Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy ~William Schafer, ed.

–published 2008
–225 pages, Subterranean Press
–3.75/5 stars

Fantasy comes in all shades, from gentle tales of elves and fairies, to the blackest of horrors. Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy tends toward the darker edges, where the fantastic mixes with the horrific. With all original tales…we’ve aimed to illuminate these shadowed corners, to bring into the light the creatures that venture forth from the sea, those that alter our reality to suit their sinister needs, and others who head into territory so bleak it’s best left undescribed.

Throughout any given week my email inbox is flooded with enticing offers: nubile co-eds with no greater desire than to offer up their charms, pharmaceutical companies bestowing growth and prowess, nearly-dead philanthropists whose dying wish is to grant me riches beyond imagination…but none are of greater temptation than the multiple weekly emails I receive from Subterranean Press. Each missive of Notes From the Underground either taunts me with the images of books I have ordered which have not yet arrived, or bewitches me with offerings too beguiling to pass up, or both!

Far too many of these delicacies are purchased because of a Dave McKean cover that I simply cannot resist. Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy is one such volume; it is graced with one of my favorite Dave McKean covers to be released in a long time. The question with all such impulse purchases is whether the book will live up to its fantastic cover. Though it falters on occasion, I do believe ToDF supports its cover admirably.

This book contains eleven original works, submitted by authors commissioned with the general prerequisite of each tale being dark fantasy. If you have read, or will read, this collection of tales you will see that the terms ‘dark’ and ‘fantasy’ can be interpreted in a wide variety of ranges.

The Gulf: Poppy Z. Brite opens this collection with a tale that in my mind contained no fantastical elements of any kind and would be considered dark only in the sense that its subject matter, Hurricane Katrina, was a very dark day in our nations history. Do not misconstrue this as a complaint, this was a very good, melancholic story that does an amazing job of humanizing the tragedy without overtly tugging heartstrings.

Alastair Baffle’s Emporium of Wonders: I have only read a few of Mike Resnick’s short stories but each one has impressed. I have high hopes for a collection of his short stories that is sitting on my bookshelf, begging to be read. Magic, nostalgia, aging and the lure of a fountain of youth pervade this tale of two friends who are essentially rocking on the front porch of Death’s abode. Their last adventure, an attempt to revisit a place of their youth, opens up an opportunity that may just be too good to be true. This was a strong tale with a high re-readability factor.

It Washed Up: This is my first taste of Joe R. Lansdale and I have to admit that this was a weak first experience with an author I have heard many good things about. Had he already been a favorite or had this all-too-brief story been in a larger collection of his works I may have viewed it differently. Coming on the heels of two powerful stories this story felt more like a writing exercise than the kind of story an author would want to represent their work in an anthology of original stories.

The Hour of Babel: Tim Powers is an author who has been recommended several times, most frequently when I bring up the works of James P. Blaylock, a well-liked author who writes in a similar vein. This was pretty good. Not great, but entertaining. This story would be right at home in a post-apocalyptic anthology. I certainly felt like I got a nice sampling of Power’s ability with this story.

Monstrous Embrace: This is a story from an author who is new to me, Rachel Swirsky, and boy was it good. Creepy and cryptic, the specter of choice, and the consequences of choice, haunts every word of this short story. I, like the protagonist in this story, found myself wondering what the true lesser of two evils would be. I would certainly read more of her works.

The Lunatic Miss Teak: Darren Speegle penned a story that would have made a great episode in the classic Rod Serling horror show, Night Gallery. Images of episodes that freaked me out as a child were resurrected as I read this story. I am a sucker for horror stories, written or televised, that feature dolls or ventriloquist dummies or the like. They creep me out, and this story was no exception. I have a few minor quibbles about the dream sequences of the story, however it is a very strong effort and I am glad it was included in this collection.

The Steam Dancer (1896): I really enjoyed this effort by Caitlin R. Kiernan. Though I would have liked to have seen this story fleshed out a bit more, I have to say that my partiality towards steam punk and automata means that I was predisposed to liking this story.

Penguins of the Apocalypse: A genuinely creepy story from author William Browning Spencer. It reminded me in spirit of Neil Gaiman’s excellent short story, We Can Get Them For You Wholesale. Though darkly humorous at times, as the title would indicate, this was a mostly unfunny, dark tale. Very good.

Caverns of Mystery: This is my first experience reading Kage Baker and I really enjoyed it. This story reminds me of the kind of stuff Ray Bradbury may have written had he mixed a character from Dandelion Summer with the imagination of M. Night Shyamalan.

Face: Early on in this story by Mike Carey I found myself wishing I could cheat and skip ahead to the next story. There was too much of the sci-fi/fantasy element to the opening of the story with its setting and characters. It seemed wholly out of place in this collection and did not seem to be particularly enjoyable. And then it suddenly got very interesting. The second and third acts of this twenty page story were very engaging and although the true horror of the ending was a bit more ambiguous than it should have been this ended up being a story that was worth reading, at least once.

The Road to Levinshir: Patrick Rothfuss was all the rage last year on fantasy and science fiction blogs with his debut novel, The Name of the Wind. Though intrigued by the hubbub I shied away from picking up this massive tome, the first in a trilogy, mostly because of its size. I can see that I am going to have to give a serious re-think regarding that judgment. This story was fantastic. It is a short story featuring Rothfuss’ protagonist from The Name of the Wind, Kvothe. Whether this is a true stand-alone story or is a chapter or two from one of Rothfuss’ forthcoming novels, this story is a strong advertisement for the rest of his books. I was extremely impressed with his writing style and the story had me thoroughly engaged despite the edge-of-your-seat action in tonight’s Dallas v. Philadelphia Monday Night Football game. What a fantastic, well-executed conclusion to this collection of dark fantasy tales. This 36 page story has a beginning, middle and end that feels like a complete story. Rothfuss does an outstanding job of painting a picture of who his main character is without resorting to info-dumping prose. He allows you to get to know his character and form an emotional bond to him by his skillful use of the words he employs. Again, I am very, very impressed.

I particularly enjoy short stories during the autumn months as I feel the short story genre is tailor made for dark, creepy, eerie tales. This collection did not disappoint. I have been introduced to several authors whose work I would not hesitate to pick up in the future and in the process enjoyed stories filled with an eerie atmosphere and a touch of fantasy. I was fortunate enough to get this before the affordable copies sold out (though Amazon indicates that they have some available) and with it got a very nice looking chapbook of the Joe Hill story, Thumbprint.
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This has been a R.I.P. III Challenge read.