Nemonymous Two

Nemonymous #2

by D.F. Lewis (editor), Rhys Hughes, Anthony Mann

Genres: Short Stories

96 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2002

About the author

Writer, editor and publisher, active in the small press. Winner of the British Fantasy Society Special Award (the Karl Edward Wagner Award) in 1998.

Reviews

[Muazzam Dawood · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the greatest short story collections I have ever read in my life.

[J. P. Wiske · Rating 3 out of 5]

This anthology is highly uneven and, as a whole, less effective than the first issue of Nemonymous. Most of the stories are characterized by a kind of aimlessness that I have come to associate with the editor's own writing style. Occasionally, this produces an uneasy Weird-ness, but more often than not, it's boring and seems borderline onanistic. When D.F. Lewis is able to curb his affinity for this kind of authorial voice (in himself and others) he is a truly skilled editor and author. Unfortunately, he let the leash slip loose on this one.

Still, this anthology contains at least three excellent stories, two of which successfully occupy that narrative fuzziness of the Weird: "The Vanishing Life and Films of Emmanuel Escobeda" and "The Drowned". The third, "Berenice's Journal", is more standard horror fare, but expertly and delightfully executed. Frankly, the strength of these stories is what gets this book out of 2-star territory.

Importantly, the conceptual exercise of "nemonymity" is in no way diminished by this generally weak outing. Indeed, several of the weaker stories in this collection were by authors whose work I've enjoyed in the past, so it was refreshing, in a way, to let them rise and fall on their merits. The clean-slate reading experience is one that I look forward to repeating with subsequent issues of this anthology series.