Black Static

In the current issue of the magazine (#60) I review Mike O'Driscoll's short story collection The Dream Operator and opted not to discuss three stories as I had already reviewed them previously.

For the sake of completeness, I've decided to post my reviews of those stories as they originally appeared.

From my Black Static #19 review of Where the Heart Is edited by Gary Fry:-

In 'Summerhouse' by Mike O'Driscoll a man returns to the Gower Peninsula of his youth and has a vision of the woman that he dated back then, confronting things about himself that until now he has been able to ignore. It's a subtle ghost tale, rich in atmosphere and with a subtext about the things we hide from and how they will always come back to haunt us.

From my Black Static #25 review of The Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies edited by D. F. Lewis:-

From Black Static columnist Mike O'Driscoll we get the wonderfully subtle 'The Rediscovery of Death' which, with its tale of a small press publisher offered a dream anthology, all its stories written by dead authors, put me very much in mind of Ligotti's work. Such is O'Driscoll's skill that, like Nicholas Cleaver, we lust after the proposed anthology, and can almost, but not quite, ignore the signs that something is very awry, causing the protagonist's life to unravel.

From my Black Static #10 review of Inferno edited by Ellen Datlow:-

Mike O'Driscoll's "13 O'Clock" sees a father's anguish for his nightmare haunted son taking a turn for the worse in a story that is filled with genuine emotion and develops at a convincing pace, with its picture of love turned sour, of loving too much, and the terror that can bring.

And for those who want a bit more, follow the link below to my personal blog for a detailed (and spoiler rich) discussion of the story 'One Last Wild Waltz', which originally appeared in Black Static #16.