Poe's first review

I just discovered the first review of Poe: 19 New Tales of Suspense, Dark Fantasy, and Horror Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, my new original anthology out from Solaris in January.

Poe: 19 New Tales of Suspense, Dark Fantasy, and Horror Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe Edited by Ellen Datlow. Solaris (www.solarisbooks.com), $15 paper (352p) ISBN 978-1-84416-595-7
This anthology's title notwithstanding, the 19 original stories commissioned for it seem largely devoid of the Poe principle. Kim Newman (“Illimitable Domain”) contributes a gleefully subversive alternate history in which Poe movie adaptations take over American culture; John Langan (“Technicolor”) offers an incisive deconstruction of Poe's “Masque of the Red Death” that also functions as a magnificently creepy horror tale; and Delia Sherman (“The Red Piano”) proffers a horror romance whose villain is clearly modeled on Poe's sound-sensitive Roderick Usher. For the most part, however, readers will have to work toward the explanatory note each author provides at the story's end to see which Poesque resonance he or she intended. Still, Datlow (Inferno) has assembled an all-star lineup and chosen inventive stories whose quality are certainly an extension of Poe's tradition of excellent weird fiction. (Jan.)


Good review overall but very thin--and I hope readers will not read the anthology trying to figure out what Poe story/poem/essay inspired each story as they read it--that's why the afterwords are there. Another note-- this was obviously not the same reviewer of Peter Straub's recent excellent all-reprint anthology of contemporary horror, Poe's Children, which has nothing to do with Poe or his writing at all.

You can preorder the book at amazon:
http://tinyurl.com/55bhl8

movies last night

Dark Water from Japan. Young woman in the midst of a nasty divorce moves into a seemingly deserted apartment block with her six year old daughter (no one but they seem to live in the building)which is (of course) haunted. A six year old disappeared a few years earlier and both the woman and her daughter are haunted by her. Scares and tragedy ensues.

I know a lot of you really like it but I yelled at least three times at the screen: "why are you doing that you silly bitch!"-- yes it's creepy but not so much after seeing Ringu...too many similar elements as other Japanese movies of the genre (not surprising, as it's based on a story by the same author of Ringu).
Water and vengeful female ghosts with long hair. Feh.

Happier with Twilight with an all star cast including Paul Newman, Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon, Liev Schrieber, and Reese Witherspoon. A mystery with Newman as a former cop, former private eye, and former drunk who now resides with the couple for whom he took a last job--both are fading actors and absorbed in each other (Sarandon and Hackman). Some good characters, especially Gloria. M. Emmett Walsh, that old character actor who often plays private eyes gone bad, makes a (brief) appearance. Enjoyable movie. Part of my appreciate Paul Newman series ;-).

The most terrifying movie of last year

I just finished watching one of the scariest movies I've ever seen, Four Months, Three Weeks, Two Days. Simple premise: University student is pregnant in 1987 Communist Romania, where abortion is punishable by prison for everyone involved. The student asks her roommate to help her. The hero of this movie is the friend, whose life is as screwed up (possibly more) by the events than her pregnant roommate.

If you want a good look at what the overturning of Roe-Wade and going back to the days of illegal abortion could be like, this is it. Highly recommended.