Fearful Fathoms: Collected Tales of Aquatic Terror

by Richard Chizmar, Mark Parker (Editor), Jack Ketchum (Contributor)

HOW DEEP DOES YOUR FEAR GO? Scarlet Galleon Publications and editor Mark Parker are here to help you find out!
Volume I of this new double-anthology features a long-unpublished story ("Seascape") from Jack Ketchum, a landmark collaboration ("Widow's Point") from father-and-son writing duo, Richard Chizmar and Billy Chizmar, and many other eerie tales, accompanied by full-color illustrations by Luke Spooner.

In order of appearance, stories include:
"Widow's Point" by Richard Chizmar & Billy Chizmar
"The Gray Man" by Mark Parker
"Fear Sun" by Laird Barron
"Carnacki: The Lusitania" by William Meikle
"Floodland" by Cameron Pierce
"Sirens" by Dallas Mullican
"Draugar" by Bryan Clark
"Old Bogey" by Lori R. Lopez
"The Lighthouse" by Annie Neugebauer
"Port of Call" by W.D. Gagliani
"Beneath the Surface" by Stuart Keane
"Once Tolled the Lutine Bell" by Jack Rollins
"She Beckons" by D.G.
"Cape Hadel" by Brad P. Christy
"Seastruck" by John Everson
"Alone on the Waves" by Eric S. Brown
"Band of Souls" by CM Saunders
"A Thousand Thick and Terrible Things" by David Mickolas
"Maelstrom" by Doug Rinaldi
"Hallowed Point" by Andrew Bell
"Wanderer" by Shane Lindemoen
"Canned Crab" by Nick Nafpliotis
"On Ullins Bank" by John Linwood Grant
"The Way We Are Lifted" by Aric Sundquist
"Surviving the River Styx" by Paul Michael Anderson
"The Water Elemental" by A.P. Sessler
"The Paper Shield" by James Lowder
"Seascape" by Jack Ketchum
"Corbett's Cage" by Shawn P. Madison
"Jonah Inside the Whale: A Meditation" by Jason Sechrest

Genres: Horror, Anthologies, Short Stories

570 pages, Paperback

First published August 29, 2017

About the author

Richard Chizmar is a New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Amazon, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author.

He is the co-author (with Stephen King) of the bestselling novella, Gwendy’s Button Box and the founder/publisher of Cemetery Dance magazine and the Cemetery Dance Publications book imprint. He has edited more than 35 anthologies and his short fiction has appeared in dozens of publications, including multiple editions of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories. He has won two World Fantasy awards, four International Horror Guild awards, and the HWA’s Board of Trustee’s award.

Chizmar (in collaboration with Johnathon Schaech) has also written screenplays and teleplays for United Artists, Sony Screen Gems, Lions Gate, Showtime, NBC, and many other companies. He has adapted the works of many bestselling authors including Stephen King, Peter Straub, and Bentley Little.

Chizmar is also the creator/writer of the online website, Stephen King Revisited. His fourth short story collection, The Long Way Home, was published in 2019. With Brian Freeman, Chizmar is co-editor of the acclaimed Dark Screams horror anthology series published by Random House imprint, Hydra.

His latest book, The Girl on the Porch, was released in hardcover by Subterranean Press, and Widow’s Point, a chilling novella about a haunted lighthouse written with his son, Billy Chizmar, was recently adapted into a feature film.

Chizmar’s work has been translated into more than fifteen languages throughout the world, and he has appeared at numerous conferences as a writing instructor, guest speaker, panelist, and guest of honor.

Reviews

[Lena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanderer by Shane Lindemoen ★★★★★
I read this in the deep dark with my kindle on low light...
FUCK
I was breathing shallowly and my eyes had started to bug out.
There was real fear on these pages, my own.


Old Bogey by Lori R. Lopez ★★★★☆
A little clumsy at times and emotionally hard to get through but a good story, a worthy story.


She Beckons by D.G. Sutter ★★★★☆
“Nobody would ever, could ever, understand.”

This received a whole extra star for the funny ending. If you loved Betty White in Lake Placid, you’ll understand.


Seastruck by John Everson ★★★★☆
“Playtime was over.”

Sexy. Brutal. Gory. And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Gives a new meaning to swallow.


A Thousand Thick and Terrible Things by David Mickolas ★★★★☆
“The sound escaping him was pain and fright and misery. All the things he caused his family over all these years.”

Revenge and monsters of all sorts - my kind of story. Though mostly off piste, this family drama has enough depth to show that pain, love, hate, and devotion can all lead to the same shattering conclusion...

“I killed my mother because I loved her. I killed my father because I hated him.
And now, it was my turn.”


Hallowed Point by Andrew Bell ★★★★☆
Oh we have gone full dark here. When a family loses their son to an accident, none of them deal with it well. One doesn’t accept the loss at all.

The threads come together for a little punch ending... well, almost.


Once Tolled the Lutine Bell by Jack Rollins ★★★½☆
“Snow, you bastard! You are not the only man under the sun who knows the dark old ways! I pledge my soul to vengeance!”

Finally, a decent sea legend of dark magic, the undead, and vengeance.


Cape Hadel by Brad P. Christy ★★★½☆
“Hal stood petrified, an insignificant man in the presence of a god.”

Finally! Lure me into the terrible deep filled with your beastly beautiful Merfolk! Though not well written it has all the elements, and ending, of a good scary story.


Widow’s Point by Richard Chizmar & Billy Chizmar ★★★☆☆
This was a decent traditional ghost story told in a style influenced by Paranormal Activity (2007).


Floodland by Cameron Pierce ★★★☆☆
Parable of the coaster in the anthropocene. The MC is a life long coastal resident who is shown incontrovertible (metaphorical) evidence that climate change has made his region dangerous.

Miraculously, he is given a second chance at life inland. But he just can’t make himself take it. He returns as the waters rise...


Draugar by Bryan Clark ★★★☆☆
“The men exchanged a glance, the grim defiance and steely determination of their northern blood flashing in their eyes.”

Old school style unnatural-and-suspicious-elements-of-nature story.
Oh the mist!
Oh the quiet!
Oh the strange water!
What keeps it a little more entertaining than Algernon Blackwood is that our MCs are Vikings!

“They drew their weapons and waited.”
Klingon for...
Today is a good day to die!


Alone on the Waves by Eric S. Brown ★★★☆☆
Fair enough snippet of a kaiju story. I liked the idea of mixing it with a zombie story by way of kaiju spawn.


On Ullins Bank by John Linwood Grant ★★★☆☆
“...no seabird flew. I'd heard it told that the cries of gulls were the voices of dead sailors, watching over the living. Whatever watched us on the bank was something else.”

A devils bargain with the Finnfolk for profit ends about as well as you can expect. Predictable but atmospheric.

The Water Elemental by A. P. Sessler ★★★☆☆
A man who loves the sea and his liquor more than wife is old story, a boring story. Here the devoted wife has a little more spine. The story makes just enough sense for three stars.


The Paper Shield by James Lowder ★★★☆☆
A steampunk expedition story with alleged Lovecraftian dark god worshippers. But clearly there were too many survivors for this to have been one of Lovecraft’s gods. Low survival rates are another thing I live about Lovecraft :)

Jonah Inside the Whale: A Meditation by Jason Sechrest ★★★☆☆
Exactly as advertised and a little funny. We should all think positively, especially in stressful situations.


Corbett’s Cage by Shawn P. Madison ★★½☆☆
Scary snapshot story of pirates paying their due with hostages. But there were too many questions left unanswered.

Canned Crab by Nick Nafpliotis ★★½☆☆
“When rich old white people get spooked about something, they tend to get their way...”

True statement. This is the story of a witch casting revenge with upon a town with ocean litter and hermit crabs. It was ok.

For the record, plastic in the ocean is terrible and cans are better recycled. But glass bottles, especially dark stubby ones, are beloved by ocean creatures as little homes and hiding spots. Especially, octopuses and yes, hermit crabs.



The Lighthouse by Annie Neugebauer ★★☆☆☆
“You can’t trust anyone, Princess. Not even family.”
- Father

Mostly torture porn with the trappings of an old school fairy tale - the kind without grace or happy ending.


The Gray Man by Mark Parker ★★☆☆☆
These were week choppy sentences haphazardly pinned around a disjointed narrative.

But I did like the idea of the spirit of the ocean possessing a human as brief warning before a deadly storm. Like the gods idea of politeness; even though it kills the host the message saves many (believers) lives.

Carnacki: The Lusitania by William Meikle ★★☆☆☆
I tuned this out and had to go back and skim. I had been hoping for a sea monster story and instead this was occult-light with a touch of future visions. It was boring.

Sirens by Dallas Mullican ★★☆☆☆
Hmm, if this was a story about a rapist that gets eaten by sirens then great. But since I’m not sure, and it was not great by any measure, two stars.


Band of Souls by C.M. Saunders ★★☆☆☆
More like guilt in a bottle. A fairly written story but more long than fun, interesting, or scary.


