Reviews

Dangerous Games by Jonathan Oliver, Pat Cadigan, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

kingtess's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

For some reason I didn't catch on that this is a horror anthology until several stories in. Luckily, I slept just fine, despite reading it just before bed. A solid collection, with some memorable stories. Not something I see myself rereading, however.

thiefofcamorr's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

This anthology is about choices or options, how one decision can lead your life down an entirely different path, or how it could all come down to the roll of a die and whatever comes up changes everything. We see addiction to gaming, war treated as a game, and matters that deal with cards. This is a horror anthology mainly, so beware those who continue forwards (though there are a few others mixed up there also) as these will last with you throughout the night and long after – they’re written with a deft hand, and edited together with style.

The contents are as follows:

“Big Man” by Chuck Wendig

“The Yellow Door” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

“Die” by Lavie Tidhar

“Chrysalises” by Benjanun Sriduangkaew

“South Mountain” by Paul Kearney

“The Game Changer” by Libby McGugan

“Distinguishing Characteristics” by Yoon Ha Lee

“Captain Zzapp!!!” by Gary Northfield

“Death Pool” by Melanie Tem

“The Bone Man’s Bride” by Hillary Monahan

“Honourable Mention” by Tade Thompson

“Loser” by Rebecca Levene

“Two Sit Down, One Stands Up” by Ivo Stourton

“Ready or Not” by Gary McMahon

“The Monogamy of Wild Beasts” by Robert Shearman

“The Stranger Cards” by Nik Vincent

“All Things Fall Apart and Are Built Again” by Helen Marshall

“Lefty Plays Bridge” by Pat Cadigan

These will unsettle you, and won’t hold back on the macabre. Throughout there is a diverse selection of writers, and they’re presented well in this anthology. Overall, these stories were gripping and obtuse, needing the reader to concentrate and make their own decisions as it wasn’t always spelled out clearly what exactly has happened, or what it all means.

I would recommend this anthology to horror fans; this is a very strong anthology of modern horror shorts, and each comes with a short paragraph from the editor with a bit of information or why he particularly likes this piece. In a way, I wish these pieces were at the end of each short as sometimes they were a bit spoilery.

I thank Rebellion for offering me a copy to review.

bibliotropic's review

Go to review page

4.0

Games are something that just about everyone can relate to in some form or another. Board games, card games, video games, live-action role-playing, the options range on and on. And that’s just a typical sampling of games! Add in things like Russian Roulette, which is technically a game of chance, and you start to see how a concept can go from seemingly harmless to outright deadly.

Which is how it all works in Dangerous Games. Some stories, such as Lavie Tidhar’s Die, make their point very quickly, so you know that the name of the game is really death. (Also, in the case of that particular story, possibly somebody’s own personal literal Hell experience.) Others, like Nik Vincent’s The Stranger Cards or Pat Cadigan’s Lefty Plays Bridge, seem innocent enough at first, though get far more sinister as the story progresses.

There were some true gems in this collection, seriously amazing stories that made me want to find more of what certain authors have written so I can appreciate their writing and storytelling more! Paul Kearney’s South Mountain was an interesting, though somewhat unoriginal take historical re-enactors finding themselves actually in the middle of one of the battles they’ve come to re-enact, but the way the story was told and the detail behind the characters was what made the story great for me. Yoon Ha Lee’s Distinguishing Characteristics is a story that hints at much but says little, presenting a complex world that readers get to see only glimpses of before the story is over, and this is the second time that I’ve marvelled at this author’s ability to world-build like no other! Hillary Monahan’s The Bone Man’s Bride was evocative and raw, creepy in a way that makes you shiver but still leaves you with a shred of hope right to the very end. Rebecca Levene’s Loser may not have had the most compelling writing style, but was told so ambiguously that you think you understand what’s going on until the story’s almost done and only then do you get the revelation that it’s about something else entirely.

Perhaps it was just my perception, but it seemed that the best stories in this collection were in the first two thirds of the book. While the last third wasn’t bad, I felt that there were more stories in that percentage that didn’t have the same level of oomph as earlier on, like the stories there were ones that were definitely good enough to make the cut but held for later on in the book because the earlier stories were ones that definitely would compel a reader to keep going, but later ones were more of a take-it-or-leave-it bunch. As I said, I’m not sure if this was solely my perception and tendency to launch myself into anthologies with glee but soon find myself craving something novel-length again before the collection’s finished, or whether this is something that was felt by other readers too.

But even so, there are no stories in Dangerous Games that I didn’t like, or that I felt were dull or that I’d rather have skipped over. Which is very rare for me when reading a multi-author anthology; more often than not I find at least one story that resonates with me considerably more poorly than all the others. And this wasn’t the case here, so I can definitely class Dangerous Games as being a cut above other collections of its kind, and one that contains some serious talent that deserves recognition. Most of the stories do have some degree of genre element to them, hauntings or secondary worlds or events in the future, but even so, I can see this book having a good appeal to those whose primary interest isn’t SFF but just involves some good stories with a creepy setup and a heavy dash of mystery. Definitely one of the better anthologies that I have read ever, let alone just this year!

(Book received in exchange for an honest review.)
More...