I'm not sure what to make of this.

I'm no stranger to apocalyptic fiction, and this one was a new path to venture down. It's gritty, unforgiving and brutal. What a nightmare.

But it isn't complete, I don't think. I understand that our 'hero' doesn't know what happened to cause the apocalypse, therefore we the reader don't know either, but there's more to it than that. We find out who the biggest threats are, and we're told how they came into being and what they're about. We're told what a struggle it is for humans to function and what makes things difficult to survive. We're even told how the rats have somehow thrived and taken on a new mantle of bold and fearless hive mentality. But there is a bit of cloak and dagger going on with the mysterious people with white scarfs and tattoo's and six fingers that seem to be lurking in the background. Who are they? Where did they come from? Are they good or bad? Why? What is their story? Should I pay them more attention. It's just doesn't add up.

At the end I'm left wondering what actually happened. I sometimes like a bit of ambiguity at the end of a story, where you wonder if it will all come right in the end, beyond the final page - but with this tale I'm actually wondering what happened DURING the final pages. Was it the human survivors that ran to the rescue? Or the mysterious white scarfs? Or a combination? Seriously, if you know, please let me in on it because it's annoying the hell out of me.

So, in summary......I liked it enough to keep turning pages but I'd have liked it more if I wasn't asked to guess at certain elements significance and role in the story.

Read it, it's quite good. But then come back and fill me in on all the missing bits. Please.

Three stars wholly for Walter Jon Williams's "The Boolean Gate," a delightfully creepy alternate/secret history about Mark Twain and Nicola Tesla that by itself I would have given four. It's a little over-long, but the Mark Twain voice and historical color were spot-on and charming, so it didn't overstay its welcome.

The other stories are predictable pieces of standard monster-based horror. I would give "Hard Silver" two stars for its weird West atmosphere, but the inclusion of Evil Child-Murdering Gypsies drags it down to one. (Seriously, we need this stereotype in 2013? Next you will be having Jews drinking the blood of Christian babies.) And "Raptors" is forgettable through and through.

But read "The Boolean Gate." Just stop afterward.

As I was not yet writing reviews when I read this book, I don't have reviews for each of the short stories included in this anthology. So here are my ratings; if I ever reread the book, I intend to add reviews.

★★☆☆☆ The Museum of Dr. Moses by Joyce Carol Oates
★★☆☆☆ Worse than Bones by Ramsey Campbell
★★☆☆☆ King of Outer Space by Peter Atkins
★★☆☆☆ Piano Bar Blues by Melanie Tem
★☆☆☆☆ Those Vanished I Recognize by Tom Piccirilli
★☆☆☆☆ Inland, Shoreline by Darren O. Godfrey
★★☆☆☆ The Window by by Joel Lane
★★☆☆☆ Author, Author by Gordon Linzner
★★☆☆☆ Hammerhead by Richard Laymon
★★★☆☆ Imbroglio by Conrad Williams
★★☆☆☆ Transorbital Love Probe by Th. Metzger
★★★☆☆ The Impressionists in Winter by Susan Fry
★☆☆☆☆ Whose Ghosts These Are by Charles L. Grant
★☆☆☆☆ Perdido: A Fragment from a Work in Progress by Peter Straub
★★☆☆☆ In Real Life by William F. Nolan
★★★☆☆ Pound Rots in Fragrant Harbour by Lisa Morton
★★★★☆ Apologia by Robert Devereaux
★★☆☆☆ The Bird Catcher by S.P. Somtow

"One" by Conrad Williams has a post-apocalyptic (due to gamma ray bursts) England as its backdrop. It is the story of a father (our protagonist, Richard Jane) who has survived the cataclysm in the opening chapter for being 600 feet deep in the ocean, a diver repairing pipes on an offshore oil platform. The opening chapter is brilliantly written. While I was reading it, I wondered why I haven't heard about this book being one of the best of the decade in the sub-genre alongside "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, "Oryx & Crake" by Margaret Atwood amongst others. But as I read further, it dawned on me that the reason behind it was that the first few chapters were the only upside of the book.

We follow Richard Jane who is on the quest to find and reunite with his son Stanley, in London, who Richard hoped against hope might have somehow survived the catastrophe. The book is mainly divided into two parts. The second part is 10 years further into the future than the first one and the most unbearable in my opinion. And Richard having frequent hallucinations (more frequently in the second part)about his son doesn't help much. Oh, and there is a tiger, in London, on the streets.

On the upside, the writing is very good although it might cure insomnia because of the lack of plot especially after the first part. And yeah, the book cover looks good too.

2.5 stars.

I simply couldn't get into this one right now. I may pick it back up later. What I did manage to read (the first 70 pages or so) wasn't bad; it just isn't the kind of horror novel I'm in the mood to read.