Maelstrom by Doug Rinaldi ★★☆☆☆
This had all the building blocks of an excellent ocean horror story: cannibals, sea gods, dark magic, furious storms...
But nothing came together. I resent that.

Seascape by Jack Ketchum ★☆☆☆☆
Chop up a story, toss it in the air, publish it the way it lands.

Fear Sun by Laird Barron ★☆☆☆☆ DNF
This was just old money being as strange and evil as possible. Low on story, high on random weird.

The Way We Are Lifted by Aric Sundquist ★☆☆☆☆ DNF
If you are going to write a Lovecraftian story and decide to add rape and misogyny you have failed. There is no sex in Lovecraft stories, rarely any women at all. It’s men looking into the unknowable darkness of the world and losing their shit. That’s why I love Lovecraft.

Surviving the River Styx by Paul Michael Anderson ★☆☆☆☆ DNF
Immersion therapy gone wrong. That’s a fine story prompt but nothing was making sense as the story went from boring to bloody in a heartbeat. That can be entertaining, but not here.

Port of Call by W.D. Gagliani ★☆☆☆☆ DNF
An evil captain, his willing men, I stopped after the rape and murder...

Beneath the Surface by Stuart Keane ★☆☆☆☆ DNF
No. Not interested in a gang rape story.

Average 2.63 stars but I will not be rounding up, it felt like an amateur effort.

[Fiona Knight · Rating 2 out of 5]

RTC, but despite a couple of standout stories, the overall collection was not great.

[Tyler Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

30 stories, avg rating 2.71. Honestly it feels like a 2 star because there was the odd gem but mostly it felt like...crap. But i'll keep my thing of .5-.99 being rounded up so it's a (very) low 3. Sadly this was a let down over-all.

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Terror of the Sea

I really enjoyed these stories of terror by some authors I knew and some I had not read before. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys horror involving the sea and the creatures who dwell there.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This massive tome is full of stories that deal with fear for watery depths. However, as most of the crisper and more competent stories proved, that fear is aimed at the great unknown.
Ourselves!
Wherever water, our primeval womb, allowed those fears to resurface, the characters went down. But when they managed to contain themselves, they survived by the skin of their teeth.
Most of the stories were good, with several providing shudders that stay with you long after the pages have been turned and the sound of water has receded from your mind. Those stories, reminding us of Hodgson's classics and works by the modern maesttro Mira Grant, would be remembered by me for a long time, starting with the Chizmar duo's novella 'Widow' Point'!
Overall, a good book.

[Michelinda Smith]

One of the better books I have read in quite a while. A few of the stories seemed a little "unfinished", but that is the style. All were genuinely well written. Great for going to bed at night - brings you right to the edge and boom - then you can relax and close the book for stories on another night.

[Justin Felgar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, decent anthology that relied too heavily on Lovecraftian themes. There’s more to a scary seafaring yarn than slimy tentacles and Cthulhu fgthagn. The ones that strayed away from that schtick ended up being the best, running the gamut of scary and funny, sea monsters, ghosts and dark mythology. I’ll give it a 3/5.



1. Widow’s Point by Richard and Billy Chizmar: Author stays locked inside a haunted light house for a weekend gets more than he bargained for. Told in a paranormal activity, found footage style POV. Sounds trite and cliche right? Well, it’s not. This story had me hanging on to every word. For the first time in a long time, I felt that familiar tingle of fear rise up my spine. The bar has been set very high. 5/5

2. The Gray Man by Mark Parker: An odd, rambling tale I guess kinda about a ghost? The ghost sort of makes a cameo appearance but then pfft! Gone, forgotten. More like a Hallmark Movie Channel offering than a chiller. 1/5

3. Fear Sun: I am thoroughly and utterly confused. A...retelling, remake? Reimagining? Rerun of the oft repeated Shadow of Innsmouth as told and apparently orchestrated by a spoiled heiress at the behest of a...well, just read the story I guess. Points for creativity? 1/5

4. Carnacki: The Lusitania by William Meikle: Decent enough ghost story involving ominous warnings from beyond. Carnacki seems to be an established character of Mr. Meikle’s, but understanding and enjoying the story is not contingent on that knowledge, which is how a short story should be. 3/5

5. Flood land by Cameron Pierce: An odd little tale about a bait shop owner who goes to see an odd fish caught by a dude and has some sort of out of body experience? Not really sure where this one was going. 2/5

6. Sirens by Dallas Mullican: This story was just odd. It was like two story stories jammed into one with no discernible reason for doing so. The transition is so jarring it doesn’t make sense. The titular creatures only feature briefly. 1/5

