I’ve forgotten how many times I’ve read a book series out of order. I just know that it happens, and if by chance the second or third book in a series is good, and I read it first, well, I have to go hunt for book number one. Is a themed anthology in the same boat, however?

One of the books I picked up recently in Phoenix was Thrillers 2, published by Cemetery Dance in 2007. A signed/limited edition was too good to pass up. Edited by Robert Morrish, it features ca. 20,000 words each from four contributors — Gemma Files, Tim Waggoner, R. Patrick Gates, and Caitlin R. Kiernan. This anthology is apparently the “long-overdue return of a dark fiction series that debuted in 1993.” I’m not sure that a 14 year absence makes it a series, especially since no more books in this “series” followed. However, since I had book two, I naturally went out and searched for a copy of the first book…

Perhaps it’s unfair to compare Thrillers to another “dark fiction” series. Still, Thrillers seem to attempt to vill the void left from the demise of Dark Harvest’s Night Vision series, which ran for nine installments, then was partially resurrected by Subterranean Press for three more installments. The first Thrillers appears in 1993, just two years after Dark Harvest ceased the run of Night Visions books. The cover and concept seems to share a great deal with Night Visions: multiple writers contributing original fiction. With Night Visions, there were three writers – two well-known, and one new (and up-and-coming) writer. Majro names like F. Paul Wilson, Stephen King, Robert R. McCammon, Joe R. Lansdale, Dean Koontz, George R. R. Martin, and others, appears in Night Visions. Thrillers has four authors, a mix of new and well-known names. The font on the nine Night Visions books was consistent and recognizable. The font on the two Thrillers books, not so much.

The first book has stories by Rex Miller, Ardath Mayhar, Chet Williamson, and Nancy A. Collins, plus a short introduction by Joe R. Lansdale. The second Thrillers has fiction by Gemma Files, Tim Waggoner, R. Patrick gates, and Caitlin R. Kiernan. I checked ISFDB and despite close to 600 publications to its name, Cemetery Dance never released a third Thrillers.

It’s strange, but 2007 seems like just yesterday, and yet it’s almost two decades in the past. Going back to 1993 seems like a deep dive into the past. Since then, dark fantasy and horror anthologies have come and gone, yet there seems to be nothing like Night Visions, an annual publication with cutting edge fiction. Small press publishers have come and gone. Arkham House exists now in the distant past. Subterranean Press (soon to cease, alas) has published great fiction, mostly from individual authors. Golden Gryphon existed for a few years. Gauntlet Press and Borderlands Press publish just a few books each year. The same is the case for Cemetery Dance, which produced these two Thriller anthologies. Other small presses these days seem to focus on high-end expensive books for collectors with a lot of money.

Then again, with books like these day, I continue to mine the past with occasional success.