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Dark Horizons: An Anthology of Dark Science Fiction
Stranded on an off-world base, a tech specialist seeks to outwit a confused AI before it kills him. In the depths of space, a mining ship finds a vein of ore that will make everyone aboard rich—if they figure out what happened to the crew of the ship that was here before them. Waiting for the unwary reader of this book are stories of madmen playing with science beyond their control, and alien creatures with malign intent. Welcome to Dark Horizons, where the future is lost.
Table of Contents:
Dark of the Moon by James Dorr
Gospel of the Ascended Machines by Aaron J. French
Demon on His Shoulder by Eric Del Carlo
The Fall of Strongholds by Joshua Steely
Digital Edition by L.Chan
A Small Plot of Land by Benjamin Sperduto
The Glass Plague by Costi Gurgu
Circular Argument by Darin Kennedy
Drifting Into the Black by Timothy G. Huguenin
The Damascus Code by Lee Zumpe
Ice Cream by Jay Caselberg
Last Contact by Stewart Sternberg
Making the Rounds by Adrian Ludens
Mother Lode by David Hoenig
The Psychic Battery by E. Dane Anderson
The Shipment by Kevin Bannigan Jr.
The Yellow Planet by Eric Blair
We Have Rules Here by Madison McSweeney
Deeper by Christopher Fulbright
Table of Contents:
Dark of the Moon by James Dorr
Gospel of the Ascended Machines by Aaron J. French
Demon on His Shoulder by Eric Del Carlo
The Fall of Strongholds by Joshua Steely
Digital Edition by L.Chan
A Small Plot of Land by Benjamin Sperduto
The Glass Plague by Costi Gurgu
Circular Argument by Darin Kennedy
Drifting Into the Black by Timothy G. Huguenin
The Damascus Code by Lee Zumpe
Ice Cream by Jay Caselberg
Last Contact by Stewart Sternberg
Making the Rounds by Adrian Ludens
Mother Lode by David Hoenig
The Psychic Battery by E. Dane Anderson
The Shipment by Kevin Bannigan Jr.
The Yellow Planet by Eric Blair
We Have Rules Here by Madison McSweeney
Deeper by Christopher Fulbright
- GenresScience FictionHorror
288 pages, Paperback
Published November 15, 2016
2 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 6, 2017
The main theme of this one goes on the various ways that the future of mankind could be lost to.
19 is the number of the stories that this Anthology has.
Overall I have mixed feeling about this one particular Anthology because it has a romanian writer in it, Costi Gurgu, and his story, The Glass Plague, it`s one of the best here. And that`s an easy fact to prove to anyone who says that I`m subjective on the case.
I`m glad that over these years he hasn`t lost his touch and he`s selling his short stories, until now, with notable success. Also, I`m dying of anticipation to read his delayed novel, Recipearum, a dark fantasy feast, that will mark his debut in english language with a novel.
Anyway, so, the begining of the Anthology was intriguing for me because it has a space story, Dark of The Moon by James Dorr, mixed with a little Lovecraftian flavor.
And after that particulary one, until one point, the other stories have a more technologized feeling. The vast majority of them, anyway.
For me, the most known writer here is Aaron J. French, from his background work in the Lovecraftian field. But, too bad for him, his story wasn`t something notable.
In a moment of pause, after the third story, I tought to read the bio of the writers from this Anthology and suddenly I was hyped to read that a lot of them had interests and works published in the Lovecraft Universe. Oh, boy! Oh, boy!
In the first half of the book these influences manifested in some of two or, maximum, three stories, but the second half is much dense and more Lovecraftian than I could hope to read.
"The most hated story here": Ice Cream - Jay Caselberg - About a serial killer. I hate this kind of story and I didn`t see any meaning to it to be here.
"The most entertaining story": Making The Round - Adrien Ludens - It combines some of the same Lovecraft flavour, but in a very pleasant way, with a good thinked final twist. A nurse it`s making her rounds in a strange hospital. Be very carefull with whom you talk to! :)
"The most dull and WHY You`ll Still Write Something Like This Anymore?!" : The Yellow Planet - Eric Blair. Have you seen Event Horizon or Ghosts of Mars? Well, you`ll know much of the things that happens here. And unfortunately this is not the only story with strange things that get out of a hand on a ship. For me that`s not a good thing. I don`t want to read the same story over and over. One of these would be enough.
