Kirby McCauley (1941–2014)

I found this book in a box by the side of the road, and saved it from the rain. All of which is maybe fitting--it sounds like the start of one of the stories here.

This is a really fun collection of stories. The quality is somewhat inconsistent, but that's to be expected of any short story collection with multiple authors. There's something I find just adorable about the book. It starts with a short introduction about the editor, Kirby McCauley, his childhood fascination with the output of a show more local horror press, and his eventual opportunity to assemble something similar himself. Each short story has a glowing preface written by McCauley. His enthusiasm and love of the genre shines through here, making the book difficult not to enjoy.

I'll say something brief about each story

The Late Shift by Dennis Etchison: ***/*****

A serviceable start to the collection. Nothing too surprising, but it oozes atmosphere and is attuned to the grimy setting of convenience stores and porn theatres in '80s Southern California.

The Enemy by Isaac Bashevis Singer: *****/*****

Already the first really memorable story in the collection. Brief and quaint little horror story with a mystery that's difficult to pull apart, but threaded with social and political anxieties. What does it mean that emigrating, for the protagonist, requires wrestling with the ghost of an enemy?

Dark Angel by : Edward Bryant ***/*****

A little hokey, but fun and sharply written. A dark fable about sex, revenge with some slightly clumsy feminist themes.

The Crest of Thirty-six by : Davis Grubb **/*****

The writing is more work to get through than the story really deserves. There are one or two interesting ideas here, but it's mostly tedious to get through. Two deeply strange characters have a deeply strange fight; consequences ensue.

Mark Ingestre: The Customer's Tale by : *****/*****

This is an absolutely bizarre story that reworks Sweeney Todd into a murky, surreal journey beneath the streets of London. The characters act with a kind of dream logic, one that makes no sense really, but seems to resonate with deeper psychological force. There is also a sort of metafictional element twisting the story towards the end. The cumulative effect is destabilizing, almost hallucinatory, giving you a bad feeling in the pit of your stomach without a clear reason why. This is one of the stories from the collection that really stuck with me.

Where the Summer Ends by : Karl Edward Wagner ****/*****

A more conventional followup to the last story, but one that is quite effective. Two college students go on an adventure in a college town that is being swallowed up by an invasive species of creeping vine. There are two or three characters here that are really well-realized, and the author is effective in building a suffocating kind of tension that only breaks towards the end. The ending is a little ridiculous, but doesn't ruin the story for me at all.

The Bingo Master by : Joyce Carol Oates *****/*****

I see some reviews here which question whether this should even be included in the collection. I think Oates's idea here is to take an interesting perspective on horror: the ghosts in the story do not inhabit places or times but experiences and interpersonal interactions. The main character has an experience with Joe Pye, the Bingo Master, which goes off the rails, is haunted, haunts her. I haven't read another story quite like this one, and the feeling it brought up in me hasn't left, either.

Children of the Kingdom by : T.E.D. Klein */*****

I suppose any collection like this is bound to have at least one irredeemable story. This one is a 'people in the walls' kind of story, only much dumber, taking far too long to get to the point. The note at the beginning says that Klein is a disciple of Lovecraft, but he seems to have just taken the racism and left the cosmic horror. I see comments that this one is supposed to play with or otherwise comment in an interesting way on racial anxiety, but I found the overall construction of the story to be pretty inexcusable. It's not just that the narrator is racist; it's that the story itself often seems to confirm and fit with the narrator's view. This one sucks! Skip it.

The Detective of Dreams by : Gene Wolfe ***/*****

A very neat premise--dream cop!--that doesn't ultimately amount to much. Read it for the fun trip into the unconscious of an unnamed central European kingdom, but don't expect anything particularly interesting to come out of it.

Vengeance Is by : Theodore Sturgeon **/*****

Thoroughly foul revenge story about something horrible happening to absolutely horrible people. Okay for what it is, but not particularly memorable.

The Brood by : Ramsey Campbell *****/*****

The last of the truly great short stories here. This is a standard kind of vampire story, but it's exceptionally well-told. The only story of the bunch that made me genuinely scared. Atmospheric and creepy in all the right ways.

The Whistling Well by : Clifford D. Simak **/*****

This one gets an extra star for being thoughtfully written, and bringing its setting to life. But the premise of the story is so thoroughly idiotic that it's difficult to take the thing seriously.

The Peculiar Demesne by : Russell Kirk ***/*****

If you ever wondered what horror written by a National Review contributor would look like, this is it for you. There's a creepy, creative horror story at the center of a bigger frame narrative. But the frame narrative hogs the spotlight, and the story is weaker for it. Kirk's premise is essentially: "What if a guy who was really really cool told you a spooky story?" but the story ends up being much more about how cool the guy is (look at him making oil deals and receiving admiration from citizens of Unnamed African Country; look at him quoting Plato) and less about the spooky story that ostensibly is the reason for the Kirk's inclusion in the collection.

Where the Stones Grow by : Lisa Tuttle ****/*****

Tuttle's contribution is weird, creative, and engaging. I suppose it's also a revenge story, though you might not recognize it at first. The dialogue is kind of weak, and it doesn't get a huge amount out of its premise, but it's an enjoyable and surprising story for what it is.

The Night Before Christmas by : Robert Block **/*****

A story about a crazy creepy guy being crazy and creepy. There's not a lot to this one, and it seems reverse engineered around its ending, in a bad way.

The Stupid Joke by : Edward Gorey ***/*****

Not much of a story, but Gorey's illustrations are wonderful as ever.

A Touch of Petulance by : Ray Bradbury **/*****

The only thing I think I've ever really enjoyed from Bradbury was The Veldt, and unfortunately this story doesn't change my mind on that. There's a simple time-travel premise here, but whatever it's trying to say about our ability to change the past is horribly muddled, and without character work it doesn't have any weight.

Lindsay and the Red City Blues by : **/*****

Another entry in the horrible things happen to horrible people genre. This one's better than the Sturgeon story, much more atmospheric, but feels pretty dated in its depiction of Morocco. At least this one is interesting while it's happening.

A Garden of Blackred Roses by : Charles L. Grant ***/*****

There's potential for a great story here, and Grant is clearly a talented writer. However, the story itself is overwrought and needlessly convoluted. There's certainly something to be said for saying less rather than more in horror--you need to let your audience's imagination run free a bit if they are to be truly scared. But your audience shouldn't have to work so hard to realize why the story is supposed to be scary in the first place.

Owls Hoot in the Daytime by : Manly Wade Wellman ****/*****

An understated, engaging story about the gates of hell opening somewhere in the woods of the South. This one's not really scary, but it's got a plainspoken charm to it, and the imagery is so well-trodden that it transcends tropeyness for universality.

Where There's a Will by : Richard Matheson and Richard Christian Matheson **/*****

A very conventional premise executed conventionally. It's fine, just not memorable.

The Mist by : Stephen King *****/*****

A true horror classic, and one I was excited to read (as opposed to watch) for the first time in this collection. What I was surprised by was how sharp King's prose is, and how effective (if broad) the social commentary of the piece is. It's quite interpretable, though some of the themes are fairly blatant. All the same, there is an enjoyable, affecting build-up to the supermarket scenes, and the tone is introspective, rather than hysterical. It's a classic for a reason! I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this one on its own. show less

Every short story in Dark Forces was commissioned by its late editor, Kirby McCauley (1941-2014) for original publication in the anthology, and copyrighted 1980, the year Dark Forces was published.

If you were a Stephen King fan, circa 1980, and heard that he had published a new novella in a new horror anthology but somehow did not hear or forgot what the anthology was called, or could not recall who its editor was, and weren't so fanatical a fan of King at the time that you didn't ask show more around about it, and perhaps then forgot all about it, then you would have had to wait another five years to read that novella, "The Mist"—one of King's finest—until it was collected in...not Different Seasons, a collection of four novellas published in 1982, but in Skeleton Crew, circa '85, a collection of short stories and the lone, aforementioned novella. That was pretty much me, young lad that I was at the time.

