The Dell Abyss horror line

[TheBossInTheWall]

If you did not know about it: About 20 years ago there was a line of books from Dell called The Dell Abyss line. A lot of amazing books came out of it, though it is now defunct. Basically a lot of novels/collections that were more original/unusual than other horror novels/collections. Some of them are incredibly good.

I've read a lot of them, figured I'd type a little about the ones I thought were good. You can find the summaries online easily enough, try goodreads.com(evil amazon owned company, but good for some things like this). I'll just give some thoughts on the books themselves.

X, Y by Michael Blumlein

This turns out be be quite unexpected. The premise sounds average/been done a lot. What the main character goes through, however, is done very well. The changes of thinking, dealing with the physical change, etc. I was surprised at the quality of insight, or at least it was very believable(I'm guessing unless you're transgender it'd be hard to write about a mind being taken from one body and put into a body of a different sex). As well some things I expected to happen didn't, and instead happened in really good ways. Lastly the articles the author references in the novel make the book even more interesting/believable.


Revenant Melanie Tem

Melanie Tem is a favorite of mine. I believe she and her husband lost a child and I wonder if this book came out of it. I'm fairly certain the short novella she did with her husband called The Man On the Ceiling was inspired from that(its been a while since I read it). Anyway, this book is a collection of stories all tied together in a town called Revenant. The stories are all about the ghost of the dead holding on to the living or the living unable to let the dead go. The stories can be very intense. Highly recommended it, particularly if you can let yourself get lost in a story. It can be emotionally taxing, but in a very good way. Worth experiencing.

Wilding Melanie Tem

Another Melanie Tem book. Amazing. This one uses werewolves, of a sort, but not as you might expect. In this book the focus is on the women of a family, grand mother, aunts, daughters, grand daughters. This book uses werewolves to talk about interactions between the women in families. I don't know if that sounds like its a 'heart warming' or 'the difficulties experienced with family' type of book, but its not. Really will surprise you I think. Incredibly good.

Lost Futures Lisa Tuttle

This one is sort of hard to penetrate, at least it was for me. Yet its very unusual. The character loses sections of time, like possible black outs. But they're not. Argh. I can't remember if its first person or 3rd. Anyway, it focuses on the perspective of the main character and how she experiences the loss of time or what it turns into later. Very interesting.

The Cyper, Bad Brains by Kathe Koja

If you haven't reading anything by Kathe Koja, at least the horror, you must DO IT NOW. She is amazing. Her style and craft are fucking...wow. Just astonishing. This book...its hard to write a description without ruining parts of the book. Think of the horror only slightly glimpsed/experienced like in Lovecraft, but not written at all like Lovecraft. This would make such a good horror movie, but not like ones we're used to. And the ending, fuck is she good at endings. READ THIS.

Bad Brains by Kathe Koja

Just like the Cypher, this is so good. Koja's skill with writing is awe inspiring. At least from my perspective as a writer. This is a simple story that follows a simple path. The greatness of the book is the unusual advancement of the plot, not meaning in technique or structure-just the plot as you read. The characters are quite good as are their interactions/reactions. Again, you gotta read Koja.

Anthony Shriek Jessica Amanda Salmonson

This book is sort of written like young adult(though the characters are in college). I think a lot of people will relate to the need for love, but also the need to be apart from everything. This is the first Dell Abyss book I read, got me into Dell Abyss books. Again, unusual and unexpected. Another great ending too.

Shadow Twin Dale Hoover

This was decent. Not as good as the ones above, but still interesting. I was able to see the story as I read the book. I wasn't taken out of it by the writing style or plot or characters. Which is a sign of a good writer. This is one of those books I could see a lot more that could have been done, a lot to explore in the things happening in the story. Still its very good and like I said about the Melanie Tem books, this one is more about real life things discussed through horror. For this one its about being horrified at becoming a violent father and trying to recapture the child/parent bond.

Dead in the Water by Nancy Holder

I wish I had kept my copy and not exchanged it at a used book store. Its not a great book, but decent enough. Unlike a lot of the books I've read in the Dell Abyss line this one is something we've all read before. And the ending isn't amazing, but decent. You do get the sense of the atmosphere and what its like for the characters. Particularly if you read most of it while taking baths, which I did. : )

Some of the others I've read weren't very good, but might appeal to others. I did want to mention Dusk by Ron Dee. Its really bad. The writing quality, the events, the characters. I could not finish it. I would definitely recommend NOT wasting money on it.

Here's some links that have lists of the books in the Dell Abyss Line:

http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/dell-abyss-horror

http://toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot...ck-covers.html

http://horrorworld.org/msgboards/vie...php?f=2&t=4018