Synopses & Reviews
Ghosts are among us. On the other side of death, the spirits of departed souls have been part of human myths and beliefs as long as anyone can recall. Some of the most powerful and affecting images in fiction are of ghosts, spirits, visitations from beyond the veil of death.
Ellen Datlow, an editor whose stellar career has garnered her World Fantasy Awards, a Stoker Award, and a Hugo Award, has long been fascinated by ghosts. Now she has brought together an array of all-new, original ghost stories for the shivering delight of readers who are ready to be frightened.
And that's no idle threat. These are not friendly ghost stories. This book is called The Dark because the editor asked her favorite authors specifically for stories that would provoke fear or disquietude, tales that would cause shivers down the spine and make readers want to keep a light on when they retire to bed for the night. The authors who answered her call compose an all-star cast of brilliant storytellers, including such award-winning, certifiably masterful authors as Ramsey Campbell, Jeffrey Ford, Charles L. Grant, Glen Hirshberg, Kathe Koja, Tanith Lee, Kelly Link, Sharyn McCrumb, Joyce Carol Oates, Lucius Shepard, and Gahan Wilson. Frighteningly good writers. Each has penned a unique tale unlike any of the others. All have cast dark spells that are sure to inspire fear or unease in the hardiest of readers.
Review
"Ghosts with surprising substance flit through this sterling anthology....[T]his book is sure to provide a yardstick by which future ghost fiction will be measured." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Review
"Original stories from a dark place....Top-drawer." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"If a few entries flop, Lucius Shepard's novella-length 'Limbo' more than compensates....[T]his stunner reads like a collaboration between Elmore Leonard and British horror icon Arthur Machen; hard as the former, lush as the latter, it's a masterpiece." Booklist
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"[A] must-buy...for anyone who enjoys well-written ghost stories that will have readers starting at shadows and turning on nightlights." St. Louis Today
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"[A] terrific tome with a variety of top-notch tales." Cemetery Dance
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"Covering a wide range of topics that explore different avenues of horror, this volume belongs in most short story or horror collections." Library Journal
Synopsis
Ellen Datlow, referred to by some as the Mistress of Horror, has gathered ghost stories by fifteen masters of the macabre in this deliciously frightening anthology of original terror. Her orders to her contributors: Scare the hell out of me! A mere glance at the roster of authors should make any lover of the strange, the horrific, or the uncanny whet his or her lips in anticipation of ghoulishly twisted and flat-out terrifying hours of reading. The voices of the dark are: Daniel Abraham, Jack Cady, Ramsey Campbell, Terry Dowling, Jeffrey Ford, Stephen Gallagher, Charles L. Grant, Glen Hirshberg, Kathe Koja, Kelly Link, Sharyn McCrumb, Joyce Carol Oates, Mike O'Driscoll, Lucius Shepard, and Gahan Wilson. Winners collectively of more than a dozen World Fantasy and Bram Stoker Awards, these authors will keep readers off balance and wondering what kind of a shivery scare will come next. This is the stuff nightmares are made of.
Synopsis
Datlow, referred to by some as the Mistress of Horror, has gathered ghost stories by 15 masters of the macabre in this deliciously frightening anthology of original terror.
Synopsis
Modern audiences have long inured themselves to fear, trained themselves to shut off their childish nighttime terrors and scoff in the face of deliberate scares. But award winning anthologist Ellen Datlow--called "the genre's sharpest assembler of strange, dark fictions" by William Gibson, author of
Neuromancer--was convinced that there was life in the ghost story yet. So she challenged a list of varied and talented contributors to scare the heck out of her.
The resultant collection singlehandedly redefines the ghost story, going far beyond the accustomed tropes and gore of horror stories to consider the only realm that still truly scares us: the unknown. The Dark takes a nuanced and disquieting look at the tormented and unquiet dead; the darkness in us, the living; and the sometimes tenuous boundary between the two.
Under the covers of The Dark, you will find a gathering of sixteen original, unique ghost stories, deftly penned by authors versed in the argot of the damned, including Ramsey Campbell, Jeffrey Ford, Glen Hirshberg, Tanith Lee, Kelly Link, Sharyn McCrumb, Joyce Carol Oates, Lucius Shepard, and Gahan Wilson. No two stories are alike; all are calculated to make it hard to be alone with the lights out. This is the stuff nightmares are made of.
About the Author
Ellen Datlow is a winner of seven World Fantasy Awards, two Hugo Awards for Best Editor, two Bram Stoker Awards, and the International Horror Guild Award. In a career spanning more than twenty-five years, she has been the long-time fiction editor of Omni and more recently the fiction editor of SCIFI.COM. She has edited many successful anthologies, including Blood Is Not Enough, A Whisper of Blood, and, with Terri Windling, Snow White, Blood Red and five other titles in their adult Fairy Tales anthology series; The Green Man and The Faery Reel for young adults; and, for younger readers, A Wolf at the Door and Swan Sister. She also co-edits the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror series. Ellen Datlow lives in Manhattan.
Table of Contents
The Trentino kid / Jeffrey Ford -- The ghost of the clock / Tanith Lee -- One thing about the night / Terry Dowling -- The silence of the falling stars / Mike O'Driscoll -- The dead ghost / Gahan Wilson -- Seven sisters / Jack Cady -- Subway / Joyce Carol Oates -- Doctor Hood / Stephen Gallagher -- An amicable divorce / Daniel Abraham -- Feeling remains / Ramsey Campbell -- The gallows necklace / Sharyn McCrumb -- Brownie, and me / Charles L. Grant -- Velocity / Kathe Koja -- Limbo / Lucius Shepard -- The Hortlak / Kelly Link -- Dancing men / Glen Hirshberg.