The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 13 - [Anthology]

by Edited By Stephen Jones

  Introduced by David G. Rowlands,A Ghostly Crew: Tales from The Endeavour was a welcome collection of fifteen all-reprint stories by Roger Johnson, published by Robert Morgan’s Sarob Press in a hardcover edition of 300 copies. Spalatro: Two Italian Tales was a slim 250-copy hardcover containing two stories from theDublin University Magazine by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, edited and introduced by Miles Stribling and superbly illustrated by Douglas Walters.

  The Sistrum and Other Ghost Stories by Alice Perrin (1867-1934) was the fifth volume in editor Richard Dalby’s ‘Mistresses of the Macabre’ series, with illustrations by Paul Lowe. The publisher had to revise the binding specifications for The Haunted River & Three Other Ghostly Novellas by Mrs J.H. Riddell (1832-1906), which included an introduction by editor Dalby and twenty-four full-page original illustrations that accompanied the Routledge’s Christmas Annual publication of the four stories. Both books appeared in 300-copy numbered hardcover editions.

  Published the same month by Sarob was Can Such Things Be? & By the Night Express by the mysterious Keith Fleming, with an introduction by John Pelan, an afterword by Dalby, and dust-jacket and interior art by Randy Broecker. It contained the title novel from 1889 and three supernatural novellas (‘By the Night Express’, ‘Dolores’ and ‘Love Stronger than Death’) from the very rare 1889 paperback By The Night Express. The book was limited to just 250 hardcover copies.

  From San Francisco’s Night Shade Books came The Devil is Not Mocked and Other Warnings and Fearful Rock and Other Precarious Locales, the second and third volumes respectively in The Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman series edited by John Pelan. Ramsey Campbell contributed a reminiscent introduction to the former and Stephen Jones to the latter. These welcome collections were once again only marred by the poor interior artwork.

  The Man With the Barbed-Wire Fists was a large collection of twenty-four stories (two original) by Norman Partridge, while Face was a new novel by Tim Lebbon about a supernatural hitchhiker. Both books were also issued in 100-copy signed/slipcased editions that included extra chapbooks.

  . . . And the Angel with Television Eyeswas a new fantasy novel by John Shirley, loosely based on the short story of the same title, and Lies & Ugliness was a big new collection from Brian Hodge, containing two new stories. The signed/slipcased edition of the latter also included a CD by the author’s musical side project, Axis Mundi.

  Also from Night Shade, editor S.T. Joshi’s The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H.P. Lovecraft eventually appeared in hardcover and trade paperback after a few delays.

  Edited with an introduction by Joshi, Robert Hichens’s The Return of the Soul and Other Stories from Seattle’s Midnight House contained eight reprint tales and was the first of a proposed two-book set presenting the definitive collection of the prolific author’s supernatural tales.

  The Scarecrow and Other Stories was an expanded edition of the 1918 collection containing seventeen tales by G. (Gwendolyn) Ranger Wormser (1893-1953), edited by Douglas A. Anderson. As a follow-up to the author’s earlier collection The House of the Nightmare and Other Stories, the same publisher also issued Edward Lucas White’s (1866-1934) Sesta & Other Strange Stories, which included fifteen stories (several previously unpublished), two poems, an introduction by Lee Weinstein and a bibliography.

  Nineteen of Fritz Leiber’s best horror tales were collected in The Black Gondolier & Other Stories, the first of two hardcover volumes edited by John Pelan and Steve Savile.

  The Beasts of Brahm was a reprint of the rare 1937 novel by the possibly pseudonymous Mark Hansom, with a fascinating introduction by Pelan. The equally obscure H.B. Gregory’s Dark Sanctuary was another rare British novel also rescued from obscurity, with an historical introduction by D.H. Olson. Both volumes appeared on the late Karl Edward Wagner’s list of ‘forgotten’ works of fantasy and horror and, like all the titles from Midnight House, were published in hardcover editions of just 460 copies with cover artwork by Allen Koszowski.

  From Tartarus Press, Ghost Stories by Oliver Onions collected twenty-two classic tales. First published in 1931, Forrest Reid’s Uncle Stephen was a dream-story with a new introduction by Colin Cruise, while L.P. Hartley’s The Collected Macabre Stories, also from Tartarus, contained thirty-seven ghost stories by the author of The Go-Between, with an introduction by Mark Valentine. All were limited to just 350 copies.

  L.T.C. Rolt’s Sleep No More: Railway, Canal and Other Stories of the Supernatural was a trade paperback collection of fourteen classic ghost stories from Sutton Publishing, with an introduction by Susan Hill.

  From Ash-Tree Press, Where Human Pathways End: Tales of the Dead and the Un-Dead collected all ten of the supernatural short stories of 1930s author Shamus Frazer, whose story ‘The Fifth Mask’ is cited as an influence on Ramsey Campbell, with an introduction by editor Richard Dalby. Edited and introduced by John Pelan and Dalby, The Shadow on the Blind and Other Ghost Stories reprinted the 1895 collection of nine stories by Alfred Louisa Bladwin, along with a previously uncollected tale, and included seven illustrations by Symington from the first edition.

  The Golden Gong and Other Night-Pieces by Thomas Burke reprinted twenty-one tales complete with an introductory essay by editor Jessica Amanada Salmonson.

  Edited by David Rowlands and limited to 500 copies, Mystic Voices by Roger Pater (aka Dom Gilbert Hudleston), a member of the Order of St. Benedict, collected fourteen stories about psychic squire-priest Father Philip Rivers Pater, along with a chapter from a companion work, My Cousin Philip, and a contemporary obituary of the author.

  Mrs Amworth, the third volume of The Collected Spook Stories of E.F. Benson, was limited to 600 copies and contained sixteen short supernatural stories (dating from 1922-23), with an introduction by editor Jack Adrian. Adrian was also responsible for Couching at the Door and Other Strange and Macabre Tales, which collected the supernatural stories of popular novelist D. (Dorothy) K. (Kathleen) Broster (1877-1950), including one previously unpublished tale. It was also limited to 600 copies, with dust-jacket art by Jason Van Hollander.

  As usual, Adrian edited The Ash-Tree Annual Macabre 2001, which was limited to 500 copies and contained thirteen stories, only one of which had appeared in book form before, by writers better known for working in other genres. These included such well-known names as Marjorie Bowen, Jessie Douglas Kerruish and Leigh Brackett.

  After Shocks was a collection of eighteen ‘classical’ supernatural stories by prolific small-press contributor Paul Finch, and Steve Rasnic Tem’s The Far Side of the Lake was a welcome collection of eight of the author’s ‘Charlie Goode’ ghost stories and twenty-five other horror tales, limited to 500 copies.

  The Five Quarters by Steve Duffy and Ian Rodwell collected five novellas about meetings of the eponymous society with a handful of members, at which the talk inevitably turned to the supernatural. It was limited to 500 copies, and the dust jacket was illustrated by Paul Lowe.

  Probably Ash-Tree’s finest achievement of the year was A Pleasing Terror: The Complete Supernatural Writings of M.R. James. With a preface by Christopher and Barbara Roden, and an introduction by Steve Duffy, the $75.00 hardcover reprinted thirty-four annotated stories plus prefaces, several rare fragments, articles, letters, translations, appendices, a bibliography, and information on James on film, radio and television. Paul Lowe also provided thirty-three illustrations along with a full-colour dust jacket.

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  The series of chapbooks published by the mysterious and elusive Sidecar Preservation Society (named after a classic Prohibition-era cocktail) continued with Richard L. Tierney’s The Blob That Gobbled Abdul and Other Poems and Songs, a collection of thirteen Lovecraftian verses, illustrated by Dave Carson and with an introduction by Ramsey Campbell. Tierney in turn introduced Campbell’s time-travel story Point of View, illustrated by Allen Koszowski.

  Hugh B. Cave’s Loose Loot was a detective yarn featuring Officer Coffey with an afterword by Milt Thomas, while Swedish Lu
theran Vampires of Brainerd was a humorous story by Anne Waltz, with an afterword by Karen Taylor and cover art by Jon Arfstrom.

  Edited by D.H. Olsen, A Donald Wandrei Miscellany contained a number of shorter pieces of fiction, non-fiction, verse and humour by the late author, and Lee Brown Coye’s Chips & Savings and Another Writing (already in its second printing) was a collection of the artist’s homespun newspaper column in the Mid-York Weekly during the 1960s. Each of the Sidecar booklets was limited to 100 numbered copies (except for the Cave, which totalled 175), some of which may have been bound in boards by the publisher.

  From Subterranean Press, Graham Joyce’s chapbook Black Dust contained the 1994 story ‘The Apprentice’ along with the previously unpublished title story, limited to 250 signed and numbered copies. From the same imprint, Graham Masterton’s The Scrawler, about an urban monster, was limited to 500 numbered copies.

  Also from Subterranean, On Pirates was a deluxe chapbook by William Ashbless (a pseudonym for Tim Powers and James P. Blaylock) with interior two-colour illustrations by Gahan Wilson. Limited to 1,000 signed and numbered copies, it included ‘Slouching Toward Mauritius’, a short pirate story written more than twenty-five years ago but never published, along with a lengthy pirate poem, ‘Moon-Eye Agonistes’. Powers and Blaylock supplied the introduction and afterword respectively.

  Cat Stories by Michael Marshall Smith was published by Paul Miller’s Earthling Publications, collecting three tales (one original) featuring fantastique felines in an attractive 350-copy chapbook designed by the author. Fifteen lettered and signed hardcover copies were also issued in a slipcase, along with a facsimile of the original handwritten manuscript for Smith’s short story ‘The Man Who Drew Cats’.

  Chico Kidd’s self-publishedSecond Sight and Other Stories contained four rousing supernatural adventures introducing readers to turn-of-the-century sea captain Luis Da Silva, who had the power to see ghosts after losing his left eye to a demon. It proved an impressive showcase for one of the genre’s most interesting and genuinely original new characters.

  From Sean A. Wallace’s Prime Books, The Hidden Language of Demons was a 33,000-word modern novella by L.H. Maynard and M.P.N. Sims which was billed as ‘Poe in his Sgt. Pepper period’.

  Limited to 100 copies, W. (Wilum) H. (Hopfrog) Pugmire’s Songs of Sesqua Valley was published by Imelod and contained thirty-three weird sonnets inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, The Cthulhu Mythos and various dark places, with an introduction and cover illustration by Peter Worthy. From the same author, Tales of Love and Death published by Delirium Books was a 300-copy signed chapbook containing sixteen horror and Lovecraftian short stories (two original).

  Mark McLaughlin’s Shoggoth Cacciatore and Other Eldritch Entrees was a chapbook collection of ten Lovecraftian stories (six original) also from Delirium, with an introduction by Simon Clark.The Night the Lights Went Out in Arkham was an anthology of Lovecraftian stories set in the 1970s from Undaunted Press. It contained five new tales by Shawn James, Megan Powell, Octavio Ramos, Jr., Lawrence Barker and the ever-popular McLaughlin.

  Louis de Bernieres’s Gunter Weber’s Confession: The Final Chapter to Captain Corelli’s Mandolin was a thin chapbook from Tartarus Press, published in a special limited edition of 350 numbered copies. Hand-set in Perpetua type and printed and bound by Alan Anderson at the Tragara Press, it was available in a 250-copy edition on Teton paper or as one of 100 special copies on Zerkall paper signed by the author for $120.00.

  Eden was a novelette by Ken Wisman about a drug-fuelled spiritual journey, published by California’s Dark Regions Press. True Tales of the Scarlet Sponge by Wayne Allen Sallee and Weston Ochse’s Natural Selection were both available from DarkTales.

  Billed as ‘A Double Shot of Repugnance’, the first release in the new Necro Chapbooks line from Florida wasPartners in Chyme, featuring Ryan Harding’s ‘Gross-Out Contest’-winning story ‘Damaged Goods’ paired with ‘The Dritiphilist’ by Edward Lee. It was published as a 300-copy signed and numbered chapbook and a twenty-six-copy signed and lettered hardcover.

  Quantum Theology Publications was a new chapbook line from Canada that launched with The Narrow World, a collection of five stories by the talented Gemma Files, including a new vampire tale, plus an introduction by Michael Rowe.

  Colorado’s new online bookstore and specialty press Worm-hole Books launched its limited-edition Contemporary Chapbook line in May with Pioneer by Melanie Tem, briefly introduced by Nancy Holder, and A Sad Last Love at the Diner of the Damned by Edward Bryant, with a new introduction by S.P. Somtow and an afterword by the author.

  Also from Wormhole, Pink Marble and Never Say Die were two short stories by Dawn Dunn with an introduction by Nancy Kilpatrick, and Dunn also contributed an author biography to While She Was Out by Bryant. Steve Rasnic Tern’s bizarre novella about a travelling salesman, In These Final Days of Sales, included an autobiographical afterword by the author and interior photography by Bryant.

  Each Wormhole booklet was limited to 750 signed copies, a 200-copy hardcover edition and a fifty-two-copy lettered edition, featuring full-colour covers, illustrated interiors and archival materials.

  Fallen Angel Blues was an apocalyptic round-robin novella from Succubus Press/horror.net which, despite owing a little too much to Stephen King’s The Stand, succeeded because of the enthusiasm of its ten collaborators, who included Suzanne Donahue, James Newman, Steve Savile and Mark Tyree.

  Lee Martindale’s The Folly of Assumption was a chapbook collection of five stories (one original) from Yard Dog Press, while A Game of Colors by John Urbanick was a novella from the same publisher.

  The Exchange by Nicholas Sporlender (aka Jeff VanderMeer) was a beautifully produced little enveloped chapbook illustrated by Louis Verden (aka Eric Schaller) and published by Hoegbottom & Sons to celebrate the city of Ambergris’s 300th Festival of the Freshwater Squid. It was available in a 300-copy edition or as a 100-copy deluxe limited signed edition in a box containing several items traditionally used during the Festival.

  The Haunted River produced Oliver Onions’s Tragic Casements: A Ghost Story as a seventy-five-copy chapbook with an introduction by Jonathan Harker. Published by Athanor Press, Because Horrors Linger contained four classic tales by Terence Ekenan.

  The second volume of Jeff Paris and Adam Golaski’s New Genre included new SF and horror stories by M.J. Murphy, Jan Wildt, Barth Anderson, Jon-Michael Emory and Zohar A. Goodman.

  Darrell Schweitzer’s They Never Found His Head: Poems of Sentiment and Reflection collected twelve Lovecraftian poems, four of which were Cthulhuoid hymns, in a chapbook published by Zadok Allen.

  Defacing the Moon and Other Poems by Mike Allen was a slim chapbook from DNA Publications with illustrations by the poet. From Dark Regions Press, A Box Full of Alien Skies collected thirty-one poems by G.O. Clark in a signed edition of 200 copies.

  Published by New Jersey’s Flesh & Blood Press, What the Cacodaemon Whispered by Chad Hensley and Jacie Ragan’s Deadly Nightshade both collected thirteen poems each and were limited to 150 copies apiece. The Temporary King by P.K. Graves was a short story also available from the same imprint.

  Travelers by Twilight was the first volume of a portfolio of selected illustrations by Allen Koszowski with an introduction by Brian Lumley and an appreciation by fellow artist Jason Van Hollander. It was published by Magic Pen Press in an edition of 350 numbered copies.

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  It was reported that Famous Monsters of Filmland was facing an uncertain future after US Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Greenwald declared that its publisher, Ray Ferry, fraudulently transferred the magazine’s ownership to his housemate, Gene Reynolds. In 2000, a Van Nuys jury found Ferry liable for breach of contract, libel and trade-mark infringement and awarded the title’s creator and former editor Forrest J. Ackerman $518,000 and rights to the pen name ‘Dr Acula’.

  Ferry then transferred his assets to Reynolds and filed for bankruptcy protection. However, the judg
e found the asset transfers fraudulent because Ferry was trying to keep them away from creditors (including Ackerman) and continued to function as the magazine’s editor. As a result, a US Bankruptcy trustee filed suit for $750,000 plus punitive damages against the law firm that represented Ferry in the case.

  Published in Canada, Rod Gudino’sRue Morgue is probably the most attractive and informative magazine currently covering horror in popular culture. The glossy bi-monthly featured interviews with Dario Argento, William Lustig, Alan Moore, Rob Zombie, Guillermo del Toro and many others, along with plenty of film, DVD and video, book, audio, toy and gaming news and reviews.

  As usual, Weird Tales produced four issues from DNA Publications with fiction and verse by Keith Taylor, Ian Watson, editor Darrell Schweitzer, Tanith Lee, Stephen Dedman, Thomas Ligotti, Ashok Banker, David Langford, Phyllis and Alex Eisenstein and others, along with articles by Douglas Winter (on Clive Barker), Gary J. Weir (on how he rediscovered his father through the latter’s correspondence with H.P. Lovecraft), S.T. Joshi (reviews of Cthulhu Mythos fiction), and John Betancourt (on vampires).