Anthologies are generally a mixed bag. Even the best collections tend to have enough poor stories that cancel out the best the collection has to o 4.6
Anthologies are generally a mixed bag. Even the best collections tend to have enough poor stories that cancel out the best the collection has to offer. I think the highest rating I have ever given to an anthology is a 3.5 because of this unfortunate phenomenon. While not every in story Best American Sci-Fi and Fantasy 2016 is perfect, the best ones are perfect and the worst simply not to my taste. Maybe 2 stories of 20 get a B. That's a pretty good report card. I find this especially interesting given that I would not call myself a Sci-Fi or Fantasy fan. Even if you think you don't like Sci-Fi or Fantasy, don't let that keep you from this collection. The price of admission is worth it for Ted Chiang's The Great Silence (also collected in The Best American Short Stories (2016)) and Adam Johnson's Interesting Facts alone. ...more
A mixed bag tending toward the negative end of the spectrum. If you are a fan of short stories and have Kindle Unlimited you could do worse, but ot2.6
A mixed bag tending toward the negative end of the spectrum. If you are a fan of short stories and have Kindle Unlimited you could do worse, but otherwise there are better anthologies out there. ...more
Keene and Bailey edited this collection of short stories which are united under the theme of a setting -- Oakland's Chapel of the Chimes -- a colum2.7
Keene and Bailey edited this collection of short stories which are united under the theme of a setting -- Oakland's Chapel of the Chimes -- a columbarium where the ashes of the deceased are interred in golden books shelved in "bookcases" behind glass:
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Weird. But a rather cool idea, no? The Chapel of the Chimes literally embodies the idea that our lives are a story and should be remembered as such. And The Library of the Dead takes that idea and runs with it telling the life (and death) stories of (fictional) individuals connected by interludes where a Guardian/Librarian leads a narrator through the rooms of this "library". Taking down the books in series of three, the anthology unfolds little by little to the narrator and the reader.
The stories here are quite diverse, which can actually be anticipated in that the only linking theme is that our characters are interred in this columbarium. They run the gamut from two tales of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, to serial killers, to a Lovecraft-inspired tale, to the ordinary lives of average folks in the recent past -- and a lot in between. Almost all the tales have a supernatural element of one sort or another (exempting some of the tales of murder). This makes the anthology, for me at least, quite a mixed bag. Unlike some other reviewers I was not impressed with all the stories and I found the quality of writing quite mixed. There was nothing truly awfully written here, but I didn't find much that was super high quality either. The word that is coming to me as I type this is competent -- as in the writers are all competent, but no one seemed particularly brilliant or likely to be winning the Nobel Prize anytime soon (I know, I know, easy for me to say as a non-writer).
What I found most tedious about the anthology was actually the story of the Guardian and the narrator that was supposed to tie this anthology together. It was rather unsurprising and pretty cliche and read like a freshman's entry in her first creative writing course.
Nonetheless, there were some stories of note in between the Guardian blather:
The Last Things to Go by Mary SanGiovanni and Brian Keene was an affecting tale of loss and grief and how one eventually moves on. With some supernatural elements moving the whole thing along.
A Chimera's Tale by Chris Marrs gets a nod for a creative source idea: A supernatural figure -- half demon and half angel -- who is looking for it's other half.
I'm Getting Closer by J. F. Gonzalez was sort of trite: a supernatural killer with the ability to mess with technology stalks a young girl. It had a definite When a Stranger Calls vibe which was fun even if the story was pretty predictable.
Reliving Through Better Chemistry by Weston Ochse was a creative tale of boys who live the lives and deaths of others by sniffing their ashes. The story builds to reveal the ultimate effects of such interesting drug use.
Fault Lines by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon gets a mention not for the storytelling -- if the narrator talked one more time about how she needed to get home to her dying daughter I was going to throw the Kindle across the room -- but for an interesting premise: archeologists who discover Pandora's box.
Jaded Winds by Rena Mason moved right along -- a story about two Chinese business men -- one who is cooking up devious plots -- in San Francisco's Chinatown prior to the 1906 earthquake. What I liked most about this story was the incorporation of Chinese folklore and mythology.
Tears of the Dragon by Michael McBride moves back and forth in time -- between the horrors of a Japenese-led prisoner-of-war camp in Manchukuo during WWII and the present day. The story tells about the life of Dr. Sam Himura as told by himself in a video to his funeral guests.
Tales the Ashes Tell was probably the best story -- in terms of prose -- in this collection. An interesting meditation on the afterlife and how that intersects with the stories of our lives. Set in the Chapel of the Chimes and told by the building itself it is a somewhat horrifying, but ultimately rather charming, meditation on living. It goes into some weird places which sort of detracted from the story's theme, but overall it worked.
This anthology gets 2.75 instead of the usual 3 I give most anthologies (that author mix really tends to average out) because the writing wouldn't quite average out here and the interludes were not to my taste as mentioned above. However, competent it is and the setting/theme is marvelous.
Burn, Borrow, or Buy: Borrow (if your pile of books has dwindled and you just need to kill some time).
Interesting collection -- stories both old and new. Tends toward Sci-fi rather than living out the end times surrounded by zombies or what have you, bInteresting collection -- stories both old and new. Tends toward Sci-fi rather than living out the end times surrounded by zombies or what have you, but that is sort of a nice change of pace for the apocalyptic genre....more
Glancing through the reviews, a lot of people seemed to love this collection, but I found it to be middling at best. I find the Best HorroMeh. 2.5ish
Glancing through the reviews, a lot of people seemed to love this collection, but I found it to be middling at best. I find the Best Horror of the Year or The Year's Best Horror and Dark Fantasy anthologies to have better bests. Even there I usually find the selection of stories rather hit or miss, but that is probably par for the course with most anthologies. Yet The Best of Horror Library: Volumes 1 - 5 is mostly miss. Few of the stories were truly memorable and even with most of those, they were still so-so -- nothing you haven't heard before. Most of the time you saw the ending coming from the first page or left you shaking your head while muttering "[insert author's name here] did it better".
Nothing was horribly written, though some stories were just ridiculous. I know, I should be more woman-power about the magical dildo, but really, it isn't horror and it wasn't magical. However, one or two stories did stick out. My personal favorite was The Apocalypse Ain't So Bad by Jeff Strand -- a dude who keeps coming up and who I may have to check out.
You know, looking at the image I have to remark that the cover is pretty bad-ass, but since I read it on a Kindle Paperwhite, it really couldn't sway my ranking. Still feeling meh.
You can also read this exact same review, more or less, on my blog Read or Die ...more
I am not a fan of monsters, but this was interesting. That it is a undetected public pool monster is a definate plus.
INTERVAL
Great ide3.35
THE DEEP END
I am not a fan of monsters, but this was interesting. That it is a undetected public pool monster is a definate plus.
INTERVAL
Great idea which failed a bit at the end and could have been a bit better written at the beginning. There was probably just too much going on here for a short story -- at least the way it was ultimately presented.
IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK
Clunky.
THE NIGHT HIDER
Again, not the best written story, but passable. Also felt that the plot could have been more developed.
WHATEVER
This was a lovely story, though I have to say I have no idea how it fits into this collection. I wouldn't call it horror -- even human horror....more
I am usually a fan of Datlow's Best Horror , but this collection was a disappointment to me. Sitting here thinking of what to say about this collectiI am usually a fan of Datlow's Best Horror , but this collection was a disappointment to me. Sitting here thinking of what to say about this collection, I can only say I can't think of a single story -- never a huge endorsement -- and only have a vague feeling of distaste for this volume. Obviously, with anthologies, you usually get a mixed bag, but here the bag seemed full of stale, generic candies. Pass it up in favor of one of her other collections or Jones' or Guran's Best New Horror anthologies....more
I always love when people actually rate each of the short stories in a short story volume so I can see what I am getting into, but with 28 stories in I always love when people actually rate each of the short stories in a short story volume so I can see what I am getting into, but with 28 stories in 2015's The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Fiction , it is really just too much to elaborate on for this poor girl so I will leave the detailed rundown for someone else who throws possible carpal tunnel syndrome to the wind. So, let me give you the condensed stats as I see them:
Number of stories that I don't remember a week after finishing this anthology: 3
Number of awful stories: 0
Number of not terribly great stories: 4
Number of kick-ass stories: 3 Namely: The Screams of Dragons by Kelly Armstrong (Is the kid a changeling? Does human horror override supernatural horror?); The Cats of River Street (1925) by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Lovecraftian monsters kept at bay by cats -- do I need to say more? Definite two thumbs up given I normally hate Lovecraftian stuff); Running Shoes by Ken Liu (Not really horror, but really interesting tale of Chinese factory worker turned into running shoes -- I guess you sort of need to read it since reading that blurb, this sounds just awful);
Number of pretty darn good stories: 1 Namely: The amazingly titled Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They Are Terrifying by Alice Sola Kim
Number of so-so stories: 12 (but at least from one of these I learned about female factories: penal colonies in Australia)
Number of I don't know what the f*** just happened stories: 2 (Notably: (Little Miss) Queen of Darkness and Combustion Hour)
Number of I couldn't finish them stories: 2
One story that I can't figure out how to rate is Madam Damnable's Sewing Circle by Elizabeth Bear. This falls into the category of things I can't stand -- a part of a novel/longer work being schlepped out as its own story. It was interesting and well-written and did make me curious about the longer work it was taken from, but my general irritation at being sold to in this way makes me grumpy.
So, I did not run the numbers, but I am thinking this should all balance out as a solid "it was good/I liked it". Three stars.
I do not really understand all the glowing reviews this anthology has received. I really wanted to like it given that some of the proceeds go to helpiI do not really understand all the glowing reviews this anthology has received. I really wanted to like it given that some of the proceeds go to helping an author, whose name I currently blank on, recover from injuries sustained from a falling tree branch. (Which sounds sort of like I am making this up a I review, but I am not and the guy seems sweet enough and it was more like a tree-sized branch, so it was no joke.) Unfortunately, I thought it was basically terrible. I am a huge fan of short stories and read anthologies like there is no tomorrow, so I expect to have to take some bad to read some good, but here the bad far outweighs the occasional average. There are one or two decent tales here, so I will bump this up a star, but overall finishing this became an ordeal. Sorry author dude, I wish you well, I think your friends are sweet to put this together, but I'll pass. ...more
This is a nice little collection. However, no story really stuck out or stayed with me, but nothing was really horrible either. I am a fan of Chizmar This is a nice little collection. However, no story really stuck out or stayed with me, but nothing was really horrible either. I am a fan of Chizmar and he collected some very good authors here. If you are a fan of horror short stories, you could do worse....more
I don't know why, but I decided on a whim, maybe because it's free on Kindle Unlimited, or maybe because every day lately seems like the End Times, toI don't know why, but I decided on a whim, maybe because it's free on Kindle Unlimited, or maybe because every day lately seems like the End Times, to re-read this anthology. Yeah, I may dislike it even more now than when I read it to begin with. Still shaking my head that you can make the apocalypse meh.
Buy, borrow, burn? Burning seems extreme, maybe just bin. ...more
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