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Urban Occult
Behind urban life, weird and horrific things fester.
The whispers and chills of things long gone… the promise of power from the darkness… the seduction of those that lie in the shadows… the occult is all around us: in town houses, in mansions, and in your very own street.
Editor Colin F. Barnes collected together fifteen stories by a cast of critically acclaimed authors from around the globe who look into the stygian gloom, explore the dark corners of our houses, and peer into the abyss of human temptation.
The whispers and chills of things long gone… the promise of power from the darkness… the seduction of those that lie in the shadows… the occult is all around us: in town houses, in mansions, and in your very own street.
Editor Colin F. Barnes collected together fifteen stories by a cast of critically acclaimed authors from around the globe who look into the stygian gloom, explore the dark corners of our houses, and peer into the abyss of human temptation.
222 pages, Paperback
First published March 14, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 12, 2013
When I get the time I like to try and include the occasional short story collection in my reading schedule. It’s nice to take a break from the confines of the novel and enjoy some fiction in the short form. I’ve always felt the horror lends itself particularly well to this format. Nothing better than a series of short, sharp shocks is there?
Some of this particular collection highlights include:
Just Another Job by Gary McMahon - Two men break into a house with a very specific task in mind. But wait, this is a story by Gary McMahon so you shouldn’t be surprised when I tell you that not everything is exactly as it first appears. I’ve said in the past that the first story in any anthology has the unenviable task of acting as the hook for the entire collection. The reassuring news is that Gary McMahon is a master when it comes to short fiction, and he gets things off to a suitably dark start.
Spider Daughter Spider by Jennifer Williams - A family split apart, a father whose sanity is starting to slip away and the special youngster who offers a potential for redemption… or does she? Oooh, this one properly creeped me out. Verging on the surreal one moment, and then devastatingly sad the next. The final moments of this will stay with me for quite some time.
Elevator by Adam Millard - Living in a tower block can literally be hell. This story managed to tap very effectively into my distrust of high rise buildings. (What can I say? I just don’t like them). Based on the evidence on display here, my gut reaction was entirely right.
The Remover of Obstacles by James Brogden - A man runs into a little difficulty when trying to pick up his car after its MOT. With its darkly comic tone, this little gem caught me by surprise. No spoilers, but the ending of this is brilliant fun.
Wonderland by K T Davies - Two down-and-outs live rough on the city streets, but appearances can be deceptive. It turns out that magic is everywhere if you just know where to look. Once again, K T Davies’ writing manages to not only entertain, but also offer insight in equal measure.
Probatio Diablocia by Nerine Droman - A reporter sits down to talk with a Satanist. She doesn’t end up getting quite the interview she was expecting. This story brings a bit of international flavour to proceedings with events taking place in South Africa.
The Other Woman by Chris Barnham - Hell hath no fury like a women scorned. It turns out that this phrase is even truer when the woman in question is a vengeful spirit. The author successfully takes the traditional ghost story and flips it squarely on its head.
The Strange Case of Mrs West and the Dead by Sarah Anne Langton - Enter the strange world of ‘Occult Practitioner’ Mrs West. In any collection I always find that there are always some stories that leave me wanting more. This falls firmly into that category. Mrs West is a delight and I’d love to read more of her adventures.
And that’s just over half of the collection, there are loads more left for a reader to discover. From a school trip gone wrong, or tattoos with a mind of their own; to children trying to out dare one another and demons who are keen on kidnapping. I’ve not even mentioned the cursed amulet that stops time, the inner city gang members who decided to take on a possessed tower block, or the detective that helps restless spirits find peace. The best news is that I don’t think there is a duff entry amongst the lot.
The editors at Anachron Press have real skill when it comes to selecting just the right mix of material to appear in their short story anthologies. Like a modern, slightly darker, homage to Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected there is some fine fiction on display here. Authors new to me sit right alongside others whose work I already rate very highly. If you enjoy short fiction with a definite bite then this could well be the collection for you.
Some of this particular collection highlights include:
Just Another Job by Gary McMahon - Two men break into a house with a very specific task in mind. But wait, this is a story by Gary McMahon so you shouldn’t be surprised when I tell you that not everything is exactly as it first appears. I’ve said in the past that the first story in any anthology has the unenviable task of acting as the hook for the entire collection. The reassuring news is that Gary McMahon is a master when it comes to short fiction, and he gets things off to a suitably dark start.
Spider Daughter Spider by Jennifer Williams - A family split apart, a father whose sanity is starting to slip away and the special youngster who offers a potential for redemption… or does she? Oooh, this one properly creeped me out. Verging on the surreal one moment, and then devastatingly sad the next. The final moments of this will stay with me for quite some time.
