Volume two of Planet X Publications fund raising anthology is pretty consistent with volume one. Again we see a few entries that seem thematically linked to the title and cause, but certainly not the majority of stories. Again we have a somewhat uneven distribution of styles and quality throughout. Like the first volume, I really struggled with my focus on some of these stories, some felt too abbreviated as if excerpted from something longer or perhaps ended prematurely for lack of space, and other left me wanting more from that particular author.
Kurt Fawver's "A Plague of the Most Beautiful Finery" feels like one of the best disguised leftist/anticap pieces of fiction I've ever read, and is truly a horror for our time (and fashion). Similarly, Jayaprakash Satyamurthy has what feels like a very topical treatment of the possible horrors of growing old in an overall aging population and the complications arising from the interactions of that and full bodily autonomy in "The Last to Die".
T.M. Morgan's "The Hammer Dulcimer" reminds me a sexier, gender swapped, "Fallen". But I'm a sucker for that movie so I really enjoyed this. And on the subject of well done pastiches, "The City of Xees" by Scott Couturier reads very much like a Dreamlands, Nightlands, or Clark Ashton Smith fragment in style and content. A.P. Sessler's, "The Figurehead" feels a bit like a (good) episode of the Friday the 13th show with its cursed masthead, and Ross T. Byer's "Growth; or, The Transubstantiation of Apartment 3c" feels like a perfect episode of Monsters...if Monsters had been an HBO show.
Brooke Warra's "Fertility" treads the ground of a few different horrors and is ultimately a satisfying meal.
"Zugzwang" by K. H. Vaughn is probably my favorite piece from the this collection. It maintains a steady sense of dread, yet ultimately the only horror we find is that of inter-generational trauma and guilt. Easily the most beautifully crafted and poignant inclusion. Its closely followed by, both in my estimation and spatially, "On a Bed of Bones" by Can Wiggins, a King-esque fantastic coming of age story.
John Paul Smith has a strong, inclusive, 80s in London period slasher/thriller piece in "The Outsider".
Jonathan Mayberry's "We All Make Sacrifices" is a very well done sleazy supernatural detective story that I'm absolutely sure could be spun out into a series that could ride the all too pervasive urban fantasy wave.
There's a really 'stellar' science fiction inclusion by Marguerite Reed in the form of a dystopic, solar system settled future al a The Expense, "Umbriel is the Darkest Moon", that I would love to read more of.
My last honorable mention goes to Andrew Reichart for a fun little fragment "Convince Me Not to Put a Bell on You" which includes no human characters. Instead, we have some undescribed creatures, intimations of some sort of bugs, and cats. And what horror fan isn't a sucker for cats?
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- Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2024