Sad to see that only seven of the 24 contributors are still alive today, as of August 6, 2021, but 1980 was more than half a lifetime ago for most folks. The contributors who are still breathing, being:

Joyce Carol Oates (I didn't care for her contribution, "The Bingo Master", but that's probably just me, as her fan base remains impressively large and loyal, both in and outside of tired academia); T.E.D. Klein (arguably the puller of the most mystifying disappearing act in modern horror history; namely, um, when is that second novel of yours going to be published, Ted? (or is it T.E.D.?, excuse me)—1986, was it? '96? '06? '16? 2666, maybe?, when?, Jesus would you publish the damn thing already; your first novel The Ceremonies was fucking awesome for crying out loud!; Ramsey Campbell, Lisa Tuttle, Joe Haldeman (better known for his prolific output of science fiction); Richard Christian Matheson (unjustly but understandably overshadowed by the incomparable icon that was his father), and the aforementioned King.

The revelation for me in Dark Forces was Edward Bryant. His story "Dark Angel", holy shit, demonstrates the most elaborate, years long, carrying out of the driest ice cold revenge ever plotted in the world of genre or literary fiction, if you'll pardon the hyperbole.

My least favorite was Edward Gorey's "The Stupid Joke". Perhaps it was just me, perhaps the same me that didn't particularly enjoy—though, granted, didn't exactly hate—the story commissioned by Joyce Carol Oates, but I thought "The Stupid Joke" was a stupid joke, so maybe the stupid joke was on me.

I liked Charles L. Grant's contribution, "A Garden of Blackred Roses", so much that I threw down fifty bucks a couple of days ago to acquire his first story collection, Tales From The Nightside, published in relatively limited quantity in 1981 by Arkham House.

Here's the Table of Contents of Dark Forces, in case you're interested:

"THE LATE SHIFT" - Dennis Etchison (1943-2019) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE ENEMY" - Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902-1991) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️
"DARK ANGEL" - Edward Bryant (1945-2017) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE CREST OF THIRTY-SIX" - Davis Grubb (1919-1980) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"MARK INGESTRE: THE CUSTOMER'S TALE" - Robert Aickman (1914-1981) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"WHERE THE SUMMER ENDS" - Karl Edward Wagner (1945-1994) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE BINGO MASTER" - Joyce Carol Oates (1938-____) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️
"CHILDREN OF THE KINGDOM" - T. E. D. Klein (1947-____) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE DETECTIVE OF DREAMS" - Gene Wolfe (1931-2019) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"VENGEANCE IS." - Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE BROOD" - Ramsey Campbell (1946-____) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE WHISTLING WELL" - Clifford D. Simak (1904-1988) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE PECULIAR DEMESNE" - Russell Kirk (1918-1994) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"WHERE THE STONES GROW" - Lisa Tuttle (1952-____) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS" - Robert Bloch (1917-1994) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE STUPID JOKE" - Edward Gorey (1925-2000) . . . ⭐️
"A TOUCH OF PETULANCE" - Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"LINDSAY AND THE RED CITY BLUES" - Joe Haldeman (1943-____) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️
"A GARDEN OF BLACKRED ROSES" - Charles L. Grant (1942-2006) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"OWLS HOOT IN THE DAYTIME" - Manly Wade Wellman (1903-1986) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"WHERE THERE'S A WILL" - Richard Matheson (1926-2013) & Richard C. Matheson (1953-____) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"TRAPS" - Gahan Wilson (1930-2019) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"THE MIST" - Stephen King (1947-____) . . . ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ show less

'80s horror. Unbeatable.

Really - maybe it's the teeth cutting or something, but many of these stories are literary, well paced, and complex. I peruse horror and slip-stream anthologies on a regular basis, and I have to say that this collection is one of the best I've ever had the pleasure of reading. An equivalent: McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories.

'80s horror. Unbeatable.

Really - maybe it's the teeth cutting or something, but many of these stories are literary, well paced, and complex. I peruse horror and slip-stream anthologies on a regular basis, and I have to say that this collection is one of the best I've ever had the pleasure of reading. An equivalent: McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories.