The Children of Old Leech is a fantastic anthology that plays with/pays homage to the man who is - for my money - the king of modern "weird" fiction. Laird Barron's work - over the course of three anthologies, one novella and one novel - has wormed its way into my heart and my brain more severly than any other writer of weird or phantasmagorical fiction. There's something so pragmatic about Barron's writing that it feels as though it effortlessly taps some archetypal, primal thoroughfare of huma...

This is a smashing collection. I want to say many things about it -- how each story is well chosen, each completely different from one another, yet all live in that terrifying, unique universe Laird Barron has birthed -- but no time for thoughtful gushing today. Just wanted to give The Children of Old Leech: A Tribute to the Carnivorous Cosmos of Laird Barron a big fat 5 star rating immediately. I will better review in a couple of days.

I now have read more stories in tribute to Laird Barron than by him. I am currently trying to correct that balance.Beautiful hardcover, great authors, a few surprises. I still think that a Laird Barron tribute now is a little premature. This anthology probably would have functioned just as well without Barron's name on the cover. And I don't mean to say that Laird doesn't deserve recognition; he certainly does. I just felt too much like a horror hipster when friends and relatives would ask what

*Full disclosure: I have one story in the anthology*I have to admit, I was a little worried the stories would be one-note or pastiche (like mine! hahaha...haha...ha...um...yeah), but they are not. The anthology is a creepy and at times flat-out-fun array of horror stories written in the spirit of a Laird Barron's cosmic horror universe. And the physical book itself is a beauty.

really wonderful tribute collection that range from funny to scary. I hope Mr. Barron feels proud, this was a fine tribute. My personal favorite stories were the ones by Molly Tanzer, Stephen Graham Jones, John Langan and Jeffrey Thomas. Props to Ross Lockhart for an amazing editing job, as usual.

The Children of Old Leech was an easy sell for me: a tribute anthology to an author whose writing consistently amazes me, a set of editors whose taste I trust in, and a table of contents full of recognizable and exciting names. It's safe to say that my expectations were high going in. I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I closed the book with a list of authors whose books I'd have to track down immediately (a list that would include any future Lockhart/Steele anthologies, if they're thinking of coll...

DISCLAIMER: My story "Firedancing" appears in this book. My rating is for the rest of the book, not including my own story.This Laird Barron tribute anthology is strong all the way through, with not a single weak or out of place contribution, and seems to me one of the best few anthologies of the last five years. The various writers have taken many different approaches to paying tribute to Barron's work, borrowing themes, settings or just "feel." I think this book will end up being a strong cont...

Just started reading, but as an aside, may I note: this is an exceedingly lovely book. There's a weight to the covers, the images of distressing are lovely, and the endpapers are thick enough to slice a finger if you caught them the wrong way.I realize this does not technically add to the stories--which are excellent so far--but it's nice to see them given appropriate presentation.(Finished, but having worked 33+ hours so far this week and commuted 12+ hours, I am going to have to put a pin in t...

I'll be giving a full review on Blackgate.com soon; but let me say here that this is one of the best weird/horror anthologies I've ever read! H. P. Lovecraft was known to encourage other authors to write in his fictional world. It's cool to see this sort of thing happening around Laird Barron's fictional world as well. But the authors in this anthology did more than just write stories set in Barron's universe, most of them really nailed the feel and bite of it as well.I hope we'll be seeing more...

I read lots and lots of weird fiction and horror. Anthologies are something I especially gravitate towards, because they allow you to sample the work of different authors. They also typically are centered around a particular theme or subject. The subject of THIS anthology of course, is the literary world created by author Laird Barron. While I wouldn't say it's imperative that you've read any of Mr. Barron's work prior to reading this anthology, I would suggest it. Without at least a minimal fam...

Full Disclosure: This volume contains my story "Walpurgisnacht."For the second anthology from Ross Lockhart's Word Horde imprint, he and co-editor Justin Steele choose to honor the "carnivorous cosmos" of one of the finest living practitioners of the weird tale, Laird Barron. It's perhaps a ballsy move, but also a logical one, the kind that seems so obvious the minute it's mentioned to you.Like with Tales of Jack the Ripper, they'e assembled a truly stellar cast of bright lights of the weird fic...

October spooky read #11!Getting a copy of this book was basically admitting to myself that Laird Barron has joined Neil Gaiman, China Mieville, Becky Chambers, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Catherynne M. Valente and a handful of other writers I fangirl about shamelessly. Obviously, I am not the only one who feels this way, or such a collection would never have been put together! It was the perfect conclusion to my October spooky reads marathon. You see, I sometimes feel like a jaded husk of a human being b...

A wonderful collection and fitting tribute to a man who is changing the face of genre fiction with every release. Full review can be found here: http://smashdragons.blogspot.com.au/2...

So I actually haven't read anything by Laird Barron, and didn't really know who he was until I'd read the first bit of this and went to look him up. I picked this collection up on the strength of the title (which is great) and the inclusion of stories by Jesse Bullington and Molly Tanzer. I had only vaguely heard of a couple of other authors. It's interesting to imagine what Barron's writing is like from this tribute; despite the wide range of stories, there's a fairly clear MO. One of the revie...

A fantastic collection of stories written in tribute to Laird Barron.

As I've recently stated, I've been trying to catch up and read all of Laird Barron's works. The man's writing is magnificent; it draws you in and doesn't let you go easily. I've found myself more than once reading the last page, closing the book and then simply laying there, absorbing what I'd just read. Embracing the weird. Relishing the dread.Apparently I wasn't the only one so transfixed. Ross Lockhart, editor extraordinaire from Word Horde, and Justin Steele, author of the wonderful blog The...

Ohhh!!! WOW!!!This was ONE of the BEST Horror Anthology EVER!!!!Only with the last story it was hard to get into, but the rest were...Mind Blowing!!! ...so to speak...The Horrors, the Unknown, the Unspeakable, the Foreign Thing, the Witchcraft, you`ll find it all here. Don`t search anywhere else. Atomic stuff! And I was more amazed when I found out that all the stories are originals to this Anthology!...Yes,definitely I have to read more Laird Barron.And also the the vast majority of the texts a...

Usually I'm happy if I like half of the stories in an anthology. This is not a casting of aspersion on the editors - you can't make everyone happy with every choice. I typically give a good anthology 3 stars. This anthology is really strong. The stories are all well-written (even if not all of them are to my taste). The standouts for me were those by Orrin Grey, Richard Gavin, Joe Pulver, John Langan, Cody Goodfellow, and Scott Nicolay and Jesse Douthit-Nicolay. I could imagine Laird Barron writ...

Like several of the books I read this year, I read this one "wrong" [if by "right" you mean "in a way that enables you to review it, later"]. I read a portion of it, the first five stories, in June, and of that portion, I only recall two really well: Gemma Files "Harrow"—which I liked even though I felt the ending needed a tad bit of resculpting—and Molly Tanzer's "Good Lord, Show Me The Way"—which I liked more thoroughly, though I admit that the epistolary style might throw some. Of the other t...

This review originally appeared on the Shock Totem blog:http://www.shocktotem.com/07/25/2014/...I approach most multiple-author anthologies skeptically, because more often than not, they turn out to be a mixed bag. This doesn’t necessarily mean they turn out to be bags full of crap—only that some of the stories may be good (or even great), and others—not so much. Co-edited by anthology wizard Ross E. Lockhart and Justin Steele (who conceived of this anthology), The Children of Old Leech is unfor...