Voices: Tales of Horror [Paperback]

Lawrence C. Connolly (Author), Jason Zerrillo (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 27, 2011

Voices includes the definitive versions of eleven classic and two all new stories of psychologically affecting horror, along with commentary by the author. Combining the genre-bending stories of Lawrence C. Connolly with the surreal art of World-Fantasy-Award-nominee Jason Zerrillo, Voices is an exploration of the art of storytelling, where whispers become screams . . . and images echo in the mind. This is more than a story collection: it's a sounding of the depths of horror.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Lawrence C. Connolly is a master of the short story. He writes with an economy that hums with the quiet power of a finely-tuned engine. His stories are artfully constructed and memorable for their smart originality."
--Tom Monteleone, Bram-Stoker-Award Winning editor of the Borderlands series

"Lawrence C. Connolly doesn't just get under your skin, he burrows. His style is deceptively unshowy . . . all the better to jolt you."
--Stephen Volk, award-winning screenwriter of The Awakening and Ghostwatch

"With his latest collection, Lawrence C Connolly proves yet again what a fine, intelligent and above all humane writer he is. These are stories about voices, and the clearest voice of all is Connolly's own, and it is a delight to hear it."
--Simon Kurt Unsworth, World-Fantasy-Award-Nominated author of Lost Places and Quiet Houses

Product Details

• Paperback: 258 pages
• Publisher: Fantasist Enterprises (December 27, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934571040
• ISBN-13: 978-1934571040
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #437,346 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lawrence C. Connolly's books include the novels Veins (2008) and Vipers (2010), which together form the first two books of the Veins Cycle. Vortex, the third book in the series, is due in 2013. His collections, which include Visions (2009), This Way to Egress (2010), and Voices (2011), collect all of his stories from Amazing Stories, Cemetery Dance, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Twilight Zone, and Year's Best Horror. He teaches writing at Sewickley Academy and serves twice a year as one of the residency writers at Seton Hill University's graduate program in Writing Popular Fiction. Voices, his most recent book, has been nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award, for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Horror with Depth February 23, 2012

By Edwin R. Scott

Format:Paperback

Too many times horror has been written without depth, layers. Too many times it's been all about bloodshed and not character or story. And these stories I speak of have been easily forgotten.

Fortunately for us we have Lawrence C. Connolly.

Not only are the stories in this collection horrifying and strange and beautiful, but they're stories that dig deep and burrow into our brains, our subconscious. The lovely outcome to this is that we'll remember these tales after we've read the last page.
Mr. Connolly not only weaves stories that entertain, frighten, and cause thought, but he has strung together numerous stories that begin and end with wraparound tales (beginning tale with The Haunted Attic: 1961 and the ending tale of The Haunted Attic: 2011) that have enhanced the ones in between.

And created a unique collection in doing so.

By starting off in the 1st person in the very short The Haunted Attic: 1961, Mr. Connolly has pulled us in without giving us a moment's notice. At its end, this story pushes us right into the second tale like an older brother who hasn't let up on his pursuit in getting us on the haunted ride at the local carnival. We have to take the ride, and you know what?

We come out loving it!

As I read through this great collection I came to learn that this very collection has been nominated for a Bram Stoker award by the Horror Writers Association. I can see why, and I have no doubt it'll win.

I recommend Voices: Tales of Horror highly. Every story carries its own weight--and worth in bloody gold (which are "all" spectacular in their own right). And once you've read it you too will never forget the stories within. So pick it up and peel back the layers that Mr. Connolly has created so effortlessly....

Because great horror does that. And so does a great writer! Read more ›

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Collection of Short Stories April 22, 2012

By Paul Genesse

Format:Paperback

Voices: Tales of Horror by Stoker Award nominee Lawrence C. Connolly is a brilliant collection of short stories by a master writer. The thirteen stories are all memorable, and you can tell right from the start that you are in the hands of an exceptional writer. It's easily understandable why so many horror and fantasy magazine editors bought these stories over the years, and why Connolly has received so much praise from the critics. I also very much enjoyed the short background essays/commentary on the stories that are interspersed between the tales. The illustrations by Jason Zerillo are also top notch, but the real gems are the stories themselves. I'll mention several of them briefly in this review, and will leave you to peruse the reviews on Amazon for more, as they capture perfectly the essence of Connolly's writing.

"Lesions" is a creepy story about a very bad man with a horrifying condition, tiny mouths with sharp teeth have appeared all over his body. He ends up looking for help and goes to a place where he thinks he can get it. Here's the first line: Todd studied her, gauging the size of her head, breasts, and hands, imagining how they would look arranged in a crystal bowl.

Great opening line and the writing is impeccable. Connolly is a master of stripped down prose that is at the same time deep and emotional, but not cluttered, or overdone.

"Smuggling the Dead" is a fascinating story about an American hired to smuggle something very mysterious out of Russia, a small black cube made up of . . . well, you'll have to read it to find out exactly what it is. The behind the scenes story about this one was also very intriguing and chronicles a trip Connolly made to Russia years ago....

"Decanting Oblivion" is about a bicycle messenger with a drug problem in a bizarre future Earth that has no-sleep factories where the workers go non-stop, as their need for sleep has been taken away. There's a lot more to this story, and it's very visceral and utterly fascinating. One of my favorites.

"Things" is about a gang of evil youngsters who tangle with the wrong old Italian lady. Sure, the young men had their fun breaking and entering old people's houses and beating them up and stealing their stuff, but sometimes, you pick the wrong person to screw with.

