Mark Samuels, The White Hands and Other Weird Tales
1995-2003 (collected 2003) / Ebook / 196 pages / UK
****
A very impressive debut collection of pulp tributes and more visionary horrors. It could have been longer, but he looks fairly productive, so there's plenty to look forward to.
Faves: 'The White Hands,' 'Mannequins in Aspects of Terror,' 'The Impasse'
2003-11 (collected 2011) / Ebook / 164 pages / UK
****
Possibly a more refined blend of influences, from cosmic doom to poetic gore and fear and loathing for its own art form, but it lacked the stand-out tales of the first collection for me.
Faves: 'Thyxxolqu,' 'A Question of Obeying Orders,' 'The Tower'
2011-14 (collected 2014) / Ebook/audiobook / 128 pages / UK
****
Apocalyptic nightmare visions of decay and disillusionment. Still, you've got to laugh, haven't you?
Faves: 'The Ruins of Reality,' 'Alistair,' 'My World Has No Memories'
Mark Samuels, Glyphotech and Other Macabre Processes
****
An intriguing if unpleasant collection of linked stories with recurring themes of suffocating paranoia, body horror and the futility of our sham existence. Lovely.
Faves: 'Ghorla,' '"Destination Nihil"' by Edmund Bertrand,' 'A Gentleman from Mexico'
2015-17 (collected 2017) / Ebook / 130 pages / UK
****
Characteristically unsettling tales with more explicit if still confounding links across time and genre, from haunted wanderers to cyberpunk detectives and jungle commandos.
Faves: 'An End to Perpetual Motion,' 'The Crimson Fog,' 'In the Complex'
