Pieces of Hate by Ray Garton (CD Publications) features over 70,000 words of new fiction by Garton, including a short novel, A Gift From Above. Limited to 500 signed, numbered, and slipcased copies. Full-color dustjacket art by Keith Minnion.
Bad Intentions by Norman Partridge (Subterranean Press) is the first hardcover collection of stories by this author, whose first collection, Mr. Fox and Other Feral Tales, won the Bram Stoker award. Among the new material are the excellent follow-up to last year's book, "The Bars on Satan's Jailhouse," and the title story.
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury (Gauntlet Press) has been released in a 45th anniversary edition. It is limited to 500 copies; includes a preface by Bradbury, an introduction by William F. Nolan, and an Afterword by Ed Gorman. It is signed by all three. The cover art is by Bradbury.
Midnight Promises by Richard T. Chizmar (Gauntlet Press) is the first collection by this author. It contains twelve reprints, four original short stories and a new novella, and a comic adaptation of Chizmar's first published story by artist Russ Miller. There is an Introduction by Ed Gorman and an Afterword by Ray Garton. The cover art is by Alan M. Clark.
Conference With the Dead, World Fantasy Award-winner Terry Lamsley's second collection, was brought out by Ash-Tree Press in a beautiful hardcover edition limited to 500 copies. The striking black and white dust jacket was designed and illustrated by Douglas Walters. The collection contains four reprints and six original stories of "supernatural terror."
Randall's Round by Eleanor Scott was published by Ash Tree Press. This reprint of the extremely rare collection of nine supernatural tales is especially notable for being perhaps the only collection of stories in the Jamesian mode written by a woman. Little is known of the author. The introduction is by Richard Dalby, whose efforts have uncovered most of what is known of Scott. An original Douglas Walters illustration graces the cover, and the volume includes four photographs of the elusive author, provided by her family.
L.T.C. Rolt's Sleep No More, first published in 1948, has been reissued with two stories not included in the original edition and with Rolt's essay, "The Passing of the Ghost Story." The collection includes an Introduction by Christopher Roden, an essay by Hugh Lamb, and seven new illustrations by Paul Lowe.
David Rowlands's supernatural short fiction is collected in The Executor and Other Ghost Stories, which also contains H.R. Wakefield's "Old Man's Beard" and A.C. & R.H. Benson's "Ghosts in the House." Ash-Tree Press, Chester, UK.
Count Stanislaus Eric Stenbock: The Complete Weird Tales (Durtro Press) includes seven stories originally published in 1894 under the title Studies of Death: Romantic Tales. The Complete Weird Tales also includes another short story and translations of two tales by Balzac, as well as a revised bibliography by Timothy d'Arch-Smith. The book reproduces the format of the original. Published as a 400-copy numbered edition by Durtro Press, a new imprint from the Ghost Story Press, London. Also from Ghost Story Press comes The White Road: The Collected Supernatural Stories of Ron Weighell. With thirty-three stories--four previously published in Ghosts & Scholars--this is the first collection of his work. Full-color dust jacket and ten b&w illustrations by Nick Malloret.
The Nightmare Factory (Raven/Carroll & Graf)is an omnibus edition of Thomas Ligotti's first three collections: Songs of a Dead Dreamer, Grimscribe, and Noctuary, plus several unpublished and one uncollected story. Ligotti is an original with his baroque sensibility. One story was chosen for The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Tenth Annual Collection. The collection won the Bram Stoker Award, given by the Horror Writers Association.
Demon and Other Tales by Joyce Carol Oates (Necronomicon Press) is an attractive seven-story chapbook illustrated by Jason Eckhardt. Tales of religious mania, madness, and the supernatural; The Sealed Casket and Others, by Richard F. Searight (Necronomicon Press), is a six-story, twelve-poem chapbook of work in the weird/Lovecraftian vein, with an introduction by Franklyn Searight. And Hugh B. Cave's Bitter/Sweet (Necronomicon Press) collects two original stories, with illustrations by Jason C. Eckhardt.
Painfreak: Ten Stories of Pure Erotic Horror by Gerard Daniel Houarner (Necro Publications) is a powerful first collection with three reprints and seven original stories by a writer to keep an eye on. Introduction by Tom Piccirilli. Cover art by Debbie Tomasetti.
Beyond the Lamplight by Donald R. Burleson is the first publication from Jack O'Lantern Press. The collection contains stories from 1986 up through 1995, two of which were reprinted in the Best New Horror series edited by Stephen P. Jones and Ramsey Campbell. Campbell provides an introduction. The cover art and two interior illustrations are by Robert H. Knox.
