Description
Featuring:
On the Night Bus by Erik McHatton
The Horror Host By Matthew M. Bartlett
The Better Angels of our Nature by Nina Shepardson
JÖTUNN by Sarah Pauling
The Swallowed by Ivy Grimes
Vele Di Mar Non Vid’io by Steve Toase
The Ghost of You by Toshiya Kamei
Slaves of the Deep by Spencer Koelle
Spencer Koelle (verified owner) –
My biggest criticism of this issue is that most of the horror seemed more intimate than cosmic, so the title is a little misleading. That’s not to say it’s bad, though. The Night Bus makes a good opening, full of uncertainty and paranoia. Although I didn’t quite like the class angle, it was still a very engaging way into the anthology. The Horror Host was a pretty good one too, rather Ligottian in its expression and a good exploration of the theme of hazy childhood memories.
Better Angels of Our Nature did a better job delivering on the Cosmic angle and was a truly original take on alchemy. I can honestly say it’s unique and fresh.
JOTUNN might have been a bit cosmic, but overall it just left me puzzled. I’m not sure what to make of the ending.
The Swallowed was a compelling look at the pressures expectations of marriage and couplehood put on an individual identity, and its allegorical implications were crystal clear.
Vele Di Mar Non Vid’io really didn’t work for me. Although it is about the inhospitibleness of the natural world, it was too grounded in realism to really feel cosmic, and it didn’t have enough sense of motion or progression. With the characters all clearly doomed from the start, there wasn’t enough uncertainty to really keep me invested.
The Ghost of You wasn’t bad, but it also puzzled me, and I really feel that thematically it fits more as fabulism or magical realism, more fantasy than horror despite its title.