Fans of Podcastle should absolutely check out this anthology. I'll cross-post my Goodreads reaction here:
What does it say about me that instead of hearing the Rolling Stones in my head every time I looked at the cover for this book, I heard the samples of said song in "Devil Does Drugs" by My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult?
This is an anthology for folks who lean more towards dark fantasy as opposed to horror. Now there's a decent representation of horror, but they're the minority in this collection. Here's my major reactions:
The bookends of this collection are great. Starting with a Gaiman cat story and ending with Dante is everything you ask for.
"Young Goodman Brown" This is a nice gem whose dark ending was rather brutal and unexpected for something of this era. I've been forced to revise my opinion from "Nathaniel Hawthorne sucks" to "The Scarlet Letter sucks".
"With By Good Intentions" This was an amusing piece of shaggy dog fiction following a crew of diligent road builders. The thing I found most impressive is that the story is actually cognizant of road construction and made a compelling and believable story about paving the road to Hell.
"Details" Was a seriously freaky piece of magical realism that takes on the devil's bargain, but in a unique and disturbing fashion. The ending and imagery are particularly compelling.
"The Professor's Teddy Bear" has such a horrid and unexpected monster that I need to hunt down more of Mr. Sturgeon. I can see how he's part of the 10% of speculative fiction free from his Eponymous Law.
