Why had he done it?) by counseling an imaginative yet abused child.īorderlands Press hardcover, Oct 1991, Rick Lieder cover artĭavid B. Its cover image, is Kim Antieau's solid contribution about a woman exorcising her real-life demons ( She hated him so much. "Sarah, Unbound," from which the Avon paperback chose "Dead Issue," from Slob author Rex Miller,ĭoesn't have enough moral weight to justify its graphic sexual "Love Doll: A Fable" is an unsympathetic portrayal of someone whoĮnjoys marginalizing those less fortunate, or simply those not born straight white blue-collar male. Better: "Androgyny," by Brian Hodge (pictured above), a sympathetic and relevant fantasy about a marginalized people, while Joe Lansdale's As with his notorious "Buckets," I found the approach over-done and the effect reactionary, which mitigates the shock factor. You can probably guess the gimmick from the title. Paul Wilson (of whom I am no fan) is "Foet," a so-so satire of high fashion and the absurd lengths to which people go in order to be stylish. Sexual politics are a prominent feature in Borderlands 2, as the culture at large was beginning to deal with them in the early 1990s. I can't even honestly say I regret it, although I'm sorry you have to find out. And buried his head, hands, feet, and bones in the geranium bed, after eating the rest. It is filled with grim wit and ends on one of the darkest notes in the anthology. Skin-crawlingly disgusting and sadly effective, "Breeding Ground" succeeds at all levels.Īnother strong work is Ian McDowell's "Saturn," which is not a reference to the planet but to the Roman god who, well, devours his children. Also, I dig evolutionary biology and that figures in here too, both literally and as analogy. It's how Matozzo fractures the story and then pieces it back together, building suspense, that really won me over. In this one he details three seemingly disparate events: a man undergoing surgery for excruciating craniofacial pain, an amateur archaeological expedition, a woman estranged from her husband. He had a story in the original Borderlands, "On the Nightmare Express," which was kinda cool. And the story here that completely knocked me out, kept me glued to the page with a well-told tale and imagery of primal horror, was "Breeding Ground," by a man named Francis J.
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A writer who can do that to me -delight my mind while revolting my body -will have my undying devotion. Here there are moments struck in which I felt my flesh turn inside out, my shoulders shivering with revulsion, while my brain was engaged by a story's central idea, or an image or an implication. Horror is normalized lived with, understood as a fact of life, and isn't really scary anymore. Disturbing is a word I'd use to describe the fictions herein disturbing, unsettling, poignant, grotesque.