They That Dwell in Dark Places, by Daniel McGachey

9781888993721
Dark Regions Press
345 pp



Ever on the lookout for those stories that will send the odd shiver up my spine, I happened on this collection of 13 tales, which, according to the blurb on the back are  "stories told by firelight in isolated cottages, by lantern-light on storm-lashed beaches, by gaslight in scholars' studies and clubrooms, or by twilight in libraries and in lonely asylum cells." For someone like myself, who much prefers old-school horror and supernatural tales to more modern fare (with a few exceptions),  the words on the cover were like an invitation to settle into one of my wing-back chairs with a cup of hot tea and enjoy the ride. While not all of the stories quite measured up to my expectations, I can't say I was at all disappointed as he reveals that they who "dwell in dark places do not wish to be forgotten," and that they "like you to know that we are here, always..." 


Introduced by Charles Black, the stories in this book are as follows:

1) "The Shadow in the Stacks," which introduces the recurring character of Dr. Lawrence, a "folklorist" who spends a lot of time and energy collecting the "fables and folktales of antiquity."
2) "The Mound," where a man who knows every inch of his garden notices something new and obsesses over it until it's too late;
3) "The Beacon" finds a familiar theme in ghost lore set in an offshore lighthouse;
4) "Shalt Thou Know My Name?" finds Dr. Lawrence on the receiving end of an eerie tale involving a plagiarist and a confession from the 18th century;
5) "The Wager," one of my favorites, where a gambler is told about some action at the "astonishing" Club Tenebrosa with very high stakes;
6) "The Crimson Picture," one of the better stories in this book, where an artist discovers he has a hidden ability where it comes to painting, but it's not such a good thing, as it turns out;
7) "Rags," another good one, where a traveler separated from his party passes by a tree adorned with rags before he understands its significance;
8) "The Travelling Companion," in which a traveling salesman buys a book, refuses to part with it, and suffers the consequences ... another one I really liked;
9) "A Ravelled Tress:" actually, this one was probably my least favorite, where a "thick tress of black hair" with a bizarre history is found in a rotting pile of books in an old house as a precursor to ensuing mayhem;
10) "And Still Those Screams Resound" is my favorite story in the book, dealing with one man's unchecked obsession.  This is probably one of the more frightening tales in the book, not so much for the supernatural content, but because of the subject;
11) "An Unwise Purchase," a tale as written by Dr. H.S. Grace, a graduate of St. Montague's, Master of Rhodes House College, then Head Master of St. James's School.  Another one of my favorites in this book, a strange brass carving of the three wise monkeys turns out to be the "unwise purchase" of the title.

from vegetableoildiesel.co.uk

 12) "The Unmasking: An Evening of Revels and Revelations," adds a touch of the surreal as Dr. Lawrence and two other guests at a masqued party are forced to put on borrowed masks; not everyone is left  to tell the tale of what happened afterwards.  I liked this one as well; and finally
13) "They That Dwell in Dark Places," another one I don't count as a personal favorite,but it's still a fun little story that starts with a gathering on Halloween. 

At the end the author adds notes on each of his stories, revealing his inspirations and his own thoughts as well. 

I love the work of M.R. James, and it's definitely obvious that McGachey does too.  While this book is  often similar in tone, it never devolves into a mere James pastiche; there's plenty to admire about Mr. McGatchey's writing on its own.  The author is best at creating and sustaining the dark, creepy  atmosphere that pervades this book, although sometimes in trying to capture period speech patterns, the narrative comes across as a bit clunky and it can become a little off-putting.  They That Dwell in Dark Places, imho, is best suited for readers who like good, old-fashioned ghost stories without all the gore, sex and thrill-a-minute action that modern horror seems to thrive on. The stories in this book will probably seem pretty tame to contemporary  readers, so if antiquarians digging through old tomes or strange goings on in old houses don't appeal,  then you may want to move along. However, if you enjoy this sort of thing, definitely pick up a copy.  I'll look forward to more by this author, especially if  he continues with the ghostly tales. And someday, maybe he'll set down the story of the traveling mausoleum!
  

The Sheep Look Up, by John Brunner

1932100016
Benbella Books, 2003
originally published 1972
388 pp

softcover

(repost from the home page of my online reading journal)

"We're divorced from reality, in the same way as the Romans went on thinking of themselves as invulnerable and unchallengeable long after it ceased to be true. The most awful warnings are staring us in the face..."  (207)

The Sheep Look Up wins my award for most unique reaction after having finished a book. I felt all covered in grime and hungry for fresh air and water.  This is one of those books that literally get under your skin and I was so happy to be out of Brunner's world it was unreal.   While the novel is set in a dystopian future, James Bell, who wrote the book's "Afterword," states that John Brunner noted that what was most frightening to him about The Sheep Look Up

"with its vision of a world where pollution is out of control...is that I invented literally nothing for it, bar a chemical weapon that made people psychotic. Everything else I took straight out of the papers, and magazines..."

and if you think about that for just a moment, alarm bells should be going off in your head -- this book was first published over 40 years ago.  Despite the grimy, thirsty feeling I was left with,  this book also struck me as being one of the best works of environmentally-based fiction I've ever read. There's just something masterful in the novel's message of a clear and present danger for our future.

With only a few pockets of exception, the United States is a veritable cesspool.  The seas are polluted beyond repair, acid rain in New York eats holes in people's clothing, the air is so bad that filtermasks (sold in vending machines) are required just to be outside, and  "Don't Drink" the water alerts are common. Trash lays out, uncollected, spawning rats and other pests; exterminators are way too busy to come to one's home at short notice.  Health problems are widespread, stds and other diseases normally treated by drugs have developed antibiotic-resistant strains, and parents whose children are born with only minor ailments or physical problems are considered extremely fortunate. The American government is run by a leader known as "Prexy," whose policy is one of blatant denial and blaming all of America's ills on terrorists.  One man, Austin Train, knows the truth -- and he is public enemy number one where the government is concerned so is forced to go underground.  Train is a committed environmentalist whose works have been studied and followed by others who have settled in commune-like places called wats where they put into practice what we'd call today "going green."  Train is a peaceful person but many who have taken up his cause for a cleaner America are not.  The "Trainites,"  as they call themselves, believe in more violent means of trying to "fix" things, something Austin Train would never condone.

from Zimbio, a beach in California

 The story in this novel is related via a number of varying plotlines and narratives that seem choppy at first but actually have a rhythm and a purpose,  all  melding together beautifully as the novel progresses.  It begins with the bizarre death of  Decimus Jones, a friend of Austin Train, on an LA freeway. His strange death becomes an event that will eventually draw together the stories of every character in this novel in a roundabout way, all of whom are caught up in the country's growing state of emergency in their own fashion.  Punctuating their ongoing stories are bits of speeches, news reports, poems, songs, television-show transcripts and scenes from outside the country, where the army is at war with its current enemy in Latin America. While this strange format may seem a bit disconcerting and jarring, once into the story, you are stuck as you eagerly flip pages to see how things are going to end.  As a bit of a warning, don't get too attached to any one character or groups of characters, because things tend to get very bleak here with an unequivocal aura of despair surrounding pretty much everyone. 

Old this book may be, as noted above, published some 40 years ago, but it is still very much worth the read. The author has this way of thoroughly unsettling and disorienting his readers while keeping things moving at a fast pace, all the while making his point about what our future might look like  in the not too-distant future.  Pooh-pooh the didacticism if you so choose, which many people do, but imho, this is a novel that everyone who cares about and doesn't just give lip service to a better future might want to read.  Don't forget the afterword -- the nonfiction, which should scare you even more than the novel did.

Prophet of Bones, by Ted Kosmatka

9780805096170
Henry Holt, 2013
368 pp

this book is an arc: a big thank you to Christine at Henry Holt for my copy. Also, if you are interested, a Q&A with the author follows my discussion of this book.

 An intriguing premise, a mystery to be solved and an alternative world are the highpoints of this new science fiction novel; if you're really into genetics and hard science in your fiction, this book may be just up your alley. The book is a mix of alternative history, science fiction, man-on-the-run and mad-scientist stories, all with a little romance thrown in to the mix. It is set in a world like ours except that evolutionists and their theories have been totally shot down & debunked,  and  the earth has been scientifically proven to be 5800 years old.

In this world lives Paul Carlsson, who has been fascinated with the study of genetics from boyhood on. As an adult, he's taken on by Westing, a research firm that combines two of Paul's passions under the banner of "paleometagenomics," the "intersection" of  genetics and anthropology.  He is assigned to work on a dig in Indonesia, but the work is shut down after an attack. Paul and two others flee while being shot at. It isn't long until the pursuers catch up to Paul & his friends, killing one, injuring Paul causing him to lose an eye. When Paul finally returns to Westing, he can't help but wonder what was so important about what he'd found at the site; most of the rest of the story concerns his efforts to find out. Trouble is, he can't do it alone, but the people who come to his aid seem to be dying off.  The story is told in brief chapters from both Paul's side and from the side of the bad guys so that the reader is not totally in the dark about what's going on.

There are some good things about this novel, but there are also things to watch out for. The premise and setting are appealing, and Paul's attempt to get past all of the roadblocks trying to solve the mystery of what's behind the attack at the dig were attractive to my crime-fiction reader self.  However,  if you are looking for  a big payoff after all of the action, you might be a bit dissatisfied. There are definitely clues throughout the book that point to the big reveal, but overall, it just didn't materialize in the "eye-opening and page-turning read" way Clive Cussler writes about on the cover blurb.The big "climactic" scenes were kind of flat and really failed to grab me.  However, multiple 4- and 5-star ratings have been awarded to this book, so it's obvious that a great many readers have really liked it.  I was intrigued right up until the end so I can recommend it, with the caveats noted above.

****

Here's a Q&A with the author, Ted Kosamatka, an award-winning writer of science fiction:

Q&A with Ted Kosmatka, author of PROPHET OF BONES

Q. You are well known in the science-fiction and fantasy genres for your highly praised short stories and first novel, The Games. What inspired you to write Prophet of Bones—a thriller?
A. The novel was actually inspired by a conversation I had with a co-worker about young-earth creationism. In 2005 the Kansas Board of Education held a series of hearings in an effort to introduce intelligent design into science classes in public schools. Statistics show that there are a huge number of people who believe evolution to be false, and the reality is that some of those people are in charge of educational policies. I think I imagined the novel as a way of granting young-earth creationists their argument. Here is a universe where the earth truly is young—provably, verifiably, by carbon 14 dating. But nothing else is different. The fossil record of the novel is identical to our fossil record, only now these bones must be faced within the context of a creationist world. It’s another window into the argument, and presents a case, I think, that a young earth would present a far more disturbing picture than the world we actually inhabit.
Q. Prophet of Bones is an extension of your widely acclaimed short story “The Prophet of Flores,” which has been printed in several year’s best science-fiction and fantasy collections and translated into several languages. Why do you think it struck such a chord with this audience? What was the motivation for expanding the story?
A. I honestly try not to think too much about what an audience might do with a story I write. It’s nice when a story gets good reviews or a positive response, sure, but the best writing always comes from a place of humility, and the last thing you want to ask yourself while writing is, Will people like this? I’m very much from the story-belongs-to-the-reader camp. It's totally up to the audience how to interpret a story, and the writer doesn't have any control over that. My main motivation for going back and expanding from the original premise was that I wanted to know what happened next. My mind kept returning to it again and again, and at some point I realized that I had a lot more I wanted to explore.
Q. How did you prepare to write Prophet of Bones? What kind of research was involved?
A. I think my whole life was a kind of research for this book. I studied biology in college and have always read everything I could get my hands on—from scientific journals to scholarly tomes on human variation. I went to Catholic school growing up, but at the same time I was always very interested in science and evolution and genetics, so I had these two very powerful and contradictory dogmas competing for my attention and loyalty—or at least that’s how I felt at the time. I’m much less conflicted about it now, but I suppose it made an impact on me. Science and religion both seek the answer to similar queries: Why are we here? How did we get here? And these are questions I was particularly interested in for some reason. I was bombarded with these two very different perspectives, and most of my early experiences as a child trying to understand my place in the world were colored by the tension between these different worldviews.
Q. The book is grounded, in part, by real science. Can you share some of the most important scientific foundations that were critical to your research?
A. Well, the most important bit of science critical to the story, of course, was the discovery of those strange fossils on the island of Flores. Without that discovery, I doubt I would have had a way to tell this kind of story. The science of genetics also plays an important part in the novel. As much as possible I tried to use real science in the story, though truthfully the genomics revolution we’re undergoing right now reads a lot like science fiction. Many of the great anthropological questions of my childhood are now being answered in no uncertain terms by genetics. It’s absolutely astounding what we’re able to learn from just a small bit of DNA.
Q. In 2003, Mike Morwood actually discovered a human-like species known as “the Hobbit” on the island of Flores. This find plays a key role in the plot of Prophet of Bones, which is set in an alternate world where Darwin is discredited and the earth is known to be only 5,800 years old. Why did you choose write the tale as a twist on the truth?
A. Twists on the truth always make the best stories, I think. I’ve always been drawn to intractable scientific arguments, and at the time when I first came up with the idea for the book, there was a lot of fighting about what this particular fossil might mean. There was one camp that felt the fossil was just a pathological human and another camp that felt it was something far different. To some extent, I think, that argument is still going on, though evidence has certainly mounted in favor of one particular interpretation. I use a lot of my stories as a way for me to think about problems I’m interested in; and to a lot of people in anthropology, these fossils present themselves as one of the most unexpected and fascinating problems to have burst on the scene in a very long time. Also, as an outlier in the cannon of archaeological finds, the Flores fossils were a great tool for investigating what it truly means to be human.
Q. Your résumé includes a wide array of jobs: fast-food worker, housepainter, security guard, college tutor, zookeeper, laboratory analyst, endangered-species researcher, stage actor, and video-game writer. How did working in such varied environments help you write this novel?
A. I think for a writer, anything that broadens your experience can only be a good thing if your goal is to understand the world. Doing a bunch of different jobs over the years is certainly one way to gain a lot of different experiences. (It also could mean you’re just not very good at anything, so it is by no means always a mark of distinction.) I’ve always been experience-hungry, so that might have played some part in my work history, though it’s hard to say. I’ve been very lucky in that I’ve been able to work in the fields I’ve been interested in. This novel probably draws most directly from my experience working in a research lab, and possibly a bit from my time as a zookeeper. They say that you should write what you know, so it was nice to have actually worked in the kinds of places I’m writing about.
Q. You currently work as a writer at Valve, which is home to some of the world's most popular video games, including Half-Life, Portal, Dota 2, Left 4 Dead and Counter-Strike. How is writing for a digital medium different than writing for a printed medium?
A. Writing for a digital medium above all else requires flexibility. The job can change a lot from week to week, depending on what you're working on. You get pulled in new directions all the time. In writing print fiction, you are the master of everything that happens in your story, but in writing for video games, you are a part of this large collaborative process. You have lots of really smart people to lean on and bounce ideas off of, which is awesome, and the process is in some ways very democratic. Your ideas
have to win people over. The best ideas tend to win out in the long run, and then you go out as a team and institute those ideas.
Q. The main character in Prophet of Bones, Paul Carlsson, is a scientist. You studied biology at Indiana University and went on to work as a lab technician. You also bred mice in your basement as a young boy, something Paul does in the book. How did your own life inspire Paul’s character?
A. I think I’m very much like Paul in a lot of ways. We’re interested in the same questions, and driven by many of the same motivations. I suppose we have a lot of the same fears and insecurities. But for him, it is all experienced through the lens of life lived in a creationist universe, whereas I live in one more consistent with evolution. So while we’re interested in the same questions, the answers will be very different.
Q. You already have another book in the works. Can you give us any hints as to what it’s about?
A. Well, I haven’t pinned down a title yet, but the book will be a continuation of my early novelette “Divining Light,” which was nominated for a Nebula Award in 2010. It’s another lab-opera, and I’m beginning to sense a trend in my fiction. Stephen King writes about writers in trouble, and John Grisham writes about lawyers in trouble. I seem to write about scientists in trouble. So this will be my third novel centered on laboratories. And again, it’s me being drawn to another intractable scientific problem, in this case, the famous two-slit experiment. It’s a story about quantum mechanics, and in it, a researcher discovers that reality is not exactly what it seems to be. Life hangs in the balance.

Lovecraft Unbound -- Ellen Datlow (ed.)

9781595821461
Dark Horse Books, 2009
420 pp

softcover

Having just finished four other books edited by Ellen Datlow, I have to say that this one has a wider range of good stories than the previous four volumes of The Best Horror of the Year do individually.  It's still a mixed bag though, with some stories much better than the rest, some following under the category of  "good and I'd probably look for more by their authors," and some that just didn't do it for me. In short, your typical anthology.  If you're considering reading this one,  keep in mind that the book was not intended to be a collection of Lovecraft pastiches but rather a collection of stories inspired by Lovecraft's work.  Even so, it comes out a bit unevenly and while the authors each offer a brief write-up on how Lovecraft inspired their work, some of the stories seem to be a bit off. 

So let's get down to business starting with the table of contents:

1. “The Crevasse” by Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud
2. “The Office of Doom” by Richard Bowes
3. “Sincerely, Petrified” by Anna Tambour
4. “The Din of Celestial Birds” by Brian Evenson
5. “The Tenderness of Jackals” by Amanda Downum
6. “Sight Unseen” by Joel Lane
7. “Cold Water Survival” by Holly Phillips
8. “Come Lurk with Me and Be My Love” by William Browning Spencer
9. “Houses Under the Sea” by Caitlín R. Kiernan
10. “Machines of Concrete Light and Dark” by Michael Cisco
11. “Leng” by Marc Laidlaw
12. “In the Black Mill” by Michael Chabon
13. “One Day, Soon” by Lavie Tidhar
14. “Commencement” by Joyce Carol Oates
15. “Vernon, Driving” by Simon Kurt Unsworth
16. “The Recruiter” by Michael Shea
17. “Marya Nox” by Gemma Files
18. “Mongoose” by Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear
19. “Catch Hell” by Laird Barron
20. “That of Which We Speak When We Speak of the Unspeakable” by Nick Mamatas

 There are six I really liked and five  that were good, not great, so that accounts for over half of the stories in this book.  The best story in this book is without question Caitlin R. Kiernan's "Houses Under the Sea," set in beautiful Monterey.  The story is seen through the eyes of a narrator who not only has no name but no gender either.  He/She has been assigned to write about Jacova Angevine, his/her former lover, who once had a promising career in academia but later became the head of a cult called "The Open Door," whose members she led into the ocean one day in a mass suicide. It's one a summary doesn't do justice, but my god ... this story is absolutely chilling and probably meets best the Lovecraft-inspiration criteria.   I have to give Ms. Datlow kudos for including it.   "The Crevasse,"  set in the Antarctic is also an excellent, Lovecraft-inspired story but one I've read before; also set in the Antarctic is Holly Phillips' "Cold Water Survival," another previously-read but excellent story.   Also clearly in the Lovecraftian zone is (believe it or not) Michael Chabon's "In the Black Mill," which I found to be outstanding; I did a double take when I got to this author's entry because well, he does horror & dread so nicely -- a side of Chabon I've never seen before!   "Marya Nox" by Gemma Files also caught my eye -- told in more or less epistolary format, it focuses on a strange church in Macedonia that was uncovered after having been purposely buried in its entirety.   "Catch Hell," by Laird Barron isn't exactly Lovecraftian so to speak, but there's definitely evil lurking in the woods around the Black Ram Lodge.  This one I've read before and while I really like this story, its inclusion in this particular volume is kind of a mystery.  

