Welcome to Week 251 of my horror short fiction review project! Some odd little stories this week, each imperfect in their own ways; my favorite was “The Delicate” by Jeffrey Ford, which I would almost liken to a kind of magical realism tale, which as you probably know by now, I don’t typically care for. This one about a strange kind of vampiric being operating in the cold wastes on the fringes of civilization was my kind of weird though.
The Black Magic Omnibus, edited by Peter Haining (Taplinger, 1976)
“The Primate of the Rose” by M. P. Shiel
Crooks and Smythe begin the story with a tantalizing conversation about secret societies in London and then…nothing much happens. Another disappointment from a collection that seems to include far more misses than hits. I can now see why this collection has fallen into such obscurity.
The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer (Tor, 2012)
“The Delicate” by Jeffrey Ford
A strange little story about a kind of demonic vampire—“The Delicate,” who also goes by Harding Jarvis—preying upon the inhabitants of a small town perched at the edge of civilization. It’s very magical realism in tone in that it can’t possibly be taking place on our Earth, nor does it really pretend to, and it’s full of magic and terror and wonder presented matter-of-factly. I liked it, and will be the first to admit that I don’t typically like tales like this.
Caped Fear: Superhuman Horror Stories, edited by Steve Proposch, Christopher Sequeira, and Bryce Stevens (IFWG Australia, 2022)
“The Omnivore” by Colleen Doran
A kind of Legion of Super-Heroes setting (far future with a team of young super heroes). The Omnivore can eat anything but he doesn’t eat meat, and why that is becomes clear by the end of the story. Ultimate is a time traveler who uses an element that animates dead bodies. The action takes place at one of those body farm-type places where they do experiments to see how flesh decays under certain conditions, only this one is for the bodies of supervillains’ victims. Omnivore has to start eating the zombies and, well, loves it. Gross story and pretty silly, though I do recall meeting Doran at a comic book convention in Virginia Beach in the late 1980s and she was very sweet and a lovely person.
Whispers, edited by Stuart David Schiff (Jove/HBJ, 1979)
“The Closer of the Way” by Robert Bloch
Very meta. This is a story about the author Robert Bloch, who has been admitted to a psychiatric ward. His psychiatrist thinks he is secretly deeply disturbed, and uses Bloch’s fiction as a rationale for that analysis. As it turns out, the shrink is correct and Bloch beheads him before escaping.
Buy the book on Amazon
Buy the book on Amazon
Buy the book on Amazon
Buy the book on Amazon
Tales from the Bookworm's Lair 