About this ebook
2020 Locus Recommended Reading List, Best Story Collection
INCLUDES BONUS STORIES AND EXCERPTS
"From heartbreaking character studies to exercises in Grand Guignol excess, from scalpel-sharp poetry to sledgehammers of blood-soaked prose, Mike Allen displays not only his own considerable range, but the range of the horror genre as well. Aftermath of an Industrial Accident will surprise and delight you at every turn."
—Nathan Ballingrud, author of Monsterland, now streaming on Hulu
"Allen overflows the tank with nightmare fuel in this collection of 23 stories and poems that showcase his ability to find the monstrous in almost any setting . . . the collection dances through hauntings, carnage, body horror, and psychological chills . . . Readers will be impressed by the variety, intensity, and skilled craftsmanship Allen brings to this collection. These horror shorts are sure to linger in the dark corners of readers' minds."
— Publishers Weekly, starred review
“An incredible read. This collection of horror and dark fantasy poetry and short fiction needs to be on the shelf of any horror reader.”
— Cemetery Dance
"Allen weds the brute visceral punch of early Clive Barker with the demented whimsy of darker Neil Gaiman."
—Craig Laurance Gidney, author of A Spectral Hue
A Korean War veteran must rely on wits, improvised weapons, and words from the dread Necronomicon to escape the lair of a deranged cult. A ghost cannot communicate how she died, no matter how desperately she tries, while an unconventional ghost hunter incurs the venomous wrath of the Queen of Night. Murderous conspiracies reveal themselves in online video clips, a saint blasphemes as a serial killer prays for mercy, and corrupt families in ancient kingdoms trade blood and souls for leverage over foes. Enduring nightmares for a living can lead to a fate worse than burnout. A gruesome invasion from outside space and time tests courage—and corporate loyalty—past all rational limits.
In these twenty-three stories and poems, two-time World Fantasy Award nominee Mike Allen spins twisted narratives, some wound through the fabric of our world, some set in imagined pasts or futures, all plumbing the depths of human darkness. "The consistency, here, is simply excellence," writes Bram Stoker Award finalist and Punktown creator Jeffrey Thomas in his introduction. "You are holding in your hands an overflowing cornucopia of monstrous goodness."
"Each tale in Aftermath of an Industrial Accident packs a punch that will keep you willingly pinned to the wall."
—Christina Sng, author of A Collection of Nightmares
"Mike Allen habitually upends Lovecraftian tropes with his own brand of cosmic horror."
—Laird Barron, author of Swift to Chase
"Allen demonstrates again and again his masterful ability to infuse cosmic, existential terror into the most intimate, and mundane aspects of our lives, while never failing to point out the self-made horror already there: from his introductory piece that credits Poe as a conjurer of inescapable, psychic horror and a muse-sinister for Allen, to the title story that force-marches the reader through rising terror, like a tea kettle screaming, for which there is no escape, no sanctuary, even within your own mind."
—R. S. Belcher, author of The Brotherhood of the Wheel
"Allen deftly imbues each world visited with its own own special kind of dread."
—A .C. Wise, author of Catfish Lullaby
About the author
Nebula, Shirley Jackson and two-time World Fantasy award finalist Mike Allen wears many hats. As editor and publisher of the Mythic Delirium Books imprint, he helmed Mythic Delirium magazine and the five volumes in the Clockwork Phoenix anthology series. His own short stories have been gathered in three collections: Unseaming, The Spider Tapestries and Aftermath of an Industrial Accident. He’s won the Rhysling Award for poetry three times, and his most recent collection of verse, Hungry Constellations, was a Suzette Haden Elgin Award nominee. A dark fantasy novel, The Black Fire Concerto, appeared in 2013.
For more than a decade he’s worked as the arts and culture columnist for the daily newspaper in Roanoke, Va., where he and his wife Anita live with a cat so full of trouble she’s named Pandora. You can follow Mike’s exploits as a writer at descentintolight.com, as an editor at mythicdelirium.com, and all at once on Twitter at @mythicdelirium.
Jeffrey Thomas is the author of such horror and science fiction novels as DEADSTOCK (finalist for the John W. Campbell Award), BLUE WAR, MONSTROCITY (finalist for the Bram Stoker Award), LETTERS FROM HADES, SUBJECT 11, BONELAND and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET: THE DREAM DEALERS. His short story collections include PUNKTOWN, GHOSTS OF PUNKTOWN, THE UNNAMED COUNTRY, HAUNTED WORLDS, UNHOLY DIMENSIONS, THIRTEEN SPECIMENS, and THE ENDLESS FALL. Stories by Thomas have been reprinted in THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR, THE YEAR'S BEST HORROR STORIES, and YEAR'S BEST WEIRD FICTION. Though he considers Vietnam his second home, he resides in Massachusetts.