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Book Review: The Night’s Neon Fangs by David W. Barbee

The Night’s Neon Fangs by David W. Barbee

Eraserhead Press, 2015

Available: New Paperback

ISBN: 9781621051756

 

The Night’s Neon Fangs is a collection of four novellas of horror/weird fiction. Barbee writes beautifully, telling emotional stories and drawing sympathy for the protagonist from readers. The titular novella is about Buster Wade, an electric werewolf who works as a bodyguard and general muscle for a company that cleans up after mummy storms in the future. A giant and dangerous cloud of mummies began in the wake of a disastrous gathering of international gods, and roams the country dumping thousands of pounds of mummies onto the public below. I loved this story for the simple fact that it has mummies, something that you don’t typically see too much of in horror fiction.

Noah’s Arkopolis is about a weird amalgam of a city, built up over time, after God left Noah and the animals adrift with no land in sight. Mating over the generations created many new species of animal/human hybrids. The city is now in danger of being destroyed by whales, so Noah’s ghost enlists the help of Gren, an average citizen of Arkopolis to save the city. This is one of the most imaginative stories I’ve ever read and I loved it. Gren is a sympathetic character, while I wanted to strangle Noah’s ghost at times.

That Ultimo Sumbitch is a surreal, steampunk, sort of story. Ultimo, a mechanized soldier who thinks he is human, is roaming what is left of the Australian outback, in the wake of an alien invasion of Earth. This story just about brought tears to my eyes. Although the main character isn’t even human, the story is gritty and emotionally charged.

Finally, Batcop Out of Hell tells the story of McNulty, a batcop in Guano City who is murdered along with his wife and daughter. He ends up in Hell, but is given a choice by a batdemon. McNulty takes the deal, and is sent back to seek revenge and save his family from Limbo with a skin of special Hellfire. In the process, McNulty discovers things about his former co-workers and himself. This is another story that had me practically in tears, with sympathy for McNulty and the horrible position he has been put in through no fault of his own.

The stories are dark, gritty, and emotionally driven. Barbee is a fantastic writer and I look forward to reading much more by him in the near future. Recommended.

Contains: graphic violence and adult language

Reviewed by: Colleen Wanglund

Book Review: Dreams from the Witch House: Female Voices of Lovecraftian Horror edited by Lynne Jamneck

 

Dreams from the Witch House: Female Voices of Lovecraftian Horror  edited by Lynne Jamneck, illustrations by Daniele Serra

Dark Regions Press, 2016

ISBN 9781626411111 (ebook)

Available: Pre-order Kindle ebook, hardcover, trade paperback

I haven’t contributed financially to many Indiegogo projects, but when I saw the announcement for Dreams from the Witch House: Female Voices of Lovecraftian Horror, I knew I couldn’t pass it up, and I’m very glad I did not.

Dreams from the Witch House is a collection of twenty weird fiction stories, each one set in various times and places with characters and themes that resonate with the reader long after the tales have concluded. I had to take some time to mentally process each tale after I read them. The authors have crafted tales that really impact the reader. It’s hard to even say which one is my favourite since they each have their own distinct qualities. From the firsshadows-of-the-evening-joyce-carol-oates-1000px (1)t story by the legendary Joyce Carol Oates (what a way to start a book!) to the last, each story has so much complexity and succeed in evoking different emotions in such short page space.  I found that I have something to say about every one of these stories, but I have selected a few that really stand out.

“Shadows of the Evening” by Joyce Carol Oates is the story of Magdalena Schӧn told by her granddaughter. After being forced to leave home, Magdalena finds herself living with her wealthy great-aunt, Erica Kistenmacher to whom she is to be a companion. Finding that she has ample free time, she takes to wandering the streets of her new town. She is beckoned by a handsome voice singing a haunting song. She finds the owner of the voice, and he changes her forever.

Tamsyn Muir’s “The Woman in the Hill” is written in the form of a letter from Caroline, a woman who is afraid she is losing her mind. After her friend Elizabeth tells her of finding a door in a hill, she disappears mysteriously. Caroline discovers Elizabeth wasn’t the first to disappear, and most certainly won’t be the last.

“Pippa’s Crayons” by Christine Morgan is a story of a child whose crayons, crafted by her grandfather, display colours not of this world. Despite the short length of this story, Morgan has written an incredibly chilling story.

“Cthulhu’s Mother” by Kelda Circh injects some humour into the collection with a conversation between cultists of Cthulhu and the rather strict mother of the Sleeper of R’lyeh.

In addition the previously named authors, other women who have lent their writing skills to Dreams from the Witch House are, Collen Douglas, Cat Hellison, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Lucy Brady, Marly Youmans, Sanya Taaffe, Gemma Files, Molly Tanzer, Karen Heuler, Lois H. Gresh, Nancy Kilpatrick, E.R. Knightsbridge, Amanda Downum, Storm Constantine, R.A Kaelin, Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, with full colour artwork by Daniele Serra. Introduction by editor, Lynne Jamneck.

I recommend this collection to anyone who enjoys incredible weird fiction. I was not disappointed with any of the stories. The artwork that Serra created for each story are beautifully rendered. To date, I have only had access to the ebook. The paperback version is still forthcoming.

Highly recommended

Contains: mild body horror, sexuality

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Ebook Bundles on Weird and Lovecraftian Fiction

 

Cthuhlu_Creature

I wish I’d seen this days ago! I just love ebook bundles, and I apparently missed that Dark Regions Press has released a Cthulu Mythos ebook bundle with some GREAT books, including Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi’s two-volume set on Lovecraft, a complete collection of Lovecraft’s fiction and poetry (yikes), and recently released collection Dreams from the Witch House (and I promise I will get our review of that up ASAP), for only $15. Go look for yourself. You do have to do a direct download from Dark Regions Press, but if you want to carry substanial amounts of Lovecraft’s work and Lovecraftian fiction easily, their DRM-free ebooks make that possible. I don’t know how long Dark Regions plans to make this available, so if you are interested, jump on it.

Also, StoryBundle currently has an ebook bundle of weird fiction. If you aren’t familiar with StoryBundle, they choose books on a theme, bundle them together, and make the bundle available for a short time. You pay what you want for the collection and decide how much should go to the author, the company, or a charity. If you pay at least $14, you get bonus books. Through StoryBundle and HumbleBundle, I have discovered authors I had never tried before. It’s a really cool way to try out new things and also get favorites you’ve been wanting to get around to.

Enjoy!