Skip to main content

Cold, Black, & Infinite by Todd Keisling

 

Title: Cold, Black, & Infinite

Author:Todd Keisling

Genre: Horror Short Story Collection

Published: Sept. 1, 2023 by Cemetery Dance Publications

I received a copy for review through NetGalley.

 

Cold, Black, & infinite is a collection of sixteen short stories including three stories that were never previously published. The stories were all very well written and compulsively readable.The stories are separated into three sections Cold, Black, and Infinite. 

The Cold section includes five stories that take place in cold settings including The Happytown Yuletide Massacre a Christmas slasher story and Black Friday which is a brilliant zombie story.

The Black section includes five stories that are very dark or deal with black magic. These are the stories that will really make your skin crawl. 

In the Infinite section there are six stories that are on the strange side and most are cosmic horror. The story Holes in the Fabric was based in the same town as Keisling's novel Devil's Creek and has a connection to his novella The Final Reconciliation. It occurs after the events of the novel so it may be advisable to read it before the short story. I had no problem understanding without reading Devil's Creek, but I am not sure the extent of the spoilers.

The collection was really great overall. I would recommend the short story collection to seasoned fans of horror who are not easily offended. The author has included content warnings in the back of the book for each story and they are plentiful. You have been warned.

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars


 

 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Light of the Fireflies by Paul Pen

Book Title: The Light of the Fireflies Author: Paul Pen Translator: Simon Bruni Genre: Fiction, Thriller Rating: 4.5/5 stars Goodreads A haunting and hopeful tale of discovering light in even the darkest of places. For his whole life, the boy has lived underground, in a basement with his parents, grandmother, sister, and brother. Before he was born, his family was disfigured by a fire. His sister wears a white mask to cover her burns. He spends his hours with his cactus, reading his book on insects, or touching the one ray of sunlight that filters in through a crack in the ceiling. Ever since his sister had a baby, everyone’s been acting very strangely. The boy begins to wonder why they never say who the father is, about what happened before his own birth, about why they’re shut away. A few days ago, some fireflies arrived in the basement. His grandma said, There’s no creature more amazing than one that can make its own light. That light makes the boy want to escape, to know t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Swarm: Replugged Book Review by James Flynn

  Title: Swarm: Replugged Author: James Flynn Genre: Science Fiction Published Originally 2/1/2021 by the author, now with an new revised edition. Thank you to the author for providing a copy for review. In the second edition of Swarm, the city of Rachton is riddled with crime. A victim of crime, Eric Trammel, has turned to a life in the GLC to help fight against the criminals ruining his city. The answer the GLC comes up with is a new prison where prisoners can by connected to a hive mind to harvest their consciences to create answers to their hardest questions.  Swarm: Replugged is a great science fiction thought experiment of the possibilities of the human mind as well as the consequences of harvesting it. I read both editions of this book at the same time to compare. There are a lot of revisions that make the prose tighter though I really enjoyed both versions. Eric Trammel is a great sympathetic character to follow the story of best intentions gone wrong. I really enjoyed...
Post a Comment
Read more

Alt Vegas: Nuclear Dreams by Wren Cavanagh Book Review

   Title: Alt Vegas: Nuclear Dreams Author: Wren Cavanagh Genre: Horror Published: September 28, 2024 I received a copy for review from the author.    Kyle and Mandy have dreams making a profit by developing when they purchase land in Esperville, Oregon. Soon they find out the land is home to a portal to another dimension stuck in 1950s Las Vegas. It is a hard place with unforgiving desert and fiendish creatures. This a fantastic creature feature horror novel with an alternate dimension flair. The characters, Kyle and Mandy, did not seem sympathetic at first as foolhardy newlyweds taking on more than they can chew. However, throughout the story they become more and more endearing. They are great underdog characters to root for. The portal to Alt Vegas allows for such contrasting settings. The lush and overgrown Oregon with the desert landscape outside 1950s Vegas. The last fourth of the book could have used another round of line editing, but overall this was a fantas...
Post a Comment
Read more