like you’re throwing everything and the kitchen sink into the story, even if there is no logical reason for it to be there. Luckily for the reader, Karen Koehler knows her stuff and pulls it off well.
Populated with memorable characters like Wild Alice and Mr. Treen, and a fast-paced plot with plenty of twists and turns, Koehler has skilfully created an exciting new world for us to explore and thrill to. The best news? This is only book one of a series!
If you’re looking for something a bit different yet well-written and exciting, then Black Jack Derringer Book One: The Ace Of Spades is the one for you. A short novella, it packs the punch of a full-sized novel. So grab a copy and brace yourself for the wild ride you’re about to take!
-- Ron Dickie
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OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT by Paul Kane; Thunderstorm Books; March 2010; 186 pgs, $16.95
Award-winning writer Paul Kane firmly establishes characters and the dramatic conflict between them early on in this compelling novel, setting the stage for the confrontation to follow.
Like many children, Lee Masterson feared the dark, his fear intensified by his belief that creatures exist in the shadows, evil beings that watch and follow wherever he goes. His terror increases with age as he begins to catch glimpses of the creatures of darkness.
At nineteen, only financial necessity and the desire to be on his own away from his domineering and unloving father drive him to accept a job as night watchman at a local construction site. Little does he know that the site is far more than it seems and he has been brought there for a reason. Lee’s worst fears are realized when, a few nights later, vandals trigger a confrontation between the forces of darkness and light and the battle between good and evil begins. The opponents, however, are far from what Lee and the residents of his estate believe. Action is non-stop and breathtaking in this suspenseful tale that challenges the reader to reexamine his beliefs about good and evil.
Paul Kane is author of Touching the Flame, Arrowhead, RED and Peripheral Visions.
A consistently strong voice in the horror genre, his unique, unorthodox and totally original Of Darkness and Light keeps adrenaline pumping right up until the startling conclusion.
-- Shannon Riley
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SECRETS, by J. F. Gonzalez; Sideshow Press; 2010; 115 pgs; $18.00
You could say that J.F. Gonzalez is on a roll. His recently released full length novel Primitive has collected sterling reviews from a number of critics (some calling it his best work), and it has claimed the number one position on the horror bestseller lists. His earlier novel Clickers 2, a collaborative venture with Brian Keene, was such a huge success that there is a third novel in the series to be released soon. And lets not forget the various chapbooks he’s released over the last couple of years (some a solo effort, some collaborative) that were also critical raves. And the novel he is most famous for, Survivor, is still selling and continues to generate conversation and controversy. Now with Secrets, Gonzalez can notch another win under his belt.
Secrets is a locked room mystery with supernatural elements that will have readers not only trying to second guess the nature of the mystery, but will have them turning the pages in anticipation to see if they’ve guessed correctly. And Gonzalez has done everything right in this tale. He’s created an atmosphere of cool dread by having the story take place during a winter snowstorm, having a central character that literally may be the embodiment of evil itself, and by making the horror more immediate and personable by having the plot line focus on a small group of friends.
Almost all of the action in Secrets takes place in the Black Cow Bar and Grill, located in the Sierra Mountains, near Sequoia National Park. It’s Christmas time, and the bar is crowded with patrons who are having one last hurrah before the holiday. But the evening’s festivities are cut short as a brutal snowstorm is on the way and they discover that soon the roads out of town will be shut down.
Earlier in the evening, a stranger had walked into the Black Cow Bar and Grill who goes by the name of Jack. He seemed to be a nice guy as he was personable and got along well with everyone in the bar. But when it came time to close the bar and for everyone to leave, for some reason Jack doesn’t make a move.
And as it turns out, a few of the patrons waited a little too long to leave, including Joe, the main character of the story, and his sometimes lover Laura. Forced back to the bar because of a road closing, they find four others still at the bar, including the stranger. All of them are distressed to find themselves stranded in the bar because of the storm, except Jack, who seems to be totally unconcerned.
Soon, Jack’s devil may care demeanor starts to get on the others nerves and they become wary of him…and with good reason. Jack claims to have no transportation away from the bar, he makes light of their conversations, and he engages one of the religious patrons, a woman named Kelly, on scripture from the bible and belittles her beliefs. Soon after, all hell breaks loose when Kelly discovers a local girl, who’s been missing for six months, dead, and frozen solid in the ladies restroom. All eyes turn to Jack, who finds the situation amusing, and soon they are all accusing Jack of hiding something from them. That’s when Jack tells all of them that they have their own secrets to hide…and he knows what they are.
