Showing results by author "Tim Curran" in All Categories

It was a killer year for horror fiction of the harder kind. Authors, editors, and publishers presented readers with some startling works of horrific imagination, stories graphic in the extreme yet with subtleties suggesting larger meanings, tales that explore humanity by plumbing depths of soulless inhumanity and, in some cases, outright depravity. The stories here represent the best of them, disturbing tales that dig deep and take you into the dark heart of horror itself, unrelenting and unapologetic.

In the deepest, darkest jungles of Indochina, an ancient evil is waiting in a forgotten, primeval valley. It is patient, monstrous, and bloodthirsty. Perfectly adapted to its hot, steaming environment, it strikes its chosen prey: human. Now Michael Spiers, a marine sniper, the only survivor of a previous encounter with the beast, is going after it again. Against his better judgment, he is made part of a Marine Force recon team that will hunt it down and destroy it. The hunters are about to become the hunted.

In the deepest, darkest depths of space, the stars are cold, malevolent eyes looking across a vast graveyard of the unknown, the unnameable, and the undead. Here the planets are tombs and the moons haunted catacombs. And here are extraterrestrial nightmares beyond imagining. There is no benevolent first contact. No utopian worlds. Only alien horrors.

Das Städtchen Craw Falls in South Dakota ist zu einem Gefängnis geworden. Ein Schneesturm ungeahnten Ausmaßes wütet über der Region. Die Straßen sind gesperrt. Niemand kommt mehr hinein, niemand kommt mehr hinaus. Doch in den eisigen Winden und dem Schneegestöber lauert eine noch weitaus tödlichere Gefahr. Sie kriechen aus dem Schnee und machen Jagd auf menschliche Beute. Bis zum Morgengrauen wird sich die Stadt in eine Leichenhalle verwandelt haben - es sei denn, es gelingt einer kleinen Gruppe Überlebender, die Monster in ihrer Mitte zu bekämpfen.

When Flynn was sixteen, he was a new kid in a new school. At first, he was ignored. Then he was bullied, tormented, and beaten. Chad Reese offered him a way out. He introduced him to Toddy and Bones. They made Flynn's enemies their own. Before long, he was the most popular kid at school. But there was a price. When he wouldn't pay it, they took something he loved. Now, thirty years later, Flynn is rich and successful. Everything he touches seems to turn into gold. Until he comes back home to discover that the payment for living the good life has been long overdue.

Four girls lost in the big, bad woods. Four girls hunted by primeval monsters. Four girls trapped in a deadly, ancient ritual of sacrifice. To stay alive until dawn will mean using every scrap of instinct and skill they possess. Civilization no longer exists for them. They must become just as bloodthirsty and predatory as the creatures that stalk them.

As Rod Sterling famously said, "You unlock this door with the key to your imagination". Sixteen tales of horror and woe are ensconced here.