The six that were (imho) good/not great but still deserving of a mention are "The Din of Celestial Birds," by Brian Evenson, “Come Lurk with Me and Be My Love” by William Browning Spencer, "Leng," by Marc Laidlaw -- I'm a total sucker for anything set on the Plateau of Leng, and "That of Which We Speak When We Speak of the Unspeakable” by Nick Mamatas. This one resonated with the idea that there's nothing one can do when confronted by cosmic forces beyond anyone's control and it appealed. And while  "The Office of Doom" was kind of  playful with its interlibrary loan of the Necronomicon, I'm still not quite sure about it. Ditto for "The Recruiter," which was dark enough for my weird tastes but kind of missing something there. 

Obviously anyone reading this collection will have their own personal favorites, since as I've  noted before, horror is definitely in the eye of the beholder.  I'd recommend it -- there are many fine stories here. 

The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Four -- (ed.) Ellen Datlow

9781597803991
Night Shade Books, 2012
387 pp

(softcover)

"The details may change. But the fear remains."

Well, maybe not so much.

I'll just come right out and say it. So far, I haven't been duly impressed with this series.  Now and then the editor has selected some impressive entries that have managed to produce that little frisson of nerve tingle, but on the whole, there hasn't been much in the way of stalking dread or nightmare-quality horror in any of these books.  Now having said that, I did see another improvement leap from the previous volume in this series to this one, with five decent stories.  I don't know why anyone else reads horror, but for me it's the challenge of finding stories that send shivers of fright up and down my spine and discovering authors whose writing is so good that I'm actually creeped out for a good long while.  That is what I look for when I pick up a horror tome -- and while things are much better than in the last book,  as an oeuvre, this series has been somewhat disappointing.

There were a few stories in this installment that I felt were beyond good. There are 18 total (* indicates the ones I thought were better than others):

1. The Little Green God of Agony, by Stephen King
2. Stay, by  Leah Bobet
3. *The Moraine, by Simon Bestwick
4. *Blackwood’s Baby, by Laird Barron
5. Looker, by David Nickle
6. * The Show, by Priya Sharma
7. Mulberry Boys, by  Margo Lanagan
8. Roots and All, by  Brian Hodge
9. Final Girl Theory, by  A. C. Wise
10. Omphalos, by  Livia Llewellyn
11. Dermot, by Simon Bestwick
12. Black Feathers, by Alison Littlewood
13. *Final Verse, by  Chet Williamson
14. In the Absence of Murdock, by  Terry Lamsley
15. You Become the Neighborhood, by  Glen Hirshberg
16. In Paris, In the Mouth of Kronos, by  John Langan
17. *Little Pig, by Anna Taborska
18. The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine, by  Peter Straub

Five stories worth recommending -- for these books, that's a good number.

Beginning with Simon Bestwick's "The Moraine," a married couple whose relationship is well, shall we say, on the rocks takes a trip to the crags of England's Lake District.  The white mist rolls in, obscuring the steep path, so they choose an alternate way to hopefully bring them down safely.  Soon they begin to realize that they are not alone. While this story is not my favorite entry of the book, it's very well written with good pacing, but my first thought after finishing it was that it  reminded me in spots of Scott Smith's The Ruins.  
 
In Laird Barron's "Blackwood’s Baby",  a hunting party is organized at the Black Ram Lodge, a locale familiar to readers of the author's story "Catch Hell," which I read in  Occultation.  Like that story, "Blackwood's Baby" is more on the occult side than most of his works, but it's still quite good. Hunter  Luke Honey, currently in Africa,  receives an invitation to join an exclusive hunting party at the Black Ram Lodge. Luke is already a tormented soul when we first meet him, a man with a troubled, dark past, and he accepts the invitation but wonders why he's been included.  This is no ordinary hunt -- the target is a stag that is purportedly the progeny of Satan himself. 

A fake medium on a tv "reality" show finds out the hard way that she has a true gift when it comes to the psychic arts in "The Show," by Priya Sharma.  The revelation, however, comes at a very bad time and at great cost.  This story was very well crafted, perfectly timed and on the money for a good scare.