Gonzalez has done a magnificent job in Secrets in making us feel his characters fear. For instance, as the group turns against one another as their secrets are revealed, Gonzalez ratchet’s up the reader’s anxiety with not only with the possibility of physical violence, but with the psychological terror of who, or what, the stranger may be. Readers can’t help but get sucked into wondering who the hell Jack is, and what is his connection to the dead girl in the bathroom. And to top it all off, Gonzalez has created an ending that is a stunner.
Secrets is published by Sideshow Press, a small press out of Connecticut that is run by Thomas Moran and his wife. This trade version of this novella is a quality production with accompanying art that is well drawn and potent; it eerily captures the claustrophobic and terrorizing atmosphere of the plot. It is however limited to only 50 copies, so if readers wish to grab a copy of this trade edition, they should do so soon. Secrets is highly recommended.
-- T. T. Zuma
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PECKINPAH: AN ULTRAVIOLENT ROMANCE by D. Harlan Wilson; Shroud Magazine; 105 pgs; $7.99
I read the first twenty pages, which is also the first 15 chapters, I am not really sure what it is supposed to be. There are words and illustrations separated into 59 segments and spread over 105 pages. Apart from that characterization, the writing nearly defies description. At a loss for words to describe the words, I decided to investigate the creator.
His new book, Peckinpah: An Ultraviolent Romance, is not D. Harlan Wilson’s first time out. He has been doing this to people for several years now. His first book, a collection of short stories called The Kafka Effekt (2001), has attracted much comment, applause, and consternation. Peckinpah has a nice blurb on the front cover from Alan Moore, a writer whose work I have always respected. A net search turned up pictures of Wilson with an old friend of mine, a person who I have always thought of as a sensible individual. While none of these things necessarily told me anything about Peckinpah, they did make me feel a little more secure. All right then, I thought, abstruse or not I’ll read some more. I sat down and read the remaining 85 pages.
I think I might have developed a permanent twitch in my right eye from reading this book.
The chapters are discrete shards, short, sometimes a few pages and sometimes only a sentence. The work as a whole is surprisingly linear but rather than flowing in a common narrative sense the story reads like walking a broken line. There is much here that is extremely violent and disgusting. There are also parts that are quite simply hilarious. Every now and then, the room lights with the quiet glow of modest profundity.
This is in no way typical writing. For me it is a little blurty, but there is definitely more going on here than a hack beating random keys. If you are looking for something on the edge, something wild and violent and more than a little schizophrenic, take a look at D. Harlan Wilson’s Peckinpah. I can’t say you won’t be sorry you did, but I will say it is something you will remember.
--Wayne Edwards
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SHADOWS OVER FLORIDA, by David Goudsward & Scott T. Goudsward; Bear Manor Media; 193 pgs; $19.95
You’re a horror fan on vacation, looking for some genre-related sites to visit, what can you do? Well, if you are visiting Florida, you are in luck, because David and Scott T Goudsward have published a guide to locations related to horror in that state called Shadows over Florida. It is a convenient travel guide and reference book to the dark side of the Sunshine State.
The book is organized alphabetically by location, and details each sites connection to horror in the arts. There are also two indices, one organized by movie or TV program, and the other by author, so there are a variety of ways to look up information.
Even if you aren’t planning a trip to Florida any time soon, it’s a very interesting read? Did you know that Jacksonville almost became the movie capital? I didn’t, but apparently when filmmakers were looking for a cheaper place to shoot films in the early 20th century than New York, they first moved to Jacksonville, though they eventually relocated to Hollywood over frustration with the South’s arcane Sunday Blue Laws. The book is filled with facts both important and obscure. I was surprised and delighted to find there is a Christian anti-drug movie that features a mutant biker vampire were-turkey, which is an irresistible concept. There’s also a ton of information about the personalities involved in the Florida horror movie, from Herschell Gordon Lewis (who wrote the foreword to the book) to Joel Wynkoop. H.P. Lovecraft had a greater connection to Florida than I knew, as well.
Shadows over Florida is an attractive trade paperback, reasonably priced for a reference book, that I imagine most horror fans would enjoy. The Goudswards previously published a similar reference, Shadows over New England, and I’m impressed enough to go looking for it.
--Joe Howe
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PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith; Quirk Books; 2009; 319 pgs; $12.95
I must confess that I am a Philistine. I am an uncultured slob that doesn’t know the first thing about the finer things in life. At least, I sometimes feel that way because I hate, hate, HATE many of the literary “classics.” Now I’m not that way about all of them, I actually like Moby Dick for example. But others I cannot stand at all. Yes, Old Man And The Sea I’m looking at you. Another example would be Pride And Prejudice. Now to be fair, I’ve only read Jane’s book once back in a high school lit class when I was young, dumb, and full of…uhm, heavy metal bad-assitude. However because of that, whenever I think of Pride And Prejudice now only complete and utter mind numbing boredom comes to mind. Thus my reluctance to read the posthumous collaboration between Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith despite it having zombies in it, despite all the glowing reviews for the book, and despite loving the last thing I read by Mr. Grahame-Smith, his wonderful How To Survive A Horror Movie. Yet every time I would go to my local book store I would see this book on the self, taunting me, laughing at me, saying that I wasn’t good or smart enough to “get it”. So one day I broke down and got a copy, determined to show it who’s boss and to reaffirm to myself that just because something’s “classic” doesn’t mean it’s good or that I have to like it. And yes I know this isn’t the original work, but it’s as close to the original as I was willing to get.
Like a good, well I guess “spoof” or “parody” aren’t the right words, so I’ll go with “blending”, P&P&Z follows the basics of Jane Austen’s tale, only with added zombie goodness, or as the living impaired are called in this book, “unmentionables”. Well you would expect that, given the title, but what you might not expect are kung fu monks and ninjas! Ha, didn’t see them coming, did you? But thankfully such over the top additions are the exception, not the rule. If suddenly cyborg aliens popped up and started worrying about proper table manners I don’t think I could have taken it. Thankfully most of the humor comes from keeping much of Austin’s characters and plots as close to their source material as possible and then introducing the creepy cannibalistic cadavers and seeing how things play out. Usually things get bloody, but the core of the narrative remains the same. Take the Bennets, they still want to see their daughter married off, only now they also want the girls to become martial arts masters so that they can properly survive in a world where dead have been coming back to life to snack on brains for years. That makes perfect sense to me. As I said at the beginning, I’ve only ever read the original book once, years ago, so I’m no expert on it but there were parts in this story that I remembered from my childhood, only burst out laughing when things suddenly took a wide left turn into absurdsville. An example of this would be wedding of Mr. Collins and Miss Lucas which gets pretty icky.
Now I can see why some readers may not like Pride And Prejudice And Zombies. Many Jane Austen purists will probably be aghast at the book, as will the snobs that just can’t enjoy a good book and only read “literature”. Yes, those were ironic finger quotation marks, in case you couldn’t tell. On the other end of the spectrum, zombie fans that are just into the blood, guts, and brain eating may find the story slow or the characters stiff and not easy to relate to. Sadly, both camps will be missing out on a fun read that I found highly enjoyably. In fact I liked it so much that it almost made me want to seek out the original and give that another read…almost. Now here’s hoping that someone does an Old Man And The Sea mashup where the old man is looking for his great fish over the sunken city of R’lyeh.
-- Brian M. Sammons
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THE IMPROBABLE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, edited by John Joseph Adams; Night Shade Books, 2009; 454 pgs; $15.95
Sherlock Holmes, perhaps the most recognizable detective, fictional or otherwise, is the perfect subject to get an anthology this good. Anthologist extraordinaire John Joseph Adams has outdone himself with this collection of twenty-eight genre-bending mysteries from some of the biggest authors. In addition, Adams has wisely chosen many flavors of Holmesian whodunits, from the supernatural and sci-fi to the mundane mysteries that only first appear to be otherworldly. No two stories will be this same in this collection and that is a wonderful thing when a lot of anthologies tend to pick a theme and run with it all the way into the ground. But enough of the generalities, let’s get down to the specifics.
Three of the stories have one thing in common, connections to the weird world dreamt up by H.P. Lovecraft. All three first appeared in the wonderful Shadows Over Baker Street anthology from 2003 but their inclusion here is both warranted and very welcome. The fact that they are great stories written by great authors helps. The three are Tim Lebbon’s “The Horror of the Many Faces”, Barbara Hambly’s “The Adventure of the Antiquarian’s Niece”, and Neil Gaiman’s “A Study in Emerald”. While these three Cthulhu-rific tales wormed their way into a special place in my heart, there were others stories that found their way there too. The always excellent Stephen King gives us a tale where Dr. Watson takes the spotlight in a locked room mystery with “The Doctor’s Case”. One of my favorite fantasy authors, Michael Moorcock, puts a spin on the clichéd “someone inherits a mysterious house from an unknown dead relative” story with his “The Adventure of the Dorset Street Lodger”. Barbara Roden's “The Things That Shall Come Upon Them” bares more than a passing resemblance to M.R. James's “Casting the Runes”, not that that’s a bad thing. The story “The Singular Habits of Wasps” by Geoffrey A. Landis gives us Holmes, Jack the Ripper, and oddly enough aliens and was a highlight of the collection. Alien serial killers not your thing? Well then how about dinosaurs? If so, give Dominic Green’s “The Adventure of the Lost World” a try. Want to see Holms tag-team with sci-fi superstar H.G. Wells? Then look no further than Stephen Baxter’s “The Adventure of the Inertial Adjustor”. Or did you ever wonder what Sherlock was like before he became the famous super sleuth? Then watch the movie Young Sherlock Holmes, oh and be sure to read Peter Tremayne’s “The Specter of Tullyfane Abbey”.
Seamlessly blending horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and adventure with mystery, this is one book not to be missed by fans of Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous creation. If you’ve never read a Holmes story but always thought you’d like to then this book can act as a good jumping off point as there is sure to be some genre in here that speaks to you. While not every story collected here hit such heights as the ones I mentioned above, I can honestly say that none were bad, and in an anthology of twenty-eight stories as diverse as these are, that’s an incredible achievement.
-- Brian M. Sammons
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THE DEATH PANEL, edited by Cheryl Mullenax; Comet Press; 2009; 207 pgs; $14.95
If you had to think about it, which genre of literature would come to mind when you read stories containing the following: brutal gangsters, beautiful dames, over the top violence, double bourbons, betrayal (see: beautiful dames), revenge (see: beautiful dames), or wisps of cigarette smoke hovering over the occupants of a corner bar (or even better, an occupied bed)?
If you are a regular reader of crime fiction, the term “noir” would have popped into your head immediately. Now, imagine those same noir scenes intertwined with surreal or horror plot lines consisting of flying monsters, the undead, and other creatures (both human and imagined) that are just as deadly as a pissed off lover with a gun in their hands. If this commingling of genres sets your mouth to watering, the results of this fictional hybrid can be found in The Death Panel.
This mixture of noir, surrealism, and horror fiction is not new. Novels by the likes of Tom Piccirilli, Greg Gifune, and too many others to mention, have mined this sub genre in the past with spectacular results, but for the most part, you just don’t see that many short stories combining these genres. And while The Death Panel leans more heavily toward straight noir or crime fiction, it does contain a healthy dose of noir-surrealism and noir-horror to offer its more extreme, dark fiction readers. And the best part is, is that all 13 stories in The Death Panel are extremely effecting; they will stay with the reader long after the book is finished.
The first four stories in the books line up are without a doubt the highlight of the anthology. Randy Chandler’s, “Lipstick Swastika”, is sex-laden romp about a hotel detectives bid to cure his impotence with a woman who escaped Nazi prosecution (her nickname is The Beautiful Butcher of Auschwitz). And Tom Piccirilli is in brilliant form with his tale, “Blood Sacrifices and the Catatonic Kid”, about two men who break out from a mental hospital, and, like the best of Pic’s stories, you’ll never see the end of this one coming. Brandon Ford’s tale, “The Neighbor”, about a woman who is looking to have her serial killer neighbor knock off her obese husband, is extremely violent, and satisfying. And, “What Makes an Angel Cry” is a brutally bizarre tale of a man’s duel with an angel over their shared love of a demon. This story is so over the top violent and gory, you’ll have to force yourself to keep your eyes on the page for this one.
There are other stories in this book that are also fantastic reads. As usual, Tim Curran is delightful with his tale of gangsters selecting the wrong shipment to hijack, consequences they pay dearly for in “Fly by Night”. And two other tales that are pure noir, “The Hooker In The Backseat” by Eric Williams, and “Detail” by Fred Venturine, are both visceral, punch-to-the-gut tales of revenge.
These noir themed plotlines in the stories presented in The Death Panel are like a deep breath of fresh air; it’s nice to break with convention occasionally and these stories do so wonderfully. I found myself glued to this book, and when finished, I wanted to read more, it was that enjoyable. So if you’re looking for something a little different to read in your horror fiction, a book with stories that are edgy and cool as all hell, then pick up The Death Panel, and then be prepared to be blown away by some of the best genre short story fiction written in the last few years. Yes, this book is that good.
--T. T. Zuma
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