The Dark Fantastic

Rating:
Summary: The FANTASTIC Dark Fantastic
Review: Each of these grueling slices of life are works of dark beauty. There is not a clinker in the bunch. This collection defies generic classification. Gorman effortlessly straddles western, mystery, SF, horror, even Celtic warrior fiction and leaves the reader with much insight to contemplate for a long time after finishing the book. These stories are haunting and I felt haunted by the revenants that lingered in my mind from each and every story included in The Dark Fantastic. Leisure deserves much praise for bringing this bouquet of dark roses to the masses for a reasonable price. Ignore the naysayers and buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: 2-1/2 stars for the short stories that I liked.
Review: I found Ed Gorman's collection of seventeen horror/sci-fi short stories to be something of a mixed bag. I read them all and I found some to be quite enjoyable...while others I did not.

Out of this assortment of tales I enjoyed a total of seven. So that's a score of 7 out of 17. Regrettably for me, quite a few of them had me thinking "so-so" when I was finished.

Of those that I really did like...the top three are:

1) "Of the Fog." A classic story. Sometimes real horror can be found in the people and things surrounding you day to day.

2) "Lover Boy." This story had an "Outer Limits" sort of feel to it. Just the right balance of horror and sci-fi.

3) "To Fit the Crime." Another tale that is slightly reminiscent of a classic "Night Gallery" episode or one of the newer Outer Limits. Just desserts are granted to someone who is due.

The remaining stories that didn't overly thrill me are a hodge-podge of slightly spooky Westerns, sci-fi adventures and pseudo-horror. There will probably be people who find these stories more entertaining than my personal picks.

This isn't a bad collection. All the stories are an easy read. 2-1/2 stars for the seven stories that I enjoyed.

Rating:
Summary: These stories will bother you for some time...a sort of itch
Review: I'm totally blown away by the lackluster reviews here. This is an incredible collection, horror and myth and grand, these stories were outstanding.

If you're into Ed for his mystery stuff, you'll still find plenty to dig here. But if you haven't read Ed because you're not into mysteries but more horror, then absolutely don't pass this up. These are definitely NOT leftovers. Many of these stories manage an intimate and epic feel all at once. Rite of Passage, Survivor and Synandra are perfect examples of this.

I won't talk about details since with short stories it's way too easy to give too much away. But even after finishing this about two weeks ago, these stories are still with me: Masque, Synandra, The Monster Parade (which is also a fantastic bradburyesque title) and the story that keeps pushing it's way to the front of my mind over and over is Cages. Horrifying and sad, that story alone is worth the couple of bucks for this book.

Rating:
Summary: Long Overdue Collection
Review: Leisure deserves some serious kudos for putting out short story horror collections in mass market paperback. Ed Gorman's collections have always been hard to come by, and The Dark Fantastic is extremely satisfying. In addition to straight-out horror like "The Broker," and "Emma Baxter's Boy", what really puts this collection over the top is Gorman's demonstration of talent in so many genres, including western ("Junior"), thriller ("Of the Fog"), and most impressively, sci-fi/horror ("Survival" and the unbelievable "Cages".) Pick it up, pick any story, and dig in. See why Gorman has the cult following he does.

Rating:
Summary: Stories may be dark but they certainly aren't fantastic.
Review: There is no doubt that Ed Gorman is a very talented writer, and two or three of the stories in this anthology show his strengths quite well. But the majority of them are simply made up of tired and shop worn noir nightmare cliches. I found myself skimming over whole paragraphs just to make it through all the morose atmosphere to the 'twist' ending I had figured out as soon as the story began. If you must read this then these are the stories I would recommend - Yesterday's Dreams, Different Kinds of Dead, and The Face. The rest you have probably read before in some form or another by other writers.

Rating:
Summary: Stories may be dark but they certainly aren't fantastic.
Review: There is no doubt that Ed Gorman is a very talented writer, and two or three of the stories in this anthology show his strengths quite well. But the majority of them are simply made up of tired and shop worn noir nightmare cliches. I found myself skimming over whole paragraphs just to make it through all the morose atmosphere to the 'twist' ending I had figured out as soon as the story began. If you must read this then these are the stories I would recommend - Yesterday's Dreams, Different Kinds of Dead, and The Face. The rest you have probably read before in some form or another by other writers.

Rating:
Summary: The Dark Fantastic
Review: This is a good collection of short stories. Not a great one! I would say 10 of the 17 stories are average or above average. I think that the reason a lot of readers do not like short story collections is that there is an inconsistancy about the writing. That certainly holds true for this book.

Rating:
Summary: A REAL STUNNER OF A COLLECTION.
Review: This is bar none the best book I have read so far this year.

Gorman is an incredible writer who can conjure up the whole range of emotions, without need of sloppy sentiment or cheap thrills. The stories "The Long Sunset" and "Survival" are two of the most hauntingly beautiful tales I have read in a long time. Not much gets to me but "Survival" left me choked up with a lump in my throat. I really don't feel that there is a single dud in this book. These stories are as equally thought provoking as they are moving.

I wont try and describe the individual stories because I doubt I could do them justice, I'm not at all good reviewer and would most likely fail to get my point across. But for me this was such a powerful collection of short stories that I just felt like I had to gush about how much I loved them. A huge thumbs up from this boy.

The is the first time I have read anything by Ed Gorman and I will certianly be checking out some more of his stuff.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing fantastic here!
Review: What do you do when you run out of material and have fragments of uncompleted novels? You put them together in this book and have(or pay)a "friend" write a glowing introduction. Bentley Little begins the intro by stating Ed Gorman is a writer's writer. Bentley Little also didn't read the entire book.

The sci-fi shorts are okay. The "horror" predictable. There's a story in here called "Rite of Passage" which reminds me of an Aesop fable. There's also a couple of stories about hitchhikers, serial killers and a blind woman with a healing touch. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone I know. 2 stars for the sci-fi.

Rating:
Summary: Its Good
Review: Yaknow, its hard to put a collection together that hasn't been done already, there are alot of collections out there, but good luck finding them, most are either repeats or out of print, this is a good collection, not great, but good, keep ya interested. Ed Gorman usually does find the ones that are forgotten or not main stream and good enough to fill a book. Recommended for any who likes short horror.