Jones & Sutton - Giant Fantasy & The Supernatural

[dem bones]

Stephen Jones & David Sutton (eds) - The Giant Book Of Fantasy & The Supernatural (Parragon, 1996: originally Tiger Books 1994 as The Anthology Of Fantasy & The Supernatural)

Stephen Jones & David Sutton - Introduction: A Bazaar of the Bizarre

Tad Williams - Child of an Ancient City
Thomas F. Monteleone - The Cutty Black Sow
Adrian Cole - Treason in Zagadar
Nancy Holder - Fatal Age
Ramsey Campbell - The Mouths of Light
David J. Schow - [scribble]
Brian M. Stableford - The Storyteller’s Tale
Nicholas Royle - The Big Game
Alex Stewart - The Cat in the Wall
Anne Goring - The Shadow Queen
Brian Mooney - The Waldteufel Affair
Parke Godwin - Up Yours, Federico
Andrew Darlington - Foul Moon Over Sticklespine Lane
Mike Chandler - The Star Weave of Snorgrud Sunbreath
Melanie Tem - Pele
William Thomas Webb - Alchemist’s Gold
Allen Ashley - The Horror Writer
Laurence Staig - The Healing Game
Josepha Sherman - The Love-Gift
David Riley - A New Lease
H. J. Cording - A Fly on the Wall
William F. Nolan - At Diamond Lake
Randall D. Larson - Satan Claws
Dallas Clive Goffin - The Maiden & the Minstrel
Jean-Daniel Brèque - Sight Unseen (Droit de Regard).
David Andreas - The Malspar Sigil
Steve Green - Cracking
Steve Rasnic Tem - Angel Combs
S. M. Stirling - The Waters of Knowing
Charles Wagner - Just a Visitor at Twilight
Joel Lane - And Make Me Whole
Darrell Schweitzer & John Gregory Betancourt- The Last Child of Masferigon
Samantha Lee - Silent Scream
Garry Kilworth - Store Wars
Earl Godwin - Daddy
Adam Nichols - The Dark Fantastic
Michael Marshall Smith - The View
C. Bruce Hunter - The Salesman and the Travelling Farmer’s Daughter
Peter Dennis Pautz - And the Spirit That Stands by the Naked Man

illustrations by Allen Koszowski, Dave Carson, Randy Broeker, Alan Hunter, Dallas Goffin, Harry O. Morris, Russ Nicholson, Russell Morgan, Jim Pitts, Mark Dunn, Charles Dougherty, Martin McKenna, John Stewart, Alfred R. Klosterman.

It's not unlikely the original stories were intended for Fantasy Tales before it went to the wall. Doubt I will ever be able to get along with something called The Star Weave of Snorgrud Sunbreath but delighted to find stories I've not previously read from Michael Marshall Smith, David Riley, Brian Mooney and Ramsey Campbell among others. Allen Ashley's The Horror Writer commemorates the life and death of reclusive author Nigel Norwood, (Hawks, Doves And Vampire Bats, Fly Like A Vulture, etc) who comes off the worst in a deal with a devil woman. The charmingly entitled Up Yours, Federico centers around a bullfight and Satan Claws looks to be a Christmas horror. The original cover (below, borrowed from David Riley's site) is a lot prettier.

[dem bones]

David Riley - A New Lease: If Midnight House don't get their skates on, I might have read all of the stories in Lurkers In The Abyss before it's published. This 12 pager, illustrated by Alfred R. Klosterman, is a proper nasty vampire treat. Young Mark Dillon is bullied by twelve year old Gillian Willoughby and her prepubescent cronies to break into the disused factory on Accrington's Canal Street. Little miss sweary mouth insists that it is being used by local thieves to store knock off gear, but they've a darker reason for luring Mark onto the premises. What Gillian and friends really want is for him to get up close and personal with the mouldering occupants of one of five elongated boxes ....

This next is likewise very good fun.

