Beyond Here Be Monsters: A Collection of Creatures and Curiosities

by Gregory Frost

Monsters are where you find them . . . unless they find you a young Abraham Van Helsing tracks the first vampires of his career while something far more horrible dwells much closer to home. A boxing manager seeks to discover what inhuman force could have killed his best prizefighter. A 19th century chemist investigates spiritualism, inventing a device whereby mediums speak with the dead. A werewolf awaiting a transfer of funds from home becomes embroiled in a bank robbery. A young boy discovers something unnatural living alongside him in a Chicago boarding house. A private investigator searching for a runaway wife tracks her to a town with a diabolical secret. Odysseus and his Greek soldiers climb out of the Trojan horse . . . and into a nightmare.
These are just some of the Creatures and Curiosities lurking within this collection of fourteen dark, sinister, and comic stories by Stoker, Hugo, and Nebula award finalist Gregory Frost.

335 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 5, 2024

About the author

Gregory Frost is an American author of fantasy, science fiction and thrillers. He taught fiction writing at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania for eighteen years. A graduate of the iconic Clarion Workshop, he has taught at Clarion four times, including the first session following its move to the University of California at San Diego in 2007. He has also been an instructor for the Odyssey and Alpha Workshops.

Frost has been a finalist for every major fantasy, sf, and horror fiction award. His novelette, "Madonna of the Maquiladora" was a finalist for the James Tiptree Award, the Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the Hugo Award.

His latest novel is RHYMER, the first in the Rhymer series from Baen Books. His previous work, SHADOWBRIDGE, was voted one of the best fantasy novels of 2009 by the American Library Association, it was also a finalist for the James Tiptree Jr. Award.

The historical thriller FITCHER'S BRIDES, was a Best Novel finalist for both the World Fantasy and International Horror Guild Awards for Best Novel.

Publishers Weekly called his Golden Gryphon short story collection, ATTACK OF THE JAZZ GIANTS & OTHER STORIES, “one of the best of the year.” It has now been reprinted in slightly altered form as THE GIRLFRIENDS OF DORIAN GRAY & OTHER STORIES, available through Book View Cafe.

Current short fiction includes "A Hard Day's Night at the Opera" in the Beatles-themed anthology ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, edited by Michael Ventrella and Randee Dawn, and "Episode in Liminal State Technical Support, or Mr. Grant in the Bardo" in THREE TIME TRAVELERS WALK INTO... edited by Michael A. Ventrella; "Traveling On" in the Sept/Oct. 2020 ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION magazine, and "Ellende" in WEIRD TALES #364.

He spent time (did time?) as a researcher for non-fiction television shows on werewolves and the "Curse of the Pharaohs," and acted in a couple of frightening (not necessarily in the sense of scary) indie horror movies.

Gregory Frost is a founding partner, with author Jonathan Maberry, of The Philadelphia Liars Club, a group of professional authors and screenwriters, and one of the interviewers for The Liars Club Oddcast , a podcast interviewing novelists, short story writers, screenwriters, illustrators, and more.

Reviews

[Eric Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the outer edge of maps, beyond the known world, cartographers use the phrase “Here be monsters” to indicate hidden dangers. A simple phrase that both warned and inspired potential explorers. Humanity now inhabits those areas that were once the outer realms. Lights have been shown into the dark corners. However, those hidden dangers still exist on the outer periphery of our consciousness. It is no longer the job of cartographers but authors like Gregory Frost to warn us Beyond Here Be Monsters.

Beyond Here Be Monsters is a collection of fourteen short fictions by Gregory Frost. Each tale is set in another time and place; all the stories are meant to drive chills up your spine. Frost introduces the reader to many things that go bump in the night, from vampires to werewolves to shapeshifters and many more. Much of this book reads like a devotion or fan fiction to many classic horror writers. None of the creatures are new, but it takes a mind like Frost’s to give these monsters new life. Just be warned, that new life might be yours.

This review was originally published at https://seattlebookreview.com/product...