Category Archives: Books

Ellen Datlow’s Supernatural Noir

Datlow In Ellen Datlow’s Supernatural Noir, the gritty realism of noir embraces the nightmare imaginings of supernatural horror in order to offer up sixteen stories rich in style, shadows, and psychological complexity. Defining the genre of noir remains a tricky … Continue reading

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Simon R. Green’s For Heaven’s Eyes Only

At the end of his previous adventure, Eddie Drood, narrator and star of Simon Green’s Secret Histories series was stabbed with a poisoned blade, and killed. The end. Or not. He stays dead for exactly one chapter of this book, … Continue reading

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Anton Strout: Dead Waters

Simon Canderous. Psychometrist, ex-thief, agent of New York’s Department of Extranormal Affairs (Other Division), member in good standing of the Fraternal Order of Goodness. He handles the weird stuff before the weird stuff eats his fellow New Yorkers. It’s the … Continue reading

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Justin Gustainis’ Those Who Fight Monsters: Tales of Occult Detectives

In the introduction to Those Who Fight Monsters: Tales of Occult Detectives, editor Justin Gustainis makes a case for the fact that really, anyone who goes around hunting monsters in a real-worldish setting falls under the broad rubric of “occult … Continue reading

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Joe R. Lansdale (editor): Crucified Dreams / Joe R. Lansdale (writer): Flaming Zeppelins

Crucified Dreams, an anthology edited by Joe R. Lansdale, bills itself as an anthology of urban horror. This is not entirely an accurate description. While the book opens with Harlan Ellison’s still-potent “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs” – as close to the … Continue reading

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Robert Silverberg, The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume Five: The Palace at Midnight: 1980-82

It’s a little sobering to realize that Robert Silverberg in 1980 was roughly at mid-career. He had given up writing completely for the middle part of the 1970s, and only came back to short-story writing at the beginning of 1980, … Continue reading

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Art Spiegelman’s Maus, A Survivor’s Tale, Vol. I, My Father Bleeds History

Art Spiegelman’s Maus has made a lot of waves in its 25 years. It was the first (and still the only) comic or graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize. In doing so, it brought graphica farther into the mainstream … Continue reading

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Angela Carter’s The Curious Room: Plays, Film Scripts and an Opera

Sometimes the Reaper is just too damn unfair. Angela Olive Stalker Carter died of lung cancer in 1992 at the far too young age of 52. Writer, feminist theorist, folklorist, opera buff, playwright, poet — she was these things and … Continue reading

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Catherynne M. Valente’s Deathless

Just remember that the only question in a house is who is to rule. The rest is only dancing around that, trying not to look it in the eye. This is my month for folktale retellings, it seems. Immediately after … Continue reading

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Howard Andrew Jones’ The Desert of Souls

Barely into the third month of 2011, I’m wondering if I’ll read anything else this year as good as Desert of Souls. In it, Howard Jones proves himself a rare master of the storyteller’s art, a talent uncommon even amongst … Continue reading

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