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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.0876208
EAN num: 9780977987634
ISBN number: 0977987639
Label: Elder Signs Press
Manufacturer: Elder Signs Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 336
Printing Date: October 15, 2007
Publishing house: Elder Signs Press
Sale Popularity Level: 787716
Studio: Elder Signs Press
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Some Mysteries Should Not Be Disturbed
Uncanny contraptions, weird devices, technologies beyond the control of humanity abound in the universe. Sometimes there are things that resist discovery. When science pushes the boundaries of understanding, terrible things push back. Often knowledge comes at a great cost. 21 unsettling tales of dark fiction are gathered in this volume, exploring the horrors beyond our reality. Mad science, terrifying creatures, dangerous discoveries, stretched across a landscape of time and space. Explore the secrets hidden within the folds of the world unseen. Authors Include:
Featuring stories by William C. Dietz, A. A. Attanasio, John Shirley, Richard A. Lupoff, Robert Weinberg, Paul S. Kemp, Jay Caselberg, Stephen Mark Rainey, Gene O'Neill, Alexis Glynn Latner, E. Sedia, David Niall Wilson, Lucien Soulban, Paul Melniczek, Tim Curran, C.J. Henderson, Greg Beatty, Michail Velichansky, Ron Shiflet, John Sunseri, William Jones.
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Rated by buyers -
Horrors Beyond II is the latest offering by Elder Signs Press. This enterprising publisher has gone from strength to strength with every new book. HB2 is subtitled Stories of Strange Creations; the idea was to compile and anthology of dark fiction centered around devices. When I very first heard that this title was on the drawing board I immediately thought about Kafka's The Penal Colony. While nothing here evoked such creepy crawlies in me, it was another resounding triumph for one of my favorite small presses. It seems the authors got quite a bit of latitude about what constituted a device and how they incorporated them into their story. I got a copy of the limited edition hardcover, which was $45 and is a gorgeous book. A trade paperback is available, more reasonably priced. The cover art by Dave Carson is magnificent, not specifically related to any story but wonderfully evoking the overall theme of the book. Page count was 333, with 8 pages of titles etc and 3 pages of authors' minibios at the end. Editing was by ESP workhorse William Jones. Unlike the usual flawless product from ESP I noticed a few typos, including substitution of the word sorceress for sorcerous. Also there was one big type setting flaw, where the text following page 306 appears on page 313. I do not know if this was an issue for the paperback. It was easy enough to figure out and did not interfere with my enjoyment of the book. I have a particular fondness for Cthulhu mythos fiction; HB 1 was not exactly a Lovecraftian athology although some of the stories were of direct interest to Lovecraft fans and others certainly had a Lovecraftian feel. HB2, to my read, was more straight up science fiction and related horror, but I am happy to note there were a few mythos tales. My bottom line is that HB2 was the best dark fiction anthology I have read in a long time. Here are the contents. All of these stories were new to me, and only A Family Affair had been printed elsewhere before. A few of these authors were represented in the original Horrors Beyond, but as ESP becomes more and more renowned they attract more widely published and respected writers than those who confine themselves to Cthulhu mythos fiction.
Isolation Point, California - John Shirley
Serenade - Lucien Soulban
Wyshes.com - Richard A. Lupoff
5150 - Gene O'Neill
The Signal - Paul Kemp
Fractal Freaks - A.A. Attanasio
Ghost Lens - Stephen Mark Rainey
Dead Air - David Niall Wilson
The Bigger They Are . . . - C.J. Henderson
The Margins - Robert Weinberg
Wormwood - Tim Curran
When the Ship Came - John Sunseri
The Manuscript in the Drawer - Greg Beaty
Spheres of Influence - Ron Shiflet
A Monster in the Lake - Michail Velichansky
The Clockmaker's Daughter - E. Sedia
Magic Fingers - Jay Caselberg
A Family Affair - William C. Dietz
The Mortification of the Flesh - Alexis Glynn Latner
Predicting Perdition - Paul Melniczek
When the Stars Fell - William Jones
John Shirley is a well established horror author. I am familiar with his Those Who Come to Dagon from High Seas Cthulhu; he also has a story in the forthcoming Cthulhian Singularity. Isolation Point, California is a wonderfully bleak story of post apocalyptic America where people dare not approach each other due to the effects of an unknown biological manipulation called the Aggression Factor...but it is still natural to long for human contact...
Lucien Soulban offers the story of most direct interest to Cthulhu mythos fans with Serenade, where a down and out Black Chamber operative is offerd the chance to decipher an encrypted message, which turns out to be a chant. Goodness me it was well written! I sure hope Mr. Soulban will give us more genre stories in the future.
Richard Lupoff is quite prolific; his Dreams.biz was a highlight from Hard Boiled Cthulhu. In Wyshes.com, a techno expert is asked to beta test a virtual reality world that is actually not virtual. Lupoff delivers again with a crackerjack good read.
The only mythos tale I know of from Gene O'Neil was Invasors de Suenos from the now unavailable Cthulhu Express. 5150 is named for the call code police receive for a deranged person. Unfortunately for the protagonist, a cop on the verge of retirement, has his own issues. I couldn't exactly figure out what was the strange device in this story but who cares? It was great, gritty and disturbing.
Paul Kemp's The Signal introduces Abe Gustafsson, a big mook who investigates demonic presences. This story has a nice hard boiled feel.
My copy of Twice Dead Things is out on loan, so I do not know if AA Attanasio's Fractal Freaks was printed there. This was a highly stylized story of vampires and demons hidden in plain sight, with aconflict spanning across time and unknown dimensions. I liked ... Read More
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