Rating: 
Summary: One classic, one great, two good works
Review: Bentley Little, perhaps the best and most underrated author working in horror today, here gives us "The Circle," an amazing bit of writing with a circular conception of time and storytelling. Ostensibly the tale of what happens on a suburban cul de sac one night, it addresses the conformity of suburban life and many of Little's pet thematic concerns. Truly original.
The Clegg novella is also quite good, although Golden's and Piccirilli's contributions are not quite up to par.
Rating:
Summary: One classic, one great, two good works
Review: Bentley Little, perhaps the best and most underrated author working in horror today, here gives us "The Circle," an amazing bit of writing with a circular conception of time and storytelling. Ostensibly the tale of what happens on a suburban cul de sac one night, it addresses the conformity of suburban life and many of Little's pet thematic concerns. Truly original.
The Clegg novella is also quite good, although Golden's and Piccirilli's contributions are not quite up to par.
Rating:
Summary: Four voices whisper in the night...
Review: Four horsemen of horror herald the seven deadly sins and mark the course of evil. Bentley Little, Doug Clegg, Tom Piccirilli, and Christopher Golden weave past, present and mythology into a tapestry where pride comes before humanity.
Rating: 
Summary: One fair night, two good nights and one masterwork
Review: I'll break it down by author:Little **
Golden ***
Piccirilli *****
Clegg *** Piccirilli, as usual, makes it worth the price of admission - a classic. The other stories are pretty much been-there-done-that. Doesn't Christopher Golden know that Vikings didn't have horns on their helmets? Oh well, 'Jonah Arose' makes it worth it.
Rating:
Summary: A worthy horror anthology
Review: Mix four masters of horror, give them free reign with their imaginations, and what do you have? A book worth reading, that's what!
Bentley Littles 'The Circle' starts off the fun. Although different, dark, twisted, and out there, it skids off the road a bit too much at times. I couldn't get into the characters, some of the imagery painted seemed overdone to the point of writing it just to shock the reader, and the ending left me disturbed, not necessarily in a good way.
Christopher Goldens' Pyre was an occupying, fascinating tale about a young girl who, after losing her father, goes over the edge to bring him back for a showdown. The theme was pure bliss, making me want to read more, more, and even more when it was all done with. The characters were convincingly written, multi-dimensional, and lingering. Goldens' writing style is both fierce and strong.
Tom Piccirilli's Jonah Arose is a mixed blessing. The story didn't do it for me, but it was written with a talented hand. The wording was as smooth as butter, the characterization was potent, and the ending strange. It just took a bit too long to get off, I was confused much of the time, since the tale was so 'out there'.
The last offering, Douglas Cleggs' The Words, ties in with Goldens as the winner. Intriguing, different, suspenseful, and creepy, it's a simple tale that holds much more beneath the surface.
In the mood for a good horror anthology? How can you go wrong with four in-depth novellas from these authors? Simple - you can't.
Rating:
Summary: Great author lineup, mixed bag of stories.
Review: Other than varied encounters with the supernatural, there are no obvious common themes running through the novellas offered in FOUR DARK NIGHTS. Apparently given free reign, each author has chosen to pursue themes common to their own work, rather than using this forum to experiment with their fiction. The results, for the most part, are competent entertainments, but each a far cry from the "blood curdling" visions promised by the book's jacket copy. The collection opens with Bentley Little's disjointed prose experiment "The Circle," perhaps the most confusing novella of 2002. The fractured fairy tale's main focus is on the mayhem that ensues in a suburban neighborhood after two teenagers make a sacrifice at an urban witch woman's backyard shrine. A la Pulp Fiction, however, the story is not told in sequence. It has its moments (a baby who defecates diamonds and other valuable items is a real attention grabber), but readers will likely find their attention wandering at times. In Christopher Golden's "The Pyre," a young woman is convinced that she will be able to come to terms with her estranged father's death by carting his corpse to an isolated Maine island where she once witnessed a manifestation of the world beyond. The evening, which begins with a grave robbery, ends tragically. An exploration of the bonds between parent and child, "The Pyre" works only if you consciously ignore some of its more implausible elements. If a walk on the wild side sounds intriguing, Tom Piccirilli's "Jonah Arose" is the story for you. An attempt to paint a densely detailed landscape with words, this piece is bursting at the seams with bizarre images and lengthy digressions. This tale, which probably would have worked better with some of the extraneous detail and exposition stripped away, concerns itself with a man searching for his kidnapped son. The fact that the kidnapper is the child's grandfather adds gravity to the story; the child's condition, revealed at the end of the narrative, will likely haunt many readers. The final, and most successful of the quartet, is Douglas Clegg's "The Words," an artfully crafted tale of alienation and experimentation that seems to endorse the old adage to choose your friends carefully. Mark and Dash are two teenagers originally thrown together because they are outsiders. They learn to revel in their outsider status, constantly seeking new ways to enhance it. This search leads them to explore "the Nowhere," another aspect of reality. Their attempts to enter and embrace this reality bring them closer to fulfilling their dark destinies. Though supposedly linked by the fact that the events all take place in a single night, no obvious attempt was made to tie these stories together. Such a device might have added an element of danger or even playfulness to the final output, with the writers working off of each other's ideas and situations. Alas, this conceit was apparently not considered, leading to this somewhat more conservative compilation of
stand-alone stories.
