The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 20

by Stephen Jones (ed. )

  Joseph D’Lacey’s Meat was published under the Bloody Books imprint, as was Bill Hussey’s Through a Glass, Darkly and Read by Dawn Volume 3, an original anthology edited by Adèle Hartley containing twenty-eight often short-short stories.

  Edited by the busy Ian Whates, Myth-Understandings from New-Con Press was an anthology of fifteen dark fantasy stories (one reprint) by female authors, including Pat Cadigan, Gwyneth Jones, Storm Constantine, Liz Williams, Sarah Pinborough and Freda Warrington, amongst others. From the same editor and imprint came two other anthologies, Subterfuge and Celebrations.

  A man teamed up with a woman being pursued by a demon in Peter Mark May’s Demon, from Vanguard Press.

  Keith Gouveia edited Bits of the Dead for Coscom Entertainment. The trade paperback anthology contained thirty-eight “flash fiction” zombie stories by Piers Anthony, Simon Strantzas, Nancy Kilpatrick, Michael Laimo, Paul A. Freeman, Tim Waggoner, Adam-Troy Castro, Kurt Newton and Charles A. Gramlich, amongst others, illustrated by Sean Simmans.

  Michael A. Arnzen’s novella The Bitchfight with an Introduction by Brian Hodge was available from California’s Bad Moon Books, as was Simon Janus’ serial killer novella The Scrubs, introduced by Weston Ochse.

  Gene O’Neill’s post-apocalyptic novella The Confessions of St Zach came with an Introduction by Gord Rollo (which compared the author to Joseph Conrad and William Golding!) and a less excitable Afterword by Brian Keene, while Tim Waggoner supplied the Introduction to Steve Vernon’s Plague Monkey Spam.

  All Bad Moon Books editions were available as signed 200-copy trade paperbacks and in twenty-six copy hardcover lettered editions.

  Published under Bad Moon’s Eclipse imprint as a limited edition hardcover, the dead past returned to haunt a failed farmer in Steven E. Wedel’s Little Graveyard on the Prairie.

  Orgy of Souls was a novella about two brothers by Wrath James White and Maurice Broaddus, published in a print-on-demand edition and as a signed hardcover by Apex Publications.

  It was not difficult to see why all the stories in editor Mike Philbin’s Chimeraworld #5: Twenty Three Misfit Tales had previously been rejected by other markets.

  Published by The British Fantasy Society, Houses on the Borderland was a trade paperback anthology edited by David A. Sutton. Inspired by William Hope Hodgson’s novel, it contained six original novellas about unusual buildings by Allen Ashley, Samantha Lee, Simon Bestwick, Gary Fry, Paul Finch and David A. Riley, with a cover painting by Les Edwards.

  Another BFS publication was A Dick and Jane Primer for Adults. Edited by Lavie Tidhar, it contained ten stories about the perennially popular children’s characters “Dick and Jane” by Liz Williams, Adam Roberts, James Lovegrove, Conrad Williams and others, along with an Introduction by Jeff VanderMeer.

  Published in a single hardcover edition by Hippocampus Press, The Atlantis Fragments: The Trilogy of Songs and Sonnets Atlantean was an omnibus of the three books of poetry by Donald Sidney-Fryer, with an Introduction by Brian Stableford.

  Subscribers to PS Publishing’s PostScripts were rewarded with a hardcover Holiday Chapbook of Ramsey Campbell’s original novella The Long Way, the fourth in a continuing series of special publications. As an extra bonus signed copies went to hardcover subscribers of the magazine.

  Published to coincide with his Guest of Honour appearance at FantasyCon 2008, Christopher Golden’s The Hiss of Escaping Air was issued as a chapbook by PS in a signed edition of 300 numbered copies.

  Ray Bradbury’s Skeletons chapbook from Subterranean Press contained two stories entitled “Skeleton”, illustrated by Dave McKean. It was limited to 500 copies, while a hand-bound, tray-cased, signed and lettered edition of sixteen copies sold out before publication.

  Bev Vincent’s Overtoun Bridge was a chapbook from Cemetery Dance Publications with cover art by Jill Bauman. It was issued in a signed chapbook edition of 500 numbered copies.

  Skullvines Press issued Paul Kane’s novella Red, a contemporary urban reworking of the Red Riding Hood story, in a handsome softcover edition with an Introduction by Tim Lebbon and cover art by Dave McKean.

  Published in an edition of just fifty copies by Screaming Dreams, Bloodsucking in Berkshire was a humorous horror story from John Llewellyn Probert, featuring occult investigators Mr Massene Henderson and Miss Samantha Jephcott.

  Charles Urban’s Brutal Spirits was a chapbook collection of story notes by the “late” horror author Charles Edward Urban, purportedly “edited” by Gary McMahon with illustrations by Meggan Kehrli. It was published in a numbered edition of 150 copies by Ireland’s The Swan River Press.

  Once again, Peter Atkins and Glen Hirshberg took their Rolling Darkness Revue musical reading tour on the road in October to locations in California and Arizona. Kevin Moffett was the guest. With a format based on a 1930s radio show, KRDR: Welcome to the Ether was the tie-in chapbook produced by Earthling Publications.

  A survey by the UK’s leading wholesaler and distributor of newspapers and magazines warned of a declining market in magazines during the economic downturn.

  This was also reflected on the other side of the Atlantic, with Analog and Asimov’s announcing a change of format to a larger size but a drop in the page count of each issue.

  Still surviving in a difficult market, it was a pleasure to see more of Gordon Van Gelder’s editorials in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. As usual, the stellar line-up of contributors included John Kessel (with a combination of Frankenstein and Pride and Prejudice), Ron Goulart, Albert E. Cowdrey, Nancy Springer, Tim Sullivan, Steven Utley, Kate Wilhelm, Rachel Pollack, Robert Reed, M. Rickert, Michael Blumlein, Lisa Goldstein, Marc Laidlaw, Geoff Ryman, Stephen King, Scott Bradfield, Terry Bisson, Carol Emshwiller and Michael Swanwick.

  There were the usual reviews by Charles de Lint, Elizabeth Hand, Lucius Shepard (his demolition of J. J. Abrams and his over-hyped Cloverfield in the June issue was masterful), Michelle West, James Sallis, Paul Di Filipo, Kathi Maio and Chris Moriarty, while Gwynplaine MacIntyre, Peter Tremayne, Bud Webster, David Langford, Paul Di Filippo, Dave Truesdale, Fred Chappell and Lucy Sussex all contributed fascinating “Curiosities” columns.

  The March issue featured a particularly impressive horror cover by Vincent Di Fate illustrating Albert E. Cowdrey’s novella, “The Overseer”, and to celebrate the magazine’s sixtieth year of continual publication, F&SF began reprinting stories from its past issues.

  As always, Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers’ quarterly PostScripts offered an excellent mix of genre fiction by the likes of Sarah Monette, Jeff VanderMeer, Rhys Hughes, Brian Aldiss, Scott Edelman, Garry Kilworth, Steven Utley, Jack Dann, Ray Bradbury, Brian Stableford, Terry Bisson, Stephen Baxter, Paul Di Filippo, Jay Lake, Michael Moorcock, T. M. Wright, Chaz Brenchley, R. B. Russell, Lisa Turtle, Ian R. MacLeod and Douglas Smith. Available in both magazine format and as a 200-copy signed and numbered hardcover edition, there were guest editorials by Eric Schaller, the late Arthur C. Clarke (a reprint), Peter Atkins and James Lovegrove.

  PostScripts #15 was a “Special Worldcon All-SF Issue” that featured a section devoted to Paul McAuley and (only in the slipcased edition) a colour portfolio of the work of legendary EC Comics illustrator Al Feldstein.

  The publishers announced that future PostScripts would drop the magazine edition and go to an all-hardcover format, adding up to 25,000 words more fiction per issue.

  Following the introduction of a new logo design in 2007, the once-venerable Weird Tales should have been re-titled “New Weird” Tales as incoming fiction editor Ann VanderMeer took the magazine in a new editorial direction. The five issues published in 2008 were more likely to showcase whimsical fantasy than the weird or unusual, with stories by Darrell Schweitzer, Cat Rambo, Tanith Lee, Sarah Monette, Michael Moorcock (a new “Elric of Melniboné” tale), Nick Mamatas, Norman Spinrad and Zoran Zivkoviá, amongst others. Interviewees included writers James Morrow and China Miéville, artists Mike Mignola and Viktor Koen, and animato
r Bill Plympton.

  Ill-judged attempts to apparently make the magazine more “accessible” to modern readers took the title even further away from its pulp roots, with guest columnists musing upon real-life weirdness, a contentious list of “The 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years”, and Kenneth Hite providing a guided tour of Lovecraftian locations every issue. At least the unwise inclusion of an illustrative narrative was quickly dropped.

  Another ill-advised revival was Startling Stories from Wildcat Books. The original magazine ran from 1939–55, and although the new print-on-demand version nicely recreated to look and format of the old pulps, the quality of the artwork was appalling. Half the first issue was taken up with a reprint of Ray Cummings’ classic 1922 novel “The Girl in the Golden Atom”.

  As usual, John O’Neill’s Black Gate did a much better job with the same pulp format. Issue #12 featured a superb reprint cover by UK artist Bruce Pennington.

