John Langan, Author . Prime $24.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-8095-7249-6
As Elizabeth Hand aptly observes in her introduction to this exceptional debut horror collection, Langan's tales “celebrate supernatural fiction's antiquarian and visionary past with as much eloquence and acuity—and terror—
READ FULL REVIEW
John Langan, Author . Night Shade $24.95 (260p) ISBN 978-1-59780-152-2
A two-time International Horror Guild Award finalist for short fiction, Langan pens a surprisingly plodding first novel. Lovely widow Veronica Croydon corners the unnamed narrator at a party and offers to relate the weird story of her husband, Roger,
READ FULL REVIEW
John Langan. Hippocampus (www.hippocampuspress.com), $20 trade paper (322p) ISBN 978-1-61498-054-4
The themes of Langan's powerful second collection of weird fiction (after Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Tales) divide evenly between monsters and metafictions. The suspenseful title tale chronicles the desperate efforts of several army veterans to...
READ FULL REVIEW
John Langan. Word Horde, $16.99 trade paper (282p) ISBN 978-1-939905-21-5
Shifting between past and present, Langan (House of Windows) builds terrifying scenes, but this fish tale ultimately gets bogged down in a story within a story set in the wilds of upstate New York. Coworkers Dan and Abe have both lost their wives,...
READ FULL REVIEW
John Langan. Word Horde, $19.99 trade paper (388p) ISBN 978-1-939905-60-4
Langan (The Fisherman) draws inspiration from Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft, David Lynch and other masters of the strange and horrific to create an impressive collection of 21 tales as terrifying as they are mysterious. The exceptional title story...
READ FULL REVIEW
John Langan. Word Horde, $21.99 trade paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-956252-01-9
Langan (The Fisherman) travels uncharted waters to explore distant shores of the weird and strange in this gripping collection of 11 eerie shorts. The subtly chilling opening story, “Kore,” in which a couple’s new house becomes a gateway for a...
READ FULL REVIEW
Edited by Paula Guran. Prime (prime-
books.com), $16.95 trade paper (480p) ISBN 978-1-60701-450-8
From the seemingly bottomless reservoir of Lovecraftian pastiches and homages, Guran (New Cthulhu) has sieved 19 above-average reprints, all published between 2010 and 2014, and most tailoring their terrors to contemporary times. The monstrous...
READ FULL REVIEW
Edited by Ellen Datlow. Night Shade (www.nightshadebooks.com), $15.99 trade paper (448p) ISBN 978-1-59780-399-1
The 18 scary stories that Datlow (Supernatural Noir) has selected as the best of 2011 hint at even worse horrors lurking beyond the fringes of their narratives. In “The Little Green God of Agony,” Stephen King profiles an exorcist and faith healer...
READ FULL REVIEW
Edited by Christopher Golden. Gallery, $18 trade paper (544p) ISBN 978-1-4767-8309-3
The notion of the romantic vampire is transcended to chilling and even heartbreaking effect in this stellar anthology of tales collected by Golden (Tin Men). The best is Laird Barron’s atmospheric, Alaska-set “In a Cavern, in a Canyon,” in which one
READ FULL REVIEW
Edited by James Chambers. Hippocampus, $25 trade paper (338p) ISBN 978-1-61498-331-6
The 20 high-quality tales and three poems in this fine anthology from Chambers (The Engines of Sacrifice) draw on the weird short stories created by Robert W. Chambers (no relation) centered on The King in Yellow, a fictional forbidden play that...
READ FULL REVIEW
John Langan. Hippocampus, $20 trade paper (352p) ISBN 978-1-61498-192-3
The horrors elaborated in the eight stories in Langan’s exceptional third collection (after 2013’s The Wide, Carnivorous Sky) all arise from intensely intimate instances of personal betrayal and the emotional unmooring it causes, their vast cosmic...
READ FULL REVIEW