Elevator by Adam Millard - Living in a tower block can literally be hell. This story managed to tap very effectively into my distrust of high rise buildings. (What can I say? I just don’t like them). Based on the evidence on display here, my gut reaction was entirely right.
The Remover of Obstacles by James Brogden - A man runs into a little difficulty when trying to pick up his car after its MOT. With its darkly comic tone, this little gem caught me by surprise. No spoilers, but the ending of this is brilliant fun.
Wonderland by K T Davies - Two down-and-outs live rough on the city streets, but appearances can be deceptive. It turns out that magic is everywhere if you just know where to look. Once again, K T Davies’ writing manages to not only entertain, but also offer insight in equal measure.
Probatio Diablocia by Nerine Droman - A reporter sits down to talk with a Satanist. She doesn’t end up getting quite the interview she was expecting. This story brings a bit of international flavour to proceedings with events taking place in South Africa.
The Other Woman by Chris Barnham - Hell hath no fury like a women scorned. It turns out that this phrase is even truer when the woman in question is a vengeful spirit. The author successfully takes the traditional ghost story and flips it squarely on its head.
The Strange Case of Mrs West and the Dead by Sarah Anne Langton - Enter the strange world of ‘Occult Practitioner’ Mrs West. In any collection I always find that there are always some stories that leave me wanting more. This falls firmly into that category. Mrs West is a delight and I’d love to read more of her adventures.
And that’s just over half of the collection, there are loads more left for a reader to discover. From a school trip gone wrong, or tattoos with a mind of their own; to children trying to out dare one another and demons who are keen on kidnapping. I’ve not even mentioned the cursed amulet that stops time, the inner city gang members who decided to take on a possessed tower block, or the detective that helps restless spirits find peace. The best news is that I don’t think there is a duff entry amongst the lot.
The editors at Anachron Press have real skill when it comes to selecting just the right mix of material to appear in their short story anthologies. Like a modern, slightly darker, homage to Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected there is some fine fiction on display here. Authors new to me sit right alongside others whose work I already rate very highly. If you enjoy short fiction with a definite bite then this could well be the collection for you.
March 25, 2013
Assembled by Colin F Barnes and packaged beautifully (special mention to Sarah Ann Langton for the stunning cover art), this collects 15 stories which ‘look into the stygian gloom, explore the dark corners of our houses, and peer into the abyss of human temptation.’ There’s a real variety of styles here - from horror to comedy, from crime to drama - and enough of them hit the ground running for this to be nothing less than a success (clearly not all of the stories appealed to me but then, who ever likes every story in an anthology?). Stand-outs for me were “Just Another Job” by Gary McMahon (as bleak as ever, this has two hit-men go to the house of a child abuser but things are not at all what they seem), “Spider Daughter Spider” by Jennifer Williams (a very dark, very touching fairy tale about a desperate father), “Elevator” by Adam Millard (a pacey shocker about a council block that demands payment), “The Ghosts of my City Walk” by Ren Warom (a quite terrifying ghost story that is beautifully set up), “The Remover of Obstacles” by James Brogden (a man needs his car repairing but the chase to find it leads him to something that demands payment), “The Other Woman” by Chris Barnham (a spooky tale of bereavement and not-so-lost love) and “The Strange Case of Mrs West & the Dead” by Sarah Anne Langton (a comic highlight, which is essentially a monologue from a spiritual remover). Great fun, great writing, this is highly recommended (with the declared interest that my story “The Witch House” is included in the collection) and I’m keen to see what Mr Barnes comes up with next.
May 6, 2013
I had the pleasure of receiving the new Anachron Press anthology Urban Occult for an honest review. Short and sweet, this is one fine collection of stories from a lot of names I will now be watching out for. There are too many (fifteen in total) great stories in this book to pick out just one or two.
This book runs the gamut of what can fit in this genre, and I found myself enjoying each and every story on its own merit. Very pleased with this and will have to write better if I'm going to be included in such an illustrious group.
This is worth every penny of its cost (a mere 2.99) and I highly recommend you get yourself out there and occulted!!
This book runs the gamut of what can fit in this genre, and I found myself enjoying each and every story on its own merit. Very pleased with this and will have to write better if I'm going to be included in such an illustrious group.
This is worth every penny of its cost (a mere 2.99) and I highly recommend you get yourself out there and occulted!!
June 7, 2013
Urban Occult
Edited by Colin F. Barnes
I’ve never really got along with the concept of Urban Fantasy, no one ever seems really sure what it means other than ‘supernatural things happening in a city setting’. They are usually US cities too, where supernatural stuff happens every day and people just shrug and get on with their lives.
Which is why this anthology is such a breath of fresh air.
