The Year's Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2013

by Angela Slatter

  Fablecroft’s excellent collection this year was Joanne Anderton’s The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories, edited by Tehani Wessely, which took out Best Collection at the Aurealis Awards and the Australian Shadows Awards, as well as being nominated for the Ditmar, and two of the stories from the collection were nominated in short story categories for both the Aurealis and the Ditmar awards.

  David Conyers released a number of short fantasy/horror/science fiction collections this year: The Impossible Object (Harrison Peel Files #1), The Weaponized Puzzle (Harrison Peel Files #2), The Uncertainty Bridge, his Cthulhu collection The Nightmare Dimension, and The Entropy Conflict.

  Kaaron Warren released a reprint collection of five of her dark fantasy/horror stories, The Gate Theory, with Geoff Brown at Cohesion Press. Andrez Bergen published his eclectic collection, The Condimental Op through Perfect Edge Books. Edwina Harvey released her collection, The Back of the Back of Beyond with Peggy Bright Books, edited by Simon Petrie. Anthony Sweet brought out his collection, Simple Broken Things through An Altered Aspect.

  Jay Caselberg released his collection Unnatural Conditions, containing nineteen of his fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories.

  Anthologies

  Jonathan Strahan brought out two fantasy anthologies this year: Fearsome Journeys: The New Solaris Book of Fantasy Volume 1 which was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, and the seventh volume of the Night Shade Books compilation The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, which was nominated for the Aurealis and Locus Best Anthology Awards. Strahan was also nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Editor, Short Form, and was awarded the Peter McNamara Convenors’ Award for Excellence at the Aurealis Awards.

  Fablecroft and Ticonderoga Publications both published two anthologies this year, and each had one reprint and one original anthology.

  Tehani Wessely of Fablecroft released One Small Step: an Anthology of Discoveries and Focus 2012: Highlights of Australian Short Fiction. One Small Step, with authors like Faith Mudge, Deborah Biancotti, Lisa Hannett and Angela Slatter, explored new worlds with a deft touch. The anthology jointly won Best Anthology at the Aurealis Awards, D.K. Mok’s story “Morning Star” was nominated for Best Young Adult Short Fiction in the same awards as well as being nominated for the WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction, and Tansy Rayner Roberts’ “Cold White Daughter” was nominated for Best Short Story in the Ditmars.

  2012: Highlights of Australian Short Fiction contained a number of award-winning and critically acclaimed stories from the year. It was nominated for the Aurealis Award for Best Anthology.

  Ticonderoga Publications’ original anthology for the year was Liz Grzyb’s Arabian Nights-inspired Dreaming of Djinn. This title won the Tin Duck for Best Edited Work, and “Street Dancer” from the anthology won the Tin Duck for Best Short Written Work. The anthology was nominated for the Aurealis Award for Best Anthology, and various other stories were nominated for the Tin Duck Award for Best Short Written Work.

  Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene’s Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2012 co-won the Aurealis Award for Best Anthology, as well as being nominated for the Tin Duck in Best Edited Work.

  Stephen C. Ormsby brought out Tales of Australia: Great Southern Land with Satalyte Publishing, which was nominated for Best Long Fiction in the Chronos Awards. Sean McMullen’s story “Acts of Chivalry” and David McDonald’s “Set Your Face Towards the Darkness” were both nominated for the WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction.

  Anna Caro edited Regeneration: New Zealand Speculative Fiction II with Random Static, which focused on the idea of adaptation, transformation and new growth. Regeneration was nominated for the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Collected Work, and its cover by Emma Weakley, won the Best Professional Artwork Award.

  Simon Petrie edited CSFG’s Next anthology, which combines stories from many of Australia’s excellent short fiction writers, across all the subgenres of speculative fiction.

  Guy Salvidge and Andrez Bergen co-edited the post-apocalyptic noir anthology The Tobacco-Stained Sky with Another Sky Press.

  Issue 42 of Griffith Review: Once Upon a Time in Oz from Text Publishing was an interesting assembly of stories, as it was focused on fairy stories. Editor Julianne Schultz included both fiction and non-fiction pieces centred around the fairy tale idea.

  Sophie Yorkston edited Star Quake 1, the anthology collecting the best stories published in SQ Mag in 2012. The anthology was nominated for an Australian Shadows Award.

  New Zealander Freya Robertson published her own collection of short stories, Augur and other short stories, which included one story from Chris Robertson.

  Visual

  Shaun Tan’s gorgeous new picture book Rules of Summer garnered critical acclaim this year, taking out the Chronos and Ditmar Awards for Best Artwork, and being nominated for Best Art Book at the Locus Awards. Tan was also nominated for Best Artist in the Locus Awards.

  The comic Burger Force from Jackie Ryan was joint winner of the Aurealis Best Illustrated Book/Graphic Novel Award this year, alongside Tom Taylor and James Brouwer’s Volume 2 of The Deep, The Vanishing Island, from Gestalt Comics.

  New Zealand continued its involvement with fantasy in TV and film, with the second film in the Hobbit series, The Desolation of Smaug, being made. The film won many awards, such as the Saturn Award for Best Production Design, the CinEuphoria Awards for Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction, the Empire Awards for Best Male Newcomer and Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy film, the MTV Award for Best Fight. It was also nominated for Academy Awards, BAFTAs, and a World Fantasy Award, among others.

  Return to Nim’s Island, Atomic Kingdom: Revolution and Goldie were other fantasy films made in Australia.

  Podcasts

  Australian podcasts did extremely well at the Hugos this year, with Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond’s The Writer and the Critic, Gary K Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan’s Coode Street Podcast, Galactic Suburbia from Alisa Krasnostein, Alex Pierce, and Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Verity! which Tansy Rayner Roberts is involved with, all being nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Fancast!

  The Writer and the Critic and The Coode Street Podcast were also nominated for a Ditmar. Galactic Suburbia was also nominated for the Ditmar award and the Tin Duck for Best Fan Production.

  Galactic Chat Podcast won the Ditmar for Best Fan Publication. Bruce Gillespie’s SF Commentary won the Chronos Award for Best Fan Publication and was nominated for the Ditmar.

  Ion Newcombe’s Antipodean SF Radio Show delivers stories, news, reviews and interviews from the Antipodean SF Magazine.

  Magazines/Webzines

  Grant Watson’s blog The Angriest, where Watson reviews films, TV ad books, was nominated for a Chronos Award for Best Fan Publication.

  Dark Matter Zine, run by Nalini Haynes, was nominated for a Ditmar for Best Fan Production. Dark Matter prints reviews, interviews, and blogs.

  Aurealis Magazine is available electronically through iTunes and other formats through Smashwords. Aurealis released ten issues in 2013, combining fiction with opinion pieces.

  Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine released issues #57 and #58 in 2013. ASIM is available both electronically and in print through their website.

  Cosmos Magazine regularly publishes speculative fiction edited by Cat Sparks, both in the print magazine (now available as an iPad app) and on the website. While these are primarily science fiction, some stories have fantasy elements.

  Antipodean SF has continued to prolifically publish speculative fiction online, releasing monthly issues.

  Review of Australian Fiction brings two stories from Australian authors every two weeks, and frequently offers speculative fiction pieces.

  New Zealand webzine Novazine from Jacqui Smith brought out six issues in 2013, including short stories, news, reviews and trivia. Novazine was nominated for a Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Fan Production.

  Industry News

  Perth-based small press publishers Drago
nfall Press closed their doors this year, after three years of operations. Their titles are still available through Smashwords, Tomely, and Amazon.

  Solarwyrm Press, run by Jax Goss and Dominica Malcolm, is another new small press who opened in 2012 but produced their first publications in 2013. They run in a crowdfunding, cooperative style.

  Crowdfunding is still a new area of exploration for Australian publishers and authors, as well as internationally. Some authors and publishers have been able to use it as the backbone of their business, whereas others’ experiments in the area have not resulted in enough backers to successfully fund through this means.

  The Year In Horror

  Novels

  2013 had a very diverse range of horror novels published, and the borrowing of horror tropes by paranormal authors continued to blur the genre boundaries. Winner of the Australian Shadows Award for Best Novel was Marty Young’s 809 Jacob Street (Black Beacon Books); the novel concerns a teenage boy and a seasoned bluesman who are drawn to a haunted house in rural Australia in the 1980s. Kent Hill’s Alien Smut Peddlers from the Future, a bizarro western, was published by Strangehouse Books. Black City: The Lark Case Files Book 1 (Gestalt Publishing) by Christian Read, introduced protagonists PI Lark and ex-librarian Scarlett, in a hardboiled gangwar context with occultism and witchcraft. Bloodlust Denied by Christina Phillips was published by Ellora’s Cave; a Regency romance with light BDSM and horror tropes. The debut novel from Jason Franks, Bloody Waters, was published by Possible Press; a rock’n’roll Faustian deal with the devil—guitarist Clarice Marnier brokered not for chops, but for survival. K.C. Webb’s Body Jump (Dark Wind Books) had homicide detective Susan Claw on the trail of a body jumping serial killer dubbed “the butcher”. Adrian Scott’s Child of the Living Dead (The Sins of Mason Thurlow 1) was published by Rebecca J. Vickery; a historical zombie saga set in Haiti. Adina West’s dark urban fantasy Dark Child (Momentum) introduced Kat Chancer, a half-vampire/half-human hybrid pathologist. Matthew Tait’s Dark Meridian (DM Publishing), set in the Adelaide hills, musician Adam Lavas confronts the supernatural gateway of the sinister Meridian House. Dark Rite, co-authored by David Wood and Alan Baxter, was published by Gryphonwood Press; an oldschool occult horror tale set in the tiny Appalachian town of Wallen’s Gap. Keri Arthur’s Darkness Unmasked (Dark Angels 5) (New American Library) continued the story of half-werewolf/half-Aedh Risa Jones. Deicide (Rethink Press) by Tim Hawken concluded the Hellbound trilogy, with a finale in hell. Daniel Brako had arguably the tightest biography blurb/novel tie in—a clinical psychologist turned author, his debut novel Doors (Momentum) concerned a successful psychologist drawn into a murder mystery, who finds his own sense of reality challenged by the uncanny.

  End of Dreams (The Immortal Destiny 1) by Kim Faulks opened a dark paranormal series; a young woman and a hard-bitten detective caught in a supernatural war. Allyse Near’s Fairytales for Wilde Girls (Random House Australia) was billed enticingly as a “deliciously dark bubblegum-gothic fairytale”. Bec McMaster published three novels with publisher Sourcebooks, all set in the same world, London’s Whitechapel district in the late 1880s—Kiss of Steel, Heart of Iron and My Lady Quicksilver—concerning werewolves, vampires, and a clockwork army. Luke Keioske’s Her (Severed Press) was a supernatural woman-scored rampage. Max Barry’s Lexicon (Penguin) was a recoiling dystopian about “the power of language and coercion”. D.L. Richardson self-published Little Red Gem, a comedy paranormal romance about a haunting. Demelza Carlton published two novels in her Nightmares Trilogy, Book 1 the Nightmares of Caitlin Lockyer and Book 2 the Necessary Evil of Nathan Miller. Dirk Flinthart’s Path of Night (FableCroft Publishing) gave us the first installment in the Night Beast Series, set in Sydney using a hardboiled narrative style; Michael Devlin awoke in the morgue with new abilities, and hunted by a cabal of monsters. N.A. Sulway’s Rupetta (Tartarus Press) concerned a clockwork woman, an immortal keeper of law and memory—invoking the European fantasy/horror tradition. Secret Reflection by Jennifer Brassel was published by Escape Publishing; a modern gothic romance between a dashing ghost and a beautiful skeptic. Skin by Kylie Scott was published by Momentum; a disturbing zombie apocalypse romance that blurs the line between BDSM and abuse. S.M. Johnston’s Sleeper (Entranced Publishing) opened the Toy Soldiers series; a heart transplant recipient inherits nightmares and supernatural abilities. Antonia Marlowe’s Strange Bodies was published by Not So Noble Books; a crime thriller set in the Blue Mountains of NSW.

  The Asylum (Random House Australia), by the impressive John Harwood, is a gothic suspense novel set in late Victorian England, on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall. The Beast Without (Interactive Publications/Glass House Books) was the debut gothic romance from Christian Baines; vampire Reylan cruises Oxford Street gay bars for human companions, until one is killed by werewolf Jorgas. The Beckoning (Damnation Books) was a return to adult fiction by Paul Collins, with a dark occult horror; a lawyer attempts to prevent his psychic daughter being drawn into a sinister cult. The Dark Lands (Valkeryn 2) by Greig Beck, a far future dystopian where the descendents of canines are the dominant species, published by Cohesion Press. Greig Beck also published The First Bird (Momentum), the first in a three part eco thriller. The Last Girl (Allen & Unwin) by Michael Adams concerned a psychic teen protecting her little brother in a post-apocalyptic world. LegumeMan Books published the debut novel from Scott Tyson, Topsiders, an urban horror novel. Timothy Bowden’s Undead Kelly was published by Severed Press; a zombie novel set in Melbourne of the 1880s, with convicted Ned Kelly taking on the undead.

  The novella/novelette length “short novel” was popular both in collections, and as a stand-alone ebook format. Damien Broderick’s “Quicken” novella in Beyond the Doors of Death was notable; science fiction concerned with horror territory, Broderick authored a far future follow up to Robert Silverberg’s Born with the Dead, the 1974 Nebula Award Winning novella about a couple separated by unique circumstances—the husband alive, the wife one of the “rekindled dead”. Steve Gerlach published the novella ‘Darkness Burning’ in Autopsy II: Darkness Burning (LegumeMan Books). Astrid Cooper published Blood Immoral (eXtasy Books), a rollicking paranormal with cat shifters and rogue vampires tangling in the city of churches. Clan Destine Press published a few stand alone novellas, with two on the darker side—Rosalie: Fearless by Anders, an erotic novella about a morgue worker who likes the quiet, and Mary Borsellino’s Loveless, a vampire novella. Phil Cohen self-published The Stony Streets of Hell; a child journeyed to the underworld to bring back their parents. Evil Jester Press published The Last Night of October by Greg Chapman. Eleni Konstantine published the novella ‘Snoop’ as Snoop Cases #1 (Musa Publishing); a PI tackled a vampire and a gremlin. Ros Baxter published White Christmas (Escape Publishing); a post-apocalyptic world overrun by ice vampires.

  Young Adult And Children’s Horror

  There have been a high volume of young adult and children’s horror books for 2013, including many novels. H.Y. Hanna’s Big Honey Dog Mysteries 1: Curse of the Scarab (Wiseheart Press) was a Nancy Drew style children’s adventure using motifs of hieroglyphs and scarab beetles to unravel an Egyptian curse. A. Finlay’s Binding Darkness (Unique Publishing) was the second installment in the Shadows of Light series, a dark teen ensemble drama peppered with spirits, bats, and crows. D.C. Green’s Monster School (Ford Street Publishing) was targeted at younger readers; swamp boy saved from Mafia goblins by vampire, zombie and giant spider classmates. Martin Chatterton’s Mortified: Lost in the Sands of Time (Random House Australia) concerned 10,000-year-old Mortimer DeVere and his sister, Agnetha, who confront zombie-mummies while exploring Egypt during the reign of Queen Victoria. Natasha Ewendt’s debut novel This Freshest Hell (Lacuna Publishing) was a Young Adult vampire story with two teen girls discovering the supernatural. Jenny Brigalow’s The Children of the Mist (Escape Publishing) was a Young Adult paranormal; two best friends, a teen-wolf and vampire, are caught between feuding families in the Scottish highlands. Sue Whit
ing’s Portraits of Celina (Walker Books Australia) presented a Young Adult tale blending vengeful haunting with paranormal romance. Cheree Smith’s Shadow Embraced (Dark Cherry Press) introduced wayward teen Scar as she ventured into an underground “fight club” of vampires, werewolves and witches.

  At novella length there were many more YA and children’s works, many of which were also illustrated. Deborah Abela‘s “A Transylvanian Tale” appeared in Ghost Club 3: A Transylvanian Tale (Random House Australia). ‘Bewitched’ by Colin Thompson, a children’s comedy with horror tropes set in Transylvania Waters, was published as The Floods 12: Bewitched (Random House Australia). The Grimstones 4: Music School (Allen & Unwin) continued the series by author Asphyxia, with another Gothic fairytale adventure for protagonist Martha Grimstone. The anthology Stories for Boys (Random House) included Bill Condon’s “The Ghostly Foot”. The Eerie children’s 10+ series from Penguin Books Australia, penned by “S. Carey”, proliferated in 2013 with titles including Game Over, Graveyard Watch, Hunter and Collector, Killer App, Swarm, The No Bodies, The Night Prowler, The Specular, The Trunk, Thriller, and Tiddles.

  Collections

  Everything is a Graveyard by Jason Fischer, edited by Russell B. Farr (Ticonderoga Publications) collected fourteen stories ranging from horror to fantasy to bleak absurdism; three stories were original to the collection, the titular story is a road warrior epic during the drop bear apocalypse, and “L’Hombre” and “When the Cheerful Misogynist Comes to Town” are both surreal dark fantasy. Kim Wilkins published The Year of Ancient Ghosts (Ticonderoga Publications) edited by Russell B. Farr, opening with a fabulous horror novella from which the collection takes its name, as well as four short stories. The fantasy tale “The Lark and the River” was also original to the collection.