Revelations: Horror Writers for Climate Action

by Seán O'Connor (Editor), Gemma Amor, Clive Barker

Revelations: Horror Writers for Climate Action
Edited by Seán O'Connor

Featuring...

Gemma Amor
Clive Barker
Laird Barron
Ramsey Campbell
Richard Chizmar
Tananarive Due
Philip Fracassi
T.E. Grau
Joe Hill
Stephen King
Gwendolyn Kiste
John Langan
Sarah Langan
Joe R. Lansdale
Tim Lebbon
Josh Malerman
Adam L.G. Nevill
Nuzo Onoh
Sarah Pinborough
Priya Sharma
Paul Tremblay

Introduction by Sadie Hartmann

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Environment

344 pages, Hardcover

First published April 22, 2022

About the author

SEÁN O’CONNOR is an award-nominated author, primarily known for his work in Horror and Dark Fiction. He and his family currently reside in Dublin, Ireland.

Reviews

[Gyalten Lekden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection is dark and moody, and actually a lot of fun. All of the stories save one had previously published elsewhere, so this collection is an act of cultivation that is balanced and works. All the stories revolve around the natural world, with most but not all being set in a hostile or inhospitable world scarred by climate change of some sort. However, aside from that the stories vary wildly in tone and subgenre, and I think it is actually to the collection’s benefit. All the stories are dark, and most fall into some subgenre of horror, with a few dark fantasy, to keep things interesting. With almost two dozen stories I can say not all of them were great, but none fell totally flat and a few did rise above just “good.” There were a few that did take my breath away or at least give me a good moment’s pause, which I always hope to find in a collection like this, so by that metric it was a success. I especially liked the stories by John Langan, Sarah Langan, and Adam Neville, Clive Barker, Laird Barron, Richard Chizmar, Tanarive Due, Joe Hill, Josh Malerman, Nuzo Onoh… very much worth the collection to get these fun little bits collected together.

I know these stories weren’t written to a prompt so comparing them is a fool’s errand, maybe, but I enjoyed that they all explored different relationships with nature, and while many were set in climate apocalypses the world-building and environments were remarkably distinct across the stories. We have a lot of options for how this whole thing might end, I suppose. So, while not a perfect collection it is definitely a lot of fun, and contains some real gems. The fact that some of the profits are being directed to Climate Outreach, and organization doing work climate advocacy work, is a cherry on top.

I will say, and this is a small thing… I read the paperback, which was published by Dead Sky Publishing (the hardcover seems to have been published by a different publisher, and the following may not apply), and there were more typographical mistakes than I would expect from them, having read quite a few of their books. There were typos in a few stories—not enough to be intrusive but I certainly noticed them—and the headings were wrong for at least two stories. At to that a really lackluster-feeling forward and there is a little bit of a sloppy feeling to the project… I appreciate the profits are going elsewhere so obviously you want to keep overhead costs low, and none of this little things were egregious enough to take away from the stories, but they were noticeable, and while I would expect these kind of things from independently published books I would like a little more professionalism from a proper publisher, even if it is small. Don’t let this dissuade you from the book, it really does contain a fun and pointed collection, very well curated.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthologies are always so difficult to rate, but I'd probably average this one out around a 3.5/5 for my enjoyment level of all the stories presented in this collection. I'll round it up to 4 for Goodreads because it gets bonus points for supporting a great cause and having proceeds go towards a charity promoting action against climate change.

I did skip a couple stories that didn't pull me in as I usually do with anthologies, but overall these were my standout stories (by author name)--

LOVED
- Tananarive Due
- Philip Fracassi (new to me author)
- Tim Lebbon (new to me author)
- Josh Malerman

LIKED
- Stephen King
- John Langan
- Sarah Pinborough
- Priya Sharma (new to me author)
- Paul Tremblay

If you like horror stories and the earth (and want to support causes to help us keep living on it) I'd recommend this collection!

[Ashley Daviau · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book right here is exactly why I’m so iffy on short story collections, you have to go through a lot of not so great stories for only a few gems. A lot of these just absolutely bored me to tears and made me want to skim through. Some stories were fantastic and I absolutely loved them but the majority were just mediocre and didn’t do much for me.

[Kevin Buck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost two dozen horror/ dark fiction authors writing to bring awareness to climate change, and not a single weak story.

This anthology contained a few of my favorites, a few well know legends, and a bunch of people I've never read before that I can't wait to read more of.

I won't review each individual story or even reveal my favorites, but you can't go wrong with this. Plus, it's for a great cause.

[Johan Haneveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

8 As soon as I heard about this collection, put together for charity, I had to order it. As I have put together two collections of cli-fi for a Dutch publishier, and love horror fiction, this collection made me curious. The editor did not ask contributors for new stories, but they sent in old stories that were not specifically written for a collection about climate change. So though some are about climate change explicitly, other stories have more of a broadly ecological theme, are about nature or just about human folly. The contributors are all horror writers, but they did not all send in horror stories. There are some post apocalyptic stories, some SF-stories, and some ecological parables mixed in as well. And maybe both these things are good things. Because why write horror stories about climate change? Climate change is horriffic in and of itself. Everybody who looks into it, will have sleepless nights. As another review noted: 'Trying to live with climate change today is terrifying, traumatic work. We’re all suspended in a time and place between the past actions that guarantee massive planetary change and the unfolding of these changes. People are haunted by the future.' But I think horror authors are experienced in dealing with anxiety and despair, and through that lens can illuminate the fears that underly the way our society currently deals with climate change - even if they don't write horror stories about it. And their stories can offer powerful metafors for the economic and ecological horrors that are scouring our planet and our own internal demons keeping us from taking action, even if their stories are not about climate change. Oh, and the proceedings of this book go to Climate Outreach (when some stories contain some spelling errors, I can forgive that easily, because not paying for editing in this case means more money going to the charity. But most stories were edited for their first publication already anyway).
Some stand out tales in this collection:
'Fields of Ice' by Gemma Amor - opens this collection. Well written in a clear style, this is a story about a futuristic city in a frozen country torn apart by a government not wanting to deal with the circumstances and a scientist trying to find a way out. I have collection by Amor on my TBR-pile and this made me want to put that closer to the top!
'Fear Sun' by Laird Barron - a Lovecraftian story about recreating Innsmouth. I have read some collections by Barron and he experiments a bit too much with style and form, making his stories (to me at least) a little hard to comprehend. What exactly is going on? But dig deeper and there's something there that lingers. As isthe case with this story, where the way billionaires think about human life is maybe scarier than Lovecraftian monstrosities.
'Carriers' by Tananarive Due - a great near future SF-story, that is one of the exceptions in this collection in being relatively hopeful. I liked the characterisation here, of the protagonist and her friend. Their emotional journey was wel told and the future was sketched not by chunks of exposition but by hints here and there.
'Summer Thunder' by Stephen King is a subdued, melancholic tale about a man and his dog who survived a nuclear war. The forest they live in grows quieter and quieter as more animals die, but at least the sunsets are still beautiful. King writes deceptively clear, but he manages to wring great emotion from his readers. Here as well. A story that will stay with me.
'The Maid From The Ash: A Life in Pictures' by Gwendolyn Kiste had a very intersting structure, and a hidden layer of meaning in its story about a mysterious girl kept from her surroundings and used for purposes of others. Haunting.
'The Evolutionary' by Tim Lebbon is a beautiful story, mainly for being written from the perspective of a young boy with a love of nature. Also hopeful in its implications, even if it has some gruesome images in it.
'Call the Name' by Adam L.G. Nevill is the longest story here and it's worth the price of the collection. This is the stand out tale. Beautiful example of weird fiction and cosmic horror, set in a near future England where the consequences of climate change become clear. An old woman, coming from generation after generation of women with a special connection to the sea, is witness to strange events ... Well written, and managed to build to a great reveal. This is the kind of cosmic horror I really like.
'Black Queen' by Nuzo Onoh is also one of the longest stories in here, but it is more of a folk tale, or at least, infused by indigenous mythology. As Chinese investors want to clear the forest and mine for ore, the people in an African village think they will get rich, but as they forget their relationship with nature they become blind to a powerful threat. A fascinating story, that has a welcome viewpoint from the people suffering the effects of climate change the most.
'Maw' by Priya Sharma had an island community experiencing change. A man has to deal with a possible prophet and his wife having a different dream. I would maybe have wished for a more conclusive ending, but there was some great evocative description here, and the relationships between characters were suggested well. And what exactly was in the cargo container?

[David Swisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The TOC on this bad boy is about as packed and star-studded as you can get for horror fiction and it does not disappoint. There are a couple stories that were good but didn't do it for me, but most were just awesome. Very well arranged with a fantastic intro to boot!

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorites: the tower, the guardian, the maid from the ash, the evolutionary,black queen, snow angels, carriers, summer thunder

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My online review:

https://horrorobsessive.com/2022/04/1...

[Chrystal Hays · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection of stories, which weren't written for the anthology (those often feel forced) and are mostly the kind that one would enjoy anywhere.
I confess I couldn't get through one of them. But I am not a fan of all things Lovecraftian, it felt Lovecraftian to be Lovecraftian, and I was reading while tired before bed, so without patience. I tried twice, though.
Editing wasn't tight on spelling, which is always disappointing. I am better at UK than American, oddly, so I am not having issues with that. It's "too" instead of "to", catches human proofreading is for. Many brilliant writers aren't necessarily great at spelling, and publication teams should support them. Even if the typos were published elsewhere.
The other issue I had was with design. I am not sure I have ever had this one before. I didn't care for the cover art...kind of Mad Magazine, but nice color and not the end of the world (although that is the implication of the theme of the collection). The editor or someone decided that the small image which would break up significant sections of the prose and head chapters would be a cockroach. Yes, yes, end of the world and all of that, but for some of us, this is not an image we want to see even once before bed, because it will cause those things to end up in dreams. That's right. A person may be having a perfectly ordinary dream about living in a shopping mall with the people with whom she graduated high school while trying to remember a phone number which doesn't seem to be working, or about driving along in a car that is a truck when the road is getting steeper, so she has to accelerate, but the pedals are in the wrong place, and then the whole thing is derailed because an insect shows up. For future reference: maybe just chapter headings, not a whole infestation on every page. If there's a sequel.
And I wouldn't mind a sequel. We are doing harm to our home. So much so that rare species of prairie grass can be found in city parks but not in the prairies where they belong. (One was found by a volunteer in Dallas recently). But maybe bones. Housepet skulls. Some other grim image less likely to be realized by the subconscious of the mildly phobic.

[Joshua Welch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories are wild, as an author you want to end them on the right note or be prepared to write a follow up. Leaving someone wanting more is good but is it good at the risk of not providing an ending to the story? Not all of these are first time publications, many, including those by Stephen King and Joe Hill have been printed elsewhere. The opener in this collection “Fields of Ice” by Gemma Amor was great but at the conclusion I wanted more….is there a continuation of this? I haven’t found out yet but it did inspire me to look her up so I can check out her work. Clive Barkers fairy tale horror story, written at 14, is an impressive one for a writer of that age. Richard Chizmar again proves he doesn’t need 500+ pages to write a great story, The Tower will always be a favorite from this collection. T.E. Grau delivers a well crafted 2.5 pager called Low Hanging Clouds that not only seeks to stay true to the theme of this collection but is a fast paced well written short, definitely leaves you wanting more but also in a subtle way gives you a much needed conclusion. Joe Hill has not one but two stories here, one an essay on spirited trees and the other a comical tale of Jude facing global warming. Highly recommend both but part of me feels Jude was written quickly as a “let’s get this over with” piece of creative. Stephen King dedicates his tale, fittingly, to Kurt Sutter as well as Richard Chizmar. It’s a great quick tale that is true to Kings nature. Joe R Lansdale, In the Cold, Dark Time, takes a very unexpected turn that leaves me impressed and bewildered. John and Sarah Langan, who apparently aren’t related both deliver well crafted shorts. It’s kind of down hill from there to be honest. Call the Name is the only one I couldn’t get through the the rest in the book had be very much ready for it to be over

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these stories will stay with me for quite a while, others I already don't remember well, but that was to be expected in a collection of so many completely different stories and authors.

My absolute favorites were:

The Guardian by Philipp Fracassi - this was amazing! I already knew I really enjoy his writing style but this story had me raving to my parnter, I could not stop talking about it and now he needs to read it too. Will be re-reading this one multiple times!

The Tower by Richard Chizmar - I'll be reading more by him, definitely! This almost reminded me of Widow's Point, the atmosphere was so creepy and eerie and I devoured this story in no time.

Field of Ice by Gemma Amor: This is the first story in the collection and it sets the tone brilliantly for what's to come! Again, the writing style drew me in instantly and despite the short length, I feel like I got to know Hayder and was rooting for her. Loved the atmosphere as well.

All in all, I found the stories collected here more literary than creepy or scary but I do like literary fiction so this was fine with me. This isn't the right collection for people who are looking to be scared - at least not in the original sense. These stories did scare me simply because I know that climate change will alter our lives irreversibly and sometimes I worry what the world will look like even 50 years from now. That's the kind of scary you get here, the kind that makes you think about our future as a species.

