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Book Review: The Devil and the Deep edited by Ellen Datlow

The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea edited by Ellen Datlow

Nightshade Books, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-59780-946-7

Availability: Hardcover, paperback, audiobook, Kindle edition

 

On the surface, it seems like a good idea.  A collection of short horror stories with the ocean as a common theme, written by authors with solid track records.  Unfortunately, it fails to live up to its premise.  In terms of story quality, there are roughly four treasures and a few nice baubles, but you have to dig through a lot of sand to find them.

These stories all come in at around 20 pages, so there isn’t a lot of space for character development or backstory, and things often happen for no reason.  That’s part of what makes writing short stories challenging.   But, you still need to create an interesting plot and make sure that each event ties into another, using limited space.  The stories here that qualify as treasure do that very well.  Christopher Golden’s ‘The Curious Allure of the Sea” is a perfect example.  A young woman finds a necklace bearing a unique symbol on her dead father’s boat.  She has it tattooed on her arm, and soon many different living (and sometimes dead) creatures are flocking from everywhere to be with her, and sometimes attack her.  The weirdness escalates, and she is soon forced to make difficult choices to try to save her own life.  This story is a perfect example of how to write an excellent short story.  You never get an explanation for why her dad had the necklace, or what the symbol means, but who cares?  Details like that can be skipped as long as the story makes sense and moves along, and it does.  Golden keeps in just enough to keep the plot rolling, and anything else is cheerfully tossed over the side.  Seanan McGuire’s “Sister, Dearest Sister, Let Me Show You to the Sea,” and Brian Hodge’s “He Sings of Salt and Wormwood” also do an excellent job of getting in fast, blowing the reader away, and getting out without any unnecessary filler.  Michael Marshall Smith’s “Shit Happens” also deserves praise. It’s an excellent story, and written in an off-kilter, hilarious way that reminds me of how Stephen King used to write for some of his oddball characters.  People don’t have sex, they are interested in “activities that would have a bedstead banging against a cabin wall into the small hours.”  Advice on hot sauce consists of  “some of those local brand bad boys will put you in a world of sphincter pain.”   It’s a great horror story, and the author’s hilarious way of narrating it will have you laughing out loud at times.

As for the other stories, a few are decent, but the rest suffer from the same problem: a lack of coherence in the plot.  They aren’t sleek, fast jetboats: they are more like a collection of parts thrown together to get from one harbor to another.  The authors do have some very original ideas and the tales start well, but then they get too metaphysical and abstract, which drags the story down.  Quite often, you will get to the end of a story and find yourself asking “what just happened?” The stories go in a sensible fashion for a while, then wander off the deep end into nonsensical events.  It’s a shame, because many of the stories had promise, but wound up as unrealized ideas, leaving this reader annoyed.

If you have the money to spare, it may be worth picking this one up for the few gems. Otherwise, the reader would probably be best to pass on this one.

Contains:  violence

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Editor’s note: The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea is on the final ballot for the 2018 Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in an Anthlogy.

 

Book Review: A World of Horror edited by Eric J. Guignard, illustrated by Steve Lines

A World of Horror edited by Eric J. Guignard, illustrations by Steve Lines

Dark Moon Books, 2018

ISBN-13: 9780998938325

Available: Paperback, hardcover, Kindle edition

A World of Horror includes twenty-two dark and speculative fiction stories written by authors from around the world, each presenting the legends, monsters, and myths from their homelands. The book presents a vast array of diverse tales that will linger with the readers after consuming the tales between its pages. Guignard includes an introduction regarding cultural diversity in fiction, recognizing that representation is powerful and long overdue. There is a wide range of storytelling in this book that hold all the genres of horror or speculative fiction, and what they do to the genres are incredible. The following are only a few of my favorites from the anthology.

Two stories from authors hailing from South Africa are must-reads in this anthology.  “Mutshidzi” by Mohale Mashigo tells the tale of an African teenager who raises her younger brother and must run the household after their mother dies. She begins to see and hear things that remind her of her mother, but there is so much blood. In the speculative fiction piece “Chemirocha” by Charlie Human, a South African pop song is personified, and how it needs to survive. While not in essence a horror story, it can bring up in the reader a bittersweet memory of that one song that may have affected them in their lifetime.

