Limbus, Inc.

Limbus, Inc.
Let me begin by stating very, very clearly ... read this book! Now!
I am a lifelong reader, now in my fifties, with an abiding love of horror, dark fantasy and the macabre. It is increasingly rare that I find a book that challenges, excites, genuinely entertains and absorbs me in the tale.
Limbus, Inc. is a bright and brilliant book.
It is a coherent and cohesive collection of stories linked through the eponymous employment agency. These are dark, foreboding tales with a rather bleak and black-hearted humour. They provide a perfect, and dangerous, balance between hope and nihilism.
The final denouement is superb and plastered a great big grin to my face, had me glancing around for a business card and wondering ... "Do I feel show more lucky?"
JournalStone, you must commission another collection of stories in this world. show less

(Disclaimer: I received this book via a LibraryThing giveaway.)

A dark horror anthology which only improves as you read further into the book. Take one part Lovecraft, one part Ray Bradbury, season with a dash of Stephen King and simmer in a sauce of D.C. Comics Tales from the Crypt. From science fiction to classic horror the stories are tied together by the mysterious and darkly ominous organization known as Limbus Inc. and its equally ominous recruiters.

While gore filled in more ways than one, and sometimes written in a heavy handed, almost pedantic pacing, the individual stories standout as beacons to the perseverance of those we might consider cast-off from society. We see the desperately unemployed willing to risk the unknown in show more which each story leads to a twist in its own right.

The true level of desperation of the protagonists is evident in the almost casual acceptance of events and situations far beyond our normal experience. We know these are not the "correct" decisions to make in any sane reality. But they mostly turn out to be "right" in ways that cannot be seen at first.

At times predictable, but nonetheless engaging. The anthology will draw one in to complete each story. A couple of times at the beginning I almost put this down and stopped reading. But, something drew me back each time and it kept getting better and better.

Thank you to Librarything's Early Reviewers program for the opportunity to let me complete an early review. show less

A surprisingly good read - I didn't expect much from this volume of short stories, but I found it to be very good. Each story is set in the same universe, but each has a different take on it.

LIMBUS is a corporation- what they do and how they do it, is not entirely explained. It might be a higher power, or an entity formed in the far future... its hard to say. LIMBUS hires people to do jobs. And not just any person, but the PERFECT person. Generally, these are oddball types who can't hold down a job, or are down on their luck.

The first story, The Slaughter Man, is the weakest of the bunch - Its interesting and the authors horror story writing makes an appearance. Its written as a first person narrative, and at times I found it a bit show more disjointed.

The Sacrifice is heartbreaking - but a bit unremarkable.

One Job Too Many - Is about a guy who delivers packages. But where exactly is he delivering packages too? An interesting story - but I've read variations of this story.

We Employ - Is the best story of the bunch - a job that begins as a simple job walking a dog - because something so much more. Pan-Dimensional Aliens, Bounty Hunter, and a pretty girl make this story very entertaining.

Strip Search - the last story is a detective story is a counterpart to the second story. We have a detective trying to find a girl who may be the next victim of a sadistic serial killer who is more powerful than the detecive can imagine. Another very good story.

As a whole, I enjoyed all of these stories. Slaughter Man was a bit too graphic for me, but I still enjoyed it. These stories are dark, a little bit scary, and slightly off kilter. Highly recommended. show less

Have you been laid off, downsized, or undersized? If you have, you might want to think twice, and then again, before accepting a job offer from Limbus, Inc. If, on the other hand, you’re into reading shared-world stories with a dark twist, you need to run, that’s right, run to the nearest computer and order a copy of Limbus, Inc.: Book 1, an anthology edited by Anne C. Petty of JournalStone, and containing cutting-edge tales by four award-winning authors.
Limbus, Inc. is a mysterious employment agency that offers specific jobs to specific people, but there is often a deadly catch in the fine print. The book opens with an prologue written by Brett J. Talley, with passages inserted throughout, and then ends with Talley’s epilogue. In show more between these two macabre bookend offerings is a series of tales, though written by different authors, including editor Petty, come across as if they’d been either written by the same person, or a team working in close collaboration.
Each story, though, is self-contained, and masterfully done; from the prologue, when Matthew Sellers, a bookstore owner down on his luck, is given a strange and tattered manuscript by an unkempt stranger, to Benjamin Kane’s ‘Slaughter Man,’ Dean Fulsome, or the PI in Jonathan Maberry’s ‘Strip Search.’
Limbus, Inc. has something for just about every flavor of reader. Time travel and a space ship inhabited by a voracious, flesh-eating alien princess, arcane sacrificial cults, and ageless gamins who work as company recruiters. Every candidate for employment by Limbus is a loser, but every story is a winner. Tight dialogue, fully-formed characters, and settings described in a way that makes it easy to suspend disbelief.
Brew a pot of coffee, or mix your favorite brew; slip your feet into your most comfortable slippers; sit back and prepare to be transported to a realm where reality has taken an extended holiday. But, before you start reading, you might want to check the locks on all the doors and windows, and turn on a few extra lights. show less

Oh man, this was a fun ride! I found the idea of a shared-world anthology intriguing and Limbus, Inc. did not disappoint. The Limbus corporation is in place really only to kick start each of the stories. The premise is that they are an employment agency, but rather than you seeking their help, Limbus has already found and earmarked you for a specific job. We learn about these stories through an independent bookseller and publisher named Matthew who is given a book, containing many tales of the Limbus Corporation within and he shares these with us. The result are stories that run the gamut from hard sci-fi through horror and then mystery noir but all with that old Twilight Zone twist and feel. The potential for the stories and the show more writing styles is only limited by the authors themselves, and each did a fantastic job.

Within this collection are five distinct stories, with the only common link being the mysterious, sometimes covert Limbus Corporation:

The Slaughter Man by Benjamin Kane Ethridge -- A man known only as "The Sticker" loses his job at a slaughter house and is employed working to help feed the extravagance and appetite of a princess. Hard sci-fi here with lots of alien monsters and space travel. The interesting twist is when the hunter becomes the hunted.

The Sacrifice by Brett J. Talley -- A war veteran with PTSD is hired to help save a young girl before she is killed. This was a rather unremarkable, but heart-breaking story nonetheless. Some Lovecraftian themes set in Salem, Mass. bring is out of the realm of a story about the effects of war more into line with the rest of the stories in the collection.

One Job Too Many by Joseph Nassise -- A veteran of the "Faith Wars" in a dystiopian future is fired and hired by Limbus to work as a time-traveling errand boy of sorts, fixing problems he is "particularly well-suited" to fix. This was one of the more realistically written stories and added a depth to the Limbus Corporation as it was now part of a future shadow government. As with most time-travel works, the concept of the paradox is worked in, providing for an interesting though very predictable twist.

We Employ by Anne C. Petty -- An out of work, homeless college dropout is hired by the Limbus Corporation as a dog walker, but not is wholly as it seems. This was one of my favorite stories in the collection. It was just fun sci-fi adventure with my only complaint being that it was a little too short. The ending, which is a wonderful all-out Twilight Zone twist was fabulous, but came just a hair too soon for me.

Strip Search by Jonathan Mayberry -- A private investigator is hired by Limbus to help stop a serial killer before he strikes again. This was my favorite story in the collection. It reads like an old crime noir novel (think Raymond Chandler) with a supernatural twist. Add in a few secret societies, underground religions, and put the whole thing in the middle of Philadelphia and I am sold! It does become a little cliche in parts with the writing style, and is very graphic in its violence, but overall was a fabulous read.

On the whole, Limbus, Inc. is a fabulous start to what I could see as a long running series of sci-fi/horror anthologies. It is not for the faint of heart as all of the stories contain depictions of graphic violence and adult/sexual situations, but none detract from their respective stories. Also interesting throughout is the framing story for the collection which shows the bookseller, Matthew, slowly realizing that he is getting farther and farther into something more mysterious or sinister. Make sure you stick around for the epilogue for one more twist!

Many thanks to LibraryThing and JournalStone for the advanced copy and opportunity to review this collection. show less

I made the mistake of starting this book on a Sunday night when I had work on Monday. I read greedily and turned each page anxious to see the developments on the next. Each story is seamless, well crafted and subtly mind-blowing as it makes you think, "this could be real...." I am left with the disturbing feeling that I am a willing participant in Limbus' world by writing this review and asking 'How lucky do you feel?"...

Curated and conceived by Anne C. Petty, Limbus, Inc. feels like stepping into a tiny corner of the Twilight Zone. It features five stories, their shared world linked together by the shadowy Limbus, Inc., an Illuminati-like employment agency. They delightfully run a sci-fi/horror style gamut, some are quite visceral ("The Slaugher Man") while others dabble in time travel ("One Job Too Many"), detective noir ("Strip Search") , alien invaders ("We Employ") and old fashioned pagan sacrifice ("The Sacrifice"). Each story serves it's tale with a twist that will keep fans of the genre eager for more. I loved the idea of a secret all powerful intergalactic organization hiding itself in the guise of a mundane employment agency. Most of it's show more recruits are blue collar anti-hero types, down on their luck and out of options. This was fun, breazy reading but with plenty of creeps and gags. show less