Mario Guslandi
Mario Guslandi was born and raised in Milan, Italy, where he’s currently living. He became addicted to horror and supernatural fiction (too) many years ago, after accidentally reading a reprint anthology of stories by MR James, JS Le Fanu, HP Lovecraft and A Machen. Since then his collection of horror books has expanded to the point of requiring continuous addictions of new shelves to his library, in order to avoid the collapse of the whole structure. Most likely the only Italian who regularly reads (and reviews) dark fiction in English, his reviews have appeared in a number of genre sites such as The Agony Column, Horrorworld, The Alien Online, Emerald City, The SF site, The Harrow etc.
Requiems & Nightmares by Guido Gozzano
Reviewed on August 31, 2012
Turin-born Guido Gozzano (1883-1916),renowned author of two volumes of poetry and main representative of so-called Crepuscolari (the poets of Twilight) was also the author of a cluster of short stories, scarcely popular even in Italy and unavailable so far to Anglophone readers. Hieroglyphic Press, a small British imprint devoted to decadent and esoteric literature, offers [...]
Tales of Love and Death , by Robert Aickman
Reviewed on July 3, 2012
Tartarus Press is reprinting all the Robert Aickman collections of “strange stories” much to the satisfaction of the countless fans of that seminal author of dark, enigmatic , unsettling fiction which goes under the term “Aickmanesque”. Now it’s the turn of Tales of Love and Death, a slightly misleading title which would have suited better [...]
Witches: Wicked, Wild & Wonderful , edited by Paula Guran
Reviewed on May 21, 2012
Witches are familiar characters in horror and fantasy fiction, their personalities being quite versatile, ranging from the wicked hag casting evil spells to the wise woman providing healing remedies and precious advise, from the old bitch to the young and sexy temptress ( of course, witches are mostly females, warlocks being much less popular) Renowned [...]
Flame & other enigmatic tales by Maynard & Sims
Reviewed on March 8, 2012
Eight years after their last collection Falling into Heaven Len Maynard & Mick Sims finally return with a new volume of elegantly written, subtly unnerving stories. Much has happened in the meantime. The duo has pursued different literary avenues publishing a score of horror novels and supernatural thrillers appeared through Leisure Books in the US [...]
The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, edited by Ann & Jeff Vandermeer
Reviewed on January 13, 2012
The Weird is a monster volume of 1152 pages ( each page featuring a double column!), a compendium of last century’s weird fiction, including SF, horror and fantasy as well as mainstream fiction with a distinct odd or bizarre taste. Editors Ann and Jeff VanderMeer pursue with this book their most ambitious project by providing [...]
Many Bloody Returns, edited by Charlaine Harris & Toni LP Kelner
Reviewed on November 3, 2011
Here’s yet another anthology of vampire stories, this time aiming to find a link between vampirism and birthdays. Not as easy as it seems, but quite an original subject. Unfortunately, most of the thirteen tales included in the book exhibit quite serious flaws. Several contributors address the theme with either a kind of tongue-in-cheek attitude [...]
Cold Mirrors, by CJ Lines
Reviewed on July 14, 2011
How the horror story is doing? It’s alive and well, thank you. And new writers keep emerging by the day. CJ Lines is one of them. Author of the novel Filth Kiss (that I haven’t read), he returns now with a collection of short stories. The blurb on the back cover, by Garry Charles, announces [...]
The Ritual, by Adam Nevill
Reviewed on June 23, 2011
I’m basically a short fiction lover. Novellas are still acceptable but I seldom read (and review) novels, with a few exceptions that I won’t mention here. The universal critical acclaim for Adam Nevill’s Apartment 16, however, made me put aside my usual circumspection and prompted me to try Nevill’s latest novel , The Ritual. And [...]
Powers of Darkness, by Robert Aickman
Reviewed on June 2, 2011
Continuing in the laudable task of reprinting all the short story collections by Robert Aickman, the people at Tartarus Press now provide us with a new, gorgeous hardcover edition of Powers of Darkness a book originally published in 1966. For those not familiar with Aickman’s “strange stories” the collection is not perhaps the best introduction [...]
The Life of Polycrates and Other Stories for Antiquated Children, by Brendan Connell
Reviewed on April 14, 2011
I already knew that Brendan Connell is an extremely eclectic writer. An American born in Santa Fe, New Mexico and currently relocated in Switzerland, he’s the author of several books, including the delightful novel The Translation of Father Torturo (Prime Books, 2005) and the short story collections Metrophilias (Better Non Sequitur, 2010) and Unpleasant Tales [...]
Beneath the Surface, by Simon Strantzas
Reviewed on January 26, 2011
First appearing in 2008 Simon Strantzas’ debut collection Beneath the Surface promptly disappeared, becoming virtually unobtainable for years due to the premature folding of the publisher, the late Humdrumming Press. Thanks to Dark Regions the book is now available again, in an expanded and revised version. Was it worth the wait? Yes and no. The [...]
Sourdough and Other Stories, by Angela Slatter
Reviewed on September 30, 2010
When we were children, if we have been lucky, our parents and grandparents have been reading or telling us bedtime stories, mostly fairy tales. As adults, we still like to read (or listening to) stories , which are the substance of what we call “fiction”. Fiction has many faces, encompasses different genres, one of which [...]
Remember You’re a One-Ball!, by Quentin S Crisp
Reviewed on June 16, 2010
In spite of the rather inelegant title of his new novel, Quentin S Crisp is a renowned stylist whose literary production, although confined within the world of small, indie press, has been widely praised for its beautiful narrative fashion and its exquisite phrasing. My personal enthusiasm for Crisp’s superb writing style has been sometimes attenuated [...]
Literary Remains, by RB Russell
Reviewed on May 11, 2010
After his amazing debut collection Putting the Pieces in Place and his intriguing novella Bloody Baudelaire (both published by Ex Occidente Press), RB Russell returns with a new volume of short stories, mostly never published before. If you’re not familiar with Russell as a writer (he is the proprietor of a renowned small imprint) then [...]
Strange Tales, Volume III, edited by Rosalie Parker
Reviewed on January 29, 2010
The World Fantasy Award winning anthology Strange Tales is back with a third volume of seventeen weird or unusual tales, encompassing a variety of subjects and writing styles, but sharing a distinct character: good quality. Predictably, not every story pleases this reviewer to the same extent, but that’s just a matter of personal taste. I [...]
They That Dwell In Dark Places, by Daniel McGachey
Reviewed on December 14, 2009
If you’re fond of classical ghost stories such as those penned by MR James, the Benson brothers and other British masters of the genre, here’s good news for you. Habemus papam: we have found a worthy heir of that long gone tradition, today a bit out of fashion in the heterogeneous small world of dark [...]
The Double Eye, by WF Harvey
Reviewed on October 22, 2009
Although not as widely famous as other genre masters (e.g. MR James and Walter de la Mare), William Fryer Harvey (1885-1937) has been defined as “one of the greatest ghost story writers of the twentieth century.” Actually, only a portion of his short fiction output (overall, sixty-four stories) can be classified under the label of [...]
Passing for Human, edited by Michael Bishop and Steven Utley
Reviewed on September 4, 2009
The idea that aliens live among us masked as human beings is not new and has been fascinating both writers and readers of SF and fantasy for decades, inspired by antique myths of gods and supernatural creatures taking human form to alter and influence the fate of mortals. It was high time to assemble in [...]
Midnight Walk, edited by Lisa Morton
Reviewed on August 6, 2009
A horror anthology just when horror seems to be out of fashion, and, on top of that, featuring none of the usual “big names”? The Editor and Publisher must be stark crazy… or tremendously ambitious. Whatever the truth, here we are with fourteen new tales “of terror and suspense” mostly from comparatively new writers trying [...]
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The Bookgeeks Interview
Mark Oldfield
Mark Oldfield has worked in criminological research for over 20 years. He has a PhD in Criminology from the University of Kent and has carried out research in the areas of risk assessment and prediction and as well as evaluative research on policing, prisons and probation. He has also taught in various Universities on research, crime and criminal justice.
