Your best of the worst of 2022

[dem bones]

Usual end of year round up. The best of the worst, stuff that stuck, etc.

Anthologies

Paul Finch [ed.] - Terror Tales of the West Country
Duane Parsons [ed. ]- The Night Seasons
James Doig [ed.] - Australian Nightmares
Robert Bloch [ed.] - Psycho-Paths
Peter Coleburn & Jan Edwards [eds] - Alchemy Press Book of Horror 2
Christopher Wood - [ed.] The 2nd BHF Book of Horror
Gene Christie [ed.] - The People of the Pit & Other Early Horrors from the Munsey Pulps
Darrell Buxton - [ed.] The Ateth BHF Book of Horror
Stephen Jones & David A Sutton [eds] - The Best of Dark Terrors
Richard & Hugh Lamb [eds] - Things That Wait in the Dark
Christopher Philippo [ed] - Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories: Vol 5
Alastair Gunn [ed] - Wimbourne Book of Victorian Ghost Stories: Vol 3
Alastair Gunn [ed] - Wimbourne Book of Victorian Ghost Stories: Vol 4
Alastair Gunn [ed] - Wimbourne Book of Victorian Ghost Stories: Vol 8
John Miller [ed] - Polar Horrors
Peter Coleburn & Jan Edwards [eds] - Monsters: Alchemy Press Book of Horror 3
Tanya Kirk [ed.] - Haunters at the Hearth


Novels/ novellas
Really gonna have to make more of an effort with novels next year ...

Robert Marasco - Burnt Offerings
Morgan Robertson - Wreck of the Titan
Nicci Rae - Mad Bess Wood
Joy Fielding - Trance
John McCarty - Deadly Resurrection

Single Author Collections

John Llewellyn Probert - Chasing Spirits
John Llewellyn Probert - How Grim Was My Valley
Tony Richards - Three Dozen Terrifying Tales
Bernard Taylor - This is Midnight
David A. Sutton - En Vacancies
Peter Tremayne - Aisling & Other Irish Tales of Terror

Non-fiction

Peter Enfantino, Robbert Morrish, John Scoleri [eds.] - Best of Scream Factory
Lynette Carpenter & Wendy Kolmar - Ghost Stories by British & American Women: A Selected Annotated Bibliography
Alan Robson - Nightmare on your Street: Grisly Trails & Ghostly Tales 2
Gavin Baddeley - Lucifer Rising: Sin, Devil Worship & Rock 'n Roll
Joseph Braddock - Haunted Houses of Great Britain
Marc Alexander - Haunted Inns
Thomas Corum Caldas - The Hangman, The Hound & Other Hauntings: A Gazateer of Welsh Ghosts
G. A. Household [ed.] - The Devil's Hoofprints: The Great Devon Mystery of 1855
David & Andrew Pickering - Witch Hunt: The Persecution of Witches in England
Alwyn W. Turner - A Classless Society: Britain in the Nineties
Jean Williams - The History of Women's Football
Geoffrey Pearson - Hooligan: A History of Respectable Fears


Pulp fasimiles

Lack of further Wildside Weird Tales reissues was disappointing, but more than made do with these.

Horror Stories Sept 1935/ Weird Tales Dec 1928, bunched together as Classic Horror Pulps #1 by Gwandanaland.
Eerie Stories, Aug 1937. Adventure House reissue, 2005.
Ghost Stories Sept 1929. Fiction House reissue, 2021.
Spicy Mystery Stories, Feb. 1937. Wildside reissue, 2004.

Fanzines

Justin Marriott [ed.] Paperback Fantastic Vols 1-3
Carol Tyrrell [ed.] - Ghosts & Scholars #42
Helen Grant [ed.] - Ghosts & Scholars #43
Peter Enfantino and John Scoleri [eds] The Best of Bare Bones
Justin Marriott [ed.] Paperback Fanatic 45
Justin Marriott [ed.] Battling Britons #4

Personal:

Trialing DIY Ghost walk of Harrow-on-the-Hill, Harrow Weald, Canons Park, Queensbury & Co on 30th Sept. Nicci Rae and others picking up on haunted bench, spectral nun of St. Mary's churchyard, and the Phantom Monk of Marsh lane for 'Harrow Online' at Halloween. Nature watch and graveyard haunt at Wapping with Bride of Dem. Befriending the ducks, moorhens, coots, mallards of Squogem island, Hermitage Waterside.

RIP

Chris Bailey, Jet Black, Raymond Briggs, Robbie Coltrane, Martin Duffy, Andy Fletcher, Ron Goulart, Terry Hall, Wilko Johnson, Anna Karen, Keith Levine, Jerry Lee Lewis, Pele, Leslie Phillips, Sidney Poitier, Jim Seals, Peter Straub, Re Styles, R. Dean Taylor, Nicky Tesco, Dennis Waterman, Vivienne Westwood ...

Bookmark commemorating centenary of Bethnal Green Library

[Shrink Proof]

To which I would add the following, being a sort of personal best of 2022:-


Short Story Collections -

Ray Newman - "Municipal Gothic" (personal favourite of 2022 - investigate soonest...)
Mark Andresen - "No-One Driving"
Alan Hodge & Al Peters - "Whispers from the Darkness"
Robert Aickman - "Compulsory Games" (RA is always worth re-reading I think)

Non-Fiction (well, sort of...) -

Andy Sharp - "The English Heretic Collection"

Magazines -

The Ghastling
Cloister Fox
Weird Walk

RIP -

All of the above (thanks Dem) plus John Bird.
Wilko Johnson deserves a special personal mention. I saw Dr Feelgood live at Liverpool Stadium, 1975. Despite facing a militantly Scouse audience whose approach was "who are these creeps from Canvey Island playing rock like they own the fucking stuff?", no band I'd seen before had ever managed to pull off looking scary and cool at the same time. And Wilko was the scariest and coolest of them all (just - Lee Brilleaux ran him a very close second).

Personal -

Having a few things accepted for publication.
Invitation to read one of my tales at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Visiting Steampunk HQ in Oamaru, New Zealand.
Stonehenge exhibition at the British Museum.
Finally making it to Ultima Thule (St Kilda).
Seeing Scotland in all weathers, but especially in winter.


Finally, massive thanks to Dem for keeping this ghost train on the rails, and a very Happy New Year to all passengers and crew. Here's hoping that 2023 comes up with the goods...

[andydecker]

Dec 31, 2022 12:19:53 GMT Shrink Proof said:

Finally, massive thanks to Dem for keeping this ghost train on the rails, and a very Happy New Year to all passengers and crew.

I can't repeat that heartily enough.

Onward with the show:

Anthologies
Paul Finch [ed.] - Terror Tales of Northwest England
Paul Finch [ed.] - Terror Tales of the Scottish Lowlands
Stephen R. Bissette – Studio of Screams
Pan Book of Horror Stories - diverse


Novels/ novellas
For the 1st time:

Dan Abnett – The Vincula Insurgency
Graham Masterton – Charnel House
Michael Connelly – Angels Flight

From the shelves to re-read it:

Jonathan Valin – Natural Causes
Ross Macdonald – Black Money
Max Allan Collins – True Detective
Robert Jordan – The Shadow Rising
George G. Gilman – Eve of Evil
Marc Olden – Giri

Single Author Collections
Dan Abnett – Lord of the Dark Millennium
David A. Sutton - En Vacancies
Ramsey Campbell – Far Away & Never
Anna Taborska – Shadowcats
Reggie Oliver – Stages of Fear
Simon Unsworth – The Martledge Variations
Frederick Cowles – Fear walks the Night
Agatha Christe – Hercule Poirot – The complete Short Stories

Non-fiction
Pat Gilbert – Shut It: The Inside Story of The Sweeney
Jac Weller – Wellington in India
Tim Lucas – Spirits of the Dead
Sean Howe – Marvel Comics – The Untold Stories (Re-read it for the don't know how many times)
Roy Thomas – Barbarian Life -A Literary Biography of Conan the Barbarian Vol. 2
David L. Rosheim – Galaxy Magazine: The Dark and the Light Years
Alexei Panshin – Heinlein in Dimension

Fanzines
Justin Marriott [ed.] Paperback Fantastic Vols 1-3
Justin Marriott [ed.] Paperback Fanatic 45
Justin Marriott [ed.] Battling Britons: Reader‘s Guide

Personal:
No best of the worst.

RIP
All those mentioned already and Angela Lansbury, Kevin O‘Neill, Alan Grant, Neal Adams, George Perez, Dietmar Kügler (German writer of westerns, publisher and expert of the American West)

Audiobooks:
1st time:
Dan Abnett – Ravenor Rogue
Dan Abnett – Traitor General (Gaunt‘s Ghosts 8)
Dan Abnett – Sabbat Martyr (Gaunt‘s Ghosts 7)
William King – Skavenslayer (Gotrek & Felix 2)

Heard again:
Richard Cornwell – Sharpe 1 to 11
Bram Stoker – Dracula
Dan Abnett – Eisenhorn 1;2
Dan Abnett – Gaunt‘s Ghosts 1 – 4

Comics:
Blink
The Out

(As we only list the best of the worst, I will withhold my opinion on the rest of 2000AD this year.)

Lots of 70s Marvel stuff. (Who would have thought that I someday begin to like Sal Buscema.)

 

[johnnymains]

One of each:


Anthology: Datlow - Screams from the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous

Novel: Naga - If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English

Collection: Booth - Strange Animals

Non-Fiction: McCurdy - I'm Glad My Mom Died

Personal: My daughter saying she was proud of me at the launch of CELTIC WEIRD. Best thing that's happened to me since she was born.

RIP: A friend who died in the last month. Not a part of the genre - just the very essence of what a fan was. (Last bit of this line deleted, as I was pissed up)

FILM: EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE. Perfect film.

[Johnlprobert]

Hmmmm let's have a look:

Anthologies:

The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories Vol 2 - James Jenkins & Ryan Cagle

Single Author Collections:

A Maze for the Minotaur - Reggie Oliver
The Gypsy Spider & Others - Nicola Lombardi
Cursed Bunny - Bora Chung (seriously - marketed as 'literary horror' but it really delivers the good stuff)
Feesters in the Lake - Bob Leman (Bob Leman! His collection got reprinted!)
Tomato Cain -Nigel Kneale (ditto!)

Non-Fiction:

Confessions of a Puppet Master -Charles Band (who would have thought a restaurant was harder to run than Empire Pictures)

Personal

Extremely groovy to still be alive and to have two new books out

Films

Best and Worst all covered here (you know you want to read the worst):

johnlprobert.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-top-ten-films-of-2022.html


Long live the Vault and Happy Sleazy New Year to all!!!!

[pbsplatter]

Anthologies



Charles L. Grant (ed.) - Final Shadows
Jeff Gelb & Michael Garrett (eds.) - Hot Blood
David J. Schow (ed.) - Silver Scream

Graham Masterton (ed.) - Scare Care


Novels/ novellas




JG Ballard - Millennium People 
Jack Ketchum - The Girl Next Door
Joe R. Lansdale - The Drive-In
Bentley Little - The Mailman
Bentley Little - The Town
Bentley Little - Death Instinct
Ray Garton - Darklings
Guy N. Smith - Thirst
Guy N. Smith - Abomination
Richard Laymon - Enldess Night
Chet Williamson - "Yer Skin's Jes's Soft'N'Purty," He Said. (Page 243)


Single Author Collections



Ramsey Campbell - Told By The Dead
Ramsey Campbell - Alone with the Horrors (this was a rematch--I realized there were a few stories in there I'd never read)
Kate Farrell - And Nobody Lived Happily Ever After
John Shirley - Black Butterflies



Non-fiction

Paul Terry - The X-Files: The Official Archives: Cryptids, Biological Anomalies, and Parapsychic Phenomena
Hallie Rubenhold- The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper 
Paul Brians - Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction, 1895–1984





Personal: Got a wife and a dog!

[dem bones]

Ah, I know some of these! Think I read all the books in the Hot Blood series and I'm not sure Jeff Gelb ever bettered that first volume. Really glad you like Kate Farrell's And Nobody Lived Ever After. Abomination is my second favourite GNS novel after The Slime Beast. Not the biggest fan of Laymon's Endless Night, though. Much prefer Midnight's Lair, The Woods Are Dark and (probably in a minority of one), Funland. I really have to get hold a copy of The Mailman. Congrats on your marriage (and choice of family friend).

Dec 31, 2022 21:51:15 GMT Johnlprobert said:

Films

Best and Worst all covered here (you know you want to read the worst):

johnlprobert.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-top-ten-films-of-2022.html

You fiend! I was mid-attempt at persuading bride of Dem that we so needed to see Blackbird when I reached "stop writing down those titles at the back."

[pbsplatter]

Thanks, Dem! 

I just got ahold of a bunch more of the HB series out of morbid and puerile curiosity. I was delighted by the quality of the first volume, which I understand doesn't persist across the series. 

Endless Night isn't that great as Laymon goes, although it wins lots of points from me for sheer audacity (the glee with which our protagonist impersonates a woman, as well as the incipient romance between our 16 or 17 year old heroine and her 12 or 13 year old friend's brother). 

The Woods Are Dark is a masterpiece, and I actually think Funland is very good (I might have read that one this year as well, come to think of it!). It has some padding in the middle, but the twist about 'Shiner' is good, the plot arc of our puerile (that word again! Hard to avoid when talking about this sort of stuff!) teen protagonist well done. And the ending in the funhouse is utterly off the wall. 

Midnight's Lair I'll have to rematch with, sometime. I recall thinking it was a great set-up without enough follow-through when it came to the attack of the mutant hotel guests, but that Steve Crisp cover art beckons me back.


