Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy, published in 2008 to widespread critical and popular acclaim, provided a unique showcase for some of our finest practitioners of dark, disturbing fiction. This much anticipated second volume more than meets the standards set by its predecessor, offering a diverse assortment of stories guaranteed to delight, unsettle, and enthrall. Volume two proper is a full 20,000 words longer than the first installment in the series.

This stellar collection leads off with Joe Hill s dazzling Wolverton Station, in which a predatory businessman travels to England, and to a primal confrontation he could never have imagined. Elsewhere, a number of contributors revisit familiar, well-established themes and settings. Glen Cook s Smelling Danger gives us a brand new chapter in the long-running annals of The Black Company. The Passion of Mother Vajpai is a story of exotic and erotic initiation set against the backdrop of Jay Lake s novel, Green. Kelley Armstrong reenters the Otherworld with Chivalrous, the account of a devious and long-delayed act of revenge.

And there s more, much more, including a hallucinatory portrait of guilt, angst, and drug-fueled violence by Caitlin R. Kiernan, and an affecting reflection on love, death, and acceptance by Steven R. Boyett. These stories, together with first-rate work by the likes of K. J. Parker and Norman Partridge, offer provocative, sometimes visceral entertainment. As this rich, rewarding volume amply demonstrates, the tale of dark fantasy is alive and thriving, and continues to develop in new and unexpected ways.