Stephen Jones & David Sutton (eds.) - Dark Terrors: The Gollancz Book Of Horror Stories (Gollancz, 1995: Vista, 1996)
Bob Eggleton
Michael Marshall Smith - More Tomorrow
Ramsey Campbell - The Puppets
Steve Rasnic Tem - Sampled
Graham Masterton - The Hungry Moon
Lisa Morton - Love Eats
Brian Lumley - Uzzi
Charles A. Gramlich - Splatter Of Black
Christopher Fowler - The Laundry Imp
Mandy Slater - Food for Thought
Terry Lamsley - Screens
Charles Wagner - All My Friends Are Here
Mark Morris - Eternity Ltd.
Nicholas Royle - The Lagoon
Jeff VanderMeer - At the Crossroads, Burying the Dog
C. Bruce Hunter - The Travelling Salesman’s Christmas Special
Roberta Lannes - A Feast At Grief’s Table
Richard Christian Matheson - Bleed
Kim Newman - Where the Bodies Are Buried 3: Black and White And Red All Over
Karl Edward Wagner - I’ve Come to Talk With You Again
Peter Straub - Fee Very impressed with this. The
SFX review endorses it with "There's not a duff story here" and its even possible they're right!
Michael Marshall Smith - More Tomorrow: A freelance computer technician recognises a girl at the office he's currently working at as the original from a series of photographs uploaded to
alt.binaries.pictures.erotica. It's clear that she's a reluctant model and, when he enlarges the file he notices that she's been hit about the face. While seriously sick posters demand more of the same, our man sets off on a mission to save Jeanette from brutal boyfriend Ayers before he can do her permanent damage.
Kim Newman - Where the Bodies Are Buried 3: Black and White And Red All Over: Young nurse Elizabeth Yatman always wanted to appear in her favourite tabloid,
The Comet. Alas, she wasn't quite glamorous enough to become a 'Comet Knock-out ("I didnt grow the chest for it") so the young blonde settles for becoming a 'Sister of Murder' instead, bumping off all the little kids in her care to secure a place on the front page. Newman's spleen vent at the irresponsibility and hypocrisy of the scandal sheets (who blame video nasties for the 'Monster Nurse's crimes, even though she has no interest in them). One of several installments of
Where The Bodies Are Buried built around an imaginary slasher featuring Freddy Krueger-a-like Rob Hackwill, this is probably my favourite.
A few picks: Masterton's
The Hungry Moon exposes the mystery behind the illustration used on an ancient breakfast cereal packet. Tem's
Sampled features an unlovely grindcore band, Funeral Feast, and their producer, Felix, who has a very novel way of recording white noise direct from the brains of their groupies and hangers on. Karl Wagner unleashes Robert Chambers' King In Yellow on a bunch of aged horror-biz in London pub,
The Swan.
To be continued ....
VictoriaI'll continue for you, Dem! My local Oxfam seems to be going through a great horror spell at the moment (I wonder if it's some late teens/ early twenties who'll live to regret giving away all her collection, as so many of us have..)
"The Puppets" finds Campbell in wistful voice; Jim has been in love with Rebecca, who's parents own the village antique shop, since he first set eyes on her. He's also very interested in the local Punch and Judy performer and his bizarre rehearsals. Jim eventually gets his girl, but which obsession will have the stronger pull?
In "The Travelling Salesman's Christmas Special" a salesman finds himself the very welcome guest at a family Christmas party; he's particularly pleased by the attention he receives from the two grown up daughters. When they offer to take him to bed, he's only too happy to comply. But, little known to him, he doesn't really have a say in the matter. I didn't see this one coming, a rare feat in this type of tale.
I found myself identifying with "All My Friends Are Here"- I've found it's true that you can take the person out of the town, but you can't take the town out of the person. Barely three pages of small- town- boy- in- a- big- city angst, but Wagner captures the in- built claustrophobia perfectly.
Dem's right about his favourite- it's easily the strongest in the book, and, reading it, I was thinking what a great film it would make (let's club together and buy the rights). The others singled out are fab too, especially the Newman; his writing always seems so relevant- it seems to me that whenever you read his stories there's something in the recent press that he could be referring to. As you say, Dem, it's very good indeed.
demonik I'm glad about that because the book is back in the library now I wish I'd written some notes for
The Lagoon because I have a feeling I enjoyed that too (if it's the one about the funnel-web spider).
For
The Puppets, I wrote:
"Intriguing if slightly bewildering tale of living dead puppeteer Mr. Ince and his horribly alive Punch and Judy. Jim, recently graduated and at odds with his neighbours and village life in general, is romantically involved with Rebecca, a sheltered young violinist whose parents abhor him. Jim eventually loses her to Alan, one of the "hang 'em! Birch 'em!" brigade who dominate the community. Jim, like Ince, is outcast."
Having read your synopsis, I'm inclined to think it's another of that pesky Campbell's stories I couldn't make sense of.
Victoria "The Lagoon" is about a couple who, having realised their marriage is flagging, go to a rural part of Australia to attempt a second honeymoon. During an afternoon spent down by the lagoon's edge, the husband decides to go for a run, while the wife dips into the natural history book he has brought along for "light reading" (no wonder things aren't working out), and realises that the lagoon is home to the poisonous stone fish, who's sting causes a person hours of untouchable agony. In her attempt to get her husband to swim across the lagoon, she attracts the attention of some unfriendly natives, and the final chilling scene sees impatient birds of prey, who know what's going to happen, hovering over her head.
I also enjoyed the Straub, which features characters and places familiar to those who have read "The Throat" and his short story "The Juniper Tree", among others. How far does upbringing contribute towards the construction of a serial killer? Quite a lot, according to Straub.
I wasn't too sure about the Campbell, either- as with so many of his stories, I made of it what I could! I still enjoyed it, though- the writing seemed gentler and more lyrical than some of his more earthy tales.
demonik Despite the lack of funnel-web spider - I don't know where I got that from - that's definitely
The Lagoon I had in mind. I found it very suspenseful even given the sheer inevitability of the outcome from very early on in the story.