World’s Collider: A Shared World Anthology

by J Malcolm Stewart:

In Nightscape Press’ anthology  World’s Collider, edited by Richard Salter, the world ends not with a bang or a whimper, but in a collision.

In Salter’s shared world tome, humanity is brought to its knees by a sinister accident caused by the CERN Super Collider in Switzerland. This accident of cosmic proportions opens up a rift that connects Earth to multiple realities filled with some not so nice characters. Let’s just say, in this world, if the folks at CERN have found the “God Particle” then God is H.P. Lovecraft.

The chaos that is unfolds upon the world in the 21 short stories that make up this book are fraught with the gritty drama of ordinary people who are forced to confront an increasing horrible world. A world without the signposts of civility or sanity. A world where taking the tube could make you into Heath Ledger’s twin, where man-eating piranhas don’t necessarily stick to the water and where some of the worst monsters are human.

Now, science leading humanity down dark avenues of destruction isn’t a particularly new theme in SF or Horror. It’s a theme as old as Frankenstein. And you seemingly can’t write a horror novel in 2012 without your heroes facing some kind of self inflicted apocalypse. Despite the dive into well worn territory, the authors assembled by Salter for this romp bring some real light and heat to the equation.

With a lineup culled from many of the U.K.’s most prolific horror/sf authors (along with a smattering of Yanks), World’s Collider has some truly fearsome moments, as each individual story attempts to advance the overall plotline of our heroes closing the rift and saving humanity.

Some highlights of the anthology include “Keep Calm and Carry On-Parts I, II, III & IV” by David N. Smith and Violet Addison, each of which details the disintegration of after-rift London through the eyes of an American ex-pat, “The Rise and Fall of the House of Ricky” by Kelly Hale, which spins the tale about how to really get ahead in the fashion industry, “Doors” by Paul Person, where the joys of having a safe place to hide out during the end of the world take a deadly turn and “What Little Boys are Made of” which details the horrific survival story of a six year old orphaned in the aftermath of the collision.

The anthology bogs down from time to time as the reader is forced to shift from storyline to storyline and character to character. While a noble effort is given to keep a coherent narrative throughout the book and for a handful of protagonists to stay on center stage, World’s Collider– with a page count near 400– leaves us at times a little fuzzy as main actors spend hundreds of pages away from the action only to reappear suddenly at critical moments. The final conflict between the rift’s malevolent forces and the noble souls destined to stop them also reads as ripped from Stephen King’s “how-ordinary-people-saved-the-world-on-five-dollars-a-day” textbook.

Overall, World’s Collider has some excellent moments of creep and horror, with perhaps a slight touch of fluff on the edges. But if watching the world burn down slowly is your idea of fun, you’ll find many reasons to pick this anthology up.

World’s Collider: A Shared World Anthology is available on Amazon.com.

J. Malcolm Stewart is a Northern California-based public relations/marketing professional. He holds degrees in Political Science and Comparative Religion, but can have a conversation someone without starting a small war. Long interested in suspense, thrillers and horror, he writes and reviews on the subject for websites far and wide. When he’s not writing, reviewing or reading, you can find J. Malcolm riding around Northern CA with something radioactive in his trunk.

Follow  J. Malcolm on Twitter: @sabbathsoldier, and learn more about him at http://about.me/jaymal.