The Dark Fantastic

By Ed Gorman

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0843948191
• ISBN13: 9780843948196
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Leisure Books
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 1.3" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

Its Good

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.

Long Overdue Collection

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.

The FANTASTIC Dark Fantastic

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.

These stories will bother you for some time...a sort of itch

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.

A REAL STUNNER OF A COLLECTION.

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.