A Confederacy of Horrors

In recent years, James Robert Smith has emerged as a distinctive new voice in contemporary weird fiction. Melding a smoothly flowing prose style, powerful horrific conceptions, and a keen sense of character and locale, Smith has written dozens of stories that expand the boundaries of the weird tale and take it into new and dynamic directions. This first collection of his short fiction displays the many virtues of his work. Several of his tales are set in the South, a region he knows well through long residence. Whether it be the alienated youths in "Toke Ghost," the ruthless plutocrat of "Moving," or the comic terror of "The Reliable Vacuum Company," Smith depicts a South where the lush, kudzu-choked landscape breeds horrors both earthly and unearthly. Monsters from the depths of space are the focus of "On the First Day," while rats of a more than usual malignancy are featured in "Dope." "Translator" tells of mysteries emerging out of World War II, while in "Love and Magick" a man battles occult creatures with magic of his own. The ecological horrors of "Symptom" are matched by the existential horror of "Wet." The end of the world appears imminent in "One of Those Days," and a vampire of an unusual sort stalks through the pages of "Just a Gigolo." With this collection, James Robert Smith presents a rich and diverse smorgasbord of weirdness and terror that will delight his many devotees and bring new ones into his fold. James Robert Smith is the author of the novels The Flock (2006), The Living End (2011), and The New Ecology of Death (2013). He is coeditor of the anthology Evermore (2006), published by Arkham House.