8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Intriguing Stew of Stories, September 21, 2003
This review is from: The Darker Side: Generations of Horror (Paperback)
I recognized the editor of this horror anthology, John Pelan, from his various associations with goremeister Edward Lee. I have never read any of his stories, however, until I cracked the cover of "The Darker Side," a gruesomely fascinating collection of stories from some of the best writers in horror working today. "The Darker Side" assembles a list of fresh stories from Edo Van Belkom, Simon Clark, Tom Piccirilli, Mehitobel Wilson, Charlee Jacob, Lucy Taylor, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Poppy Z. Brite, Tim Lebbon, and a host of other authors. Overall, there are twenty-seven meaty stories to sink your teeth into, and many of them are winners in every way. Sometimes, I think that horror anthologies are the best way to go for new horror fans that don't know many of the authors in the field. Heck, I read a ton of horror books and I am STILL discovering excellent writers in this genre. Anyway, this collection offers a smorgasbord of horror stories sure to entertain and sicken a reader.
THE BEST:
Maybe it's just me, but I think Charlee Jacob is one of the best writers in the business. Her novels are cathedrals of poetic language wrapped around unbelievable sequences of gory violence. The story Jacob contributed here, "The Plague Species," will stand out in my memory for some time to come. Residents of a Greek island are shocked to discover a shocking loss of various body parts. It turns out that an invasion launched by residents of this island against the neighboring island of Timnah resulted in a horrific curse with gory implications. The language is pristine and the conclusion surprising.
Mehitobel Wilson wrote "The Mannerly Man" to show us a world where political correctness has run amok. In this tale, people can kill anyone who offends them, for any reason, but can only do so once. A person who goes beyond their one freebie faces automatic execution at the hands of the police. The problem with this system is that a person never knows who has killed someone and who hasn't. It's amusing in the extreme to see how people bow and scrape at the slightest thought of stepping on another person's toes. In fact, even going outside presents a whole host of dangers.
Shikhar Dixit's "Asian Gothic" deserves special mention if for no other reason than for writing a tale that takes place in India. Something is seriously wrong with Suraj Mahal, a house in the town of Patna. This haunted house possesses the ability to wreak bloody havoc on its residents by causing the narrator's family members to commit suicide. There's more to it than that, of course, but I like the idea of unconventional horror stories that go outside the western world.
THE WORST:
David Niall Wilson's story about a painter, "The Whirling Man," bored me to tears with its descriptions of an artist and his encounters with a model. This guy creates some type of painting about colors squirting out of a woman's heart or some such thing. I read this a while ago and forgot about it the minute I finished it. "The Whirling Man" is just too nonsensical for my tastes.
"The Night City," a joint effort by Wilum Pugmire and Chad Hensley, isn't that long of a story, but it didn't make much sense. Some weird guy visits a nightmarish, polluted city in order to experience the dark delights such a place puts on display. The descriptive language succeeds in conveying a degenerate atmosphere, but I just never really caught on to what the characters were up to. This one is definitely a "pass" on subsequent readings of the book.
There are many other stories of varying degrees of quality in the collection. I wouldn't want to leave out Edo Von Belkom's story, "Do You See What I Fear," about a woman who, after undergoing an operation, rapidly comes to understand how death works in the real world. Poppy Z. Brite writes a story about the soul draining aspects of fame, and Tom Piccirilli strikes gold with his weird contribution about a guy that eats people's souls. I got a kick out of Pelan's entry, about the sinister implications of taking a hobby WAY too far. On the other hand, I didn't care much for Joel Lane's "After the Flood," a story about a basement full of water that holds people's memories. Ultimately, "The Darker Side" was a mixed bag for me, containing a few stories I didn't care for more than balanced out by great yarns of purest gold. If nothing else, I discovered a few names I think would be well worth pursuing in the future.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent authors, excellent stories, a few misses but not enough to bring down the collection, March 29, 2006
This review is from: The Darker Side: Generations of Horror (Paperback)
What a collection! With authors the likes of Charlee Jacob, John Pelan, Poppy Z. Brite, Tom Piccirilli, Mehitobel Wilson, Tim Lebbon, Richard Laymon, and Brian Keene, how can this anthology miss? I picked this up to read the short stories in-between my novel reads, and wound out unable to put it down until I had smacked my bloody lips over the very last putrid morsel.
Table Of Contents:
1. Do You See What I Fear by Edo van Belkom
2. Demon Me by Simon Clark
3. Spirits Of The Flesh by Seth Lindberg
4. The Misfit Child Grows Fat On Despair by Tom Piccirilli
5. Pull by Brian Hodge
6. Mamishka And The Sorcerer by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
7. Pets by James S. Dorr
8. The Lamb by Paul Finch
9. The Mannerly Man by Mehitobel Wilson
10. Just Someone Her Mother Might Know by Michelle Scalise
11. The Ocean by Poppy Z. Brite
12. The Origin by David B. Silva
13. After The Flood by Joel Lane
14. The Night City by Wilum Pugmire and Chad Hensley
15. The Plague Species by Charlee Jacob
16. Ten Bucks Says You Won't by Richard Laymon
17. Armies Of The Night by John Pelan
18. Unspeakable by Lucy Taylor
19. Standing Water by Caitlin R. Kiernan
20. Grave Song by Brian A. Hopkins and Richard Wright
21. Twenty Mile by Ann K. Schwader
22. All The World's A Stage by Brian Keene
23. What God Hath Wrought by Randy D. Ashburn
24. We're All Bozos On This Bus by Peter Crowther
25. The Whirling Man by David Niall Wilson
26. Asian Gothic by Shikhar Dixit
27. Hell Came Down by Tim Lebbon
The "standout" stories in this anthology would be 'Do You See What I Fear?', a tale of shadows lurking in the space of a brain left vacant by a tumor removal. 'The Misfit Child Grows Fat On Despair' shows us overweight can have a completely different meaning. 'Pull' reminds us of the languid yet unbreakable attachments to our upbringing. 'The Lamb' takes us into the ancient tombs underneath Rome and one priest's fight against the demon of $ex. 'The Mannerly Man' is one of the stars of this collection, showing the importance of good manners after each citizen is given clearance to kill one person legally. 'The Plague Species', another star, dwells on retribution for sins against both environment and flesh. 'Ten Bucks Says You Won't' brings us into the teenage horror scene of a graveyard at night. 'Armies Of The Night' animates mundane hobbies into deadly foes. 'Unspeakable' makes ordinary words into an insurmountable force. 'Twenty Mile' creeps across the grounds of a ranch, attacking the largest animals to reside there. 'Asian Gothic', a fantastic tale of haunting in northern India, and 'Hell Came Down', the end of the world from a Rainmaker who doesn't make rain, but atrocities.
The stories that, while not necessarily bad, but left me feeling clueless and confused, were 'Mamishka And The Sorcerer', 'After The Flood', 'The Night City', 'All The World's A Stage', 'We're All Bozos On This Bus', and 'The Whirling Man'.
With most of the stories being very good, and even the minority of bad ones written by authors I have read and respected in the past, I would say that this is definitely a collection worth picking up to add to your bookcase full of horror anthologies. The creepy feeling of dread I experienced while reading, that tingling of spinal column and extremities, the shivers from shadows in the corner of my room, was certainly worth more than the price of the book. Enjoy!
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18 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"The Ocean", August 9, 2002
This review is from: The Darker Side: Generations of Horror (Paperback)
With all due respect for the previous poster's opinion, I'd like to point out that "The Ocean" (my story in THE DARKER SIDE) is not a vampire story - it's meant to be a modern-day retelling of the tale of Orpheus and the Maenads. Obscure? Perhaps. Vampiric? Maybe, but if you've read your mythology, you'll know there is a great deal more to them.
It wouldn't be appropriate for me to review the book, and I couldn't do so anyway since I haven't received my contributor's copy - hence the noncommittal three stars.
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