Customer Reviews

Dark Universe

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This book is like finding buried treasure. Where has this guy
been all my life? All the stories are good to very good. There may not be that "one excellent story", but this is one of the most solid short story collections you will find. The subjects are as diverse as a "dark universe". There is a ghost story, a serial killer story, a contract killer story, some sci-fi
etc....Great work!

William F. Nolan has been declared a living legend. Okay, I can buy that. Truly, he has a unique grasp on the horror genre; and he's been strenghtening that grasp for half a century. Living legend? It fits.

"Dark Universe" is a thrilling collection. The stories in it aren't all unique ("And Miles to Go..." brings back memories of Bradbury's best, for example), but they're all good. "The Underdweller" is a sci-fi tale of survival in an appopolyptic world. "Lonely Train's A'Comin" tells of a brother's lust for revenge, and the macabre ride it takes him on. "The Cure" is the journal of a man who lives a perfect life, except for the fact that he strangles people. "The Giant Man," aside from an extremely weird and entertaining story, is a metaphor for the restraining life of big cities. "Stoner" is just plain weird, as is "Heart's Blood." "Ceremony" finds a hired killer in a small town, on Halloween, about to discover something that he really didn't want to know. "Boyfren," probably one of the strangest and most disturbing stories I've ever read, tells of how easily a young girl is led into a life of torture and cruelty...but doesn't know it.

Yep, William F. Nolan knows how to write. That's a given. This collection--complete with an interesting introduction about the author's influence on the horror genre--is a must have for horror fans. I doubt you can seriously consider yourself a protoge of the genre without taking a look at the writings of William F. Nolan. It's like learning to swim without ever jumping into the lake...especially if the lake is haunted...

Dark Universe is a collection of stories selected by the author. Each of the stories is prefaced by a note explaining how the story came about and/or why it was included in the collection. Because the stories are all by one author and were selected by him, the overall quality of the book is very consistent.

Other reviewers have listed the individual tales so I will not. Most of the stories have a very dark element but not necessarily an element of the fantastic. Most are very good at assaulting the right emotions but I was a little disappointed by the contents. Having read other books by the author (i.e. Logan's Run and its two sequels as well as some short work), I was surprised at the almost cliched hack endings of some of the stories (the sort where the final paragraph reveals that the potman of the past twenty years is really a sentient radish from Vega). I felt these particular endings to be a little cheap.

Although I was disappointed in some of the endings I was not disappointed by the writing style. Mr. Nolan sets out to affect certain emotions and he succeeds ever time. So if you want to be creeped out, have your hackles rise, or any of the other typical effects of Mr. Nolan's writing then this book is for you.

A collection of stories from author William Nolan (best known for Logan's Run).

The collection contains a mixture of some dark, some chilling, tales. The first story was my favorite of the group.

Although it isn't the best short collection I've read, I would certainly recommend it to any horror fan.

After doing some research on author William F. Nolan, I was embarrassed that I had not read any of his work. What a discovery! This living legend is a true chameleon when it comes to writing styles. Each story is so very different from the next -- the style, plot, characters, descriptions, etc. I had a wonderful time with this short story collection and I recommend it to fans both in and out of the horror genre. It has something for everyone. My two favorites are the utterly terrifying LONELY TRAIN A'COMIN and the very touching (yes, I had a tear in my eye) AND MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP. Even the weakest of the 19 stories is better than most others. This collection is strongly recommended.

This edition of Dark Universe, along with the concurrently released Nightworlds, published by Dorchester Publishing under the Leisure label in paperback, contain all forty-one stories found in the 2001 edition of Dark Universe published by Stealth Press. If you are a fan, or curious to delve into Nolan's horror short fiction (spanning five decades), the two paperbacks represent a substantial money saver, since the Stealth Press edition sold for about thirty dollars in hardcover.

However, while the Stealth Press edition arranged the stories chronologically by year, earliest to latest, the two Dorchester releases abandon this approach in favour of mixing the order. While each story is preceded by an introduction by the author, reading the book from start to finish offers only a jumbled sense of how Nolan's style has developed over the years.

Being new to Nolan's writing, I took a chance and bought both Leisure releases, and after having read Dark Universe and the first few stories in Nightworlds, I have to say I'm disappointed and feel a bit duped by marketing tactics. Nolan's abilities as a horror writer seem secondary to his abilities as a writer of science fiction, the genre on which he established his reputation. Indeed, Dark Universe contains one piece of science/speculative fiction (And Miles to Go Before I Sleep) which doesn't count as horror at all.

All in all, I have to say I find Nolan's horror writing to be simplistic, as though aimed at a juvenile reading level. Situations and plots lack substance, and atmosphere and tone are too weak to create a very effective sense of fear or dread. Characters are shallow and one-dimensional, and his dialogue is horrible - relying on hackneyed phraseology such as "the hell you say" as an expression of dismay.

Don't be fooled by the cover quotes that make Nolan sound like one of the greatest horror writers. When I sat down to read him, I was expecting a full course dinner, but instead I got popcorn. For truly effective, disturbing horror, try reading Ramsey Campbell.