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A review by michael_benavidez
Beyond Dimensional Veils by Kyle J. Durrant
5.0
Durrant delivers a heavy dose of cosmic horror from within this collection of stories.
Harkening to a Lovecraftian style (minus the racism, sexism, all other isms, of course) Kyle Durrant manages to create mystery and dread of the unknown from the first story to the last. Weaving a mythos styled rotation of stories, where he goes back and fills in minor details of previous stories, we are given a modern set of gods and monsters to fear.
Ranging from the shorter flash fiction-esque stories that tell enough to raise hairs but give nothing of the mystery away, to fully fleshed unknown relics and gods, the stories never tire or bore. Kyle manages to shift styles accordingly, hitting Clive Barker styled beats (K'HRB MOTHER OF THE HUNGER) only to follow it up with true Lovecraftian styled horrors (J'ZAN'DIOS).
As with most cosmic horror, the effectiveness lies in the prose. Turn of phrases appear and blend in with the unusual, creating a vague enough picture of what should scare us, without revealing its truth and allowing ourselves to become calm with it. The writing is smooth, the stories constructed are absolute top notch.
All in all this is a great release of short stories that capture a modern flair merged with horror classics.
Harkening to a Lovecraftian style (minus the racism, sexism, all other isms, of course) Kyle Durrant manages to create mystery and dread of the unknown from the first story to the last. Weaving a mythos styled rotation of stories, where he goes back and fills in minor details of previous stories, we are given a modern set of gods and monsters to fear.
Ranging from the shorter flash fiction-esque stories that tell enough to raise hairs but give nothing of the mystery away, to fully fleshed unknown relics and gods, the stories never tire or bore. Kyle manages to shift styles accordingly, hitting Clive Barker styled beats (K'HRB MOTHER OF THE HUNGER) only to follow it up with true Lovecraftian styled horrors (J'ZAN'DIOS).
As with most cosmic horror, the effectiveness lies in the prose. Turn of phrases appear and blend in with the unusual, creating a vague enough picture of what should scare us, without revealing its truth and allowing ourselves to become calm with it. The writing is smooth, the stories constructed are absolute top notch.
All in all this is a great release of short stories that capture a modern flair merged with horror classics.