ANTERIOR SKIES

The first volume in a cosmic-horror anthology series features short stories, poetry, and semi-experimental fragments portraying people caught in a terrifying universe.

Editor Page presents a collection of macabre tales, surreal poems, and flash-fiction–style pieces by diverse hands that fall into a Lovecraft-ian tradition of weird tales, although they’re not directly linked to the Cthulhu Mythos. Indeed, in a preface, Page says that he reached out to Thomas Ligotti, the inheritor of the eldritch Lovecraft-ian crown, to write a guest introduction, but Ligotti deferred to Page. The anthologist sets the tone with ruminations on SF and dark fantasy that feature horror and dread in abundance: “Glitching astronomical bodies blanket across this gloomy yet many-hued pane of seemingly extraterrestrial firmament...dead stars, pale suns, blood moons, and blots of strange black.” The material is divided into seven sections with titles such as “Form and Beast: Axiom,” which don’t exactly offer explanation but would make great heavy metal deep-cut titles. Among the more accessible tales is Alice Austin’s “Moonstruck,” a boy’s-eye view of all people on Earth staring in the direction of the moon nonstop prior to some approaching, ominous event. Several yarns reference underwater and maritime terrors, a favorite H.P. Lovecraft motif, as in Pedro Iniguez’s “Adrift Ebon Tides,” Elaine Pascale’s “The Middle,” Marcus Hawke’s “Spire,” and J.A. Sullivan’s “In the Jaws of the Blackfish.” Novelties of narrative form include A.W. Mason’s “A Return to the Land of Sunshine and Bullets,” a scriptlike work with doomed characters seemingly stuck in a pocket universe of an endlessly rerunning TV show; Richard Beauchamp’s “Do Not Be Afraid” takes the form of a guide/pamphlet to an underground Ozarks cave network with a nasty destination for tourists; and Aleco Julius’ “The Seven Mysterious Drownings of the Crew of the SS Neptune” appears as a neat facsimile of a Great Lakes maritime history article. Two pieces, “The Singing of Old House” and “The First Book of the Shadow Under Cromledge,” by the pseudonymous Godwyn are parodies—albeit mirthless and gruesome ones—of cosmic-horror literary tropes.

A pleasingly unpleasant set of horror stories for adventurous genre fans.