Skip to main content

Richo Reviews: Swords in the Shadows, Various Authors (Outer Shadows, 2023)

I've been on a bit of a fantasy kick lately, and I'm always on the hunt for new horror, so the premise of a collection of horror-meets-sword-and-sorcery stories leapt out at me. Despite what seems a straightforward setup, there is a huge variety of story in Swords in the Shadows - in tone, setting, genre, and quality. I love short story collections for just this reason - the diversity, the sense of turning over the page to something completely new. So let's jump in to some of these stories.

It shouldn't be any surprise that Hailey Piper's story, Wolfen Divine, is a standout. This is writing on another level. These few pages are crammed full of evocative worldbuilding, compelling action, a masterful character sketch, explorations of predation, survival, and love in desperate circumstances - suffused with tension and culminating in an anguishing emotional climax.

Stephen Graham Jones is a writer that (shamefully) I've not read for all that I've heard about him, but his contribution here is an incredible introduction. The Dog in the Corner is a deeply weird, deeply sickening body horror story of beasts made human and humans made bestial. It haunted me for days after reading it. He and Piper could sell this book by themselves.

There are a surprising amount of historical stories here, which wasn't quite what I was expecting. However, that's not to say I didn't enjoy them. Osanobua's Garden by Justin C. Key is a vivid exploration of the social, psychic and spiritual upheaval caused by colonialism and slavery, while Rena Mason's Tiger Claws and Crocodile Jaws brings the folklore of Thailand into startling reality.

But it was horror takes on classic sword-and-sorcery tales that I came for, and this book provides. Brian Keene's The Shadow in the Swamp gives us a brief but electrifying foray into a fantastical future (?) world of spirits and strangeness. In The Suture Kings  Mary SanGiovanni blends traditional fantasy, Lovecraft-esque dream worlds, and a truly unique (and horrifying) imagination to create an enthralling story. James A. Moore's The God of Rot is a brief but effective story that turns what could be a classic Howard story into something deeply ominous. Jonathan Maberry's The Prince of Dust and Shadows is less successful than the classic fantasy adventures it emulates, until it comes to his depiction of goblins. Here he returns what decades of fantasy literature, games and films have made into a weak, unthreatening creature (at least individually), even a source of comic relief, into something genuinely unsettling and upsetting.

A final mention should go to Wrench and Sorcery by Joe R. Lansdale, a barnstormer of a story that, while pushing the theme pretty far, is a great end to the collection.

Some of these stories fall foul of their short page counts, trying to cram too much in or leaving thoughts unfinished. Others manage a marvelous amount in such a short space, deftly building fantastical worlds, interesting characters, and dreadful happenings. There are some real gems here and no real failures, though certainly some stories are more successful than others.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Richo Reviews: Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin (Titan Books, 2024)

Camp Resolution is a brutal and degrading conversion camp for parents to turn their LGBTQ teens into the cishet kids they want them to be. But in the summer of 1996, a group of teens at the camp begin to suspect that it hides something even darker. This is the latest by Gretchen Felker-Martin, author of the excellent Manhunt, and much like that book it is a harrowing, frenzied masterpiece. I'll just tell you at the top: this book is exceptional, and you should read it. But if you want more convincing than just 'I said so', here we go: The first thing that truly stands out is Felker-Martin's skill at character, at psychology. We saw this in Manhunt , and once again Felker-Martin demonstrates an incredible talent for getting inside the heads of her characters. Even the character we follow for the prologue, a mother suppressing her concerns about sending her daughter to Camp Resolution, is a fully-fleshed person, a scathing and disturbing portrait of a woman simult...
Post a Comment
Read more

Richo Reviews: Split Scream Volume 3 by Patrick Barb and J.A.W. McCarthy (Dread Stone Press, 2023)

Split Scream Volume 3 is here and Dread Stone are going from strength to strength with these double-feature, bite-size horror tales. This time, we have Patrick Barb's So Quiet, So White , and Imago Expulsio (The Red Animal of Our Blood)  by J.A.W. McCarthy. In Barb's story, following family relations in the aftermath of a terrible event, he truly puts the lie to the old saw that good prose should be unnoticeable. His writing is thick, writhing in the reader's hands. On occasion it can trip over itself, choke on itself, but at its best it is reminiscent of Laird Barron, stylised and punchy and surly. Some writing flows, but this oozes , slick and ominous. Who wants a pane of glass when you can have this glorious dark vista? Atmosphere and tone are Barb's weapons of choice, but he still manages to work in a vicious twist - more analogous to a twist of a knife in the gut than a twist in the tale. McCarthy's piece is a darkly romantic story of passion, trauma, and the t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Richo Reviews: Brainwyrms, Allison Rumfitt (Cipher Press, 2023)

If you read my review of Tell Me I'm Worthless  you won't be surprised that I had to read Rumfitt's latest novel as soon as I could. But what is Brainwyrms  compared to the previous novel? More of the same? If that means 'something more or less along the lines of Tell Me I'm Worthless ' then, well, no. If it means 'something just as powerful, unique, mind-breaking and transgressive' then an emphatic yes. This is an intense one. There are warnings at the start and before relevant sections about the content and imagery, and, well, take those seriously. There is some truly sickening stuff in here - scenes that I find hard to shake weeks after reading it. I honestly think this book is a must-read if you can handle that, but don't say you weren't warned. After the shock of the imagery, what will jump out at you is Rumfitt's insight and her sheer skill. Once again,Rumfitt doesn’t so much have her finger on the pulse of British society as she is rip...
Post a Comment
Read more