Dark Horses: The Magazine of Weird Fiction No. 41: June 2025

Dark Horses

by Wayne Kyle Spitzer, Marcel Gabbett, David Sheskin

dark horse
/ˈdärk ˈˌhôrs/
noun
1. a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or succeeds.
"a dark-horse candidate"

Join us for a monthly tour of writers who give as good as they get. From hard science-fiction to stark, melancholic apocalypses; from Lovecraftian horror to zombies and horror comedy; from whimsical interludes to tales of unlikely compassion--whatever it is, if it's weird, it's here. So grab a seat before the starting gun fires, pour yourself a glass of strange wine, and get ready for the running of the dark horses!

In this

A CARTHAGINIAN PEACE
Marcel Gabbett

A HIGHLY COMBUSTIBLE MAN
David Sheskin

A VERY THOUGHTFUL MAN
Brian Hawkins

A QUIET MIRACLE IN AN OBSCURE PLACE
Cy Hill

BEYOND THE BLACK LIMINALIS
Wayne Kyle Spitzer

BEYOND EXTREME
AJ Becker

BOSSA NOVA ON PLUTO
Kjetil Jansen

BIFURCATION POINTS
John W. Farrell

DELIVERANCE
Jennifer Kause

THE SOUL SPRING OF ZAHBALOM
Lee Clark Zumpe

191 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 16, 2025

About the author

Wayne Kyle Spitzer (born July 15, 1966) is an American author and low-budget horror filmmaker from Spokane, Washington. He is the writer/director of the short horror film, Shadows in the Garden, as well as the author of Flashback, an SF/horror novel published in 1993. Spitzer's non-genre writing has appeared in subTerrain Magazine: Strong Words for a Polite Nation and Columbia: The Magazine of Northwest History. His recent fiction includes The Ferryman Pentalogy, consisting of Comes a Ferryman, The Tempter and the Taker, The Pierced Veil, Black Hole, White Fountain, and To the End of Ursathrax, as well as The X-Ray Rider Trilogy and a screen adaptation of Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows.

Reviews

[Jenn Kause · Rating 5 out of 5]

[this review is biased partially due to my first ever published story in this magazine!]

This volume is a perfect collection of the dark, weird, and great prose!

Ratings for each story:

A Carthaginian Peace 5/5
great roman prose, satisfying violent ending

A highly combustible man 4.5/5
very anthropological vibes, short and sweet with a tinge of strange

A very thoughtful man 4/5
personally not a fan of the way women are described; interesting story and premise with meat that leaves much room for intruige

A quiet miracle in an obscure place 5/5
LOVE the prose, such a fascinating idea

Beyond the Black Curtain: Liminalis 5/5
great example of an excerpt that excites you to read the full story

Beyond Extreme 4.5/5
intruiging characters, love the table tennis and similarities with the horror aspect

Bossa Nova on Pluto 5/5
short and sweet!!

Bifurcation Points 10/5
SO INTERESTING!!! I'd love this even past a short story for sure.

Deliverance - me (I can't rate it, personally not my favorite work but I still enjoy it);
I dont like reading my own work, I see the failure of my ways.

The Soul Spring of Zahbalom 4/5
The descriptions and prose are excellent!