Dark Theatres

Delta Green Fiction #4

by Benjamin Adams, Bob Kruger, Dennis Detwiller

Delta Green: Dark Theatres is the second Delta Green fiction anthology. It presents eight new stories of intrigue and horror set against the backdrop of the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft blended with modern conspiracy theory. Delta Green: Dark Theatres follows two award winning Role Playing Game sourcebooks, a novel and a previous short story anthology.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Lovecraftian, Role Playing Games, Fiction, Cthulhu Mythos, Science Fiction

299 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2001

About the author

Benjamin Adams was a 2002 Bram Stoker Award nominee for co-editing the anthology THE CHILDREN OF CTHULHU. His short fiction has appeared in the 1998 Bram Stoker Award-winning anthology HORRORS! 365 SCARY STORIES, and in anthologies such as CRIMINAL PURSUITS: THIS IS ME; MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY; BLOOD MUSE; and DELTA GREEN: DARK THEATERS. He has also written professionally for Doctor Who, in the Big Finish anthologies SHORT TRIPS: SNAPSHOTS and SHORT TRIPS: THE CENTENARIAN. 2026 appearances will include stories in PHANTASMAGORIA MAGAZINE, EXQUISITE CORPUS: A LITERARY TRIBUTE TO POPPY Z. BRITE (Nocturnicorn) and DREAMS DIVINE (Flame Tree). His stories generally deal with grief, love, pain, and trauma, although sometimes they're just about monsters.

Reviews

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

They spoke of the unspeakable horrors!

[Philip Hemplow · Rating 4 out of 5]

The standout story is also the longest - `Suicide Watch' is great and nicely written, if maybe a little uneven in pacing. The other stories are generally also above average for this kind of collection, and hold the interest. I was a bit worried it would be all guns and grenades and yippee-kay-yay, but it was pretty restrained in that regard for the most part. The opening story is a fine piece of work, that sets the tone very well and tilts at some interesting themes. Overall, not a bad collection at all, but an absolute sod to get hold of!

[Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked 'Night and Water' and 'Suicide Watch' the most.

[Robdguk · Rating 5 out of 5]

suicide watch and the corn king are my favourites

[Kevin Trainor · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection of Delta Green short fiction. If HPL is too archaic and Charles Stross' Laundry series are too cheery and optimistic, then you've come to the right place.

[Mike Mclatchey · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the endless wasteland of Cthulhu Mythos pastiches on one hand and well-meaning but modernist takes that seem to avoid as much as possible the subject of Lovecraft, it seems like the Delta Green franchise often gets ignored in the mix. If you're a fan of the secret agency fighting against the mythos menace (both Charles Stross The Laundry and David Conyers' Harrison Peel stories are perhaps the closest analogs), which I am, this shared universe version of it has managed to bring with it a surprising number of very strong stories. This is the second anthology and something of a step up from Alien Intelligence and it's anchored by the long novella "Suicide Watch" written by Arinn Dembo. Fresh off of reading the Song of Cthulhu anthology, some other types of stories where the rock band is chasing a Lovecraftian apocalypse were pretty fresh in my mind, but Dembo really grounds three strands of the mythos (pre and post Lovecraft) by creating a number of well thought out characters that balance out what to a big music fan can often be awkward takes on how a rock band operates and encompasses mythos material as lyrical content. I looked up Dembo after this to see that she hasn't written too many other mythos stories, which is a shame as this is one of the best mythos stories I have read in dozens of volumes. But there are some other gems in here as well. Dennis Detwiller's Nazi occult adventure "Night and Water" is well written pulp, both familiar with its leering Nazi villains and unfamiliar with a couple of neat twists. Greg Stolze's time jumping/transcending "As I See It" is also fascinating, while the UFO hunter gone Yith story "Russian Dolls" mows past a well meaning group of characters who find out that the reality of the universe is cruel and impartial. But honestly every story in this collection is great and well worth reading, incorporating the central cosmic horror axis to a milieu that really only works if the world doesn't quite end yet and instead inflicts these apocalypses on the persons who are rarely left unscathed by their encounters. Well worth reading.

[Noah Price · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great addition to the Delta Green canon. There is some reprints with The Corn King, but this book is worth seeking out for Suicide Watch by Arinn Dembo alone.

It helps to have read prior anthologies as there is some recurring characters and lore hints, but all stories are accessible I feel even without that background. As usual, some authors will either sip, or drink deeply from the fountain of Delta Green mythos.

Worth getting a print copy on drivethrurpg if you can, the PDFs are bad.

[Blaise Carland · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know what? This was really good. I expected the first collection (or maybe one of the first) to be rough with lots of sexualized talk of guns and special forces stuff. It wasn’t that at all. Good stories all of them.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstandingly strong and entertaining collection. Better even than "Alien Intelligence."

[Benjamin Uke · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Deception is a right. Truth is a privilege. Innocence is a luxury." A fun gritty new conspiracy-punk take on a genre that has become rather run-down in recent years.