This might be interesting for people who enjoy Margaret Atwoods more speculative work (e.g. the Maddaddam Trilogy), and people who enjoy literary fiction (with a Lovecraftian influence in some instances).

[Stefan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In April 2024, the book “Revelations: Horror Writers for Climate Action” was published — and I probably only noticed it because one of the authors was Stephen King. Somehow, it found its way onto my shelf and stayed there for a while... until now. ;-)

Since I was quite pleased with the last short story collection I read in connection with King, I picked up Revelations and gave it a try. I got through it fairly quickly, probably because short story collections are easy to dip into when you’ve only got time for something brief.

The authors make for an interesting mix, which is reflected in the stories themselves. There isn’t really a common thread like in “The End of the World as We Know It.” That’s both a good and a not-so-good thing. It’s good because it gives the authors more freedom to stretch out creatively, and the stories — some quite short, others a bit longer — cover a wide range of suspense and tone.

But on the downside, not every story actually deals with climate change, nor with the role humans play in it or the consequences it has for humanity.

So maybe I ended up a little disappointed — but only because my expectations were off. Not that there was any real reason for them to be. But once I take that into account, the conclusion is pretty clear:

Revelations is an engaging collection of short stories from the who’s who of the horror genre — the perfect read for rainy autumn evenings.

[Thesincouch · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a hard anthology to read because the horrors are very real. Normally, I have a lot of fun reading horror (except when I'm reading horror that's just bad things happen to people because but then I know what I get myself into). Some misses, some hits and I'm only going to talk about the later:

BLACK QUEEN by Nuzo Onoh - it reminds you what good writing can do. Like the prose is exquisite and it adds a lot to the sense of horror and dread, the river being that sublime and powerful makes the story. I will be checking out her whole backlist.

FIELDS OF ICE by Gemma Amor - Amor is an author I have been meaning to read forever and I was very delighted with this story. The main character is not the most likeable character I have ever read but when Amor pulls the curtain away to show her bleeding core is amazing.

THE WOOD ON THE HILL by Clive Barker -completely charming. I mean he is a star of stars but this was so cute and completely charmed my pants off.

I thought the Stephen King one was good but he has to mention boobs every time, doesn't he? I thought the Joe Hill were a joke, like would they have been there if he wasn't Joe Hill?

[Rich Rosell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories - more often than not for me - are the examples of "it's the journey, not the destination". That's largely the case here, but don't take that as any sort of negative. Despite the wildly varying length of stories each and every one paints a darkly vivid vibe.

This new collection of tales - edited by Seán O'Connor - comes from a heady list of horror's finest. There is a common thread, and since the title includes "Horror Writers for Climate Action" you can probably figure out the theme.

100% of proceeds go to www.climateoutreach.org - so you can purchase this one guilt-free.
And bonus points for a intro from Night Worms'Sadie Hartmann...


Recommended.

[Bookfan · Rating 3 out of 5]

As far as anthologies go, this one was uneven. I am partial to the Lovecraftian horror of Adam Nevill, which is how this book came to my attention, and as always his contribution was fantastic. Clive Barker's fable that he wrote when he was a little kid, not so much: I'm sure it didn't hurt to have his name associated with the book, but for pity's sake at least contribute something worth reading. And Stephen King tires me after all these years and his son Joe Hill gets by on his family relationship, in my opinion. So--it was OK, some stories better (in the case of Adam Nevill MUCH better) than others.

[Kaiju Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really glad I bought this book. It's for a good cause, it has a ton of great authors, and its physically nice looking. Like all collections, it's mixed. Many of the stories I liked I had read elsewhere and enjoyed rereading or skipped if I'd read recently. There were a handful I didn't care for, but a big shout out to all the authors contributing.

Worth having if you're a horror fan.

That said, some stories, and the Afterward were error heavy. Were this a professional publication, I'd say unacceptable, but as a piece of charity, fine. The content is there.

The standouts for me were: King, Amor, Malerman, Nevil, and Sharma.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many great stories, but a few fell flat for me (like with any anthology). I also grew weary reading story after story about climate disasters, not that all of the stories were about climate stuff, but still. Anthologies maybe aren't supposed to be read like novels, at least not semi-themed ones. Overall I liked it. No regrets.

[Ian Dodd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great anthology

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really solid collection of stories.

[Bianca & pancho Aldama · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good shorts stories not great....solid 3and half stars.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't have to say this is a stellar collection for a great cause; just look at the author lineup & the proceeds go to a planet-saving cause.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
A lot of these were good, some pretty boring.