Northern Frights III

by Don Hutchison (Editor), Nancy Baker, Rick Hautala

There are seventeen stories in this book. They are branded "horror" by nature of our title and cover. But it's not all fear and loathing. Many of these works are genuinely terrifying, but some darkly humorous, some intriguingly atmospheric, and one, at least, imbued with a sense of cosmological mystery. The thrills continue with seventeen more outstanding tales by Rick Hautala, Nancy Baker, Tanya Huff, Stephanie Bedwell-Grime, Mel D Ames, Carolyn Clink, Sean Doolittle, Nancy Kilpatrick, Rudy Kremberg, David Nickle, James Powell, Micael Rowe, Peter Sellers, David Shtogryn, Tia Travis, Edo van Belkom, Chris Wiggins and Robert Charles Wilson.

Genres: Horror

239 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1995

Reviews

[Paul Weiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Canadian horror to make you shiver ... and it ain't the low temperatures!

The opening story in this frightening little anthology of horror shorts is entitled WILD THINGS LIVE HERE. Perhaps, editor Don Hutchison should have included a foreword entitled "WILD, WEIRD, AND WONDERFUL HORROR AUTHORS LIVE IN CANADA"!

NORTHERN FRIGHTS 3 is an all too short and completely entertaining collection of stories that beautifully covers the entire spectrum of emotions that well written horror and dark fantasy can elicit. These stories are moody, thought-provoking, frightening, darkly humorous and just plain old creepy! To my pleasure, these Canadian stories were also written in that distinct, uniquely Canadian flavour with a quiet and unerringly accurate pride of place and setting.

Some of my favourites (that is to say, what I felt to be the "best" among a collection of very, very good stories) were WILD THINGS LIVE HERE, a distinctly creepy take on missing children in Vancouver's Stanley Park; IMPOSTER, an insider's look at vampire culture in a modern world; THE SUCTION METHOD, a laugh out loud story about cleaning even the most stubborn dirt off your carpets at home; and, GRIST FOR THE MILLS OF CHRISTMAS, an exceptionally clever re-writing of the Christmas myth of St Nicholas and the tradition of gift-giving (I hope this one in particular makes you scratch your head and wonder how it could possibly qualify as a horror story!).

I count myself as having been lucky to find this one at a deep discount on the remainder table of a local book store. But, now having read and so thoroughly enjoyed it, I wonder why such a fine collection of stories met with such an ignominious fate. I'm certainly going back to find copies of the first two collections that Don Hutchison put together. If they're as good as this one, they'll be well worth the effort!

Paul Weiss

[Brian Gaston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an exceptional good series and includes stories from both known and unknown authors. Highly recommended if you like the genre.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Northern Frights 3 (1995): edited by Don Hutchison; contains the following stories:

Wild Things Live There by Michael Rowe
Silver Rings by Rick Hautala
A Debt Unpaid by Tanya Huff
Imposter by Peter Sellers
Exodus 22:18 by Nancy Baker
The Suction Method by Rudy Kremberg
Sasquatch by Mel D. Ames
Grist for the Mills of Christmas by James Powell
Tamar's Leather Pouch by David Shtogryn
Snow Angel by Nancy Kilpatrick
The Perseids by Robert Charles Wilson
Widow's Walk by Carolyn Clink
If You Know Where to Look by Chris Wiggins
The Bleeding Tree by Sean Doolittle
The Dead Go Shopping by Stephanie Bedwell-Grime
Family Ties by Edo van Belkom
The Pines by Tia V. Travis
The Summer Worms by David Nickle


Solid third volume in Canada's Northern Frights series of mostly original anthologies has one moment of editorial fright early on -- not only is the Table of Contents regrettably centre-justified, but it lacks page numbers for the stories. What the H?

The stand-outs include "Wild Things Live There" by Michael Rowe, a dandy bit of horror that anticipates some of the horrors of Laird Barron's terrific series of stories about the Children of Old Leech while remaining steadfastly Canadian -- the story even involves a migration from Ontario to British Columbia by, well, some things. Oh, Canada!

Another fine story is "The Perseids" by Robert Charles Wilson. Wilson is known as a highly regarded Canadian writer of fairly 'hard' science fiction. Here, some of that scientific and astronomical 'hardness' is present in what is otherwise a subtle, unnerving piece of cosmic horror. Or at least cosmic weirdness.

"If You Know Where to Look" by Chris Wiggins is also a nice piece of dread set in the Maritimes and involving a Scottish legend that seems to have migrated to Nova Scotia along with the Scots. And yes, he's that Chris Wiggins, Canadian actor. And he really shows an ear for believable dialogue and dialect in this story.

None of the stories are duds, though there are a few bits of whimsy that don't work as horror, weird, or whimsy. Editor Don Hutchison does his normal good work, even without page numbers on that Table of Contents. Recommended.

[Shell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who would have thought Canada had it's own anthology? A nice collection, there really weren't any duds in the bunch. My favorites (which means I will be seeking out more by these authors) were -
Wild Things Live Here - Michael Rowe
The Suction Method - rudy Kremberg
Sasquatch - Mel D. Ames
The Pines - Tia Travis
The Summer Worms - David Nickle

Now I need to go find Northern Frights I, II and IV.