 "Final Verse" by Chet Williamson, another story  I really liked, finds a once-popular bluegrass singer whose career is fading on the hunt for the missing last verse to a traditional Appalachian folksong called "Mother Come Quickly."  A bit of detective work leads him and a friend to an old house in the woods -- where they find much more than they bargained for.  This story is not only very well written -- it's incredibly creepy as well.

The last pick in my top five is "Little Pig," by Anna Taborska which is horrifying in the truest sense of the word.  At Heathrow, a woman arriving to stay with family slips, laughs hysterically, drops and breaks her glasses and mutters the words "little pig." The rest of the story takes the reader back in time to explain what it means.  To say more would be to wreck it. 

I was also entranced at first with Peter Straub's The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine, with its quirky kind of "deja vu" experiences aboard a strange yacht on the Amazon, but the story seemed to fall apart at the end.   It had me going for a while, though, so I'm mentioning it here. All in all, Volume Four had some really bad stories, some mediocre, and some that really caught my attention, and this installment was heads and shoulders above Volume Three.  Let's hope this trend continues.

The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Three -- Ellen Datlow, ed

9781597802178
Night Shade Books, 2011
361 pp

softcover

On the back-cover blurb it says the following:

"What causes that delicious shiver of fear to travel the length of our spines?...Every year the bar is raised; the screw is tightened.  Ellen Datlow knows what scares us..."

Well, evidently she doesn't know what scares me because once again (after having read the first two volumes in this series), I'm left wondering about that "delicious shiver of fear," which, with a few exceptions, just didn't materialize over the course of this book.  Still, I keep hoping, meaning I've got Volume Four on my nightstand, ready to go, and I've already pre-ordered Volume Five, which according to Amazon, is expected to be out in June of this year.  I think that what keeps me coming back is that when I find a story that actually sends that chill down my spine, I want to find more work by the author who actually managed to pleasantly provide me with a few downright creepy moments . That reasoning has not only led me to some particularly good writers, but also has started to fill out my horror collection, a definite plus for sleepless nights.   So, for anyone who may be wondering why I continue to buy these books when I haven't yet been totally satisfied, you now have an answer.  That's how I discovered Laird Barron -- who is probably my favorite horror writer -- by picking up different horror anthologies here and there.

Let me start out by saying that my expressed hope for the forward movement of improvement (referring to the big difference between volumes one and two of this series) was a bit dashed in this installment, but there are a handful of stories that I actually like. The usual inclusion of the editor's summation of books, stories, etc. from 2010 is also much appreciated, with some books once again making my wishlist and some actually finding their way to my house.   Volume Three has 21 stories (* indicates the ones I really enjoyed):

1. At the Riding School by Cody Goodfellow
2. Mr. Pigsny by Reggie Oliver
3. City of the Dog by John Langan
4. *Just Outside Our Windows, Deep Inside Our Walls by Brian Hodge
5. *Lesser Demons by Norman Partridge
6. When the Zombies Win by Karina Sumner-Smith
7. *-30-by Laird Barron
8. Fallen Boys by Mark Morris
9. Was She Wicked? Was She Good? by M. Rickert
10. The Fear by Richard Harland
11. Till the Morning Comes by Stephen Graham Jones
12. Shomer by Glen Hirshberg
13. Oh I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside by Christopher Fowler
14. The Obscure Bird by Nicholas Royle
15. Transfiguration by Richard Christian Matheson
16. The Days of Flaming Motorcycles by Catherynne M. Valente
17. The Folding Man Joe R. Lansdale
18. Just Another Desert Night With Blood by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.
19. *Black and White Sky by Tanith Lee
20. At Night When the Demons Come by Ray Cluley
21. The Revel by John Langan


Tallying the number of stars produces four stories I'd recommend. In Volume One I found three, Volume Two indicated a marked improvement with five, and now we've gone down a notch to four. 

Laird Barron's  "--30'--"  is one  I've read before in his excellent collection Occultation.  I love the opening words in this little gem: "You know how this is going to end."  It is an excellent story of two scientists isolated in the desert of Washington state,  and true to form, Barron builds the layers of terror ever so slowly.  Another reread is Norman Partridge's "Lesser Demons,"  a near-perfect blend of hardboiled hero & downright horror. I didn't realize until now that he has a book by the same name ... on the wishlist it goes.  Of the two new to me, the best read was "Black and White Sky" by Tanith Lee,  one of the most bizarre tales I've read in quite a while.  Quiet life in the British Isles is shaken by upward-moving magpies, a strange phenomenon that leads to a terrifying and atmospherically-creepy conclusion. This one is really good, definitely not to be missed. I read this one twice and both times it produced that lovely spine tingle I look for. "Just Outside Our Windows, Deep Inside Our Walls," by Brian Hodge is also a winner -- a boy meets a new neighbor next door, and a friendship begins, but it may only bring trouble since the boy has been locked up for the safety of others. There's definitely  a good reason behind it all, which will come as a bit of a shock.
I'd also like to point out Cody Goodfellow's story "At the Riding School," a bit on the violent side for my tastes but very well written; "The Fear,"  by Richard Harland was another one that  had me going up until the end when it frustratingly petered out.

I may be pickier than most readers in terms of horror reading, but the thing is, I am really looking for stories that send that "delicious shiver of fear" down my spine and so far in this series, there have only been a few meeting this description.  That's kind of a shame, but I can only  hope for better in the next volume.

The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 2, ed. Ellen Datlow

9781597801737
Night Shade Books, 2010
308 pp

softcover

After the previous volume of this series turned out to be not so hot,  I had a few concerns on my end about continuing to Volume 2. While I won't say that this book inspired many terror-producing moments, it is definitely an improvement over the first collection. 


The book opens once more with a summation of books, stories, etc. from 2009, some of which have already gone on my wishlist.  It is followed by 17 stories (* indicates the ones I really enjoyed):

1. "Lowland Sea," by Suzy McKee Charnas
2. "The End of Everything," by Steve Eller
*3. "Mrs. Midnight," by Reggie Oliver
*4. "each thing I show you is a piece of my death," by Gemma Files and Stephen J. Barringer
5. The Nimble Men, by Glen Hirshberg
6. What Happens When You Wake Up in the Night," by Michael Marshall Smith
7. "Wendigo", by Micaela Morrissette
8. "In the Porches of My Ears," by Norman Prentiss
9. "Lonegan's Luck," by Stephen Graham Jones
*10. "The Crevasse," by Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud
11. "The Lion's Den," by Steve Duffy
12. "Lotophagi," by Edward Morris
13. "The Gaze Dogs of Nine Waterfall," by Kaaron Warren
14. "Dead Loss," by Carole Johnstone
*15. "Strappado," by Laird Barron
16. "The Lammas Worm," by Nina Allan
*17. "Technicolor," by John Langan

Note the number of asterisks -- when I read Volume 1, I noted three standouts -- now we're up to five!  So, not counting "Strappado," by Laird Barron (which I've already read and which is one of my favorite stories by him), that leaves four that are new to me. Hands down, the best story of this group is "each thing I show you is a piece of my death," which is related through a mishmash of different media forms. It is built around the idea of "the background man," who begins to show up embedded within a number of television shows, movies, etc., with no explanation for his presence. "Mrs. Midnight" spans two worlds -- London of the present, and the same city during the time of Jack the Ripper, with a theater connecting the two. "The Crevasse" would have been a perfect fit for Robert M. Price's The Antarktos Cycle, with its Lovecraftian style and Antarctic exploration theme.  "Technicolor" took me totally by surprise, but I've come to expect good things from John Langan.  A college professor takes his students through Poe's inspiration for "Masque of the Red Death," building the suspense until the very last moment.  

While this anthology was not great, it's much better than the first volume of this series.  Between the two, the stories that were standouts for me in this book were of much higher quality and had a better creep factor going on.  Now on to Volume 3 -- hopefully the momentum of improvement will not flag.