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Abandoned Places
From stories about being abandoned in the heart of civilization to stories about forced abandonment for the sake of science to how abandoned places affect the mind; the stories in this anthology cover a large range of genres and types of abandoned places.
Each one with their own little piece of personal horror laying among the ruins, ready to strike when you least expect it.
Features the following stories:
Empathy by Rechan
Belief by Bill "Hafoc" Rogers
Stared Too Deeply by T. D. Coltraine
The World Within by John Lynne
Sleepwalking by Adam "Nicodemus" Riggs
All that Glitters by Ianus J. Wolf
One Shot of Happy by Roland Jovaik
Who's To Say by David Ramirez
Prospero by Patrick "Bahumat" Rochefort
Darwin's Future by Taylor Stark
Rainfall by Kandrel
Piping by Tarl "Voice" Hoch
World's Biggest Dragons by Ryan Campbell
Scratch by Ben Goodridge
The Cable by James L. Steele
Under the Mountain by Tonin
Each one with their own little piece of personal horror laying among the ruins, ready to strike when you least expect it.
Features the following stories:
Empathy by Rechan
Belief by Bill "Hafoc" Rogers
Stared Too Deeply by T. D. Coltraine
The World Within by John Lynne
Sleepwalking by Adam "Nicodemus" Riggs
All that Glitters by Ianus J. Wolf
One Shot of Happy by Roland Jovaik
Who's To Say by David Ramirez
Prospero by Patrick "Bahumat" Rochefort
Darwin's Future by Taylor Stark
Rainfall by Kandrel
Piping by Tarl "Voice" Hoch
World's Biggest Dragons by Ryan Campbell
Scratch by Ben Goodridge
The Cable by James L. Steele
Under the Mountain by Tonin
348 pages, Paperback
First published December 5, 2014
3 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Tarl "Voice" Hoch
25 books82 followersTarl is primarily a writer in the horror and erotica genres, though he also dips his toes in fantasy and science fiction when the mood dictates.
Beyond writing, he is the owner of Armoured Fox Press and one of the hosts of the writing podcast Fangs and Fonts (http://www.fangsandfonts.com/) and is a member of the Furry Writer's Guild (http://furrywritersguild.com/)
When it comes to reading, he tends to read a large variety of genres, though admits a love of Lovecraftian horror, epic fantasy, and Japanese light novels. He also enjoys anthropomorphic fiction as well.
Beyond writing, he is the owner of Armoured Fox Press and one of the hosts of the writing podcast Fangs and Fonts (http://www.fangsandfonts.com/) and is a member of the Furry Writer's Guild (http://furrywritersguild.com/)
When it comes to reading, he tends to read a large variety of genres, though admits a love of Lovecraftian horror, epic fantasy, and Japanese light novels. He also enjoys anthropomorphic fiction as well.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 14, 2015
This review originally appeared on Claw and Quill.
Tarl Hoch's Abandoned Places isn't the first furry horror-themed anthology, but the genre includes relatively unmined territory for anthropomorphic fiction. More intriguingly, many of the voices presented here are relatively new to the scene, or at least to the anthology circuit. Hoch himself may be best known in the fandom as one of the co-hosts of the Fangs and Fonts podcast. Authors include novelists Ryan Campbell, James L. Steele and Ben Goodridge, as well as a few authors known more for explicit work, like Rechan and Kandrel.
Before I start: a digression. Writers and critics sometimes talk of agency, a term of art which refers to how much control a character has over their own destiny. A protagonist must actively make a decision that leads to the climax. It may be a bad decision, it may be a good decision that fails, but it's a decision. In horror, characters may spend a lot of time reacting to the horrific, but that doesn't let them off the hook: "run from the monster until you get eaten" doesn't count as agency. (Except perhaps for the monster.) I'm going to come back to agency when talking about some of these stories.
