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Bleak Horizons
Gleaming utopias, friendly alien species, allied confederations
These idealistic dreams can easily fall into a horrible reality—nightmare fueled visions of the future to come.
From the loneliness of space, to the horror of first contact gone awry, to planetary colonies facing annihilation; Bleak Horizons offers fifteen stories about what horrors lie waiting for those who look to the future.
Contents
Adrift by Kandrel
4/13/2060 by Franklin Leo
Hardwire by Ton Inktail
The Ouroboros Plate by Slip Wolf
The First Viewing by Corgi W
Clicking by Ianus J. Wolf
Blink by James Stone
Pentangle by Ross Whitlock
Starless by Searska GreyRaven
This Way by Frances Pauli
Outlier by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt
Not Like Us by KC Alpinus
Clear and Cruel by Bill Kieffer
Blessed are the Meek by Rechan
Hollow by Chris “Sparf” Williams
Cover art by Kappy, edited by Tarl Hoch
These idealistic dreams can easily fall into a horrible reality—nightmare fueled visions of the future to come.
From the loneliness of space, to the horror of first contact gone awry, to planetary colonies facing annihilation; Bleak Horizons offers fifteen stories about what horrors lie waiting for those who look to the future.
Contents
Adrift by Kandrel
4/13/2060 by Franklin Leo
Hardwire by Ton Inktail
The Ouroboros Plate by Slip Wolf
The First Viewing by Corgi W
Clicking by Ianus J. Wolf
Blink by James Stone
Pentangle by Ross Whitlock
Starless by Searska GreyRaven
This Way by Frances Pauli
Outlier by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt
Not Like Us by KC Alpinus
Clear and Cruel by Bill Kieffer
Blessed are the Meek by Rechan
Hollow by Chris “Sparf” Williams
Cover art by Kappy, edited by Tarl Hoch
342 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 20, 2017
17 people want to read
About the author
Tarl "Voice" Hoch
25 books82 followersTarl is primarily a writer in the horror and erotica genres, though he also dips his toes in fantasy and science fiction when the mood dictates.
Beyond writing, he is the owner of Armoured Fox Press and one of the hosts of the writing podcast Fangs and Fonts (http://www.fangsandfonts.com/) and is a member of the Furry Writer's Guild (http://furrywritersguild.com/)
When it comes to reading, he tends to read a large variety of genres, though admits a love of Lovecraftian horror, epic fantasy, and Japanese light novels. He also enjoys anthropomorphic fiction as well.
Beyond writing, he is the owner of Armoured Fox Press and one of the hosts of the writing podcast Fangs and Fonts (http://www.fangsandfonts.com/) and is a member of the Furry Writer's Guild (http://furrywritersguild.com/)
When it comes to reading, he tends to read a large variety of genres, though admits a love of Lovecraftian horror, epic fantasy, and Japanese light novels. He also enjoys anthropomorphic fiction as well.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 18, 2020
A great many people only experience science fiction by what my mother and millions of others referred to as "monster movies." From Frankestein up to Aliens and beyond, the unknown and the unexplored are often our undoing.
BLEAK HORIZONS, edited by Tarl Hooch, is a wonderful collection of 15 stories that mix SF and Horror with various levels of anthropomorphic settings and characters. And, full disclosure, one of those stories is mine. Happily, the mix includes more than just blood thirsty monsters and end of the universe scenerios.
ADRIFT by Kendril
The first story in the collection really sets the mood. Hard science and bittersweet... one might even say bleak. It reminded me of the first hard SF short story I read in ninth grade. The mood and the choices are similiar, but everything is different. Darker.
4/13/2060 by Franklin Leo
I had wanted to like this reality-questioning tale better than I had. It tells the story of a mirror being held up to reality revealing a flaw... which the best stories do, of course. But this is a literal allegory being allegorically literal with nesting realities of Russian dolls... which I think is all I can say without issuing a spoiler alert.
I would have liked the furriness to have played a bigger part in this story. I would have loved the furriness to have been a part of the problem rather than just set dressing. Faithful readers know that this can be a hang-up for me.
Still, fine writing and dialogue. I believe this vixen and this stoat are people in every scene that they are in, and not just pushers of plot points. With luck, I'm the only reader that found this story less than fully satisfying.
HARDWIRE by Ton Inktail
The first sexually charged story in here may be the best.
While not too explicit, it feels raw, honest, and sad. The logic of Vix is rather impeccable and the desire to be more is... well, as human as it gets. I was touched and impressed at the story telling, although it's a plotline we've all seen before... if you've gone down the darker alleys of sex and humanity. There's something about the dialogue and the author's voice that makes it feel fresh yet classically cruel.
In a fandom where we do actually have a few animated sex toys, I think this tale will resonate with a lot of readers.
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Journal Entry 5 by Greyflank at Brick, New Jersey USA on Saturday, June 29, 2019
THE OUROBOROS PLATE by Slip Wolf
This savory tale is cold, hard, and logical, but not too much of any of that. The horror is understated and so satisfyingly just that I think more than a few readers will miss the horror aspect if they discover this outside of the Bleak Horizons cover. As I hope many more will.
THE FIRST VIEWING by Corgi W
This story left me very uneasy, because I empathize a bit with Doschevov, the otter "villian" of the piece. As I writer, I do what he does, more or less, with his victims. Of course, I merely write fictional characters as I am a mere keyboard god. The otter, on the other hoof, plays with living minds.
Structurally, the story uses the same device that the previous story did, and I was all too conscious of it... but that's just a meta issue, I guess.
CLICKING by Ianus J. Wolf
This was a wonderfully hard SF Horror story. The symptoms and dangers were portrayed perfectly and mixed with on point Subject Matter Experts that moved the story along. The rat made for such good comedic relief, that I wished he had been included earlier.
This needs to be a movie.
BLINK by James Steele
A tangle in time sends a Tiger named Rhett through various time lines. I found it an engaging journey although the ultimate sense of the climax and ending felt just beyond me. Wiser readers than me may grok it more fully. For me, I was pulled more into the mystery of the situation than the actual horror (and that's fine). I admired the craftsmanship of the prose even as I was reading it. Maybe that threw me off the horror?
PENTANGLE by Ross Whitlock
Because I am a TF (transformation fan), I adored this story and its setting. My adoration of co-mingling transformation may have lessened the horrors others might have found in this work. Don't care. I became... ok, nevermind, that would be over sharing. I don't think the author intended to create TFporn, but... here we are.
I loved everything about this story, from the characters to the story structure and context. In retrospect, if this story had any flaws, it might have been that different species might have different senses they could have shared, I mention this because I'm always going on about whether a furry story is "furry enough." But I am too smitten with this story to care.
Sadly, the author is no longer here to write more stories: https://www.vnews.com/Ross-Duston-Whi...
STARLESS by Searska GreyRaven
This is such a weird story. It reminds me of one of the most endearing anthology paperbacks that I've ever owned, "Carmen Miranda's Ghost Is Haunting Space Station 3." With a few changes, I really think this story could have been included. True, some of those stories were just plain silly, and this story is so much darker, BUT... I can't help but feel like there's a connection. I find it equally endearing because premise of a space station as an opera house is, on its face, an almost implausible ask.
YET, the author makes it work. And makes the music almost everyone remembers from childhood creepy. It's a smooth read.
THIS WAY by Frances Pauli
Dotar and Mifla are two alien augmented spiders, which aren't spoilers at all. Their very nonhuman build and movements are displayed to great effect without being distracting or inscrutable. Dotar was especially endearing right up until the end.
I didn't see the end coming leaving this a well crafted story in prose, pacing, and all the other elements of writing. It's not my favourite story, but it may well be the best.
OUTLIER by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt
The surviving crew of the Mushka are in isolation and being grilled/debriefed. It is not a pleasant experience for anyone.
This is a very well structured story with multiple viewpoints. It is one of the few stories that I liked better the more times I reread it. Usually I am one and done. The horror elements are sweet, doled out in little steps with misery and paranoia as the main ingredients.
NOT LIKE US by KC Alpinus
Despite an engaging opening, this is not my favorite story. It is, perhaps, too close to a certain old school Twilight Zone episode in plot and morality, if not McGuffin. The furry aspects added just enough anthropomorphic flavoring, but it did nothing to help the plot distinguish itself from the episode I'm sure most of us would recall with a bit of prodding.
The lines the enemy spouted in its reveal... it did not seem logical to me.
CLEAR AND CRUEL by Bill Kieffer
This is my story, so I shan't review it. But I will tell you a factoid about it.
This is not a furry story and I'm rather proud that the editor selected it despite that. It feels furry but to tell you why it isn't QUITE furry would be a spoiler.