The Mailman is really very good, and surprisingly, well, scary/horrific. 

[andydecker]

Jan 6, 2023 13:58:33 GMT pbsplatter said:

Anthologies



Charles L. Grant (ed.) - Final Shadows
Jeff Gelb & Michael Garrett (eds.) - Hot Blood
David J. Schow (ed.) - Silver Scream

Graham Masterton (ed.) - Scare Care


Personal: Got a wife and a dog!

This is a interesting selection. Hot Blood never gets better, it is just more of the same. Less really good stories - which there are quite a few undoubtedly - , more formula stuff. Silver Scream merits a re-read, especially for the not so famous contributions which I have all forgotten. Scare Care I still haven't read, and Final Shadows I don't have, but the line-up is impressive.

Congrats on your marriage.

[pbsplatter]

Thanks, Andy.

I've had Silver Scream for years but never cracked it open until this year; I'd really been missing out!

Scare Care is worth seeking out; there's some redundancies and weak pieces but several stories (including the Marc Laidlaw one) are worth price of admission alone. And just about every story in Final Shadows is aces. 

[dem bones]

Re; Hot Blood, seems to me the first three are very strong (I love KEW's contribution to Hotter Blood) after which, well, the law of diminishing returns and all that, but each volume had enough exciting moments to keep me interested. I'd agree, Scare Care is hit and miss; Marc Laidlaw's Mars Will Have Blood would be my pick, too. Others that stuck would include Fay Weldon's Loopy, John Burke's The Tourists and GNS's Crustacean Revenge. Schow's classy Silver Scream was surely good for at least a volume two?

Thanks for taking us through the Borderland series!

[johnnymains]

Jan 6, 2023 14:25:28 GMT dem bones said:

Ah, I know some of these! Think I read all the books in the Hot Blood series and I'm not sure Jeff Gelb ever bettered that first volume. Really glad you like Kate Farrell's And Nobody Lived Ever After. Abomination is my second favourite GNS novel after The Slime Beast. Not the biggest fan of Laymon's Endless Night, though. Much prefer Midnight's Lair, The Woods Are Dark and (probably in a minority of one), Funland. I really have to get hold a copy of The Mailman. Congrats on your marriage (and choice of family friend).

Dec 31, 2022 21:51:15 GMT Johnlprobert said:

Films

Best and Worst all covered here (you know you want to read the worst):

johnlprobert.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-top-ten-films-of-2022.html

You fiend! I was mid-attempt at persuading bride of Dem that we so needed to see Blackbird when I reached "stop writing down those titles at the back."

Watched BLACKBIRD last night. It's amazing and awful all rolled into one. Couldn't stop chuckling.

[cauldronbrewer]

A belated list:

Horror anthology: The Night Wire and Other Tales of Weird Media (ed. Aaron Worth); The Ghost Slayers: Thrilling Tales of Occult Detection (ed. Mike Ashley); Polar Horrors: Strange Tales from the World's Ends (ed. John Miller), all from the British Library Tales of the Weird series

Horror collection: My Lady of Hy-Brasil and Other Stories (Peter Tremayne); Eyes of Terror (L. T. Meade)

Horror novella: Blackham's Wimpey (Robert Westall)

Horror novel: Ring Shout (P. Djèlí Clark)

Horror film: Nope (Jordan Peele); The Wind (Emma Tammi)

Horror television series: The Terror (Max Borenstein & Alexander Woo)

Horror comics: Misty Presents: The Jaume Rumeu Collection

Non-horror fiction: A Master of Djinn (P. Djèlí Clark); the Cass Neary series (Elizabeth Hand); the Jesperson and Lane series (Lisa Tuttle); the Liveship Trader series (Robin Hobb)

Non-horror television: Stranger Things (Season 4); Locke & Key (Season 1); Yellowjackets (Season 1); Wednesday (Season 1); The Dragon Prince (Season 4); Rings of Power (Season 1); The Witcher (Season 2); Paper Girls (Season 1 and only)

Non-horror film: Everything Everywhere All at Once; Glass Onion; The Menu

Music: Impera (Ghost); Fascination (The Birthday Massacre)

[Johnlprobert]

Jan 7, 2023 14:12:41 GMT johnnymains said:

Jan 6, 2023 14:25:28 GMT dem bones said:

Ah, I know some of these! Think I read all the books in the Hot Blood series and I'm not sure Jeff Gelb ever bettered that first volume. Really glad you like Kate Farrell's And Nobody Lived Ever After. Abomination is my second favourite GNS novel after The Slime Beast. Not the biggest fan of Laymon's Endless Night, though. Much prefer Midnight's Lair, The Woods Are Dark and (probably in a minority of one), Funland. I really have to get hold a copy of The Mailman. Congrats on your marriage (and choice of family friend).

You fiend! I was mid-attempt at persuading bride of Dem that we so needed to see Blackbird when I reached "stop writing down those titles at the back."

Watched BLACKBIRD last night. It's amazing and awful all rolled into one. Couldn't stop chuckling.

Just whatever you do don't watch Birdemic 3 - that's a different sanity-threatening level of terrible altogether!

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

Here is everthing I read this last year (that was in book form). I hope to do better this year. I'm planning to read more 18th/19th century Gothic fiction.

Fiction

The Children's Crusade Treece, Henry
The Camomile Carswell, Catherine
The Amber Princess Treece, Henry
Ombria in Shadow McKillip, Patricia A.
Jane-Emily Clapp, Patricia
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept Smart, Elizabeth
The Invisible Man Wells, H.G.
Midnight Is a Place Aiken, Joan
Esperanza's Box of Saints Escandón, María Amparo
Imagined Corners Muir, Willa
Ward of the Sun King Butler, Mildred Allen
An Edinburgh Reel McGregor, Iona
Death Wore A Diadem McGregor, Iona
Tamburlaine the Great, Part 1 Marlowe, Christopher
Katharina Luther: Nun, Rebel, Wife Boileau, Anne
South Riding Holtby, Winifred
The Old Curiosity Shop Dickens, Charles
The Best of Saki Saki
Sun Horse, Moon Horse Sutcliff, Rosemary
The Scouring of the White Horse (Barnes & Noble Digital Library): Or, the Long Vacation Ramble of a London Clerk Hughes, Thomas
Aurora Leigh Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
The Border Lord Westcott, Jan
Tea in the Heather Roberts, Kate
Good Morning, Midnight Rhys, Jean
Where the Apple Ripens and Other Stories Kesson, Jessie
Silent Close No. 6 Maron, Monika
The Sorceress of the Strand Meade, L.T.
The Spirit Hollows Brewer, P.R. *
Fonthill: A Comedy Menen, Aubrey

Non-fiction

Aquagenesis: The Origin and Evolution of Life in the Sea Ellis, Richard
Towards Emancipation: German Women Writers of the Nineteenth Century Diethe, Carol
Seasons of My Life: Story of a Solitary Daleswoman Hauxwell, Hannah
In Memory of England Vansittart, Peter
Christina of Sweden Stolpe, Sven
Moon In Eclipse: A Life Of Mary Shelley Dunn, Jane
Unruly Times: Wordsworth and Coleridge in Their Time Byatt, A.S.
The Craces: Royal Decorators, 1768-1899 Aldrich, Megan
A Book of Old Edinburgh Dunlop, Eileen
Hildegard von Bingen's Physica: The Complete English Translation of Her Classic Work on Health and Healing Hildegard of Bingen
Power of Gentleness: Meditations on the Risk of Living Dufourmantelle, Anne
Bowling for Communism: Urban Ingenuity at the End of East Germany Demshuk, Andrew
Princess Mary: The First Modern Princess Basford, Elisabeth
The Sun King: Louis Fourteenth at Versailles Mitford, Nancy
Hannah More Collingwood, Jeremy
Saint Simon at Versailles Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvroy d
Emilie du Châtelet, Philosophe des Lumières Debert, Pascale
Christopher Marlowe: A Biography Rowse, A.L.
Working Women of Early Modern Venice Chojnacka, Monica
Carolina of Orange-Nassau: Ancestress of the Royal Houses of Europe Bloks, Moniek *
A Short History of Cahiers du Cinema Bickerton, Emilie
Rimbaud: L'heure de la fuite Borer, Alain
The Currency of Eros: Women's Love Lyric in Europe, 1540-1620 Jones, Ann Rosalind
A Sultry Month: Scenes Of London Literary Life In 1846 Hayter, Alethea
In My Father's Bakery: A Bronx Memoir Korman, Marvin
Multiple Sclerosis: New Hope and Practical Advice for People with MS and Their Families Rosner, Louis J.
Winter In Mallorca Sand, George
Sophie Germain: An Essay in the History of the Theory of Elasticity Dworsky, N.
The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street Nicholl, Charles
Simon Forman: Sex And Society In Shakespeare's Age Rowse, A.L.
Emmy Noether Tent, M.B.W.
The Foundations of Geometry Hilbert, David


Edited to say this is all the books I read last year, not this year. I'd have to be Susan Sontag or Colin Wilson to have managed that amount already.