Night Visions at the Crossroad

Night Visions is an excellent read. It's not quite an anthology in the usual sense with only three authors, one with five selections (Richard Laymon), one with four (Chet Williamson), and one with one (Gary Bradner), all of varying lengths. Even if you don't normally read horror, you'll find this one easy to digest.

With "Mop Up," Laymon offers up an exciting fresh take on the mass infection/ zombie like story genre. The army has been called in to mop up cities where the infected are wreaking havoc, drooling and fornicating like there's no tomorrow and for most of them there is no tomorrow. This story is action-packed, bursting with firepower, filled with concerns of survival and loyalty. There's even a bit of romance among the survivors.

With "Blue Note," Williamson takes us on a jazz-drenched twist on what happens when a loan shark puts on the squeeze.

With Brandner's "Damntown," not only do we meet the veritable hellhounds on the loose, but we get to visit a town where time has stood still, a town sort of like the Hotel California, where you can check in but you can never leave. Just as they once said you can never really go home again, but then again, would you want to.

A surprisingly epic collection that is great from start to finish and just a bit twisted.

Review Copy

A back in the day book for oldies horror lovers, I grabbed this copy due to my love of reading Gary Brandner. His story, the final tale in this anthology (always save the best for last!) is a novella length story titled DAMNTOWN. In a nutshell, it's about one family's visit to a haunted town. Brandner's writing was as superb as I remembered, and that combined with a great story rated a full five stars.

Richard Laymon has his own following and has always been iffy for me. The first story was a typical zombie tale that many will love, but I didn't read. The rest of his stories were just fine; I gave the three or four stars each.

Never read Chet Williamson before and if these two stories are any indication, I'm not likely to start now. But if you're a fan, here they are.

This volume was originally published as Night Visi0ns 7. Remember that series? What a great way to get it on your kindle! Macabre Ink (Crossroad Press) is republishing these. Go for it!

All the best authors in one terrifically terrifying book. What an excellent anthology. Highly recommended.

Decent collection with some misses, but the good stories make up for them. There’s also a short after-words section that includes an interview with each author. A definite plus.

Richard Laymon:
“Mop Up”-Decent post-apocalyptic story where a brigade demolishes a small town infested with horny zombies.4/5
“Wishbone”-One of the most serious and polished writings that I have ever encountered with Laymons’s catalogue. An eristic couple are hiking in the mountains, looking for a place to set up camp, when they unexpectedly cross paths with a spry and malicious skeleton.5/5
“Bad News”-Pretty bad.1/5
“Madman Stan”-Cheesy urban legend story that doesn’t belong in this collection.1/5

Chet Williamson:
“Blue Notes”-Jazzy and smoothly written, this story concerns a struggling musician who must accost his personal loan sharks4/5
“The Confessions of St. James”-A cannibalistic priest faces off with a devil-worshipping metalhead during the height of the satanic panic craze in the US.5/5
“The Assurances of the Self-Extinction of Man”-The title is almost as long as the story itself, which is only five paragraphs. I think Williamson was asked what message he was trying to convey with this, and he actually dismissed it in the post-interview by stating that he was either drunk or stoned while writing it.1/5

Gary Brander:
“Damntown”-Brander, author of “The Howling”, only contributes one story to this collection, but it is by far the best. A hellborn outsider promises a small, depression-era town salvation if they agree to his evil terms, which judging by the title, is probably a curse.5/5

Rounded up the rating. Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a free E-ARC.