Narrow Houses - Softcover

Crowther cites a quaint description of coffins as "narrow houses for the dead" to illustrate the guiding concept behind this rather traditional anthology of horror stories. To Crowther, a coffin's cramped quarters evoke the fearful restrictions of a life ruled by superstition, best illustrated by Ramsey Campbell's "The Dead Must Die," which mines the mother lode of omens in the imagination of a born-again extremist. In his introduction, Douglas E. Winter discusses superstitions as "sublime metaphors" and "outlaw knowledge." Often, superstitions reflect interior realities, as in Jonathan Carroll's wonderfully unpredictable piece about storytelling and sudden revelations. "Little magic" triumphs over "bigger magic" in the form of a personal talisman in Ian Watson's quirky "The Tale of Peg and the Brain" and in a vengeful father's unusual interpretation of magic in Andrew Vachss's "Stone Magic." Robert Holdstock explores the sources and power of primal myths in a dark tale of transformative sea selkies. Ray Bradbury, Pat Cadigan, Brian Stableford and Ian McDonald also assure an impressive variety of superb fiction. Unfortunately, there are also a number of duds by the obligatory horror hacks who too often turn up to hex these theme anthologies.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.