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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stories of a Dark Past & Future, July 29, 2005
This review is from: Horror Beyond (Paperback)
From the publishers of the Book of Dark Wisdom, Horrors Beyond are a diverse set of short stories written in the Lovecraftian vein. The settings range anywhere from the 1920's to deep space in the far future. Each author was able to present their own Mythos story. Overall, I found the anthology enjoyable and well-presented. The editing is well-done, and the book layout of the stories work well with one another, transitioning from one style of story to another.
The anthology contained 18 stories total. It is published in trade paper and hardback. The binding quality looks good, and I imagine it should hold up well over the years.
I am going to review each story in brief. My comments may have spoilers, so readers be warned!
"The Eyes of Howard Curlix" by Tim Curran - A suspenseful tale about a tabloid journalist's meeting with a scientist who learns how to perceive beyond the electromagnetic spectrum that is detectable to humans. In the process, he discovers the creatures and beings that are suddenly able to perceive him. The story is Lovecraftian in style, though its direct references are very minor. It is a very strong lead story for the anthology, making you plunge into the next story.
"His Wonders in the Deep" by William Mitchell - A story about the investigation of the deaths of the survivors of a sinking boat, bringing immigrants to the United States. You are lead to the only remaining survivor who is trying to resurrect his dead wife and daughter. The suspense and mystery of the story is well-paced. It has much more strong harkenings to the Lovecraftian style, though again so direct references. The characters are interesting. The anthology definitely keeps its strength with its second story.
"The Breach" by Lee Clark Zumpe - Bringing us back to the realm of weird science of the first story, Zumpe presents a university that underfunds a project in which they puncture the fabric of reality. I found the presentation a little more broken than the previous stories, but I found the tale to be enjoyable in the end. It is less in the Lovecraftian vein other than hinting what other things may be in other realities waiting to come through.
"Experiencing the Other" by Ann K. Schwader - A change from the previous stories in which we are brought to struggling high mountain ranch in the modern day which has some horror buried beneath it and threatens to break its bonds once a year. The story did not feel nearly as complete as the previous stories for the horror is unleashed upon the world and the characters are left standing there. I have heard her previous works are good though, and I would not mind going back to them.
"The Candle Room" by James S. Dorr - A story about beings caught in another dimension and looking to get back in, the story feels like walking through a dream at times that things could go wrong, but they do not really go in that direction. Everything is happy in the end except the threat of these beings trying to come through again.
"A Little Color in Your Cheeks" by Mike Minnis - I thoroughly enjoyed this story. Weaving Orson Wells' Halloween War of the Worlds prank into the events was well-done. It worked well with the attack of the Color. However, I did find the exposition to be a little much, and the ending was too trite. It did not set well with the otherwise serious content of the story.
"One Way Conversation" by Brian M. Sammons - Perhaps the best story in the anthology, the story involves the development of tachyon communication. The scientists learn to receive transmissions easily enough, but they have to reinvent theory in order to plot the where and when they want to transmit messages to. In the end, the world seems to be coming apart because of these messages through time. The story has the strongest allusion to Lovecraftian beings, and I look forward to reading more of Sammons work in the future.
"After the War" by Tony Campbell - A story about genetically-engineered ghouls and our attempt to wipe them out, the story has a definitely hunter perspective that I am not sure fits with our modern day perspective. The story is character-driven in that major decisions and changes happen to the characters by the end of the story. The story feels like the lead-in for something larger though.
"The Blind" by Gerard Houarner - Perhaps the most character-driven story in the anthology, the story follows Rikki in her search for the ultimate fix. She is portrayed as an intelligent and cultured character that has taken some hard hits through life. In the end, she is given a drag that leaves most people incapacitated, and she manages to pull herself through it with a determination to improve her life. Definitely thought provoking, the story stood out from the rest of the stories, but it is a pleasant change.
