Post by Michael West on Dec 7, 2005 16:03:28 GMT -5
$15.00
Rage Machine Books
Edited by: Nancy Jackson
www.lulu.com/content/159245
”The Anthology weighted his lap with potential won and potential lost.”
—“Thumper” by Edward W. Myers
I love anthologies. Whether they are the collected works of a single author, such as Stephen King’s classic Night Shift, or a web of tales spun by many talented writers, they offer little slices of horror that fit perfectly into my busy, hurry-up life. I may not be able to stay focused on the characters of a 1,500-page epic while running the kids to basketball and Cub Scouts, but it’s easy to get my horror fix in a 15-page ghost story that I can read from start to finish over lunch.
The theme of this particular anthology, edited by Nancy Jackson, is the fusion of horror with humor. It’s an interesting idea and, after a hilarious introduction by horror humorist Jeff Strand, I was excited about the possibilities. The collection got off to a rocky start, however. Some of the stories were poorly written—shifting between different points of view several times (sometimes on the same page) without benefit of page breaks, and using overly flowery language that proved to be a huge distraction. Other tales had intriguing ideas that offered the promise of something truly creepy, and then the writers fumbled their execution. It was as if they did not know what to do with their own ideas (stories about a vacant building that may or may not be alive, and a demented playroom come instantly to mind). And still other yarns featured total lapses in logic that made them funny for all the wrong reasons. Tell me ladies, if you had just been raped by the bloodthirsty creeping vines from your garden, would you a) run screaming from the house, or b) get up, make yourself a cup of tea, and sit on the couch to think about what just happened?
But despite these problems, there are some true gems to be mined here. For example, “Cold Cuts” by Darren Franz and “Third Shift” by Kevin Anderson are twisted little masterpieces that reminded me of the best episodes of The Twilight Zone or Night Gallery, and “Them Old West Mutations” by Jeff Strand is a laugh riot that literally made my sides ache.
Every anthology contains a mix of “potential won and potential lost,” and Nancy Jackson has created a compilation that is never boring. The tales are general short in length and, if you finish one that you don’t like, the next one might be just the thing to cleanse your pallet. And when these stories were good, they were very, very good. There were yarns here that truly made me chuckle and shiver—the entire goal of Jackson’s collection. As winter sets in, you could do worse than curl up next to a roaring fire with Trip the Light Horrific.
3 out of 5 stars
