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Average customer rating:

Excellent authors, excellent stories, a few misses but not enough to bring down the collection
Not Quite a Walk on the Darkside
Give this one a pass.
Better than its predecessor.
An Intriguing Stew of Stories

Darker Side, The:: Generationsof Horror

Manufacturer: Roc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Darkside: Horror for the Next Millenium
Lost on the Darkside:: Voices From The Edge of Horror (Darkside #4) (Darkside)
Alone on the Darkside: Echoes From Shadows of Horror (Darkside # 5) (Darkside)
A Walk on the Darkside: Visions of Horror
The Mammoth Book of New Terror (Mammoth Book of)

ASIN: 0451458826
Release Date: 2002-05-07

Book Description

Omni magazine praised John Pelan's previous anthology, Darkside, as "powerful." This all-new collection includes stories by: Edo Van Belkom * Simon Clark * Seth Lindberg * Tom Piccirilli * Brian Hodge * Jessica Amanda Salmonson * James Dorr * Paul Finch * Mehitobel Wilson * Michelle Scalise * David B. Silva * Joel Lane * Wilum Pugmire and Chad Hensley * Charlee Jacob * John Pelan * Lucy Taylor * Brian A. Hopkins and Richard Wright * Ann Schwader * Brian Keene * Randy Ashburn * Peter Crowther * David Niall Wilson * Shikar Dixit * Tim Lebbon

Customer Reviews:

Excellent authors, excellent stories, a few misses but not enough to bring down the collection.......2006-03-30

What a collection! With authors the likes of Charlee Jacob, John Pelan, Poppy Z. Brite, Tom Piccirilli, Mehitobel Wilson, Tim Lebbon, Richard Laymon, and Brian Keene, how can this anthology miss? I picked this up to read the short stories in-between my novel reads, and wound out unable to put it down until I had smacked my bloody lips over the very last putrid morsel.

Table Of Contents:
1. Do You See What I Fear by Edo van Belkom
2. Demon Me by Simon Clark
3. Spirits Of The Flesh by Seth Lindberg
4. The Misfit Child Grows Fat On Despair by Tom Piccirilli
5. Pull by Brian Hodge
6. Mamishka And The Sorcerer by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
7. Pets by James S. Dorr
8. The Lamb by Paul Finch
9. The Mannerly Man by Mehitobel Wilson
10. Just Someone Her Mother Might Know by Michelle Scalise
11. The Ocean by Poppy Z. Brite
12. The Origin by David B. Silva
13. After The Flood by Joel Lane
14. The Night City by Wilum Pugmire and Chad Hensley
15. The Plague Species by Charlee Jacob
16. Ten Bucks Says You Won't by Richard Laymon
17. Armies Of The Night by John Pelan
18. Unspeakable by Lucy Taylor
19. Standing Water by Caitlin R. Kiernan
20. Grave Song by Brian A. Hopkins and Richard Wright
21. Twenty Mile by Ann K. Schwader
22. All The World's A Stage by Brian Keene
23. What God Hath Wrought by Randy D. Ashburn
24. We're All Bozos On This Bus by Peter Crowther
25. The Whirling Man by David Niall Wilson
26. Asian Gothic by Shikhar Dixit
27. Hell Came Down by Tim Lebbon

The "standout" stories in this anthology would be 'Do You See What I Fear?', a tale of shadows lurking in the space of a brain left vacant by a tumor removal. 'The Misfit Child Grows Fat On Despair' shows us overweight can have a completely different meaning. 'Pull' reminds us of the languid yet unbreakable attachments to our upbringing. 'The Lamb' takes us into the ancient tombs underneath Rome and one priest's fight against the demon of $ex. 'The Mannerly Man' is one of the stars of this collection, showing the importance of good manners after each citizen is given clearance to kill one person legally. 'The Plague Species', another star, dwells on retribution for sins against both environment and flesh. 'Ten Bucks Says You Won't' brings us into the teenage horror scene of a graveyard at night. 'Armies Of The Night' animates mundane hobbies into deadly foes. 'Unspeakable' makes ordinary words into an insurmountable force. 'Twenty Mile' creeps across the grounds of a ranch, attacking the largest animals to reside there. 'Asian Gothic', a fantastic tale of haunting in northern India, and 'Hell Came Down', the end of the world from a Rainmaker who doesn't make rain, but atrocities.

The stories that, while not necessarily bad, but left me feeling clueless and confused, were 'Mamishka And The Sorcerer', 'After The Flood', 'The Night City', 'All The World's A Stage', 'We're All Bozos On This Bus', and 'The Whirling Man'.

With most of the stories being very good, and even the minority of bad ones written by authors I have read and respected in the past, I would say that this is definitely a collection worth picking up to add to your bookcase full of horror anthologies. The creepy feeling of dread I experienced while reading, that tingling of spinal column and extremities, the shivers from shadows in the corner of my room, was certainly worth more than the price of the book. Enjoy!

Not Quite a Walk on the Darkside.......2005-01-07

Some of the stories in this anthology are truly terrifying, such as "The Plague Species" and "Asian Gothic," while others are not as scary but truly wonderful stories, such as "Unspeakable" and "Hell Came Down." The stories seemed to get better as the book wore on, but there were so much mediocrity that I was disappointed. John Pelan's story was sub-par, relating a tale through mostly narration not my cup of tea for horror stories), and the first couple of stories should not have been included in the supposed "best of the best." If you're looking for a scary read, pick up the next book in this series, "A Walk on the Darkside," which has much better picks for horrifying horror.

Give this one a pass........2004-08-24

Amazon seems to have eaten my previous review, so here we go again:
I am a big fan of horror anthologies and can usually find a few stories that I enjoy but not here. The stories are an uneven mix and mostly sub-par with no real scares or originality.

Those looking for something a little more "on the dark side" are encouraged to look to the "Borderlands" series.

Better than its predecessor........2004-04-23

John Pelan (ed.), The Darker Side: Generations of Horror (Roc, 2002)

Pelan's second collection of "the new breed" of horror writers connects on most levels where the original failed. There's still a smattering of bad mixed in, but this time, most of the results are good.

I should get the bad out of the way first. I haven't yet tired of calling Edo van Belkom this generation's Saul Wernick, and he gives me another opportunity with the anthology's opening story. The usual van Belkom; simple, unscary, likely to be as obscure in twenty years as Saul Wernick is now. David Niall Wilson and Shikhar Dixit both come extremely close to having written great pieces of fiction (I'd be hard-pressed to call either a horror tale, but both have an appealing gothic quality to them), but fall somewhat short in the delivery. In both cases, continuity is the problem. Both authors paint a very lovely picture, but fail to connect enough dots to let us know what the picture is.

But enough of that. So many of these authors deserve such praise. Pelan rectifies the overlooking he did in the original anthology, including such names as Poppy Z. Brite, Cait Kiernan (whose story here is one of the most understated and effective she's written), Mehitobel Wilson, Charlee Jacob, Brian Keene, and the wonderful Jess Salmonson (who's been writing longer than most of these authors have been alive, thus lending some credence to the title this time), all of whom turn in good, and some great, stuff. (Charlee Jacob, in particular, rocks the house. As usual.) Returning are two of the finest authors from the original, Lucy Taylor and Brian Hodge. Taylor's story is luscious, erotic, and painful (nothing new from Taylor, but pulled off excellently here). Hodge's story, like the previous anthology's "Skinwriters," though, is the story for which you want to buy this book, and the story for which you will treasure it.

Hodge's story is told in a memoir style, and you will spend the vast majority of the time wondering what this story is doing in a horror anthology. (As Hodge's novels have turned to mystery, it's not an unreasonable thing to wonder.) At the end of the story, he pulls it off, but it's so deadpan and understated you're STILL left with the idea that this is a memoir, perhaps penned by Dennis Lehane or Dash Hammett or one of the other tough-guy mystery writers. It's concise, wonderful, and probably the best stuff I've seen from Hodge since Deathgrip, well over a decade ago.