7. Draugar by Bryan Clark: Very fun tale about Vikings discovering something creepy on a deserted island. Titular character makes a brief appearance but it is effective. 3/5

8. Old Bogey by Lori R. Lopez: Kind of a waterlogged mix of Moby Dick and A Christmas Carol. The old sailor was a pretty fun character and he found redemption in the end. Good stuff. 3/5

9. The Lighthouse by Anne Neugebauer: Creepy story about the daughter of a lighthouse keeper held captive by some nefarious and decidedly unnatural characters in order to get the location of something her father protected. Creepy and weird. The way it should be. 3/5

10. Port of Call by W.D. Gagliani: Crew of a merchant ship is stuck in port while their evil captain goes about some his nefarious business. Shows the depths of human depravity with a little paranormal bouquet at the end. 3/5

11. Beneath the Surface by Stuart Keene: Couple gets chased into an underwater facility by three punks who have mischief on their minds. Things really get dark when you find out what happened to the crew of said underwater facility. 3/5

12. Once Tolled the Lutine Bell by Jack Rollins : Greedy shipping magnet sabotages one of his ships, dooming the crew to please his dark master, only to later find out in horror that others know of the dark powers. Not scary, but satisfying. 3/5

13. She Beckons by D.G. Stutter: Short tale about a sea monster with a surprise and kind of goofy ending. 3/5

14. Cape Hadel by Brad P. Christy: An oceanic research vessel comes face to face with the horrors of the sea. Honestly? Would like to have read more stories like this in this anthology. 4/5.

15. Seastruck by John Everson: Be careful what you wish for doesn’t even cut it with this story of a dude that really, REALLY doesn’t know when to quit while he’s ahead. Play stupid games...4/5

16. Alone on the Waves by Eric S. Brown: Short story about three men surviving hoards of scaly zombies spawned by a virus originating from Kaiju attacking the planet. Too short but interesting take on the zombie genre. 3/5

17. Band of Souls by C.M. Saunders: Demented old man finds a message in a bottle and comes face to face with his comeuppance. Meh honestly. 2/5

18. A Thousand Thick and Terrible Things by David Mikolas: Unexplained worm monsters and family drama. Ok I guess? 2/5

19. Maelstrom by Doug Rinaldi: A tale that lets you know that crazy is catchy. Dark magic? Power of suggestion? Who knows? 2/5

20. Hallowed Point by Andrew Bell: A story of grief and witchcraft mixed with good old fashioned finny fear. Like Hereditary but with sea serpents. 3/5

21. Wanderer by Shane Lindemoen: Creepy, vague, and claustrophobic. Lindemoen is probably the only author in this anthology that tries their hand at the style of Howie Phil to even come close to the style. 3/5

22. Canned Crab by Nick Nafpliotis: This one felt like an old 1950s monster movie, something that would be named ATTACK OF THE KILLER HERMIT CRABS. And I am here for such nonsense. 4/5

23. On Ullins Bank by John Linwood Grant: Dark mythology revolving around the fae or fin folk will always park my ears. 4/5

24. The Way We are Lifted by Aric Sundquist: Interesting set up and world building , yet I’m starting to grow weary of the Lovecraft fest this anthology has going on. Still, make a cool video game. 3/5

25. Surviving the River Styx by Paul Michael Anderson: New take on the zombie genre. MC is kind of a door but you end up rooting for him. 3/5

26. The Water Elemental by A.P. Sessler: Not really sure what was going on here, but drunk woman beating husbands getting their comeuppance is always a good read, no matter how...unnatural their afflictions. 3/5

27. The Paper Shield by James Lowder: Again, the overuse of the Lovecraftian schtick is tiresome. A very meh steampunk alt history offering with a eye roll worthy run in with a famous mythos monster. Guess which one? 2/5

28. Corbett’s Cage by Shawn P. Madison: Quick and dirty tale. Pirates? Check. Hapless victims? Check. Sea Monsters? Double check. What I’m here for. 3.5/5

29. Jonah Inside the Whale: A Meditation by Jason Sechrest: Never heard the Jonah story told like that. Not sure why the modern references were thrown in? 2/5

[Chance · Rating 5 out of 5]

may the sleeping one’s AWAKE

The title was wrongly informative has collected(ion) is when it’s a bunch of stories by the same author, and that’s why you should’ve Anthology instead has it’s proper one when it’s multiple differ authours

[Josh Towzey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Worth reading:

Widow’s Point
Wanderer
Corbett’s Cage