Poe: New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe

[This review was originally written when I read the book in late 2008. New comments are in brackets.] Of the two great figures of American horror fiction, Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, Lovecraft is far more frequently imitated. Whether inspired by his cosmicist materialist philosophy, his carefully-honed ornate prose, or (most often, alas) his universe of vastly ancient godlike aliens, other writers have been working in Lovecraft's tradition for decades, almost since Lovecraft himself began writing. For whatever reason, Poe, though equally admired, is less often pastiched. And what literary homage to him does exist is more imaginative, less formulaic, than the endlessly spawning volumes of Cthulhuiana. Such imagination is on display in Ellen Datlow's new anthology Poe, which includes nineteen new stories, inspired by Poe's own works, that celebrate the bicentennial of Poe's birth. [Datlow has since edited an anthology of Lovecraft-inspired tales, which is also well worth reading.] As Datlow observes in her introduction, these stories are not pastiche. Poe serves as a point of departure, not a tracing model. As a result, the anthology offers a range of styles and themes comparable to that in a volume with no theme. Apart from the Poe connection, the only common thread is the high quality of the prose and the elegance of each story's narrative construction. Even entries that lack novelty of plot or theme are distinguished by virtually faultless prose, so that it is impossible to entirely dislike them, they read so easily. Such consistency is a major reason Datlow's anthologies so often find their way onto my reading list. Fittingly, the two best stories bookend the anthology. First is Kim Newman's "Illimitable Domain." It's an excellent choice to open Poe, not only for its high quality but also for the signal it sends about the collection's openness to innovation. It's difficult to say too much about the plot of Newman's story without giving the game away, so I'll only observe that Newman puts his obviously substantial knowledge of mid-twentieth century Hollywood to good use in crafting this tale of comic horror. The narrator's voice is a perfect imitation of the fast-talking, hard-edged Hollywood guy of popular imagination, and as events work toward their inevitable conclusion, a touch of Poe is seamlessly introduced, to surprising effect. Like all the best comic horror, this story is simultaneously amusing and unsettling. Melanie Tem's "The Pickers" is a fine example of how a writer can take a familiar Poe work and craft something new. I wouldn't dream of revealing which bit of Poe she begins with, but she surrounds it with a thoroughly modern phenomenon- dumpster picking- to produce a haunting dark fantasy tale about grief and survival. [I wish I had said more about this story, which lingers in the mind wonderfully, but really there's nothing to say except that you should read it.] Datlow notes that she discouraged writers from usin

To coincide with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Poe is an anthology celebrating his writings and presenting talents inspired by Poe's tales. Such notables as Sharyn McCrumb, Lucius Shepard, and more offer retellings of Poe's classic writings, making this a perfect acquisition for high schools teaching Poe's style and literary approach who want a fine contrast of inspired take-offs.

By far, this is Ellen Datlow's best themed anthology. The stories herein are as varied and as powerful as those of the Master himself. Standouts include "Strappado" by Laird Barron, "Truth and Bone" by Pat Cadigan, "Kirikh'quru Krokundor" by Lucius Shepard and "Technicolor" by John Langan. Pick it up and read it now before, as inevitably happens with all the greatest works of contemporary horror, it lapses out of print.Poe: 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe

So what does a Poe fan get in this anthology of dark fantasy, suspense, and horror? "Inspired by" covers a lot of ground here. Sometimes the Poe reference is so dilute, an allusion to a Poe character or story or setting or even a color that it is only the author's afterword that makes the connection clear. Sometimes Poe just triggers an associational nostalgia in the author, and the story has more to do with the author's youth than Poe. Sometimes the stories are a not very thinly veiled retelling of Poe stories. Sometimes the author grapples directly with the meaning or implications of Poe themes and images. Sometimes, despite the stated editorial prohibition against it, Poe shows up as a character. The first story, Kim Newman's "Illimitable Domain", sort of stands apart from everything else in the book. Newman's knowledge of films and love of Poe gives us sort of a funny and, in the end, horrific alternate history in which those Roger Corman adaptations of Poe are just the beginning of Poe's encroachment into modern popular culture. This isn't the first time Newman has used Poe in his fiction, but those other examples have been Poe as a character. Here Poe the writer ultimately scripts reality itself. The finest stories in the anthology are Barbara Roden's "The Brink of Eternity" and John Langan's "Technicolor". Roden looks at self-annihilation in the quest for knowledge and returning to some cosmic unity, themes found in Poe's "Ms. Found in a Bottle" and "Descent into the Maelstrom" and his odd work of poetic philosophy, Eureka: A Prose Poem (Literary Classics). The story's protagonist, roughly a contemporary of Poe, compulsively feels drawn to explore the polar regions and that exploration deliberately alludes to Poe's novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (Thrift Edition). Langan's story is told as an English professor lecturing on Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death". He gives us a secret history that inspired Poe's tale, the real meaning of its enigmatic color sequence, what a grief stricken Poe was up to in the last week of life, and, like Newman's tale, a Poe that is a gateway to far more than just good literature. Not quite as good as those two stories, but still very good, are Melanie Tem's "The Pickers" and Steve Rasnic Tem's "Shadow". Both are takeoffs, but not mere retellings, of Poe works. "The Pickers", inspired by Poe's "The Raven", has a depressed widow, trying to care for her infant, confronting a strange group of individuals, part gypsy, part crow, and part of nature's way of recycling unwanted items - whatever they may be. "Shadow" takes its ominous tone, choice of narrator, and title from Poe's "Shadow - A Parable". Here a niece, increasingly isolated and frightened of the outside world and the plague of social disorder that seems to be slowly infecting it, watches a videotape from her dead "crazy" uncle. Three not so exceptional stories also rework Poesque images and motifs: Delia S

Multiple award winning editor Ellen Datlow offers a shuddersome and entertaining tribute to the works of Edgar Allan Poe in this brilliant anthology of Poe-inspired tales composed by some of the foremost writers of horror, dark fantasy and science fiction working today. For each of these nineteen brand new stories, Ms. Datlow put forth a challenge to compose a tale of terror inspired by the tales of the master, Edgar Allan Poe. There is a specific frisson induced by tales written by Poe, a disconcerting recognition of the endless abyss that yawns unseen beneath our feet, a sense of haunted reality that causes an uneasy sense of lingering dread. These nineteen stories capture the spirit of Poe's work in all of its various permutations, beginning with Kim Newman's hilarious "Illimitable Domain" that will delight fans of the various and wonderful B-grade Poe films starring Vincent Price and his bullet-bra-clad leading ladies. The tone turns dark quickly, however, with tales including the persona of Mr. Poe himself as a character, as in E. Catherine Tobler's "Beyond Porch and Portal". Laird Barron presents a gasp-inducing modern Gothic retelling of "The Masque of the Red Death" with "Strappado", Kristine Kathryn Rusch crystallizes "The Murder of Marie Roget" in her modern Manhattan story, ""Flitting Away", and Lucius Shepard goes deep into the dark heart one man's search for matchless splendor in "Kirikh'quru Krokundor". Poe was famous for tales of doppelgangers, and this venerable storytelling device becomes new and terrifying in the hands of Gregory Frost and Nicholas Royle. David Prill takes Gothic and turns it into American Gothic with "The Heaven and Hell of Robert Flud", and Southern writer Sharyn McCrumb and horror writer Glen Hirshberg also take terror into the American countryside. Pat Cadigan builds a horrific City by the Sea in her story, "Truth and Bone", and Steve Rasnic Tem tells a truly spine-rattling tale of quintessentially Poe-esque claustrophobic terror with "Shadows". Each story in this grand tribute anthology is absorbing, entertaining and deeply spooky, which made it difficult for me to pick a favorite. I must say that the story that most induced the heavy, overarching sense of dread I always feel when reading Poe's work was Melanie Tem's magnificent tale of creeping menace, "The Pickers", which insured that I shall never again witness a homeless person rummaging through a dumpster without experiencing a nervous shiver. POE is a breathtaking anthology of brand new cutting-edge dark fantasy and horror that would greatly please Mr. Poe, I'm sure.