Review by Mike Gleason

Courting Morpheus by Jodi Lee (Editor)
© 2010 Belfire Press
ISBN: 978-0986483110
192 pages
Paperback $13.99 (U.S.)
www.belfirepress.com

I have been waiting to read (and review) this book for a long time.
No, seriously, I have been waiting over three years to get my hands on
a copy of it. That’s how long it has been in production through two
different publishers. But at last it arrived in my mail box – right
after I had received half a dozen other review items in a few days.
Since all of the other items were the results of my personal
requests. I reluctantly placed this book at the bottom of the stack.
It turns out that was a good move. It gave me more time to build my
anticipation.

The concept is not particularly novel – an anthology of horror-themed
stories – but one additional twist made it a project after my own
heart. All of the stories tie into the town of New Bedlam, a town of
1800 souls at least half of whom are writers of some degree. Now
there is fertile ground for horror stories.

I have read a lot of strange stories in my time. I have read a lot of
anthologies as well. I thought I was fairly conversant with the
workings of writer’s minds. But this book is, by far, the strangest
collection of strange I have encountered in years.

I was both pleased and disappointed by the brevity of the stories
contained in this collection. There are stories by 13 authors, so
although they share a common setting, there are many differing points
of view.

I would be hard-pressed to pick a favorite story from those I read. I
have found several authors whose names I will be looking for in the
future. This is a collection of first-rate writers and, if horror is
your genre, I am sure you will agree with me.