From Publishers Weekly
The latest volume in this distinguished horror anthology series marks the first time that all three contributors have offered single novellas for their 30,000-word blocks of previously unpublished fiction. Each is an exceptional addition to its author's body of work and a fine example of how horror invites the blending of elements from other genres to yield imaginatively original hybrids. Kim Newman extends his long-running series on the paranormal adventures of secret agent Richard Jeperson and the Diogenes Club in "Swellhead," an architectural boggle of pop music references, '60s television programming, James Bond movies, subtle political commentary and nods to Jules Verne. Tim Lebbon's "In Perpetuity" morphs the horror tale into a quest fantasy with its account of a loving father challenged by an eerie curio collector to bring him "proof of love" in exchange for his kidnapped son. "Hands Up! Who Wants to Die?" by Lucius Shepard is a perfect piece of hardboiled supernatural noir that might have been written by Jim Thompson were Thompson partial to Everglades settings and plots involving "witches and spacemen and scum of the earth." It bodes well for future volumes that all three writers are from the generation that hit its creative stride in the 20 years since the series was inaugurated. Their stories are not likely to resolve the long-running debate whether the novel or short story is the better vehicle for the horror tale, but they will give readers deciding for themselves much entertaining food for thought.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* The three stories in the new number of a long-running horror anthology series are examples of what editor Sheehan says "is among the most satisfying of all narrative modes," the novella. Whether a form can be a mode is questionable, but that these yarns satisfy is undeniable. In "Swellhead" Kim Newman revives a paranormal investigator from other stories set in early 1970s London and sends him, now in his sixties, with a team assembled by British intelligence to a far North Atlantic island, where they discover a huge installation set to blast the world into submission to its creator, a version from another dimension of a member of the team. Call it absurd, but this is never-a-dull-moment, white-knuckle reading. Ditto Tim Lebbon's spectral "In Perpetuity," the headlong impetus of which is powered by the desperation of its hero, who suddenly loses his four-year-old son in a mysterious shop and is told he will get the boy back only if he brings the shopkeeper proof of his love. That anyone could top those barnburners is incredible, but Lucius Shepard does the job with "Hands Up! Who Wants to Die?" about a smart Florida lowlife who lucks on a hot piece o' tail and then a trio of rich scuzzballs from God knows where. This is Jim Thompson-in-Hell stuff. Funny, too. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
