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(uncorrected review, forthcoming) Booklist Issue: April 1, 2010
Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror.
Datlow, Ellen (Editor)
Apr 2010. 480 p. Tachyon, paperback, $15.95. (9781892391957).
With several acclaimed horror anthologies to her credit already, including the first volume of the recently inaugurated Best Horror of the Year series, Datlow eschews “best of” labels for her new gathering, instead selecting favorites from her last 20 years of editing. With her only criterion being lasting thrills, the selection favors such familiar genre masters as Peter Straub, Stephen King, and Clive Barker. It also includes a few surprise contributions from such non-horror-genre writers as Joyce Carol Oates and sf master Gene Wolfe. Twenty-five stories in all embrace a wide spectrum of styles, from gore-laced splatterpunk to subtler, psychological horror. A suicidal woman exults in her newfound ability to bump off male tormentors by the power of thought alone. Invading aliens wait for the perfect amusing opportunity to take control of humanity. An engineer tired of his fear of heights devises his own death on a business flight. Datlow’s keen eye for narrative zest makes this one of her most entertaining compilations to date.
— Carl Hays
Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror.
Datlow, Ellen (Editor)
Apr 2010. 480 p. Tachyon, paperback, $15.95. (9781892391957).
With several acclaimed horror anthologies to her credit already, including the first volume of the recently inaugurated Best Horror of the Year series, Datlow eschews “best of” labels for her new gathering, instead selecting favorites from her last 20 years of editing. With her only criterion being lasting thrills, the selection favors such familiar genre masters as Peter Straub, Stephen King, and Clive Barker. It also includes a few surprise contributions from such non-horror-genre writers as Joyce Carol Oates and sf master Gene Wolfe. Twenty-five stories in all embrace a wide spectrum of styles, from gore-laced splatterpunk to subtler, psychological horror. A suicidal woman exults in her newfound ability to bump off male tormentors by the power of thought alone. Invading aliens wait for the perfect amusing opportunity to take control of humanity. An engineer tired of his fear of heights devises his own death on a business flight. Datlow’s keen eye for narrative zest makes this one of her most entertaining compilations to date.
— Carl Hays
