The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror

by Stephen Jones

  Harsh Oases collected seventeen career-spanning stories (two original) by Paul Di Filippo, including a collaboration with Rudy Rucker, along with an Introduction by Cory Doctorow, while twelve of Paul Witcover’s superb short stories (five original) were collected in Everland and Other Stories with an Introduction by Elizabeth Hand.

  T.M. Wright’s surreal novel Blue Canoe: A Memoir of the Newly Non-corporeal was issued in the same format with cover art by the author and an Introduction by Tom Piccirilli.

  An obsession with a painting seen in a friend’s apartment led sculptor Jacob Lerner to search for a long-dead artist in Robert Freeman Wexler’s The Painting and the City.

  Later in the year, PS changed its 100-copy slipcased format to an even more deluxe traycased limited edition.

  Ramsey Campbell’s latest novel, Creatures of the Pool, about an ancient evil that resided below a Lovecraftian version of Liverpool, was issued in this new format and 500 unsigned hardcovers. Bryan Talbot supplied the entertaining Introduction. Just Behind You was a new collection of Campbell’s short fiction, containing eighteen mostly recent stories and a new Afterword by the author. The limited hardcover also included a very strange extra story.

  Grazing the Long Acre was the first collection of Gwyneth Jones’ fiction in the UK, containing thirteen reprint stories, while both Impossible Stories II and The Bridge collected some of Zoran Zivkovic’s newer stories, translated from the Serbian.

  Passing for Human was an excellent reprint anthology edited by Michael Bishop and Steven Utley that included sixteen stories about creatures in human guise by Theodore Sturgeon, Donald A. Wollheim, Ray Bradbury, Robert Silverberg, Barry N. Malzberg, Howard Waldrop, Tom Reamy, Lisa Tuttle, Carol Emshwiller and others.

  PS’ ambitious series of novellas were limited to 100 signed and numbered jacketed hardcovers and 500 trade copies: a fifteen-year-old orphan with special powers and an itinerant spirit-photographer confronted restless spirits in 1920s rural Nebraska in Cast a Cold Eye by Derryl Murphy and William Shunn, which came with an Introduction by Charles de Lint.

  Alex Irvine’s Mystery Hill was an expanded version of his 2008 story from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Rio Youers’ Old Man Scratch was about the ultimate neighbour from Hell.

  Inspired by the medieval French tale Valentine and Orson, Marly Youmans’ Val/Orson came with an Introduction by Catherynne M. Valente, while; Terry Bisson’s Billy’s Book was for old people of all ages.

  A middle-aged writer travelled to a provincial town in Japan in Quentin S. Crisp’s spectral novella Shrike, which came with an Introduction by Lisa Tuttle.

  Intrepid necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach returned in Crack’d Pot Trail, the fourth in the humorous fantasy series by Steve Erikson, and a time traveller returned to eleventh-century Britain to try to change the course of history in John Gribbin’s return to SF, Timeswitch.

  Uncle River’s satirical Camp Desolation and an Eschatology of Salt was introduced by Don Webb.

  Writer G.K. Chesterton met Edgar Rice Burroughs in Eric Brown’s Gilbert and Edgar on Mars, while Beth Bernobich’s Ars Memoriae was a novella of political intrigue set in an alternate Ireland called Éireann.

  Sarah Pinborough’s ambitious and moving novella The Language of Dying was about having to face up to the inevitable death of a loved one. It came with an Introduction by Graham Joyce.

  An updating of the Orpheus myth, Joel Lane’s novella The Witnesses Are Gone involved a newspaper editor’s journey into darkness while searching for the work of a little-known French film director. Conrad Williams supplied the Introduction.

  Glass Coffin Girls was PS Showcase #6. It collected eight stories by Paul Jessup with an Introduction by Jeff VanderMeer.

  Edited by Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers, PS Publishing’s hardcover fiction magazine, Postscripts, went through some major changes of its own in 2009. The eighteenth number, This is the Summer of Love: A Postscripts New Writers Special, was a transitory hardcover volume that contained ten stories by Norman Prentiss, Chris Bell, Monica J. O’Rourke, R.B. Russell and Rio Youers, amongst others.

  After the release of the hardcover anthology Enemy of the Good: Postscripts 19, the title reduced its frequency from four times a year to twice-yearly, but more than doubled in size. Volume 20/21, Edison’s Frankenstein, included twenty-six stories by, amongst others, Chris Roberson, Kit Reed, Simon Strantzas, Darrell Schweitzer, Lisa Tuttle and Stephen Baxter.

  For subscribers, the PS Holiday Chapbook #5 was The Night Cache by Andy Duncan.

  Meanwhile, new imprint Drugstore Indian Press reissued Peter Crowther’s 2002 SF-horror novel Darkness, Darkness: Forever Twilight Book 1 as an attractive hardcover with cover art by Vincent Chong. The follow-up volume, Forever Twilight 2: Windows to the Soul, appeared in a signed limited edition from Subterranean Press and involved a small band of survivors making their way across an apocalyptic Earth where “new” people had the power to kill with just a touch.

  Despite the continuing success of PS and other independent UK publishers, two British small press imprints disappeared in 2009: Andrew Hook announced that he was discontinuing Elastic Press to concentrate on his own writing, while Chris Teague put Pendragon Press on hold for the year, saying it would return in 2010.

  It was also announced that Deborah Layne’s US imprint Wheatland Press was going on hiatus in 2009 due to “current financial uncertainties”.

  Edited by Christopher Conlon, He Is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson from Gauntlet Press was a tribute volume containing fifteen original stories by F. Paul Wilson, Mick Garris, William F. Nolan, Richard Christian Matheson, Joe R. Lansdale, Whitley Strieber, and the father and son team of Stephen King and Joe Hill, amongst others, with an Introduction by Ramsey Campbell and illustrations by Harry O. Morris. The book also included the original screenplay by Matheson and Charles Beaumont for the film Conjure Wife, which eventually became Night of the Eagle (aka Burn, Witch, Burn).

  Visions Deferred: Three Unfilmed Screenplays contained Richard Matheson’s unproduced scripts for I Am Legend, The Distributor and Sweethearts and Horrors, with associated material by Matheson, his son Richard Christian Matheson, Mark Dawidziak and Matthew R. Bradley.

  Also from Gauntlet, Bullet Trick contained seven teleplays by Ray Bradbury (two for The Twilight Zone that were never produced) along with correspondence and other associated items. The book was available in an edition of 500 signed copies and a lettered traycased edition that added the teleplay for I Sing the Body Electric.

  As Fate Would Have It (A Prolonged Love Letter) by Michael Louis Calvillo was published by California’s Bad Moon Books in a special signed edition of 150 numbered copies and twenty-six lettered. The novel was about the love between a cannibal chef and a heroine addict and came with an Introduction by John R. Little and an Afterword by Lisa Morton.

  The jacket blurb for Gene O’Neill’s Shadow of the Dark Angel, published under Bad Moon’s Eclipse imprint, compared the novel to Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lector tales as a pair of homicide detectives pursued a vicious serial killer. The book was available in a special signed hardcover edition with colour plates by John Pierro, limited to just 100 copies.

  Perhaps the imprint’s biggest coup of the year was publishing The Adventures of Mr Maximillian Bacchus and His Travelling Circus, a collection of four magically inventive stories written by Clive Barker forty years ago, but never previously published. Richard A. Kirk supplied the illustrations and David Niall Wilson the Afterword. Not surprisingly, Bad Moon issued the collection in multiple signed editions, including 1,500 trade, 300 numbered and slipcased, twenty-six lettered and traycased, and ten ultra-traycased copies.

  From the Donald M. Grant imprint, The Little Sisters of Eluria contained the title novella by Stephen King, along with the 2003 revised and expanded version of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger. The 4,000-copy slipcased edition was signed by illustrator Michael Whelan, and there was also a boxed “gift edition�
�� of 1,250 copies signed by both King and Whelan.

  The third volume in the series edited and introduced by Danel Olson, Exotic Gothic 3: Strange Visitations, was one of the more satisfying anthologies of the year. Although never quite sure what it meant by “Gothic”, this latest volume from Ash-Tree Press was certainly exotic, featuring stories split over such locations as Oceania and Australia, Asia, Europe and North America by Robert Hood, Lucy Taylor, Terry Dowling, Steve Duffy, Tina Rath, Stephen Volk, Simon Clark, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Paul Finch, Adam L.G. Nevill, Reggie Oliver, Zoran Zivkovic, Barbara Roden, Steve Rasnic Tem and others.

  From Subterranean Press, Brian Lumley’s The Nonesuch and Others was a thin volume containing the original title story plus reprints of “The Thin People” and “Stilts”, all featuring the unnamed protagonist’s unexpected encounters with the supernatural. With an Introduction by the author and a cover and interior sketches by Bob Eggleton, the deluxe hardcover was limited to 1,500 signed copies.

  Subterranean also produced a 500-copy slipcased edition of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book signed by both the author and illustrator Dave McKean ($250), and a twenty-nine copy lettered edition in a hand-made traycase that included an original sketch by the artist ($900).

  Subterranean’s edition of Stephen King Goes to the Movies was limited to 2,000 copies, printed in two colours throughout and featuring five full-colour plates by Vincent Chong.

  Dan Simmons’ Drood and The Terror were both published in signed editions limited to 500 copies plus $500 lettered and traycased editions of twenty-six copies apiece.

  Seven for a Secret was an alternate world vampire novella by Elizabeth Bear, available in a trade edition and also as a signed edition limited to 250 copies with a bonus chapbook.

  Unchained and Unhinged was a collection of ten short stories and six previously published essays by Joe R. Lansdale, who also supplied an Introduction.

  Edited by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, the second volume of The Reader’s Bloch: Skeleton in the Closet and Other Stories contained sixteen previously uncollected stories by the late Robert Bloch with a cover by Gahan Wilson. The hardcover was limited to 750 copies signed by the editor.

  Crimson Shadows: The Best of Robert E. Howard Volume One from Subterranean Press included a Foreword and the usual disappointing interior illustrations by Jim and Ruth Keegan. It was available in a limited edition of 750 numbered copies, signed by the artists.

  It perhaps didn’t help that the delayed anthology British Invasion from Cemetery Dance Publications was, in fact, co-edited by two Americans (Christopher Golden and James A. Moore) and just one Brit (Tim Lebbon). As a result, the twenty-one original stories were a decidedly mixed bag that failed to reflect accurately the current state of British horror fiction (not helped by the inclusion of a number of expatriates). That said, there were still some fine stories from the always-reliable Ramsey Campbell, Sarah Pinborough, Paul Finch, Peter Crowther and others, along with an Introduction by Stephen Volk and an Afterword by Kim Newman. However, it’s hard to imagine that any American readers understood the many in-jokes to be found in the anonymous contribution “British Horror Weekend”.

  Mind the Gap: A Novel of the Hidden Cities by Golden and Lebbon was also set in the UK, as a young girl was pursued through the forgotten tunnels of London’s Underground network by a cabal of mysterious black-clad strangers. The novel was published by Cemetery Dance in a signed limited edition of 1,000 hardcover copies.

  A man was pursued by an unstoppable assassin in Brian Keene’s Kill Whitey, which was limited to 360 signed copies and fifty-two traycased copies.

  Edited by Bob Booth, The Big Book of Necon was a thirtieth anniversary tribute to the Northeast Horror and Fantasy Convention, with memoirs and reprint fiction by the late Charles L. Grant, Stephen King, Peter Straub, Neil Gaiman, F. Paul Wilson, Elizabeth Hand, Thomas Monteleone and others, mostly taken from the event’s programme books. It was published as a trade hardcover and three signed, limited editions, only the two most expensive of which were signed by King.

  Midnight Grinding & Other Twilight Terrors contained thirty-two Southern Horror stories (two original) by Ronald Kelly, who also supplied the story notes. It was issued in an edition of 1,250 copies and a twenty-six copy traycased edition.

  Cemetery Dance also issued Al Sarrantonio’s “Orangefield” novel Halloweenland in a special signed hardcover edition of 1,250 copies. It was originally published in different form, under another title, in 2006. The publisher also reissued Sarrantonio’s 1989 werewolf novel Moonbane in a special signed edition of 1,500 copies with a new Preface by the author and nice interior artwork by Keith Minnion.

  From the same imprint, Halloween and Other Seasons contained eighteen stories by Sarrantonio in a signed edition limited to 1,250 copies, while Got to Kill Them All and Other Stories collected eighteen “unfl inching” reprint tales by Dennis Etchison with an Introduction by George Clayton Johnson. It was limited to 750 copies signed by the author and a traycased, leather-bound edition of twenty-six copies.

  Richard Laymon’s novel The Woods Are Dark was published in a restored edition that added almost fifty pages to the original 1981 version. A fifty-two copy traycased edition included colour artwork.

  Cemetery Dance also reissued William Peter Blatty’s 1999 haunted house novella Elsewhere with new interior illustrations by Alex McVey in a 350-copy signed edition and fifty-two tray-cased, leatherbound and lettered copies ($250).

  Shivers V was the latest volume in the original trade paperback anthology series edited by Richard Chizmar for Cemetery Dance. It contained twenty-four stories by Sarah Langan, Robert Morrish, Mick Garris, Scott Nicholson, John Skipp and Cody Goodfellow, Sarah Pinborough, Graham Masterton, Nicholas Kaufmann, Simon Clark, Al Sarrantonio, Nick Mamatas, Steve Rasnic Tem, Rick Hautala, Chet Williams and others, including two by Robin Furth.

  Joe Morey’s Dark Regions Press continued to promote new and upcoming authors with illustrated and often signed trade paperback collections and novels.

  Thought Forms was a new novel by Jeffrey Thomas which the author had originally written back in the late 1980s, while Jeff Strand’s aptly titled Gleefully Macabre Tales not only contained thirty-two stories (two original), but also the novella Disposal.

  Apparently inspired by Charles L. Grant’s “Oxrun Station” stories, the twelve tales (one reprint) in David B. Silva’s The Shadows of Kingston Mills were set in the eponymous horror-haunted town. Paul F. Olson supplied the Introduction. The Darkly Splendid Realm collected thirteen stories (eleven original) by Canadian writer Richard Gavin, with an Introduction by Laird Barron and an Afterword by the author.

  Voices from the Dark was a slim volume containing the blank verse of Gary William Crawford with an Introduction by Bruce Boston. Boston’s own Double Visions contained twenty-one poems, all collaborations, with an Introduction by J.L. Comeau.

  As if all that wasn’t enough, Dark Regions also launched a “New Voices in Horror” series that showcased the work of emerging talents. The first four volumes in the series were #1: Dark Entities by David Dunwoody with a Foreword by James Roy Daley; #2: Shades of Blood and Shadow by Angeline Hawkes; #3: Resurrection House by James Chambers with a Foreword by C.J. Henderson, and #4: Undertow and Other Laments by Michael Kelly with an Introduction by Gary Braunbeck.

  For fans of the fiction of M.R. James, from Dark Regions’ companion imprint Ghost House, came the slightly ungrammatically titled They That Dwell in Dark Places and Other Ghost Stories by Scottish author Daniel McGachey. The trade paperback collection contained thirteen very impressive Jamesian pastiches (five original), along with story notes by the author and an Introduction by Charles Black.

  The latest anthology from DarkArts Books, edited with an Introduction by Bill Breedlove, was Mighty Unclean, which featured sixteen original and reprint “unwholesome tales” by Cody Goodfellow, Gemma Files, Mort Castle and Gary A. Braunbeck.

  Launched by Sandra Kasturi and Brett Alexander Savor
y, ChiZine Publications (CZP) was an ambitious new Canadian small press imprint devoted to dark fiction. The list launched with David Nickle’s impressive short-story collection Monstrous Affections, which contained fourteen stories (three original) and an Introduction by Michael Rowe.

  Horror Story and Other Horror Stories collected nineteen tales (five original) by Robert Boyczuk, while Objects of Worship contained twelve stories (two original) by Claude Lalumière with an Introduction by James Morrow and an Afterword by the author.

  Also from ChiZine, Daniel A. Rabuzzi’s The Choir Boats was the first volume of “Longing for Yount”, set on a bizarre world where a nineteenth-century London merchant held the key to self-redemption. Brent Hayward’s novel Filaria was set on a crumbling world, while a young boy disappeared into the forest behind his house in Robert J. Wiersema’s novella The World More Full of Weeping.

  The Tel Aviv Dossier was a biblical mystery with Lovecraftian overtones by Lavie Tidhar and Nir Yaniv, also from ChiZine, who entered into a distribution deal with Diamond Book Distributors to supply their titles to bookstores in both the US and UK.

  Edited by D.M. Mitchell, Starry Wisdom Vol. 2: Songs of the Black Würm Gism was an anthology of twenty-one Lovecraftian stories from Creation Oneiros, with an Introduction by John Coulthart.

  From Cycatrix Press/Dark Discoveries Publications, The Bleeding Edge: Dark Barriers, Dark Frontiers was a mess of an anthology apparently thrown together by editors William F. Nolan and Jason V. Brock. Despite featuring minor contributions from such heavy-hitters as Ray Bradbury (a brief “Martian” tale), James Robert Smith, Earl Hammer Jr and John Tomerlin, there were new stories from John Shirley, Nancy Kilpatrick, Gary A. Braunbeck, Joe R. Lansdale, Christopher Conlon, Kurt Newton, Lisa Morton, Steve Rasnic Tem, Cody Goodfellow and both editors, along with scripts and teleplays by Richard Matheson and Richard Christian Matheson, George Clayton Johnson, Dan O’Bannon and Norman Corwin, and a biographical essay about collecting pulps by Frank M. Robinson. The book was limited to 400 trade copies signed by the editors and seventy-five deluxe numbered hardcovers signed by all contributors with additional artwork by Kris Kuksi.