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1989 Locus Award for Best Collection (nominee)
Publisher's Weekly
Since his death several years ago, British writer Aickman's reputation has continued to grow among connoisseurs of the horror story. Unlike much of the current form, full of blood, monsters and melodrama, Aickman's stories achieve a quieter, more subtle and, in several ways, more lasting sense of disquiet. His lucid, finely tuned prose moves imperceptibly from the small crises and celebrations of ordinary life into another sphere. In these 11 stories, the occasion may be a walking tour of Northern England, a birthday present of a Victorian dollhouse or a stay at a Swedish sanatorium for insomniacs, but it simultaneously traps the characters with dread and opens them up to a new awareness of a greater, deeper and more dangerous world. A remarkable collection by an author who deserves to be better known.
Library Journal
A traveler finds and loses paradise on an island in ''The Wine Dark Sea'' while another voyager's dreams come all too true in ''Never Visit Venice.'' Together with nine other stories (uncollected in the United States) by the late author of The Model , this collection of subtle, sometimes ethereal horror tales provides a welcome antidote to more blatant examples of dark fantasy. Recommended. JC
Genre: Horror
Since his death several years ago, British writer Aickman's reputation has continued to grow among connoisseurs of the horror story. Unlike much of the current form, full of blood, monsters and melodrama, Aickman's stories achieve a quieter, more subtle and, in several ways, more lasting sense of disquiet. His lucid, finely tuned prose moves imperceptibly from the small crises and celebrations of ordinary life into another sphere. In these 11 stories, the occasion may be a walking tour of Northern England, a birthday present of a Victorian dollhouse or a stay at a Swedish sanatorium for insomniacs, but it simultaneously traps the characters with dread and opens them up to a new awareness of a greater, deeper and more dangerous world. A remarkable collection by an author who deserves to be better known.
Library Journal
A traveler finds and loses paradise on an island in ''The Wine Dark Sea'' while another voyager's dreams come all too true in ''Never Visit Venice.'' Together with nine other stories (uncollected in the United States) by the late author of The Model , this collection of subtle, sometimes ethereal horror tales provides a welcome antidote to more blatant examples of dark fantasy. Recommended. JC
Genre: Horror
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Used availability for Robert Aickman's The Wine-Dark Sea