Darker Terrors

by Neil Gaiman

  Donald Tumasonis, after a largely picaresque and misspent youth, settled down, he thought, to a quiet life on the outskirts of a Scandinavian capital, with a charming, if Norwegian wife; lively, if rambunctious cats; and interesting, if space-consuming books. Little did he anticipate the chain of events awaiting, forcing him into the mendicant life of a writer with little more than a bronze parachute to protect him. He has since published stories in Ghosts & Scholars, All Hallows, Supernatural Tales, Shadows and Tall Trees, Shadows and Silence, Strange Tales, A Walk on the Darkside: Visions of Horror, Acquainted with the Night, At Ease with the Dead, The Year’s Best Horror and Fantasy and The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. As he explains about the preceding story, winner of the 2003 International Horror Guild Award: ‘“The Prospect Cards” draws its inspiration from many sources: stuffy booksellers’ catalogues, volumes of 18th and 19th century Levantine travel, a walk along the Seine, Rider Haggard in his usual more perverse mode, and anthropological literature. Its mood was influenced by the books of George MacDonald Fraser, Glen Baxter and the character of John Cleese. It was meant to be humorous, but seems to have got out of hand.’

  Afterword

  DAVID A. SUTTON

  THE JONES AND Sutton ‘carnival of horror’ began many moons ago … in 1977, when we began co-publishing our small press magazine Fantasy Tales. Designed unashamedly to look a bit like the pulps, particularly Weird Tales, the magazine included new stories from right across the genre. Its success in that format led to mass-market paperback editions, with Nick Robinson our publisher for later volumes.

  After that we were hired to revive the flagging Pan Book of Horror Stories. Initially Dark Voices: The Best from the Pan Book of Horror Stories came out from Stephen Jones and former Pan editor Clarence Paget. Kathy Gale, our genre editor at Pan Books, then allowed us to define a new wave for the series in the 1990s. Under its revised title, Dark Voices: The Pan Book of Horror, we upped our game in the horror field over a further five volumes, bringing to readers a whole new variety of authors currently writing contemporary horror. It was Pan Horror for modern age.

  And then came Dark Terrors: The Gollancz Book of Horror (1995-2002). Commissioned at Victor Gollancz by Jo Fletcher, she contracted the series in both hardcover and paperback, which gave added prestige for an annual series in the UK. As with its predecessor, this was a non-themed horror anthology series. We didn’t want a thematic ‘hook’ which the reader could comfortably latch on to. We wanted to fling our readers into the wild, into the screaming pitch of horror, into the psychological, graphic, off-the-wall, or just plainly weird.

  From volume 5 the page-count doubled and we could offer much more weird fiction for readers to enjoy. Volume 4 won the British Fantasy Award for Best Anthology in 1999 and, in 2002, volume 6 won The International Horror Guild Award in that same category.

  Over the six volumes we published 141 stories. We probably read somewhere near twice that many stories per volume in order to make our selections. Some of the authors featured more than once, and it began to feel like we had a little repertory company of writers who could always deliver the goods! Nevertheless we always tried to bring new writers into the series as well.

  In terms of contributors, two tied for the most stories published, with six stories each: Ramsey Campbell and Michael Marshall Smith. Christopher Fowler was represented five times. Six writers had four appearances each: Dennis Etchison, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Graham Masterton, Kim Newman, Nicholas Royle, David J. Schow and Conrad Williams. And with three tales apiece were Terry Lamsley, Joel Lane, Roberta Lannes, Richard Christian Matheson, Jay Russell, Peter Straub and Steve Rasnic Tem.

  Sadly, several of our contributors are no longer with us: Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), John Burke (1922-2011), Basil Copper (1924-2013), Les Daniels (1943-2011), C. Bruce Hunter (1944-2009), Jay Lake (1964-2014), Joel Lane (1963-2013), Julian Rathbone (1935-2008), Karl Edward Wagner (1945-1994) and Cherry Wilder (1930-2002).

  So, statistics aside, here is Darker Terrors, a compilation of some of the best stories to appear in the course of the series. Some of the authors above are included here, but not all. The method of choosing the most representative stories was a relatively painless task – which ones to add to the line-up in what is, looking back, a very competitive selection of tales. The process was only complicated by the need to represent each volume of the series. This resulted in juggling ‘potential’ Contents listings between each of us as editors until we finally settled on a definitive line-up herein.

  If you are a new reader, we hope you are suitably unnerved and inspired by this choice of stories. And you may go back to seek out the original six volumes, where you will doubtless find other gems.

  But for now, this is our snapshot, our offering of the dark realm that was Dark Terrors …

  —David A. Sutton

  April, 2015

  Index to

  DARK TERRORS: THE GOLLANCZ BOOK OF HORROR

  Volumes #1-6 (1995-2002)

  _________________________

  I: Index by Contributor

  BARKER, Clive‘Animal Life’#2

  BARKER, Trey‘Dead Snow’#6

  BAXTER, Stephen‘The Dinosaur Hunter’#6

  ‘Family History’#4

  BLYTHE, GaryCover#6

  BRADBURY, Ray‘Free Dirt’#3

  BRENCHLEY, Chaz‘Everything, in All the Wrong Order’ #5

  BRITE, Poppy Z.‘Entertaining Mr Orton’ #4

  ‘Self-Made Man’#3

  BROWN, Eric‘Beauregard’#5

  BURKE, John‘A Habit of Hating’#6

  BURLESON, Donald R.‘Tumbleweeds’#4

  CAMPBELL, Ramsey‘The Horror Under Warrendown’ #3

  ‘Never to Be Heard’#4

  ‘No Story in It’#5

  ‘Out of the Woods’#2

  ‘The Puppets’#1

  ‘The Retrospective’#6

  CADIGAN, Pat‘This is Your Life (Repressed Memory Remix)’ #3

  CASE, David‘Pelican Cay’#5

  CONSTANTINE, Storm‘Such a Nice Girl’#3

  COPPER, Basil‘There Lies the Danger …’ #6

  DANIELS, Les‘Under My Skin’#6

  EDITORS, The‘Introduction’#2

  ‘Introduction’#3

  ‘Introduction’#4

  ‘Introduction’#5

  ‘Introduction’#6

  EDWARDS, LesCover#4

  EGGLETON, BobCover#1

  Cover#2

  Cover#3

  ELLISON, Harlan‘The Museum on Cyclops Avenue’ #2

  ETCHISON, Dennis‘The Dead Cop’#2

  ‘Inside the Cackle Factory’#4

  ‘The Last Reel’#3

  ‘My Present Wife’#5

  FILES, Gemma‘Job 37’#6

  FOWLER, Christopher‘At Home in the Pubs of Old London’ #5

  ‘The Laundry Imp’#1

  ‘Normal Life’#4

  ‘Spanky’s Back in Town’#3

  ‘We’re Going Where the Sun Shines Brightly’ #6

  FROST, Gregory‘The Girlfriends of Dorian Gray’ #5

  GAIMAN, NEIL‘The Price’#3

  ‘The Wedding Present’#4

  GARRIS, Mick‘A Hollywood Ending’ #6

  ‘Starfucker’#5

  GARTON, Ray‘Pieces’#3

  GRAMLICH, Charles A.‘Splatter of Black’ #1

  HIRSHBERG, Glen‘The Two Sams’#6

  HODGE, Brian‘Little Holocausts’#3

  ‘Now Day Was Fled as the Worm Had Wished’ #5

  HUNTER, C. Bruce‘Changes’#5

  ‘The Travelling Salesman’s Christmas Special’ #1

  JONES, Gwyneth‘Destroyer of Worlds’#5

  KIDD, Chico‘Handwriting of the God’ #6

  KIERNAN, Caitlín R.‘Estate’#3

  ‘The Road of Pins’#6

  ‘To This Water (Johnstown, Pennsylvania 1889)’ #2

  ‘Valentia’#5

  KILPATRICK, Nancy‘Necronomicos’#5

  ‘Your Shadow Knows You Well’
#6

  LAKE, Jay‘Eglantine’s Time’#6

  LAMSLEY, Terry‘The Lost Boy Found’#3

  ‘Screens’#1

  ‘Suburban Blight’#4

  LANE, Joel‘The Bootleg Heart’#5

  ‘The Country of Glass’#4

  ‘The Receivers’#6

  LANNES, Roberta‘A Feast at Grief’s Table’ #1

  ‘Mr Guidry’s Head’#4

  ‘Pearl’#5

  LEBBON, Tim‘Black’ #6

  LEE, Samantha‘Aversion Therapy’#6

  LEE, Tanith‘The Abortionist’s Horse (A Nightmare)’ #5

  ‘Midday People’#5

  LUMLEY, Brian‘A Really Game Boy’#2

  ‘Uzzi’#1

  MASTERTON, Graham‘The Burgers of Calais’ #6

  ‘The Hungry Moon’#1

  ‘Underbed’#2

  ‘Witch-Compass’#5

  MATHESON, Richard

  Christian‘Barking Sands’#5

  ‘Bleed’#1

  ‘The Great Fall’#4

  ‘Slaves of Nowhere’#6

  McAULEY, Paul J.‘Negative Equity’#2

  MILLER, James‘Absolute Zero’#2

  ‘Weak End’#4

  MORRIS, Mark‘Eternity Ltd.’#1

  MORTON, Lisa‘The Death of Splatter’#6

  ‘Love Eats’#1

  MURPHY, Joe‘Sweetness and Light’ #6

  NAVARRO, Yvonne‘Mother, Personified’ #6

  NEWMAN, Kim‘A Drug on the Market’#6

  ‘Going to Series’#5

  ‘Where the Bodies Are Buried 3: Black and

  White and Red All Over’#1

  ‘Where the Bodies Are Buried 2020’ #2

  NICHOLSON, Geoff‘Making Monsters’ #4

  ‘Moving History’#6

  PTACEK, Kathryn‘Skinned Angels’#3

  RATHBONE, Julian‘Fat Mary’#3

  RICHARDS, Tony‘The Cure’#6

  ROYLE, Nicholas‘The Comfort of Stranglers’ #2

  ‘Hide and Seek’

  ‘The Lagoon’#1

  ‘The Proposal’#5

  RUSSELL, Jay‘Lily’s Whisper’#2

  ‘Sous Rature’#3

  ‘Sullivan’s Travails’#4

  SCHOW, David J.‘The Incredible True Facts in the Case’ #4

  ‘(Melodrama)’#2

  ‘Plot Twist’#6

  ‘Why Rudy Can’t Read’#5

  SIENKEWICZ, BillCover #5

  SLATER, Mandy‘Food for Thought’#1

  SMITH, Michael Marshall‘The Handover’#5

  ‘Hell Hath Enlarged Herself’#2

  ‘A Long Walk, for the Last Time’ #6

  ‘More Tomorrow’#1

  ‘A Place to Stay’#4

  ‘Walking Wounded’#3

  STABLEFORD, Brian‘The Haunted Bookshop’ #5

  STRAUB, Peter‘Fee’#1

  ‘The Geezers’#5

  ‘Hunger: An Introduction’#2

  TEM, Melanie‘Alicia’#5

  ‘Aunt Libby’s Grave’#3

  TEM, Steve Rasnic‘The Rains’#2

  ‘Sampled’#1

  ‘Sharp Edges’#3

  TESSIER, Thomas‘Curing Hitler’#4

  ‘Ghost Music: A Memoir by George Beaune #2

  TIMLIN, Mark‘Everybody Needs Somebody to Love’ #3

  TROTTER, William R.‘Honeysuckle’#5

  TUMASONIS, Don‘The Prospect Cards’#6

  TURZILLO, Mary A.‘Bottle Babies’#5

  TUTTLE, Lisa‘Haunts’#5

  ‘My Pathology’#4

  VANDERMEER, Jeff‘At the Crossroads, Burying the Dog’ #1

  ‘In the Hours After Death’#6

  VAN PELT, James‘The Boy Behind the Gate’ #6

  ‘Savannah is Six’#5

  WAGNER, Charles‘All My Friends Are Here’ #1

  WAGNER, Karl Edward‘I’ve Come to Talk With You Again’ #1

  WILDER, Cherry‘Saturday’#5

  WILLIAMS, Conrad‘Haifisch’#6

  ‘Something For Free’#2

  ‘The Suicide Pit’#4

  ‘The Windmill’#3

  WILSON, Gahan‘Final Departure’#5

  II: Index by Title

  ABORTIONIST’S HORSE (A

  NIGHTMARE), THETanith Lee#5

  ABSOLUTE ZEROJames Miller#2

  ALICIAMelanie Tem#5

  ALL MY FRIENDS ARE HERECharles Wagner #1

  ANIMAL LIFEClive Barker #2

  AT HOME IN THE PUBS OF OLD

  LONDONChristopher Fowler#5

  AT THE CROSSROADS, BURYING

  THE DOGJeff VanderMeer#1

  AUNT LIBBY’S GRAVEMelanie Tem#3

  AVERSION THERAPYSamantha Lee#6

  BARKING SANDSRichard Christian Matheson #5

  BEAUREGARDEric Brown#5

  BLACKTim Lebbon #6

  BLEEDRichard Christian Matheson #1

  BOOTLEG HEART, THEJoel Lane#5

  BOTTLE BABIESMary A. Turzillo#5

  BOY BEHIND THE GATE, THEJames Van Pelt #6

  BURGERS OF CALAIS, THEGraham Masterton #6

  CHANGESC. Bruce Hunter#5

  COMFORT OF STRANGLERS, THENicholas Royle #2

  COUNTRY OF GLASS, THEJoel Lane#4

  COVERBob Eggleton #1

  COVERBob Eggleton #2

  COVERBob Eggleton #3

  COVERLes Edwards #4

  COVERBill Sienkewicz #5

  COVERGary Blythe #6

  CURE, THETony Richards#6

  CURING HITLERThomas Tessier#4

  DEAD COP, THEDennis Etchison#2

  DEAD SNOWTrey Barker#6

  DEATH OF SPLATTER, THELisa Morton#6

  DESTROYER OF WORLDSGwyneth Jones#5

  DINOSAUR HUNTER, THEStephen Baxter#6

  DRUG ON THE MARKET, AKim Newman #6

  EGLANTINE’S TIMEJay Lake#6

  ENTERTAINING MR ORTONPoppy Z. Brite #4

  ESTATECaitlín R. Kiernan #3

  ETERNITY LTD.Mark Morris #1

  EVERYBODY NEEDS SOMEBODY

  TO LOVEMark Timlin#3

  EVERYTHING, IN ALL THE WRONG

  ORDERChaz Brenchley#5

  FAMILY HISTORYStephen Baxter#4

  FAT MARYJulian Rathbone#3

  FEAST AT GRIEF’S TALE, ARoberta Lannes#1

  FEEPeter Straub#1

  FINAL DEPARTUREGahan Wilson #5

  FOOD FOR THOUGHTMandy Slater #1

  FREE DIRTRay Bradbury#3

  GEEZERS, THEPeter Straub #5

  GHOST MUSIC: A MEMOIR BY

  GEORGE BEAUNEThomas Tessier#2

  GIRLFRIENDS OF DORIAN GRAY,

  THEGregory Frost#5

  GOING TO SERIESKim Newman #5

  GREAT FALL, THERichard Christian Matheson #4

  HABIT OF HATING, AJohn Burke#6

  HAIFISCHConrad Williams#6

  HANDOVER, THEMichael Marshall Smith #5

  HANDWRITING OF THE GODChico Kidd #6

  HAUNTED BOOKSHOP, THEBrian Stableford#5

  HAUNTSLisa Tuttle #5

  HELL HATH ENLARGED HERSELFMichael Marshall Smith #2

  HIDE AND SEEKNicholas Royle#6

  HOLLYWOOD ENDING, AMick Garris #6

  HONEYSUCKLEWilliam A. Trotter #5

  HORROR UNDER WARRENDOWN,

  THERamsey Campbell#3

  HUNGER: AN INTRODUCTIONPeter Straub #2

  HUNGRY MOON, THEGraham Masterton #1

  INCREDIBLE TRUE FACTS IN THE

  CASE, THEDavid J. Schow#4

  INSIDE THE CACKLE FACTORYDennis Etchison #4

  IN THE HOURS AFTER DARKJeff VanderMeer #6

  INTRODUCTIONThe Editors#2

  INTRODUCTIONThe Editors#3

  INTRODUCTIONThe Editors#4

  INTRODUCTIONThe Editors#5

  INTRODUCTIONThe Editors#6

  I’VE COME TO TALK WITH YOU

  AGAINKarl Edward Wagner#1

  JOBGemma Files#6

  LAGOON, THENicholas Royle#1

  LAST REEL, THEDennis Etchison#3

  LAUNDRY IMP, THEChristopher Fowler#1

  LILY
’S WHISPERChristopher Fowler#2

  LITTLE HOLOCAUSTSBrian Hodge #3

  LONG WALK, FOR THE LAST TIME, AMichael Marshall Smith #6

  LOST BOY FOUND, THETerry Lamsley #3

  LOVE EATSLisa Morton #1

  MAKING MONSTERSGeoff Nicholson#4

  (MELODRAMA)David J. Schow#2

  MIDDAY PEOPLETanith Lee#6

  MORE TOMORROWMichael Marshall Smith #1

  MOTHER, PERSONIFIEDYvonne Navarro#6

  MOVING HISTORYGeoff Nicholson#6

  MR GUIDRY’S HEADRoberta Lannes#4

  MUSEUM ON CYCLOPS AVENUE,

  THEHarlan Ellison#2

  MY PATHOLOGYLisa Tuttle#4

  MY PRESENT WIFEDennis Etchison#5

  NECRONOMICOSNancy Kilpatrick#5

  NEGATIVE EQUITYPaul J. McAuley#2

  NEVER TO BE HEARDRamsey Campbell#4

  NORMAL LIFEChristopher Fowler#4

  NO STORY IN ITRamsey Campbell#5

  NOW DAY WAS FLED AS THE WORM

  HAD WISHEDBrian Hodge#5

  OUT OF THE WOODSRamsey Campbell #2

  PEARLRoberta Lannes#5

  PELICAN CAYDavid Case#5

  PIECESRay Garton#3

  PLACE TO STAY, AMichael Marshall Smith #4

  PLOT TWISTDavid J. Schow #6

  PRICE, THENeil Gaiman #3

  PROPOSAL, THENicholas Royle#5

  PROSPECT CARDS, THEDon Tumasonis#6

  PUPPETS, THERamsey Campbell #1

  RAINS, THESteve Rasnic Tem #2

  REALLY GAME BOY, ABrian Lumley #2

  RECEIVERS, THEJoel Lane#6

  RETROSPECTIVE, THERamsey Campbell #6

  ROAD OF PINS, THECaitlín R. Kiernan #6

  SAMPLEDSteve Rasnic Tem#1

  SATURDAYCherry Wilder#5

  SAVANNAH IS SIXJames Van Pelt#5

  SCREENSTerry Lamsley#1

  SELF-MADE MANPoppy Z. Brite #3

  SHARP EDGESSteve Rasnic Tem #3

  SKINNED ANGELSKathryn Ptacek#3

  SLAVES OF NOWHERERichard Christian Matheson #6

  SOMETHING FOR FREEConrad Williams#2

  SOUS RATUREJay Russell#3

  SPANKY’S BACK IN TOWNChristopher Fowler #3

  SPLATTER OF BLACKCharles A. Gramlich #1

  STARFUCKERMick Garris #5

  SUBURBAN BLIGHTTerry Lamsley #4

  SUCH A NICE GIRLStorm Constantine #3

  SUICIDE PIT, THEConrad Williams#4

  SULLIVAN’S TRAVAILSJay Russell #4

  SWEETNESS AND LIGHTJoe Murphy#6

  THERE LIES THE DANGER …Basil Copper #6

  THIS IS YOUR LIFE (REPRESSED

  MEMORY REMIX)Pat Cadigan #3

  TO THIS WATER (JOHNSTOWN,

  PENNSYLVANIA 1889)Caitlín R. Kiernan #2

  TRAVELLING SALESMAN’S

  CHRISTMAS SPECIAL, THEC. Bruce Hunter #1