What do you do if you escape Hell and return to your body, only to find you’ve been cremated and are stuck as dust in a jar? What are those train loonies really up to? Are there really things in the rain, are there supernatural saviours in alleyways, is it safe to deal with demons and if you choose to steal, what are the odds of burgling a house occupied by a demented killer?
In these eleven tales you will meet monsters both supernatural and human and it’s up to you to decide which are worse – the demons, or the dark thoughts of Man?
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By Michael J. McFadden
Mar 18, 2012
When I was a young science fiction fan I used to delight in all the various science fiction anthologies, both collections of different authors and collections by single authors such as Bradbury, Asimov, VanVogt, Brown, and Kuttner. As I grew older my tastes changed to full length, and often very long, novels, usually in the horror / vampire / fantasy genres. Generally I've found the short stories in those genres to be lacking. Even when the subject matters of the stories were quite different, even when the collections featured a variety of authors, they somehow seemed boring compared to the real novels. They just didn't have enough freshness in them to usually seem worth the effort, and with a few exceptions they just blended together. (Some of King's, such as "The Raft" and "Survivor Type," stand out as singular exceptions, as well as a number of the horrific sci-fi flavored tales in Ellison's "Dangerous Visions" collection.) Hillman's stories in... More > "Dark Thoughts and Demons" surprised me by standing out among other such collections. The writer's style shows through in all of the stories, but somehow it stays very fresh from one story to the next. It achieves something of the same quality as Serling's TV presentations in the original Twilight Zone series: each episode definitely flavored by Serling, but each episode very unique and pleasing unto itself. That was the way it felt as I moved from one story to the next over several days in Hillman's book. Overall a very enjoyable and fresh read, and I'm looking forward to seeing how his style carries over to the novel format. Highly recommended! Michael J. McFadden Author of Dissecting Antismokers' Brains< Less