Randall D. Larson - Satan Claws: A seriously pissed off Nick Lazenby makes his way home through the swarming last minute Christmas shoppers after escaping the drunken morons at his office party. Nick loathes the season, and most of all, he detests the myth of Santa Claus and how he only rewards good kids. Encountering yet another old fool in a beard at the Santa Village in the mall, he plucks the child from the guy's lap and tells him to quit spreading lies. Soon every evil Santa in town is out for the blood of this lone dissenter.

Parke Godwin - Up Yours, Federico: ("With no apologies whatsoever to Federico Garcia Lorca.") Madrid. A murderous, cunning devil bull, its brain operated upon by genius surgeon Don Esteban to give it a better chance of triumph over the matador. The bloodthirsty crowd thrill to a massacre.

Allen Ashley - The Horror Writer: The gorgeous Melantha of Dreams Made True Enterprises offers struggling Nigel Norwood twenty years of success in exchange for his mortal soul. There's even a get-out clause - "If you can gain a full understanding of the whole of human nature, then you can have your soul back when the appropriate time comes." Splashing out on a typewriter and a wad of paper, Norwood sits down to grind out the first of his many horror best-selling horror classics. He certainly gains an insight into the darker side of humanity, but can he cross over into the love and romance genres? i enjoyed this up to the closing page where the author suggests Melantha most likely lets Norwood off with his soul - smart demonic entity she must be!

Dallas Clive Goffin - The Maiden & the Minstrel: Pashonnia the minstrel seduces a beautiful nymph bathing at the meadows of the moon by strumming out a few sonnets on his lyre. So not-my-thing it would be unfair to comment further but i love his artwork.

Steve Green - Cracking: As in "step on a crack, break your mother's back." Teenager Eddie feels duty bound to torment Jeff, his super superstitious nine-year-old brother. Rushing the kid home from school so as not to be late for a hot date, Eddie grows angry at the boy's dawdling. He's avoiding the gaps in the pavement for fear of something dreadful happening. Eddie decides to show him how childish he's being. Bad move.

[dem bones]

Early days yet so there's still plenty of time for tragic tales of wizards, goblins and poncey medieval bastards in doublets strumming lutes, but this has been good so far.

Samantha Lee - Silent Scream: "Rats everywhere, thriving on dead flesh, sharpening their teeth on human bones, turning on each other when the corpses got too skinny, cycling and recycling themselves in an obscene orgy of cannibalistic gluttony." Samantha Lee made a couple of contributions to the Pan Book Of Horror, but i can't remember either being as horrible and downright harrowing as this. Fifty years after she and her family were marched off to Auschwitz, Mrs. Irma Longford is committed to a padded cell, suffering from the worst case of DT's the staff have ever seen. Refusing any form of counselling, Irma is discharged on the understanding that she's a chronic alcoholic and one more drink will kill her. Everyone agrees its tragic that this lovely woman should have endured such a dreadful experience in the death camps, but what they can't know is that she found her time there extremely enjoyable and, once she'd been taken by a sadistic guard named Blucher, she'd assisted him in torturing her fellow Jews. Nearing the end of her life, Irma's one regret is that she can't shake the memory of the corpse-eating rats from her mind.

Garry Kilworth - Store Wars: The January 1st 2000 'Turn of the Century' sale at Maccine's department store is the most violent in their bloody history. The Maccine top brass actively encourage an uncompromising, competitive streak in their employees and a simmering feud between Men's Underwear and Lingerie escalates until the entire staff are involved in the conflict. Some fall foul of booby traps, others are tortured with staples or hurled screaming from the roof. Can edgy psychotic Mr. Thornton Vandyne and his chums in Guns & Rods restore order? Perhaps more to the point, will they salvage any cut-price goodies for the customers to riot over?

Andrew Darlington - Foul Moon Over Sticklespine Lane: Despite his loathing of this particular stretch of Yorkshire, Terry pays a visit to his dealer's caravan, desperate to score more of that stuff he gave him in the car-park of The Duchess last week. Jazz ain't home but his wasted, hippie girlfriend Carolyn is and, over a cup of wine, she tells Terry all about the hallucinogenic fungus and what it's done to the pit men who live beneath the arches ....

[dem bones]

Brian Mooney - The Waldteufel Affair: "In certain - shall I say social circles - you have an enviable reputation for your knowledge of the ... odd, the outré."

Another Brit Occult Detective for the list, Prof. Rueben Calloway, ably assisted (in this adventure, at least) by Inspector Lohmann of the Austrian police. Calloway is in Europe researching material for his next book when he recieves an invite to a dinner party at the Schloss Dürckheim. Of late there have been several cattle mutilations in the district and Willie Beike, the official village drunk, swears to have spotted a giant slavering wolf on his way home one night, though of course, his eyewitness account is scoffed at by all as the ravings of a madman. Calloway isn't so sure, and neither is Inspector Lohmann, a refreshingly open-minded law enforcer who takes the Englishman into his confidence. The Schloss was once home to the 15th century nobleman, alchemist and trafficker with Satan, Graf Helmet von Dürckheim, who, legend has it, possessed the ability to shape-shift. The nervous young beauty who owns the Schloss, Anna von Wohl, is his descendant and Calloway recognises her close female companion, Madame Levoisin, from a seance he attended back home in London. Could it be that Madame Levoisin been dabbling in the dark occult? And what is the secret of the coarse wolf-skin belt she's so eager for Anna to slip around her waist?

Not sure if Brian Mooney wrote any more Rueben Calloway adventures but he's quite the entertainer. Erudite, smug, unbearably supercilious with villainesses ("I simply concocted an elaborate charade to test your stupidity level. You rate very low, Madame") and, of course, he takes all the glory for putting an end to the reign of terror even if Lohmann did much of the spadework.

William F. Nolan - At Diamond Lake: Another neat creepy/ horrific one. Ellen is insistent that she and Steve should spend their vacation at Diamond Lake as opposed to his alternative suggestion, Disneyland. Why not? Steve's just inherited his father's beautiful redwood house and Ellen's still not seen it. But Steve finds the idea of returning to his home town abhorrent. Something happened between him and pretty little Vanette when they were kids, something he's grateful to have developed a mental block over. Too bad for him that Ellen is such a persuasive woman. Even worse, that Vanette has been patiently awaiting his return all these years ...

Nancy Holder - Fatal Age: Its Elise's 36th birthday and the family are off to the Jolly Clown Pizza Palace to celebrate. It's the first time she, husband and the kids have been out together since she was released from hospital following a years treatment for her nervous breakdown and injuries sustained in a car smash. Since she's been away, fifteen year old Sandy has usurped her as mother hen to the brood and can barely be bothered to disguise her resentment at Elise's "weakness". The birthday bash is a horrifying ordeal as the ghosts of her past (the sister who warned that their mother was poisoning their milk and sprinkling glass in the food: mother who killed herself at thirty-five), the evil Jolly Clowns and the suddenly alien loved ones of her present combine to drag her off to the kitchen furnace.

So far, I've derived more enjoyment from Giant Book Of Fantasy & The Supernatural than many a mid-period Mammoth Best New Horror though it might be wise to quit while we're still on friendly terms. Flicking through the remainder, have spotted overt references to a wizard's amulet and Hazel O'Connor circa Breaking Glass so it can only be a matter of time before we get elves and that will be the whole experience ruined beyond repair.

