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xterminal's review
4.0
John Pelan (ed.), The Darker Side: Generations of Horror (Roc, 2002)
Pelan's second collection of "the new breed" of horror writers connects on most levels where the original failed. There's still a smattering of bad mixed in, but this time, most of the results are good.
I should get the bad out of the way first. I haven't yet tired of calling Edo van Belkom this generation's Saul Wernick, and he gives me another opportunity with the anthology's opening story. The usual van Belkom; simple, unscary, likely to be as obscure in twenty years as Saul Wernick is now. David Niall Wilson and Shikhar Dixit both come extremely close to having written great pieces of fiction (I'd be hard-pressed to call either a horror tale, but both have an appealing gothic quality to them), but fall somewhat short in the delivery. In both cases, continuity is the problem. Both authors paint a very lovely picture, but fail to connect enough dots to let us know what the picture is.
But enough of that. So many of these authors deserve such praise. Pelan rectifies the overlooking he did in the original anthology, including such names as Poppy Z. Brite, Cait Kiernan (whose story here is one of the most understated and effective she's written), Mehitobel Wilson, Charlee Jacob, Brian Keene, and the wonderful Jess Salmonson (who's been writing longer than most of these authors have been alive, thus lending some credence to the title this time), all of whom turn in good, and some great, stuff. (Charlee Jacob, in particular, rocks the house. As usual.) Returning are two of the finest authors from the original, Lucy Taylor and Brian Hodge. Taylor's story is luscious, erotic, and painful (nothing new from Taylor, but pulled off excellently here). Hodge's story, like the previous anthology's "Skinwriters," though, is the story for which you want to buy this book, and the story for which you will treasure it.
Hodge's story is told in a memoir style, and you will spend the vast majority of the time wondering what this story is doing in a horror anthology. (As Hodge's novels have turned to mystery, it's not an unreasonable thing to wonder.) At the end of the story, he pulls it off, but it's so deadpan and understated you're STILL left with the idea that this is a memoir, perhaps penned by Dennis Lehane or Dash Hammett or one of the other tough-guy mystery writers. It's concise, wonderful, and probably the best stuff I've seen from Hodge since Deathgrip, well over a decade ago.
Better than its predecessor The Dark Side. Check this one out first. *** ½
Pelan's second collection of "the new breed" of horror writers connects on most levels where the original failed. There's still a smattering of bad mixed in, but this time, most of the results are good.
I should get the bad out of the way first. I haven't yet tired of calling Edo van Belkom this generation's Saul Wernick, and he gives me another opportunity with the anthology's opening story. The usual van Belkom; simple, unscary, likely to be as obscure in twenty years as Saul Wernick is now. David Niall Wilson and Shikhar Dixit both come extremely close to having written great pieces of fiction (I'd be hard-pressed to call either a horror tale, but both have an appealing gothic quality to them), but fall somewhat short in the delivery. In both cases, continuity is the problem. Both authors paint a very lovely picture, but fail to connect enough dots to let us know what the picture is.
But enough of that. So many of these authors deserve such praise. Pelan rectifies the overlooking he did in the original anthology, including such names as Poppy Z. Brite, Cait Kiernan (whose story here is one of the most understated and effective she's written), Mehitobel Wilson, Charlee Jacob, Brian Keene, and the wonderful Jess Salmonson (who's been writing longer than most of these authors have been alive, thus lending some credence to the title this time), all of whom turn in good, and some great, stuff. (Charlee Jacob, in particular, rocks the house. As usual.) Returning are two of the finest authors from the original, Lucy Taylor and Brian Hodge. Taylor's story is luscious, erotic, and painful (nothing new from Taylor, but pulled off excellently here). Hodge's story, like the previous anthology's "Skinwriters," though, is the story for which you want to buy this book, and the story for which you will treasure it.
Hodge's story is told in a memoir style, and you will spend the vast majority of the time wondering what this story is doing in a horror anthology. (As Hodge's novels have turned to mystery, it's not an unreasonable thing to wonder.) At the end of the story, he pulls it off, but it's so deadpan and understated you're STILL left with the idea that this is a memoir, perhaps penned by Dennis Lehane or Dash Hammett or one of the other tough-guy mystery writers. It's concise, wonderful, and probably the best stuff I've seen from Hodge since Deathgrip, well over a decade ago.
Better than its predecessor The Dark Side. Check this one out first. *** ½
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