In the Shadow of the Gargoyle

In the Shadow of the Gargoyle, Nancy Kilpatrick and Thomas S. Roche (ed.), Ace Books, 1999

Here is a group of mostly newer dark fantasy and horror stories about those creatures perpetually perched on the sides or tops of stone buildings, also known as gargoyles.

Among the contributors to this volume are Neil Gaiman, Brian Lumley, Jane Yolen and Harlan Ellison. The gargoyles from all the churches in Dublin come alive once a month, on the full moon, and gather for a night of conversation. There they learn that a local church was vandalized, so one of the gargoyles, with help from a human, goes off to find the thieves. Having spent four hundred years perched on the same spot of a Scottish university building, a gargoyle named Gryx detaches himself from the building, and enrolls in the university. A story set on Mars concerns a rock that has the face of a monkey. Also included here are more modern stories about the various ways to be turned into a gargoyle, and tales of women, who, in various ways, fall in love with gargoyles.

Overall, this book is very good. Gargoyles are not exactly a staple of the fantasy/horror area, and the individual stories range from pretty good to excellent.