Night Terrors II

by | Apr 4, 2012 | Reviews | 0 comments

I love anthologies. They are like the Whitman’s Samplers of books. Bite-sized bits of story goodness that you can pop into your brain almost anywhere and anytime. There is also the buffet effect; that is you are sure to find something you like, hopefully a lot of things you like, even if you bite into one or two things that don’t agree with you. While in some sad (but thankfully few) instances this isn’t the case, I find more often than not it is. In any event, that is the case with Night Terrors II. No, I didn’t love every story. In fact there were a few I really didn’t care for. But the majority of terror tales tied together in this tome did terrifically tickle me, and a few even terrified. There’s a whole lot of good in this 28 story collection, so let’s get down to it.

Night Terrors II is an anthology without a central theme, other than all the stories must be related to horror in some way. That’s not a negative to me, but rather a positive. While I love themed collections, I also dig big books of good horror, and NT2 delivers that for the most part. Editors Theresa Dillion and Marc Ciccarone do a good job selecting a wide variety of tales, both in content and size. I liked this mix and thought it worked well.  Now I won’t go into the stories that I didn’t care for, because I never like doing that, and also because I didn’t think they were horrible or anything. Instead I will highlight some of the tales I enjoyed the most.

I love Lovecraftian horror and I love war stories, and “Darkly Dreaming in Black Waters” by Jason Andrew handles both themes wonderfully. Set against the real world horrors of World War Two, Andrew introduces some unsuspecting sailors to one of Lovecraft’s most horrific creations. This story is a serious contender for my Best of the Book prize and I look forward to reading more from Mr. Andrew.

Michael B. Tager’s “Child and Guardian” had a charming, almost fairytale feel to it. The short and sweet of the story is all in the title. It’s about a child and the protector that makes sure no harm comes when the lights go out.

“Revivified” by Maria Alexander is an apocalyptic tale that gets high points from me for being engaging while playing things subtly. That’s a tough trick to pull off, and the author does it here very well.

In “Origin Story” by Christopher Hawkins, two nerds working in a comic book store, playing the old game of “what super power would you have if you could choose one?” From the hypothetical things soon turn to the very real and very dark. While I didn’t find this story all that terrifying, I did think it was a hoot and an interesting take on the whole hero thing.

There are other winners here, to be sure, but these should be a good example of nice wide arrange of stories to be found in this book. You sure won’t get the same old, same old here and if you’re looking for a collection of just plain creepy tales (for the most part), give Night Terrors II a try.

About Brian Sammons