Book Description Since the dawn of time, across almost every culture, there have been legends of shapeshifters. Men who turn into beasts and prey upon anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path. Of the shapeshifter tales, none invokes as much terror as the legend of the werewolf. The stories of men who become wolves persisted through the centuries from campfire folk tales to the modern age, where we are still thrilled and horrified by tales of bloodthirsty predators in our midst. Twelve of the most successful authors of werewolf fiction in the 21st Century have returned to their worlds and characters, to bring you a truly blood-soaked collection of werewolf horror. Jeff Strand: Ivan’s Night Out Ray Garton: Outside of Nowhere David Wellington: Hunters Moon Jonathan Janz: The Kiss of Divna Antonov Glenn Rolfe: The Dead Brother Situation Graeme Reynolds: Blood Relations Paul Kane: Lifeline Thomas Emson: The Hunt David Watkins: The Original T W Piperbrook: The Great Storm Nick Stead: Bloodlines Matt Serafini: Evernight Circle Customers Review: When I saw that Graeme Reynolds and Glenn Rolfe, not to mention Jonathan Janz, were in this book, I knew I had to have it. Reynolds’ High Moor series are the best werewolf books ever written, while Glenn’s Blood and Rain come close to matching them. So I had high expectations. And let me tell you – – they not only met them, they exceeded them. This is a book for folks who like their werewolves bloody and raw, werewolves who, if they saw a sparkling vampire, they’d eat them. Don’t miss out.
As ever with anthologies, some are better than others. That said, there was only one or two stories here that fell a little flat for me, and several I considered excellent, with the balance above average. If you like werewolf stories, and well written horror stories, then you should probably buy this book. It’s worth your money and time.
Graeme Reynolds is the reason I bought the book (his High Moor series sets the bar in Werewolf Literature) but the others did not disappoint. Some really nice takes on the werewolf theme. Definitely recommend this read. My only complaint- I finished it within one day! Couldn’t put it down.
Most of the stories in this collection were pretty good, some ok. But the best was the story by Glenn Rolfe. He really know how to tell a werewolf story, or any story for that matter.
I loved the short stories in this book. I dont always get time to read in the winter months so the length worked well during my busy time
Twelve stories with evocative black and white illustrations preceding each entry, and a short biography of each author.This is one of the most satisfying themed anthologies I’ve read. Usually there are one or two clunkers in the bunch, or stories that become tedious or boring because of the repetitive themes. I rated four of twelve stories as 4 Stars (above average, exceeds expectations), five as 3.5 Stars (above average), and 3 as 3 Stars (meets expectations, satisfies).My favorite of the bunch is “Evernight Circle”, followed by “Lifeline”, “The Kiss of Divna Antonov”, and “Ivan’s Night Out.” My summary of each story follows:Opener “The Dead Brothers Situation (A Gilson Creek Story)” by Glenn Rolfe is a small piece of a bigger story that has me interested. Alan (real name Nick) lies to Brenda about being on a hunting trip with friends. He’s a werewolf and he needs to hunt. A short, brutal account of that trip with just enough backstory to flesh out the main character. To be continued as Nick leaves the cabin and heads towards his intended victim in Gilson Creek. Three Stars.In “Hunters Moon” by David Wellington, an aging vampire hunter pursues her prey into the woods of northwest Canada. Vampire meets a pack of werewolves and fools them into hiding him, but not for long. In a vampire versus werewolf fight, who do you think would win? A fast-paced, suspenseful story. Three And One-Half Stars.”The Original” by David Watkins returns to his popular Originals series with a stand-alone tale. A Roman soldier, the lone survivor of an ambush by Germanic Celts, seeks to find The Beast before returning to Italy. His plan is to bring it back alive, enter it into gladiator combat in the Roman coliseum and make a fortune on its winnings. However, he stumbles across a village of Celts and learns there are more than one Beast. There’s a few twists before the story ends. Three Stars.Wow. This one really got to me. “The Kiss Of Divna Antonov” by Jonathan Jantz occurs in 1940 where Clark Lombardo Coulter, a Columbia University professor, has been disgraced for writing “Lycanthropology”, an academic history of werewolves. On the night when he contemplates suicide he’s visited by a beautiful woman who came from Europe to meet him and compliment him on his book. She identifies herself as Divna Antonov, curiously the same name as the eldest of three sisters in 12th Century Berstuk where one of the first recorded werewolf bloody rampages were documented. Soon, the two professors who shamed him show up with dates and demand a party at Clark’s home, just a final opportunity to embarrass him. The suspense and anticipation builds from there, even though readers can figure out what is coming. The transformation and ensuing violence is chillingly depicted. A great story. Four Stars.”The Great Storm” by T. W. Piperbrook is all about the chase, and it’s a thrilling one. A pack of werewolves take advantage of a power failure and a fierce snowstorm to attack a small community. A young girl and her even younger brother escape when their home is attacked and flee through the town and woods, hoping to evade their pursuers until morning. This is a prequel featuring characters from Piperbrook’s OUTAGE series. Three Stars.Thomas Emson tells two related stories in “The Hunt”, although each seem to interrupt the other at a moment of great suspense. The main story involves a 1995 late night robbery of a gas station where the lone cashier is a female werewolf. You can imagine the results which Emson describes vividly. That’s not a spoiler as it becomes obvious very early on who is who and what. The secondary story details a 60 A.D. battle in Britain between Romans, Druids and werwolves. The link between the two stories is the history book on lycanthropy the cashier is reading that traces her ancestry back to the old Etruscans living in England. I liked the framing, and enjoyed both stories. Three And One-Half Stars.Ray Garton’s “Outside Of Nowhere” is very chilling and straightforward. A midnight confession backfires when a werewolf pack attacks a campsite. Not that there were really any sympathetic characters in this story, but bothersome nonetheless. It’s the build-up and revealed background of one particular character that makes this story so effective. Three And One-Half Stars.”Blood Relations (A High Moor Story)” takes place between Books 2 and 3 of High Moor, yet it serves quite well as a stand-alone tale and a good introduction to Graeme Reynold’s version of werewolf mythos. A 13-year old English girl is forced to flee her home after turning wolf in front of her abusive father, and seeks more like herself in the Czech Republic. Reynolds gives just enough background and shows enough of Marie’s character to make readers empathize with her. The tension ratchets up when she finds what she was looking for. Three And One-Half Stars.”Hybid: Bloodlines” by Nick Stead is also part of a series, but once again this serves as a stand-alone story and its not difficult to pick out the main characters, their foes, and their conflicts. A band of secretive Slayers have been thinning out the ranks of werewolf packs until there are only two brothers remaining. Their only hope of continuing their bloodline is to find a fabled boy, the last surviving wolfen descendent able to be turned and continue the race. It’s a conflict between werewolves, Slayers, and some interfering vampires to determine if werewolves will be wiped out or escape with a new pack member. Entertaining and descriptive. Three Stars.”Overnight Circle” by Matt Serafini is the one story that really stands out from the pack (ha!) by how different it is. A couple move from Pennsylvania to Montana so that the career wife can start a new job with a secretive corporation. They move into a secluded and enclosed community in the middle of the woods where nothing is what it appears: the corporation, the community, the residents. Four Stars.Another exceptional story is “Lifeline” by Paul Kane. A teacher preying on young female students, marrying one, and then keeping her and her newborn son confined in the house. An escape. Work at a women’s crisis hotline, warnings, dark secrets, discovery. (I’m trying not to spoil anything here, although its’ a given that the story will involve werewolves). I enjoyed this story. Four Stars.The last story in the collection, “Ivan’s Night Out” by Jeff Strand serves as a prequel to his WOLF HUNT trilogy. It’s short, brutal, features an especially cruel and sarcastic protagonist, and will leave a mark on you. A werewolf challenges himself to complete a kill without transforming. Four Stars.
