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Post by dem on Nov 27, 2007 22:38:44 GMT
Richard Davis (ed.) - The First Orbit Book Of Horror Stories (Orbit, 1976): Published in the USA as The Years Best Horror Stories Series III(DAW, 1975) Richard Davis - Introduction
Harlan Ellison - The Whimper Of Whipped Dogs
J. Ramsey Campbell - The Man in The Underpass
T. E. D. Klein - S.F.
Clive Sinclair - Uncle Vlad
Brian M. Stableford - Judas Story
Brian Lumley - The House Of Cthulhu
Allan Weiss - Satanesque
Steve Chapman - Burger Creature
Tim Stout - Wake Up Dead
Bernard Taylor - Forget-Me-Not
Gregory Fitz Gerald - Halloween Story
Charles E. Fritch - Big, Wide, Wonderful World
Eddy C. Bertin - The Taste Of Your Love I'd imagine this one was considered cutting edge when first published and 30 years haven't diminished the power of these stories. More-so than David Sutton, Davis introduces SF into the mix, not my thing but there are enough out-and-out horrors to keep the likes of me happy. Taylor's history of Dr. Crippen's wallpaper and the prog rock nightmare, "Judas Story", have been commented upon elsewhere. Ellison's opener is horror with a social conscience, the authors angry response to the big city, broad daylight murder of Kitty Genovese while people stood around and watched. Campbell locates a demon in a subway, and has a child narrate the nasty things that ensue. Ellison aside (nothing is scarier than reality), Weiss's black magic outing, "Satanesque", is maybe the most frightening and gory of the bunch - a statue comes to violent life and it's none too choosy about who it kills ... Bernard Taylor - Forget-Me-Not: New Yorker Sandra, 26, arrives in London on a one year teacher exchange programme. On the tube she meets a helpful young man who, by way of chit-chat indicates the former 10 Rillington Place, once home to mass-murderer Reginald Christie. Before long Sandra is obsessing over the killer, reading all she can find about him and even hanging his photo on the wall of her new flat. When she learns that his house is due for demolition, Sandra pays it a final visit and peels a small strip of wallpaper from above the fireplace as a souvenir which she later pastes next to his image. Gradually it spreads across the flat, draining her of all vitality as it does so. Maybe as innovative a variation on the hoary vampire theme as I've read. Tim Stout - Wake Up Dead: Camber Fell Prison for the Criminally Insane. Dr. Kellin invites select colleagues along to witness the unveiling of his new invention, a machine that transmits dreams as though they were regular TV shows. His volunteer is mass-murderer John Vanner who has always maintained that he committed his crimes while asleep. Vanner endured the most traumatic childhood - his father killed his mother and then came looking for him - and has been a martyr to his nightmares ever since. Should be fun getting to see what so terrorises him then ... Eddy C. Bertin - The Taste Of Your Love: Riccione, near Rimini. A serial-killer with a long history of torture-murders behind him picks up his latest intended victim at a disco and takes her back to his lodgings for a night of passion. But the girl with 'the finely drawn features and dark lonely eyes' is every bit his match. Soon she has him pinned to the bed in a grip of steel. And then she flicks her hair aside to show him the left side of her face, deformed by what looks like something one of Marilyn Manson's cheerleaders would paint on her cheek .... Steve Chapman - Burger Creature: Trudy and Maureen find him lurking around the burger joint where they work as waitresses. He's an animated mass of hamburger, fries, onion and ketchup with pickles for eyes. Otherwise he looks like a regular guy. Trudy, the looker of the pair, falls for him - she's suddenly very keen for Maureen to knock off early - and keeps him hidden away in the freezer. Everything's going nicely until their appalling manager discovers the Happy meal on legs and tries to kill him ... Clive Sinclair - Uncle Vlad: Wait a minute. The Clive Sinclair? Anyhow ... A descendant of the infamous impaler - with all the family niceties off pat - initiates the far-from-unwilling Madelaine into the clan. Charles E. Fritch - Big, Wide Wonderful World: Following the nuclear holocaust, everybody is on state prescribed hallucinogenic drugs to keep them from seeing just how ugly their world really is. Thrill-seekers Chuck, Bill and Len get their kicks from sharing a "nightmare" - deliberately not taking their fix at the appointed time and resisting from doing so for as long as they can endure it. Within a few minutes they've all gone to pieces and there's even a fatality. The publication details given for this story are Magazine of Fantasy & SF, 1968, but it was written at least ten years earlier and appears in the Charles Beaumont edited The Fiend In You (Ballantine, 1962).
