Edge of Sundown: Tales of Horror in the Wild West

by Kevin Ross (Editor), Brian M. Sammons (Editor), John Shirley

The western-horror story is far older than what most of us would even consider “the west”. For generations the American Indians told dark tales of their own, of spider women, skin-walkers, cannibals, witch¬es, and thunderbirds. When white men ventured into the west, they learned some of these nightmarish stories from the natives—and they brought or created their own as well: tales told around campfires of mournful ghosts and vengeful spirits and terrible monsters native to the wild new land west of the Mississippi.

That’s where Edge of Sundown comes in. This collection brings tales that visit the darker regions of the west, the places steeped in myth, legend, and blood. Meet the men and women who lived there—the monsters within and without. Make no mistake, there are more than a few gun-throwing hardcas¬es in these stories, but by and large our protagonists are ordinary folks caught up in very extraordinary circumstances. Most importantly, this is an anthology of western-HORROR tales, not western-fantasy. No tall tales here, no wink-and-a-nudge-as-it’s-all-good-fun safe betting. We’re looking to give you the creeps, fair and square, no fooling around.

So right about now you should be checking to make sure your guns are loaded, that your holster is oiled, and you’ve got your hat cinched on tight.

The contents of this anthology include:

The Claw Spurs by John Shirley

Cemetery Man by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Jiang Shi in Chinatown by Kelda Crich

Innocents Abroad by Don Webb

Forked Tongue by Cody Goodfellow

The Buzzard Women by Christine Morgan

The Flute Players by Bruce L. Priddy

In Thunder’s Shadow by Edward M. Erdelac

Silver Wolf by Andrew Kelly

Whisper by Mark Onspaugh

The Dark Cell by Jeffrey Thomas

The Two of Guns by John F.D. Taff

Red Shadows in Terror Canyon by Lawrence Berry

Feast of Famine by Brian M. Sammons

Son of the Wild Moon by Michael G. Szymanski

Drake Takes a Hand by Pete Rawlik

The Puppet Master by Sam Stone

Uncle Gunnysack by C.L. Werner

The Buzzard by Eric Red

Genres: Horror, Westerns, Anthologies, Fiction, Short Stories

306 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2015

Reviews

[Max Gwynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic collection of 20 short stories in the seldom written sub-genre of ‘western-horror’.

Not a bad story among them! From tales of the undead to horrifying, man-eating wendigos, sinister puppeteers to greedy gunslingers making deals with the devil himself this collection has it all.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edge of Sundown features a pretty damn solid collection of Wild West horror stories. As typical with collections of this type, told by varying authors, there are always those stories that stand above the rest. The Buzzard Women, The Dark Cell and Feast and Famine were amongst the best stories this collection had to offer.

You'll find your typical Western horror tales here, stories of haunted guns and cowboys facing off against some unknown and ancient evil, but you'll also find that some pretty unique beasts stalk the pages of this novel, while not every story was a hit, this evened out to be a damn fine little anthology.

[Matthew J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid collection of Horror Western short stories. Few of the stories stand out, for better or worse. If you're in the mood for a mash-up of these two genres, then here's a nice sample.
The intro does warn you that this is not a collection of stories dealing with Lovecraft's Mythos, though in truth a couple stories in the book do make some allusions. It's a bit odd, coming from Chaosium, as it does. But I know they were trying to branch out a bit with their fiction at one point.

[Mulkurul]

Forked Tongue by Cody Goodfellow ☆☆☆

[Steve Love · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for stories that were a little more polished and interesting. The editor seems to have only found the stories for this collection, as opposed to doing any actual editing; there were a handful of grammatical errors, and a lot of the writing was pretty poor. One or two stories had some original ideas, but for the most part, don't expect anything more than cowboys vs. a werewolf, or cowboys vs. some zombies.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of stories in this anthology. They were will written, for the most part, and I enjoyed them a great deal. Many of Chaosium's anthologies are--let me be polite--hit or miss, but this one nailed it. Great stories set in the Weird West. Cannibals, murderous puppets, werewolves, cursed guns, bizarre monsters, and even a Haitian gris-gris man! I liked it all. It was like Deadwood meets Tales from the Crypt.

[Chris McMillan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific, fun collection of horror stories taking place in the "Wild West." What makes it so fun is the variety of horrors in this collection, including Chinese zombies, dinosaurs, werewolfs, puppets and a bad ass bird, to name a few. It's a great book and not what you might expect. Check it out!

[Gary Fortuin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice collection of horror stories set in the old west. Not every one is a winner, but the good far outweigh the bad here.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

If the chocolate of a Western is enhanced by the peanut butter of the Weird, this collection will do you. Some stories are better than others. But isn't that always the case with anthologies?

[Joe Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

The short stories are a mixed lot. A couple were pretty good; several were not; and most were okay, but not memorable.