The Night Marchers (And Other Strange Tales) by Daniel Braum
Trade Paperback. Highly recommended! Scroll down for my review... and check out the stunning cover art by Dan Sauer!!!
Daniel Braum delivers his unique brand of storytelling that effortlessly blends genres and defies conventional categorization. Full of sadness, beauty, and unprecedented wonder you’ll find a dash of noir, a cup of literary dark fiction, a scoop of magic realism, and a heaping tablespoon of horror in The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales, his debut collection now in this all-new trade paperback edition from Cemetery Dance.
Join Braum’s multi-dimensional characters as they navigate dark passageways of heartbreak, loss, and the unexplained.
* Listen to the refrains of an impossible jazz song that might herald the end of the world.
* Navigate sun-soaked beaches with a girl possessed by fierce elemental power.
* Join the search for an enigmatic singer who could be the reincarnation of Crazy Horse.
* Play a deadly game of cat and mouse in the jungles of Central America.
* Behold the mystery of an alabaster Sphinx lumbering not towards Bethlehem but the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn…
Included in this new trade paperback is a new introduction by the author, extensive story notes , and an afterwards by the author. Appearing for the first time here is the title story “The Night Marchers”, “The Sphinx of Cropsey Avenue”, and “A Girl’s Guide to Applying Superior Cat Make Up and Dispelling Commonly Found Suburban Demons” alongside three classic stories from the pages of Cemetery Dance Magazine and much more!
"Daniel Braum is a true storyteller. By that I mean he spins tales of wonder that grasp at ideas and themes that human beings have been pondering since our brains become up to the task." -- Victor Lavalle, author of The Ballad of Black Tom
My review: (from when I read The Night Marchers in its original edition back in 2017!)
In spite of the books already in my current reading pile, I set everything aside this week when my copy of Daniel Braum's The Night Marchers arrived. I started reading, curious to find out what he'd been up to. A couple stories in, I was pleasantly surprised. Now, seven stories in, more than halfway through, I am CONVINCED. This is a fantastic book.
Whether it's the glorious but haunting hues of ghostfish appearing in the dark corners of the room, or the burning aftermath of grief, or strange death slithering through the thatched jungle roof, there is something in each of these stories that makes it impossible to stop reading them.
But what something is that?
Maybe it's the way the reader finds themselves so immediately immersed in each new story. The entry is sharp and complete and vivid, a spell only the best short stories are able to snare us with.
Maybe it is the voice of each character, crystal clear in the reader's mind, so clear that no matter what they are telling the reader, it is immediately real, no matter how strange or unfamiliar. This is because no matter how fantastical the details, the human element at the heart of the story is so strong it pervades everything within.
Maybe it is the velocity of each story, a living current that sweeps the reader along -- you are caught, you are part of that moment in that world, you are led into the jungle, the ratty apartment building, the ocean, the burning building.
Whatever these dark and magical ingredients are that he's been playing with to achieve this wondrous collection of tales, Daniel Braum has succeeded in mixing them in new and different combinations that surprise and captivate, startle and thrill.