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coral
New Face In Hell
Posts: 3 
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Post by coral on Jan 13, 2008 20:29:44 GMT
I got this book out of a cardboard box outside an antiques shop last year!
It cost me 10 pence!!! Jammy or what.
Personally I find the mix just right. So much of horror and science Fiction are interchangable anyway.
I think mr Ramsey wrote The Man In The Underpass specifically for this edition.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jan 13, 2011 14:35:03 GMT
Rather than plough straight on with Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year 2 I thought I'd take a look at a random US Best Of anthology from the past for comparison. Completely unscientific and unfair but definitely fun, which after all is what it's all about 
Harlan Ellison - The Whimper Of Whipped Dogs. Well we start off with an utter classic. I'd not read this story before & I was blown away by it. Love or hate the man himself Ellison has always been a favorite writer of mine and this really is superlative stuff. If literary horror can be argued to exist as a subgenre then this is literary horror at its best - no pretentious for the sake of it half-arsed attempts at trying to show how clever you are and getting it wrong and boring everyone in the process - this is wonderful, rich, evocative, properly terrifying writing. Beth moves to New York & one night witness a woman being brutally (and I mean brutally) stabbed in the courtyard of her apartment block. As she watches she realises the other residents are watching from their rooms too. Are they just scared and ineffectual, or are they assisting in a ritual to some evil God of the City that protects them in return? This is a bit like one of Fritz Leiber's urban horror stories but cranked up to the absolute max. I loved it. J. Ramsey Campbell - The Man in The Underpass. It's pretty much impossible to follow Ellison's opener but Mr Campbell's tale of a little girl and her schoolfriends possibly encountering an Aztec god in an underpass is probably as good as one could manage. I have read this one before but it stands up to repeat readings and (gasp!) here's another example of what I would call excellent 'literary horror'!!! |
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Post by cw67q on Jan 13, 2011 15:53:47 GMT
I think the Elison story is a good deal more than a bit like one of Fritz Leiber's urban horror stories. It is a complete steal from Leiber's Smoke Ghost but turning up the violence to go for the shocks.
The Man in the Underpass though among my favourite stories by Ramsey.
- Chris
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Post by weirdmonger on Jan 13, 2011 20:13:09 GMT
and (gasp!) here's another example of what I would call excellent 'literary horror'!!! I don't think there is a gradual spectrum between so-called 'literary' and 'non-literary' horror. Just a change of gear or of texture or 'whatever' (to be defined). Sometimes slow-moving fiction with apparent variations against the normal narrative thread that some readers may expect can tell a diffenent story that a normal narrarative thread cannot possibly tell. And vice versa! Fiction is a rich kaleidoscope. I wish someone here would define 'literary' horror for me. I think one should celebrate it, whatever it is, not go out with the presumption that one may assume it is dislikeable or in conflict with one's view of so-called 'non-literary' horror. |
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Post by jamesdoig on Jan 14, 2011 22:24:48 GMT
Harlan Ellison - The Whimper Of Whipped Dogs. [/color] Well we start off with an utter classic. [/quote] Yes, great story! Ellison ® is such an angry sod and it always comes out in his stories. Wasn't the story based on the actual murder of a woman in NY? Witnesses stood by while she was stabbed to death. I guess there's something of Bradbury's "The Crowd" in it as well as "Smoke Ghost." |
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Post by Dr Strange on Jan 15, 2011 10:45:25 GMT
Wasn't the story based on the actual murder of a woman in NY? Witnesses stood by while she was stabbed to death. Kitty Genovese - much cited as an example of the "bystander effect" in social psychology (though, as ever, the truth is a probably a bit more complex). |
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Post by dem on Jan 17, 2011 13:01:44 GMT
It's probably no more than a coincidence but typical nonetheless that when the series shifted from a UK imprint to an American one, the English editor only got one crack at it (this one: the US 'series I' is a straight reprint of the first Sphere and 'series II' is a selection from the second and third books) before he was replaced by Gerald W. Page, a man from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Although the series is now synonymous with Karl E. Wagner who took over from Page at 'series VIII', Davis deserves plenty of credit for establishing what was surely the first of the 'years Best' annuals?
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Post by David A. Riley on Jan 17, 2011 13:17:23 GMT
Richard Davis, though, blotted his own copybook.
He gained a reputation for not paying writers for stories he reprinted. Or even letting them know about them. For instance, I obviously knew about the UK version of Years Best 1 and got paid for it. But I was never told about the American edition published by DAW Books, nor did I ever receive a penny for it.
I was told a story around that time by the artist, Jim Pitts, who was a close friend of Brian Lumley, still a serving sergeant in the military police and not a man to be messed around with. Seemingly my experience was shared by him, too, but with several more stories added on. Brian visited Richard Davis and gave him a gentle warning about what would happen if he did that to him again.
It's a shame when editors do things like this and ruin their reputations. Richard Davis was pretty good at the editing side of things, if unscrupulous with his writers, and he was a pretty good writer himself when he turned his hand to it.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jan 17, 2011 16:42:38 GMT
it's probably no more than a coincidence but typical nonetheless that when the series shifted from a UK imprint to an American one, the English editor only got one crack at it (this one: the US 'series I' is a straight reprint of the first Sphere and 'series II' is a selection from the second and third books) before he was replaced by Gerald W. Page, a man from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Although the series is now synonymous with Karl E. Wagner who took over from Page at 'series VIII', Davis deserves plenty of credit for establishing what was surely the first of the 'years Best' annuals? I had no idea that was how the series arose. It probably wasn't the best one for me to pick as an example of a 70s US antho, then? :-[Never mind - the book itself is pretty good which is what counts: T. E. D. Klein - S.F. - I've not read any TED Klein because I've never been able to find any of his stuff (!) but this story is pretty good, if rather more science fiction (and we all know how easy that is to differentiate from horror, right kids?). This is the tale of how in the future we'll all have metal helmets welded to our heads that cause 'Selective Forgetfulness'. This means people only ever have to own one book and no new movies or works of art are created - you simply forget about what you just read and read it again! Imagine - you could discover Eat Them Alive over and over. At least it would give those of us who never learn an actual excuse. Clive Sinclair - Uncle Vlad. Surely not the Spectrum fellow? Very dense prose and loads of stuff about butterflies almost made me skip to the end of this one which is indeed a vampire tale with a suitably messy ending. Brian M. Stableford - Judas Story. Rock band horror. The story of pop idol Jack Queen King and his penchant for absorbing the souls of his fans. This is another good one, with the suggestion that rather than he being the villain, it's the mindless devotion of his public that might be the real horror here. Brian Lumley - The House Of Cthulhu. Serious old school stuff - Robert E Howard meets HPL in this swashbuckling Harryhausenesque tale of adventurers and marauders raiding the island of Arlyeh. Allan Weiss - Satanesque. Renowned sculptor returns to US home town and unveils his latest work - a statue of Satan. After a bit of evangelical opposition this one doesn't really go anywhere. Steve Chapman - Burger Creature. Daft but I liked it. From the mess of fries grease and left over burger meat comes Burger Creature, who's only desire in life is to keep working in the place he was born. Tim Stout - Wake Up Dead. The only other place I've seen Mr Stout's work is Pan 9. This isn't as good as The Man Who Neglected His Grass Snake and is all about dream realities in a prison for the criminally insane. Gregory Fitz Gerald - Halloween Story. Housewife trapped in hell has increasingly weird things happen to her in one of those kinds of stories that never really work for me as they're too weird and don't so much conclude as tail off. Charles E. Fritch - Big, Wide, Wonderful World. One of those "Drugs are bad, but nowhere near as bad as the reality of a post-apocalyptic world" stories. I've spoiled the twist now but trust me, you can see it coming. Eddy C. Bertin - The Taste Of Your Love. Good old Eddy! Here he is rounding off the book with the tale of a serial killer hunting his latest victim. The pretty girl in the nightclub seems a good bet but why does she have her hair arranged so it covers one whole half of her face? Do we get to find out why? Of course! And it's so horrible I laughed out loud. Brilliant. Overall I'd certainly recommend this one - there are some classics in here. I personally think the Ellison is inspired by Fritz Leiber rather than ripping him off but those sorts of things are all a matter of opinion. There are only a couple of duff stories and the book itself is a nice brisk read. Nice Michael Whelan cover, too. |