"The one with the most depth and character building" : The Glass Plague - Costi Gurgu. Because the characters are really sticking with you, the mystery and the unknown Plague goes in the back of your mind and is very intriguing. The complexity of the characters struggling in a day to day basis has an important role in the evolution of the story. And I have to say that this is the longest story of the volume with 28 pages after the numbering in the Contents Area.
"The one that I liked a lot in the beginning and in the end was kind of Meh": Demon on His Shoulder - Eric Del Carlo, About the entering in legality of the bonding of humans with an alien lifeform, The Meld.
Overall If I was to compare this one with some of the latest Anthologies that I`ve read, published by Datlow, Jones, Jack Dann, or others, I guess the entertainment factor was pretty good. Not very high, but good.
Three and a half stars. So it will be Four in the end.
PS: In case you`re wondering about the monster of the cover, or a good variation of it, it`s really appearing in the last story of the book. Where the action takes place on a... You guessed! A spaceship!!!.
19 is the number of the stories that this Anthology has.
Overall I have mixed feeling about this one particular Anthology because it has a romanian writer in it, Costi Gurgu, and his story, The Glass Plague, it`s one of the best here. And that`s an easy fact to prove to anyone who says that I`m subjective on the case.
I`m glad that over these years he hasn`t lost his touch and he`s selling his short stories, until now, with notable success. Also, I`m dying of anticipation to read his delayed novel, Recipearum, a dark fantasy feast, that will mark his debut in english language with a novel.
Anyway, so, the begining of the Anthology was intriguing for me because it has a space story, Dark of The Moon by James Dorr, mixed with a little Lovecraftian flavor.
And after that particulary one, until one point, the other stories have a more technologized feeling. The vast majority of them, anyway.
For me, the most known writer here is Aaron J. French, from his background work in the Lovecraftian field. But, too bad for him, his story wasn`t something notable.
In a moment of pause, after the third story, I tought to read the bio of the writers from this Anthology and suddenly I was hyped to read that a lot of them had interests and works published in the Lovecraft Universe. Oh, boy! Oh, boy!
In the first half of the book these influences manifested in some of two or, maximum, three stories, but the second half is much dense and more Lovecraftian than I could hope to read.
"The most hated story here": Ice Cream - Jay Caselberg - About a serial killer. I hate this kind of story and I didn`t see any meaning to it to be here.
"The most entertaining story": Making The Round - Adrien Ludens - It combines some of the same Lovecraft flavour, but in a very pleasant way, with a good thinked final twist. A nurse it`s making her rounds in a strange hospital. Be very carefull with whom you talk to! :)
"The most dull and WHY You`ll Still Write Something Like This Anymore?!" : The Yellow Planet - Eric Blair. Have you seen Event Horizon or Ghosts of Mars? Well, you`ll know much of the things that happens here. And unfortunately this is not the only story with strange things that get out of a hand on a ship. For me that`s not a good thing. I don`t want to read the same story over and over. One of these would be enough.
"The one with the most depth and character building" : The Glass Plague - Costi Gurgu. Because the characters are really sticking with you, the mystery and the unknown Plague goes in the back of your mind and is very intriguing. The complexity of the characters struggling in a day to day basis has an important role in the evolution of the story. And I have to say that this is the longest story of the volume with 28 pages after the numbering in the Contents Area.
"The one that I liked a lot in the beginning and in the end was kind of Meh": Demon on His Shoulder - Eric Del Carlo, About the entering in legality of the bonding of humans with an alien lifeform, The Meld.
Overall If I was to compare this one with some of the latest Anthologies that I`ve read, published by Datlow, Jones, Jack Dann, or others, I guess the entertainment factor was pretty good. Not very high, but good.
Three and a half stars. So it will be Four in the end.
PS: In case you`re wondering about the monster of the cover, or a good variation of it, it`s really appearing in the last story of the book. Where the action takes place on a... You guessed! A spaceship!!!.
December 17, 2016
I was excited to read this because it kept showing up in my Facebook news-feed and it looked interesting, at least the cover art did. I bought it from Barnes & Noble about the time it was first released and couldn't wait to start reading the stories in it. I have had it for over a month and I just can't get into it, the stories are bland and uninteresting. The power of advertising lead me to purchase the book, but the power of poor writing lead me to abandon reading this book.
February 22, 2021
Fun short stories that usually have crazy plot twists. .. easy to read in a short sitting.
April 9, 2017
Calling it quits on this one, at least for now. I hate to give up when I'm so far in, but none of the stories so far have impressed me, and most of them seem to lean more towards Lovecraftian than dark science fiction (which isn't bad, but it's not what the book led me to expect). Maybe I'll finish this one later. Probably not.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews