Ride the Star Wind

Edited by Scott Gable and C. Dombrowski. Broken Eye, $23.99 trade paper (460p) ISBN 978-1-940372-25-9

Editors Gable and Dombrowski (Tomorrow’s Cthulhu) explore all things Cthulhu and the vast reaches of the cosmos in this stellar crowdfunded anthology of 29 new stories and original illustrations. Stoker-winner Lucy A. Snyder’s superbly creepy “Blossoms Blackened like Dead Stars” is about a woman recruited to eradicate alien spawn before they can attack Earth who becomes something more than human in the process. In Remy Nakamura’s “The Children of Leng,” a generation ship and its inhabitants are taken over by a vast alien intelligence. In Wendy N. Wagner’s “The Writing Wall,” a subterranean force calls for sacrifices among the scientists sent to study it. Tim Curran’s “When Yiggrath Comes” and Brian Evenson’s “Lord of the Vats” are viscerally horrific, claustrophobic pieces. Joseph S. Pulver Sr.’s “Departure Beach,” Premee Mohamed’s “Fortunato,” and Nadia Bulkin’s “A Dream, and a Monster at the End of It” blend the wonder of new discovery with utter, all-encompassing horror. Each author provides unflinching glimpses into the void beyond the stars where misery, hungry gods, and madness most surely await. (Oct.)