Of the stories collected in DARK FORCES there’s nary a clunker in the bunch, and three can even be termed exceptional: Stephen King’s novella-length “ The Mist,” Dennis Etchison’s “The Late Shift” (perhaps the finest story he ever wrote) and the more literarily inclined “The Bingo Master” by Joyce Carol Oates. The DARK FORCES cover, by contrast, was entirely black but for the title and the names of its contributors, a pretty ballsy move that implied the contents were strong enough to render snazzy cover art unnecessary. For DARK FORCES McCauley commissioned a whopping 23 original tales, paired with a hardcover book jacket whose design was downright revolutionary in a field known-some might even say dependent on-gaudy cover art.

McCauley had previously edited the 1976 anthology FRIGHTS, which among other problems was too short, containing but 14 stories. Grant and Lisa Tuttle, and no wonder: Kirby McCauley was a literary agent who represented quite a few of those names. As with DANGEROUS VISIONS (and its 1972 sequel AGAIN, DANGEROUS VISIONS), DARK FORCES contains stories by virtually all the big names in its field- Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, Robert Aickman, Theodore Sturgeon and Manly Wade Wellman all make appearances-along with (then) young turks like Dennis Etchison, Charles L. Ellison’s mission statement was to elevate science fiction from the ghetto to which it was consigned, and McCauley had similar aspirations with DARK FORCES. Kirby McCauley’s chief inspiration was the 1967 Harlan Ellison edited DANGEROUS VISIONS, often credited as the foremost grouping of science fiction stories ever published. But is DARK FORCES really that great a book? Let’s see. It appeared in 1980, at roughly the midway point of the horror boom, and in the eyes of many is not a standout anthology but, rather, the standout anthology.

Jeter), and McCauley’s DARK FORCES was likewise a terrific grouping of horror stories. Regarding that first point I can’t say for sure (plenty of evidence exists both for and against that assessment), whereas with the second I’m afraid I’ll have to plead guilty-I was indeed not being sincere in equating INFERNO and DARK FORCES because, frankly, I prefer INFERNO.ĭatlow’s INFERNO, for those who don’t know, is an excellent collection of horror stories from several big names in the field (including Pat Cadigan, Christopher Fowler, Lucius Shephard and K.W.

Based on the feedback I’ve gotten, it seems many readers believe that I either don’t know what I’m talking about or was being insincere. In my review of Ellen Datlow’s INFERNO(2007) I apparently ruffled a few feathers with my final sentence, in which I favorably compared INFERNO to the Kirby McCauley edited anthology DARK FORCES.

Silver Scream by David J. Schow