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Post by dem bones on Sept 23, 2009 10:23:42 GMT
Not exactly news, but the contents of the Very Best Of Best New Horror - due for publication at the World Horror Convention next Spring, but i'll be surprised if it's not available long before then - are as follows: Stephen Jones (ed.) - The Very Best of Best New Horror (Robinson, 2010) Les Edwards Stephen Jones - Foreword Ramsey Campbell - Introduction: Bettering The Best
Brian Lumley - No Sharks In The Med Michael Marshall Smith - The Man Who Drew Cats Ramsey Campbell - The Same In Any Language Christopher Fowler - Norman Wisdom And The Angel Of Death Harlan Ellison - Mefisto In Onyx Paul J. McAuley - The Temptation Of Dr. Stein Neil Gaiman - Queen Of Knives Terry Lamsley - The Break Caitlín R Kiernan - Emptiness Spoke Eloquent Peter Straub - Mr. Clubb And Mr. Cuff Tim Lebbon - White Kim Newman - The Other Side Of Midnight: Anno Dracula 1981 Elizabeth Hand - Cleopatra Brimstone Joe Hill - 20th Century Ghost Mark Samuels - The White Hands Lisa Tuttle - My Death Clive Barker - Haeckel's Tale Glen Hirshberg - Devil's Smile Simon Kurt Unsworth - The Church On The Island Stephen King - The New York Times At Special Bargain Rates.
Index To Twenty Years Of Best New HorrorBlurb: For the past twenty years the annual Best New Horror series has been the major showcase for superior short stories and novellas of horror and dark fantasy. Edited by Stephen Jones, the World Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Award and International Horror Guild Award-winning series has published more than 450 stories by around 200 of the genre’s most famous and acclaimed authors, as well as those newcomers who are just starting out on their careers. To celebrate the anthology’s twentieth anniversary, the editor has selected from each volume one story that he considers to be the “best” for reasons explained in his historical introduction to each tale. As a result, some of horror’s biggest names are represented, including Stephen King, Clive Barker, Peter Straub, Harlan Ellison, Brian Lumley and Neil Gaiman, along with newer writers such as Joe Hill, Glen Hirshberg, Mark Samuels and Terry Lamsley. With a unique Introduction by Ramsey Campbell, and an indispensable Index detailing the entire contents of the series over all twenty volumes, The Very Best of Best New Horror is a tribute to the world’s premier annual anthology of contemporary horror fiction.
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Post by marksamuels on Mar 2, 2010 23:57:34 GMT
Hey, I got my copy of this a few days ago and a marvellous book it is too. But I couldn't help but think what would I have chosen from the mammothest of BNH down the years... well, here we go (*gulp ) #1 "Archway" Nicholas Royle #2 "His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood" Poppy Z. Brite #3 "Slugs" Karl Edward Wagner #4 "Anima" M. John Harrison #5 "The Dog Park" Dennis Etchison #6 "Blade & Bone" Terry Lamsley #7 "The Bungalow House" Thomas Ligotti #8 ?? #9 "Emptiness Spoke Eloquent" Caitlin Kiernan #10 "Bondage" Kathe Koja #11 "Just like Eddy" Kim Newman #12 "At Home in the Pubs of Old London" Chris Fowler #13 "The Lost District" Joel Lane #14 ?? #15 "Exorcizing Angels" Simon Clark & Tim Lebbon #16 "The King: in Yellow" Brian Keene #17 "Best New Horror" Joe Hill #18 "What Nature Abhors" Mark Morris #19 "The Children of Monte Rosa" Reggie Oliver #20 "The Old Traditions are Best" Paul Finch ? means I couldn't decide, not having read the book. Mark S.
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Post by marksamuels on Mar 3, 2010 0:10:13 GMT
I should have added that one must (if you want to play the game), as with the official criterion for Best of BNH, limit selections on the basis of making a choice as follows---one story from each volume chronologically.
For example, you can't have two stories from say volume #16.
Mark S.
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Post by marksamuels on Mar 3, 2010 0:11:39 GMT
Oh, and you can't have the same author twice Except me. Mark S.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 3, 2010 13:09:36 GMT
I should have added that one must (if you want to play the game), as with the official criterion for Best of BNH, limit selections on the basis of making a choice as follows---one story from each volume chronologically. For example, you can't have two stories from say volume #16. Mark S. well that's me screwed then. ok, so i've had to go with a slimline version 'cause there are some i've not got, some i've got but not read, and some i've got but could only put up with so much of before losing the will to live. have to say, i much prefer Mr. Jones' non-series anthologies as a rule, though the Best New ...'s are invaluable for their meaty introductions. anyway, here goes: 1. Stephen Gallagher - The Horn 2. Kim Newman - The Original Dr. Shade 3. Ramsey Campbell - The Same in Any Language 4. Karl Edward Wagner - Did They Get You To Trade? 5. Sarah Smith - When The Red Storm Comes 6. Geoffrey A. Landis - The Singular Habit Of Wasps * (tough choice. i mostly love #6!) 7. Michael Marshall Smith - More Tomorrow (easy choice) - 9. Stephen Laws - The Crawl - - 12. Christopher Fowler - At Home in the Pubs of Old London - - 15. Marc Laidlaw - Cell Call - - 18. Mark Samuels - Sentinels - - what a waste of time that was! and this is terrible! i just realised i haven't chosen hardly any girls! also, i might have picked at least another one of yours, ( The White Hands), if you hadn't have been so mean with the rules.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 9, 2010 11:00:08 GMT
a nice surprise in the post from those lovely people at Robinsons! even if you have all twenty volumes of the series to date, there's much to recommend this, in particular the 'Index By Contributor' at back of the stories and Ramsey Campbell's introduction-cum-short history of the series. Stephen Jones is rightly keen to point out that, despite the title, this book does not necessarily amount to a collection of the finest twenty stories published in the series, more a varied selection of very good stories. i'm glad they finally settled on the striking Joe Roberts artwork over the Les Edwards (see top of thread)
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Post by Johnlprobert on Mar 16, 2010 0:44:29 GMT
OK I'm going to make a start on my own Best of BNH:
1 Bad News - Richard Laymon 2 Inside the Walled City - Garry Kilworth 3 The Dark Land - Michael Marshall Smith 4 Norman Wisdom & the Angel of Death - Christopher Fowler 5 Two Returns - Terry Lamsley 6 The Singular Habits of Wasps - Geoffrey Landis 7 Not Here, Not Now - Stephen Gallagher 8 Hell Hath Enlarged Herself - Michael Marshall Smith 9 The Crawl - Stephen Laws 10 The Wedding Present - Neil Gaiman
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Post by Johnlprobert on Mar 16, 2010 7:57:34 GMT
11 Unhasped - David J Schow 12 I Have A Special Plan for this World - Thomas Ligotti 13 Off the Map - Michael Chislett 14 The Prospect Cards - Don Tumasonis 15 The White Hands - Mark Samuels
And while it has nothing to do with the quality of volume 15 in particular, that was the point at which I stopped reading Best New Horror.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 16, 2010 18:22:21 GMT
Chris Fowler and Michael Marshall Smith are coming out of it well! if it hadn't been for The Singular Habits of Wasps and the fact i had to include Gone Tomorrow, i'd have gone for MMS's To Receive Is Better from the consistently entertaining Best New Horror 6. MMS expanded it into a novel which i've yet to get around to but will. Michael Marshall Smith - Spares (HarperCollins, 1996) Illustration: Michael Marshall Smith Blurb: From the author who created the brilliant, funny and disturbing ONLY FORWARD comes another dark and wickedly vibrant adventure into strange territories.
Luck? Don't talk to Jack Randall about luck.. He didn't keep up the payment on his, and it ran out a long time ago. The good fortune box is empty. A loner veteran of a savage war, he's spent the last five years buried deep, hiding out on a Spares farm with people who can't even spell luck.
Forced to flee this last bolthole, Jack returns to the city that used to be his home. All he wants is to score a little money and disappear with the people he's trying to save. Unfortunately, he's got a talent for attracting trouble - the kind most people would run screaming from. Jack Randall isn't most people. That's part of his problem. His escape from the Farm with six of its inmates (well, five and a half) brings him head to head with the man who destroyed everything he once held dear.
He has to make a decision: take revenge or turn away?
In a startling odyssey of fear, black comedy and the surreal, Jack Randall discovers that the choice has already been made. The demons in him take on the demons without, and all he can do is to stand back and see who wins...i've not yet got around to re/ acquainting myself with the fiction in Very Best Of Best New Horror, but i already like the book a lot, and that mainly down to Stephen Jones' linked story introductions which add up to a short history of what seems to have been an often problematic series (getting the the cover artwork he wants reproduced the way he wants became a particular hassle). Ramsey Campbell is clearly enjoying himself; "1994 was the year I fled as editor leaving stalwart Steve to sift the mounds of rubbish with which the field was laden. There was plenty of first rate fiction, but the task of reading the worst of the rest was just too dispiriting."
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Mar 16, 2010 21:28:14 GMT
That final cover for Best of Best New Horror is very nasty indeed... in a good way.
The authors chosen for a mention... hmmm... I can see WHY they'd go with those names to attract a general audience, but (despite having enjoyed work by several of them) that's the kind of name-check that would put me off the book. Kind of, if I want King, there are plenty of other King books on the bookshop shelves...
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