Like Fritz Leiber and Thomas Ligotti, the setting for the weird fiction of Mark Samuels is often an urban environment. The British horror writer Ramsey Campbell describes Samuel’s stories as ‘Urban Tales of Terror’ in the introduction to Samuel’s  latest collection of short stories, ‘Glyphotech and Other Macabre Stories.’

The setting for these urban tales of terror is usually London, where the writer was born and still lives. A disturbing example of this type of writing is his debut novella The Face of Twilight.

‘Sentinels,’ one of the stories in Glyphotech,  features the fascinating world of abandoned London Underground Stations. The main character investigates the disappearance of a tube train driver riding the very last train of the night, on a line that passes these abandoned Underground Stations.

If you ever visited or lived in London you may have seen remnants of these old Underground Stations, either the abandoned entrances visible from the streets or while being on the Underground. On some lines you can catch a glimpse of these abandoned stations. Supposedly there are more than 40 abandoned or relocated stations and it is a fascinating world far away from the busy streets of London, but unfortunately well monitored and fenced off to keep the interested away.

York Station – One of London’s abandoned stations