"Flames" is one of my favorite stories in the anthology. It's about three college students on their way home for Thanksgiving break, when their car breaks down and they are forced to take shelter in an abandoned house during a snowstorm. This one will leave you shivering, and whatever you do, don't get too close to the flames.

"The Death Lantern" is literally a Sherlock Holmes story, from a themed anthology about our favorite inspector, and it delivers a bullet to the face. Well, a bullet to the face of a famous illusionist of the day. But is the film footage real? Or is it an elaborate hoax? The story is quite interesting and the new technology of moving pictures is discussed with a rather interesting angle that we who have grown up watching movies may not have ever considered.

"Die Angle" is a story inspired by a Bruce Springsteen song (for a themed collection that draws inspiration from Springsteen songs), and is about a man who returns to his hometown after being gone for many years. He's going home because he's been given a contract to kill someone. Chaos ensues and we get to meet some of our anti-hero's old friends. The town is a really messed up place. The Boss would love this one, I think.

"Beneath Between" is a mind-bending story that seemed like it was one of those chapter interludes where Connolly told about his writing life. It felt so real and for a moment I forgot I was reading fiction. I think writers especially will love this story, as it's about a frustrated writer who made the decision not to submit his work for too long, and sees how it could have been when he ends up in the most awesome and bizarre bookstore ever.

"Junk'd" is a horror story about a couple of low life a-holes who end up in a car wreck. One walks away, one doesn't, but there is so much more and this story goes to a whole new level of depravity. It's so sick and twisted.

"Shrines" is my favorite story in the whole collection. It's a novella with fantastical and sci-fi elements, and is a magnificent character study of a man who has lost the two most important people in his life. He is tempted by a possible scam that offers to reunite him with his dead wife and child. This story is so expertly drawn that I found myself pulled through the narrative and immersed completely. Few stories are so good that I lose myself, and I found that happened with this one.

I look forward very much to reading Connolly's novel, Veins, and his other collections of short fiction.

Voices: Tales of Horror is Highly recommended,

Paul Genesse
Editor of The Crimson Pact and Author of the Iron Dragon Series Read more ›

5.0 out of 5 stars Voices from the 21st Century Scop February 22, 2012

By Andrew Alford

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Although I had read most of these stories, the last five were not present in Mr. Connolly's earlier collections, VISIONS and THIS WAY TO EGRESS. I would have paid the $16--what I might pay for 2 small press magazines--to pick up even just two of these stories. And add to that the interchapters: commentary on the stories' origins, and reflections on the writing life Connolly has lived.

If you haven't picked up the by-now collectible THIS WAY TO EGRESS already, you might find yourself priced out of the market--and out of two dark fiction knockouts. "Moon and the Devil," which deals with a charlatan and the harrowing world of illegal dog-fighting. This tale should have been required reading in Michael Vick's high school English class. I could imagine this one being made into a Tales from the Darkside or Amazing Stories episode, one that would have strengthened either series.

In the interchapter/commentary REVISION, the author reveals that it was his friend, Charly Cantor, who fell in love with Pittsburgh, and inspired DECANTING OBLIVION. This is the other knockout, and what I consider Connolly's short story masterpiece.
(Aside: I felt rather vindicated when underrated short story writer, and Connolly's sometime mentor, Bob Leman seemed to echo that sentiment...) This disturbing story speaks to current labor issues, in a powerful unforgettable way. What's more, I love it when authors forego exotic places in favor of the local. Connolly writes about his own hometown with special authority (to the late Charly Cantor: "Thank You!"). Also check out audible.com for the March/April 2003 issue of The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine: it features an amazing reading performance of this work (my first exposure to it, in fact)....

Those stories I'd read, and picking up this book was a great excuse to read them again. But the new stories more than held their own. Two were special standouts.

As a Sherlock Holmes fan, I loved THE DEATH LANTERN, which ranks among my favorites. The timing seemed to me a bit uncanny, too, as I'd recently been to see "Sherlock Holmes: a Game of Shadows" and "Hugo." Like "Hugo," DEATH LANTERN concerns the advent of film as an art form, but a decidedly dark art form--and combines this with a convincing portrayal of the famous detective.

BENEATH BETWEEN is another gem, and a good one to read if you're a writer around New Year's making your annual Resolutions (or heck, the beginning of a new month, or week, or...). If that story doesn't drive foot traffic to the Between Books, an actual bookstore in Delaware, then I don't know what will. This is another "local color" piece that really shines. Personally, at any rate, I foresee a road trip in my not too distant future. Yes, I'll be looking for the obscure and out-of-print and underrated, but read the story, and you'll know exactly why: then you, too, might really come to believe in fiction...

The interchapters were the other reason I picked up this book, and these reflections did not disappoint. JAMMING WITH SPRINGSTEEN has me revisiting old songs for stories and story ideas. And, as an aspiring writer, I love to get behind the scenes of other writers' processes: not to find my own, per se, but as a kind of personal sanity check--and as a kind of study aid, if that makes sense. For example, it was interesting to me to learn that PAINKEEPER was the initial opening to SHRINES, before Mr. Connolly factored it out into its own story--and then gave SHRINES another go. "Ah," says my writer self, "a homework assignment! I've got to study them side-by-side..."

Many of these commentaries were stories in their own right. ILLEGAL ART related a creepy real-life experience with black marketeers in Russia, which could have taken a decidedly unhappy turn for the author. SPARE THE ROD, RAISE THE CAIN actually provided me with a bit of much-needed perspective on revision, and the value of giving your stories multiple chances.

This is a collection to own and keep, made even more compelling by the memoirs/stories behind the fiction. Read more ›