Horror World Book Reviews
August, 2009

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Primitive by J. F. Gonzalez; Delirium Books ; 2009; 303 pages; $16.95

When you hear the name J.F. Gonzalez, what’s the first thing that pops into your head?  If you’re like a majority of horror and dark fiction fans, his Leisure Publishing novel Survivor will slam into your brain like an ice pick (no doubt followed by an involuntarily shudder).  Failing that, his novel Clickers (a collaboration with Mark Williams and published by Dark Tales) might snap its way into your consciousness along with visions of decapitating crab claws and other deadly crustaceans.   While many authors would give just about anything to have written what would be considered a classic in their genre, Gonzalez is fortunate enough to have written two.  J.F. has penned many other novels aside from these two (including a Clickers sequel with Brian Keene and another on the way), it is Survivor and Clickers that continue to dominate his message boards and used as a point of reference when discussing any of his other output. 

Primitive, like Clickers, is awash with over the top action scenes that at times call to mind well produced B-movie imagery and even some of those newer big budgets, special effects horror flicks.  Plot wise, it’s a wonderful blend of horror styles encompassing apocalyptic, zombie, sci-fi, and supernatural fiction (including a nod to William Peter Blatty’s ‘The Exorcist’) all wrapped around enough war and gun play to make the battle scenes in the movie Alien seem like a minor skirmish. 

Primitive’s story begins when a virus, released somewhere in the Middle East, spreads globally, causing people all over the world to act as ferocious animals.  In effect, it reverts human beings back into a Neanderthal state.  These primitive people lose all knowledge of their former selves and begin to attack non infected people and even each other.  The plot follows along with a man named David and his family as they, and a few other unchanged people, fend off the Primitives and seek safety, shelter, sustenance, and weapons.  This unlikely group of survivors is a pretty diverse group in both ethnicity and religious belief, but one thing almost all of them have in common is a fierce determination to survive.  It is this perseverance to live that enables them to not only fight off their bestial enemies, but to conquer the unexpected rise of the dead, an ancient demon, and a possible threat from one of their own.   The story, told from David’s point of view, details the struggles (often gruesome, sometimes heart breaking) that the group face leading up to their ultimate confrontation with leader of the Primitives.

While there are many interesting aspects to Primitive, its most engaging is that it is much more than its premise implies…it’s not just a retelling of Ripley and Company mowing down an alien species while trying to get out of town.  Gonzalez integrates thought provoking themes into the plot forcing the reader to take stock of their own attitudes about race and religious beliefs.   And while the race theme is handled in a realistic and satisfying way, Gonzalez’s take on religion was unexpected, refreshing, entertaining, and very integral to the plot. 

With Primitive, J. F. Gonzalez has delivered to his fans a work that can be easily mentioned in the same breath as Survivor and Clickers, and in fact, he just may have earned himself a literary hat-trick having authored three novels that could be considered among the classics of dark fiction.

Primitive is highly recommended.

--T. T. Zuma

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Writers Workshop of Horror, Edited by Michael Knost; Woodland Press ; 2009; 258 pages;  $21.95

Writing manuals are often dry, boring, and full of self-congratulatory hyperbole. Thankfully, The Writers Workshop Of Horror is not your average writing manual. Editor Michael Knost has brought together some of the top names in the horror genre, as well as talented newcomers, and given readers an entertaining, informative, and valuable work.

Covering every aspect involved in writing, and writing well, the contributors share their secrets, their tips, and their invaluable experience with the reader. Even if you have no interest in writing whatsoever, this book will still entertain and enthrall, just due to the sheer infectious fun each contributor appears to be having, talking about a subject near and dear to their hearts. With a contributors' list including names like Monteleone, Campbell, Lansdale, Barker, Castle, and Piccirilli, you know you've got something special in your hands. 

Writers Workshop Of Horror belongs on the bookshelf of anyone who is serious about their writing. Entertaining, informative, and just plain old fun, this book will not only make you want to write more, it will give you the tools to write better. This should be mandatory reading in creative writing classes.

-- Ron Dickie

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The Space Between by Erik Tomblin; Blue Fairy Books ; 224 pages; $12.95

 Once in a very great while, a book comes along that can surprise even the most jaded reader with an unexpected plot twist, or a thorny dilemma that you just can't imagine how the character could possibly manage to extricate himself from....Erik Tomblin's The Space Between is one of those rare books.

 Musician Isaac Owens is on a career upswing, and should be on top of the world.....but his newfound success is meaningless without his fiancée, Emily, who died in a car accident where Isaac was driving.  When he receives word that he's inherited a property in Georgia (From a mysterious trust fund that Isaac seemingly has no connection to....), he decides to spend some time exploring the property, take a break from his tour, and perhaps come to terms with his grief.

 This is usually where the out-of-towner encounters sinister neighbors and strange goings-on in town, but Tomblin thankfully eschews (Most of...) the standard Horror novel clichés. Instead of finding the "Ancient Evil" we might be expecting, Isaac almost immediately finds that his newly-inherited house has a mysterious door that opens into the past, where he finds a grisly murder scene, and falls in love with a previous occupant of the house, the lovely young Elizabeth Willoughby. Convinced that the murder victim he stumbled upon was his new love, Isaac struggles to find a way to change the terrible events of the past. Can history be changed? What effect would that have on the present-day life Isaac has made for himself?

 In The Space Between, Erik Tomblin has crafted a nigh-unclassifiable story, that blurs the line between chilling ghost story, compelling mystery, and heartfelt love story, and throws in a few mind-boggling plot twists that this reviewer did not see coming. It's one of those rare books that not only keeps you guessing while you're reading it, but also gives you a lot to think about long after you've turned the last page.

--Daniel Reilly

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Valley of the Dead by Kim Paffenroth; Cargo Cult Press ; 2009; 226 pages; $50

As a high school teacher of literature, I think I’m going to owe a great deal to Dr. Kim Paffenroth because of his most recent novel, Valley of the Dead. What better way to interest students in Dante Alighieri’s masterful The Divine Comedy than to convince them the poet was inspired by zombies? That is the premise of Paffenroth’s new release from Cargo Cult Press.

I became a fan of Paffenroth with the release of his non-fiction study Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Vision of Hell on Earth, then with the two novels in his Dying to Live series.  Now the professor of theology has combined his fiction and … a sort of non-fiction.  This book has only increased my admiration for Paffenroth’s literary abilities.

The idea here is that Dante, who was missing in action for 17 years after being exiled from Italy, wandered into a valley where he saw all the atrocities depicted in “The Inferno” part of his Comedy. Those things include people being burned alive, devoured, torn apart, decapitated, crucified, boiled in pitch and other such wonderful things. So, the casual, modern reader might ask, can I enjoy this zombie book without reading some ancient poem? The answer is a definitive Yes! If you know the poem, you’ll recognize the levels of hell as they come up in the story, but if you don’t, you’ll simply appreciate the scenery as Paffenroth relates it.

The author here tells his story in a detached, almost dreamy fashion that does not, however, mute the horrors of what we’re witnessing. It’s a style I found very fitting for the type of story being told, almost like Paffenroth was following along behind Dante, telling us what was really going on, acting as sort of a filter.

The drawback here is that this book is a limited edition. There will only be 150 copies printed, and it’ll cost you $50 to get one. Is it worth it? Umm, do zombies eat flesh? Duh!

This is not like what Seth Grahame-Smith did with his Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It isn’t fan fiction and it isn’t gimmicky. Paffenroth gives us a serious read that will entertain, enlighten and, just maybe, inspire us to re-examine one of the world’s greatest pieces of literature, too.

--Steven E. Wedel

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Cruel Summer by Matt Venne; Tasmaniac Publications ; 2009; 129 pages; $14

Cruel Summer is Matt Venne’s coming of age tale of a young boy named Jim Craine and set during the nightmare years when Richard Ramirez, dubbed The Night Stalker by the press, began his murderous rampage in Northern California.    The story follows along with Jim and his pals as they try to live their lives surrounded by the paranoia of the killings, and their adolescent curiosity concerning the mysteries of sex.  

The narrative is told in a flashback fashion by Craine when he is in his mid to late 30’s.  The story has a nostalgic feel to it as he recounts his adventure during the mid 80’s with an adult voice, often commenting on his story with flashes of hindsight and remorse.   The plot revolves around a murder mystery of a young lifeguard in her late teens with whom Jim falls in love with early in the novel.  She was a sexually adventurous young woman who is later found murdered in the woods, and young Jim makes it his mission to discover who the killer is.  

With a backdrop of suspects including an odd neighbor, a strange young man who wanders about the town, a young tough guy who was having sex with the lifeguard, and The Night Stalker himself, Crain and his pals get into every kind of conceivable trouble that young boys can get into while trying to solve the murder.   As with all coming of age stories, secrets are revealed, realities of life are exposed, and the innocence of youth dissolves abruptly.

Cruel Summer is too short a novel to have the depth of classic coming of age stories such as Joe Lansdale’s The Bottoms or Robert McCammon’s Boy’s Life, but none the less it is a very well written, pleasing, and action packed tale for those who enjoy coming of age stories, not to mention those that have a fascination with the murderer called The Night Stalker.  Between Venne’s excellent story and Tasmaniac’s quality presentation of this novel, I look forward to what ever both have to offer readers in the future.  

--T. T. Zuma

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Last Days by Brian Evenson; Underland Press ; 2009; 256 pages; $12.95

Brian Evenson is the new black. As in black humor. Very black. Noir to the nth.

Such is my conclusion upon completing Evenson's latest novel, Last Days, from Underland Press. The novel is a fix-up of sorts, employing Evenson's previously-published novella The Brotherhood of Mutilation as part 1, and adding about 75 pages of sequel material.

Still recovering from the violent amputation of one of his hands, our hero Detective Kline has what's left of his arm twisted by the aforementioned Brotherhood, who rather forcibly convinces him to privately investigate a crime that's occurred within the confines of their religious cult. As the Brotherhood's name might imply, their members are distinguished by having lost a limb or a few digits—and given that the more parts that one has lost, the greater their stature in the group…well, let's just say that the trend toward self-mutilation has picked up a good head of steam. Against this surreal backdrop, Kline reluctantly seeks the truth, all the while struggling in a web of deceit and frequently fending off attacks on his life and remaining limbs.

The darkly tongue-in-cheek tone is so pervasive throughout the book that it’s somewhat difficult to extract brief quotations…but here are a few attempts to capture the grim flavor.

"By the time [Gous's] amputation took place, Kline had had a few drinks, had drunk enough in fact that he had trouble making his eyes focus. To see reasonably well, he had to cover one eye with his stump."

The organization's peculiar obsession inevitably leads to some…unusual sexual ramifications:

"He opened the cabinet. It was full of stacks of calendars, each month featuring a woman in various states of undress, smiling furiously. He looked at the first picture for some time before realizing the girl was missing one of her thumbs. With each month, the losses became more obvious and more numerous. March losing a breast, July missing both breasts, a hand, and a forearm. The December girl was little more than a torso, her breasts shaved off, wearing nothing but a thin white cloth banner from one shoulder to the opposite hip, reading 'Miss Less is More.'"

And, finally, sticking with the theme of nude women…

"And then the woman sashayed across the stage and reached up with her remaining finger and thumb to tear free her [prosthetic] ear. She spun it around a few times before tossing it out into the audience. Kline saw a group of men rise up in a dark mass, trying somehow, with what hands they had left between them, to catch it."

As these quotations show, readers are likely to find themselves deeply disturbed at the same time they're snickering. With Last Days, Evenson establishes himself as a master of the literature of the Absurd…and I mean that in only the best of ways.

-- Robert Morrish

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Silver Scream: 40 Classic Horror Movies; Volume One: 1920-1941 by Steven Warren Hill; Telos Books ; 2008; 432 pages; $25.95

Telos Books, a UK-based small press operating since 2001, seems to be moving more and more into media-related non-fiction titles of late, and Steven Warren Hill’s Silver Scream: 40 Classic Horror Movies; Volume One: 1920-1941 is one of their most recent books in that category.