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Post by jamesdoig on Jan 17, 2011 20:17:46 GMT
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Post by dem on Jan 18, 2011 21:36:23 GMT
Clive Sinclair - Uncle Vlad. Surely not the Spectrum fellow? It would be nice to think so but novelist Clive John Sinclair seems the likelier suspect. The Eddy C. Bertin, Bernard Taylor, Ellison and Ramsey Campbell stories were my picks, though am fond of most of 'em in my own way (its only SF and Halloween Story that have slipped my mind). Tim Stout's Wake Up Dead reminds me of the film/ 'Thomas Luke' novel Phobia, and there's something that struck me as really horrible about the murders in Satanesque. I like your interpretation of Brian Stableford's Judas Story and am tempted to reread it to see if we are in agreement. Karl E. Wagner came up with a similar idea with Neither Brute Nor Human except this time the psychic vampires are World Fantasy Conventioneers! Stableford contributed original stories to The Velvet Vampire and Bats and Red Velvet fanzines for a bit - it seemed incredible to me at the time that such a big name would do so - I think he got into Goth via his daughter? His vampire novel, Young Blood has family and well-wishers trying to revive a teenager from her coma by playing the Sisters Of Mercy's Vision Thing on a loop. |
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Post by dem on Apr 23, 2018 20:17:09 GMT
 Tony Gleeson Judas Story, Fantastic, Feb. 1977. : The meteoric rise and on-stage fall of rock God, Jack Queen King. Story told from the POV of drummer, Clay, who mostly hated him, believing he was harvesting the souls of a gullible generation of zombies. Fair to say, Clay has a low opinion of those who worship the band (or, at least, their front-man: you can tell he's gonna so love The Sex Pistols). "Jack Queen King's songs were threaded through and through with sarcasm and accusation and plain simple hatred." And later, when he finally pays a good listen to their debut disc, Black Star Children. " It was good. It had a lot of class and quality. But it was viciously and unrelievedly downbeat. It was purely and simply hate-music." Perma-stoned bassist John Joe Hope has it the other way around. JQK is a Christ figure, sacrificing himself to an audience of vampires. Whoever you believe, bad things tend to happen to those who stand in JQK's way, and, ultimately, the singer himself, when he times the band's festival appearance to coincide with the total eclipse (June 20th 1974. I looked it up. Research, etc). Even better is: Ramsey Campbell - The Man In The Underpass: "Jim got all excited watching the giant maggots chasing Dr. Who and nearly had to go to bed." Tonia, the new girl at Tuebrook County primary school, reads too much into the obscene graffiti in the underpass beneath West Derby Road, in particular a grotesque painting of a man doing things to his improbably huge "spout." When a member of the visiting theatre troupe sarcastically lauds the design as "Ebsolutely Eztec" and her colleague suggests the shelter is "just the place for a midsummer sacrifice," Tonia takes them at their word, sends her father to the library to loan books on Aztec culture. She's particularly impressed with the God "Pop a cat a petal," but where can she get hold of some hearts to offer him? Narrated by her eleven-year-old classmate, Lynn, whose dad is on a drunk because the football season is over. |
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Post by dem on May 7, 2018 9:52:41 GMT
Allan Weiss - Satanesque: The small community gather in Hilden's Park for the unveiling of a sculpture gifted them by local misfit made good, the acclaimed macabre artist, Paul Riley. These are a religious people and when the stone image is revealed as a depiction of Satan, it is all Sheriff Holland can do to prevent a riot. Amos Sharton, leads the increasingly hostile protests demanding the blasphemous effigy be removed. Holland defends the artist but even he questions Riley's motives, particularly now Miriam, his daughter, has become obsessed with the damn thing. Local animosity toward the artist spills over into threats of violence when Sharton hangs a crucifix around the statue's neck only for it to melt, but they're too late. Someone - or something - has already done for him, and one other.
A story which has stuck with me for most of my adult life. Proper nasty atmosphere of the thing frightened the life out of me when I first read it circa mid-eighties.
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Post by helrunar on May 7, 2018 15:17:59 GMT
What a most excellent yarn that sounds, Kev. I must seek it out! I love tales in which bigots reap their just rewards. It so seldom happens in what is laughingly described as 'real life.'
cheers, Steve
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