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jdhacker 's review for:
Caravans Awry
by Frank Coffman, K.A. Opperman, William Tea, S.L. Edwards, John Linwood Grant, Pete Rawlik, John Paul Fitch, Donald Armfield, Duane Pesice
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
While I haven't yet read through all the anthologies, this is thus far my favorite of the Planet X Publications collections.
Creepy carnivals are obviously a 'thing' nowadays, especially among certain demographics and fan groups, but I think there's something to be said for the fact that carnivals have always been creepy places. We can jump at least back to 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' for literary examples, and arguably that creepiness has always been an intentional part of how they billed and sold themselves. Whether its because of this intentional presentation, their transient nature, a sort of contained internal reality and suspension of disbelief, or something more ineffable, there's a reason children are so frequently disturbed by clowns and other trappings of the circus/carnival. There's a secondary thematic anchor here, in that these stories follow Route 66 to some extent. As I've lived near and traveled parts of both new and old (in some cases abandoned) parts of Route 66, this also piqued my interest. So I put on my playlist of songs that remind me of the circus and dove into this collection.
If you're a fan of what the zeitgeist now thinks of as liminal spaces and the horrors and wonders they might contain, I strongly recommend you pick up this collection.
It could use a short 'about the authors' section in the back, which is common in these sorts of anthologies and has helped inform me in the past about authors I've particularly loved in collections, and seems conspicuously absent here.
Creepy carnivals are obviously a 'thing' nowadays, especially among certain demographics and fan groups, but I think there's something to be said for the fact that carnivals have always been creepy places. We can jump at least back to 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' for literary examples, and arguably that creepiness has always been an intentional part of how they billed and sold themselves. Whether its because of this intentional presentation, their transient nature, a sort of contained internal reality and suspension of disbelief, or something more ineffable, there's a reason children are so frequently disturbed by clowns and other trappings of the circus/carnival. There's a secondary thematic anchor here, in that these stories follow Route 66 to some extent. As I've lived near and traveled parts of both new and old (in some cases abandoned) parts of Route 66, this also piqued my interest. So I put on my playlist of songs that remind me of the circus and dove into this collection.
If you're a fan of what the zeitgeist now thinks of as liminal spaces and the horrors and wonders they might contain, I strongly recommend you pick up this collection.
It could use a short 'about the authors' section in the back, which is common in these sorts of anthologies and has helped inform me in the past about authors I've particularly loved in collections, and seems conspicuously absent here.