WINNER OF THE 2007 SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD FOR BEST COLLECTION
“One of my favorite writers, period. … one of the most unique and accomplished prose talents now working in America. He writes dangerous stories, in something I’ve described as like a cross between H.P. Lovecraft and James Dickey … Very much like crack to my brain.” –Nic Pizzolatto, creator of HBO’s True Detective
Collected here for the first time are nine terrifying tales of cosmic horror, including the World Fantasy Award-nominated novella “The Imago Sequence,” the International Horror Guild Award-nominated “Proboscis,” and the never-before-published “Procession of the Black Sloth.” Together, these stories, each a masterstroke of craft and imaginative irony, form a shocking cycle of distorted evolution, encroaching chaos, and ravenous insectoid hive-minds hidden just beneath the seemingly benign surface of the Earth.
With colorful protagonists, including an over-the-hill CIA agent, a grizzled Pinkerton detective, and a failed actor accompanying a group of bounty hunters, Barron’s stories are resonant and authentic, featuring vulnerable, hard-boiled tough guys attempting to stand against the stygian wasteland of night. Throughout the collection, themes of desolation, fear, and masculine identity are played out against the backdrop of an indifferent, devouring cosmos.
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