"The Hades Project" by John Sunseri - A subjective rant in which you are not sure if you should believe the narrator or not, the story explores the possibilities of deep space exploration and what we may just bring back. The story presents a good amount of hysteria and facts that you are not sure what to believe. The author does a good job at intruding on our reality.
"A Form of Hospice" by Richard Gavin -Though not as extreme as Goodfellow's Radiant Dawn cancer plot, Gavin takes an interesting perspective on the lengths cancer patients will go through to live longer, and more pertinently, what will take advantage of them along the way. The overall feeling is creepy and foreboding. I enjoyed Gavin's work and will be looking for more in the future.
"The Prototype" by Ron Shiflet - Now this story reminded me of an old Amazing Stories television show. Though a little tongue in cheek, the story is not just about the television shows we watch, but where exactly are our televisions made? I had a good time reading this story and had a good chuckle.
"False Containment" by David Conyers - This is a fantastic story. Though it is difficult to pull three characters through a short story, Conyers manages it. The story is globe-and-time-spanning and timely, dealing with the a new Zero Waste Technology. Through the story, you learn that the characters are catapulted through time in their effort to stop a horror from taking over the earth. They are all confidant that they stop it though of their future selves tell them so. However, Conyers throws us an interesting twist at the end. Definitely a swift story with an engaging plot.
"Dingbats" by Richard A. Lupoff - Perhaps the silliest story of the lot, the author tells about the weekend trip of three women who had just met and how they end up flung to the far reaches of the universe and in the presences of a developing god-like entity. The voice is strong, and the dream sequences are imaginative. However, I kind of feel like I was reading a girl-power version of 2001.
"The Orion Man" by Doug Goodman - An interesting story about an alien invasion, the story is well-written and suspenseful. The author keeps the reader in the dark, slowly feeding information as necessary. The result is a scary alien-government conspiracy that is just plausible enough to be scary. I look forward to more Doug Goodman's work.
"Vuuduu" by C.J. Henderson - Being the owner of an iPod and having used Napster and other file sharing software, I found this story to be funny and thought-provoking. Using the music and devices to subliminally impose order on society, the story puts an interesting twist on the development of a new world order.
"Cahokia" by Cody Goodfellow - What happened to all of those lost civilizations that just seem to disappear? Goodfellow provides us with an answer with presenting us with the ruins of a extra-dimensional deep space city that the characters are scavanging. The story is engaging, and of all of the stories, it has many more trappings of the science fiction genre. Still, there are enough unanswered questions to keep you wondering, up and through the end.
"The Name of the Enemy" by William Jones- I have to say that Jones' story reminded me more of Babylon 5 instead of Lovecraft. While we do have the Psi who release the horrors from another dimension, there is question of who is on who's side. The tensions are well-done, and the story is engaging. It is a good follow-up to Goodfellow's story.
In summary, I found the collection to be enjoyable. It definitely explores beyond the Mythos and into the further speculations of `What if?' I would definitely recommend this read.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent outre horror, June 6, 2005
This review is from: Horror Beyond (Paperback)
Horrors Beyond was published just this year by Elder Signs Press. I got the hard cover and it has very high production qualities. It is cloth bound, with a handsome slip cover. There is a gorgeous cover painting by Dave Carson, filled with creepy visions of skull like things, images suggestive of the movie Alien and a Cthulhoid tentacled creature. Page count is 281. The slipcover has excerpts from a few stories. There are minibios of the authors at the end of the book. Otherwise there is no introduction or editor's notes. The collection was edited by William Jones, who edits the Book of Dark Wisdom. I subscribe but I am not otherwise familiar with his work. So far I have to say that Elder Signs is a class act. I like the production qualities of my trade paperback Ancient Exhumations +2, and the craftsmanship used in the magazine The of Book of Dark Wisdom. Based on these I preordered The Hive and I am eager to get it. The also have an upcoming anthology by Lupoff with at least some mythos stories.
Horrors Beyond contains 18 stories. All of them are newly published in this anthology, except Experiencing the Other by Ann K. Schwader. Here are the contents:
"The Eyes of Howard Curlix" by Tim Curran
"His Wonders in the Deep" by William Mitchell
"The Breach" by Lee Clark Zumpe
"Experiencing the Other" by Ann K. Schwader
"The Candle Room" by James S. Dorr
"A Little Color in Your Cheeks" by Mike Minnis
"One Way Conversation" by Brian M. Sammons
"After the War" by Tony Campbell
"The Blind" by Gerard Houarner
"The Hades Project" by John Sunseri
"A Form of Hospice" by Richard Gavin
"The Prototype" by Ron Shiflet
"False Containment" by David Conyers
"Dingbats" by Richard A. Lupoff
"The Orion Man" by Doug Goodman
"Vuuduu" by C.J. Henderson
"Cahokia" by Cody Goodfellow
"The Name of the Enemy" by William Jones
A very impressive author list! The inclusion of works by such fine writers is another measure of the care taken with publishing this book. The premise of the collection is to write about what may be occurring just beyond sight of our experience, between or beyond the edges of reality, hidden in shadows or sneaking through the cracks between dimensions. Although not specifically a mythos collection this theme is central to Lovecraft's world (yes, I know that HPL is not the only writer who wrote along these lines, but I'm a fan of mythos fiction), and many of the stories directly use mythos ideas or are inspired by or informed by Lovecraft. As a consequence this collection is of direct interest to fans of mythos fiction.
The short version of my opinion is that this is a terrific book and all mythos fans should read it!
Minor to major spoilers about the individual stories may follow.
"The Eyes of Howard Curlix" by Tim Curran - I have read one other story by Tim Curran, "The Chattering of Tiny Teeth" in Warfear, a delightfully creepy exploration of ghouls residing in No Man's Land during WWI. This new story concerns a tabloid journalist who interviews a scientist who has found a way to perceive the worlds that we cannot perceive because our vision is limited to a small fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum, and how our perception of what dwells there allows it to perceive us. This was a very well written tale, a great way to kick off the anthology. No mythosian entities but an overt nod to Abdul Alhazred.
"His Wonders in the Deep" by William Mitchell - This is the first story by William Mitchell that I have read. In this story a bereaved doctor attempts to resurrect his wife and family lost at sea. Not directly mythosian, but entities lurk around the fringes who attempt to use human fear to make a passage into our universe. Well written, enjoyable.
"The Breach" by Lee Clark Zumpe - I am not familiar with any other work by Mr. Zumpe. In this tale, a scientist attempts, alas successfully, to establish contact with universes that exist parallel to our own. The results are less than happy for all concerned. Based on this story I would like the 0pportunity to read more of Mr. Zumpe's work.
"Experiencing the Other" by Ann K. Schwader - This is the only story to be previously published. I first read it in Strange Stars and Alien Shadows. It is a sequel to another story of hers, "Twenty Mile." For me this was the biggest misfire of the anthology. The story is good enough, but it is so clearly a sequel to "Twenty Mile" that I don't think it stands alone all that well. Furthermore, "Twenty Mile" was uncommonly fine, and "Experiencing the Other" suffers a bit by comparison. Maybe someone who never read her other stories would have a different opinion, I dunno.
"The Candle Room" by James S. Dorr - Another author new to me, although I may seek out his collections in the future. This story was also about contacting other life forms that want to come through to our world. While enjoyable I did not like it as much as some of the others contained in the anthology. I'm not sure why; the writing just did not grab me that much.
