Piercing The Darkness: A Charity Anthology for The Children’s Literacy Initiative

by | Jul 14, 2014 | Reviews

I’m a sucker for a charity anthology, and when one comes along with a line-up of talent like this, you’d think it’d be a pretty safe bet that it’d be a good read, right?

Wrong.

This was not a good read, it was a phenomenal read. I’d go as far as to call it one of the most enjoyable anthologies that I’ve ever read, period.

Editor Craig Cook (Who also contributes a heartfelt, touching Introduction that lays out his connection to The Children’s Literacy Initiative and gives an overview of their goals.) has done an amazing job of recruiting authors to contribute stories both new and old (28 stories, 10 are new, 18 are reprints.)- I consider myself fairly well-read in the genre, and I’ve only encountered one of the reprinted stories before, so most of the tales here will be new to most readers.

Among the new stories, standouts include James A. Moore’s novella “Abattoir Blues,”, a gruesome post-apocalyptic tale of gladiatorial revenge; C. Dennis Moore’s disgusting (In a good way!) “Pest Control”, which finds insects rising up to conquer the Earth; and Monica O’Rourke’s heartbreaking “Searching”.  Jeff Strand’s contribution, “The Fierce Stabbing and Subsequent Post-Death Vengeance of Scooter Brown” also deserves a special mention. Strand is one of the most reliable authors in the field, and he hits another one out of the park here.

On the reprint side, there’s an embarrassment of riches…The book starts off strong with a Joe R. Lansdale novella “King of Shadows”; Kealan Patrick Burke contributes a disturbing, heartbreaking tale of an abusive childhood in “Haven”; Greg F. Gifune’s “Obedient Flies” has one hell of a twist, and is among the best of his that I’ve read; Jonathan Janz, Lucy Snyder, Mary SanGiovanni, Robert Dunbar, F. Paul Wilson, Elizabeth Massie, and Gene O’Neill also contribute outstanding stories. The book is rounded out by a reprint of Gary A. Braunbeck’s “Dinosaur Day”….Has Braunbeck ever written a bad story? If there were any justice in this world, he would be perpetually sitting on the top of the bestseller lists. This is an amazing story, and a perfect way to close out a wonderful anthology. Great book, great cause, great price. I can’t recommend this one highly enough.

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