Wow! Finally an anthology filled with wonderful stories! I read this book in one sitting today. Great werewolf horror is difficult to find, at least for me, and in this book I found it full of them. Several from some of my favorite authors, and the rest from authors I was completely unfamiliar with…Until now! I highly recommend this book to any fan of the werewolf genre!
In all fairness, there are probably a couple of points I should express before I start this review. #1: I’m not a great fan of short stories and, #2: Werewolf horror ranks only slightly higher on my list than supernatural horror. (I’m not a big follower of either.) So, dear reader, armed with that information, you’d guess that I wasn’t too enamored with “Leaders of the Pack: A Werewolf Anthology”, wouldn’t you?Well, you’re wrong. This tasty little compilation is filled with a number of entertaining, albeit fairly short stories, each dealing with the werewolf mythos. Many of the stories are prequels or background illumination about characters or series’ that some of the authors have already created. Of these, some were much better than others because the reader is sometimes required to have that previous information in order to fully appreciate characters and/or plot lines. Not having this information in advance is certainly not a “deal-breaker” and shouldn’t affect many readers, so don’t let that stand in your way of a satisfying reading experience. While I’m at it, I’d like to note that each story is preceded by some really stylish illustrations compliments of Michelle Merlini. Patrick Cornett’s cover is pretty cool, too!Six of these authors are probably a little more well known than others (at least to this reviewer), so let’s start with them:Glenn Rolfe: Rolfe pens a really solid story that’s part of his Gilson Creek series. Made me want to check out the series.David Wellington: It’s werewolves vs. vampires in Wellington’s story. It was even too far-fetched for me. I expected more from Wellington.Jonathan Janz: First of all, I was thrilled when I found out a Janz story was included in this compilation. He’s one of the top 3 horror novelists working today and I never miss one of his books. His story is set in the 1940’s and, as usual, creates wonderfully memorable characters in an exquisitely well-crafted plot. This story is the cream of this crop.Ray Garton: When I think “werewolves”, I often think “Garton”. This “campfire” story has a lot of scary, gory, and craftiness woven into it. It’s really good.Graeme Reynolds: I think Reynolds has arguably the best werewolf series in print – the High Moor books. This story is part of that series (living somewhere between books 2 and 3) and adds even more depth to the set. In this entertaining yarn, a young English girl is sent away by her confused and terrified father after she “turns” in front of him.Jeff Strand: Strand’s story is the most disappointing of the better-known authors. It seemed “phoned-in” as it explained a werewolf’s dilemma of deciding to kill a family of four as a werewolf or a human.Now for the lesser-known (again, at least for me) group of six:David Watkins: Watkins’ story is part of his “Originals” series and is set in medieval times. It’s an interesting tale with a decent number of “didn’t see that coming” moments.T.W. Piperbrook: Another author with a story from his series. In this case, it’s a prequel to Piperbrook’s “Outage” books. The story revolves around a young boy and girl fleeing from a pack of werewolves during a power outage affecting a small community.Thomas Emson: Just a fair story that switches back and forth between 60 A.D. and the present as a female gas station attendant learns about her lycanthropic history.Nick Stead: This is another story that’s part of a series that’s actually quite good and can stand alone without the need for much backstory. It stars, “Slayers” (those who hunt down and kill werewolves), a few vampires, and a sympathetic boy who’s believed to be the last of a bloodline.Matt Serafini: This was probably my 2nd favorite story because it was so “Twilight Zone-like”. The plot deals with an unhappy husband and wife who relocate to a private community connected to her new job. Hmmm, many of the neighbors seem to have an affinity for the full moon…Paul Kane: Kane’s story deals with an abused wife and her son on the run. Things are going well for them until a friend tells her that she and her son have been discovered. Is it the husband or someone else? A really solid story.If you like this type of horror, then you’ll want to grab a copy of this anthology and enjoy some stories from some of the best in this part of the genre’. It comes close to making me a believer in short stories and werewolves…I received this book in exchange for an honest review. |
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