Kirkus Review

Thirteen horror/sci-fi/supernatural stories, many of them from bygone decades, about a wide variety of creepy cults--though all of these fanciful notions are overshadowed by the realities of the Moonies or Jonestown. By far the best of the older entries is H. G. Wells' familiar ""The Country of the Blind""--though Leonard Kip's little-known ""An Unincorporated Association"" (about a mother-in-law-murdering club) is mildly amusing; on a lower level of interest there's a Biblical tale by Frank Harris, a Pueblo Indian cult from Edwin L. Sabin, Cornwell Woolrich's overlong voodoo-in-New-Orleans story, and Erie Stanley Gardner's unintentionally funny ""Monkey Eyes""--featuring a Himalayan cult and such lines as ""To think of a white girl--bride of an ape-man--here!"" In the more recent contributions, however, there's a welcome increase in sophistication and subtlety. Kit Reed's ""The Wait"" is reminiscent of (if hardly equal to) Shirley Jackson, with a small-town cult devoted to the deflowering of virgins. Similarly, Stephen King frames his occultery (""Children of the Corn"") with the homeliest of everyday-USA details. And while the contributions by Edward D. Hoch (a mass-suicide cult with ancient forebears) and Donald Franson (talky treatment of a flying-saucer cult) are limp, John Varley's ""The Persistence of Vision"" is the collection's most challenging piece--combining sci-fi, Utopianism, and Brigadoon with stark stylishness. An unimpressive anthology overall, with almost all of the better items available in book form elsewhere. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.