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Post by dem bones on Nov 4, 2007 14:32:40 GMT
Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell (eds.) - The Best New Horror (Robinson, 1990) Les Edwards Introduction: Horror in 1989 - Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell
Robert R. McCammon - Pin Cherry Wilder - The House On Cemetery Street Stephen Gallagher - The Horn Alex Quiroba - Breaking Up Ramsey Campbell - It Helps If You Sing Laurence Staig - Closed Circuit Steve Rasnic Tem - Carnal House Kim Newman - Twitch Technicolor Gregory Frost - Lizaveta Donald R. Burleson - Snow Cancellations Nicholas Royle - Archway Thomas Ligotti - The Strange Design Of Master Rignolo Chet Williamson - ...To Feel Another’s Woe Robert Westall - The Last Day Of Miss Dorinda Molyneaux Brian Lumley - No Sharks In The Med D. F. Lewis - Mort au Monde Thomas Tessier - Blanca Ian Watson - The Eye Of The Ayatollah Karl Edward Wagner - At First Just Ghostly Richard Laymon - Bad News
Necrology: 1989 - Stephen Jones & Kim Newmanincludes: Stephen Gallagher - The Horn: Three strangers, Mick, Dave and the narrator, are marooned inside a hut during a snow blizzard. The cabin is base to the clean-up team who attend the grim business of scraping up accident casualties and one wall is plastered with newspaper accounts of this stretch of motorway's greatest hits. "Entire families wiped out. A teenage girl decapitated. Lorry drivers crushed when their cabs folded around them like stepped-upon Coke cans ..... an unwanted mistress dumped, Jimmy Hoffa-style, into the wire skeleton of a bridge piling that had been boxed-up ready to take concrete the next morning. ENTOMBED ALIVE! the headline said, but even that looked kind of pale next to the disaster involving the old folks' outing and the pet food truck full of offal. When their gas cylinder - the only source of heat - conks out, the men have an unpleasant decision to make. Stay here and probably freeze to death, or head out into the snowstorm, make for the huge articulated rig about half a mile on and sit it out in the warm cabin. Mick volunteers to go on ahead and give them a blast on the horn once he's got the heater going. But a murderous something else has beaten him to it .... Michael Marshall Smith - The Man Who Drew Cats: One day old Tom just blew into Kingstown, stepped into The Hogshead Bar and the locals - unusually for them - took to the quiet fellow straight away. A quiet and private man, he makes his living from the extraordinary paintings he tosses off for tourists and sometimes when the mood takes him, he chalks his more complex designs on the pavement. But when he befriends little Billy and his mom and learns that her nogoodnik, drunken husband regularly beats the shit out of them both, he draws something really terrifying. Chet Williamson - ...To Feel Another’s Woe: The beautiful Sheila Remarque is a stage actress of exceptional ability but her gift is not for acting: she vamps the emotions of all those who come in close contact with her, draining them until they are little more than zombies. Robert McCammon - Pin: The psychotic Joey Shatterly stands before the mirror diving the pin through each of his pupils in turn prior to stepping out with his rifle and seven bullets ... Nicholas Royle - Archway: From the day she moves into her North London flat, Bella is haunted by the scornful laughter of an old, grey faced tramp she's see on the street. She is unfairly dismissed from her job, encounters the red-tape horrors of the DSS and faces eviction. Finally ... *** Several of these stories, along with selections from vols. 2 and 3, were resurrected in The Giant Book Of Best New Horror (Magpie, 1993, 1994)
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Post by Calenture on Nov 4, 2007 18:27:41 GMT
Want to listen to the Fear on Four episode with Stephen Gallagher's The Horn, printed in this book? After months of trying to register with Zoot Radio, with no success, I finally found a way in. This page offers free MP3 burnable files of the entire series of Fear on Four: Fear on Four. Episodes include: The Horn by Stephen Gallagher, William and Mary by Roald Dahl, The Beast With Five Fingers by W F Harvey, The Judge's House by Bram Stoker. And probably best of all The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, read here by Anna Massey. To save the files to your desktop, right-click, then Save Target As... These files are not likely to be available long.
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Post by benedictjjones on Mar 28, 2008 11:44:21 GMT
looks brilliant, i'll definately have to try and find this! i have quite a lot of the newer volumes but none of the old ones. plus i've been a fan of robert westall since i was about 11.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Apr 4, 2008 11:35:10 GMT
One of my favourite stories in BNH1 is one that didn't get great reviews - Richard Laymon's 'Bad News'. I've read very little of him - none of his novels and just a couple of his short stories - but those horrible rat-like things that hide in newspapers still haunt me
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Post by dem bones on Apr 4, 2008 21:17:59 GMT
Yeah, Bad News is one of Laymon's finest shorts, very similar to James Kisner's The Litter in Masques 2 but, of course, Laymon being Laymon, he takes it all a nasty step further. Even the guy who runs the Richard Laymon Kills site is relatively lukewarm about Laymon's shorts. They're not all as good as Bad News but I think you'd get off on some of the wilder horrors in Dreadful Tales! The Champion, The Grab and Mop Up are priceless!
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Post by Johnlprobert on Apr 5, 2008 0:38:12 GMT
Dreadful Tales is on my shelf somewhere so I may give it a go.
The other interesting thing about BNH1 is that the introduction is only a couple of pages whereas nowadays it's upwards of 70
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Post by dem bones on Apr 5, 2008 7:27:24 GMT
Laymon definitely divides opinion and I'd be very interested in your take on Dreadful Tales, John. If you get a taste for his short stories, the rest of the horror ones are collected in Fiends and the Headline edition of Out Are The Lights which throws in the mighty Mess Hall, Bad News, The Tub, Madman Stan and Dinker's Pond. Unfortunately, you have to fore-go the seriously nasty NEL cover!
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Post by dem bones on Apr 22, 2008 0:46:38 GMT
Three more. One Jamesian, one sf-horror, one 'when animals attack!', all magnificent.
Robert Westall - The Last Day Of Miss Dorinda Molyneaux: Geoff Ashden, Antiques dealer and School Manager, is among the board members who vote to employ posh bit Miss Dorinda Molyneaux as an infant teacher on the worthy grounds that he fancies her. Miss Molyneaux is thrown in at the deep end but, utilizing equal parts ultra-violence and interesting lessons, soon has the formerly unteachable 4c eating out of her hands. She and Ashden arrange for the reformed brats to be let loose of Tattersham Church where they can get down to some serious brass rubbing, but, unfortunately, a mysterious bald man upsets them by leering at the girls and the school's good name is called into disrepute when a graffiti artist vandalises every tomb but one with scurrilous commentaries on the dear departed. For once, the 4c tearaways are entirely innocent - something slimy, sex-crazed and grudgeful has been set free from the crypt and Miss Dorinda Molyneaux is in terrible danger .....
Ian Watson - The Eye Of The Ayatollah: Horror fiction as a means of starting a major international incident!
Iran. Teenager Ali the half-face (so named because he lost most of it after stepping on a land mine while fighting the infidel), flukily obtains the eye of the Ayatollah when the mobs besiege Besthe Zahar Cemetery and tear the holy martyr apart in the name of obtaining sacred relics. He becomes the earthly receptacle of Khomeini, sworn to track down and destroy the "Satan author", safe in the knowledge that the usual quota of fanciable virgins will await him in Paradise once his mission is accomplished.
Richard Laymon - Bad News: "A rat-like, snouted face poked out of the middle of the folds. Furless, with white skin that looked oily. It gazed up at him with pink eyes. It bared its teeth."
Paul gets more than he bargained for when he retrieves his copy of The Messenger from the lawn. Soon the entire community is under attack from the unrelenting flesh-eaters. Paul screams for his wife to get help from despised neighbour Joe Applegate, far right Republican, as he's got a complete fucking arsenal at his disposal, not that it's done him any good ...
Brilliant "Rivals of the Rats" entry from the nihilistic Mr. Laymon. Oh, that poor cat .....
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Post by Johnlprobert on Apr 22, 2008 10:40:46 GMT
That Robert Westall one sounds worthy of a re-read...
