White Wolf Pub. -- pb
Stone Mtn, GA -- ©1994 -- 334pp
ISBN: 1-56504-107-0
Dark Fantasy/Horror fiction.
'Introduction' -- Thomas F. Monteleone
"The Calling" -- David B. Silva
"Scartaris, June 28th" -- Harlan Ellison
"Glass Eyes" -- Nancy Holder
"The Grass of Remembrance" -- John DeChancie
"On the Nightmare Express" -- Francis J. Malozzo
"The Pounding Room" -- Bentley Little
"Peeling It Off" -- Darrell Schweitzer
"The Raw and the Cooked" -- Michael Green
"His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood" -- Poppy Z. Brite
"Oh What a Swell Guy Am I" -- Jeffrey Osier
"Delia and the Dinner Party" -- John Shirley
"Suicide Note" -- Lee Moler
"Stillborn" -- Nina Kiriki Hoffman
"Ladder" -- T.E.D. Klein
"Muscae Volitantes" -- Chet Williamson
"The Man in the Long Black Sedan" -- Ed Gorman
"His Frozen Heart" -- Jack Hunter Daves Jr.
"Evelyn Grace" -- Thomas Tessier
"By The Light of the Silvery Moon" -- Les Daniels
"A Younger Woman" -- John Maclay
"But You'll Never Follow Me" -- Karl Edward Wagner
"Stephen" -- Elizabeth Massie
"Alexandra" -- Charles L. Grant
"The Good Book" -- G. Wayne Miller
"By Bizarre Hands" -- Joe R. Lansdale
'About the Editor'
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I have always enjoyed taking a literary ride on the 'horror' train, though I haven't read as much dark fantasy lately as I did as a teenager. I picked this book up in an airport some years back when I had forgotten to bring along something to read, and while I read maybe two stories at the time, this book sat around on my shelves waiting for me to get back to it.
Mostly this book was a time-passer. Few, if any, of the stories really reached me. Nothing stood out as a story I'll remember for a long time. One story, as I was reading it, had me thinking ... oh good, a story that I can write about in my review, but as I look through the table of contents, it doesn't stand out. I recognize all the titles. I remember reading them, but none strike me as 'outstanding.'
At the same time, none of these struck me as terrible. In some cases, they were predictable ("By Bizarre Hands" "The Man in the Long Black Sedan" "Muscae Volitantes" "Stillborn" "Delia and the Dinner Party" "The Raw and the Cooked" "The Grass of Remembrance"). However, of these, some did stand out as being excellently written, specifically "Stillborn" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman and "Delia and the Dinner Party" by John Shirley and "The Grass of Remembrance" by John DeChancie.
If you enjoy the genre, then this book will probably be a welcome window to the dark for you. If you are new to this type of fiction, then better, perhaps to start with a true master of the field (find something by Robert Bloch or Robert Aikman or H.P. Lovecraft).
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