Silver Scream is an extremely well-researched volume, with each film’s entry featuring the following sections: Plot, Highlights and Memorable Quotes, Lowlights, Goofs, The Ongoing Story, Version, Trivia, Cast and Crew, Music, Critical Words, and Another Perspective. Over the course of forty entries, favorite sections (and “less-favorite” sections) emerge. For example, the section The Ongoing Story consistently presents very interesting historical context. Not nearly as interesting or useful is the Another Perspective section, which features opinions from one of three critics, whose primary qualifications appear to be that they live near author Hill. One of the three in particular offers some comments that can only be described as extremely amateurish.

Of course, half the fun in any list-oriented book such as this is in second-guessing the choices made. To Hill’s credit, however, there’s not much room for such armchair critiquing here, as all the obvious choices—Frankenstein, Dracula, etc.—are included, and there are no films that jump to mind as obvious oversights. What perhaps is possible to quibble about is the use of the word “classic” in the title, considering how negatively Hill evaluates several of these films. Fully 25% of the films discussed here are scored at 70 or below on Hill’s scale of 100, with The Cat and the Canary bringing up the rear with a paltry score of 42. At the other end of the scale, Hill gives his highest score (98) to Mad Love, Curse of the Cat People, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (the 1931 version).

Minor quibbles aside, Silver Scream, Volume One is ultimately a very informative and entertaining book.

-- Robert Morrish

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The Bone Factory by Nate Kenyon; www.dorchesterpub.com ; 2009; 320 pages; $7.99

In a perfect world, Nate Kenyon would have been born in the 1960’s and released his novels Bloodstone, The Reach, and his newest one, The Bone Factory, sometime in the late 1970’s to mid 1980’s.  By all rights, if these novels were released at a time when horror fiction was an accepted form of mainstream literature, they would have been received with widespread acclaim and mega sales.  Kenyon’s style is a perfect fit for those times; when readers took the time to marvel at the freshness of the story, revel in the complexities of the plot, and be delighted by the crispness of the writing. 

Sadly, with the passage of time, the public’s horror preferences have changed and in the past 10 – 20 years quite a bit of the dark fiction released have been exaggerated to extremes.  For instance, it can be so overwritten as to be considered pretentious, or so underwritten as to be labeled bland.  Because of this, pundits of the genre claim that horror fiction today struggles to be accepted as legitimate from of literature. And they may have a point…the small press in general has rightly deserved a reputation for releasing books that are excessively gory and/or short on substance.  While on the other hand, the mass market publishers have found gold in poorly written PG rated paranormal/occult romance novels that merely wink at their dark fiction roots.

Kenyon’s The Bone Factory is an oddity as it rests quite comfortably in the middle of these extremes.   And much like some of Leisure’s (Dorchester Publishing) more recent releases by authors  such as Rob Dunbar, Sarah Pinborough, Gary Braunbeck, and John Everson, The Bone Factory acknowledges its debt to the best of the late 70’s and 80’s horror fiction and even to the master of the horror novel himself,  Stephen King.  In fact, though it may have been unintentional, The Bone Factory shares some plot similarities with Stephen King’s late 1970’s opus The Shining. 

Kenyon’s novel tells the story of a young couple with a single child who are down on their luck and fleeing their hometown for a new job opportunity in a remote location.  Instead of his family settling in the frigid wilds of Colorado as King had his characters do in The Shining, Kenyon puts his characters smack dab in the middle of a cruel, cold winter in the boonies of Maine. As in King’s novel, the brutal weather is a major plot point in the story.  Though the young couple’s child in The Bone Factory is a young girl where King’s was a young boy, Kenyon’s girl also has the gift of precognition, a ‘shining’ of sorts, which figures prominently in the plot.  However, that is where the similarities end.

David Pierce, the head of the novels beleaguered family, has just received an offer for a new job from a company in Maine called the Hydro Development Corporation.  This offer comes just in the nick of time as David was fired from his last job in a hydroelectric company for mouthing off to his boss.   His wife Helen is a stay at home mom having left her job to care for their daughter after the young girl was diagnosed as having developmental problems, so a lack of income is a huge problem for the couple.   David gratefully accepts the job and moves his wife and daughter up to Maine to start over again. 

The town they live closest to has had several people disappear; the house they are moving into has a history…a young girl went missing after playing outdoors near the woods and was never found;  and, as David is shocked to discover, the company he now works for is being accused of damaging the environment with industrial pollution.   It’s not all that long after he starts work at the company when David learns that the Hydro Development Corporation may not have hired him for his technical knowledge and training after all, they may have hired him to be the perfect fall guy.

Where The Shining told a tale of a family falling apart under adversity, The Bone Factory is its opposite.  From the very beginning of the novel to the story’s action packed climax, we observe as Kenyon’s family is very demonstrative in their love for one another, and we see that this love not only nurtures their dependence on one another, but it will feed their eventual blood ridden quest for survival.  

Kenyon builds up the suspense in The Bone Factory slowly; a style that he has used to good effect in his earlier novels, but he switches gears in the latter half of the novel and the climax is prolonged, scary, and riveting.  The author does an admirable job in his characterization of the family; the reader feels the pain of his characters and shares their fright…especially when confronted with the “thing” that lurks out in the woods. 

Kenyon’s style is a welcome return to the classic horror novels when many believe they were at their prime.  Can you remember when a horror novel would keep you up all night reading to the point where it might even make you late for work the next morning?  Well, if you start The Bone Factory in the evening after settling in to bed, make sure you have access to plenty of coffee the next day.  You’re going to be awfully tired.  The Bone Factory is definitely recommended.

-- T. T. Zuma

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The Kult by Shaun Jeffrey; Leucrota Press ; 2009; 328 pages; $12.95

There is an old saying that it takes a thief to catch a thief. But what do you do if you’re a cop, and you’re hunting a serial killer?

If you’re Detective Chief Inspector Prosper Snow, you go along with your friends’ plan and commit a copy cat killing.

Of course, that isn’t the only reason he does it. In fact, it’s not even the main reason. It’s just a side benefit to the plan of the Kult, the name Prosper and his friends gave themselves long ago when they were just boys, boys who came together to violently exact vengeance for wrongs done to them.

Now the Kult is contacting Prosper again, because one of their members wants revenge on the man who raped his wife. A faithful officer of the law, Prosper refuses, only to be blackmailed by his friends into helping.

Their plan? Kill the rapist and make it look like the latest murder by a serial killer who calls himself the Oracle. A simple plan on the surface, especially since Prosper has all the information they need to mimic the Oracle’s M.O.

Except evidence begins piling up that leads Prosper to believe the Oracle might actually be one of the Kult. In the midst of his hunt for the Oracle, Prosper finds himself in several dire predicaments at once; hunted for murder, hunted by the Oracle, and torn between his duty and loyalty to his friends, who once helped him exact a terrible revenge of his own.

In The Kult, Jeffrey takes us through a twisted labyrinth at breakneck speed. Deftly weaving subtle clues, false starts, and complex plans, he not only produces a fantastic thriller, but in the Oracle gives us a villain who would have given Sherlock Holmes a run for his money and could easily hold his own against Hannibal Lecter.

Jeffrey blends the world of modern art and psychological terror together to create a terrifying look into a serial killer’s mind. Add to that some creatively mutilated bodies and more than a few heart-pounding action scenes, and you have a book that is as intense and spine-tingling as any of the best-selling crime/action books on today’s best-seller lists.

The only difference is this one is written better.

Like all good books, The Kult carefully ratchets up the pace as the story continues, building to a final showdown that will leave you breathless - and guessing - until the very end.

No book is perfect. Like any police procedural or thriller, there will be points where the limits of suspending disbelief will be stretched, especially where people continue to take the law into their own hands rather than simply confessing everything to the police. But if you’re looking for something special, something that stands above the ordinary, to read this summer, look no further.

Your book has arrived.

--JG Faherty

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Cold Black Hearts by Jeffrey J. Mariotte; www.penquin.com ; 2009; 310 pages; $7.99

Cold Black Hearts, the latest Jove release from Jeffery Mariotte, takes an unusual approach by kicking off as a police procedural thriller before eventually developing into a full blown occult tale of horror.   From its action packed introduction where we witness a tragedy involving the protagonist of the novel, to the ensuing John Grisham-like plot of her trying to free an innocent man sentenced to jail for murder, readers will find themselves so hooked by the crime elements of the story that they won’t mind at all that the author has taken his time in getting to the novels supernatural elements.  And when the occult aspects of the plot are finally introduced, readers will find themselves delighted by the plot twists and quite satisfied as to how Mariotte has integrated them into his story.

