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If You Are The Big Tree We Are The Small Press: Quick Chills II: The Best Horror Fiction from the Specialty Press (ed. Morrish & Enfantino)

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                                                                                                        I love the old small press magazines from the 1980s and 1990s-- Cemetery Dance , Deathrealm , The Horror Show , and so on. Sure, the Internet has made it even easier for 'zines to get made and distributed--there's no shortage of short horror fiction magazines and podcasts online--but, like most analog media, there's a magic to the old school magazines. A lot of it is in the imperfections, which, like the shot-on-video horror movies that were proliferating in the same period, add either goofy charm on lo-fi creepiness. In some cases, as with this cover for Deathrealm #27, it's both...
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Oh Blue World, Don't Desert Me Now: Blue World by Robert R. McCammon

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                                                                                                  I've been looking forward to this. . . Before a few years ago, with one notable exception (we'll cover it below), I hadn't read any Robert McCammon. I was aware of him, but I was too busy chasing down John Halkin novels about critter attacks and working through Richard Laymon's bibliography to make room for him.  Then I finally picked up a copy of Blue World and I felt something I hadn't felt since I'd first dived into Stephen King years and years ago: Electrifying, joyful excitement! It was like a summer camp for the imagination, with clean, crisp writing, creative attention to detail, and a gen...
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"Do You Know What The Most Frightening Thing In The World Is? It's Fear.": Fears (ed. Ellen Datlow)

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                                                                                                              I've been looking forward to this one for a while.  A Datlow anthology is always going to have contemporary horror of the highest literary quality, and in this case, a couple of vintage reprints as well. I'll discuss more below, but it's one of those reprints that got me excited about this. That's because we have a story about Charles Birkin, the 20th century master of the British horror short story. If you're in the know, then just hearing that name may make you tense up a little, because Birkin has a deserved reputation for both quality and cruelty...
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Last Exit to Forever: Borderlands (ed. Thomas F. Monteleone)

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                                                                                                        Elephant in the room: There's a lot you can say about Tom Monteleone, and a lot of it isn't great. I acknowledge that. So why showcase Borderlands ? Because I don't think the smoke from the bridges he's burned should blot out the frequently incredible accomplishments of the writers who made the Borderlands anthology series one of the most exciting and vital I've ever read. And it was good from the get-go in 1990: Some of the stories here are award-winning classics; others are oddball pieces that deserve more attention than they've gotten.  The Calling by David B. Silva Synops...
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