The term Urban Occult is actually a very good description for the genre of the stories in this anthology. Close enough to Urban Fantasy to make followers of that consider it something they may want to read but different enough to bring in those who may have been put off by the many less than wonderful examples of the genre. Though, in actual fact the true genre of this collection is more like Speculative Fiction than Urban Fantasy and if I were pressed to definitively pigeonhole it that is where I would place it. Think something closer to the short writings of Neil Gaiman, such as those published in Fables and Reflections or Fragile Things, where the supernatural is a dark, hidden thing glimpsed through a very thin veil. Close enough to our own world but with unseen things lurking in the darkness rather than a world where magicians and supernatural creatures walk openly in the streets and are seen as normal.
This is an eclectic selection of very dark stories. Most of them set in the UK, many of them with less than savoury main characters and several with endings that are not on the right side of happy. This is not a place where magic means sparkling lights or epic struggles where heroic magicians throw fireballs around. Here magic is subtle and always has a price. In Spider Daughter Spider by Jennifer Williams, for example, a man broken by divorce makes a homunculus of his daughter out of random things left in her room while Chris Barnham’s The Other Woman explores the consequences of hauntings and magic and the danger of a woman scorned. There are less dark tales, of course. James Brogden’s Remover of Obstacles is almost comic in its description of a man being led round an increasingly more bizarre and Kafkaesque series of hurdles in order to get his car back from its MOT, for example. The Strange Case of Mrs West and the Dead is another typical piece of British dry humour and reminiscent of elements of Mike Carey’s Felix Castor novels. However, there are few tales without appeal or a cruel twist at the end. This is what Urban Occult seems to typify – gritty, down to earth, largely UK based contemporary fantasy fiction.
Overall this is a very strong collection of tales and I doubt any fan of paranormal, horror, spec fic, fantasy or whatever will fail to find a story that appeals to them. If you like the fiction of Neil Gaimain, Mike Carey and Charles Stross, read comics like Hellblazer, enjoy watching the Twilight Zone or have played World of Darkness roleplaying games you are very likely to enjoy much of what is in here. Even if you have done none of these things, it is still worth checking out.
Edited by Colin F. Barnes
I’ve never really got along with the concept of Urban Fantasy, no one ever seems really sure what it means other than ‘supernatural things happening in a city setting’. They are usually US cities too, where supernatural stuff happens every day and people just shrug and get on with their lives.
Which is why this anthology is such a breath of fresh air.
The term Urban Occult is actually a very good description for the genre of the stories in this anthology. Close enough to Urban Fantasy to make followers of that consider it something they may want to read but different enough to bring in those who may have been put off by the many less than wonderful examples of the genre. Though, in actual fact the true genre of this collection is more like Speculative Fiction than Urban Fantasy and if I were pressed to definitively pigeonhole it that is where I would place it. Think something closer to the short writings of Neil Gaiman, such as those published in Fables and Reflections or Fragile Things, where the supernatural is a dark, hidden thing glimpsed through a very thin veil. Close enough to our own world but with unseen things lurking in the darkness rather than a world where magicians and supernatural creatures walk openly in the streets and are seen as normal.
This is an eclectic selection of very dark stories. Most of them set in the UK, many of them with less than savoury main characters and several with endings that are not on the right side of happy. This is not a place where magic means sparkling lights or epic struggles where heroic magicians throw fireballs around. Here magic is subtle and always has a price. In Spider Daughter Spider by Jennifer Williams, for example, a man broken by divorce makes a homunculus of his daughter out of random things left in her room while Chris Barnham’s The Other Woman explores the consequences of hauntings and magic and the danger of a woman scorned. There are less dark tales, of course. James Brogden’s Remover of Obstacles is almost comic in its description of a man being led round an increasingly more bizarre and Kafkaesque series of hurdles in order to get his car back from its MOT, for example. The Strange Case of Mrs West and the Dead is another typical piece of British dry humour and reminiscent of elements of Mike Carey’s Felix Castor novels. However, there are few tales without appeal or a cruel twist at the end. This is what Urban Occult seems to typify – gritty, down to earth, largely UK based contemporary fantasy fiction.
Overall this is a very strong collection of tales and I doubt any fan of paranormal, horror, spec fic, fantasy or whatever will fail to find a story that appeals to them. If you like the fiction of Neil Gaimain, Mike Carey and Charles Stross, read comics like Hellblazer, enjoy watching the Twilight Zone or have played World of Darkness roleplaying games you are very likely to enjoy much of what is in here. Even if you have done none of these things, it is still worth checking out.
May 13, 2013
Horror is not my bag, yet. I’m still learning. I know enough to realise I don’t like spatter-gore, or horror that involves detailed explanation of the removal of body parts. Fortunately – for me - Urban Occult, edited by Colin F Barnes and published by Anachron Press, has no truck with this type of horror.
Urban Occult is focused very much more on what I call (probably erroneously) psychological horror, or Hitchcockian horror. It’s less blatant, less in your face, and more situational, suggestive.
I won’t pretend that I liked every story. I questioned the inclusion of a couple, and simply didn’t get a couple more, and some I thought were well written, but not particularly horrific. The majority, though, are snappy, compelling, and thought-provoking.
The anthology covers everything from creepy golem-children, through a people eating house, to moving tattoo jigsaw. In fact, Pieces by Julie Travis, for which the latter is the subject, is one of the outstanding stories of the collection.
Other specific mentions are hereby awarded to James Brogden for The Remover of Obstacles and The Strange Case of Mrs West and the Dead by Sarah Anne Langton
For me, though, Wonderland by K T Davies was the scream of the crop. Yes – I did mean to just that word. Wonderland skirts the edges of insanity and fantasy, both urban and classic, and kept me up far too late finishing it off.
Whilst I reviewed this anthology in return for an e-book copy provided by the editor, my comments are fair and impartial, Even so, I still recommend this book as a fine read.
Urban Occult is focused very much more on what I call (probably erroneously) psychological horror, or Hitchcockian horror. It’s less blatant, less in your face, and more situational, suggestive.
I won’t pretend that I liked every story. I questioned the inclusion of a couple, and simply didn’t get a couple more, and some I thought were well written, but not particularly horrific. The majority, though, are snappy, compelling, and thought-provoking.
The anthology covers everything from creepy golem-children, through a people eating house, to moving tattoo jigsaw. In fact, Pieces by Julie Travis, for which the latter is the subject, is one of the outstanding stories of the collection.
Other specific mentions are hereby awarded to James Brogden for The Remover of Obstacles and The Strange Case of Mrs West and the Dead by Sarah Anne Langton
For me, though, Wonderland by K T Davies was the scream of the crop. Yes – I did mean to just that word. Wonderland skirts the edges of insanity and fantasy, both urban and classic, and kept me up far too late finishing it off.
Whilst I reviewed this anthology in return for an e-book copy provided by the editor, my comments are fair and impartial, Even so, I still recommend this book as a fine read.
April 26, 2013
I don't read many anthologies, but knowing the quality of fiction Anachron Press releases, I couldn't help but gobble this one up. And I was not disappointed: URBAN OCCULT is simply one of the best anthologies on the market with stories by genre favorites like Gary Fry and Gary McMahon, and haunting, taut tales from newer writers I'd not yet had the pleasure of reading.
Each story contains a unique darkness and a gritty realism that I found compelling. From vampires to ghosts to haunted houses to occult rituals, there's something for everyone to enjoy.
The highlights for me included Mark West's THE WITCH HOUSE, Ren Warom's THE GHOSTS OF MY CITY WALK, Gary McMahon's JUST ANOTHER JOB, and Jason Andrew's A SIMPLE JOB.
There is a ton of talent on display here, all put together nicely by editor and author Colin Barnes.
If you buy one anthology this year, make it URBAN OCCULT.
Each story contains a unique darkness and a gritty realism that I found compelling. From vampires to ghosts to haunted houses to occult rituals, there's something for everyone to enjoy.
The highlights for me included Mark West's THE WITCH HOUSE, Ren Warom's THE GHOSTS OF MY CITY WALK, Gary McMahon's JUST ANOTHER JOB, and Jason Andrew's A SIMPLE JOB.
There is a ton of talent on display here, all put together nicely by editor and author Colin Barnes.
If you buy one anthology this year, make it URBAN OCCULT.
Currently reading
May 24, 2024"The Strange Case of Mrs West & the Dead" by Sarah Anne Langton - Mr. Moses returns from the dead over a financial dispute with Mr. Cain. The protagonist gets rid of Mr. Moses by composing a fake newspaper obituary for Mr. Cain.
"On the Horizon" by Gary Fry - Gareth witnesses the ghostly depiction of a rape at the top of a tower and is able to change the outcome by intervening.
"The Remover of Obstacles" by James Brogden - A man is sacrificed in the UK for the purpose of keeping the roads open.
"On the Horizon" by Gary Fry - Gareth witnesses the ghostly depiction of a rape at the top of a tower and is able to change the outcome by intervening.
"The Remover of Obstacles" by James Brogden - A man is sacrificed in the UK for the purpose of keeping the roads open.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 10, 2013
An excellent collection of dark fantasy and horror stories, from some of the UK's most promising talent.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews