About the Editors
Hugo Award–winner Ann VanderMeer and World Fantasy Award–winner Jeff VanderMeer have recently coedited such anthologies as Best American Fantasy #1 & 2, Steampunk, Steampunk Reloaded, The New Weird, Last Drink Bird Head, and Fast Ships, Black Sails. They are the coauthors of The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals. Future projects include The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Fictions, for Atlantic. Jeff’s latest books are the novel Finch, a World Fantasy Award and Nebula Award finalist; the story collection The Third Bear; the nonfiction collection Monstrous Creatures; the coffee-table book The Steampunk Bible (with S. J. Chambers); and the writing strategy guide Booklife. Ann is the editor in chief of Weird Tales magazine and has a regular art column on the popular SF/fantasy Web site io9. Together, they have been profiled by National Public Radio and the New York Times’ Papercuts blog. They are active teachers, and have taught at Clarion San Diego, Odyssey, and the teen writing camp Shared Worlds, for which Jeff serves as the assistant director. They live in Tallahassee, Florida, with too many books and four cats. For more information, visit jeffvandermeer.com.
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, a huge thank-you to Diana Gill, our editor, for being wonderfully supportive of this project and letting this three-ring circus reach its full potential. Thanks also to Will Hinton at Harper Voyager, who put up with a constant stream of e-mails and image downloads, among other impositions—as well as everyone else involved in this project, including the book designer. Huge thanks as well to John Coulthart for acting as an image consultant to this anthology, while also providing his own art/design and found art—you’re the best and we couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks to the gang at Brueggers, Hopkins, and Monks for good company, and for keeping us fed and caffeinated during the process. Thanks to our friends at the Leon Station post office for laughs and over twenty years of great service. We would also like to thank Myra Miller and Arthur Burns at Alpha Data Systems for continuing support (and a special shoutout to Arthur for keeping all our technology running smoothly).
We’re also indebted to Stepan Chapman and Michael Cisco’s contributions to The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases, as this volume makes use of some of their ideas and writings from that prior volume. We’re also forever indebted to our New Weird editor in the Czech Republic, Martin Šust, for his help in acquiring art from Jan Svankmajer. Finally, thanks to all of the contributors for making this anthology so special for us.
Credits
ARTISTS
All images copyright 2011 to the individual creators and original to this anthology, unless otherwise noted. All public-domain art and photography provided by and/or Photoshopped by John Coulthart. All title pages copyright 2011 John Coulthart.
“Mecha-frog” and “Mecha-fish” preceding ‘Holy Devices and Infernal Duds’, Vladimir Gvozdev, copyright © 2008
Introduction
“just one shelf in Lambshead’s study”—Jennifer and J. K. Potter, photograph from their “knickknack collection,” as arranged by Jennifer
“stage set for musical of Dr. Lambshead . . .”—Sam Van Olffen, “Travailleurs de lacier,” copyright © 2008
“secret medical laboratory stage set . . .”—Sam Van Olffen, “Dissecator,” copyright © 2007
“One of Lambshead’s few attempts at art . . .”—Myrtle von Damitz III, detail shot from “Family Portrait” with Michael, Michelle, and Sydney Holdman pictured, copyright © 2010
“One of the few museum exhibit loans . . .”—Vladimir Gvozdev, “Mecha-Rhino,” copyright © 2008
“Spell or secret communication?”—Kristen Alvanson, “Constructing an Elysian Pod for the Last Journey,” copyright © 2007
“so-called ‘Skull Cucumber’ hoax . . .”—Jan Svankmajer, cryptozoology print, copyright © 1975
“demonstrating the doctor’s commitment to the future . . .”—Jake von Slatt, “Bassington & Smith Electro-Mechanical Analog Brain,” copyright © 2010, first publication herein
“More evidence of the disarray . . .”—J. K. Potter, originally end papers for James Blaylock’s The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives from Subterranean Press, copyright © 2008
The Broadmore Exhibits
“Electrical Neurheographiton,” “St. Brendan’s Shank,” “The Auble Gun,” and “Dacey’s Patent Automatic Nanny”—Greg Broadmore
“Nikola Tesla ca. 1890”—Wikipedia Commons
“The Tasker Battle Carriage”—Sam Van Olffen, “Cours Lapin, cours!” copyright © 2008
Honoring Lambshead
“medieval tapestry . . .”—James A. Owen
“Tree Spirits Rising”—Jonathan Nix, copyright © 2006
“Relic with Fish”—Ivica Stevanovic
“Lord Dunsany’s Teapot”—Yishan Li
“Portrait of a Bear Unbound (with speaker)”—Eric Orchard
“The Meistergarten”—John Coulthart
The Mignola Exhibits
“Addison Howell on his Clockroach,” “Sir Ranulph Wykeham-Rackham,” “Shamalung,” and “Pulvadmonitor”—Mike Mignola
The Miéville Anomalies
“The Very Shoe” and “Gallows-horse”—China Miéville
The Further Oddities
“Thing in Jar”—Aeron Alfrey
“Frog Resurrection”—Ron Pippin, copyright © 2008
“Armor Montage”—Ivica Stevanovic
“Castleblakeney Key”—Aeron Alfrey, copyright © 2009
“Taking the Rats to Riga”—Eric Schaller
“The Book of Categories”—Ron Pippin, copyright © 2008
“The Dead Dead Gang book cover”—John Coulthart
Visits and Departures
“Kneel” (full and detail views)—Scott Eagle, “Meditation on Power” installation, copyright © 2009
Catalog of Additional Items
“Bear Gun/Taxidermy Gun”—Eric Orchard
“Coffin Torpedo”—Jess Gulbranson
“Disgruntled Artifacts”—Rikki Ducornet
“Mooney & Finch Somnotrope”—Jake von Slatt, “Chronoclasmic Inhibitor,” copyright © 2010, first publication herein
“Much Smaller Cabinet”—Ron Pippin, Archive Box #2, copyright © 1999
“Skull”—John Coulthart, copyright © 1995
“The St. Blais Toad”—Norman Tabor
“Jean Lorrain’s Nightmares of an Ether-Drinker”—R. B. Russell, Tartarus Press designer/artist for dust jacket and boards, copyright © 2003
“Panoramic view of the Lambshead’s cabinet”—Bruce Ecker, The Obsolete Gallery, copyright © 2007
TEXT
“Introduction: The Contradictions of a Collection, Dr. Lambshead’s Cabinet” and all image captions, unless otherwise noted, copyright © 2011 Jeff & Ann VanderMeer. The character of Thackery T. Lambshead is a creation of Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, copyright © 2003.
The following subsection introductory text copyright © 2011 Jeff VanderMeer: “Holy Devices and Infernal Duds: The Broadmore Exhibits,” “Honoring Lambshead: Stories Inspired by the Cabinet,” “Microbial Alchemy and Demented Machinery: The Mignola Exhibits,” “The Miéville Anomalies,” “Further Oddities,” “Visits and Departures,” and “A Brief Catalog of Additional Items.”
Additional text: caption for Jake von Slatt image in the introduction, “demonstrating the doctor’s commitment to the future,” copyright © 2011 Annalee Newitz; caption for “Bear Gun/Taxidermy Gun” at beginning of “A Brief Catalog” copyright © by Adam Mills. “Disgruntled Artifacts” text attributed to Rikki Ducornet (with her permission) in “A Brief Catalog” copyright © 2011 Jeff VanderMeer.
In order of appearance in the anthology:
“The Electrical Neurheographiton” copyright © 2011 by Minister Faust
“St. Brendan’s Shank” copyright © 2011 by Kelly Barnhill
“The Auble Gun” copyright © 2011 by Will Hindmarch
“Dacey’s Patent Automatic Nanny”
copyright © 2011 by Ted Chiang
“Threads” copyright © 2011 by Carrie Vaughn
“Ambrose and the Ancient Spirits of East and West” by Garth Nix
“Relic” copyright © 2011 by Jeffrey Ford
“Lord Dunsany’s Teapot” copyright © 2011 by Naomi Novik
“Lot 558: Shadow of My Nephew by Wells, Charlotte” copyright © 2011 by Holly Black
“A Short History of Dunkelblau’s Meistergarten” copyright © 2011 by Tad Williams
“Addison Howell and the Clockroach” copyright © 2011 by Cherie Priest
“Sir Ranulph Wykeham-Rackham, GBE, a.k.a. Roboticus the All-Knowing” copyright © 2011 by Lev Grossman
“Shamalung (The Diminutions)” copyright © 2011 by Michael Moorcock
“Pulvadmonitor: The Dust’s Warning” copyright © 2011 by China Miéville
“The Very Shoe” copyright © 2011 by Helen Oyeyemi
“The Gallows-horse” copyright © 2011 by Reza Negarestani
“The Thing in the Jar” copyright © 2011 by Michael Cisco
“The Singing Fish” copyright © 2011 by Amal El-Mohtar
“The Armor of Sir Locust” copyright © 2011 by Stepan Chapman
“A Key to the Castleblakeney Key” copyright © 2011 by Caitlín R. Kiernan
“Taking the Rats to Riga” copyright © 2011 by Jay Lake
“The Book of Categories” copyright © 2011 by Charles Yu
“Objects Discovered in a Novel Under Construction” copyright © 2011 by Alan Moore
“1929: The Singular Taffy Puller” copyright © 2011 by N. K. Jemisin
“1943: A Brief Note Pertaining to the Absence of One Olivaceous Cormorant, Stuffed” copyright © 2011 by Rachel Swirsky
“1963: The Argument Against Louis Pasteur” copyright © 2011 by Mur Lafferty
“1972: The Lichenologist's Visit” copyright © 2011 by Ekaterina Sedia
“1995: Kneel” copyright © 2011 by Brian Evenson
“2000: Dr. Lambshead’s Dark Room” copyright © 2011 by S. J. Chambers
“2003: The Pea” copyright © 2011 by Gio Clairval
The flash fictions in “A Brief Catalog of Additional Items” are copyright © 2011 to the writer noted in parentheses at the end of each entry: Hugh Alter, Charlie Jane Anders, Julie Andrews, Christopher Begley, Jayme Lynn Blaschke, Nickolas Brienza, Tucker Cummings, Kaolin Imago Fire, Jess Gulbranson, Jennifer Harwood-Smith, Willow Holser, Rhys Hughes, Incognitum (aka Reza Negarestani), Paul Kirsch, Michael J. Larson, Graham Lowther, Claire Massey, Tony Mileman, Adam Mills, Annalee Newitz, Ignacio Sanz, Steven M. Schmidt, Grant Stone, Norman Taber (aka Dr. Galubrious), Brian Thill, Nick Tramdack, Nicholas Troy, Tom Underberg, Horia Ursu, William T. Vandemark, Kali Wallace, Tracie Welser, Amy Willats, Nadine Wilson, Ben Woodard.
Other Books by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
Best American Fantasy 1
(with Matthew Cheney)
Best American Fantasy 2
(with Matthew Cheney)
The New Weird
Steampunk
Fast Ships, Black Sails
Last Drink Bird Head:
Flash Fiction for Literacy
The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals
Steampunk Reloaded
The Weird
Books by Jeff VanderMeer
FICTION
Dradin, in Love
The Book of Lost Places
Veniss Underground
City of Saints & Madmen
Secret Life
Shriek: An Afterword
The Situation
Secret Lives
Predator: South China Sea
Finch
The Third Bear
The Three Quests of the
Wizard Sarnod
NONFICTION AND
ANTHOLOGIES
Leviathan 1 (with Luke O’Grady)
Leviathan 2 (with Rose Secrest)
Leviathan 3 (with Forrest Aguirre)
Album Zutique
The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide
to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases
(with Mark Roberts)
Why Should I Cut Your Throat?
Booklife: Strategies & Survival Tips
for the 21st Century Writer
Monstrous Creatures: Explorations
of Fantasy
The Steampunk Bible
(with S. J. Chambers)
Copyright
Credits serves as a continuation of the copyright page.
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE THACKERY T. LAMBSHEAD CABINET OF CURIOSITIES. Collection copyright © 2011 by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
ISBN 978-0-06-200475-8
EPub Edition © JULY 2011 ISBN: 9780062109927
11 12 13 14 15 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities Page 36