Rating:
Summary: Great author lineup, mixed bag of stories.
Review: Other than varied encounters with the supernatural, there are no obvious common themes running through the novellas offered in FOUR DARK NIGHTS. Apparently given free reign, each author has chosen to pursue themes common to their own work, rather than using this forum to experiment with their fiction. The results, for the most part, are competent entertainments, but each a far cry from the "blood curdling" visions promised by the book's jacket copy. The collection opens with Bentley Little's disjointed prose experiment "The Circle," perhaps the most confusing novella of 2002. The fractured fairy tale's main focus is on the mayhem that ensues in a suburban neighborhood after two teenagers make a sacrifice at an urban witch woman's backyard shrine. A la Pulp Fiction, however, the story is not told in sequence. It has its moments (a baby who defecates diamonds and other valuable items is a real attention grabber), but readers will likely find their attention wandering at times. In Christopher Golden's "The Pyre," a young woman is convinced that she will be able to come to terms with her estranged father's death by carting his corpse to an isolated Maine island where she once witnessed a manifestation of the world beyond. The evening, which begins with a grave robbery, ends tragically. An exploration of the bonds between parent and child, "The Pyre" works only if you consciously ignore some of its more implausible elements. If a walk on the wild side sounds intriguing, Tom Piccirilli's "Jonah Arose" is the story for you. An attempt to paint a densely detailed landscape with words, this piece is bursting at the seams with bizarre images and lengthy digressions. This tale, which probably would have worked better with some of the extraneous detail and exposition stripped away, concerns itself with a man searching for his kidnapped son. The fact that the kidnapper is the child's grandfather adds gravity to the story; the child's condition, revealed at the end of the narrative, will likely haunt many readers. The final, and most successful of the quartet, is Douglas Clegg's "The Words," an artfully crafted tale of alienation and experimentation that seems to endorse the old adage to choose your friends carefully. Mark and Dash are two teenagers originally thrown together because they are outsiders. They learn to revel in their outsider status, constantly seeking new ways to enhance it. This search leads them to explore "the Nowhere," another aspect of reality. Their attempts to enter and embrace this reality bring them closer to fulfilling their dark destinies. Though supposedly linked by the fact that the events all take place in a single night, no obvious attempt was made to tie these stories together. Such a device might have added an element of danger or even playfulness to the final output, with the writers working off of each other's ideas and situations. Alas, this conceit was apparently not considered, leading to this somewhat more conservative compilation of
stand-alone stories.
Rating: 
Summary: Four Dark Knights Swing into Town
Review: Picked up Four Dark Nights in SF two days ago and rushed through it in two long sittings. Great stories! The novella is a lost art form and all the authors here managed to come up with damn-near classic creations. Little's was a suspenseful thriller; Golden's a wonderfully evocative and thoughtful fantasy; Piccirilli's return to the Works was a macabre, bizarre, enticing effort; and Clegg's The Words is haunting and creepy with a totally killer ending. Of the four, Clegg's and Piccirilli's pieces are the stand-outs for me. They're just more weird and eerie, and that's what I'm always after as a horror reader. But all these novellas are first-rate. Definitely nab this book as soon as you can!
Rating:
Summary: Two Great Stories, Two Pretty Good Ones
Review: The entries by Golden and Picirrilli are not bad if a trifle long, but the ones by Clegg and Little are outstanding. Little's story in particular, with its "Pulp Fiction"-esque time jiggling, is a standout. Scary and poignant at the same time, as well as being wildly original. This is a superior collection by four of horror's current top talents.
Rating:
Summary: Douglas Clegg Again with His Words
Review: This short novella is about 90 pages long. And believe you me and in can be read by just one sit down. He grabs you from the very beginning of the story.
Mark and Dash are the two main characters and these two boys travel into the darkness of life. And 'THE WORDS' are magic as to entrance you into another world or realm of life.
Classic Clegg!!
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