In Darkness Waiting

No writer combines the "delight in dread" with social consciousness and metaphysical meaning the way John Shirley does. Although In Darkness Waiting begins in much the same vein as many horror novels (mysterious deaths; a small town invaded by evil; plucky, attractive young lovers; the logical level-headed doctor; some salt-of-the-earth townsfolk...) by its end you will have discovered it is not "just another horror novel." With its exploration of the "insect" inside us all, In Darkness Waiting proves more relevant today than ever. Considering a read of In Darkness Waiting is like considering a trip through the Amazon with no weapons and no vaccinations and no shoes. It's like contemplating a journey in the Arctic clad only in your underwear. Or maybe it's more like dropping into one of those spelunker's challenges, those chilling pitch-black shafts into the Earth's crust-and when you get down there your light burns out and you remember the chitinous fauna of the cavern...Unlike undertaking those endeavors, you can get through the harrowing pages of In Darkness Waiting alive (although we are not promising you'll remain unscathed.) Towards the end you'll discover one of the most extreme yet literate passages ever written. It may well be the most outré scene ever created.But John Shirley wasn't after shock alone. Shock is never enough for him.

From Publishers Weekly

The insectoid monsters in this visceral horror novel may seem like the stuff of '50s drive-in B-movies, but Shirley (Crawlers, etc.) gives them a modern spin that speaks to contemporary concerns. Gray Pilots, as they are called, are physical expressions of suppressed empathy that human carriers bury away until perceived threats to survival force their bloody emergence. A parasitic part of humanity since primitive times, they have been responsible for the worst human atrocities in history. When a psychology experiment goes out of control in remote Jasper, Ore., the town swarms with Gray Pilots, whose stings bring out the cold-blooded killer in everyone and initiate an orgy of sociopathic slaughter. First published in 1988, the novel has been updated with references to Beirut, Bosnia and Abu Ghraib prison. Shirley works a crafty variation on the smalltown horror novel, making it an effective vehicle for his dark sociological speculations, and shows that his story's worst horror is its continuing relevance. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

John Shirley is the author of numerous novels including Demons, Crawlers, Cellars, City Come A'-Walkin', and the classic cyberpunk A Song Called Youth trilogy. His award-winning short fiction has been collected in in books such as Really Really Really Really Weird Stories and Black Butterflies. A screenwriter and musician, he lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

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