Spontaneous Human Combustion

Spontaneous Human Combustion by Richard Thomas is a dazzlingly dark collection of fifteen short stories that run the gamut from bone-chilling horror to thrilling science fiction. Dark fiction doesn’t even begin to describe the genre-bending prowess presented in this small anthology, but if a category must be specified here, that’s as close as I think we’re going to get.

Thomas is an absolute master of his craft. Each story brings something new to the forefront of the reader’s vision: unearthly megaliths terrorizing the few humans left on an enslaved world, gruesome and fantastical births bearing both destruction and hope through their savage enactments, and dreamlike hellscapes doling out punishment and salvation woven throughout like some kind of terrible mirage plumbed from the depths of a decaying imagination.

Having never read any of the author’s previous works I was unsure of what I was getting into, but I honestly could not get enough of this book. Fans of Clive Barker, H.P. Lovecraft, and Shirley Jackson will find themselves just as enamored of this author’s trance-inducing skill for storytelling as I am.