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"No one here gets out alive." You know where I got that one from, the late great Jim Morrison. Of course, Jim was wrong, because if no one got out alive, how would we ever know he said that? The Grass is Greener is Stefan Petrucha (X-Files) has a very similar tone, one that I think Jim would have gotten off on. The Grass is Greener is the lead story in Haunting the Dead, an anthology from World of Darkness. A little background, for those who don't know. And it's very little, because I haven't been involved with White Wolf stories for some time. White Wolf has the very successful Vampire: the Masquerade genre, and several others that surround werewolves, zombies, mages and ghosts. This is a ghost one and also involves an organization called Orpheus. Okay, what about the story? Stopping just at the edge of spoilers, the story takes place in a dormroom, where a technogeek (I can identify) Martin Kleck, is about to conduct an experiment with drugs and death. Participating in the experiment are some broadly drawn characters, at least at first. A jock, a goth girl (our hero and since this is a World of Darkness anthology that isn't that surprising), a cheerleader and a non-entity. This might seem dull or clichéd at first, but it only takes a few pages to flesh out the characters. Nothing is as it seems, then the horror starts. No more spoilers, you'll have to read the story. This is definitely not the kind of book I'd seek out, since I lost my goth angst several years ago. I'm sure it's around here somewhere though. Even better though, this story doesn't suffocate you with goth language or themes, and is in fact quite uplifting. I knew very little of Stefan Petrucha's work before this, but I'll keep my eyes open for it in the future. You should too, or the dead will come to get you. Reviewer: Rick Beckley -- Any publishers that would like Rick Beckley to do a review, please feel free to contact him or you can contact Ed Dukeshire on the contact page. --
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Haunting the Dead: 