Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

Edited by Scott Harrison

Available from http://www.spokenworldaudio.com/thirteen.html

A collection of spooky audio tales designed to keep you chilled no matter what the weather…

Scott Harrison – who contributes the linking story – has brought together an intriguing mix of writers for this tribute to the old horror anthologies of the 1970s. Not tied to a specific length, but none running more than 21 minutes (roughly the length of a side of an old LP, uncoincidentally), each boasts a different narrator and its own style.

Some are graphic in their horror, others are unsettling without the need for explicitness: one of my favourites of the latter is Dan Abnett’s Half Life, images from which have kept coming to mind in the week since I first heard it. There are homages to earlier classics, notably Johnny Mains’ I Wish, and ones that eventually evoke familiar horror images, such as Gary McMahon’s Down, or Martin Day’s The Hairstyle of the Devil.

The narrators are well-suited to their tales and audiobook stalwart Barnaby Edwards is particularly chilling in the three-part linking story Hidden Track, which throws more than a few curveballs, as well as explaining the conceit of the album (although 78s actually only lasted about four minutes per side in reality).

There are no clunkers in the anthology; you might feel that a couple of them could lose a couple of scenes here or there, and there are a couple of similar resolutions, but overall this is an enjoyable anthology.

Verdict: A deliciously dark collation. 8/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to read The Thirteen Sources of Thirteen – Scott Harrison’s guide to the roots of the album…