Jones & Campbell (eds.) - Best New Horror 5

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Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell (eds.) - The Best New Horror: Volume #5 (Robinson, 1994)

Luis Rey

Introduction: Horror In 1993 - Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell

Michael Marshall Smith - Later
Sarah Smith - When The Red Storm Comes
Martin Plumbridge - The Exhibit
Kathe Koja - Leavings
Edward Bryant - Human Remains
Nicholas Royle - Flying Into Naples
Poppy Z. Brite - The Sixth Sentinel
Rick Cadger - The Brothers
J. L. Comeau - The Owen Street Monster
T. E. D. Klein - One Size Eats All
Donald R. Burleson - Mulligan’s Fence
Daniel Fox - How She Dances
Karl Edward Wagner - Passages
Sally Roberts Jones - Easing The Spring
Steve Rasnic & Melanie Tem - Safe At Home
Christopher Fowler - Mother Of The City
Elizabeth Hand - Justice
Kim Newman - The Big Fish
Thomas Tessier - In The Desert Of Deserts
Terry Lamsley - Two Returns
Chet Williamson - The Moment The Face Falls
S. P. Somtow - Darker Angels
Kathe Koja & Barry N. Malzberg - The Timbrel Sound Of Darkness
Thomas Ligotti - The Tsalal
Charles Grant - In The Still, Small Hours
Steve Rasnic Tem - Ice House Pond
Dennis Etchison - The Dog Park
Gahan Wilson - The Marble Boy
Harlan Ellison - Mefisto In Onyx

Necrology: 1993 - Stephen Jones & Kim Newman[/color]

Thought we had threads for all of these, but seems #5 got over-looked. So here's a stub. My copy is just about the most pre-mauled item on entire shelf of shame — ex-library, creased, unspeakably soiled, falling to pieces, etc. I'm quite fond of it, might even get around to reading the thing some day.

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Karl E. Wagner - Passages: (Wendy Webb, Richard Gilliam, Edward Kramer & Martin Greenberg [eds.], Phobias: Stories of Our Deepest Fears, 1994). The 25th Pine Hill High Class of '63 reunion. Marcia, Fred and Grant reminisce and confess their phobias. Marcia, whose hair is naturally frizzy, was terrified of spiders, her brothers teasing her that they'd crawl out of her Afro and eat her brains: Fred's family have never let him forget how his sister and her friends dressed him as a girl and initiated him into their Sorority: Grant, now a famous surgeon, was and still is terrified of needles, having had a syringe stick in his arm as an infant. He reveals how he overcame this handicap to succeed in his profession.

T. E. D. Klein - One Size Eats All: (Outside Kids, Summer 1993). A hiking trip up Wendigo Mountain. Andy regrets his choice of sleeping bag. But not half as much as does his bullying brother.

J. L. Comeau - The Owen Street Monster: (Thomas F. Monteleone [ed.], Borderlands 3, 1993). Janine phones around the gals to see how everyone is bearing up after they banded together to kill the neighbourhood monster before it could do any real harm. Just as she feared, there are one or two weak links in the chain, questioning whether perhaps they acted a little hastily .....

Chet Williamson - The Moment The Face Falls: (Robert Bloch [ed.], Monsters in Our Midst, 1993). An Oscar nomination for best screenplay back in '54 proved a false dawn. Since then, Paul Kenyon has barely scraped a living, churning out four pulp westerns a year under a house name to keep him in booze and accommodation. And then, four decades on, a phone call from this guy, Richard Dunne, a hot shot indie producer funded by Paramount, begging him to script his next mega-budget movie. "Its a done deal, Costner and Julia Roberts are a go, and Jim Cameron's just about locked to direct." Miracles happen!

Kathe Koja & Barry N. Malzberg - The Timbrel Sound Of Darkness: (Martin H. Greenberg & Mike Resnick [eds.], Christmas Ghosts, 1993). The ghosts of Jack the Ripper haunts Sir Arthur Sullivan through the last seven years of his life, gloating over the disastrous failure of his grand opera (and every other creative project since his acrimonious parting with W. S. Gilbert), mocking his impending kidney failure, his weak heart, etc. Title should have been warning enough for me to avoid.

Stirring stuff from KEW, Comeau, Klein and Williamson (a spiteful classic), Koja & Malzberg maybe not so much.

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Martin Plumbridge -The Exhibit: While Mum's out shopping, Dad takes Suzie to the funfair at Great Yarmouth. Suzie soon gets fed up, and when they reach the Wax Museum she tells him go ahead, enjoy the stupid dummies, she'll wait outside. When, after an age, he's still not returned, she and the youth on attendant duties seek him out. Charlie Chaplin, Clint Eastwood, Joan Collins, the unknown page three girl, the Queen Mum, Hitler, Jack the Ripper, and Jason Donovan lie in ambush.

Steve Rasnic Tem & Melanie Tem - Safe At Home: (Jeff Gelb & Michael Garrett [eds.], Hottest Blood, 1993). Sexual abused throughout her childhood by a paedo uncle, Melinda now regards sex as a nightmare invasion of her body by slimy, tentacled monstrosities. Didn't think much of this on first reading, and that's not changed.