[.ca] Nobody (ISBN 0978731824)

Nobody - No Person; Not Anyone; No One:
Have you ever considered the concept of nobody? Late at night, when you hear a knock on your door or you hear a creak on your floor boards... when you yell `is anybody there?' What scares you more? The fact that someone could answer you, or the fact that nobody does? The Essex Writers' & Artists' Guild have put together a collection of short stories based in and around the concept of nobody, and it is, by far, the best collection of short stories I have ever read. It is a diverse range of tales from authors of varying accomplishments. Practically every subgenre in dark fiction is covered - Sci-fi, crime thriller, vampire fiction and the list goes on. Usually when you read an anthology, you find that you really enjoy a few stories, but not all. On the contrary, every single story within this collection is fascinating, and sometimes spooky--a rare treat for anyone who loves either a good old-fashioned ghost story, or brilliant sci-fi stories warning of the dangers of technology. Also, a lot of anthologies have similar stories, and after you have read a few, you almost do not have to read the rest of the book because they so formulaic. This is not he case with Nobody; each author has obviously been given free reign to use this concept however they want, which only adds to the brilliance of this entertaining and fascinating anthology (although at times, I do find the concept of nobody that links all of the stories is slightly tenuous, but this does not detract from the book). All stories are brilliantly written and fantastically entertaining. So if you want to feel a chill run down your spine when Nick Goodward looks through eyes that are not his own in Pam Marin-Kingsley's "Through His Eyes", or you want to feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end when a granddaughter flips on a light switch in Kelly Gunter Atlas' "Personal Dreams", Nobody is the book for you. This is an absolute must for Dark Fiction Fans, and Spinetinglers has the feeling that the writers in this anthology will certainly not be `nobodies' for much longer.