With Wounds Still Wet by Wayne Allen Sallee has an introduction by Kathe Koja and Illustrations by H.E. Fassl. Sallee's best fiction surprises you in the way it draws you in to his characters' world. Often damaged, emotionally and/or physically, they invariably lead sad, desperate lives that are revealed, in the s tories, at arbitrary moments in time. Brian Hodge's first collection, The Convulsion Factory, sports an eerily effective photographic cover art and frontispiece by Dolly Nickel and an introduction by Philip Nutman. Contains five originals and seven reprints. Shadow Dreams is the new collection by the talented Elizabeth Massie and includes nine reprints and five original stories. Gary A. Braunbeck has written a graceful and moving introduction and Alan M. Clark has provided strange and beautiful art for the cover and frontispiece. All three are from Silver Salamander Press and all three were nominated for the Bram Stoker Award given by the Horror Writers Association.
Edgeworks 2 by Harlan Ellison (White Wolf) is an omnibus of the crime novel Spider Kiss and the collection Stalking the Nightmare, with a new introduction by Ellison.
Quicker Than the Eye, Ray Bradbury's (Avon Books) first new collection in almost a decade, proves that Bradbury is still a dazzling magician. Some excellent darker stories here, almost half original to the collection.
Ruth Rendell's Blood Lines (Crown) collects eleven psychological suspense stories, most originally published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.
Uncovered! by Paul Jennings (Viking) is the newest in this reliably entertaining series of weird and sometimes scary tales for young adults. As usual, a nice mix of the strange and bizarre with a perfect cover illustration by Blair Dawson.
The Pavilion of Frozen Women by S.P. Somtow (Victor Gollancz-UK) nominated for the Bram Stoker Award, collects some of this writer's best short work, including the remarkable title story and "Chui Chai," each of which were chosen for The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror several years ago.
The Curious Room: Collected Dramatic Works by Angela Carter (Chatto & Windus-UK) collects several unpublished plays and screenplays including reworkings of Puss in Boots and Dracula, a draft for an opera of Virginia Woolf's Orlando, and film scripts of The Magic Toyshop and The Company of Wolves.
Terrors of the Sea by William Hope Hodgson (Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc.) is a marvelous collection of unpublished and uncollected short works of fantasy and horror by the author of the classic novel The House on the Borderland. The cover illustration and interiors are by Ned Dameron. Designed by Thomas Canty. Edited by and with an introduction by Sam Moskowitz. A really lovely collector's item.
Moonchasers and Other Stories by Ed Gorman (Forge) collects 17 stories of crime, suspense, and the supernatural by this versatile writer. One original. Afterword by Dean R. Koontz.
The Mortal Immortal: The Complete Supernatural Short Stories, by Mary Shelley (Tachyon Publications), collects five stories with an introduction by Michael Bishop in which Mary Shelley comes for a visit while he's writing the introduction.
Forms of Heaven: Three Plays by Clive Barker (HarperPrism), the follow-up volume to his first collection of plays, Incarnation, published last year. The plays included are Crazyface, Paradise Street, and Subtle Bodies. Introduction by Barker with production notes for each play.
The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions by H.P. Lovecraft and others (Carroll & Graf) collects 12 collaborations of Lovecraft with younger pulp writers.
The Dedalus Book of Polish Fantasy, edited and translated by Wiesiek Powaga (Dedalus /Hippocrene), is a fascinating anthology of strange fictions, most published in English for the first time. Surreal, but not all that dark, even filled as it is with tales featuring the devil as a character. Only a handful of the contributors are still alive.
Jonathan Lethem's wonderful first collection, The Wall of the Sky the Wall of the Eye (Harcourt Brace & Company), with two originals, shows off his unique voice and startling images; A Dusk of Idols and Other Stories, by James Blish (Severn House), with an introduction by Francis Lyall; Common Clay, by Brian Aldiss (St. Martin's Press), was published in the UK in 1995 under the title The Secret of This Book and contains a few original stories, some horrific, including the controversial "Horse Meat"; Christopher Kenworthy's first collection, Will You Hold Me? (The Do-Not Press) has several original stories and includes "Because of Dust," which appeared in last year's volume of The Year's Best. Mostly mainstream with a definite edge; Violins in the Void, by Cliff Burns (Black Dog Press), collects some bits and pieces of poetry and vignettes by this Canadian writer. Pirate Writings Publishing brought out collections by Sue Storm and Paul Di Filippo. The Storm collection, Under the Lizard Trees is mostly fantasy and has one original story in it. The Di Filippo, Destroy All Brains! is sf. Several Tom Piccirilli stories are collected in The Hanging Man and Other Strange Suspensions (Wilder Publications). Primitive production values but good fiction; The Book of Lost Places: The Selected Works of Jeff VanderMeer (Dark Regions Press) is a nicely produced 116-page cross-genre collection by a talented young writer. Illustrations by Rodger Gerberding with an introduction by Mark Rich. Collects nine stories from various sf, fantasy, and horror magazines; The Bumper Book of Lies, by Chris Bell (MytyMyn-New Zealand), is a collection of 20 very odd, occasionally fantasy stories, including five originals. The stories were originally published mostly in UK magazines. An attractive, 251-page paperback.
Werewolves by Daniel Cohen (Cobblehill Books); A Whisper in the Dark: Twelve Thrilling Tales, by Louisa May Alcott (B&N), edited by Stefan Dziemianowicz, with an introduction by Susie Mee; The Mask of Cthulhu: Horrifying Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, by August Derleth (Carroll & Graf), collects six stories originally published by Arkham House in 1958; The Ghost Feeler, by Edith Wharton (Peter Owen-UK/Dufour), collects nine stories of "terror and the supernatural" edited and with a critical and biographical introduction by Peter Haining; Carmilla and Other Classic Tales of Mystery, by Sheridan Le Fanu (Penguin/Signet Classic), collects 13 stories, edited and with a biographical AND critical introduction by Leonard Wolf; The Transition of H.P. Lovecraft: The Road to Madness (Ballantine/Del Rey) collects 29 horror stories, including many early or fragmentary works. Introduction by Barbara Hambley. With a beautiful, eerie cover illustration and interior illustrations by John Jude Palencar; The Collected Ghost Stories of E.F. Benson, edited by Richard Dalby with a foreword by Joan Aiken (C&G); The Last Pin, by Howard Wandrei (F&B Mystery), collects Wandrei's hard-boiled detective short fiction and inaugurates a new series by Fedogan & Bremer dedicated to pulp and crossover mystery writers. Edited and introduced by D.H.Olson and illustrated by Gary Gianni; Fables and Fantasies, by Brian Stableford (Necronomicon Press), collects nine very short pieces; cover and interior art by Joey Zone; Far Away & Never, collects eight fantasy stories of Ramsey Campbell (Necronomicon Press); The Book of Hyperborea, by Clark Ashton Smith (Necronomicon Press), collects 14 related stories edited by Will Murray. A substantially revised edition of Hyperborea, originally published by Ballantine 1971; Scary Stories from 1313 Wicked Way, by Craig Strickland (Lowell House Juvenile), is a collection of 10 stories about a haunted house; The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Oxford University Press-UK), edited and with an introduction by Robert Schulman.
Three mostly sf collections that might be of interest to horror readers: The Exploded Heart, from Stephen Brown's newly started Eyeball Books, is a third collection by one of the earliest punk sf writers, John Shirley, ranging over his career from 1975 through 1994. Beautiful and disturbing cover by Rick Berry. Mostly sf but always edgy and usually dark with an introduction by Bruce Sterling; The Invisible Country, (Victor Gollancz-UK), Paul McAuley's second collection, contains some material verging on the horrific, such as the British Fantasy award-winning "Temptation of Dr. Stein"; At the City Limits of Fate, by Michael Bishop (Edgewood Press), collects 15 stories of sf and fantasy, some with horrific overtones. Another beautiful cover by Rick Berry.
More mainstream collections: Follow Me, by Paul Griner (Random House), is a collection by an author whose short stories have been published in Playboy, Bomb, Story, Glimmer Train, and Ploughshares. Although the stories are pretty solidly set in the real world, a few, including the title story, are dark or weird enough to entertain readers of horror; Grey Area, by Will Self (Atlantic Monthly Press), is a fine example of cross-genre writing containing clever and often nasty stories that smack of surrealism and sf. Some verge on the horrific. The UK edition was published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 1994 and the reprints come from various British anthologies; The title story of Coyote vs. Acme, by Ian Frazier (Farrar, Straus), is reprinted in one volume of our Year's Best; Toddler-hunting and Other Stories by Kono Taeko, translated by Lucy North (New Directions), collects odd Japanese stories of dark sexuality, such as s&m and child molestation--some very sharp edges; Will You Always Love Me? and Other Stories, by Joyce Carol Oates (E.P. Dutton/A William Abrahams Book), collects this prolific author's recent work, mostly originally appearing in literary magazines, although the one taken from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine was reprinted in one volume of our Year's Best; Traplines, by Eden Robinson (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt), is a debut collection of four stories about violently dysfunctional families set in British Columbia; Getting it in the Head, by Mike McCormack (Jonathan Cape-UK), is a primarily mainstream collection with some very dark material veering into horror.
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