Better than its predecessor The Dark Side. Check this one out first. *** ½

An Intriguing Stew of Stories.......2003-09-22

I recognized the editor of this horror anthology, John Pelan, from his various associations with goremeister Edward Lee. I have never read any of his stories, however, until I cracked the cover of "The Darker Side," a gruesomely fascinating collection of stories from some of the best writers in horror working today. "The Darker Side" assembles a list of fresh stories from Edo Van Belkom, Simon Clark, Tom Piccirilli, Mehitobel Wilson, Charlee Jacob, Lucy Taylor, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Poppy Z. Brite, Tim Lebbon, and a host of other authors. Overall, there are twenty-seven meaty stories to sink your teeth into, and many of them are winners in every way. Sometimes, I think that horror anthologies are the best way to go for new horror fans that don't know many of the authors in the field. Heck, I read a ton of horror books and I am STILL discovering excellent writers in this genre. Anyway, this collection offers a smorgasbord of horror stories sure to entertain and sicken a reader.

THE BEST:

Maybe it's just me, but I think Charlee Jacob is one of the best writers in the business. Her novels are cathedrals of poetic language wrapped around unbelievable sequences of gory violence. The story Jacob contributed here, "The Plague Species," will stand out in my memory for some time to come. Residents of a Greek island are shocked to discover a shocking loss of various body parts. It turns out that an invasion launched by residents of this island against the neighboring island of Timnah resulted in a horrific curse with gory implications. The language is pristine and the conclusion surprising.

Mehitobel Wilson wrote "The Mannerly Man" to show us a world where political correctness has run amok. In this tale, people can kill anyone who offends them, for any reason, but can only do so once. A person who goes beyond their one freebie faces automatic execution at the hands of the police. The problem with this system is that a person never knows who has killed someone and who hasn't. It's amusing in the extreme to see how people bow and scrape at the slightest thought of stepping on another person's toes. In fact, even going outside presents a whole host of dangers.

Shikhar Dixit's "Asian Gothic" deserves special mention if for no other reason than for writing a tale that takes place in India. Something is seriously wrong with Suraj Mahal, a house in the town of Patna. This haunted house possesses the ability to wreak bloody havoc on its residents by causing the narrator's family members to commit suicide. There's more to it than that, of course, but I like the idea of unconventional horror stories that go outside the western world.

THE WORST:

David Niall Wilson's story about a painter, "The Whirling Man," bored me to tears with its descriptions of an artist and his encounters with a model. This guy creates some type of painting about colors squirting out of a woman's heart or some such thing. I read this a while ago and forgot about it the minute I finished it. "The Whirling Man" is just too nonsensical for my tastes.

"The Night City," a joint effort by Wilum Pugmire and Chad Hensley, isn't that long of a story, but it didn't make much sense. Some weird guy visits a nightmarish, polluted city in order to experience the dark delights such a place puts on display. The descriptive language succeeds in conveying a degenerate atmosphere, but I just never really caught on to what the characters were up to. This one is definitely a "pass" on subsequent readings of the book.

There are many other stories of varying degrees of quality in the collection. I wouldn't want to leave out Edo Von Belkom's story, "Do You See What I Fear," about a woman who, after undergoing an operation, rapidly comes to understand how death works in the real world. Poppy Z. Brite writes a story about the soul draining aspects of fame, and Tom Piccirilli strikes gold with his weird contribution about a guy that eats people's souls. I got a kick out of Pelan's entry, about the sinister implications of taking a hobby WAY too far. On the other hand, I didn't care much for Joel Lane's "After the Flood," a story about a basement full of water that holds people's memories. Ultimately, "The Darker Side" was a mixed bag for me, containing a few stories I didn't care for more than balanced out by great yarns of purest gold. If nothing else, I discovered a few names I think would be well worth pursuing in the future.

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