Final Shadows

by Charles L. Grant

Gathers horror stories by Bill Pronzini, Michael Bishop, Tanith Lee, Lynn S. Hightower, Dennis Etchison, David Morrell, Jessica Palmer, and Guy N. Smith

Genres: Horror, Anthologies, Short Stories

504 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1991

About the author

Charles Lewis Grant was a novelist and short story writer specializing in what he called "dark fantasy" and "quiet horror." He also wrote under the pseudonyms of Geoffrey Marsh, Lionel Fenn, Simon Lake, Felicia Andrews, and Deborah Lewis.

Grant won a World Fantasy Award for his novella collection Nightmare Seasons, a Nebula Award in 1976 for his short story "A Crowd of Shadows", and another Nebula Award in 1978 for his novella "A Glow of Candles, a Unicorn's Eye," the latter telling of an actor's dilemma in a post-literate future. Grant also edited the award winning Shadows anthology, running eleven volumes from 1978-1991. Contributors include Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, R.A. Lafferty, Avram Davidson, and Steve Rasnic and Melanie Tem. Grant was a former Executive Secretary and Eastern Regional Director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and president of the Horror Writers Association.

Reviews

[Jeff McIntosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last in the long-running "Shadows" anthologies...edited by the late Charles L. Grant.

Longer than any of the previous volumes, "Final" consists of 36 tales of unease. As previously reviewed...I'd agree that some of the short stories were something of a letdown....although I did enjoy Lumley's "The Picnickers" , as well as Garnett's "Together" among others.

Worth a read...but maybe start with the earlier volumes in this series....


Jeff McIntosh

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pleasant but overall unremarkable collection of scary stuff with highlights being the haunting "When They Gave Us Memory" by Dennis Etchison, "The Mermaid" by Tanith Lee, the nightmarish "Fastening" by Julie R. Good, and the good old fashioned ghost story "The Door" by Sharon Webb. The last in this award winning series.

[Kevin Lucia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any of the Shadows collections are worth reading. But it's interesting that this volume contains twice as many stories as the previous volumes, but some of them didn't hold up to the overall quality of the previous volumes. Skipped several stories in this one, which didn't happen with the others. But still - definitely on the whole excellent, worth reading.