VOICES IN THE DARKNESS,

 

VOICES IN THE DARKNESS, Edited by David Niall Wilson, Macabre Ink, ISBN:9781952979491, $17.99 Trade, $29.99 Hardcover.

To keep everything honest, I am friends with some of the authors and publisher of this book. That being said, I will give it an honest review based on its merits.

Nadia Bulkins ‘’Vide Cor Meum (See My Heart)’’ is the story of a family slaughtered in their home and the ways it affects other folks and brings ghosts into play. It is well done and starts us off on our journey into darkness.

Kathe Koja has a story that reads differently each time you peruse the story of ”Pursuivant Island”, or is it Grand Central Park?

‘’Baggie’’ by Elizabeth Massie  is the story of a new Messiah and his control of his followers and is one of the darker pieces in this volume.

Cassandra Khaw takes us on a journey of ourselves while Nick Mamatas gives us the story of MacHeath and the legend that made the inspiration for the song we all know.

All these fine stories are a wonderful lead in to ‘’La Belle Epoche’’ by Brian Hopkins. In his novella length tale, we travel from 1893 France to the Vietnam battlefields and some remarkably interesting adventures in-between.

He shows  us the darkness of the French waterfront, the light that was Nickolai Tesla, the larger-than-life Moulin Rouge, and the terrors of war. While at times darkly disturbing, there is always a glint of hope as we follow our lead characters, Angel and Bill Pratt.

Hopkins has done his research and filled the story with facts and historical figures to make this read more like a factual magazine story. His choice of words really sets the mind’s eye alive with imagery, for example ‘’comfortably familiar smell of ink on paper, leather and glue and the waxed thread of tight little binding stitches’’  to describe a library or ‘’the result was a milky opalescence, a miasmic fog circling a crystal goblet, a cocktail concocted in a dream, more vapor than liquid’’ to describe a drink. He is a true wordsmith and paints fully drawn images in the readers eyes.

It is a story of death and despair; it is a story of love and loss; it is a story of redemption; and it is a story of a time long gone. It was ‘’La Belle Epoch’’ and sadly it may never return. I am sure Hopkins will return with another story to entertain and bemuse us.

This wonderful volume is available from Crossroads Press and Amazon, it is well worth the journey.

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