Amazon Category:  Horror Publisher: PublishAmerica ISBN-10:  1591293235 Type: Fiction Pages: 210 Copyright: Jun 1 2002 Darkscapes collects 34 tales of dark-themed fiction that includes horror, sci-fi, mainstream, erotica and fantasy. A church congregation uses macabre methods to reclaim a lost lamb. A man on the brink of murder and suicide faces the truth of who he is. A nameless monster at the bottom of an old quarry captures souls and enslaves bodies. Explorers to another galaxy find terror in the petals of flowers covering a planet. An abused girl performs her last sex act on her father’s best friend. Ghosts invite a man to rejoin his lost wife and child at a mysterious Halloween party. These are just a few of the tales you’ll find in Darkscapes, a collection of 34 short stories that explores the unlit places we try to avoid. The darkness of the human soul, of loss, anger and revenge, as well as things that go bump in the night are all waiting between the covers of Darkscapes. Excerpt Halfway across his room, [Danny] detected movement from the direction of his window. He stopped and looked. His eyes widened as he saw a figure standing among the broken shards of one of the pumpkins. The beast was just over eight inches tall and dull orange in color, like the rind of the pumpkin it had hatched from. It crouched on bowed legs, its potbelly tightening and relaxing as it breathed. Leathery wings tipped with small black horns rippled on its back. The hands and feet of the creature all ended in long, curved nails. Danny could see tiny muscles bulging on the small arms and legs. The orange head was about the size of a ping-pong ball, thick lips curled away from lethal yellow fangs. Pointed ears swept back from the side of the head; they twitched as the thing studied Danny. Two more black horns, slightly longer than those on the wings, protruded from the forehead in direct line with the bulbous, tan-colored eyes. The bat-goblin let out a squeaky battle cry and hopped from the windowsill, its wings flapping. It came soaring through the room toward Danny’s throat. From "Unholy Womb"

Review by Shannon Riley
Darkscapes by Steven E. Wedel, Publish America (www.publishamerica.com), 2002. ISBN: 1-59129-323-5. Short story collection. 210 pages. Steven E. Wedel has put together an amazing collection of short fiction for his upcoming book, Darkscapes. Ranging from horror to science fiction to erotica, and even western, these thirty-four tales are ripped from the dark side of this rising young author's imagination and presented here, a venerable feast for the connoisseur of dark suspense. Many of the stories, written from 1985 to 2001, have been previously published, and some, like "Reunion," the lead story, which won the Best Fiction contest and was published in Short Scary Tales, 2002, have already been recognized as outstanding works in their genre, but some of the stories are new, or newly revised, especially for this collection. I found much to like in this book. "Reunion" is the disturbing tale of parents, religious extremists, bent on collecting the parts of their late son, who was an organ donor, from the unsuspecting recipients. "A Drink from the Springs," a western, involves a mysterious woman and what happens to those unfortunate enough to sample the water from the haunted springs where she resides. "Bridges," one of the new stories included, about the decisions a man makes in his life, is a wonderfully thought-provoking piece. Its also an excellent example of Mr. Wedel's skilled use of background and setting to enhance his fiction and bring his stories to life. He returns to the theme of life's choices in "Ghosts," in which the narrator is confronted by the specters of the men he could have been, if his steps had taken other directions. Like most writers of modern horror, Mr. Wedel attributes some of his work to the inspiration of Steven King and H. P. Lovecraft. "The New Disciples," a Lovecraftain type story, is one of the finest in the collection, asking the question: Is faith all that is required for a god to live? I also loved the dark and provocative "Summer Offspring," in which creatures, half-rat and half-human, terrorize a town, and "Phaethon Reborn," new for this collection, in which a boy can shape fire with his bare hands. But my favorites are the Halloween offerings, "The Halloween Feast," one of Mr. Wedel's most popular stories, wherein a man must choose between this life and the next where his dead wife and child await him, and another dark treasure, "Unholy Womb," Mr. Wedel's first published story, featured in The Midnight Zoo, 1992, in which an old voodoo man lays a curse to avenge himself against those who have wronged him. Steven E. Wedel, who has a background in journalism, puts his news writing experience to good use in his fiction. With an eye for detail that lends credibility to his stories, he uses setting, mood and atmosphere to enrich his work and immerse the reader in the tales. His stories are original, well-written and often chilling looks at human nature and the human mind under extreme circumstances. I have been a fan of his since I began reading stores in his magnificent werewolf series some time ago, and it was with great pleasure that I found the stories in Darkscapes to be as exciting and intriguing as those included in Call to the Hunt, his 2001 collection. If you are a fan of dark fiction, this is a collection you will not want to miss. Steven E. Wedel is an author whose time has come.