While you'd assume the theme of Abandoned Places is exactly what it says on the tin, Hoch allows for wide latitude. Right out of the gate Rechan's "Empathy," a short and effective riff seemingly inspired by the popular lore (if not the true facts) of the Kitty Genovese murder, lets you know some territory ahead is more metaphorically than literally haunted.
Kandrel's "Rainfall" is a fascinating mystery/survival story wrapped up in a science fiction dystopia; with solid plotting and characters, it punches far above its word count class in world-building. "Prospero," a hard sf piece by Patrick Rochefort presented as a letter--after a fashion--from an uplifted lab animal sent out in an exploration craft that wasn't intended to come home, is an absolute knockout not just for the Big Idea but for the craft of the writing. If there's any original piece of short fiction that FurPlanet's published that they need to get in front of mainstream award committees, this might be it.
Other stories also feature strong narrative style, refreshing to see in furry work. David Ramirez's "Who's to Say," a slow and surreal meditation on a serial killer and his latest victim, drips style (and bodily fluids). Adam Riggs's "Sleepwalking" captures a Poe-esque Victorian feel well, and the Big Idea it's built around is the kind the phrase "delightfully creepy" was coined for. "World's Biggest Dragons," Ryan Campbell's contribution, turns a sad roadside attraction into a horrifying spectacle in a fashion Stephen King might be proud of.
"Piping," Hoch's own dark sci-fi novelette, calls to mind several other stories--one might describe it waggishly as four parts "The Thing" to one part "Avatar." Despite being the longest story here it would benefit from being longer; there's not enough space to lift some antagonists from cliché, and a pivotal character relationship feels rushed. Roland Jovaik's "One Shot of Happy," a revenge tale that would slot neatly into a noir anthology, is grim even by the standards by the rest of this collection.
Ben Goodridge's "Scratch" is a post-apocalyptic take on werewolves; the setting gave me a distinct feeling of watching a first-person combat video game, but the story's strong enough. Bill Rogers's "Belief" sticks close to a canonical interpretation of the Abandoned Places theme, a clever ghost story that reads like a spooky campfire tale.
Ianus J. Wolf's "All That Glitters" has a Huck Finn by way of Clive Barker vibe and skirts questions of agency by setting up a battle of wills between those easily corrupted by evil and those desperately trying to resist; he does a good job with characterization (even if I'm a bit on the fence about the dialect). And among the many stories that involve a literal abandoned place, Tonin's "Under the Mountain" stands out by recognizing that the most dangerous monsters in abandoned places may be the ones we bring in ourselves.
Other stories in the volume are less successful, though--and the problems all reflect the "A" word.
"The World Within" has a wonderful setting and a terrifying villain, but one suspects author John Lynne most wanted to tell the tale of a Faustian doctor bringing unintentional doom to a Titanic-class steamer, and wrapped it in an implausible framing story to fit in theme. The plot simply moves the protagonists from room to room as they find back story fragments. Then they run from the monster until...
While I appreciated the Lovecraftian style of Tyler David Coltraine's "Stared Too Deeply," it's never clear what the main character wants, even superficially. A twist is surprising, but affects neither the protagonist nor the course of the story. Once the terror starts, he has nothing to do but observe. (And run from...)
James L. Steele's "The Cable" presents an amnesiac protagonist waking up in a ruined lab/hospital with a cable plugged into his head connected to a mysterious and still-functioning machine. He explores the facility, finding a menagerie of failed experiments. And that's mostly it. This story is long on atmosphere but short on much else; while I often advocate for enigmatic and open-ended narratives, this one left me more annoyed than pleased.
Lastly, Taylor Stark's "Darwin's Future" starts with the premise that Darwin discovered DNA--somehow--and suggests this leads directly to apocalypse through a series of unconnected vignettes about bioweapon-based world wars and anthropomorphic soldiers. It's ambitious but underdeveloped and jumbled, it's a stretch to connect it with the anthology's theme, and I'm not sure what readers are supposed to take away from it all.
Knowing that Abandoned Places had an unusually long gestation period, I'm hesitant to suggest it needed more editing. Many of the pieces here, though, could have used a polishing pass: pruning passive constructions, finessing dialogue, improving sentence flow. And, yes, I think a few of the stories would have benefited from further revision.
Overall, though, this is a recommendable book. The best pieces are excellent--and even if not all the stories are effective, it's gratifying to see more genre-stretching in furry fare. Given a choice between a little overreach and playing it safe, I'd take overreach every time.
Tarl Hoch's Abandoned Places isn't the first furry horror-themed anthology, but the genre includes relatively unmined territory for anthropomorphic fiction. More intriguingly, many of the voices presented here are relatively new to the scene, or at least to the anthology circuit. Hoch himself may be best known in the fandom as one of the co-hosts of the Fangs and Fonts podcast. Authors include novelists Ryan Campbell, James L. Steele and Ben Goodridge, as well as a few authors known more for explicit work, like Rechan and Kandrel.
Before I start: a digression. Writers and critics sometimes talk of agency, a term of art which refers to how much control a character has over their own destiny. A protagonist must actively make a decision that leads to the climax. It may be a bad decision, it may be a good decision that fails, but it's a decision. In horror, characters may spend a lot of time reacting to the horrific, but that doesn't let them off the hook: "run from the monster until you get eaten" doesn't count as agency. (Except perhaps for the monster.) I'm going to come back to agency when talking about some of these stories.
While you'd assume the theme of Abandoned Places is exactly what it says on the tin, Hoch allows for wide latitude. Right out of the gate Rechan's "Empathy," a short and effective riff seemingly inspired by the popular lore (if not the true facts) of the Kitty Genovese murder, lets you know some territory ahead is more metaphorically than literally haunted.
Kandrel's "Rainfall" is a fascinating mystery/survival story wrapped up in a science fiction dystopia; with solid plotting and characters, it punches far above its word count class in world-building. "Prospero," a hard sf piece by Patrick Rochefort presented as a letter--after a fashion--from an uplifted lab animal sent out in an exploration craft that wasn't intended to come home, is an absolute knockout not just for the Big Idea but for the craft of the writing. If there's any original piece of short fiction that FurPlanet's published that they need to get in front of mainstream award committees, this might be it.
Other stories also feature strong narrative style, refreshing to see in furry work. David Ramirez's "Who's to Say," a slow and surreal meditation on a serial killer and his latest victim, drips style (and bodily fluids). Adam Riggs's "Sleepwalking" captures a Poe-esque Victorian feel well, and the Big Idea it's built around is the kind the phrase "delightfully creepy" was coined for. "World's Biggest Dragons," Ryan Campbell's contribution, turns a sad roadside attraction into a horrifying spectacle in a fashion Stephen King might be proud of.
"Piping," Hoch's own dark sci-fi novelette, calls to mind several other stories--one might describe it waggishly as four parts "The Thing" to one part "Avatar." Despite being the longest story here it would benefit from being longer; there's not enough space to lift some antagonists from cliché, and a pivotal character relationship feels rushed. Roland Jovaik's "One Shot of Happy," a revenge tale that would slot neatly into a noir anthology, is grim even by the standards by the rest of this collection.
Ben Goodridge's "Scratch" is a post-apocalyptic take on werewolves; the setting gave me a distinct feeling of watching a first-person combat video game, but the story's strong enough. Bill Rogers's "Belief" sticks close to a canonical interpretation of the Abandoned Places theme, a clever ghost story that reads like a spooky campfire tale.
Ianus J. Wolf's "All That Glitters" has a Huck Finn by way of Clive Barker vibe and skirts questions of agency by setting up a battle of wills between those easily corrupted by evil and those desperately trying to resist; he does a good job with characterization (even if I'm a bit on the fence about the dialect). And among the many stories that involve a literal abandoned place, Tonin's "Under the Mountain" stands out by recognizing that the most dangerous monsters in abandoned places may be the ones we bring in ourselves.
Other stories in the volume are less successful, though--and the problems all reflect the "A" word.
"The World Within" has a wonderful setting and a terrifying villain, but one suspects author John Lynne most wanted to tell the tale of a Faustian doctor bringing unintentional doom to a Titanic-class steamer, and wrapped it in an implausible framing story to fit in theme. The plot simply moves the protagonists from room to room as they find back story fragments. Then they run from the monster until...
While I appreciated the Lovecraftian style of Tyler David Coltraine's "Stared Too Deeply," it's never clear what the main character wants, even superficially. A twist is surprising, but affects neither the protagonist nor the course of the story. Once the terror starts, he has nothing to do but observe. (And run from...)
James L. Steele's "The Cable" presents an amnesiac protagonist waking up in a ruined lab/hospital with a cable plugged into his head connected to a mysterious and still-functioning machine. He explores the facility, finding a menagerie of failed experiments. And that's mostly it. This story is long on atmosphere but short on much else; while I often advocate for enigmatic and open-ended narratives, this one left me more annoyed than pleased.
Lastly, Taylor Stark's "Darwin's Future" starts with the premise that Darwin discovered DNA--somehow--and suggests this leads directly to apocalypse through a series of unconnected vignettes about bioweapon-based world wars and anthropomorphic soldiers. It's ambitious but underdeveloped and jumbled, it's a stretch to connect it with the anthology's theme, and I'm not sure what readers are supposed to take away from it all.
Knowing that Abandoned Places had an unusually long gestation period, I'm hesitant to suggest it needed more editing. Many of the pieces here, though, could have used a polishing pass: pruning passive constructions, finessing dialogue, improving sentence flow. And, yes, I think a few of the stories would have benefited from further revision.
Overall, though, this is a recommendable book. The best pieces are excellent--and even if not all the stories are effective, it's gratifying to see more genre-stretching in furry fare. Given a choice between a little overreach and playing it safe, I'd take overreach every time.
June 2, 2017
This was a great anthology that explored the theme of abandonment. Whether it was a person left abandoned or individuals discovering or exploring abandoned places each story showed a new and interesting variation on the theme. Horror themes are well woven into the stories providing an exciting but tense read.
February 9, 2015
In Abandoned Places, edited by Tarl "Voice" Hoch, readers are submitted to the eerie horrors and ghostly happenings of places that had once either flourished or at least seen better days. Characters become lost, haunted, or even changed, and the authors each use their own strengths to portray themes that they themselves may be haunted by. As an anthology, Abandoned Places keeps its theme strong throughout. At no point did I feel as though one piece worked better than another, even if a story might have stuck with me more than one prior. The worlds are fleshed out, and Hoch has done a wonderful job at bringing more horror into the traditionally cutesy or even adult and romantic community of the furry fandom's literary scene. Abandoned Places's only weak point is that by the end of the collection, the stories feel repetitive, and this lacking of new directions only made me want to return to either previous stories within or wish for more from this refreshing collection.
July 11, 2018
I'm not a great reader of horror, but I dared to read this anthology and on the whole liked what I found.
I prefer a creepy story to the outright bloodsoaked, so my favourites were Kandrel's sci-fi 'Rainfall' and an effective number about exploring an abandoned mine.
The cover image is very atmospheric, leaving no doubt about what's inside. The interior illustrations for each story are adorable - maybe too adorable for a horror anthology, but I'm not complaining.
I prefer a creepy story to the outright bloodsoaked, so my favourites were Kandrel's sci-fi 'Rainfall' and an effective number about exploring an abandoned mine.
The cover image is very atmospheric, leaving no doubt about what's inside. The interior illustrations for each story are adorable - maybe too adorable for a horror anthology, but I'm not complaining.
March 24, 2019
This superb anthology takes you onto a journey from the deeps of hollow caves to harsh arctic plains to the unknown wasteness of space. Highly recommened to anyone who wants to dip into dark, dramatic, mysterious but hopeless destinies without a classic happy end. Thrilling, intense, thoughtful and creepy - these stories will get under your skin.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews