Customer Reviews

Horror Beyond

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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.

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 "Glimpses" but Conyers' take is more like "As I See It" by Greg Stolze in Delta Green: Dark Theaters. All in all a very impressive effort! I hope that Mr. Conyers is planning a great deal more mythos fiction.

"Dingbats" by Richard A. Lupoff - Lupoff is widely published but heck if I can recall reading anything by him before. An OK scifi space story with echoes of many Star Trek episodes where an entity can manipulate your mind to fulfill your fantasy worlds.

"The Orion Man" by Doug Goodman - Doug Goodman was new to me. "The Orion Man" was a nicely creepy story of a man who seems to be the only one who can see the truth of alien presences on earth, with certain constellation tattoos having special significance. Not really mythos but I liked it.

"Vuuduu" by C.J. Henderson - Of course CJ Henderson has impeccable mythos credentials, is widely published and is active on ahc. I pretty much have enjoyed everything I have read by CJ Henderson and I keep promising myself I will read his collection of occult detective stories that is sitting on my bookshelf. "Vuuduu" reminds me of a story I read maybe 30 years ago; I forget both title and author, but someone inadvertently stumbled on a sonic frequency that put the listener into
a perfect state of contentment, so they didn't want to move or do anything. Of course this was then used to take over the world. Similarly but more topical for the early 21st century, Vuuduu is a music program that allows you to pirate any song. Of course pretty soon everyone (but our protagonist) is listening to Vuuduu created tapes. The end however has a nice twist on this sort of story. Tightly written as you might expect but not really mythos.

"Cahokia" by Cody Goodfellow - If you don't recognize the name Cody Goodfellow it means you haven't read Radiant Dawn and that means you are cheating yourself out of one whale of a read, an absolute knock out. The companion novel Ravenous Dusk was slightly more problematic but was also a page turner. In "Cahokia" we find out what happened to all those civilizations, like the Cahokia mound builders, that vanished without a trace. More pure scifi, with faintest echoes of Lovecraft, but an absorbing read.

"The Name of the Enemy" by William Jones - William Jones edits The Book of Dark Wisdom and edited this book, so thank you Mr. Jones! Keep the good work up! My impression of this book was more pure scifi, not particularly horror nor mythos. How do you fight an unbeatable enemy? A nifty read to finish out a great anthology.

So in summary, this is a terrific collection. I only mention what I construed as non mythos to allow the reader to decide if this is what they are looking for. None of these stories were bad, most were excellent and at least 2 reached the heights of the finest mythos stories available. The trade paperback price is very reasonable and I can't imagine any HPL fan not loving this book. No need to wait, order it now!

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.

HORRORS BEYOND is another nicely produced book from Elder Signs Press. There are 18 stories in this anthology, and all of them deal with the theme of human and "alien" interaction. By "alien" we mean creatures or entities from other dimensions, times, worlds, galaxies or some other place "beyond" or own world or scientific understanding.

The authors in this anthology present a wide-ranging and varied approach to this theme.
A number of these stories are, at a minimum, inspired by Lovecraft, and some of those make specific references to Cthulhu Mythos creatures, like the Hounds of Tindalos. Other stories are out-right science-fiction, and some have that TWILIGHT ZONE or OUTTER LIMITS feel to them, all with dark overtones, of course.

HORRORS BEYOND will have a particular appeal to Mythos fans, but there are enough non-Mythos stories here that I expect the anthology will have no trouble finding a wider audience.

Some of the highlights from the anthology include "The Breach" by Lee Clarke Zumpe, in which dire consequences arise from a college particle beam test; "Vuuduu" by C. J Henderson, which is about some unknown force using music players and headphones in an attempt to take over the world; "The Blind" by Gerard Houarner has a street-smart junkie meeting some one unexpected in a house that has strange occupants; "The Hades Project" by John Sunseri has an astronaut wondering who, or what, is behind a conspiracy that made everybody forget his trip to Mars; "False Containment" by David Conyers has a fun and unique blend of wormholes, radioactive waste, government agents, time travel, and an ever-growing flesh devouring monster.

The stories that stand out the most though are Ron Shiflet's "The Prototype," in which a man buys a strange television from an even stranger electronics store; Doug Goodman's "The Orion Man," is the most squirm-inducing tale in the anthology; and editor William Jones' story "The Name of the Enemy" is a military space-opera involving a race of ruthless, tentacled aliens at war with humanity, and the only way to stop them is for the genetically-enhanced human soldiers and the "natural" humans -- who have developed psi-powers -- to overcome their differences after a civil war and fight together. This tale takes the "oldest emotion is fear" idea and presents it from a very unique perspective.

There are one or two stories that fall a little short of what they were aiming for in this anthology, but none of the stories are awful. Only one story seems somewhat out of place, and that is Richard Lupoff's "Dingbats." Taken by itself, this is a pretty cool story (three airheads crash on a "living" planet) and it is alternately laugh-out-loud funny and surreal to the extreme. But, while it fits the theme of HORRORS BEYOND, the comedy not fit rest of the mood of the anthology.

Ultimately, HORRORS BEYOND has a variety of voices and a diversity of tales that should appeal to readers of dark fiction, whether that darkness is in the form of science-fiction or horror, or a blend of both. I expect this anthology to have an audience that is just as diverse.

The review originally appeared in the Hellnotes Newsletter.

A book of horror stories with one outstanding story, a couple good ones and the rest just average.