BLESSED ARE THE MEEK by Rechan
When I returned to reread this story as I wrote this review, the thing that stuck me immediately was how short this story was. 11 pages. The impression it had made in my mind was that there was much more to this than 11 pages could contain. The mole did a very good job with L277 and his brethren.
Says a bit about humanity, this story does.
HOLLOW by Chris "Sparf" Williams
A nice bit of a horror thriller monster thing story that kept me turning the pages. No one had any possible theories of what the monster was, beyond a silly legend used to frighten kits, but otherwise the science felt like a real factor in the telling. None of the three characters were xeno-biologists, so it's not like it was anyone's job to explain it to me. And that's probably OK.
Space zombies. What can a guy do, am I right?
My favorite stories in this anthology are Hardwire, Pentangle, and The Ouroboros Plate. My least favorites are 4/13/2060 and Not Like Us. I think you should snag a copy, if only to read my favorites... of course, I also really enjoyed "Carmen Miranda's Ghost Is Haunting Space Station 3" so you have every right to question my taste levels.
BLEAK HORIZONS, edited by Tarl Hooch, is a wonderful collection of 15 stories that mix SF and Horror with various levels of anthropomorphic settings and characters. And, full disclosure, one of those stories is mine. Happily, the mix includes more than just blood thirsty monsters and end of the universe scenerios.
ADRIFT by Kendril
The first story in the collection really sets the mood. Hard science and bittersweet... one might even say bleak. It reminded me of the first hard SF short story I read in ninth grade. The mood and the choices are similiar, but everything is different. Darker.
4/13/2060 by Franklin Leo
I had wanted to like this reality-questioning tale better than I had. It tells the story of a mirror being held up to reality revealing a flaw... which the best stories do, of course. But this is a literal allegory being allegorically literal with nesting realities of Russian dolls... which I think is all I can say without issuing a spoiler alert.
I would have liked the furriness to have played a bigger part in this story. I would have loved the furriness to have been a part of the problem rather than just set dressing. Faithful readers know that this can be a hang-up for me.
Still, fine writing and dialogue. I believe this vixen and this stoat are people in every scene that they are in, and not just pushers of plot points. With luck, I'm the only reader that found this story less than fully satisfying.
HARDWIRE by Ton Inktail
The first sexually charged story in here may be the best.
While not too explicit, it feels raw, honest, and sad. The logic of Vix is rather impeccable and the desire to be more is... well, as human as it gets. I was touched and impressed at the story telling, although it's a plotline we've all seen before... if you've gone down the darker alleys of sex and humanity. There's something about the dialogue and the author's voice that makes it feel fresh yet classically cruel.
In a fandom where we do actually have a few animated sex toys, I think this tale will resonate with a lot of readers.
edit | upload journal picture | delete
Journal Entry 5 by Greyflank at Brick, New Jersey USA on Saturday, June 29, 2019
THE OUROBOROS PLATE by Slip Wolf
This savory tale is cold, hard, and logical, but not too much of any of that. The horror is understated and so satisfyingly just that I think more than a few readers will miss the horror aspect if they discover this outside of the Bleak Horizons cover. As I hope many more will.
THE FIRST VIEWING by Corgi W
This story left me very uneasy, because I empathize a bit with Doschevov, the otter "villian" of the piece. As I writer, I do what he does, more or less, with his victims. Of course, I merely write fictional characters as I am a mere keyboard god. The otter, on the other hoof, plays with living minds.
Structurally, the story uses the same device that the previous story did, and I was all too conscious of it... but that's just a meta issue, I guess.
CLICKING by Ianus J. Wolf
This was a wonderfully hard SF Horror story. The symptoms and dangers were portrayed perfectly and mixed with on point Subject Matter Experts that moved the story along. The rat made for such good comedic relief, that I wished he had been included earlier.
This needs to be a movie.
BLINK by James Steele
A tangle in time sends a Tiger named Rhett through various time lines. I found it an engaging journey although the ultimate sense of the climax and ending felt just beyond me. Wiser readers than me may grok it more fully. For me, I was pulled more into the mystery of the situation than the actual horror (and that's fine). I admired the craftsmanship of the prose even as I was reading it. Maybe that threw me off the horror?
PENTANGLE by Ross Whitlock
Because I am a TF (transformation fan), I adored this story and its setting. My adoration of co-mingling transformation may have lessened the horrors others might have found in this work. Don't care. I became... ok, nevermind, that would be over sharing. I don't think the author intended to create TFporn, but... here we are.
I loved everything about this story, from the characters to the story structure and context. In retrospect, if this story had any flaws, it might have been that different species might have different senses they could have shared, I mention this because I'm always going on about whether a furry story is "furry enough." But I am too smitten with this story to care.
Sadly, the author is no longer here to write more stories: https://www.vnews.com/Ross-Duston-Whi...
STARLESS by Searska GreyRaven
This is such a weird story. It reminds me of one of the most endearing anthology paperbacks that I've ever owned, "Carmen Miranda's Ghost Is Haunting Space Station 3." With a few changes, I really think this story could have been included. True, some of those stories were just plain silly, and this story is so much darker, BUT... I can't help but feel like there's a connection. I find it equally endearing because premise of a space station as an opera house is, on its face, an almost implausible ask.
YET, the author makes it work. And makes the music almost everyone remembers from childhood creepy. It's a smooth read.
THIS WAY by Frances Pauli
Dotar and Mifla are two alien augmented spiders, which aren't spoilers at all. Their very nonhuman build and movements are displayed to great effect without being distracting or inscrutable. Dotar was especially endearing right up until the end.
I didn't see the end coming leaving this a well crafted story in prose, pacing, and all the other elements of writing. It's not my favourite story, but it may well be the best.
OUTLIER by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt
The surviving crew of the Mushka are in isolation and being grilled/debriefed. It is not a pleasant experience for anyone.
This is a very well structured story with multiple viewpoints. It is one of the few stories that I liked better the more times I reread it. Usually I am one and done. The horror elements are sweet, doled out in little steps with misery and paranoia as the main ingredients.
NOT LIKE US by KC Alpinus
Despite an engaging opening, this is not my favorite story. It is, perhaps, too close to a certain old school Twilight Zone episode in plot and morality, if not McGuffin. The furry aspects added just enough anthropomorphic flavoring, but it did nothing to help the plot distinguish itself from the episode I'm sure most of us would recall with a bit of prodding.
The lines the enemy spouted in its reveal... it did not seem logical to me.
CLEAR AND CRUEL by Bill Kieffer
This is my story, so I shan't review it. But I will tell you a factoid about it.
This is not a furry story and I'm rather proud that the editor selected it despite that. It feels furry but to tell you why it isn't QUITE furry would be a spoiler.
BLESSED ARE THE MEEK by Rechan
When I returned to reread this story as I wrote this review, the thing that stuck me immediately was how short this story was. 11 pages. The impression it had made in my mind was that there was much more to this than 11 pages could contain. The mole did a very good job with L277 and his brethren.
Says a bit about humanity, this story does.
HOLLOW by Chris "Sparf" Williams
A nice bit of a horror thriller monster thing story that kept me turning the pages. No one had any possible theories of what the monster was, beyond a silly legend used to frighten kits, but otherwise the science felt like a real factor in the telling. None of the three characters were xeno-biologists, so it's not like it was anyone's job to explain it to me. And that's probably OK.
Space zombies. What can a guy do, am I right?
My favorite stories in this anthology are Hardwire, Pentangle, and The Ouroboros Plate. My least favorites are 4/13/2060 and Not Like Us. I think you should snag a copy, if only to read my favorites... of course, I also really enjoyed "Carmen Miranda's Ghost Is Haunting Space Station 3" so you have every right to question my taste levels.
October 14, 2017
I expected bleak horror stories when I started reading this book but I wasn't quite prepared for just how bleak some of them would get. This is an excellent collection but one I'd advise for the faint of heart.
Although Clicking by Ianus J. Wolf stood out the most to me this is still a high quality collection overall. A few can be gruesome or mature which is something to keep in mind for those interested in this collection.
Its a bleak collection of stories with no happy or pleasant endings to be found. But if you're looking for a collection of furry horror then this made for a nice read.
Although Clicking by Ianus J. Wolf stood out the most to me this is still a high quality collection overall. A few can be gruesome or mature which is something to keep in mind for those interested in this collection.
Its a bleak collection of stories with no happy or pleasant endings to be found. But if you're looking for a collection of furry horror then this made for a nice read.
December 29, 2025
A good horror collection, but as it happens with many anthologies with multiple characters, the quality can vary wildly from one story to the next.
Big props to Kandrel for the first story, Adrift, which was my favorite in this collection.
Big props to Kandrel for the first story, Adrift, which was my favorite in this collection.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews