Championed and headed by revolutionary editor/teacher Jeanne Cavalos, Dell Abyss represented the last wave of the horror boom. Debuting in 1991 and wrapping up with promises of a newly appointed editor to take over the line (which never occurred), Abyss mangled tropes and instead encouraged new realms of psychological terror, experimental horror, dark realms of sexuality, and ultimately introduced the world to a few authors who would go on to find momentous success, among them Poppy Z. Brite, Kathe Koja, and Brian Hodge.

Dell Abyss Catalogue

Title	Author	Publication Date	ISBN
The Cipher	Kathe Koja	February 1991	0-440-20782-7
Nightlife	Brian Hodge	March 1991	0-440-20754-1
Dusk	Ron Dee	April 1991	0-440-20709-6
Specters	J. M. Dillard	May 1991	0-440-20758-4
Prodigal	Melanie Tem	June 1991	0-440-20815-7
Obsessed	Rick Reed	July 1991	0-440-20855-6
Toplin	Michael McDowell	August 1991	0-440-20886-6
Mastery	Kelly Wilde	September 1991	0-440-20727-4
Descent	Ron Dee	October 1991	0-440-20708-8
Tunnel Vision	R. Patrick Gates	November 1991	0-440-21090-9
Shadow Twin	Dale Hoover	December 1991	0-440-21087-9
Post Mortem	ed. Paul F. Olson	January 1992 (orig. 1989 St. Martin Press)	0-440-20792-4
The Orpheus Process	Daniel Gower	February 1992	0-440-21143-3
Whipping Boy	John Byrne	March 1992	0-440-21171-9
Bad Brains	Kathe Koja	March 1992	0-440-21114-X
Lost Futures	Lisa Tuttle	May 1992	0-440-21201-4
Deathgrip	Brian Hodge	June 1992	0-440-21112-3
Metahorror	ed. Dennis Etchison	July 1992	0-440-21202-2
Stitch	Mark Morris	August 1992	0-440-21259-6
Anthony Shriek	Jessica Amanda Salmonson	September 1992	0-440-21320-7
Death’s Door	John Wooley and Ron Wolfe	October 1992	0-440-21196-4
Wilding	Melanie Tem	November 1992	0-440-21285-5
Dark Dance	Tanith Lee	December 1992	0-440-21455-6
Penance	Rick Reed	January 1993	0-440-21237-5
Shadow Man	Dennis Etchison	February 1993	0-440-21202-2
Facade	Kathryn Kristin Rusch	March 1993	0-440-21290-1
Rapid Growth	Mary Hanner	April 1993	0-440-21337-1
Angel Kiss	Kelly Wilde	May 1993	0-440-20728-2
The Making of a Monster	Gail Peterson	June 1993	0-440-21389-4
Darker Saints	Brian Hodge	July 1993	0-440-2113-1
Making Love	Nancy Holder and Melanie Tem	August 1993	0-440-21469-6
Heart-Beast	Tanith Lee	September 1993	0-440-21455-6
Lost Souls	Poppy Z. Brite	October 1993	0-440-21281-2
X, Y	Michael Blumlein	November 1993	0-440-21374-6
Harrowgate	Michael Gower	December 1993	0-440-21456-4
Deadweight	Robert Devereaux	March 1994	0-440-21482-3
65 MM	Dale Hoover	April 1994	0-440-21338-X
Dead in the Water	Nancy Holder	June 1994	0-440-21481-5
Revenant	Melanie Tem	September 1994	0-440-21503-X
Grave Markings	Michael Arnzen	November 1994	0-440-21339-8
Sins of the Blood	Kathryn Kristin Rusch	December 1994	0-440-21540-4
The Language of Fear	Del James	February 1995	0-440-21712-1
California Gothic	Dennis Etchison	June 1995	0-440-21726-1
Little Deaths	ed. Ellen Datlow	September 1995	0-440-21852-7
The Children’s Hour	Douglas Clegg	November 1995	0-440-21867-5

These titles are now collectors’ items, and while not at all uncommon to find one or perhaps two when touring a used book store, oftentimes the foil-cut and view-through window covers are marred and torn. Oddly, some seem printed in a way that makes them look as if they leaped through time whereas others, flaking and brittle, seem like they are made of paper slate.

Uniformly praised by critics and authors alike (including a oft-produced paragraph blurb by Stephen King used on the titles themselves), the quality of Dell Abyss is uneven…at best. Here, taste certainly plays a part, but much of the contemporary argument regarding horror’s history with misogynistic and overly-sexualized male gaze-y plays out in the pages of more than a few of these authors, with perhaps Ron Dee serving as the prime example.

As the line progressed, its original claim and stance on avoiding familiar settings and tropes softened, and titles like Gail Peterson’s The Making of a Monster featured vampires. Other titles began to produce slight twists on familiar monsters.

Several anthologies were produced for the Abyss line, including an erotic horror anthology Little Deaths edited by the peerless Ellen Datlow, the ghost story anthology Post Mortem, edited by Paul F. Olsen and David Silva, and Metahorror, edited by Dennis Etchison.

Here is the complete list of the anthologies’ tables of contents.

Post Mortem (1992), edited by Paul F. Olson and David B. Silva. This edition was reprinted from the 1989 St. Martin’s Press edition.

Story Title	Author	Page
Introduction, “The Phantom Book”	Paul F. Olson and David B. Silva	ix
“Each Night, Each Year”	Kathryn Ptacek	1
“Mark of the Loser”	Gary Brandner	17
“Timeskip”	Charles de Lint	30
“Resettling”	Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem	51
“The Servitor”	Janet Fox	71
“Blanca”	Thomas Tessier	92
“Nine Gables”	James Howard Kunstler	123
“The Last Cowboy Song”	Charles L. Grant	135
“The Ring of Truth”	Thomas F. Monteleone	148
“Eyes of the Swordmaker”	Gordon Linzner	174
“The Guide”	Ramsey Campbell	193
“Getting Back”	P. W. Sinclair	211
“Walkie-Talkie”	Donald R. Burleson	260
“Major Prevue Here Tonite”	William F. Nolan	276
“The Brush of Soft Wings”	Melissa Mia Hall	290
“Brothers”	David B. Silva	307
“Haunted World”	Robert R. McCammon	333
Afterword	Dean R. Koontz	360

Metahorror (1992), edited by Dennis Etchison. The anthology contains Peter Straub’s 1993 World Fantasy Award-Winning “Ghost Village.”

Story Title	Author	Page
Introduction	Dennis Etchison	xi
“Blues and the Abstract Truth”	Barry N. Malzberg and Jack Dann	3
“Are You Now?”	Scott Edelman	12
“Stab”	Lawrence Watt-Evans	24
“Mutilator”	Richard Christian Matheson	28
“Martyrdom”	Joyce Carol Oates	31
“Briar Rose”	Kim Antieau	54
“Replacements”	Lisa Tuttle	73
“Ziggles”	Donald R. Burleson	94
“End of the Line”	Ramsey Campbell	109
“Did They Get You to Trade?”	Karl Edward Wagner	134
“GIFCO”	M. John Harrison	160
“The Properties of the Beast”	Whitley Streiber	180
“In Praise of Folly”	Thomas Tessier	195
“The Visit”	William F. Nolan	215
“The Ring of Truth”	George Clayton Johnson	222
“Nothing Will Hurt You”	David Morrell	234
“Underground”	Steve Rasnic Tem	260
“Bucky Goes to Church”	Robert Devereaux	280
“Dumbarton Oaks”	Barry N. Malzberg	301
“Novena”	Chelsea Quinn Yarbo	308
“The Ghost Village”	Peter Straub	334

Little Deaths (1995), edited by Ellen Datlow. This edition is reprinted from the 1994 World Fantasy Award-Winning Best Anthology. One new story appears from the original: Dan Simmon’s “Dying in Bangkok.”

Story Title	Author	Page
Introduction	Ellen Datlow	xi
“The Lady of Situations”	Stephen Dedman	1
“Hungry Skin”	Lucy Taylor	17
“Becky Lives”	Harry Crews	35
“The Swing”	Nicholas Royle	65
“Lover Doll”	Wayne Allen Sallee	75
“The Careful Geometry of Love”	Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg	105
“The Pain Barrier”	Joel Lane	123
“Menage a Trois”	Richard Christian Matheson	139
“On Amen’s Shore”	Clive Barker	143
“Fever Blisters”	Joyce Carol Oates	165
“An Outside Interest”	Ruth Rendell	181
“And Salome Danced”	Kelley Eskridge	197
“That Old School Tie”	Jack Womack	217
“Ice Palace”	Douglas Clegg	261
“Serial Monogamist”	Pat Cadigan	289
“The Disquieting Muse”	Kathe Koja	260
“Dying in Bangkok	Dan Simmons	327

If spotted in the wild, many of these titles are worth snatching, if not just for trade/resale value (for those catch-and-release/profit folks). Instead, I’d advocate for settling in for a nostalgic night, a trip back to the 90’s, where distrust for technology, fetishistic sexuality, and suburban-ennui-turned-dangerous collided to make for some interesting premises, and more often than not, fantastic prose.

A few additional Dell titles of the era, but not quite the Abyss line: