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Shrouded By Darkness is a collection of 23 short stories
contributed by names many of you will recognise as being well-known
in the realms of horror fiction. The purpose, aside from to
produce an enjoyable feast of reading, is to generate funds
in support of DebRA, a charity raising awareness of Epidermolysis
Bullosa, a rare genetic condition which affects the skin and
internal bodylinings.
I must admit that as a (much less successful) writer I'm not
enamoured with the idea of judging other people's work, but
as I have no qualms about reviewing films, audios and non-fiction
books, I'll look past that moral dilemma and just get on with
the job. I can at least tell you what works for me; which
ideas are fresh and which overused (I'm not keen on the work
hackneyed).
The
name on the cover which immediately grabbed my attention was
Graham Masterton who is, in my humble opinion, the greatest
writer of horror fiction of our times. There's no one else
with as comfortable a writing style, who can so realistically
place the supernatural in the real world. However, I have
to say that, although his wonderfully descriptive metaphors
abound as usual, this is far from being one of Masterton's
better tales.
And that, I'm sorry to say, appears to be the order of the
day here. Although we have an abundance of big names - Ramsey
Campbell, Christopher Fowler, Simon Clark, Neil Gaiman, Storm
Constantine, Charles de Lint, Poppy Z Brite, and others -
the entire selection of stories is, at best, average in its
quality, and at least half suffer from predictability in the
plot. David
J Howe, better known for his work our side of the fence with
reviews, features and editorials, offers up a cowled figure
and an ancient secret order. Neil Gaiman gives us a flesh-eating
old woman. None of these ideas are particularly fresh to horror
connoisseurs.
Many
publishers and editors consider it taboo to feature a story
about a writer or writing. I've never held with this opinion,
and have read some good examples. This collection contains
two, and they are probably the best of the bunch. One Copy
Only by Rambsey Campbell, has an avid reader of rare fiction
discovering a little shop, the upper floor of which contains
one-off copies of books from famous writers. It's an interesting
tale with a supernatural edge, which is only let down by an
end which offers no explanation for that upstairs room. Similarly,
Cutting Criticism by James Lovegrove, has a yearly
correspondence between a serial killer and a person who runs
a website and offers specialised critique. I liked the idea
of this one, but again I was disappointed by the abrupt and
predictable conclusion which throws away all credibility in
the last few sentences.
And
while I'm pointing out this collection's shortcomings, I feel
obliged to mention the contribution from Clive Barker, which
is merely a sketch he produced in the eighties, that has been
seen elsewhere previously. Including his name on the front
cover is undoubtedly going to mislead certain people into
buying this book because they believe they are getting a short
story from Barker. This is very naughty of the publishers.
On
the plus side, and talking of the publisher, this book is
very well presented by Telos - the cover is attractive (to
horror buffs, at least) and the print is on good quality white
paper. Secondly, this book is intended to raise money for
charity, and I'm all in favour of being offered a product,
rather than being accosted in the street and 'begged' for
money.
All
in all then, occasional readers of horror will be entertained
by the variety of styles on offer here, but horror aficionados
will be left feeling short-changed.
Ty
Power
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