We first meet Mariotte’s protagonist, Annie O’Brian (who’s not as Irish as her name implies) when she and three other Phoenix policemen are about to arrest a suspect holed up in his tin home in the middle of a sleazy trailer park.  The four officers (one of whom happens to be Annie’s boyfriend), first surround, and then cautiously enter the trailer.  It turns out they were not cautious enough.  Just as they bust into the trailer Annie notices the occupant has his finger on a detonator. 

The next thing Annie remembers is waking up in a hospital where she learns that she was blown out of the trailer when the bomb went off.  Sadly the other three officers were killed in the explosion.  Unfortunately Annie did not escape unscathed; she is now deaf as a result of the blast.  However, Annie discovers that though she might have lost her hearing permanently, she has gained something else in return; she has become an Empath.  Annie now possesses the ability to feel other people’s emotions as her own.

Unable to remain a police office due to her deafness, Annie takes a job with an organization that attempts to free those people who may have been wrongly convicted of a crime.  Annie takes on a case in New Mexico where a man may have been railroaded into a murder charge.  When she arrives in town it doesn’t take her long to discover that the local police force isn’t all that friendly toward her; they all seem to be reluctant, or even down right hostile when asked for information concerning the case.  They are especially uneasy and evasive when discussing an abandoned town called New Dominion where the actual murder took place.

For most of the novel we follow along with Annie as she gathers evidence trying to prove the innocence of the man behind bars.  Clues are dropped here and there as to the innocence or guilt of the jailed man as well as what lies ahead for Annie after she solves this case. 

It is in the last third of the book where the author pulls out all the stops and we find out where Annie’s real battle begins.  Even though Marriotte had sprinkled a few clues along the way of what was to come, when we read about human sacrifices, ghostly apparitions, and one hell of a bad ass demon…we are as stunned as Annie is as to the direction the story is taking us.  It is to the author’s credit that he makes this work. 

You won’t find the excesses in this novel that you would see in most small press horror or even some of the newer mass market releases; it seems that Marriotte prefers to present his horror laden with atmosphere and emotion rather than the grotesque.  That’s not to imply that there isn’t plenty of action and some vivid descriptions of carnage to be found in these pages, there is, but it doesn’t feel exploitive.  It is the strength of Marriotte’s writing that initially keep the readers turning the pages and it’s the bond he manages to form between the reader and Annie that keeps us interested until the end. 

I would recommend Cold Black Hearts to all fans of horror and dark fiction.

--T. T. Zuma

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The Terrible Changes by Joel Lane; Ex Occidente Press ; May 2009; 129 pages; $40

If you’re, like me, one of those people who simply adore Joel Lane’s stories of supernatural noir, I must warn you that in the present collection you’ll find none of those. The tales included in this volume represent the other side of Lane’s literary work. As the author states in his insightful foreword, “the collection tends toward the more low-key and private side” of his writing.

Spanning about twenty-five years the stories selected by Lane showcase the author’s struggle to deal with inner voices, awkward attempts to create human intimacy and to build relationships with friends and lovers.

The main characters in these stories are loners (usually single males), living in squalid flats, trying to defeat the horrors of urban life by means of drinking, sex and drug addiction.

Dealing with such bleak material is not easy and only a fine writer like Lane can succeed.

Some of the stories have such a gloomy tone and such a bitter taste which may discourage the average genre reader. Typical examples are Power Cut , where everything is emptiness and solitude, Empty Mouths, where alcohol and sex seem to provide the only temporary solace to the desperation of insignificant lives and uneasy relationships, as well as Every Form of Refuge and After the Flood, about difficult liaisons and spiritual scars.

The Hard Copy is the effective, melancholy portrait of a gay affair going on in fits and starts through the years while life changes and gets shorter.

 The deeply disquieting Blue Train features a young man whose jewish stock resurfaces in an unexpected way while All Beauty Sleeps casts a new, original light over the eternal bond between love and death.

In the obscure but compelling The City of Love, a couple, on a trip to Paris to make a film, undergo a dramatic change. Reality and symbolism blends obscurely as in an Antonioni movie. Precious little is clear, the plot is minimal, if not negligible, but the atmosphere is fascinating.

Face Down, a very short but superb tale where a man keeps seeing a corpse face down in the river, constitutes another enigma: a nightmare, an allegory or a sign of a mental disorder?

The Sleepers is a delicate but cruel piece on the SF side, where during war people start  glimpsing sleeping faces in the snow.

There were two stand out stories. Tell the Difference, a beautiful tale providing a deeper and more articulate journey into the loneliness of urban life, revolves around a girl suddenly gifted with clairvoyance (or suffering from hallucinations?) who tries to make contact with a world whose inhabitants are often little more than manikins. The other one is Alouette, an excellent, extremely bleak story where videos of legalized violence are transmitted to cell phones in the middle of night.

Many of the stories in this book made me feel depressed. I don’t like feeling that way, but, since my mood is not easily influenced from what I’m reading, take this statement as a further evidence of how convincing and effective a writer is Joel Lane.

--Mario Guslandi

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Cthulhu Unbound edited by Thomas Brannan & John Sunseri; Permuted Press ; 2009; 265 pages; $14.95

Permuted Press, best known for high quality zombie anthologies, have taken their first steps into the world that H.P. Lovecraft built with this collection of unusual Cthulhu stories. While many Cthulhu Mythos stories can be described as “unusual”, the ones within this book are designed to push boundaries and blend genres. Think of a DJ throwing together a mash up, but instead of Madonna getting mixed in with the Wu-Tang Clan, you have Lovecraftian horror melting with gumshoe Noir.  Here you can imagine what a Cthulhu Mythos story might have been like if penned by other famous authors. Ever wonder what Tom Clancy’s take on Cthulhu might have been? How about Lovecraft’s influence seeping into a literary classic like Moby Dick? Then there’s the humorous tales where the absurd and the amorphous are handled with equal care. This is the world of Cthulhu Unbound; I hope you brought a helmet, it’s sure to be a rough, wild, and weird trip.

First let’s cover the cover, the cover of the book that is. It is a wonderful piece by Cyril Van Der Haegen showing a doctor performing an autopsy, but a doctor with the head of Cthulhu. Simple, atmospheric, and it tells you exactly what this anthology is all about. I have seldom seen better covers for Lovecraftian books. After the amazing exterior illustration comes fifteen tales, all but one are new to this anthology, and the one reprint belonging to C.J. Henderson who’s always welcome in any capacity to anything I read. None of the stories fall flat with a trip over an errant tentacle, and while some do not rise to the same heights as others, that’s to be expected and can be a matter of personal taste rather than story quality. Of the fifteen tales, here are some of the ones that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Trent Roman’s The Invasion out of Time is a sequel of sorts to Lovecraft’s own “The Shadow out of Time”. It is set in the near future where the whole of humanity is in a desperate war with a truly terrifying alien race that never gets enough press, the flying polyps. This story gets extra points for having jet fighters dog fighting with the powerful polyps, and for having the guts to make the last, best hope of humanity the Communist Chinese instead of the more frequently used Western powers.  

The Covenant by Kim Paffenroth is the Cthulhu meets Moby Dick idea that I alluded to earlier. This story shows the extent to which vengeance mad Captain Ahab was willing to go to get his great white whale, and to which dark gods he made pacts with. A very fun read that fans of the classic will enjoy, as will those that only know the story of Moby Dick by reputation.

Author D. L. Snell offers up an exciting, action packed tale with a great title in Blood Bags and Tentacles. This story has one of my favorite, non-Lovecraft, Cthulhu Mythos critters in it, the invisible Star Vampires first created by Psycho author, and Lovecraft contemporary, Robert Bloch. Mr. Snell handles the creatures very well, making them a truly terrifying menace in a post apocalyptic world. I think Mr. Bloch would have approved, and as for myself, I loved it. 

Rick Moore’s Turf is a tale that revolves around a mobster in the UK fighting a turf war with a rival “gang” he can’t fully understand. An amazing story, easily within the top three of the book, and I’d really like to read more of Mr. Moore’s work.

I really liked John Goodrich’s The Patriot for many reasons. First and foremost, it is well written and very creepy. Second, it’s a war story, and I love war stories when they’re done right. Third, it’s set in a war mostly forgotten today, World War One. From start to finish, this tale is simply great, but as for that finish, it’s a doozy. While it is tough to pick my absolute favorite of this anthology, this one would be one of the contenders.   

There are many other genre-bending stories to read in this impressive anthology. Want superheroes battling the forces of the Cthulhu Mythos? Check. How about a murder mystery where Lovecraft’s Nyarlathotep (a god-like being with a thousand forms and identities) has to investigate who bumped off one of his multiple personalities? Yep, they’ve got that covered too. There’s even a romance story between two completely alien Great Old Ones. Chances are if you can think up an idea, no matter how bizarre or fevered, it will be in this book. And for those strange musings not collected in this anthology, fear not, a second volume of Cthulhu Unbound is scheduled to come out later this year. I am sure that book, just like this one, will be a must have for both fans of Lovecraft, and those that just love weird, unclassifiable stories of all sorts.  

-- Brian M. Sammons

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Trolley No. 1852 by Edward Lee; Bloodletting Books ; 2009; 150 pages; $50

The latest from the prolific Lee is a tribute to and a story about the legendary H. P. Lovecraft.

Facing financial ruin, the writer receives an unusual offer in the mail: an invitation to write of tale of pornographic horror for a privately distributed magazine. The offer is accompanied by a check for five hundred dollars, half of the fee Lovecraft will earn upon his story’s completion.

Emboldened by the money and the freedom to write without restraint, Lovecraft (and Lee) takes a story fragment titled “The Thing in the Moonlight” and reworks it into a tale that comprises the bulk of this novella.

Morgan Phillips is searching for his sister who disappeared after moving to the city five years earlier. To find her, Morgan accepts a job in the city, spending his nights working as a scrivener (in a nod to Melville) and his days searching for his lost sibling.

Eventually, he learns of a bordello called the 1852 Club. Phillips journey there on the titular trolley, a conveyance manned by a pair of strange attendants. Once inside the whorehouse, he samples the services of the establishment (and reveals a prodigious physical attribute of his own).

Before the night is over, Phillips will discover the fate of his sister and the otherworldly nature of the 1852 Club.

Lee does a marvelous job of imitating Lovecraft’s prose style, while still infusing the material with all the touches readers expect from an Edward Lee story. There’s enough bizarre sex in this novella to satisfy Lee’s most rabid fans. Trolley No. 1852 also has a healthy dose of Lee’s trademark humor. Only Edward Lee could pull of a line like: “You’ll not coerce me to defile my sister, you pestiferous, para-dimensional degenerate!”

Trolley No. 1852 is a success as an HPL pastiche, as a horror story and as a fine addition of oeuvre of Edward Lee.

--Mark Justice

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Night Work by Thomas Glavinic 2006, translated by John Brownjohn; 2008;  Cannon Gate ; 375 pages; $15

This enigmatic novel of psychological apocalypse opens with Jonas getting up in the morning, to go to work.  It was usually routine; get dressed, shave, and have his coffee only once he got to work, it wasn't so routine at all.  In fact, it was totally unexpected.  "Totally out of whack" would be an apt expression for this unexpected event.  Much to his bewilderment and unease, he's discovered that there's not a single human being or animal to be found anywhere in the city.

At first, Jonas refuses to accept this scenario. He goes to empty shopping malls, he tries computers, cell phones, scanned television and radio stations and there is no one. 

He desperately searches in vain for any signs of life.  He experiences strange happenings and as he deteriorates into nihilistic despair, a struggle to shrug aside depressing loneliness, and maintain his self as well the control of his own fate.  Along the way, he finds himself in a fight with his inner own demon, the Sleeper. 

A true last man on earth story that examines the intrinsic need for human contact and what it means to be human.

--Steve Middaugh

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