Dark Labyrinth 1

by Kevin J. Anderson

Collection of four horror tales from the mind of Kevin J. Anderson, each with a short introduction by the author. Includes: “Final Performance,” “Special Makeup,” “Much at Stake,” and “The Sum of His Parts.”

72 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 30, 2011

About the author

Yes, I have a lot of books, and if this is your first visit to my amazon author page, it can be a little overwhelming. If you are new to my work, let me recommend a few titles as good places to start. I love my Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series, humorous horror/mysteries, which begin with DEATH WARMED OVER. My steampunk fantasy adventures, CLOCKWORK ANGELS and CLOCKWORK LIVES, written with Neil Peart, legendary drummer from Rush, are two of my very favorite novels ever. And my magnum opus, the science fiction epic The Saga of Seven Suns, begins with HIDDEN EMPIRE. After you've tried those, I hope you'll check out some of my other series.

I have written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and I'm the co-author of the Dune prequels. My original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. I have also written several comic books including the Dark Horse Star Wars collection Tales of the Jedi written in collaboration with Tom Veitch, Predator titles (also for Dark Horse), and X-Files titles for Topps.

I serve as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.

My wife is author Rebecca Moesta. We currently reside near Monument, Colorado.

Reviews

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful collection of short stories with a horror theme. Anderson collected these from various eras of his long career, and it shows--some are definately more maturely written than others. But all are great fun. This is a quick but very satisfying read, and one I'll go back to.
Each story features a different "monster:" ghosts appear in the excellent "Final Performance, about the ghosts of Shakespeare's globe theatre; a werewolf films a werewolf movie in "Speacial makeup;" Bela Lugosi meets the real Dracula in "Much at Stake;" and Frankenstein's monster gets a turn in "The Sum of its Parts."

Of the four, Final Performance was definitely the favourite--though I'm a Shakespeare nut. The werewolf story was fun, but a bit uninspired; it felt clunky, and almost as if the entire story only existed to serve the punch line. Much at Stake was an excellent looks at Bela Lugosi and the inspiration for the Dracula character, Vlad Tepes--this one was very heartfelt, and masterfully done. Sum of its Parts was also excellent, and a truly unique treatment of a story that's been told oh so many times.

Really, it's just a great collection. The more I read of Anderson's work, the more I want to read. Great job.