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Mike Allen

Goodreads Author

Born

in Minneapolis, MN, The United States

Website

http://descentintolight.com/

Twitter

mythicdelirium

Genre

Poetry, Science Fiction, Horror

Member Since

November 2012

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Mike Allen wears many creative hats, at least one of them tailor-made by his wife and partner-in-crime Anita.

An author, editor and publisher of science fiction, fantasy and horror, Mike has written, edited, or co-edited thirty-nine books, among them his forthcoming dark fantasy novel TRAIL OF SHADOWS, his sidearms, sorcery, and zombies sequence THE BLACK FIRE CONCERTO and THE GHOULMAKER’S ARIA, and his newest horror collection, SLOW BURN.

UNSEAMING and AFTERMATH OF AN INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT, his first two volumes of horror tales, were both finalists for the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Story Collection, and his dark fable “The Button Bin” was a nominee for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Another collection, THE SPIDER TAPESTRIES, conta ...more

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Mike Allen’s books

Average rating: 3.99 · 4,047 ratings · 614 reviews · 94 distinct works • Similar authors

	Unseaming by Mike Allen (Goodreads Author), Laird Barron (Goodreads Author) (Introduction) 3.68 avg rating — 487 ratings — published 2014 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Clockwork Phoenix: Tales of Beauty and Strangeness by Mike Allen (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Catherynne M. Valente (Goodreads Author), Tanith Lee 3.68 avg rating — 152 ratings — published 2008 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Clockwork Phoenix 2: More Tales of Beauty and Strangeness by Mike Allen (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Claude Lalumière (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Joanna Galbraith (Contributor) 3.93 avg rating — 92 ratings — published 2009 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Black Fire Concerto 3.64 avg rating — 85 ratings — published 2013 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Clockwork Phoenix 3: New Tales of Beauty and Strangeness by Mike Allen (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Tanith Lee (Contributor), C.S.E. Cooney (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 3.97 avg rating — 61 ratings — published 2010 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Clockwork Phoenix 4 by Mike Allen (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Yves Meynard, Ian McHugh 3.97 avg rating — 60 ratings — published 2013 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Aftermath of an Industrial Accident: Stories by Mike Allen (Goodreads Author), Jeffrey Thomas (Goodreads Author) (Introduction) 3.66 avg rating — 65 ratings — published 2020 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Clockwork Phoenix 5 by Mike Allen (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Jason Kimble (Goodreads Author), Rachael K. Jones (Goodreads Author) 3.70 avg rating — 60 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Sinister Quartet by Mike Allen (Goodreads Author), C.S.E. Cooney (Goodreads Author), Amanda J. McGee (Goodreads Author) 4.08 avg rating — 40 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Spider Tapestries: Seven Strange Stories by Mike Allen (Goodreads Author), Nicole Kornher-Stace (Goodreads Author) (Introduction) 3.61 avg rating — 31 ratings — published 2016 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Mike Allen…

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Mike Allen's Blog

TRAIL OF SHADOWS … wins the Webster Award, what???

Ravencon, Richmond’s long-running science fiction convention, established an award in 2018 to honor the memory of (Roanoke-born!) author, bookseller, essayist, and sf fan extraordinaire Bud Webster. Its full name is the Clarence Howard “Bud” Webster Award for Best Virginian Author, and as you might surmise, it is exclusively awarded to Virginia authors, usually but not necessarily for tomes in the

Series by Mike Allen

Mythic (2 books)
by

Mike Allen (Goodreads Author) (Editor)

3.69 avg rating — 13 ratings

Mike’s Recent Updates

Mike Allen and 3 other people liked Chelsea Conradt's review of The Language of Knives: Stories: "Markov's precise prose paints a viscerally beautiful horror journey in this stunning collection."
Jun 12, 2026 09:57PM · see review
Mike Allen and 1 other person liked Emma's review of The Language of Knives: Stories: "I read this as an ARC reader on NetGalley, cross posted my review on Goodreads. Wow. If I'm being honest, I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did, considering it is a collection of non-related short stories, and not a full story novel. Ever" Read more of this review »
Jun 08, 2026 04:49PM · see review
Mike Allen made a comment in the group Goodreads Librarians Group — Books attached to my author profile that are not my books topic " Hello! There are a number of books attached to my author profile (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...) that are not my books. Please remove all e ...more "
May 04, 2025 03:34PM
Mike Allen made a comment in the group Goodreads Librarians Group — Need to change default edition of The Black Fire Concerto topic " Hello, I tried requesting this yesterday but I believe I posted it in the wrong folder. At present my novel The Black Fire Concerto displays this out-o ...more "
Apr 24, 2025 05:19PM
Mike Allen made a comment in the group Goodreads Librarians Group — Need new edition of novel made the default topic " This is in regard the listing to my novel The Black Fire Concerto I need the new paperback edition The Black Fire Concerto ( ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DV3R1N8Y ) ma ...more "
Apr 23, 2025 02:35PM

More of Mike's books…

Quotes by Mike Allen (?)

“You start screaming. The screams are in Denise’s voice, in your father’s voice, in the voice of an innocent little girl, in voices you don’t recognize and never will. You”
― Mike Allen, Unseaming

2 likes

Polls

2nd Quarter 2021 - Horror #1

The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell, 416p

4 votes, 22.2%

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, 211p

2 votes, 11.1%

The Black Fire Concerto by Mike Allen, 185p

2 votes, 11.1%

Relic by Douglas Preston, 455p

2 votes, 11.1%

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman, 547p

2 votes, 11.1%

Drawing Blood by Poppy Z. Brite, 416p

1 vote, 5.6%

The Helm of Midnight by Marina J. Lostetter, 464p

1 vote, 5.6%

Bohemian Gospel by Dana Chamblee Carpenter, 400p

1 vote, 5.6%

Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis by Yoshikazu Takeuchi, 232p

1 vote, 5.6%

Dead Space by Kali Wallace, 336p

1 vote, 5.6%

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon, 368p

1 vote, 5.6%

The Initial Insult by Mindy McGinnis, 384p

0 votes, 0.0%

18 total votes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Seasonal Read...: Winter 2014 Completed Tasks: Do Not Delete Posts	4131	776	Mar 11, 2015 04:43AM
Horror Aficionados : Gothic poetry, Horror poetry, Any suggestions	25	109	Aug 09, 2015 03:40AM
A Million More Pages: ☠Team Vlad Dracula	1089	101	Oct 07, 2015 12:05AM
Supernatural Fict...: PSEUDOPOD returns	159	215	Dec 26, 2018 02:17PM
Horror Aficionados : Pseudopod	508	1108	Jul 15, 2019 10:58AM
Classic Horror Lo...: PSEUDOPOD	97	192	Jul 15, 2019 10:59AM

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Mike’s Quotes

“The appeal of the spectrally macabre is generally narrow because it demands from the reader a certain degree of imagination and a capacity for detachment from everyday life.”
― H.P. Lovecraft

126 likes

“Dismissing fantasy writing because some of it is bad is exactly like saying I'm not reading Jane Eyre because it is a romance and I know romance is crap.”
― China Miéville

tags: classics, genres, pulp

106 likes

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