‘Ric Alexander’ – The Unexplained: Stories of the Paranormal

[dem bones]

Peter does Mulder and Scully.

‘Ric Alexander’ (ed.) – The Unexplained: Stories of the Paranormal (Orion, 1998)

Peter James – Foreword

Archive 1: Supernatural Mysteries

Richard Laymon – The Job
Nigel Kneale – The Trespassers (aka Minuke)
Ramsey Campbell – The Gap
David J. Schow – Red Light

Archive 2: Psychic Phenomena

Graham Masterton – The Irish Question
Richard Matheson – Girl of My Dreams
Olaf Stapledon – A Modern Magician
Harry Bates – Death of a Sensitive
C. J. Cherryh – Cassandra

Archive 3: Alien Encounters

J. G. Ballard – The Encounter
Gerald Kersh – Men Without Bones
Robert A. Heinlein – Goldfish Bowl
Theodore Sturgeon – Mewhu’s Jet

Archive 4: Time Warps

Roger Zelazny – Unicorn Variation
Ursula K. Le Guin – The New Atlantis
Arthur Machen – The Shining Pyramid
Kit Reed – The Bride of Bigfoot

Archive 5: Urban Legends

Ian Watson – Tulips from Amsterdam
Basil Copper – Out of the Fog
Clive Barker – The Forbidden
Harlan Ellison – Croatoan

Blurb:

J. G. Ballard, Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell, C. J. Cherryh and many others open up the world of the unexplained in a new anthology that spans time, alien encounters, legends and the supernatural.

As we rush towards a new millennium the fever of weird science, alternative thinking and our fascination with the supernatural has never run higher. The Unexplained provides a dizzy tour through the far reaches of the imagination with stories that explore the full range of experience at the edge of knowledge: from vampires in David J. Schow's Red Light, to psychokinesis in Olaf Stapeldon's A Modern Magician, UFO's in J. G. Ballard's The Encounter and Urban mythology in Clive Barker's The Forbidden.

With a mixture of genre classics and specially commissioned stories, The Unexplained shows that the X-Files did little more than dip a toe in the water. The sea of fiction that deals with the paranormal is wide and deep, with dangerous undercurrents.

An Ancient Mysteries Reader for the X-Files generation.

Richard Laymon - The Job: "Written especially for this book." I'm not sure it's ever been reprinted?

New Orleans in the aftermath of the LA race riots. Off duty cops Mark and Stacy are faced with a dilemma when an enormous, half-naked black, carrying a comatose white girl, ignores their repeated request that he put down the lady and stop for questioning. The blank-eyed muscle-man just carries on trundling along the street. A female chancer with a camcorder further antagonises the situation. As Mark remonstrates with the woman, an exasperated Stacy pistol whips the "zombie" - who doesn't even break stride. A choke-hold is no more effective. Neither is blowing out his brains ....

Ian Watson – Tulips from Amsterdam: (Interzone, #110, Aug. 1996). Richard Kernshaw, amorous Professor of Sociology and Social anthropology, is a keen collector of FOAFlore and Urban Legends. Tulip, an attractive punk student, provides him with a particularly grisly candidate for the 'terrible hitch-hiker' file. "Now I'll give you an anatomy lesson ..."

David J. Schow - Red Light: (Twilight Zone, Dec. 1986). Each time the shutter clicked, the camera stole a little bit more of her soul. Consumers as psychic vampires, feeding off Tasha Vode, a particularly stunning cover girl now driven into hiding. Just one more photograph would be fatal. Fritz Leiber's The Girl With The Hungry Eyes turned on its head.

Basil Copper - Out Of The Fog: (Argosy, Sept. 1970). Whitechapel, Autumn 1888. Fresh from viewing the corpse of her fiancée at the morgue, Dr. Marion Lazenby pays a visit to The Crippled Sailor, "a place where no lady should go alone," to seek out a certain Mary 'Red Meg' Clarke. She has bad news for her. "You will be dead quite soon. I know these things. I am a doctor." Later that evening, Jill the Ripper is born.

To be continued ...

[dem bones]

Doug Beekman

Kit Reed - The Bride of Bigfoot: (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, July 1984). The same something creeping out of the trees nights to steal Susan's underwear from the washing line, has now taken to leaving 'gifts' of bushes and dead birds in her kitchen. His wild stink hangs heavy all around the house. Susan must reach a decision.

