Cutting Edge

Rating:
Summary: A collection of great writers not at their best.
Review: Cutting Edge wants to be an anthology on the level of Kirby McCauley's landmark contemporary dark fantasy collection Dark Forces. Sadly the collection falls short of that noble mark, mainly due to stories that are a far cry from the contributing writers best work. Only Robert Bloch's personal feeling short story 'Reaper' is a real stand out.

Rating:
Summary: A collection of great writers not at their best.
Review: Cutting Edge wants to be an anthology on the level of Kirby McCauley's landmark contemporary dark fantasy collection Dark Forces. Sadly the collection falls short of that noble mark, mainly due to stories that are a far cry from the contributing writers best work. Only Robert Bloch's personal feeling short story 'Reaper' is a real stand out.

Rating:
Summary: Bloodless anthology of horror tales
Review: The sense of foreboding that creeps up on you once you've finished a few of the stories in this extended anthology of horror has less to do with the macabre than with the extremely poor quality of some of the writing. Though some names leap out at you (Peter Straub, Clive Barker and Robert Bloch) little of the work is as powerful. Barker tries his usual high concept horror shtick (paranormal gumshoe) while Straub creates a horrifically manipulative brat in "Blue Roses" who, unsurprisingly, finds his true meter in Vietnam. (Block's entry, "The Reaper" lacks blood, but has a witty end that makes up for that). Between those entries we have inferior stories whose shock value has less to do with inspiring us with terror than amazing us with the cheap ploys and pedestrian prose they are willing to stoop to - we have atheists who accidentally walk into hell, deranged serial killers who stumble upon those more unhinged than they are, various lost people and others pushed over the edge. There are some fun exceptions (a man who returns home for the first time since offing his wife and her lover) but they are more than outweighed by the truly bad (an extended novela, apparently in progress, concerned with Jack the Ripper - not a bad idea, but painfully underwritten). Despite the inclusion of many known writers, the most powerful story - "Little Cruelties" - was written by a man I've never heard of: Steve Rasnic Tem (You'd never forget a name like that). I would have given this collection a single star if not for the emotional punch of that story.