by Ellen Datlow
“That’s the operative word, Gilly. Justice. Nettie Pratican went beyond justice the moment she had the suits made, the moment she decided on the spikes and what to tip them with.”
Gilly Nescombe held up the doll’s head as if reading a crystal ball or considering a piece of fruit from the Garden of Eden. “The spiteful old bitch. Even God doesn’t get to be that vindictive anymore.”
For Tammy Vance
Copyright Acknowledgments
“The Monsters of Heaven” copyright © 2007 by Nathan Ballingrud
“The Forest” copyright © 2007 by Laird Barron
“Inelastic Collisions” copyright © 2007 by Elizabeth Bear
“Hushabye” copyright © 2007 by Simon Bestwick
“The Keeper” copyright © 2007 by P. D. Cacek
“Stilled Life” copyright © 2007 by Pat Cadigan
“The Suits at Auderlene” copyright © 2007 by Terry Dowling
“Bethany’s Wood” copyright © 2007 by Paul Finch
“The Bedroom Light” copyright © 2007 by Jeffrey Ford
“The Uninvited” copyright © 2007 by Christopher Fowler
“Misadventure” copyright © 2007 by Stephen Gallagher
“Lives” copyright © 2007 by John Grant
“The Janus Tree” copyright © 2007 by Glen Hirshberg
“Riding Bitch” copyright © 2007 by K. W. Jeter
“Face” copyright © 2007 by The Ontario Review, Inc.
“13 O’Clock” copyright © 2007 by Mike O’Driscoll
“Ghorla” copyright © 2007 by Mark Samuels
“The Ease with Which We Freed the Beast” copyright © 2007 by Lucius Shepard
“An Apiary of White Bees” copyright © 2007 by Lee Thomas
“Perhaps the Last” copyright © 2007 by Conrad Williams
ALSO EDITED BY ELLEN DATLOW
Blood Is Not Enough
Alien Sex
A Whisper of Blood
Little Deaths
Off Limits
Twists of the Tale: Stories of Cat Horror
Lethal Kisses
Vanishing Acts1
The Dark1
Poe: Nineteen New Tales of Suspense, Dark Fantasy and Horror Inspired
by Edgar Allan Poe
The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy
WITH TERRI WINDLING
Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers
A Wolf at the Door and Other Retold Fairy Tales
The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest
Swan Sister: Fairy Tales Retold
The Faery Reel
Salon Fantastique
The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales
Troll’s Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales
THE ADULT FAIRY TALE SERIES
Snow White, Blood Red
Black Thorn, White Rose
Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears
Black Swan, White Raven
Silver Birch, Blood Moon
Black Heart, Ivory Bones
The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror:
First through Sixteenth Annual Collections
WITH KELLY LINK AND GAVIN J. GRANT
The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror:
Seventeenth through Twenty-first Annual Collections
Praise for Ellen Datlow’s
INFERNO
“Award-winning SF/fantasy editor Datlow’s first non-themed collection includes twenty stories by British and Australian writers that run the gamut from the grotesque to family-security worries … . All of the stories are wisely chosen and deserve the attention and comment.”
—Library Journal
“When you see [Datlow’s] name attached to a book, you know you’re in for a rich literary meal. And what a feast it is! The writing on display in Inferno is exquisite, and the concepts even more so. You won’t find any tired old clichés here, only fiercely original stories told with some of the best prose I’ve read all year. Inferno is a monument to all that horror fiction is capable of.”
—Fearzone
“There was no absence of high-quality writing in this far above the average original selection.”
—Don D’Ammassa, SF Chronicle
“Inferno delivers in full on its awaited premise, and Ellen Datlow stands on the same plinth as Dante, if only in fright-coordinating echo. More anthologies like Inferno, and its predecessor of a few years ago, The Dark, should be urgent priorities. It’s very clear that horror at short length is poised for a major revival.”
—Nick Gevers, Locus
“Ellen Datlow is the queen of anthology editors in America. She has great taste, an amazing talent for finding good new writers, and many, many enduring friendships in the community of SF/fantasy/horror writers, which means she can always call upon the cream of the crop. Inferno isn’t just good, it is astonishingly good, the product of an editor who really knows what she is doing.”
—Peter Straub, New York Times bestselling author of
In the Night Room
Turn the page to see more raves for Inferno.
“Fans of horror fiction owe it to themselves to pick up this creepy, stylish anthology.”
—SciFi.com
“Inferno promised twenty original tales of terror, and it wasn’t kidding. Killer stories by Gallagher, Cadigan, Ford, and Jeter make it worth the price alone. But the others are no slouch in the terror department either; they’re jacked-up and creeped down, perfect for late-night reading when you want to get your chill on. An excellent anthology.”
—Joe R. Lansdale, author of Lost Echoes
“This is a smorgasbord for any horror reader, regardless of where his or her interests may lie; horror, terror, or gross out. This book serves up excellent, high-quality creep.”
—The Green Man Review
“The literary writers have their Nobel Literary Prizes and Oprah. The mystery writers have the New York Times bestseller lists. The science fiction writers have guest of honor appearances, and the horror writers have Ellen Datlow. We have many horror editors churning out multiauthor collections, but few are even close to being as competent and talented as Ellen Datlow.”
—Whispers of Wickedness
“A great horror anthology that features a nice mix of established and newer writers. Nathan Ballingrud’s ‘The Monsters of Heaven’ is particularly ferocious, but stories by Lucius Shepard, Jeffrey Ford, Conrad Williams, and many others are also very effective.”
—Jeff VanderMeer, Locus Online
“Ellen Datlow is a lover of short horror fiction, and her work as one of the best-known and most-loved editors in the field of fantastic literature is unparalleled … . [She] is to be commended for her body of work, and this latest collection of hers deserves to be widely read.”
—Dayton City Paper
“Datlow’s Inferno is a legend-in-the-making anthology that should find a home on your bookshelf between Prime Evil and The Descent of Horror. This is the real deal, folks.”
—J. L. Comeau, Countgore.com
“This must for fans of horror is a strange and motley array of stories. While there is no theme per se, there is a pervasive sense of loss, vengeance, and horror that fans will enjoy—if one can call being completely creeped out enjoyable.”
—Romantic Times BOOKreviews
… And for The Dark
“Datlow has cast her net beyond the horror genre’s usual names and pulled in contributors whose stories are the equal of their best work, as well as mystery, fantasy, and SF writers whose tales seem to be the ghost story they’ve always wanted to tell. This book is sure to provide a yardstick by which future ghost fiction will be measured.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Crack genre editor Datlow draws top-notch talent. The Dark is one of those must-buy anthologies for anyone who enjoys well-written ghost stories that will have readers starting at shadows and turning on night-lights.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Datlow remains
one of the surest anthologists in the business, with catholic tastes, impeccable discernment, and access to top talent. The Dark offers a wide range of specters and approaches to them, from Jamesian subtlety to outright, no-bones-about-it horror shows. It’s a good selection to dip into on long winter nights.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Datlow again proves she’s one of the top editors in the horror field, collecting sixteen memorable ghost stories together in a single volume, proving that there’s plenty of life left in this subgenre. Highly recommended.”
—Hank Wagner, Hellnotes
“Any anthology of stories edited by Ellen Datlow is a volume to savor. Datlow’s The Dark proves there is quite a gamut to run when it comes to the modern ghost and there are still chills to be found in spectral stories.”
—Cemetery Dance
About the Editor
ELLEN DATLOW has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for over twenty-five years. She was fiction editor of Omni magazine for seventeen years and the award-winning Sci Fiction for six years, and has edited more than fifty anthologies, including the horror half of the long-running The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy, The Dark, Vanishing Acts, Troll’s Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales, The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales, and Salon Fantastique, (the latter three with Terri Windling). She continues to edit anthologies for adults, young adults, and children. Datlow has won eight World Fantasy Awards, two Bram Stoker Awards, three Hugo Awards, four Locus Awards, the British Fantasy Award, and the International Horror Guild Award for her editing. She lives in New York City. For more information and lots of photos, see www.datlow.com.
Notes
1 A Tor Book
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously.
INFERNO
Copyright © 2007 by Ellen Datlow
All rights reserved.
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
eISBN 9781466817678
First eBook Edition : April 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Inferno : new tales of terror and the supernatural / edited by Ellen Datlow.
p. cm.
“A Tor book.”
ISBN-13: 978-0-7653-1559-5
ISBN-10: 0-7653-1559-9
1. Horror tales, American. 2. Horror tales, English. 3. Short stories, American. 4. Short stories, English. 5. American fiction—21st century. 6. English fiction—21st century. I. Datlow, Ellen.
PS648.H6I56 2007
823’.0873808—dc22
2007026073
First Hardcover Edition: December 2007
First Trade Paperback Edition: April 2009