Kirby McCauleyReseñas

I may write a more detailed review sometime but knowing myself I probably won’t. For a collection touted in its time (and maybe it still is) as the [b:Dangerous Visions|600349|Dangerous Visions|Harlan Ellison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1509206532l/600349._SY75_.jpg|2758790] of horror, it hasn’t dated very well and there are only a handful of stories that would even rank in a “best of” collection for most of the authors. There is one story by [a:Joyce Carol Oates|3524|Joyce Carol Oates|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1454307466p2/3524.jpg] that doesn’t belong here at all. It’s a very good story, it’s just misplaced.

Every short story in Dark Forces was commissioned by its late editor, Kirby McCauley (1941-2014) for original publication in the anthology, and copyrighted 1980, the year Dark Forces was published.

If you were a Stephen King fan, circa 1980, and heard that he had published a new novella in a new horror anthology but somehow did not hear or forgot what the anthology was called, or could not recall who its editor was, and weren't so fanatical a fan of King at the time that you didn't ask around about it, and perhaps then forgot all about it, then you would have had to wait another five years to read that novella, "The Mist"—one of King's finest—until it was collected in...not Different Seasons, a collection of four novellas published in 1982, but in Skeleton Crew, circa '85, a collection of short stories and the lone, aforementioned novella. That was pretty much me, young lad that I was at the time.

Sad to see that only seven of the 24 contributors are still alive today, as of August 6, 2021, but 1980 was more than half a lifetime ago for most folks. The contributors who are still breathing, being:

Joyce Carol Oates (I didn't care for her contribution, "The Bingo Master", but that's probably just me, as her fan base remains impressively large and loyal, both in and outside of tired academia); T.E.D. Klein (arguably the puller of the most mystifying disappearing act in modern horror history; namely, um, when is that second novel of yours going to be published, Ted? (or is it T.E.D.?, excuse me)—1986, was it? '96? '06? '16? 2666, maybe?, when?, Jesus would you publish the damn thing already; your first novel The Ceremonies was fucking awesome for crying out loud!; Ramsey Campbell, Lisa Tuttle, Joe Haldeman (better known for his prolific output of science fiction); Richard Christian Matheson (unjustly but understandably overshadowed by the incomparable icon that was his father), and the aforementioned King.

The revelation for me in Dark Forces was Edward Bryant. His story "Dark Angel", holy shit, demonstrates the most elaborate, years long, carrying out of the driest ice cold revenge ever plotted in the world of genre or literary fiction, if you'll pardon the hyperbole.

My least favorite was Edward Gorey's "The Stupid Joke". Perhaps it was just me, perhaps the same me that didn't particularly enjoy—though, granted, didn't exactly hate—the story commissioned by Joyce Carol Oates, but I thought "The Stupid Joke" was a stupid joke, so maybe the stupid joke was on me.

I liked Charles L. Grant's contribution, "A Garden of Blackred Roses", so much that I threw down fifty bucks a couple of days ago to acquire his first story collection, Tales From The Nightside, published in relatively limited quantity in 1981 by Arkham House.

Here's the Table of Contents of Dark Forces, in case you're interested:

"THE LATE SHIFT" - Dennis Etchison (1943-2019) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE ENEMY" - Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902-1991) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️
"DARK ANGEL" - Edward Bryant (1945-2017) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE CREST OF THIRTY-SIX" - Davis Grubb (1919-1980) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"MARK INGESTRE: THE CUSTOMER'S TALE" - Robert Aickman (1914-1981) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"WHERE THE SUMMER ENDS" - Karl Edward Wagner (1945-1994) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE BINGO MASTER" - Joyce Carol Oates (1938-____) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️
"CHILDREN OF THE KINGDOM" - T. E. D. Klein (1947-____) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE DETECTIVE OF DREAMS" - Gene Wolfe (1931-2019) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"VENGEANCE IS." - Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE BROOD" - Ramsey Campbell (1946-____) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE WHISTLING WELL" - Clifford D. Simak (1904-1988) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE PECULIAR DEMESNE" - Russell Kirk (1918-1994) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"WHERE THE STONES GROW" - Lisa Tuttle (1952-____) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS" - Robert Bloch (1917-1994) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE STUPID JOKE" - Edward Gorey (1925-2000) . . . ⭐️
"A TOUCH OF PETULANCE" - Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"LINDSAY AND THE RED CITY BLUES" - Joe Haldeman (1943-____) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️
"A GARDEN OF BLACKRED ROSES" - Charles L. Grant (1942-2006) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"OWLS HOOT IN THE DAYTIME" - Manly Wade Wellman (1903-1986) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"WHERE THERE'S A WILL" - Richard Matheson (1926-2013) & Richard C. Matheson (1953-____) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"TRAPS" - Gahan Wilson (1930-2019) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE MIST" - Stephen King (1947-____) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

'80s horror. Unbeatable.

Really - maybe it's the teeth cutting or something, but many of these stories are literary, well paced, and complex. I peruse horror and slip-stream anthologies on a regular basis, and I have to say that this collection is one of the best I've ever had the pleasure of reading. An equivalent: McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories.

'80s horror. Unbeatable.

Really - maybe it's the teeth cutting or something, but many of these stories are literary, well paced, and complex. I peruse horror and slip-stream anthologies on a regular basis, and I have to say that this collection is one of the best I've ever had the pleasure of reading. An equivalent: McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories.

A great anthology by some of the master Horror writers