A beautifully put together anthology that includes my short story "God of Discord."

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3101058 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-17
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 440 pages

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Customer Reviews

Fantastic.
Julia and R. J. Sevin, eds., Corpse Blossoms, vol. I (Creeping Hemlock Press, 2005)

I've read a whole lot of anthologies over the years, and a decent number have been horror anthologies. And I have encountered what seems to be an anomaly in Corpse Blossoms: it's an anthology that does not contain a single flat-out bad entry. Now, there are a few that flirt with the mediocre (Steve Rasnic Tem's "Mysteries of the Colon" has some unintentional humor about it, for example), but none are bad. That's amazing in and of itself.

But the majority are good. Really, really good, and that's even more amazing. Gary Braunbeck's "Need" will confuse the hell out of you at first, but once the pieces all fit together-- which will not happen until a good bit after you read the last sentence-- you see it in all its brilliance, and good lord. Stunning. Nick Mamatas' "All That's Left When the Big One Drops" gives more evidence that Northern Gothic and Move Under Ground were not flukes. This guy can write like nobody's business. Scott Nicholson turns in a winner with "The Weight of Silence." Tom Piccirilli, who's always excellent, makes an appearance. Etc. Etc. And a good deal more.

The story that has been attracting all the attention, however, is Kealan Patrick Burke's "Empathy." And from advance press, I expected I'd be awash in gore myself by the time I finished it. Such is not the case. Don't believe the hype. There's no more gore in "Empathy" than there is in any number of horror stories. What it does pack, however, is a wonderful (well, that's not the right word, but you know) emotional punch that reminds me of David Morrell's brilliant "Orange for Anguish, Blue for Insanity." While I can't say any single story is worth the priceof admission alone-- this is a pretty steeply-priced book-- it certainly goes a very long way towards justifying the purchase price.

If the book has a drawback, it is Joseph Nassise's introduction, which is equal parts smugness and excoriation. He may have meant it as a cautionary tale for future small-press publishers, or perhaps a little piece of metahorror. What it is, however, is annoying. I came close to putting the book down altogether after reading it, which is, I'm sure, not the effect the editors were after. So, my advice? Skip the intro altogether. Come back to it, if you feel the need, after you've read these excellent stories. But focus on the stories themselves, which are-- and I say again, this is, as far as I know, unique in the anthology world-- uniformly worth reading. Kudos to Julia and R. J. Sevin for making Creeping Hemlock Press' first offering an unconditional success. ****

Great Volume of Short Stories
Corpse Blossoms is the first effort by editors Julia and R.J. Sevin and their imprint Creeping Hemlock Press. After finishing this i hope there is more to follow. Blossoms is put together in a nicely bound limited edition hardcover with a print run of 500 copies and goes for $40.00. In my opinion it is money well spent. Quite a few big names in horror are included in the volume such as Ramsey Campbell,Kealan Patrick Burke,Brian Freeman and Tom Picirilli. That bing said alot of the newcomers included in this anthology manage to steal the show.

Blossoms is divided into three seperate sections. The first being titled The First Handful of Dirt. Some standouts in section one are newcomer Ward Cary Parkers "White Shrouds of Memory" in which a older handicapped man deals with the loss of his wife and memories of his past, Larry Trittens "Whatever Happened to Shangri-La?" dealing with a serial murderer and Valentines Day,and Darren Speegles "Hexrei" involving a man heading back to his home and dealing with some disturbing moments of his childhood. Other notable's are Tom Picirilli's "A Average Insanity,A Common Agony",Brian Freeman's "Running Rain" and Steve Rasnick Tems "Mysteries of the Colon".

Section 2 of the anthology is called Wilting Petals. This may be the weakest portion of the anthology but is still very good. Ramsey Campbell's "Skeleton Woods" a kind of tie in to his novel The Darkest Part of the Woods,Gary Braunbeck's "Need" a gut wrenching tale dealing with a single mother and her children and may be hands down the best tale in the entire book. Other stories of note include Eric Shapiro's "The Man in the Corner" a nasty little tale of retribution,Patricia Russo's "Feed Them" a very eerie story that reminds me of Catilin Kiernan ala Threshold.The rest of the bunch average at best in this section.

That leads us to the 3rd and final section called Bitter Fruit. This may be the strongest portion of this long volume. Some very good tales in this section include Bentley Little's "Finding Father" a man tries to pursue his father via scrawled messages in rest stops, Kealan Patrick Burkes "Empathy",a man witnesses a horrible event and sufffers as much as the victim, Lee Clarke Zumpe's "The Chatterer in the Darkness", a wicked little tale told in five pages, and the best in this last section is Nick Mamatas's "All Thats Left When The Big One Drops" involving a family dealing with the end of the world. The remaining stories are well worth reading as well.

With so many stand out stories in this whole anthology i reccommend any horror fan out there to pick this up. This may turn out to be the best anthology of the year and you will regret not picking it up once it's sold out.

CORPSE BLOSSOMS - A Must-Have Sleeper Hit of 2005
Stand back, I'm about to beat the drum and dance.

I just wanted to take a moment to tell you folks at Amazon about this book. It's a brand new release, and the first shipment just went out yesterday, (Dec. 8/2005), just in time for Christmas.

Horror fans all of any age are going to want to grab themselves a copy of this collection. Sure I'm biassed. I'm lucky enough to be in the darned thing. But take a look at who else is in it.

We've got brand new stories from Ramsey Campbell, Tom Piccirilli, Brian Freeman, Bentley Little, Kealan Patrick Burke, Gary Braunbeck, Darren Speegle, Steve Rasnic Tem, Bev Vincent, Marion Pitman, Patricia Russo, Scott Nicholson, Ward Cary Parker, Michael Canfield, Erin Mackay, Eric Shapiro, Steve Wedel, Clifford Brooks, Lee Clarke Zumpe, Athena Workman, Nick Mamatas, Michail Velichansky, myself, and a great intro from Joe Nasisse.

This classy hardcover is put together with style in mind, with haunting little vignette illustrations at the beginning of each story. You need this book. The autograph plates alone are a collector's dream.

I know I sound like I'm channeling the spirit of a long dead K-tel Ginsu knife drummer, but that's how strongly I feel about this collection. It's a simple as this. I'm proud as all get out to be part of this collection.

Buy it. Read it. Fall in love all over again with a couple of dozen tales of bizarre horror by many of the masters of modern horror along with a few new voices.

CORPSE BLOSSOMS. Get it. You'll be sorry if you don't.

Yours in horror,

Steve Vernon