I didn't know whether Ligotti could live up to the impressively high standards that he attained in Teatro Grottesco but fortunately he did. I am once again humbled by this man's brilliance. This is precisely the kind of thing I'm looking for in horror; smoothly, eloquently written prose with creeping unease that makes one tremble in the face of the universe and the unseen that hide in its shadows.Ligotti presents a starkly atheistic, cynical view of life and the universe. If asked whether the glass is half empty or half full, I think he would say that it is less than empty, inversely filled inside out in some kind of nether world. Don't read this expecting some kind of life affirming read because it is precisely the opposite.
His crowning achievement to my mind is the way he can make the reader share the protagonist's sense of cosmic terror. A far more easy task in the case of more visceral types of horror but not so easily done when it comes to the cosmic variety. In this regard he is unequalled (in so far as I have read), even by Lovecraft.
This book comprises of a novella and two short stories, thematically linked by a concern with corporations and their nefarious nature and become progressively more cryptic. I'm not sure where he was going exactly with the last one but the other two were utter brilliance. Avoid reading the synopsis on the back as it gives away too much of the story of the novella for my liking.