Now Susan is missing. Husband Thomas loads up his rifle and heads into the trees. As he explains to the police lieutenant, "a man has a right to protect what's his, droit de seigneur, OK?" Besides, think of the cash to be made from flogging a 'Knicker-thief Sasquash Stole My Wife' exclusive to the highest bidder. Throw in the movie rights, TV - Jesus, he so wants his property back home where she belongs! Only trouble is, Susan loves sweet new partner and relishes her freedom from stifling civilisation. This can't end well .... can it?

Ramsey Campbell - The Gap: (Mike Ashley [ed.] Fantasy Readers Guide # 2, 1980). Lionel Tate has just completed his meticulously researched witchcraft novel when he's introduced to Don Skelton, obnoxious best-selling author of gory porno horrors, current smash, The Black Road. When Tate catches Skelton pilfering his research papers, he banishes him from the house.

Soon after this distasteful episode, Tate receives a jigsaw puzzle in the post. Despite the lack of picture on the lid, he soon slots it together, only to find it is a few pieces short. The photograph is of himself, in this room, with someone stood behind him. He can't tell who, as - how frustrating - the tabs that would reveal the face are missing.

Tate takes a train to London's West End intending to catch a Bergman movie, but the prospect of sitting in the dark, surrounded by unseen faces unnerves him. As he wanders around Leicester Square and Soho he sees copies of The Black Road everywhere. He is also uncomfortably conscious of being followed by someone - or something - in grotty blue denim. If only he could see their face ...

Another terrific story, shades of Casting the Runes updated to mid-seventies England at the tail end of hippie. Alternate title The Gay, or at least, it is if you're reading the acknowledgements in Years Best Horror IX.

C. J. Cherryh - Cassandra: (MFSF, Oct. 1978). 'Crazy Alis' has the most extreme powers of precognition - her everyday world is a blazing ruin, peopled entirely by ghosts of the nuclear holocaust yet to come. As with the original Cassandra, nobody takes her grim prophesies seriously, until ... Alis chances upon a young hitcher, Jim, recently arrived in town seeking work. Can she finally snatch some brief happiness from an intolerable existence?

They've all been winners so far.

[dem bones]

Richard Matheson - Girl of my Dreams: (MFSF, Oct. 1963: Fred Pickersgill [ed.], And Graves Give Up Their Dead, 1964). "The second sight, as it is often called, or clairvoyance, has been so often and so well attested that it has been recognized as a legitimate and non-diabolical phenomenon by that stern, august, and level-headed body the Established Kirk of Scotland. Not particularly limited to that or to any other extra-sensory ability is the ancient, ancient exhortation that great gifts durst not be used for mean purposes. Richard Matheson, in a modern key, spins a tale of life and death, love and hate and greed. Carrie is cursed with deadly accurate premonitions of disaster. Husband Greg exploits her unwanted talent to extort money from those whose loved ones are imperilled. $10, 000 is such a small sum to pay in exchange for the safety of one's children.

Olaf Stapledon - A Modern Magician: (MFSF, July 1979). "Urgently he reminded himself that after all there was no point in feeling guilty, since morality was a mere superstition." Helen learns the pitfalls of dating a bullied college geek whose psychokinetic powers are so keenly developed, he can kill anyone he chooses merely by willing them dead. A perceived love rival, for instance.

[dem bones]

Graham Masterton - The Irish Question: Sarah, 34, an antique dealer, visits Southern Ireland to buy two Daniel Marot chairs at auction. From the moment she arrives in Cork it is as though she is being stalked by people who cannot possibly be there - her late father, her ex-husband - and, most persistent of all, a chameleon of a man who introduces himself as Seàth Rider, self-styled "aquisitor" of one's heart's desire - at a price.

According to Rider, Ireland is indeed a magical country. Forget leprechauns and Blarney stones and the little people - that crap is just for tourists. He's talking the real deal; "the portals of the invisible kingdom were never completely closed, and there were those who could travel with ease from one to the other, having friends and even lovers in both existences."

The reader is in no doubt that Seàth is one such individual, traversing the lands of the living and the dead, manipulating time and events, warping realities. When Sarah is outbid by a rival dealer, Rider simply expunges every trace of him from history. The chairs are hers. Ian Caldecott has simply ceased ever to have existed. Obviously, this cannot end well ...

Harlan Ellison - Croatoan: (MFSF, May 1975). When bed-hopper Gabe flushes lover Carol's stillborn baby down the toilet, she sends him after it. Down in the sewers beneath the streets of Manhattan. A subterranean commune of derelicts, rats, crocodiles, babies ....

That's the surface story, anyhow. Underlying message possibly: "Guys, if you've gotta fuck everything that moves, have a vasectomy like me!"