So, I finally finished reading Out of the Void, a short story collection edited by Jacob Swick of Pulp Mortem. I am proud to have had one of my stories featured, and feel my little yarn has found good, if weird, company. A few of us writers have also posted reviews, and I intend to follow suit, mainly because it is easy content to put out when I need a lay-up. (Not to get too personal, but I just got home from the hospital, and I am writing this through bouts of uncontrollable and painful coughing.)
1. The Procession
Good form does not allow one to choose his own story as a favorite in a collection lest his massively swollen ego become even more of an eyesore. With that understanding, the works of Seth Tomko (the author of this particular tale) and C. P. Webster battle for my favorite. “The Procession” is just fun. I love the monster at the ending, I enjoy the world, and I think its use of dramatic irony was just right.
2. Aion’s Bones
Good. We got poetry going on. We need poetry. The world has gone insane because the world has shut out poetry. I can’t help but hope I’ve found a kindred spirit after reading “Aion’s Bones.” It’s an easily accessible poem that tells a short story about a tantalizingly macabre subject. Tim does what I very often attempt to do with my own verse, and my hat’s off to him.
3. Horror of the Open
Not only the editor, Mr. Swick also writes. This is his second short story with his character, and it too is a lot of fun. We also get a memorable monster, a great atmosphere, and the setup for what Jake hints at being a full on novel—something I can’t wait to get my hands on. If this were a tier list: solid A.
4. The Comfort of Books
A fun little atmospheric piece. Deb lays out the best sort of horror story, one that doesn’t need a big fright or gallons of blood. A weird comparison comes to mind, but if anyone has ever suffered through an old stage play, “Rhinoceros,” you might get something of the idea. It comes down to a battle for one’s soul, for one’s identity, and it is subtly terrifying.
5. The Agony of Contentment
Here we might get to the first short story that showcases a certain underlying problem with this collection. This is not to speak against the story, for it is perhaps the best sort of criticism one can give: it does not feel finished—which is to say, I wanted more and not less. A strange take on themes from Star Trek’s episode “The Empath” and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Le Guin. It is well worth reading and contemplating, but I would have liked to push Raines, gently, to let us live in this world a bit more.
6. Dreams of Nyarlathotep
The uncontested best
I mean, I wrote this one. I think it’s rather good. It’s so captured my own fancy, that I’ve been working on an outline to make a novel (dang it, it’s becoming a series) out of these characters. Maybe you’ll like it too.
7. A Trick of the Tongue
This is what weird stories are meant to be, in my opinion, weird. Hilmoe delivers. It’s personal, raw, and I think worth reading even though I think I didn’t understand it all that well. To be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t even say I liked it, but it expanded who I was and added to my soul.
8. Joy’s Egg
If you want weird, you can’t top this. Joy’s got an egg, and Chris should probably have a counselor. On a more serious note, this is a sharp short story; every development feels both perfectly reasonable and completely unhinged.
9. Anthomoor
As I said with “The Agony of Contentment,” I fear this one also needed to cook a bit more. Great writing, great underlying concept, but, in my opinion, it needed to be rejiggered a little. A touch more foreshadowing and character development I think could take this already solid story that extra mile I felt it was missing. However, I should add, from this story going forward, I was pretty sick, and I don’t doubt that’s going to color my reviews.
10.Point A to Point B
A solid ghost story with real pathos. This one might win the “stayed with me the longest” award. On top of a great weird idea, the prose perfectly matches the story being told, each minor character feels alive, and the trapped nature of the mysterious driver is “driven” home page by page.
11.Signal
This is the other short story that battles for my “favorite” status. However, as I’ve said with other stories in this collection, it feels rushed in places. On the whole, though, it has a wonderful tone, a great story, and like its competitor, leaves the reader with a sense of hope at the end. I am team hope, in the end. The world is weird, but it can be weirdly beautiful. We may never get answers to why bad things happen, but neither do we get answers for why good things happen either.
12.Shiverly
Alright, to be honest, this one is probably my least favorite story in the collection, not because it is bad, but because it is not the type of story that I personally like. It aggravates me, but perhaps in a good way. It is technically well written, and has a genius for a sort of “hands off” tone that is so very necessary for this type of story. I don’t think Mr. Hough ever puts down one word of judgement; he describes what is, and lets what happens happen.
13.We Lost the Sea
Here is another case of something weird happens. In fact, a lot of weird things happen. In fact, there is a great wealth of images here for the imagination to play with. To be perfectly honest though, I didn’t enjoy this. We might be getting into a metaphorical losing of tastes with a cold. At this point in reading, I was in the ER on oxygen. Andreea, I’m sorry. I probably should just reread this when I’m fully recovered.
14.The Descents of Agnes Doubleday
Another great, weird what-if from Ellington. It also wanted a bit more fat as a few of the other entries here do. A sort of moral tale, I think it delivers. My oxygen levels should have been back up into the nineties by this point. As I keep saying, though, this one also felt rushed, but that also matches the story’s theme, so it sort of works in this case.
15.The Man Who Was Made of Bad Atoms
Alright. I can’t review Todgerson’s entry because I just was in no position to appreciate humor. It is very silly, and people who were reading it in a better state than mine have found it very funny. I defer to their judgement. I can say that the prose was handled well: a lot of weird, chaotic things happen, and I never felt confused about what confusing thing was happening (let the reader understand).
16.Down in Tumble Valley
This one might win the award for best imagination. Great world building. Great plot. I’m not sure the ending pulls it off, though. I’m not sure I didn’t just miss something. Still, Virgil’s work holds together thematically from start to finish, and the wealth of images he plays with made reading this well worth the state of confusion I found myself in (that might be the fault of my oxygen levels).
