Blogtour: It Calls From the Sea (anthology)

Prepare to die. The sea awakens.

Within the Mariana Trench, a research vessel’s crew is threatened by a mysterious force. A father and daughter’s holiday by the ocean turns deadly as a sinister creature stalks them. A group of friends learn that some things should remain in the ocean. Filled with a sense of wonder, a young biologist discovers a new species of kelp, but with disastrous consequences.

It Calls From the Sea is an all-original anthology of twenty brutal tales of horror from the deep blue sea.

Eerie River brings you another round of insatiable horror. There is no end to the terrors we have in store and there is nowhere left to hide. Get comfy, this is going to be a wild ride.

Featuring stories by:
Chris Bannor“Euphoria”, Chris Hewitt “Reef Encounter” Christopher Bond “The Ocean Sings Softly”, Dan Le Fever “Xook” David Green “Into The Depths”, Georgia Cook “Dead Ships”, Holley Cornetto “Heaven's Lake”, Julie Sevens “Shoney's Revenge”, Lin Darrow “Cry of the Hunger Fish”, M.B.Vujacic “Jelly”, Mason Gallaway, “The Sea Reaches Up” McKenzie Richardson “The Hunter and the Prey”, R. L. Meza “Long Pork”, S.O. Green “The Shadow Over Innsmouth High”, Steve Neal “Hostile Territory”, T. M. Brown “Buoy 21415”, Tim Mendees “Fronds”, Trey Dowell “Abyssal Horror”, Watt Morgan “Please Leave”

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So, this is totally my fault, but I did not realise these were all horror stories when I started reading; I thought they were different genres, connected by all being about the sea. If I'd known they were all horror, I might not have read them the exact day I was going to the beach for a holiday...

As with all anthologies, there's a variety of skill levels shown here. Some of the stories don't quite explain themselves (was that a time loop near the end?) and several have the same basic idea; something in the Deep calls humans telepathically and forces them into the water. There are a lot of tentacles and beaks, but I guess that's the nature of sea creatures.

My favourite was Dead Ships (even though it's one that doesn't explain exactly what's going on.) The atmosphere, the story of it is brilliant; I'd happily read a whole novel on that setup. There wasn't any story that I didn't like; they were all at least interesting and readable.

 

Edit: Some days later, I'm still thinking about the jellyfish! Not Dead Ships at all, just the jellyfish. Yuck.

The same publisher has done other collections of short stories and I would be very interested in trying more. I enjoyed this collection very much.