I recently read Russell Newquist‘s short story, Who’s Afraid of the Dark. As you may recall, he recently reviewed my novel, Ordinary Superheroes, so in gratitude I made the time to read his short story sooner rather than later (with three small children in the house, I have very little time for leisure reading these days). I’m glad that I did, and I’m really looking forward to reading the stories which this short story serves as a rather cunning introduction to.

I’m really not sure how to review this short story without revealing any of the surprises in it, so let me apologize in advance for this review being a little oblique, but since I’ve already given away that it’s not simply what it seems, let me emphasize that it’s really not what it seems at first: it’s quite a lot more.

The beginning and middle of the story was suspenseful, while the ending of it is both satisfying and promises much larger stories to come. Stories on very interesting subjects.

If you like stories in which people who have a real chance of winning fight monsters, this story is likely to be for you. Mr. Newquist clearly understands two important ingredients in a good story of humanity fighting monsters: (1) this must always take place in a fundamentally good world, that is, one where it is possible, with blood and sweat and tears and sacrifice, to actually achieve something good and (2) the monsters must be genuinely dangerous and scary.

Update: Russell told me that there is a Peter Bishop story in Between the Wall and the Fire, which I just bought.