Red Equinox

I have to say that Red Equinox, by Douglas Wynne, is probably one of the better Lovecraftian novels that I've read. It's not a particularly original one, but  Lovecraftian horror usually isn't.

It uses the standard plot about a secret society who is plotting to release the Great Old Ones and bring about the destruction of humanity. This is a plot that H. P. L. himself used, so it's not all that original. Even the addition of a secret government agency tasked with stopping  supernatural evil doesn't help, as that's been done so much it's rapidly becoming cliched.

I think what really set this story apart for me was the characterization. I don't know why, but I found myself genuinely caring about the characters, even to the point that when the protagonist was temporarily grabbed by the aforementioned secret government agency, I found myself getting angry on her behalf.

This is a book that I'd recommend to any fan of Lovecraftian horror.

Dead World Resurrection

It's odd, but despite how many zombie stories I've read over the years, the only Joe McKinney zombie story I'd read was the one in The Living Dead 2, until I got a review copy of Dead World Resurrection.This is obviously going to have to change, as I enjoyed the collection and will now have to get the novels in his Dead World series.

There are some really good stories in this anthology, but there were also some things I didn't care for all that much. There were a couple of short essay-ish pieces, namely "Zombies and Their Haunts" and "Suburbia of the Dead," which would have been better off excluded as they were kind of boring and were reused in the lengthy "A Reader's Guide to Dead World" at the end of the book.

The actual short stories were pretty good, and reasonably diverse for zombie stories. Many of the stories feature the viral zombies of the Dead World series, but despite the title, not all of the stories are do. "Sabbatical in the Ohio Methlands" has zombies that are zombies in a more metaphorical sense.The zombies of "Starvation Army" seem to be more like hungry ghosts. "Jimmy Finder" has zombie-fighting robots. There are even stories where people become zombies from ODing on psychedelic mushrooms or from cuts caused by strange clams.

This is a really good collection of zombies stories  that's far better than the formulaic crap that seems to have flooded the market in recent years.

Dark Screams

I was lucky enough to get a copy of the forthcoming horror anthology Dark Screams: Volume One. It's a really good (short) collection. It's only got five stories, but they're all from fairly well known authors, and they're all good.

The book starts off with its only reprint, "Weeds," by Stephen King. Even if, like me, you haven't read this story before, you still probably know it, because it was used in Creepshow as "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill."  Even if you're familiar with the story from the film, it's still a great read.

The second story is "The Price You Pay" by Kelley Armstrong. It seems to start off as a standard horror trope about two women who get kidnapped and tortured by a psychopath, but it quickly moves into a different direction. I think it might have been my favorite story in the collection.

Story number three is "Magic Eyes," by Bill Pronzini. It's about a man in a mental hospital who claims he's not insane, he didn't murder his wife, and some sort of magic eyes are really responsible. Once again this story starts off seeming like a standard horror trope, but eventually proves to be something different.

The fourth story is Simon Clark's "Murder in Chains," which is about a man who wakes up to find himself chained to a murderous lunatic. Wackiness ensues (and by wackiness, I mean lots of blood and gore).

The final story is Ramsey Campbell's "The Watched," which is about a policeman who seeks revenge against the drug dealers he holds responsible for his daughter's death. Not surprisingly, there is a supernatural twist.

This is a really good anthology, and since it's only available in ebook form, it's cheap, too.