The Gate: 13 Dark & Odd Tales

by Robert J. Duperre, Mercedes M. Yardley, David Dalglish

...Three brothers traipse across a post-apocalyptic landscape, encountering unspeakable horrors...

...A young boy growing up in suburban hell thinks there might be more to his home town than meets the eye, what with all the children going missing...

...A woman dying of cancer is given a way out, if only she is willing to pay the price...

...The crew of a space station must battle their fears and a strange alien relic when they are isolated from humanity...if humanity exists any longer...

These stories and more await inside the pages of The Gate: 13 Dark & Odd Tales, the new compilation by Robert J. Duperre, author of The Fall: The Rift Book I. Also contributing to this collection are the talented Mercedes M. Yardley, David Dalglish, David McAfee, and Daniel Pyle.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Science Fiction, Short Story Collection

Nook

First published November 16, 2010

About the author

My name is Robert Duperre, and I live in the middle of Connecticut with my artist wife, who's far too good for me, and a rambunctious mutt of a dog. As a lover of romance, cosmic horror, fantasy, and science fiction, I'm a writer who can't seem to stick in any particular genre. The only true constant is that I write what I'd want to read.

I've published more than a dozen novels and two short story collections. Included in my work is the 4-book post-apocalyptic series The Rift, the 5-book urban fantasy series The Infinity Trials, and the 3-part dark fantasy series The Breaking World (written with David Dalglish), along with the one-shot science fiction novel Silas, among a few others.

Reviews

[Celia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Storyline: The Gate: 13 Dark and Odd Tales is quite the wonderful and twisted anthology with contributions from the Davids Dalglish and McAfee, Mercedes M. Yardley and Daniel Pyle compiled by Robert J. Duperre.

A reluctant protector of the world. A girl who takes away your sorrows. A serial killer. A young girl enacts revenge on some neighborhood boys. Three astronauts fight for survival.

Each story is a dark, twisted and, at times, amusing tale that explores the many sides of fear that the human mind can manifest. Even introducing some that you weren’t even aware of!

Grammar/Spelling:No issues with spelling, grammar or formatting.

Character Development: Given the nature of the book, character development wasn’t a main focus. Though, I dare say it happened quite well with each story!

I loved Kitty in the Cellar, a story about a little girl who got even with the brothers who ruined her pretty dress is creepy scary and the ending is quite the shocker.

Writing Style: Each author contributed their own style to the collection and some are gorier than others, while others are definitely more twisted. I enjoyed each author’s style and really look forward to ALL of them submitting works for me to review! (And for those that I’ve ALREADY reviewed…well…I’m WAITING for more!)

As with most horror, some of the stories are quite violent, bloody and graphic. So, I wouldn’t recommend this as a bedtime story…unless your child is someone Alice Cooper or Stephen King.

Continuity: No issues with continuity.

Overall Rating: 4+

Each story is a nugget of mystery, wrapped in a short story of horror and nestled in a box of well written entertainment. I highly recommend The Gate: 13 Dark and Odd Tales an anthology of short stories compiled by Robert J. Duperre to anyone who enjoyed the Books of Blood series by Clive Barker and anyone who doesn’t mind getting spooked even though it’s not Halloween!

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read The Gate 2, and found a lot of amazing short stories. When this collection went to 99c on Kindle I snatched it up as well, but found a lot more lacking in this edition. There were shorter stories, which is fine but there weren't as many of them. And a few I wanted more from them. Like the Girl of Sorrows was really fine, as was Sullivan Street (even though it was inspired by the Counting Crows). But for the most part I didn't find anything as moving as I did in the second collection.

[Matthew Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really solid collection of shorts from authors I’ve never read before. Some really emotional and thought-provoking tales in here with not a single bad one. I see there is a second collection which I will definitely check out at some point and I’ll have to look at what some of those authors have done elsewhere.

[donald la vertu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Well worth reading

[Cheryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

On Amazon, I would have given this book a 1 if 1 didn't mean "I hate it!" I didn't like this book enough to hate it. To tell the truth, I only made it halfway through this one. I do love short stories, but you can't really define most of these as short stories. They are more like "partial" stories. Not well written as short stories at all. I love horror and science fiction, but I wouldn't catalogue these stories as either. Most of what I read seemed unfinished, a lot seem written for adolesent boys and some I wish I could forget NOW. There are some really sickening tales here. Horror doesn't have to mean grotesque, though you wouldn't know it by this collection. I'm sorry I read as much as I did. I promise not to do it again!

[Julie Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

meh, it was okay. Some stories were much better than others. A few I didn't see the point to at all.

[Cyndi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fun mix of horror and sci-fi short stories!

[Jack]

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