Dark Pages

by Lucien E.G. Spelman, Martin Livings, Lisa A. Koosis

A collection of dark stories to delight and disturb, including tales of fantasy, science fiction and chilling examples of the macabre.Blade Red Press has gathered some of the best writing talent in the world to compile an anthology of sublime quality. It is full of exquisite tales of disturbia that will leave you unable to put the book down. When you finally do, you’ll never look at people the same way again.

186 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 10, 2010

Reviews

[KV Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exceptional collection of dark fiction. Its only real weakness is the amount of territory the selected stories cover--but that was the point of the collection in the first place, and it answers very well. So... well, that doesn't sound like much of a weakness, does it?

Personal favorites for me were "Nepenthe" by Felicity Dowker and "Cargo" by Aaron Polson--both of which felt very short and packed a punch, but in completely different ways. Modern fairy tale and honest post-apoc respectively. There were one or two that I wasn't sure about when I started reading them, but really hooked me hard by the end, too: "Surveying the Land" by BD Wilson and "Blood on Green" come to mind in that category.

There's not a sleeper in the book, though--I could think of something great to say about each of them, from pretty prose to brilliant execution to cool concepts. It's just more of a something for everyone kind of antho. Sci-fi to fantasy to just plain weird.

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cracking collection of dark fiction that gained six honorable mentions from Ellen Datlow in her Year's Best. (Full disclosure: I have a story in it.)