Review of
Dark Horse Presents # 8 Series 2: The
Massive, by Brian Wood and Kristian Donaldson
Five out of five stars
Ten short stories, all in a dark mood
The name of the
publisher fits the mood of these short stories. All are dark and feature bad things
that have happened or seem inevitable. The range of what has gone wrong is
considerable, for example the first story has as a backdrop some form of global
apocalypse that has led to the death of millions of people. Britain seems to
have been hit particularly hard, for it is mentioned that large numbers of people
are leaving. Another features sets of talking animals, one set is composed of
dogs and one cat and the other is a small herd of sheep. Otherwise, all appears
normal until it is revealed that the sheep died in a barn fire.
There is a
brutal fight over demonic possession of a recently killed man, the chronicles
of a brutal mercenary, a pseudo-Tarzan, a freak of nature that is repeated in
the introduction of a serial story, a bizarre time loop involving cloning and a
murderous granny. There are no happy endings here and little in the way of
happy beginnings.
The stories are
dark, often brutal, yet oddly riveting. If you are looking for a mood uplifter
or some yuks, this is not the literature for you. Yet, if you find the macabre
and bizarre oddly refreshing, then these stories will work for you.
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