Weird Tales Magazine number 367
is a special issue focusing on Cosmic Horror. This is the follow-up issue to
the Sword & Sorcery special I reviewed back in January. Weird Tales is
celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and they’re going all
out, culminating with a very special issue this coming October which will
feature classic as well as new stories. So, without further ado, let’s have a
look at what’s included in #367.
Table of
Contents
“The Eyrie” by Jonathan
Maberry
“The City in the Sea: A
Hellboy Story” by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden
“When the Stars Are Right:
The Weird Tales Origins of Cosmic Horror” by Nicholas Diak
“A Ghost Story for
Christmas” by Paul Cornell
“The Forest Gate” by
Samantha Underhill
“Night Fishing” by Caitlin
R. Kiernan
“The Traveler” by
Francesco Tignini
“Cosmic vs Abrahamic
Horror” by F. Paul Wilson
“The Last Bonneville” by
F. Paul Wilson
“Lost Generations” by
Angela Yuriko Smith
“Concerto in Five
Movements” by Ramsey Campbell
“Mozaika” by Nancy
Kilpatrick
“Inkblot Succubus” by
Nikki Sixx
“Laid to Rest” by Tim
Lebbon
“Call of the Void -
L’appel du vide” by Carol Gyzander
Cosmic Horror is one of my
favourite subgenres of horror. When I first started writing my own horror
stories, aside from John Carpenter’s original Halloween film, H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos is what got me into
horror and made me want to be a writer. Even if I’ve pretty much stopped
reading horror in the past ten years (for the most part, modern horror doesn’t
resonate with me), I’m still very fond of Cosmic Horror tales and this special
issue had me at hello. When it comes to short stories, especially in the horror
genre, I’m extremely picky, so take my opinion on the included tales with a
grain of salt.
Like most short story
magazines/collections, we have a mixed bag of great to not-so-good tales. There
are also a couple of articles that are all terrific and a few flash fiction
pieces. The magazine opens as is Weird Tales tradition with editor Jonathan
Maberry’s “The Eyrie” serving as a foreword to introduce the theme of the
issue. As for the other articles, Nicholas Diak talks about the Weird Tales
origins of Cosmic Horror in “When the Stars Are Right.” He discusses the works
of the greats like H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and what might be
considered the first Cosmic Horror set of tales in Robert W. Chambers’ “King in
Yellow.” The other non-fiction piece is “Cosmic vs Abrahamic Horror” by F. Paul
Wilson who discusses ancient religions and their place in horror with their motifs
of revenge, biblical evil, and the living dead which are steeped in Abrahamic tradition.
A very insightful piece.
I’ll get to the short
stories in a moment, but first, let’s get the flash fiction out of the way. I’ve
said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t care for flash fiction. It’s too
short to develop any sort of cohesive, engaging narrative and frankly, I really
don’t understand the point of it. If it’s your thing, you’ll find in this issue
the following flash fic: “The Forest Gate”, “Lost Generations”, and “Inkblot
Succubus” penned by Motley Crue’s bassist Nikki Sixx. And now for the pièce de résistance—the short stories. I’ll
divide them into two groups: the good to great, and not-so-good.
The good to great: “The
City in the Sea: A Hellboy Story” by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and
Christopher Golden. I’m not too familiar with Hellboy, having only read a
handful of Mignola’s comics back in the ‘90s, and I haven’t seen any of the
movies, but I really dug this tale. It made me want to seek more Hellboy
stories. “The Traveler” was quite short but delivered the goods. An engaging
tale about a traveler investigating a bright light in the woods at night and weirdness
ensues. “The Last Bonneville” by the always reliable F. Paul Wilson gets my
vote for best story of the lot. A man hitches a ride and claims to have been
the fourth astronaut on Apollo 8. A tale that piques the reader’s curiosity
from the get-go and sustains it for the duration with a very satisfying ending.
“Mozaika” about an artist who is consumed by her mosaics while she slowly
realizes that there is something seriously wrong happening to the outside world
was captivating and kept me engaged until the end. “Call of the Void - L’appel
du vide” is the story of a woman taking pictures of the Medusa Formation, feeling
drawn to it as strange occurrences ensue. This tale felt fresh and fit perfectly
with the theme of Cosmic Horror.
The not so good: “A Ghost
Story for Christmas” is an homage of sorts to M.R. James, one of the finest
ghost story writers that ever lived. While well-written, I didn’t find this
tale about a door leading to nowhere particularly engaging. “Night Fishing”, a
story about a patient who sees a psychologist and talks about fishing stories while
he keeps dark confessions to himself. It never really grabbed me and eventually
fell flat. “Concerto in Five Movements” had a great premise—featuring a piper,
a sacrifice, and a concert hall—but ultimately failed to live up to my
expectations of what a great scribe like Ramsey Campbell can do. “Laid to Rest”
by the great Tim Lebbon was a bit of a dud for me. It follows a team on a space
expedition who encounters a severe storm. I really wanted to like it, but in the
end, I found it to be a forgettable tale.
To bring this collection
of tales to life, we have a plethora of the industry’s best narrators all doing
a fantastic job reading and acting out the various characters and situations
found in the aforementioned stories. Every tale/piece is read by a different
narrator, including Scott Brick, Robert Fass, James Anderson Foster, Heath
Miller, Neil Hellegers, Roger Clark, Joe Hempel, Edoardo Ballerini, Eunice
Wong, Simon Vance, Holly Adams, Chris Henry Coffey, Ralph Lister, and Natalie
Naudus. The audiobook version runs a few minutes shy of six hours, making for a
very entertaining one-sitting or couple of evenings/afternoons worth of audio
play.
There you have it! Those
are my thoughts on this special Cosmic Horror issue from the fine folks at Weird
Tales. It’s an instant recommendation for fans of Weird Tales, Cosmic Horror,
and I think fans of horror in general will enjoy this issue as well. As I said,
I’m really picky when it comes to short fiction, so you might find a few of the
tales I didn’t care for to be quite interesting. Mileage may vary. I’ll be
looking forward to the special October issue; I’m sure it’ll be a wonderful way
to commemorate 100 years of Weird Tales.
Rating: Three
and a half stars out of five
Get your copy on Audible
Weird Tales’ Official Website: https://www.weirdtales.com/
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