  Issue #58 of Richard Chizmar and Robert Morrish’s Cemetery Dance Magazine was billed as a “Charles L. Grant Tribute Issue”. It featured a reprint story by the late author, along with appreciations by Kealan Patrick Burke, Matthew J. Costello, Craig Shaw Gardner, Rick Hautala, John Maclay, Thomas F. Monteleone, Bill Pronzini, Al Sarrantonio, David B. Silva, Thomas Smith, Steve Rasnic Tem, Wendy Webb and Chet Williamson. Thomas L. McDonald contributed an overview of Grant’s writing career.

  This issue of CD and the following one featured short fiction by Sarah Monette, Gerard Houarner, Brian Keene, Paul Finch, Eric Brown, Stephen Mark Rainey, Sarah Langan and others. Bev Vincent, Michael Marano and John Pelan contributed their usual regular columns, and there were interviews with the elusive T. E. D. Klein, Stephen Graham Jones, David Morrell, Robert Masello, 1980s author “Daniel Rhodes” (Neil McMahon), Brian Keene, the other Stephen Jones and Steve Vernon.

  After an uneven start with its first two issues, Andy Cox’s Black Static finally began to find its own identity with the six bi-monthly editions published in 2008. Although it still did not reach the standard of The 3rd Alternative – the title it replaced – the magazine presented some impressive short fiction by Tony Richards, Cody Goodfellow, Conrad Williams, Nicholas Royle, Steve Nagy, Joel Lane, Gary McMahon, Nina Allan, Bruce Holland Rogers, Lynda E. Rucker, Steve Rasnic Tem, Gary Fry and others. There were also short interviews with Williams, Sarah Langan, Jack Ketchum, Scott Sigler, Tim Lebbon, Simon Clark and Leisure editor Don D’Auria. However, the periodical’s best bits remained the regular columns by Christopher Fowler, Stephen Volk, Mike O’Driscoll, Peter Tennant and, especially, Tony Lee’s insightful DVD reviews.

  Lee also provided DVD reviews to Black Static’s attractive sister publication, Interzone. Issues included short fiction by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Paul McAuley, Lavie Tidhar, Geoff Ryman, Christopher Priest, Greg Egan and Rudy Rucker, plus interviews with Egan, Tim Lebbon, Iain M. Banks, Charles Stross, Mike Carey and Alastair Reynolds. David Langford supplied a regular news column, and Nick Lowe contributed movie reviews. Issue #218 was a Chris Beckett special with three stories and an interview with the writer.

  Dell’s long-running Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine contained a number of borderline short horror stories by James Van Pelt and others, along with an annotated Sherlock Holmes story (“The Adventure of the Red Circle”) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

  The two always-attractive issues of Patrick Swenson’s digest-sized Talebones featured stories by James Van Pelt, Dean Wesley Smith, William F. Nolan and others, plus some impressive poetry by Greg Schwartz and Mikal Trimm, and interior artwork from Tom Simonton, Laura Givens and Brad Foster.

  The twelfth issue of Jason Sizemore’s Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest included fiction by Brian Keene, Cherie Priest and Lavie Tidhar, along with interviews with Jeff VanderMeer and Laura Anne Gilman. In the summer, the magazine went from a quarterly print publication to a monthly e-zine called Apex Magazine, doubling its pay rates.

  Editor James R. Beach announced that his magazine Dark Discoveries was officially going to three-times-a-year publication after eleven issues. In 2008 the title published fiction by Tim Lebbon, Cody Goodfellow, Michael Laimo and others, along with interviews with Joe Hill, Edward Lee and Charlee Jacob.

  Christopher M. Cevasco’s Paradox: The Magazine of Historical and Speculative Fiction included the usual mixture of fiction, poetry and reviews.

  The two issues of Ireland’s Albedo One contained interviews with Ellen Datlow, Raymond E. Feist and the busy Alastair Reynolds, along with fiction by Steve Rasnic Tem, Nina Allan and others.

  Issue #10 of the Canadian web spin-off magazine Dark Recesses Press featured reprint fiction by Ramsey Campbell and Clive Barker, along with interviews with Barker, Gary Braunbeck and Jack Ketchum.

  Canada’s Rue Morgue, edited by Jovanka Vuckovic, continued to lead the field in glossy horror magazines with eleven issues featuring interviews with the late Maila Nurmi (“Vampira”), José Mojica Marins (“Coffin Joe”), film-makers Tim Burton, George A. Romero, Paul Lynch, Dario Argento and Guillermo del Toro, singer Alice Cooper, writers Brian Keene, Gary A. Braunbeck, Clive Barker, John Ajvide Linqvist and Dennis Etchison, plus artist Bernie Wrightson.

  The bumper October issue celebrated fifty years of Famous Monsters of Filmland with interviews with Forrest J Ackerman, Basil Gogos (who painted the cover portrait of Forry), John Landis, Joe Dante, Gene Simmons and others.

  Subtitled “Australian Dark Culture Magazine” and edited by Angela Challis, Black was a glossy publication from Brimstone Press looking at horror books, movies, TV, music and pop culture. Along with stories and reviews, issues included interviews with actors Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki from Supernatural, George A. Romero, Guillermo del Toro, Alice Cooper, Robert Hood and AHWA founder and president Dr Marty Young. The magazine also published Stephen King’s short story “Graduation Afternoon” in its July issue.

  Celebrating its second anniversary, editor Joe Vaz’s Something Wicked: Science Fiction & Horror Magazine covered much the same ground from South Africa. Along with plenty of short fiction (including contributions from UK writer Ian R. Faulkner and Canadian Douglas Smith), there were interviews with Neil Gaiman, Alastair Reynolds, John Connolly and X Files actress Gillian Anderson, plus some interesting articles about the history of science fiction.

  Neil Gaiman was also interviewed in the October issue of the UK’s useful Writing Magazine.

  Book and Magazine Collector featured Graham Andrews’ article about the Roger Corman/Edgar Allan Poe film tie-in editions. Unfortunately, the piece turned out to be more about the movies than the books.

  Despite finally being back on a regular schedule again, a shift in editorial direction for Tim Lucas’ Video Watchdog meant that the reviews and articles in “The Perfectionist’s Guide to Fantastic Cinema” became increasingly self-indulgent and irrelevant. Nobody really needed twenty-two pages devoted to Sweden Heaven and Hell, twelve pages about Japanese actress Meiko Kaji, nor a tedious round-robin discussion about Grindhouse (twenty pages!).

  Interviews with forgotten child actress Ann Carter (The Curse of the Cat People) and obscure Euro actor Rodd Dana were way too long, and we certainly could have done without the editor’s backhanded “tribute” to the late Forrest J Ackerman. At least an informative discussion between Joe Dante, Roger Corman and Daniel Haller, interviews with veteran producer Richard Gordon and character actor Dabbs Greer, and articles about screenwriter Charles B. Griffith and film pioneer Georges Méliès went some way to restoring the balance.

  Aimed at the Famous Monsters of Filmland generation, Jim Clatterbaugh’s glossy Monsters from the Vault featured fascinating interviews with the daughter of Oscar-winning special effects ace John P. Fulton and Mexican monster movie star Germán Robles.

  The two issues of Steven Puchalski’s excellent Shock Cinema included interviews with actors Bo Svenson, Barry Primus, Isela Vega, Sy Richardson, Suzanna Love and Tony Musante, plus reviews of hundreds of obscure movies and DVDs.

&n
bsp; Along with lists of his favourite pop songs and the best films and books of 2008, Stephen King’s occasional “The Pop of King” columns in Entertainment Weekly included the author’s thoughts on electronic books (he liked the Kindle), blurb writing, why horror works, movie theatre snacks and “manfiction”. In another piece for the magazine, he recalled his favourite year (1999).

  Founded in 1968 as a fannish newsletter, Charles N. Brown’s monthly Locus celebrated its fortieth anniversary starting in the April issue with tributes from Robert Silverberg, Joe Haldeman, Ginjer Buchanan and Brian Aldiss. The magazine also featured interviews with, amongst others, Aldiss, M. Rickert, Lucius Shepard, Terry Pratchett, Jeffrey Ford, Garth Nix, Christopher Barzak, Ursula K. LeGuin, Greg Bear, Caitlín R. Kiernan and Gardner Dozois (who became a new Locus reviewer).

  Locus celebrated Arthur C. Clarke’s 90th birthday with its January issue. Three months later it had to report the author’s death, publishing numerous tributes in the May edition. The July issue focussed on young adult fiction, with contributions from Neil Gaiman, Graham Joyce and others.

  David Longhorn continued to publish his small press fiction magazine Supernatural Tales. Low on design but high on quality, issues #13 and #14 contained stories from Adam Golaski, Tina Rath, Simon Strantzas, William I. I. Read, Michael Chislett and others.

  Despite both featuring covers better suited to a science fiction title, the two issues of Trevor Denyer’s Midnight Street: Journeys Into Darkness included fiction by Joel Lane, Gary McMahon, Allen Ashley, Simon Bestwick, Stephen Gallagher, Nina Allan, Mark Samuels, Peter Tennant, Andrew Hook and others, plus interviews with Gallagher, Samuels, Hook and the inevitable Neil Gaiman.

  Printed in colour throughout, the first three issues of Adam Bradley’s Morpheus Tales contained plenty of short fiction along with interviews with writers Joseph D’Lacey, Michael Laimo and the late Joseph McGee, plus artists Jason Beam and Dave Gentry.

  The ninth issue of Heather and Tim Pratt’s Flytrap was an (almost) all-female edition with fiction and poetry from M. Rickert, Jenn Reese, Sarah Monette, Catherynne M. Valente and others. The next issue was the last.