Horrors Beyond 2: Stories of Strange Creations

by William Jones

Featuring uncanny contraptions, weird devices, and technology beyond man's control, these 21 tales of dark fiction explore the horrors outside everyday reality. Mad science, terrifying creatures, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0977987639
• ISBN13: 9780977987634
• Release Date: August 2007
• Publisher: Elder Signs Press
• Length: 333 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful! A resounding success from Elder Signs Press!

Horrors Beyond II is the latest offering by Elder Signs Press. This enterprising publisher has gone from strength to strength with every new book. HB2 is subtitled Stories of Strange Creations; the idea was to compile and anthology of dark fiction centered around devices. When I first heard that this title was on the drawing board I immediately thought about Kafka's The Penal Colony. While nothing here evoked such creepy crawlies in me, it was another resounding triumph for one of my favorite small presses. It seems the authors got quite a bit of latitude about what constituted a device and how they incorporated them into their story. I got a copy of the limited edition hardcover, which was $45 and is a gorgeous book. A trade paperback is available, more reasonably priced. The cover art by Dave Carson is magnificent, not specifically related to any story but wonderfully evoking the overall theme of the book. Page count was 333, with 8 pages of titles etc and 3 pages of authors' minibios at the end. Editing was by ESP workhorse William Jones. Unlike the usual flawless product from ESP I noticed a few typos, including substitution of the word sorceress for sorcerous. Also there was one big type setting flaw, where the text following page 306 appears on page 313. I do not know if this was an issue for the paperback. It was easy enough to figure out and did not interfere with my enjoyment of the book. I have a particular fondness for Cthulhu mythos fiction; HB 1 was not exactly a Lovecraftian athology although some of the stories were of direct interest to Lovecraft fans and others certainly had a Lovecraftian feel. HB2, to my read, was more straight up science fiction and related horror, but I am happy to note there were a few mythos tales. My bottom line is that HB2 was the best dark fiction anthology I have read in a long time. Here are the contents. All of these stories were new to me, and only A Family Affair had been printed elsewhere before. A few of these authors were represented in the original Horrors Beyond, but as ESP becomes more and more renowned they attract more widely published and respected writers than those who confine themselves to Cthulhu mythos fiction. Isolation Point, California - John Shirley Serenade - Lucien Soulban Wyshes.com - Richard A. Lupoff 5150 - Gene O'Neill The Signal - Paul Kemp Fractal Freaks - A.A. Attanasio Ghost Lens - Stephen Mark Rainey Dead Air - David Niall Wilson The Bigger They Are . . . - C.J. Henderson The Margins - Robert Weinberg Wormwood - Tim Curran When the Ship Came - John Sunseri The Manuscript in the Drawer - Greg Beaty Spheres of Influence - Ron Shiflet A Monster in the Lake - Michail Velichansky The Clockmaker's Daughter - E. Sedia Magic Fingers - Jay Caselberg A Family Affair - William C. Dietz The Mortification of the Flesh - Alexis Glynn Latner Predicting Perdition - Paul Melniczek When the Stars Fell - William Jones John Shirley is a well established horror author