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Dark Terrors 6 edited by Stephen Jones and David Sutton
01/09/2004 . Source: Pauline Morgan 
pub: Gollancz. 560 page enlarged paperback. Price: £ 7.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-575-07407-8. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
Gollancz
As the editors say in their introduction, horror is changing. This is partly because there are a lot of new writers coming into the genre. The experienced hands are also still out there. It may be harder to find a horror novel on the shelves of the bookshop (unless it is written by Herbert, King or Koontz) but that does not mean that it has ceased to exist. Many of the exponents are crossing genres and horror is leaking into crime, thrillers and fantasy. The editors of 'Dark Terrors 6' have tried to represent all the forms of horror in the anthology as well as a mixture of new, established and rapidly rising stars. It is unlikely that everyone will like all of the 34 stories published here. If any of them seem familiar (and they all had their first publication in this volume) it may be because 'Dark Terrors 6' was originally issued as a trade paperback in October 2002. Some of them have since appeared in the 'Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror Volume 14'.
There are probably almost as many ideas as to what horror is as there are stories that purport to be horrific. A good story will interact with the emotions of the reader to produce a frisson of fear, a disquietude, a feeling that you would definitely not like to be in that situation. All the stories here are of a high standard of writing. I would expect nothing less from these editors. All of them are 'not very nice' but some of them have that extra quality that makes them memorable, leaving a taste that is unsettling. The effects are achieved in different ways.
Supernatural horrors are unexpected and unexplained. Ramsey Campbell is a master at this kind of story. 'The Retrospective' is the initial story in this volume and sets the tone. Stranded on the railway station of his parents home town, Trent has an hour to kill before the next one. An unsatisfactory visit to them, then to a small dusty museum looses the unexpected. Joel Lane's story, 'The Receivers' is another dealing with a supernatural phenomenon. In this case, it is the greed of a local councillor still having the power to corrupt even after death. In some ways, this is a ghost story but without the manifestation of the dead person. 'The Two Sams' by Glen Hirshberg is more of the traditional ghost story, of the kind created by such as M.R. James. These are the malevolent spirits of two dead children trying to kill their potential sibling.
A closely related theme is the use of the paranormal, especially psychic powers that either get out of hand or are misused. In 'We're Going Where The Sun Shines Brightly' by Christopher Fowler, a young man on holiday seeing what fate has in store for him. In John Burke's 'A Habit Of Hating', a psychic ability is used or misused to take revenge of people who offend the narrator. In 'Eglantines Time', Jay Lake uses the idea of scientific experimentation coupled with fear to induce psychic powers with results far above expectations. 'Job 37' by Gemma Files is perhaps the most startling of this group of stories, crossing categories. The protagonist runs a company that cleans up messes like unwanted corpses. There are gross descriptions but horror lies in the disappearance of one of the staff and what happens to her. The story has a greater impact because it is told in an unconventional way as a taped interview.
'The Prospect Cards' by Don Tumasonis is another story that uses an unconventional style. The story of an expedition in the Middle East, it told in the form of descriptions of a set of postcards and the inscriptions on the back. Parts of the narrative are missing but as the reader fills in the gaps, the horror of the situation is enhanced. The third unconventional story doesn't quite work as well. Nancy Kilpayrick's 'Your Shadow Knows You Well' is told in the second person and is a revenge story involving a Mexican mummy. The problem is that the 'you' character has a defined sex. This type of story works best if this character can be either as the author is talking directly to the reader.
Some horror relies on the queasy effect, using our innate feelings of disgust. Such a story is 'The Burgers Of Calais' by Graham Masterton in which the narrator discovers the true source of the meat used to make the burgers at the place where he has taken a temporary job. 'Mother Personified' by Yvonne Navarro has a body being created from the dismembered parts of murder victims. The story also manages to show insight into the damaged mind of the perpetrator. Gore features largely in 'Sweetness And Light' by Joe Murphy which concerns the relationship and its disintegration between two freaks, one of whom has the talent of being able to eat anything, including ceramic toilets. 'The Death Of Splatter' by Lisa Morton turns the idea around. An author of gruesome horror stories is introduced to the realities of what he writes and doesn't like what he discovers.
Most people never encounter true horror in their lives but there are nightmare situations that can easily be imagined. Nicholas Royle uses this to great effect in 'Hide And Seek' in which a game of hide and seek goes wrong. Horror can be the insight into the mind of someone who commits immoral acts as in Samantha Lee's 'Aversion Therapy'.
There are almost as many sources of the horrific scenario as there are stories in this volume. If you like that frisson of fear in your reading, try this volume. There will be something to unsettle you and have you looking over your shoulder.
Pauline Morgan 
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