Poe: 19 New Tales of Suspense, Dark Fantasy, and Horror Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe

This anthology's title notwithstanding, the 19 original stories commissioned for it seem largely devoid of the Poe principle. Kim Newman (“Illimitable Domain”) contributes a gleefully subversive alternate history in which Poe movie adaptations take over American culture; John Langan (“Technicolor”) offers an incisive deconstruction of Poe's “Masque of the Red Death” that also functions as a magnificently creepy horror tale; and Delia Sherman (“The Red Piano”) proffers a horror romance whose villain is clearly modeled on Poe's sound-sensitive Roderick Usher. For the most part, however, readers will have to work toward the explanatory note each author provides at the story's end to see which Poesque resonance he or she intended. Still, Datlow (Inferno ) has assembled an all-star lineup and chosen inventive stories whose quality are certainly an extension of Poe's tradition of excellent weird fiction. (Jan.)