Home » Posts tagged "dark fantasy" (Page 8)

Book Review: The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror: Volume 1 edited by Paula Guran

A note from the editor:

We are getting near the end of November and Monster Librarian still needs to raise the funds to pay for our hosting fees and postage in 2021. If you like what we’re doing, please take a moment to click on that red “Contribute” button in the sidebar to the right, to help us keep going!  Even five dollars will get us closer to the $45 we still need to keep going at the most basic level. We have never accepted paid advertising so you can be guaranteed that our reviews are objective. We’ve been reviewing and supporting the horror community for 15 years now, help us make it another year! Thank you! And now our review of The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: Volume 1 edited by Paula Guran.

 

cover art for The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror Volume 1 edited by Paula Guran  ( Amazon.com )

The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: Volume 1, edited by Paula Guran, cover design by Jennifer Do

Pyr Books, 2020

ISBN: 9781645060253

Available: Trade paperback, Kindle edition

 

After ten volumes of the series with Prime Books, acclaimed editor Paula Guran has moved to Pyr to continue her relentless search for the best dark fiction published during the previous year (in this case 2019). The present “debut” volume with the new publisher includes 25 short stories that were previously published in various genre anthologies and magazines.

As a confirmed horror fan, it seems to me that this time the balance is a bit too much in favor of fantasy tales, although, admittedly, the boundary between the two genres is often very thin.

Commenting upon such a huge anthology, featuring such a high number of stories, is a difficult task, so I will take advantage of my privilege as a reviewer to pinpoint just my favorite stories.

“The Promise of Saints” by Angela Slatter is a little gem of religious horror featuring a naive girl and  a powerful saint, while “Burrowing Machines” by Sara Saab is an intriguing tale set in the claustrophobic bowels of London, between the Tube and the elusive River Fleet.

In the short but effective “Haunt” by Carmen Maria Machado we meet a ghost who’s not a ghost, and in the disturbing “The Coven of Dead Girls” a group of murdered girls is haunting the house of their serial killer.

To me, the best story is Pat Cadigan’s “About the O’Dells”, a superbly written piece in which a murder from the past casts shadows on the neighborhood and affects the mind of a young girl.

As with any anthology, this one is a mixed bag, but well worth reading. Recommended for adult readers.

 

Reviewed by Mario Guslandi

 

 

Book Review: SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire edited by Nicole Givens Kurtz

A note from the editor:

We are midway through October and Monster Librarian still needs to raise the funds to pay for our hosting fees and postage in 2021. If you like what we’re doing, please take a moment to click on that red “Contribute” button in the sidebar to the right, to help us keep going!  Even five dollars will get us closer to the $195 we need to keep going at the most basic level. We have never accepted paid advertising so you can be guaranteed that our reviews are objective. We’ve been reviewing and supporting the horror community for 15 years now, help us make it another year! Thank you! And now, our review of SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire edited by Nicole Givens Kurtz.

cover art for SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire

SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire edited by Nicole Givens Kurtz (   Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com )

Mocha Memoirs Press, 2020

ISBN-13 : 978-1735219554

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

 

The late L.A. Banks’ Vampire Huntress series, and her ability to transform common tropes of vampire fiction into stories that reflected the African-American experience, inspired many of the authors in SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire. Anthology editor Nicole Givens Kurtz continues that tradition here by showcasing Black writers and their imaginings of vampires, slayers, and hunters through their stories, giving Black readers the opportunity to be seen in vampire fiction that takes on the standard Eurocentric tropes and transforms them in a way that is uniquely relevant to Black people and also provides a window for other readers into what they have been missing because of the limited perspective of most vampire fiction. The stories come from all over the African diaspora, but the majority of them are by authors from the United States and Britain. Authors take various approaches to the concept of vampirism, inspired by Black culture, mythologies, history, and experiences, but there is nothing boring here. Interspersed between stories are beautifully calligraphed obituaries.

In the section of stories from the United States and Britain, strong stories include “Dessicant”, by Craig Laurance Gidney, takes place in a badly-kept up low-income apartment building that has red dust in the vents that is making its occupants sick and draining them of fluids. The negligent landlord can’t be reached and the protagonist, a Black trans woman ostracized by other residents, has to find a way to combat the dust, or whatever it is, on her own. “The Retiree”, by Steven Van Patten, is a funny, heartbreaking story that will give readers a new perspective on what goes on in a retirement home In “The Dance”,  by L. Marie Wood, the protagonist is surprised to learn there is more to her sexuality than she realized. In “A Clink of Crystal Glasses Heard”, by LH Moore, Neeka and her friends have a coming-of-age ceremony planned by their mothers that is not what they expected. “Diary of a Mad Black Vampire”,  by Dicey Grenor, puts the reader in the head of a bored, lonely and vicious Black vampire who finds herself intrigued by a fragile-seeming albino white girl. “The Last Vampire Huntress”, by Alicia McCalla, remixes the story of Kendra the Vampire Slayer, with Kendra the reluctant, prophesied, last vampire huntress who must accept her destiny and kill her vampire boyfriend after he attacks her friends. “Unfleamed”, by Penelope Flynn, tackles race and violence in the Victorian era with its take on the Dracula story. “Di Conjuring Nectar of di Blood” , by Kai Leakes, is a gorgeously written historical story of love and generational trauma. In “Snake Hill Blues”, set in 1927,  conjure woman Mamma Lucy eliminates a vampire who has been preying on dancing girls. I hope this author will bring her back in other stories!

The stories from African authors are also strong.  A few that stuck out to me included Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki’s “Attack on University of Lagos Law Faculty”, an entertaining story narrated by a pompous, egotistical law student who finds himself in the surprising position of vampire slayer, and “His Destroyer”, by Samantha Bryant, is a powerful rendering of the Passover story from the point of view of  the avatar of the Angel of Death. “Quadrille” is an engaging and occasionally darkly humorous story about friendship narrated by a vampire who has become a reporter in conflict zones in order to cover up his feeding habits, abetted by a djinn and a shapeshifter.

A last section contains stories about the future. These stories aren’t really horror, but they are compelling. In “Bloodline” scientists make a terrible mistake, enhancing a vampire’s powers.  “Message in a Vessel” is a science fiction story about the consequences of human enslavement to vampires, and “Blood Saviors” is a more fantasy-oriented tale in which an investigator for the vampires’ council discovers that a vampire has been enslaving and draining earth elementals to make a rejuvenating serum for humans, whose blood has become polluted, leading to vampires getting sick.

This is a great collection overall, with fresh takes on vampire lore that I really haven’t seen elsewhere, informed by Black experiences and perspectives. There’s enough here to love that it has taken me much longer than I expected to write this review. If you love vampire fiction or horror anthologies, and want to support Black authors, publishers, and readers of horror you should definitely pick this up. It’s a great way to discover some really talented Black writers, if you haven’t already. Highly recommended.

Contains: Animal killing, body horror, blood-drinking, torture, scientific experimentation, mutilation, murder, gore, violence, sexual situations, racism, sexual assault, rape, dehumanization, insects, genocide.

Book Review: Scarlet Odyssey (Scarlet Odyssey #1) by C.T. Rwizi

cover for Scarlet Odyssey by C.T. Rwizi

Scarlet Odyssey by C.T. Rwizi (  Amazon.com  )

47North, 2020

ISBN-13: 978-1542023825

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

C.T. Rwizi is a South African author who has drawn from African mythology and landscapes as well as more common fantasy and science fiction tropes to create  a unique but recognizable epic fantasy that goes to some very dark places.

In the Red Wilds, among the people of the Yerezi Plains, gender roles are very rigid: men become warriors and hunters, and women become scholars and mystics. Salo is the exception. Before she died, his mother, a mystic, left him the tools to become a powerful mystic himself, but he has kept his talent hidden. Then his clan is attacked by a dark witch, the Maidservant, and her soldiers, killing many of his clan.

The Maidservant is compelled by a curse to serve Dark Sun, a warlord with ambitions to conquer all of the Redlands, but she has plans of her own. The Maidservant’s magic is fed by agony, blood, and  hatred stemming from a similar attack on her own village in nearby Umadiland many years ago. Now she is forced to repeat the actions which drove her to revenge.

After the attack, in an effort to save  what remains of his clan, Salo asks to be recognized as his clan’s mystic. When he claims his mystic power, the men of his clan feel betrayed. The queen of the Yerezi Plains decides it is too difficult for Salo to remain and sends him on a diplomatic mission to the faraway city of Yonte Saire (I received an ARC of this book and it did not have a map, which seems like a major omission for a story so geographically oriented, so I hope one was included in the final version).

The strict gender roles are also the reason Ilapra left the Yerezi Plains for nearby Umadiland. Her ability and desire to be a fighter was dismissed because she is a woman. As a paid guard and soldier, she has found herself on ethically shaky ground. Salo, traveling alone, hires her to be his guardian. The two join forces with Tuk, an atmech, part machine and part human, created in the more technologically advanced Empire of Light by a necromancer. Appearing and acting just as human as Salo and Ilapra,  but with advanced abilities in language and weaponry, Tuk tells them he is traveling to discover the Redlands, which are mostly unknown in the Empire of Light.

Isa is the last member of the ruling family of the Kingdom of Yontai, the Saires, who were murdered in a bloody massacre by possessed soldiers. She has sought sanctuary in the temple while she solidifies her position and decides what her options are, as the head of the Crocodile clan has himself named prince regent. She does not know Salo is coming or that he is unaware that the political situation he’s walking into has changed.

The Enchantress is a mystic who has some kind of plan to destabilize the Kingdom of Yontai both economically and politically. It’s not totally clear what her agenda is, but she is ruthless.

The book’s storytelling alternates between these five point of view characters. A big chunk of the front end of the story involves Salo’s character development and world-building before he sets off on his journey to Yonte Saire, and the backstory of the Maidservant.  It is mostly long and slow, partly because Salo, Tuk, and Ilapra are on a long, slow journey. However, Salo is being tracked by the followers of Dark Sun, including the Maidservant, who recognize that he has a unique talent and must be eliminated for Dark Sun to continue his conquest, so the story is broken up with solid action sequences involving impressive magic and considerable bloodshed. The limited technology means communication over long distances is difficult and uncommon, so the Yerezi queen, the Maidservant, and Salo and his friends don’t know what’s really going on in Yonte Saire.

Probably the most successful thing Rwizi accomplished character-wise was to give dimension to the Maidservant. It would be easy to make her a one-dimensional, evil character, but instead she is an example of what trauma can do, passed on to traumatize and victimize others who are in the same situation she was in. There is graphic violence and gore in the book- Rwizi’s black witches really are stained black.

The world building is impressive, and it’s interesting to see how the characters’ worlds widen as they travel. I think we will see this story spreading out onto a larger canvas regarding magic, technology, what constitutes civilization and power, and (possibly) climate change. I also suspect there will be a return to the Yerezi Plains as Rwizi left a number of loose ends.

Because this is a first book and the world building doesn’t have European fantasy tropes to fall back on, Scarlet Odyssey is long, but it isn’t entirely satisfying, because despite its length it ends just as the characters all finally began to come together. It feels like the story is finally picking up the pace and getting going… and then it’s done.  Still, it’s a fine beginning to what looks to be an ambitious piece of African speculative fiction. Rwizi is a strong writer who does a good job establishing setting, developing characters, and creating some truly disturbing action scenes. I look forward to his next, hopefully faster-moving, volume in this series.  Recommended for adult readers and older teens with strong stomachs.

Contains: large-scale murder, violence, gore, slavery.