Legends of the Night

Rating:
Summary: A Good collection of horror from Deathrealm's editor
Review: I recommend Legends of the Night for fans of subtle but gripping horror, as author Rainey presents a group of his own stories featuring ghosts, demons and unnammable Lovecraftian terrors, with the proficient style we have seen in many of his published tales in Robert M. Price's Cthulhu series and others. Look closely at 'Children of Burma' and 'Stalker of the Wild Wind' which are very characteristic of the author's finest work. There are a few coarse edged stories, like 'Gunhand', 'Forgiven' and 'Petey in La La Land' which seem less powerful than Mr. Rainey's usual tense and atmospheric style, but even these are above average, and commendable divergences from the other short stories in the book. As an avid reader of Deathrealm, Mr. Rainey's late and lamented but long lived magazine, I found it a treat to read a well done collection of his short fiction, especially attractively packaged like Wildside has done in this hardback. I hope there will be more offerings like this in the future and that Mr. Rainey sees much success with his future endeavors. Legends of the Night is very much worth it's price.

Rating:
Summary: disappointing
Review: the last trumpet was great. this is not. some stories have an amazingly weak plot. some are simply not interesting. some are not horror at all. some i don't even understand. it is well written, i'll give him that. but he needs better plots than this. it seems like he wrote these stories sufferig from an overdose of literature after a vacation. perhaps he will do better next time. promising battle descriptions in one story. some regular fantasy stories a la Robert E. Howard by Rainey wouldn't be a bad thing. i'll buy it if you write it, Rainey!