Starting with the best, "One Way Conversation" by Brian M. Sammons
This is a wonderful story, easily the best in the collection. It's about a revolutionary form of communication which encompasses time travel that is discovered by a brilliant physicist and the dire consequences that follow. This is probably the only story I would classify as a page-turner, one where I was anxious to find out what happens. The setting, characters and sci-fi ideas are all done masterfully. I'd love to see Mr. Sammons put out a short story collection, if he can consistently reach the quality of his work here. I agree with a previous reviewer that this story alone is worth the price of the book.

"The Eyes of Howard Curlix" by Tim Curran
I enjoyed this story, a traditional Lovecraft-style horror story involving a scientist whose eyes are affected by an experiment gone awry, and his new unwanted visions as a result. I especially liked the tabloid reporter angle, which was pretty funny. This was probably the most traditional story in the book written in the Lovecraft theme.

"The Blind" by Gerard Houarner
I loved the change of pace this story represented. This is unlike any other story in the book, very original. A female dirt poor drug addict (but with a refined intelligence) roams the filthy streets of an inner city wasteland looking for the ultimate high, and finds an unlikely redemption instead. I really liked the end of this story, and thought it was well done and uplifting.

These three stories were the ones that I noted as good to great, while the rest were unremarkable. However, the story "The Hades Project" by John Sunseri had an excellent plot and story idea, but I didn't like the execution. I felt the potential of the story was much greater than the final product.

I picked up this book at Dragon*Con 2006 and read it on the airplane. On the whole, the stories are of decent quality; the first few in particular were engaging and very well-written. I particularly enjoyed "One Way Conversation"; I was forced to stop reading this one halfway through because our plane landed in Denver, and I was rushing to our next gate just so I could pick it up again and finish it.

If you pick up this book, however, I strongly urge you to rip out pages 183 through 234 before you start reading. Two of the stories in this collection -- "The Prototype" and "False Containment" were very poorly written, with linguistic constructions that had me gritting my teeth every few sentences and very little sense of pacing. "False Containment" at least had an intriguing idea, but the story felt more like an outline than a finished piece of work to me. "The Prototype" seemed hackneyed and cliched, and I honestly could not understand how this story made it into the collection. "Dingbats" was completely incoherent, and I gave up on it halfway through, since I had absolutely no idea what was going on, despite having reread the first few pages twice, nor any sense of where the story was going, and I had no idea who I was supposed to sympathize with.

After "Dingbats" the quality picks up again, though none of the stories after that rise up to the same quality as "One Way Conversation". These stories are mediocre, nothing earth shattering, but decent brain candy for a two hour flight.

On the whole: there are a couple of gems in this collection which I'm glad I read, but the overall quality ranges from abysmal to mediocre. For that reason, I would hesitate to recommend this collection.

I have been a fan of horror for a good many years and started my dark journeys with the pre-Atlantean tales of Clark Ashton Smith. I was soon led to HP Lovecraft and intially read "At the Mouths of Madness". Hearing of this new twist on the Cthulu mythos, I ordered it and have yet to be disappointed. Favorite story so far, "The Breach". Every short story so far has had that deep seated chill of Lovecraft whose portents of future nightmares on my part have joyfully, just begun... Buy it!

After reading the excellent review of HORRORS BEYOND by Matthew Carpenter, it's hard to think of anything to add to the discussion. For what it's worth, I thought it a great anthology. Genre fiction can become stale and repetitive; HORRORS BEYOND impressed me beyond anything I expected.

Nothing here is "filler", which is considerably better than any other anthology I've picked up. There were a few stories that struck me as trading substance for genre style ("The Candle Room" was maybe the worst at this). I can think of three stories, though, where I finished reading but could not stop thinking about the story; those were "Experiencing the Other", "One Way Conversation", and "False Containment" (the last of which has left me with images that I'm afraid I'll never be free of). When the horror is so gripping that you can not continue reading but you cannot stop thinking, then you have read a rare crafting of language and imagination. In my mind, that is high praise.

Without going into the merits of each story, I can say that the book is a worthwhile buy for those interested in the ol' HPL genre.

There were some storied that I felt failed (aren't there always?), but the majority of the stories were great and really kept my attention and interest.

Even in a sunny location. So for those stories, I have to say this belongs on a "cultist's" shelf.

I bought this book primarily as a resource for running role-playing games such as Call of Cthulhu or Delta Green. With that sort of expectation in mind, I was very pleased with my purchase.

My favorite stories are the ones that stood out as something I could use in my games. Those stories were:

* One Way Conversation: Like other reviewers here, I found this story to be the best by far. A scientist comes up with the technology to send messages back in time, and so starts receiving mysterious and threatening messages from the future.

* The Prototype: A TV allows monsters to crawl out and terrorize the real world. A bit hokey, but fun.

* False COntainment: This is another time travel story. I really like the idea of a private company getting rid of its trash by sending it through a wormhole. Unfortunately, they don't know where, or when, the refuse arrives. Imagine a team of archeaologists stumbling upon modern day garbage at an Incan burial site. Utterly strange...

* His Wonders in the Deep: This is a great mystery that involves the sole survivors of a mysterious ship sinking succumbing to the same horrible death. One man investigates and stumbles upon the horrific truth.

Most of the rest of the stories are pretty good as simple fiction. There are, however, a few misfires that prevent me from giving this book a 5-star rating. Dingbats and The Blind didn't strike me as very horrifying or Lovecraftian.

But still, a recommend this book for fans of horror fiction.