I finished 13 in December.
1. Enter Boogeyman ed. by Alessandro Manzetti was a rather bland anthology of boogeyman related stories (and there was a very liberal interpretation of what is a boogeyman in a lot of these stories). Only the Gemma Files story was a standout for me. Most of the other stories weren’t bad, just not memorable. 3.2 / 5
2. Noctuidae by Scott Nicolay was a novella about a trio of hikers who get trapped in a cave by some kind of monster. Not as interesting as it sounds. Nicolay has been more of a miss author for me over the years, and this short novella only confirms he’s not for me. 1.5 / 5
3. Inspection by Josh Malerman. Malerman is another author that is more miss than hit for me. If you can buy into the ridiculous premise, the first half is actually interesting. However, the second half of the story just abandons any type of logical story telling. 1 / 5
4. Home From the Sea was a collection of mostly Lovecraftian science fiction stories by William Meikle. Nothing ground breaking here by any means, but I do appreciate Meikle’s simple style of story telling. 3.6 / 5
5. Horror of the Blood Devils by Tim Curran. Like Meikle, Curran is best when he keeps his stories short and simple, which is what you get with HOTBD. A search for escaped convicts in a swamp infested with vampire-like creatures. Chaos ensues. This was a quick read that was a lot of fun. 4 / 5
6. Extant by Michael McBride was another quick read that was a lot of fun. McBride used just enough science in the first half to provide a plausible setup. At about the half way point the shit hits the fan, and it’s pure adrenaline until the end. McBride doesn’t do anything in Extant that he hasn’t done before; he just does it better than most. 5 / 5
7. The Darkest Night ed. by Lindy Ryan was an anthology of stories set around the winter solstice. This one was definitely a mixed bag, as quite a few of the stories just didn’t work for me, though there were a few standouts. My favorites were by Stephanie Wytovich, Sara Tantlinger, and a Golden & Lebbon collaboration. 3 / 5
8. The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany was classic high fantasy that had a lot more flowery prose than engaging story. This classic didn’t work for me at all. 2 / 5
9. Christmas at Wheeldale Inn was a Christmas ghost story told in the classic Victorian style by Gemma Amor. This is the second thing I’ve read by Amor and I’ve liked both a lot. If you’re looking for a straight forward Christmas ghost story, this one certainly fits the bill. 4 / 5
10. October Shadows ed. & illustrated by John Rice. Thirteen classic ghost stories that were mainly rereads fits the bill of ghost stories around Christmas. Also a wonderfully looking book. Abbeville Press really hit it out of the park with this production. 3.6 / 5
11. The Sundowner’s Dance by Tod Keisling. A retired widower moves into a retirement community where a lot of weird things seem to be going on. That’s the interesting part. Unfortunately, that’s only half of the book. The second half involved the good guys trying to foil the evil machinations of the bad guys, and it just wasn’t as interesting a story to me. Too many cringe worthy scenes of senior citizens acting like teenagers didn’t help matters. 2 / 5
12. Remnant by Conrad Williams had an interesting premise about an archeological expedition to find an artifact buried in a glacier. However, this short novella just pulled too much out of its’ ass in the last 5 to 10 pages too make any sense. A potential good story ruined by a WTF ending. 2.5 / 5
13. Death Bus was a chapbook by our own Jeff Terry. I went into this one with no expectations and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Not what I was expecting from the title, but Death Bus had more of a Quantum Leap (the 90’s time travel show) in hell vibe to it. The story had a good pace and enough sarcastic humor to make me laugh out loud more than a few times. 3.5 / 5
B
1. Enter Boogeyman ed. by Alessandro Manzetti was a rather bland anthology of boogeyman related stories (and there was a very liberal interpretation of what is a boogeyman in a lot of these stories). Only the Gemma Files story was a standout for me. Most of the other stories weren’t bad, just not memorable. 3.2 / 5
2. Noctuidae by Scott Nicolay was a novella about a trio of hikers who get trapped in a cave by some kind of monster. Not as interesting as it sounds. Nicolay has been more of a miss author for me over the years, and this short novella only confirms he’s not for me. 1.5 / 5
3. Inspection by Josh Malerman. Malerman is another author that is more miss than hit for me. If you can buy into the ridiculous premise, the first half is actually interesting. However, the second half of the story just abandons any type of logical story telling. 1 / 5
4. Home From the Sea was a collection of mostly Lovecraftian science fiction stories by William Meikle. Nothing ground breaking here by any means, but I do appreciate Meikle’s simple style of story telling. 3.6 / 5
5. Horror of the Blood Devils by Tim Curran. Like Meikle, Curran is best when he keeps his stories short and simple, which is what you get with HOTBD. A search for escaped convicts in a swamp infested with vampire-like creatures. Chaos ensues. This was a quick read that was a lot of fun. 4 / 5
6. Extant by Michael McBride was another quick read that was a lot of fun. McBride used just enough science in the first half to provide a plausible setup. At about the half way point the shit hits the fan, and it’s pure adrenaline until the end. McBride doesn’t do anything in Extant that he hasn’t done before; he just does it better than most. 5 / 5
7. The Darkest Night ed. by Lindy Ryan was an anthology of stories set around the winter solstice. This one was definitely a mixed bag, as quite a few of the stories just didn’t work for me, though there were a few standouts. My favorites were by Stephanie Wytovich, Sara Tantlinger, and a Golden & Lebbon collaboration. 3 / 5
8. The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany was classic high fantasy that had a lot more flowery prose than engaging story. This classic didn’t work for me at all. 2 / 5
9. Christmas at Wheeldale Inn was a Christmas ghost story told in the classic Victorian style by Gemma Amor. This is the second thing I’ve read by Amor and I’ve liked both a lot. If you’re looking for a straight forward Christmas ghost story, this one certainly fits the bill. 4 / 5
10. October Shadows ed. & illustrated by John Rice. Thirteen classic ghost stories that were mainly rereads fits the bill of ghost stories around Christmas. Also a wonderfully looking book. Abbeville Press really hit it out of the park with this production. 3.6 / 5
11. The Sundowner’s Dance by Tod Keisling. A retired widower moves into a retirement community where a lot of weird things seem to be going on. That’s the interesting part. Unfortunately, that’s only half of the book. The second half involved the good guys trying to foil the evil machinations of the bad guys, and it just wasn’t as interesting a story to me. Too many cringe worthy scenes of senior citizens acting like teenagers didn’t help matters. 2 / 5
12. Remnant by Conrad Williams had an interesting premise about an archeological expedition to find an artifact buried in a glacier. However, this short novella just pulled too much out of its’ ass in the last 5 to 10 pages too make any sense. A potential good story ruined by a WTF ending. 2.5 / 5
13. Death Bus was a chapbook by our own Jeff Terry. I went into this one with no expectations and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Not what I was expecting from the title, but Death Bus had more of a Quantum Leap (the 90’s time travel show) in hell vibe to it. The story had a good pace and enough sarcastic humor to make me laugh out loud more than a few times. 3.5 / 5
B
Comment