There's a thousand and a half Lovecraft anthologies hanging around every ebook site and plenty of libraries too. It's rarer to find an Aickmanesque anthology, though just like Lovecraft, Aickman is an almost universally beloved inspirational figure throughout the ranks of horror writers. The sustained anxiety, the decrepit streets of ancient too-sunny towns, these are Aickman's trademarks. And this anthology hits around four triples right out of the gate. When I got to the halfway point I asked myself, "is this the greatest horror anthology of all time?" No, it isn't, it does indeed slowly revert to the mean, but even a few average/decent stories doesn't detract from the great ones. And there isn't a clunker in the bunch.