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Post by dem bones on Apr 22, 2008 17:45:00 GMT
It is, it is! Presumably, it's set in the 'sixties as the local cinema is showing Elvis in Loving You. I don't actually own a copy of The Best New Horror. I loaned a copy from the library at the time of the initial post and now I'm using this excellent selection, derived from Best New Horror #1 and #2, to fill in some blanks! Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell - The Giant Book Of Best New Horror (Magpie, 1993, 1994) Introduction - Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell
Robert R. McCammon - Pin Brian Lumley - No Sharks In The Med Chet Williamson - ... To Feel Another's Woe Stephen Gallagher - The Horn Peter Straub - A Short Guide To The City Robert Westall - The Last Days Of Miss Dorinda Molyneaux Ian Watson - The Eye Of The Ayatollah Cherry Wilder - Alive In Venice Thomas Tessier - Blanca Steve Rasnic Tem - Carnal House Michael Marshall Smith - The Man Who Drew Cats Thomas Ligotti - The Last Feast Of Harlequin Donald R. Burleson - Snow Cancellations J. W. Jeter - True Love J. L. Comeau - Firebird Karl E. Wagner - Cedar Lane D. F. Lewis - Mort Au Monde Nicholas Royle - Negatives Richard Laymon - Bad News Elizabeth Hand - On The Town Route Alan Brennert - Ma Qui David J. Schow - Incident On A Rainy Night In Beverly Hills Kathe Koja - Impermanent Mercies ian MacLeod - 1/72nd Scale Ramsey Campbell - The Same In Any Language Poppy Z. Brite - His Mouth Will Taste Of Wormwood Charles L. Grant - Our Life In An Hourglass Grant Morrison - The Braille Encyclopedia David Sutton - Those Of Rhenea Joel Lane - Power Cut Harlan Ellison - Jane Doe F. Paul Wilson - Pelts Jean-Daniel Breque - On The Wing Douglas Clegg - Where Flies Are Born Garry Kilworth - Inside The Walled City Jonathan Carroll - The Dead Love You S. P. Somtow - Chui Chai Dennis Etchison - When They Gave Us Memory Gene Wolfe - Lord Of The Land Gahan Wilson - Mister Ice Cold Kim Newman - The Original Dr. Shade
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Post by Johnlprobert on Apr 22, 2008 18:49:15 GMT
Just took down my copy of Best New Horror 1 (bought in 1990 from Nostalgia & Comics in Nottingham. Little did I know I'd still be buying its 'sequels' all these years later) and read the Robert Westall piece. Cracking story, well written, with a strong MR Jamesian feel.
Kev I did wonder when it was supposed to be set, but it was only when they mentioned the Elvis film that I realised it was supposed top be a 'period' piece!
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Post by dem bones on Apr 22, 2008 22:11:40 GMT
Another thing about this first selection. Seems to me that the criticisms of the series on the Mammoth Best New Horror #18 thread certainly don't apply to the debut, which, from what I've read of it to date, fully merits the Best New Horror title.
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Post by goathunter on Jun 6, 2008 17:08:19 GMT
I found an MP3 audiobook version of this book on a torrent site, but I have been unable to find any information about who published it, who the narrators are, or anything else. Does anyone know about an audiobook version of this Best New Horror?
Hunter
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Post by ripper on Dec 15, 2015 12:05:49 GMT
I re-read Robert Westall's 'The Last Day of Miss Dorinda Molyneaux' last night and it confirmed itself as probably my favourite Westall short story. It is so atmospheric and well-written that I find it stands up to multiple readings without becoming stale. There is one small thing that has always bugged me about the story. Dorinda drives a Mini, so that puts the setting at 1959 or later, and the tale, to me, has the feel of being set sometime in the 60s or early 70s. However, Sir Bernard Spilsbury is mentioned as the one who identified the substance scraped from the monuments, but Spilsbury died in 1947, so it couldn't have been him if the setting is the 60s. Perhaps just an oversight by Westall. Reading 'Miss Dorinda Molyneaux' has now given me a hankering to read the source collection again, 'Antique Dust.' Also, I seem to remember that possibly Westall's novel, 'The Wheatstone Pond,' features the same protagonist.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 15, 2015 12:40:53 GMT
I re-read Robert Westall's 'The Last Day of Miss Dorinda Molyneaux' last night and it confirmed itself as probably my favourite Westall short story. It is so atmospheric and well-written that I find it stands up to multiple readings without becoming stale. There is one small thing that has always bugged me about the story. Dorinda drives a Mini, so that puts the setting at 1959 or later, and the tale, to me, has the feel of being set sometime in the 60s or early 70s. However, Sir Bernard Spilsbury is mentioned as the one who identified the substance scraped from the monuments, but Spilsbury died in 1947, so it couldn't have been him if the setting is the 60s. Perhaps just an oversight by Westall. Reading 'Miss Dorinda Molyneaux' has now given me a hankering to read the source collection again, 'Antique Dust.' Also, I seem to remember that possibly Westall's novel, 'The Wheatstone Pond,' features the same protagonist. Valancourt have reissued both Antique Dust and - very recently - The Stones Of Murcaster Cathedral. The problem is, ever item in the Valancourt horror & supernatural catalogue is too bloody appealing by far.
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