cover image In the Shadow of Frankenstein: Tales of the Modern Prometheus

In the Shadow of Frankenstein: Tales of the Modern Prometheus

Edited by Stephen Jones. Pegasus, $27.95 (736p) ISBN 978-1-68177-145-8

Despite a roster of skilled writers, this volume of 24 stories and one poem fails to escape Mary Shelley's distinguished shadow. There are some memorable contributions from lesser-known authors who merit a higher profile. David Case's touching and suspenseful short novel, "The Dead End," begins with a cryptozoological premise, as an ambitious British anthropologist is sent to the wilds of Tierra del Fuego to probe reports of a mysterious hominid, but becomes much more than a monster hunt. R. Chetwynd-Hayes's "The Creator" is an irreverent look at an effort to emulate Victor Frankenstein. And in "Poppi's Monster," Lisa Morton make effective use of Shelley's theme to movingly portray a 10-year-old abused by her brutish father. But the inclusion of Shelley's classic novel only serves to accentuate her innovative and well-imagined "cross-breeding of the Gothic and the scientific romance," as Neil Gaiman succinctly puts it in his foreword, and to provide a standard that most of the other works don't come close to meeting. (July)