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Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror 2007
Each of these tales explore the darkness of the human condition. Ghosts, monsters, alien gods, sadists, the forsaken, and the deranged all lie within. You have been warned. Australia's best dark fiction writers will scare the hell out of you The Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror series showcases the very best and darkest short stories produced by 21st century Australian authors. This anthology includes work by Jay Caselberg, Stephen Dedman, Terry Dowling, Margo Lanagan, Simon Brown, and Nathan Burrage.
- GenresHorror
224 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2007
19 people want to read
About the author
Angela Challis
6 books2 followersAngela Challis is the editor of Shadowed Realms online magazine and several anthologies including the Book of Shadows series, Shadow Box, and Macabre: The New Era in Australian Horror. Her projects have been nominated for the Ditmar award, the Tin Ducks, and the Australia Shadows award. Angela is a committee member of the Australia Horror Writers Association and a tireless supporter of dark fiction in Australia.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 15, 2013
Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror 2007 is the second volume in an annual series of ‘best of’ stories, selected from anthologies, journals and collections which included Australian authors published anywhere in the world.
The first volume (reviewed in Albedo One Issue 34) featured some top class stories. In comparison I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of tales in the second volume easily outshining the first. Perhaps this is a reflection of the general standard of stories published in the Land Down Under in 2007, but I also believe a lot has to do with the quality of editing displayed by Angela Challis, who has a real skill in compiling entertaining and thought-provoking anthologies.
“Cheat Light” by Terry Dowling is a great opener, with a very tense enquiry into strange photographs that seem to have been fabricated to entice investigation. Dowling’s prose is vastly improved to earlier work that I’ve read I was engrossed from the very first lines. I felt the story was let down by its rather sudden and dissatisfying ending.
“Under Hell, Over Heaven” is one of the better structured Margo Lanagan stories I’ve read, as some of her past efforts seem to be all over the place without focus. Inmates in Purgatory are waiting for something, anything interesting to happen in their afterlives. It reads like a story Hieronymous Boche might have written if he’d been an author rather than a painter, with some very vivid imagery indeed.
“Dead of Winter” by Stephen Dedman was extremely well written and engrossing from the start. It is about pair of ghost hunters hoping to confirm the existence of two spectres. When they combine their parallel investigations it results in a rather bizarre and unexpected outcome. Unusual for dark fiction it has a happy ending too, with the nerdy narrator getting something one wouldn’t really believe a nerd would get.
“Finding the Words” by Steven Cavanagh is a short, poetic tale of a father getting a second chance to say goodbye to his dead daughter, memorable in its emotive subject matter and language.
“The Garden Shed Pack” by Shane Jiraiya Cummings (who was the co-editor on the first volume but stepped down to focus on his writing career) is a good old fashion monster story told in reflective prose by the narrator. What I liked most in this story was the conflict Cummings created between the monster and the narrator which reflects so well human relationships when they go wrong.
“Empties” by Jay Caselberg is the most surreal tale in the collection and it reads like a slow-motion nightmare. Like “Cheating Light” I was engrossed until the end, so when it ended suddenly I wanted more.
“The Red Priest’s Vigil” by Dirk Flinthart is a fun medieval adventure set in Italy with lots of intrigue, battles, deceit and suspense. This is the second Red Priest tale I’ve read by Flinthart, and I enjoyed it so much I hope he decides to write a novel based on this setting.
“Ache” by David Witteveen had the strongest emotional punch of all the stories in the anthology. I really like Witteveen’s tight style, as he can create fantastic visual and emotional scenes with just a few short sentences. The scene with the cat said so much about the characters it hurt. A Cthulhu Mythos tale, Witteveen knows how to create fantastic visual scenes faithful to the genre.
“Hieronymous Boche” by Chris Lawson really captured the essence of World War One trench warfare hell, literally. I really liked the concept in this one, especially some of the descriptions provided by the pilot of the battlefield. Again like several of the stories in this book, I felt a little let down by the ending because it felt incomplete, but a strong tale nonetheless.
“Father Father” by Paul Haines made my skin crawl like no other story did. I don’t want to say a lot about this one, but Haines really knows how to build the tension, and then slam down a shocking ending with a very dark twist. It was a perfect conclusion to this anthology.
There are eight more stories, all worth reading and all dark. It’s interesting to note that many of the tales have won awards in Australia, such as the Aurealis, Ditmar, Australian Shadows, and the Australian Horror Writer’s fiction awards, so this is a great book to see what the Australian speculative fiction community is into right now. A fabulous edition in what could be a potentially great series.
This review originally appeared at www.albedo1.com
The first volume (reviewed in Albedo One Issue 34) featured some top class stories. In comparison I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of tales in the second volume easily outshining the first. Perhaps this is a reflection of the general standard of stories published in the Land Down Under in 2007, but I also believe a lot has to do with the quality of editing displayed by Angela Challis, who has a real skill in compiling entertaining and thought-provoking anthologies.
“Cheat Light” by Terry Dowling is a great opener, with a very tense enquiry into strange photographs that seem to have been fabricated to entice investigation. Dowling’s prose is vastly improved to earlier work that I’ve read I was engrossed from the very first lines. I felt the story was let down by its rather sudden and dissatisfying ending.
“Under Hell, Over Heaven” is one of the better structured Margo Lanagan stories I’ve read, as some of her past efforts seem to be all over the place without focus. Inmates in Purgatory are waiting for something, anything interesting to happen in their afterlives. It reads like a story Hieronymous Boche might have written if he’d been an author rather than a painter, with some very vivid imagery indeed.
“Dead of Winter” by Stephen Dedman was extremely well written and engrossing from the start. It is about pair of ghost hunters hoping to confirm the existence of two spectres. When they combine their parallel investigations it results in a rather bizarre and unexpected outcome. Unusual for dark fiction it has a happy ending too, with the nerdy narrator getting something one wouldn’t really believe a nerd would get.
“Finding the Words” by Steven Cavanagh is a short, poetic tale of a father getting a second chance to say goodbye to his dead daughter, memorable in its emotive subject matter and language.
“The Garden Shed Pack” by Shane Jiraiya Cummings (who was the co-editor on the first volume but stepped down to focus on his writing career) is a good old fashion monster story told in reflective prose by the narrator. What I liked most in this story was the conflict Cummings created between the monster and the narrator which reflects so well human relationships when they go wrong.
“Empties” by Jay Caselberg is the most surreal tale in the collection and it reads like a slow-motion nightmare. Like “Cheating Light” I was engrossed until the end, so when it ended suddenly I wanted more.
“The Red Priest’s Vigil” by Dirk Flinthart is a fun medieval adventure set in Italy with lots of intrigue, battles, deceit and suspense. This is the second Red Priest tale I’ve read by Flinthart, and I enjoyed it so much I hope he decides to write a novel based on this setting.
“Ache” by David Witteveen had the strongest emotional punch of all the stories in the anthology. I really like Witteveen’s tight style, as he can create fantastic visual and emotional scenes with just a few short sentences. The scene with the cat said so much about the characters it hurt. A Cthulhu Mythos tale, Witteveen knows how to create fantastic visual scenes faithful to the genre.
“Hieronymous Boche” by Chris Lawson really captured the essence of World War One trench warfare hell, literally. I really liked the concept in this one, especially some of the descriptions provided by the pilot of the battlefield. Again like several of the stories in this book, I felt a little let down by the ending because it felt incomplete, but a strong tale nonetheless.
“Father Father” by Paul Haines made my skin crawl like no other story did. I don’t want to say a lot about this one, but Haines really knows how to build the tension, and then slam down a shocking ending with a very dark twist. It was a perfect conclusion to this anthology.
There are eight more stories, all worth reading and all dark. It’s interesting to note that many of the tales have won awards in Australia, such as the Aurealis, Ditmar, Australian Shadows, and the Australian Horror Writer’s fiction awards, so this is a great book to see what the Australian speculative fiction community is into right now. A fabulous edition in what could be a potentially great series.
This review originally appeared at www.albedo1.com
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 16, 2009
And excellent collection of Australian dark fiction published in 2007. This includes award winners, nominees, and some outstanding tales from the dark side. Many were also published in the later issues of Shadowed Realms, proving that the quality of that market improved as it matured. If a second volume of the Book of Shadows ever comes out, I imagine it will be vastly superior to the first volume.
Favorites within ADFHv2 begin with Stephen Cavanagh's 'Finding the Words' which is a disturbing and yet strangely moving tale of a father dealing with the death of his little girl.
Others include tales by stalwart Australian authors, Robert Hood, Paul Haines (seriously wicked tale), Deborah Biancotti, Stephen Dedman, and Terry Dowling. Little known Australian writers make worthy appearances as well providing a good mix of the old and the new while maintaining an excellently high level of quality in writing.
Australian horror is maturing quickly and this series is easily the best barometer for seeing this. Volume 1 was excelent - this is better. Australian horror writers are growing in talent and ability and will very soon start to make a serious mark in the world.
If you haven't read either of the books in this annual anthology, then do yourself a favour and begin now. The books can be ordered through Brimstone Press directly, or back ordered through them if you wish to start at the beginning - and that would be a good place to start.
Beware - the Aussies are coming...
Favorites within ADFHv2 begin with Stephen Cavanagh's 'Finding the Words' which is a disturbing and yet strangely moving tale of a father dealing with the death of his little girl.
Others include tales by stalwart Australian authors, Robert Hood, Paul Haines (seriously wicked tale), Deborah Biancotti, Stephen Dedman, and Terry Dowling. Little known Australian writers make worthy appearances as well providing a good mix of the old and the new while maintaining an excellently high level of quality in writing.
Australian horror is maturing quickly and this series is easily the best barometer for seeing this. Volume 1 was excelent - this is better. Australian horror writers are growing in talent and ability and will very soon start to make a serious mark in the world.
If you haven't read either of the books in this annual anthology, then do yourself a favour and begin now. The books can be ordered through Brimstone Press directly, or back ordered through them if you wish to start at the beginning - and that would be a good place to start.
Beware - the Aussies are coming...
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews