Customer Reviews

Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

FROM THE FUNKY WEREPIG

This is one of the easiest reviews to write. Datlow has assembled 25 stories from the best in the biz spanning back two decades. And there isn't a slacker in the bunch. Each and every story is a spot-on example of what made these talents the ones we all aspire to be. The list of names is almost ridiculous to put into one book: Stephen King, Joe Lansdale, Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell, Joyce Carol Oates, Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub. It goes on and on.

One of the things I truly enjoyed about this anthology was that Datlow didn't go for the easy story choices. Quite often she chose a tale that showed the author stretching in a different direction from what we are used to seeing. In doing so, it put a stamp on the book that made it seem more personal. You can tell these are Datlow's favorites and with her expertise, that makes a huge difference.

Another factor I enjoyed is getting to read established and decorated writers I haven't had a chance to dive into yet. In some instances, their stories were the ones I enjoyed the most. Steve Rasnic Tem hit me hard with his story `Heat'. I loved Terry Dowling's `Stitch'. I am sad to admit I haven't read as much Dan Simmons or Poppy Z Brite as I should have. But after being sucked in by their stories here, I'm going to change that.

In a recent interview, Datlow said that these shouldn't be considered The Best of Twenty Years of Horror because she didn't get to include all the great writers she wanted to. And there was difficulty in choosing some of the stories. Seriously, how do you pick the `one' King or Lansdale or Campbell short story?

But the truth is Datlow is also being respectful and professional. DARKNESS is about as close to horror perfection as any fan could ask for in an anthology.

If your lovely task for the last twenty years was to read stories--hundreds and hundreds of scary, inexplicable, sordid and taboo stories each year--which would stay in your mind at the end of two decades? That is the question asked by America's premier anthologist of the uncanny, Ellen Datlow, and that's what's between these covers.

Astonished by their strange power, she admits that this book's stories "still thrill me and chill me when I read them. I remember the characters . . . " (10). Certainly the stories in DARKNESS: TWO DECADES OF MODERN HORROR have an untraceable power that, like some mystic perfume, surrenders us again and again. The elements, structure, pace, revelations, and voice react together, and we forget time. Something in them lives and shocks and seduces. Such true moments of dark awe in art are rare. I have had a chance to teach some of these shadowy tales before from their earlier appearances and have seen how they obsess readers. (I'm thinking now of King's "Chattery Teeth," Barker's "Jacqueline Ess ...," Wolfe's "The Tree is My Hat," and Dowling's "Stitch"). I am now eager to teach the rest that Ms. Datlow summoned.

...and I found it here. I must admit that I am not a horror/science fiction/mystery/fantasy fan, and I picked this book up on a whim, hoping it would be an improvement over the noir-city related anthologies that I have found disappointing. This is a stellar collection which has (mercifully!) opened up new doors for exploration. I eagerly look forward to reading more of almost every writer represented here. Thank you, Ms. Datlow, for your fine critical eye and your hard work in putting this together. (By the way, I enjoyed the introductory comments on the authors, but I was somewhat fearful of spoilers. As with some of the stories, I learned to squint and peek.)

I have always been a fan of Ellen Datlow's Anthologies and this one is really great. I liked each of her choices and read it cover to cover like I would a novel. I usually read a few stories at a time with anthologies but this just seemed to go along so smoothly that I didn't stop.

What is terrifying? What makes you feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up? What makes you look over your shoulder repeatedly? Good horror fiction should do these things but each reader has her own personal criteria for what is frightening. While some anthologies may claim to offer the best of horror, Darkness only claims to present those stories that editor Ellen Datlow found lingering in her mind long after she published them.

In all there are 25 stories representing the work of six female and 19 male authors, all of them well-known in horror fiction and sometimes well-known in science fiction, fantasy and other genres. They are presented in chronological fashion starting in 1984 and ending in 2005. The forward from Stefan Dziemianowicz, horror author and editor, suggests that this collection might tackle the stable and new trends in horror including splatterpunk, dark fantasy, zombies, serial killers, and vampires. Surprisingly the stories in this collection do not neatly fit into these categories. Indeed, vampires are not the true subject of any of the stories here.

Instead we have a wide range of subjects and forms from these 25 authors, enough variety to please almost any horror fan but also to disappoint almost any horror fan. This is not a "best of" collection and indeed some of the stories may not linger in your memories once you venture into the next shadowy corner of the world revealed in the next story.

Clive Barker, credited with creating what is called splatterpunk is the very first author we meet. If you are unfamiliar with his writing but have seen his films frankly there isn't much difference in this story, "Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament," which this reviewer could easily picture as she read. Of a similar sexual and violent nature is the poem, "Eaten (Scenes from a Moving Picture)" from Neil Gaiman and it, too, could be easily adapted to the screen as the title suggests.

Zombies are featured in two excellent and unique ways from Lucius Shepard's "A Little Night Music" and Poppy Z. Brite's "Calcutta, Lord of Nerves". Both make you want to keep turning the pages as you feel the hair on the back of your neck stand up from the idea that zombie might be far more than merely mindless brain eaters.

Sometimes the horrific comes in small doses, poisoning our minds with its mundanity in subtle ways. "Dancing Chickens" by Edward Bryant does this with a slight science fiction dose. Insight into the fears of bar patrons is the subject of Michael Marshall Smith's "Rain Falls". Kathe Koja's "Teratisms" tackles family duty in a truly terrifying fashion whose ending both shocks and reassures.

Serial killers may be interesting because the most prolific of them look just like the guy next door. This is certainly the case in "The Phone Woman" where Joe R. Landsdales takes us into those moments that a normal man becomes a monster. Vampires do show up as minor characters in the other serial killer study from Pat Cadigan whose viewpoint narrator of "The Power and the Passion" confirms our fears about secret missions being run by powerful organization world-wide.

Meanwhile government "good guys" are the real monsters in David J. Schow's "Refrigerator Heaven" where insanity is a method of survival. Less satisfying is the confusing mind of another insane narrator from Steve Rasnic Tem's "Heat" which just ends unexplained.

Explanations are not always necessary for good horror and this is most true when the subject is mysterious, terrifying event neither the reader nor the characters can escape. Two authors, Thom Ligotti in "The Greater Festival of Masks" and Joe Hill in "My Father's Mask" do a decent job of drawing us into the viewpoint character's fears and actions. But "Stitch" by Terry Dowling not only offers us mysterious events and horrific memories but a satisfying ending.

Horror as a horrific twist of real life builds slowly in four author's work. Stephen King's "Chattery Teeth" is classic for him and should please his fans. Kelly Link's "The Specialist's Hat" takes bratty kids and ghosts to a different level. Ramsey Campbell's "No Strings" shows us an investigation gone horribly wrong. Elizabeth Hand had a complex story that combines family secrets and the fame monsters into one narrative whose ending felt tacked on unnecessarily.

Horror in real life settings doesn't need to build up slowly for a good story. Both George R.R. Martin's "The Pear-Shaped Man" and Joyce Carol Oates story jump right into events and memories that will make you chill with their creepyness. Sadly two other stories in this collection need to speed up their action because both Peter Straub's "The Juniper Tree" and Gene Wolfe's "The Tree is My Hat" were just too detailed and slow paced to really terrify this reviewer.

Finally three stories simply confused this reviewer because they didn't make her afraid, cause her hair to stand up, or even linger very long in her memory. Sadly this included Dan Simmons' "Two Minutes Forty-Five Seconds," Dennis Etchison's "The Dog Park," and Glen Hirshberg's "Dancing Men". What is horrific though varies and there is nothing innately wrong with the storytelling here just emotion to build me into story and make me afraid.

Quality horror must do that. It has to give us those creeps on at least one level. Great horror can affect you on the physical, emotional, and intellectual level for a very long time. The best of the genre will continue to do that no matter how many times you read it. This collection's range of subjects and forms of storytelling gives us enough quality to be added to your summer reading list as long as you make sure you are in a safe place before you open it up.

I bought this expecting some chills, and was very disappointed. Every story I read or attempted to read in this anthology failed to raise even a single goosebump. I say "attempted" because several were too poorly written to warrant reading more than a few pages before realizing how blah and non scary they were going to be. How anyone could consider a story like Peter Straub's "The Juniper Tree" horror fiction is beyond me. The Clive Barker story was subpar, King's "Chattery Teeth" is decent, but not scary, and "The Pear Shaped Man" was lame and predictable. Save your money & avoid this stinker at all costs.