"A Little Color in Your Cheeks" by Mike Minnis - Mr. Minnis is known to mythos fans for "The Prodigies of Monkfield Cabot" from Eldritch Blue (an OK prequel to "The Thing on the Doorstep"), "Salt Air" (a superb Yellow Sign story in the superb anthology Dead But Dreaming) and more recently "The Butcher of Vyones" (one of the very beststories in the excellent CAS tribute anthology, Lost Worlds of Space and Time). Mike Minnis has been a very busy boy lately and we are all the richer for it. The story in Horrors Beyond is a sequel to "The Colour Out of Space." The first few pages were taken up by what was basically a synopsis of the Lovecraft story, already well known to all us fanatics. So this part dragged for me. The remainder was a wonderfully creepy depiction of a backwoods type who lives (for now) on the shore of the new Arkham reservoir. The inevitable comparison is "The Colour Out of Time" by Michael Shea (which ran on a bit too long for my taste), although we (semi) eagerly await "The Colour Out of Darkness" by John Pelan.
"One Way Conversation" by Brian M. Sammons - Utterly superb! This story alone was worth the price of the anthology. Surely it is one of the finest Hounds of Tindalos stories ever. I would love to get better acquainted with Mr. Sammons' fiction.
"After the War" by Tony Campbell - Another author new to me. I would rate this story as OK, nothing special but enjoyable, from the straight up scifi 'humans vs muties' genre.
"The Blind" by Gerard Houarner - I don't recall reading any of Mr. Houarner's stuff before, but he is widely published so maybe I have. This was not a mythos story per se but it was certainly written with the central theme of the anthology in mind, and as such has at least echoes of Lovecraft. A junkie wants to escape her current reality or gain some insight into what is really real, and finds some aliens who will do this if they can rummage around in her experiences. I thought this was a very effective piece of writing.
"The Hades Project" by John Sunseri - A new author to me. This story was another very effective piece of writing, about an outré entity who has altered the memory of everyone on earth as it prepares to hunker down here for a feast, except that of our protagonist. Not overtly mythos but a good nod in that direction.
"A Form of Hospice" by Richard Gavin - Mr. Gavin has a collection out from Rainfall but I have never read his work before. Based on this story I think I will look up Charnel Wine from Rainfall Books. A man with cancer tried to heal himself with dreams under the guidance of a new age type. Alas, the healing is a sort of Faustian bargain with outré entities who want to take up residence. As with many stories this is not directly mythos in that it does not deal with named entities, but it certainly is a comfortable read for HPL fans. It was a very enjoyable read.
"The Prototype" by Ron Shiflet - Mr. Shiflet is well to fans of HPL derived fiction. I thought his story "Seduced' in Eldritch Blue was brilliant. He has a story in a recent issue of The Book of Dark Wisdom that I haven't gotten around to reading yet. And I guess we all have to wait to find out what happens to Lindisfarne Press to see if we see more of his stories in print. "The Prototype" is a more straight up scifi look at some alien types distributing TVs that are actually means of egress into our world. I could easily visualize this as an episode of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. One of my favorite aspects of Ron's writing is the way the characters jump off the page. Non mythos but enjoyable.
"False Containment" by David Conyers - Mr. Conyers wrote a story that appeared in issue II of Dreaming in R'lyeh. That story was "A Shared Romance" which was an absolutely wonderful Australian Yig story, the gem of the issue and worthy of wider dissemination. Well David Conyers does it again. "False Containment" is marvelous, maybe the best story in the book. His take on the various properties of shoggoths results in a similar result to Cody Goodfellow in Ravenous Dusk or "Big C" by Lumley in Lovecraft's Legacy. It is kind of cool to see how different authors thinking through a Lovecraftian creation can come up independently with a similar result. I also like how Conyers thinks through what I call the Yog Sothoth problem, where this entity is contemporary with all time and is not limited by 3 spatial dimensions. How would you interact with a creature like that? This was addressed to a degree by AA Attanasio in...
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cover promises, content delivers, August 22, 2006
This review is from: Horror Beyond (Paperback)
This is a solid collection of short horror fiction - the best compilation of modern stories that I have read in years. These are not amateurish, "Cthulhu Mythos" Lovecraft pastiches - the authors do not favor style over content, though there is plenty of style. Highly recommended to add a few more horrible shadows in the periphery of your vision, to make the world slightly weirder at the edges.
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