New Horror Books

[Brendan Moody]

Two new anthologies I recommend highly:

Ghosts by Gaslight: Stories of Steampunk and Supernatural Suspense

 

Ghosts by Gaslight: Stories of Steampunk and Supernatural Suspense

(edited by Jack Dann and Nick Gevers)

Blood and Other Cravings

 

Blood and Other Cravings

(edited by Ellen Datlow)


Ghosts by Gaslight offers modern spins on the Victorian/Edwardian ghostly tale; contributors include Peter S. Beagle, Gene Wolfe, Terry Dowling, Lucius Shepard, and Robert Silverberg. Blood and Other Cravings features stories of vampires and vampirism, whether they feed on blood or stranger things; contributors include Barbara Roden, Steve Rasnic Tem, Melanie Tem, Steve Duffy, Lisa Tuttle, Michael Cisco, and (with a reprint) Reggie Oliver. Margo Lanagan, John Langan, and Laird Barron have stories in both anthologies. My review of Blood and Other Cravings is here, and my review of Ghosts by Gaslight is here.

[Brendan Moody]

I come bearing yet more recent anthologies.

A Book of Horrors is a new all-original (well, one unacknowledged reprint) non-theme anthology from Stephen Jones. With contributions from Stephen King, John Ajvide Lindqvist, Ramsey Campbell, Reggie Oliver, Robert Shearman, Michael Marshall Smith, Lisa Tuttle, and others, it's got a lot of big names and a great range of stories, only a couple of which are letdowns. My review is here. Unfortunately the book isn't in print in the US yet, but you can import it from The Book Depository, or get a Kindle version on Amazon.com.

A Book of Horrors

 

A Book of Horrors

Stephen Jones also has a new ghost story anthology, Haunts, which mixes originals and reprints, with stories from some of the same names (Tuttle, Smith, Campbell, Oliver, Shearman). I was less impressed with this one, but my mother, also a ghost story buff, was a fan. My review is here.

Haunts: Reliquaries of the Dead

 

Haunts: Reliquaries of the Dead

And finally, Jonathan Oliver's House of Fear, a set of haunted house stories. Lisa Tuttle and Shearman, who are having a busy year, show up again; there are also stories by Terry Lamsley, Stephen Volk, Joe R. Lansdale, Chaz Brenchley, and the prolific Many Others. I had tiny but important quibbles with several of the stories, but it's still an impressive anthology. My review of this one is here.

House of Fear: An Anthology of Haunted House Stories

[Professor Angell.]

Quote Originally Posted by bendk

Coming September 2011 Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fhtagn! First described by visionary author H. P. Lovecraft, the Cthulhu mythos encompass a pantheon of truly existential cosmic horror: Eldritch, uncaring, alien god-things, beyond mankind's deepest imaginings, drawing ever nearer, insatiably hungry, until one day, when the stars are right.... As that dread day, hinted at within the moldering pages of the fabled Necronomicon, draws nigh, tales of the Great Old Ones: Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, Hastur, Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, and the weird cults that worship them have cross-pollinated, drawing authors and other dreamers to imagine the strange dark aeons ahead, when the dead-but-dreaming gods return. Now, intrepid anthologist Ross E. Lockhart has delved deep into the Cthulhu canon, selecting from myriad mind-wracking tomes the best sanity-shattering stories of cosmic terror. Featuring fiction by many of today's masters of the menacing, macabre, and monstrous, The Book of Cthulhu goes where no collection of Cthulhu mythos tales has before: to the very edge of madness... and beyond! Do you dare open The Book of Cthulhu? Do you dare heed the call? Table of Contents Caitlin R. Kiernan - Andromeda among the Stones Ramsey Campbell - The Tugging Charles Stross - A Colder War Bruce Sterling - The Unthinkable Silvia Moreno-Garcia - Flash Frame W. H. Pugmire - Some Buried Memory Molly Tanzer - The Infernal History of the Ivybridge Twins Michael Shea - Fat Face Elizabeth Bear - Shoggoths in Bloom T. E. D. Klein - Black Man With A Horn David Drake - Than Curse the Darkness Charles R. Saunders - Jeroboam Henley's Debt Thomas Ligotti - Nethescurial Kage Baker - Calamari Curls Edward Morris - Jihad over Innsmouth Cherie Priest - Bad Sushi John Hornor Jacobs - The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife Brian McNaughton - The Doom that Came to Innsmouth Ann K. Schwader - Lost Stars Steve Duffy - The Oram County Whoosit Joe R. Lansdale - The Crawling Sky Brian Lumley - The Fairground Horror Tim Pratt - Cinderlands Gene Wolfe - Lord of the Land Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. - To Live and Die in Arkham John Langan - The Shallows Laird Barron - The Men from Porlock Trade Paperback 978-1-59780-232-1 400 Pages - $15.99

Just started reading this yesterday, so far so good.
However, the titles "Calamari Curls " and "Jihad over Innsmouth" sounds...worrying. I'm allergic to comedy-horror crossovers...however, havn't read them just yet.

[hopfrog]

Quote Originally Posted by Professor Angell.

Just started reading this yesterday, so far so good. However, the titles "Calamari Curls " and "Jihad over Innsmouth" sounds...worrying. I'm allergic to comedy-horror crossovers...however, havn't read them just yet.

Some few others have complain'd about the humorous tales in the book, but there don't seem to be too many, and there are such great tales, classics of their kind. I, too, am allergic to Mythos tales that try to be humorous or cute -- they usually suck shoggoth. And I find it insulting to Lovecraft, as it seems to imply that he is an author one cannot take seriously, so let's poke fun. As a Lovecraftian author, I am dead serious.

[Dr. Valzer]

[quote=hopfrog;71697]

Quote Originally Posted by Professor Angell.

And I find it insulting to Lovecraft, as it seems to imply that he is an author one cannot take seriously, so let's poke fun. As a Lovecraftian author, I am dead serious.

And that's why I love your work, Wilum.

What most people erroneously assume to be "trappings" in HPL's work were his genuine impressions of the world. He was a Gothic soul whose oneiric vision and disdain for the mundane world make him a target for ridicule by a culture that is now, more than ever, overwhelmingly mundane.

Richard

[njhorror]

I think that TERROR TALES FROM THE LAKE DISTRICT from Gray Friar Press is excellent.

Actually kind of spotty. I was swept away by Little Mag’s Barrow by Adam L.G. Nevill.

[bendk]

Performing a deft metaphorical evisceration of Sigmund Freud’s classic 1919 essay that delved deeply into the tradition of horror writing, this freshly contemporary collection of literary interpretations reintroduces to the world Freud’s compelling theory of das unheimliche—or, the uncanny. Specifically designed to challenge the creative boundaries of some of the most famed and respected horror writers working today—such as A. S. Byatt, Christopher Priest, Hanif Kureishi, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Matthew Holness, and the indomitable Ramsey Campbell—this anatomically precise experiment encapsulates what the uncanny represents in the 21st century. Masterfully narrated with the benefit of unique perspectives on what exactly it is that goes bump in the night, this chilling modern collective is not only an essential read for fans of horror but also an insightful and intriguing introduction to the greats of the genre at their gruesome best.









Cover art by BOB EGGLETON
Intro by DAVID J. SCHOW & Afterward by PHILIP HARBOTTLE

DreamHaven Books 2011, 1st. US Edition Trade Paperback, 240 pages 6 x 9. This is the 1st US publication of the rare 1954 UK novelization of CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON by Vargo Statten (John Russell Fearn). Copies of the first edition have sold for $1000 to $6000. Now DreamHaven Books makes this ­little-seen novel available to all Universal Monster fans.
It’s an exciting novelization faithful to the movie with an emphasis on the view of the mysterious Gill Man.
Creature connosieur David J. Schow (The Crow) provides a great new introduc­tion on the impact of this iconic monster.
Philip ­Harbottle ( Vulture of the Void: The LEGACY)
details the life of the English pulp writer who created this terrific novel.
32 pages with dozens of behind-the-scenes photos fill out this brand-new ­edition, sure to thrill monster fans everywhere.






MURMURATIONS
Uncanny stories about birds
Nicholas Royle (editor)



Freud observed that birds ‘don’t seem to be submitted to the same laws of gravity as us’, although without gravity they would die, as they need it to swallow. Birds are all around us; they could not be more familiar. And yet at the same time they are alien, unheimlich – uncanny.
Award-winning editor Nicholas Royle brings together previously published stories by Daphne du Maurier, Anna Kavan, Russell Hoban and others with brand-new tales by contemporary writers including Bill Broady, Adam Marek, Regi Claire and many more.
With a foreword by Angelica Michelis, senior lecturer in English at Manchester Metropolitan University.

With a foreword by Angelica Michelis, senior lecturer in English at Manchester Metropolitan University.Contributors’ royalties and editor’s fee to be donated to the RSPB.

Contents
Swallows Sleep in Winter – Adam Marek
For the True Anatomy – Claire Massey
Sliding off the World – Bruce Gilbert
The Gannets – Anna Kavan
Fight or Flight – Emma Jane Unsworth
Birds of Prey – Joel Lane
The Egg – Alison Moore
The Raven – Russell Hoban
The Rhododendron Canopy – Elizabeth Stott
Huginn and Muninn – Tom Fletcher
When the Red, Red Robin – Regi Claire
A Nestling – Jack Trevor Story
Barren Clough – Neil Campbell
Shrike – David Rose
The Candling – Deborah Kermode
A Revelation of Cormorants – Mark Valentine
The Brids – Bill Broady
Rarely Visits Gardens – Juliet West
All Our Dead Heavens – Conrad Williams
Tsipporah – Adèle Geras
Dead Bird – Socrates Adams-Florou
The Beautiful Room – RB Russell
Gulls – Nicholas Royle
Snow – Marc Werner
Flight of Fancy – GA Pickin
The Wounded Bird – Michael Kelly
Corbeaux Bay – Geeta Roopnarine
Husks – Stephen Bacon
Painful Hard Ectoplasm – Laura Ellen Joyce
The Birds – Daphne du Maurier

[bendk]

Introduction, Ross E. Lockhart
Shoggoth's Old Peculiar, by Neil Gaiman
Nor the Demons Down Under the Sea, by Caitlin R. Kiernan
This Is How the World Ends, by John R. Fultz
The Drowning at Lake Henpin, by Paul Tobin
The Ocean and All Its Devices, by William Browning Spencer
Take Your Daughters to Work, by Livia Llewellyn
The Big Fish, by Kim Newman
Rapture of the Deep, by Cody Goodfellow
Once More from the Top, by A. Scott Glancy
Hour of the Tortoise, by Molly Tanzer
I Only Am Escaped Alone to Tell Thee, by Christopher Reynaga
Objects from the Gilman-Waite Collection, by Ann K. Schwader
Of Melei, of Ulthar, by Gord Sellar
A Gentleman from Mexico, by Mark Samuels
The Hands that Reek and Smoke, by W. H. Pugmire
Akropolis, by Matt Wallace
Boojum, by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette
The Nyarlathotep Event, by Jonathan Wood
The Black Brat of Dunwich, by Stanley C. Sargent
The Terror from the Depths, by Fritz Leiber
Black Hill, by Orrin Grey
The God of Dark Laughter, by Michael Chabon
Sticks, by Karl Edward Wagner
Hand of Glory, by Laird Barron.








From the creator of Hellboy, Father Gaetano's Puppet Catechism by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden is an illustrated novella that brings Twilight Zone originality to the written page.

In the aftermath of a critical World War II battle, Father Gaetano is assigned as the sole priest at the Church of San Domenico in the small, seaside Sicilian village of Tringale. The previous pastor has died and there is a shortage of clergy at the moment, so until another can be spared, the young priest must say all of the masses himself.
Mass is not Father Gaetano’s only responsibility, however. The war has created many orphans, and thus the San Domenico rectory has been converted into an orphanage which is also his domain. The children are a joy to him, but they have lost so much, and many have begun to question their faith and their God, and his attempts to teach them catechism are in vain . . . until he finds an old puppet theatre and an ornate box of puppets in the basement. Handcrafted by the building's former caretaker, now absent, the puppets seem the perfect tool to get the children to pay attention to their lessons. But after dark the puppets emerge from that ornate box, without their strings. While the children have been questioning their faith, the puppets believe Father Gaetano's Bible stories completely. But there is such a thing as too much faith. And the children's lives will never be the same again.

[Michael]

Been looking forward to Book of Cthulu 2. Loved volume one, so was psyched when I first heard this was coming out. Glad it's here now.

[bendk]

TERROR TALES OF
EAST ANGLIA
edited by PAUL FINCH



East Anglia - a drear, flat land of fens and broads, lone gibbets and isolated cottages, where demon dogs howl in the night, witches and warlocks lurk at every crossroads, and corpse-candles burn in the marshland ...

The giggling horror of Dagworth
The wandering torso of Hippisburgh
The vile apparaition at Wicken
The slavering beast of Rendlesham
The faceless evil on Wallasea
The killer hounds of Southery
The dark guardian of Wandlebury

And more chilling tales by Alison Littlewood, Reggie Oliver, Roger Johnson, Steve Duffy and other award-winning masters and mistresses of the macabre.



The book contains ten works of original horror fiction set in East Anglia, and three classic reprints. It also features the usual anecdotal tales concerning supposedly true incidents of East Anglian terror.

Loose by Paul Meloy & Gary Greenwood
The Most Haunted House in England
Deep Water by Christopher Harman
Murder in the Red Barn
The Watchmanby Roger Johnson
The Woman in Brown
Shuck by Simon Bestwick
The Witchfinder-General
The Marsh Warden by Steve Duffy
Beware the Lantern Man!
The Fall of the King of Babylon by Mark Valentine
The Weird in the Wood
Double Space by Gary Fry
The Dagworth Mystery
Wicken Fen by Paul Finch
Boiled Alive
Wolferton Hall by James Doig
The Wandering Torso
Aldeburgh by Johnny Mains
The Killer Hounds of Southery
Like Suffolk, Like Holidays by Alison Littlewood
The Demon of Wallasea Island
The Little Wooden Box by Edward Pearce
[I]The Dark Guardian of Wandlebury
The Spooks of Shellborough by Reggie Oliver