[weirdmonger]

Jan 21, 2011 17:33:28 GMT dem bones said:

Brian Mooney - The Waldteufel Affair

When I first joined the BFS in the 70s, I seem to recall someone named Brian Mooney being the Membership Secretary.
I had no idea he also wrote things. In fact, at that time, I thought nobody I was likely to know would be a published writer.
des

[dem bones]

According to Stephen Jones, he is/ was a customs officer by day which perhaps explains relatively low profile. Mr. Jones also mentions that Brian Mooney "isn't prolific" but there's surely enough for a collection by now. The earliest story I've found of his - as B. M. Mooney - is The Arabian Bottle in London Mystery #88 (March, 1971), but he likely contributed more stories to LMM before Van Thal gave him his breakthrough in 1980. He also wrote for Fantasy Tales, Kadath (July, 1982: a special "Occult Detective issue": more Prof. Rueben Calloway?), Dark Horizons probably a number of other semi-pro/ small press publications. And Fiesta.

For Whom The Ghouls Troll - (Dark Horizons #3, Summer 1972)
The Witch Of Nuide - (Dark Horizons #15, Winter 1976)
The Dream Shop - (Fantasy Tales #1, Summer 1977)
For the Life Everlasting - (Fantasy Tales #5, Winter 1979)
Baby, Baby - (21st Pan Book Of Horror Stories, 1980)
The Elevation of Theosophus Goatgrime - (Fantasy Tales #8, Summer 1981)
Joplin's - (Mary Danby's Nightmares #3, 1985)
Mulberry’s Crystal - (Final Shadows, 1991)
The Lady of Dubhán Alla - (Dark Voices 5, 1993)
The Waldteufel Affair - (The Anthology of Fantasy & the Supernatural, 1994)
Chandira - (The Mammoth Book of Frankenstein, 1994)
The Tomb of Priscus - (Shadows Over Innsmouth, 1994)
Soul of the Wolf (Mammoth Book Of Werewolves/ Wolf Men, 1994, 2009)
Endangered Species - Mammoth Book of Dracula, 1997, 2011)
Vultures Gather - (Dark Detectives, 1999)
Maypole - (Mammoth Book Of New Terror, 2004)

[dem bones]

Nicholas Royle - The Big Game: Haven't always appreciated Mr. Royle's fiction but found this particular story disgustingly terrific. Bolton is a talented photographer whose sole source of income is reliant on the work Groom, a snuff & sado-porn mogul, sends his way. Bolton's hatred of his employer intensifies when he accidentally learns the identity of the "actress" who perished on the Rape Inferno set. Now Groom has devised a new attraction guaranteed to fill his range of hilltop stadia to capacity - shooting passenger jets from the sky with laser cannon. The lucky punters get to bet on the death toll! Bolton is persuaded to film the event, knowing the while that a young model whose life he saved may be aboard the doomed flight.

Charles Wagner - Just a Visitor at Twilight: Elderly hospital visitor comforts the dying. Service by written consent only.

C. Bruce Hunter - The Salesman and the Travelling Farmer’s Daughter: Prior to her plane flight, the little girl's parents remind her not to talk to strange men. Luckily, she's strapped in next to the salesman, and all he wants is that she accepts a gift, a lovely snow globe. What harm can it do?

H. J. Cording - A Fly on the Wall: Elaine suspects husband of infidelity with hot new office receptionist. The genie in the teapot provides opportunity to find out for sure.

[Shrink Proof]

I read this collection years ago - I seem to remember my copy was very much like the one illustrated at the top of this thread, with a second-hand bookshop price label stuck on it that was really hard to remove (why do they do that?). If I still had it (gave it to a friend)* I'd be revisiting it; this thread has reminded me of a few high points that would've made me dig it out and re-read a few tales. Lousy cover though....



*Superfluous comment designed to demonstrate that I really do have at least one friend. Somewhere...

[dem bones]

Jul 26, 2018 7:48:45 GMT Shrink Proof said:

I read this collection years ago - I seem to remember my copy was very much like the one illustrated at the top of this thread, with a second-hand bookshop price label stuck on it that was really hard to remove (why do they do that?). If I still had it (gave it to a friend)* I'd be revisiting it; this thread has reminded me of a few high points that would've made me dig it out and re-read a few tales. Lousy cover though....

Have had a great time with this one. Am guessing it was compiled from material stockpiled by the editors for future issues of Fantasy Tales?