Dark Imaginings Gothic Decor for Home & Office

I'd love to see a reprinting of this wonderful anthology, making it available to a new generation of fantasy readers. As with all the classic fantasy anthologies by Boyer & Zahorski, this one focuses on both entertainment & artistry, choosing stories that are not only gripping & emotionally resonant, but also capture a sense of the mythic, of the symbolic, of the Unconscious.But while those previous anthologies were centered on heroic high fantasy, this one goes deeply into the shadows & uncertain darkness of the Gothic. Here we enter the more nightmarish side of fantasy & psyche, where terrors & shapeless dread enfold the reader like an inexorably entangling, smothering shroud. Sometimes those terrors are blatantly, monstrously horrific; sometimes they're cruelly subtle & deceptively alluring. And who's to say which is more frightening in the end?With fantasy having become a major genre in past decades, often to its detriment by the sheer glut of formulaic stories & arbitrary rules for its writing, it's good to be reminded that fantasy at its best can be Art. And by that I don't mean high-minded drudgery that's good for you, like having to eat your most loathed vegetables! What I'm talking about here is work of high quality, of intricacy & psychological depth, that stirs something powerful in the reader, something deeper than the excitement & pleasure of a good story well-told. (And there's nothing wrong with just that, either.) These are stories that can touch something both visceral & primal in the reader, lingering in memory & providing food for thought afterward.For anyone who loves the best in fantasy, this anthology is not to be missed—most highly recommended!