“One Last Wayang” by L. Chan from Singapore struck a particular chord for me, as my grandmother in-law gifted three wayang puppets to me several years ago. Wayang is a form of puppet theatre that makes use of shadows cast by the puppets to tell a story. Isa’s grandfather tells him of his youth living in a tight knit community, of the hardships they faced, and of the traveling entertainment that would pass through the village. One particular wayang troupe put on a mesmerizing show, and the shadows seemed a bit too real to have been created by the wayang puppets. What follows is the grandfather’s horrific discovery. Without giving anything away, I have a different feeling about the wayang puppets sitting in my office now…

In Thersa Matsuura’s “The Wife Who Didn’t Eat”, a modest Japanese farmer’s prayer to the gods comes true for a bride who was as hardworking as he is, and who doesn’t eat anything. The gods see fit to answer his prayer, but he later discovers the truth about his dutiful wife. I loved the language and twists in this story.

People with disabilities in horror fiction usually take the form of the villain or monster, but Dilman Dila, from Uganda, brings us the story of Agira, a crippled hunter who is shunned by his village but is the only one who can face the “Obibi”.

“Honey” by Valya Dudycz Lupescu is a story from Ukraine with the fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster at its center. Luba Ivanova has stayed in her home, even after the evacuation and warnings about the environment and dangers that living in her home could entail. It’s years later and she opens her home to urban explorers who regularly make their way to the Chernobyl site. What they find in the forest outside her door is something they could never dream of seeing in their lifetimes, and they never get the chance to tell the world about it. Luba never minds this ritual of delivering the last meal to her guests, with the exception of the most recent visitor. He reminds her of someone she once knew. Will she let him wander out in the night after their meal?

There are so many more stories in this anthology I could discuss, but I don’t want to give too much away. Guignard’s selections are powerful, and the authors each bring unique tales from regions some of us may never have explored before. I find myself wanting to read more by those who contributed to A World Of Horror. I have a feeling you will, too.

Highly recommended

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Book Review: Times of Trouble edited by Lane Adamson

Times of Trouble edited by Lane Adamson

Permuted Press, 2013

ASIN:  B00CKZRAH4

Available: Kindle edition

 

    Times of Trouble is a collection of 22 short stories that explore the ultimate “Do – Over,” time travel.  Each author was tasked with taking a second chance to “get it right”, but with a delicious twist;  the  attempt actually makes a bad situation worse.  Each story starts fresh, and the result is a splendid variety of topics.  Some of them expected others, not so much.  The time travel tales include: Dinosaur Hunting, Tourism, The Civil War, Overlords, Missing Persons, The Butterfly Effect, Raising Children, Paradox, Detectives, Cartoons, Archeology, Revenge, Robots, and Zombies.  How these stories mix together is a fun read that makes you wonder what would you do with just one more chance to “Get It Right?”

      I loved this collection.  While some of the stories weren’t the type of thing I would normally read they were all thought provoking and highly imaginative.  The tales were well written with each of the authors doing a great job twisting the second chance down a darker path.  The settings were established excellently and the characters had distinctive voices.  The descriptions were laid in nicely leaving me with an excellent sense of place and time.  My favorite stories were Matthew Baugh’s “Rabid Season”, a mixture of time travel and 1970’s cartoons, and  Jeff Drake’s “Little Girl Lost”, with its creepy Lovecraftian nod toward time travel and missing persons.  The only criticism I have is that a few typographical errors sneaked in.  Ironically, the most poorly edited was the tale “A Hatful of Yesterday”, written by the editor, Lane Adamson: a good argument to have someone else edit your work.  That being said, I enjoyed the concept and looked forward to reading each story.  It was a fun read!  If you like time travel then this is well worth reading.  I have not read any of these authors’ works before.  Highly recommended for adult readers.

Contains:  Swearing, Sexual Situations, Gore

Reviewed by Aaron Fletcher