The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 22

by Stephen Jones

  The Poison Eaters from Big Mouth House collected twelve predominantly YA stories (two original) by Holly Black, and More Bloody Horowitz (aka Bloody Horowitz) collected fourteen stories by Anthony Horowitz.

  Haunted Houses was the first volume in the “Are You Scared Yet?” series and contained ten delightfully creepy haunted house stories by Robert D. San Souci, with wash illustrations by Kelly Murphy and Antoine Revoy.

  “Presented” by R.L. Stine, Fear: 13 Stories of Suspense and Horror contained original stories by Meg Cabot, Heather Brewer, F. Paul Wilson, Heather Graham and others.

  As its title indicated, Zombies vs. Unicorns contained twelve original stories about either zombies (edited by Justine Larbalestier) or unicorns (edited by Holly Black). Garth Nix, Margo Lanagan and Scott Westerfield were amongst the authors featured in this YA anthology, which grew from an online debate.

  Eternal: More Love Stories with Bite edited by P.C. Cast and Leah Wilson contained six original paranormal YA romance stories by Lili St Crow, Nancy Holder, Rachel Caine and others, with an Introduction by Cast.

  Stephen King’s latest collection, Full Dark, No Stars, contained four new novellas (“1922”, “Big Driver”, “Fair Extension” and “A Good Marriage”) dealing with retribution, with an Afterword by the author. A four-page extract from “Big Driver” was published in the November 12 edition of Entertainment Weekly magazine.

  Kelley Armstrong’s Tales of the Otherworld collected eight stories (one original) set in the author’s world of werewolves, vampires and witches. The reprints were originally published on Armstrong’s website.

  Claiming once again to “redefine” the limits of imaginative fiction, Stories was billed as a “groundbreaking” anthology of All-New Tales edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio. It featured twenty-seven stories by such Big Names as Roddy Doyle, Joyce Carol Oates, Joanne Harris, Walter Mosley, Richard Adams, Lawrence Block, Chuck Palahniuk and Jeffery Deaver, amongst others, along with more traditional genre contributors like Michael Marshall Smith, Joe R. Lansdale, Peter Straub, Diana Wynne Jones, Gene Wolfe (whose name was misspelled in the author notes), Jonathan Carroll, Tim Powers (whose story was inadvertently left out of the uncorrected proof copies), Michael Moorcock, Elizabeth Hand, Joe Hill and the two editors.

  One of the best anthologies of the year was Haunted Legends edited by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas, which contained twenty original stories inspired by local legends and ghost stories from around the world. Contributors included Richard Bowes, Steven Pirie, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Jeffrey Ford, Gary A. Braunbeck, Stephen Dedman, Laird Barron, Pat Cadigan, Ramsey Campbell and Joe R. Lansdale. Only Mamatas provided an Introduction.

  Edited by Christopher Golden, The New Dead (aka Zombies) collected nineteen original stories about the walking dead by Joe Hill, Joe R. Lansdale, Tad Williams, John Connolly, Tim Lebbon, Mike Carey, David Wellington, Kelley Armstrong and others. A 250-copy signed edition was issued by Subterranean Press.

  Originally published in electronic format, Hungry for Your Love was an anthology of twenty-one zombie romance stories edited by Lori Perkins. Contributors included Michael Marshall Smith and Brian Keene.

  The Book of the Living Dead edited by John Richard Stephens contained twenty-seven classic tales of the reanimated dead by H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Jack London and others.

  Werewolves and Shapeshifters: Encounters with the Beast Within edited by John Skipp contained thirty-five stories (nearly half of them original) by Neil Gaiman, Joe R. Lansdale, Angela Carter and others.

  Edited by James Lowder, Curse of the Full Moon was an anthology of nineteen werewolf stories (one original) and a poem. Contributors included Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Carroll, Michael Moorcock, Ursula K. Le Guin, Harlan Ellison, Gene Wolfe and Peter S. Beagle.

  Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels & Heavenly Hosts edited with an Introduction by Stephen Jones contained twenty-seven stories (thirteen original) by Neil Gaiman, Jay Lake, Jane Yolen, Arthur Machen, Sarah Pinborough, Lisa Tuttle, Graham Masterton, Robert Shearman, Michael Marshall Smith, Ramsey Campbell, Peter Crowther, Robert Silverberg, Christopher Fowler and others.

  Even more than the sometimes inappropriate story introductions, the main problem with editor Jonathan Oliver’s anthology The End of the Line: New Horror Stories Set on and Around the Underground, the Subway, the Metro and Other Places Deep Below was that many of the contributions were too similar to each other. Featuring nineteen tales (one reprint), the impressive line-up of contributors included John L. Probert, Nicholas Royle, Simon Bestwick, Conrad Williams, Pat Cadigan, Adam L.G. Nevill, Mark Morris, Stephen Volk, Ramsey Campbell, Michael Marshall Smith, James Lovegrove, Gary McMahon, Joel Lane and Christopher Fowler.

  Blood Lite II: Overbite was the second in the series of humorous horror anthologies presented by the Horror Writers Association and edited by Kevin J. Anderson. It featured thirty-one original tales by Heather Graham, Scott Nicholson, Don D’Ammassa, L.A. Banks, Edward Bryant, Sharyn McCrumb, Nancy Kilpatrick, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Steve Rasnic Tem, Kelley Armstrong and others.

  Edited with a short Introduction by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner, Death’s Excellent Vacation was an original anthology of thirteen paranormal romance stories by Jeff Abbott, L.A. Banks, Christopher Golden, Lilith Saintcrow and others, including a new “Sookie Stackhouse” tale by co-editor Harris.

  Dark and Stormy Knights edited by P.N. Elrod contained nine stories about supernatural heroes by Jim Butcher, Carrie Vaughn and the editor.

  Edited with an Introduction by Carol Sterling, More Stories from the Twilight Zone was an all-new collection of nineteen stories (one reprint) written in the vein of the late Rod Serling’s classic TV series.

  Edited with an Introduction by Trisha Telep, The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance 2 included seventeen original stories.

  Darrell Schweitzer and Martin H. Greenberg teamed up to edit Cthulhu’s Reign, an anthology of fifteen Lovecraftian stories set after the return of the Old Ones, and Full Moon City, which featured fifteen stories about werewolves.

  Greenberg also collaborated with various co-editors to turn out such anthologies as Vampires in Love (with Rosalind M. Greenberg), Fangs for the Mammaries (with Esther Friesner), Louisiana Vampires (with Lawrence Schimel) and A Girl’s Guide to Guns and Monsters (with Kerrie Hughes).

  The second volume of Ellen Datlow’s The Best Horror of the Year from Night Shade Books contained seventeen stories (including three from her own anthology Poe) along with the editor’s summation of the year and the usual “Honorable Mentions” (now expanded online).

  Prime Books debuted its own series with The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2010, edited by Paula Guran and containing thirty-nine stories, while the twenty-first volume of The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror edited by Stephen Jones contained nineteen stories and novellas, along with a substantial look at the preceding year in horror, a Necrology and list of useful addresses.

  Michael Marshall Smith’s “What Happens When You Wake Up in the Night” was the only story that appeared in all three “Year’s Best” horror anthologies. Norman Prentiss’ “In the Porches of My Ears” turned up in two of them, and Ramsey Campbell, Gemma Files, John Langan, Reggie Oliver and Barbara Roden were each represented in two out of the three volumes, but with different stories.

  Jones also compiled The Mammoth Book of the Best of Best New Horror: A Twenty-Year Celebration, which collected one story from each year of the series’ two decades by Brian Lumley, Michael Marshall Smith, Harlan Ellison, Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub, Kim Newman, Joe Hill, Lisa Tuttle, Clive Barker, Stephen King and others, with an Introduction by Ramsey Campbell and extensive commentary about the history of the title by the editor.

  With more electronic books than hardcovers reportedly now being sold in the US, Amazon promised to undercut the price of print editions and rival electronic readers and, for the first time, the company also opened a virtual e-bookstore in the UK.

  However, for two weeks at
the end of January, all the electronic titles published by Macmillan were pulled from Amazon’s virtual bookshelves after the publisher claimed that the price being charged for its e-books was too low and could damage hardcover sales. Unsurprisingly, HarperCollins and Hachette supported Macmillan’s position.

  Apple’s iPad tablet computer, launched in January, aimed to “save” the book and magazine industry with its iBook store and revolutionary touchscreen technology for buying and reading electronically. More than 7.5 million were sold in the first six months.

  Amazon’s new Kindle e-book reader was launched around the world at the end of July. Costing between £109 and £149 (between $139 and $189), it was the size of a paperback and could wirelessly download new titles online from a catalogue of more than 400,000 books.

  In November it was the turn of Samsung and Google to launch their Galaxy Tab “Android” media player. Although it was small enough to fit into a jacket pocket and could download thousands of apps from Google’s online store, the Tab was more expensive than the iPad.

  Google also launched its own Google eBookstore in December, which claimed to offer the “world’s largest selection of e-books”. Google’s three million titles could be read on almost all digital devices except for Amazon’s popular Kindle.

  Cemetery Dance Publications offered free e-book and audio-book downloads of Brian James’ novella The Painted Darkness almost four months before the hardcover edition was published. The electronic version, which was only available for a limited time, also included exclusive bonus material, including an Afterword and interview with the author, a new interview with Ray Bradbury and a special feature where Bradbury, Stephen King, William Peter Blatty, Michael Marshall Smith, Douglas Clegg and others shared their thoughts on the future of e-book publishing. More than 10,000 people downloaded the book in the first two weeks, which resulted in CD doubling the first printing. The hardcover edition included an exclusive Introduction by Brian Keene and interior illustrations by Jill Bauman, and a signed, limited edition sold out within twenty-four hours following the publicity generated by the free e-book.

  In July, the Syfy channel rebranded its online Sci Fi Wire site to “Blastr” (sigh). Scott Edelman remained as editor.

  The Zombie Survival Scanner from Crown Publishing Group’s digital division was a free iPhone app based on Max Brooks’ The Zombie Survival Guide. It allowed people with too much free time to scan their friends’ zombie infection rate.

  In July, the first nineteen issues of Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight from Dark Horse became available for download as animated “motion comics” on iTunes. The series was subsequently released on DVD.

  Bare Souls: Tales of Love, Sex and Death was a collection of twelve erotic slipstream stories by Marcelle Perks, published as an e-book by Xcite Books. The volume’s two previously unpublished stories were collaborations with Kevin Mullins.

  Just in time for Halloween, the Internet Movie Database launched its IMDb Horror Section devoted to the latest news, lists, trailers and photos.

  Publisher Roy Robbins continued to put out a number of handsome titles under his Bad Moon Books print-on-demand (PoD) and e-book imprint, many of them in special signed editions.

  The last Hollywood film crew decided to shoot the last Hollywood movie in a post-nuclear America in John Skipp and Cody Goodfellow’s satirical short novel The Day Before.

  Gene O’Neill’s novella Jade was set in the author’s post-apocalyptic California and featured an Introduction by Michael McBride and colour plates by Steven Gilberts. It was available in an edition of 150 signed and numbered paperback copies and twenty-six lettered hardcovers.

  Lord of the Lash and Our Lady of the Boogaloo was the second novella in Weston Ochse’s “Vampire Outlaw Trilogy”, and a cult attempted to open a gateway to another world on Halloween in Benjamin Kane Ethridge’s novel Black & Orange.

  A young woman witnessed something terrible that shaped her life in Paul Melnicek’s novella The Watching, while a couple learned that no good deed went unpunished in Erik Williams’ backwoods horror Blood Spring. Both books were nicely illustrated by Jill Bauman.

  Mischief Night was a Halloween novella by Paul Melniczek, illustrated by Caroline O’Neal, as was Lisa Morton’s The Samhanach, with artwork by Frank Walls. Don D’Ammassa’s pulp novella Wings Over Manhattan involved a private detective pitted against a supernatural evil.

  Containing two novellas featuring senior “Monster Wrangler” J.D. Enron and available in a special signed edition limited to 100 numbered copies and twenty-six lettered, Monster Town/ The Butcher of Box Hill by “Logan Savile” (Steven Savile and Brian M. Logan) was packaged like a hardcover Ace Double.

  Blood & Gristle contained twenty stories (one reprint) by Michael Louis Calvillo, while Little Things collected twenty-three stories (four original) by John R. Little with an Introduction by Mort Castle.

  Lisa Mannetti’s 51 Fiendish Ways to Leave Your Lover listed various macabre methods of ending a relationship. Glenn Chadbourne supplied the black and white illustrations, and there was a poetic Introduction from P.D. Cacek.

  Published as a print-on-demand edition by Bad Moon Books, Dark Matters collected forty-nine poems (six original) by Bruce Boston, illustrated by Daniele Serra.

  Selected by Charles Black, The Black Book of Horror reached its sixth and seventh trade paperback volumes from Mortbury Press. Containing fifteen and seventeen original stories, respectively, the contents of each volume varied wildly between subtlety and the worst excesses of The Pan Book of Horror Stories, with contributions from, amongst others, John Llewellyn Probert, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Steve Lockley, R.B. Russell, Paul Finch, Gary Fry, Craig Herbertson, Reggie Oliver, David A. Riley, Anna Taborska, Mark Samuels, Joel Lane, Steve Rasnic Tem, Claude Lalumière, Tony Richards and a particularly unpleasant tale from Stephen Volk.

  Available as an attractive hardcover from Mythos Books, Matt Cardin’s Dark Awakenings collected seven stories (one original and two revised and expanded) and three academic papers (two original and another significantly revised) exploring the intersection between horror and religion.

  From Hippocampus Press, Wait for Thunder: Stories for a Stormy Night contained twenty-seven stories (two original) by Donald R. Burleson, while Sin & Ashes collected forty-nine stories and poems (forty-three original) by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. with an Introduction by Laird Barron.

  Hippocampus also published The Tindalos Cycle edited by Robert M. Price, an anthology of twenty-seven Lovecraftian stories (three original) inspired by the classic story by Frank Belknap Long, who was represented with six tales, along with contributions from Robert Bloch, Lin Carter and Peter Cannon, amongst others.

  As part of the imprint’s “Lovecraft’s Library” series, The Shadowy Thing was a reprint of H.B. Drake’s 1925 novel The Remedy.

  From the Cauldron, containing almost 100 poems by Fred Phillips, was the latest volume in the “Hippocampus Press Poetry Library” series. It featured a cover illustration by Howard Wandrei.

  Lord Ruthven Begins from Black Coat Press was Frank J. Wood’s translation of the 1865 play Douglas the Vampyre by Jules Dornay, with an historical Introduction by Jean-Marc Lofficier.

  Introduced by Jack Dann and available from Australia’s Ticonderoga Publications in PoD trade paperback and limited hardcover editions, The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales collected sixteen stories (three original) and an Afterword by Angela Slatter.

  Slatter was also one of the contributors to Scary Kisses, an anthology of fourteen original paranormal romance stories edited by Liz Grzyb. Belong edited by Russell B. Farr brought together twenty-three new tales about people searching for a place to call “home”.

  Also from Ticonderoga, Dead Sea Fruit was a hefty retrospective collection of twenty-seven stories (two original) by Kaaron Warren, with an Introduction by Lucius Shepard and story notes by the author.

  Kenneth Goldman’s novella Desirée from Damnation Books was about a woman wh
ose love was deadly, while a woman seeking vengeance wanted to become a vampire in David Burton’s Blood Justice from By Light Unseen Media.

  Vipers was the second book in the “Veins Cycle” by Lawrence C. Connolly, available from Fantasist Enterprises.

  Mansfield Park and Mummies was another tiresome Jane Austen mash-up, this time by Vera Nazarian, available as a print-on-demand edition from Norilana Books.

  A female police detective uncovered murder and government conspiracies in a San Antonio in the grip of a deadly flu epidemic in Quarantined by Texas homicide detective Joe McKinney, published by Canadian PoD imprint Lachesis Publishing.

  Pallid Light: The Walking Dead was a zombie novel by William Jones, from PoD publisher Elder Signs Press. From the same imprint, The Best of All Flesh collected twenty-two stories originally published in editor James Lowder’s three Books of Flesh anthologies.

  There were more zombies in T.W. Brown’s Dead: The Ugly Truth and Zomblog, both from MayDecember Publications. Brown also edited the anthology Eye Witness: Zombie for the same PoD imprint.

  “Conceived and edited” by Robert Essig, Through the Eyes of the Undead from Library of the Living Dead contained thirty-one zombie stories and a poem by writers you’ve probably never heard of. It was difficult to tell if they were all original, because there was no copyright information anywhere in the book, while the running heads only listed the title and editor and not the individual stories or authors.

  Dark Dimensions, published in trade paperback by Fairwood Press/Darkwood Press, collected fourteen stories (two original) by William F. Nolan, with a Preface by the author and an Introduction by Jason V. Brock.

  Strange Men in Pinstripe Suits and Other Curious Things from Strange Publications collected twenty-four stories (ten original) by Cate Gardner with an Introduction by Nathaniel Lambert.

  Beneath the Surface of Things from New Jersey’s Bards and Sages Publishing collected twenty-five short horror stories (sixteen original) by Kevin Wallis, along with an Introduction by A.J. Brown.