Beyond Dimensional Veils

 “Locked in a lightless limbo, exiled from reality, the ever decaying J’zan’dios defies the laws of the void, for life should not endure beyond the realms of reality.”

– Kyle J. Durrant, J’zan’dios

👾I received a physical ARC of this story in exchange for a fair review. Beyond Dimensional Veils (2021) released recently on the 1st March!👾

I’ve followed the author of this collection on Instagram for a little while, and it was through that platform that I initially heard about this book, and noticed that Kyle was seeking early reviewers for it. I’ve always been a fan of the sub-genre of horror that this anthology explores, so I cast my name into the ring for the pool of pre-release readers. I was very excited to receive a copy of this book from the author.

Beyond Dimensional Veils offers an appropriately spooky total of thirteen stories of varying lengths and narrative focuses. All of them feature elements of cosmic or eldritch horror in some way, shape or form (or, perhaps more fittingly given the themes, in one single form, one hideous, many-eyed and multi-limbed, utterly unknowable amalgamation). I found each of these stories to be engaging and unique, and taken as a whole, this is a fantastically strong debut anthology from the author.

Speaking on his style of writing, I feel that Kyle has a strong and unique author’s voice, one that is oftentimes quite reminiscent of the classic writers of this genre. It is more pronounced in some stories than others, but the distinctness of the narration flow throughout the entire collection to some degree. It sometimes brought to mind the styling of H. P. Lovecraft, beyond the similarities in terms of the content, and other writers of that era, such as that found in E. F. Benson’s works. I thought that it gave the stories a really enjoyable, retro fashion, and evoked the feeling of reading a vintage horror story, which I just loved.

In my opinion, I felt that every story brought something new and refreshing to the book, but if I were made to pick three personal favourites, my highlights would’ve been those titled J’zan’dios, The Sudden Reappearance of Mary Dunhill and K’hrb, Mother of Hunger. Speaking of the titles, they were all excellent and followed this same imaginative trend. The latter story, which concerns a man visiting an isolated Melanesian tribe and discovering the eponymous deity that they worship, was one I particularly loved. It was a delectably dark tale of an unsavoury appetite influenced by the mysterious entity at its centre, K’hrb.

Despite the stories all belonging to the same cosmic horror theme that runs throughout the book’s pages, the author also offers a real diverse range of characters and settings, so I think there's something here for every horror fan. Several of the stories linked together with one another too – an aspect I also enjoyed a great deal, as it unified the anthology and made it function as more of a complete whole, beyond being just a collected work of creepy and unsettling narratives.

I would have loved to have seen a good number of the shorter stories fleshed out even further, but in my eyes that is the mark of a great tale – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it can only ever be a good thing to want to see shorter stories expanded. I really do hope that Kyle decides to revisit some of these otherworldly beings and entities in future projects, as they are brilliant in both concept and execution. As Kyle himself suggests in the afterword, perhaps these stories reached out to him from beyond these dimensional veils, and demanded their tales be told? If so, I very much hope some of them do in again in the future.

Overall, this was a really accomplished debut collection, filled to the brim, and positively set to burst, with ingenuity and pure imagination. It’s clear from the first page to the last that this is a sub-genre Kyle is hugely passionate about, and that is reflected in each and every story. These are tales of gods and monsters, of places known and familiar, and those that are unknowable and impossible to comprehend. By turns magical, wondrous and horrifying, each tale offers a glimpse into realms outside our own – and each is an absolute joy to experience.

VERDICT: Beyond Dimensional Veils is an extremely imaginative collection. It simultaneously harks back to the Victorian masters, while also remaining fresh, timely, and hugely original. There is an insane amount of creativity and inventiveness on display in this anthology, and it left me extremely excited to read more from Kyle. A powerful, captivating debut.

It’s a ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ from this reviewer, and a humongous thank you to Kyle J. Durrant for providing the physical ARC and giving me the chance to read and review it early.