The Best New Horror 2 (2 page)

On a slightly more mainstream note, Ray Bradbury’s
A Graveyard for Lunatics
was a further instalment of his autobiographical fiction, set in 1950s Hollywood; Anne Rice’s
The Witching Hour
chronicled the epic history of a family of witches over the centuries; and Robert McCammon’s
Mine
, despite some great moments of psychological tension, saw the author moving away from supernatural horror towards the more popular thriller market.

Some publishers kept the dread word “horror” well away from their contributions to the field: Valerie Martin’s
Mary Reilly
was a retelling of the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde story from the viewpoint of the doctor’s maid;
Phantom
, by Susan Kay, was a fictional biography of the Phantom of the Opera; and James Lovegrove’s first novel
The Hope
was composed of episodes (owing more to the splatterpunks than to William Hope Hodgson) set on a five-mile-long cruise ship adrift at sea for decades. Also standing somewhat aloof from their genre were Patrick McGrath’s
Spider
and
Cold Eye
by Giles Blunt.

Most horror books, however, acknowledged their field. Brian Lumley treated his fans to
The House of Doors
and expanded his popular vampire trilogy with
Necroscope IV: Deadspeak
. More vampires figured in
The Stake
by Richard Laymon, and Tanith Lee dealt with a different kind at length in
The Blood of Roses
. S. P. Somtow’s
Moon Dance
was a werewolf novel set in the American West during the nineteenth century, while the lyncanthropes in Charles L. Grant’s
Stunts
were more contemporary. F. Paul Wilson’s
Reborn
was his long-awaited sequel of sorts to
The Keep
; his novella
Pelts
was limited to just 552 copies. Graham Masterton’s
Night Plague
was the third in his Night Warriors series. On the ghostly front,
The Promise
was another of Robert Westall’s fine tales for young adults, while in
Rune
Christopher Fowler attempted to derive a novel from “Casting the Runes” without M. R. James’ terseness and elegance of style.

It was good to see new work from veteran pulp writers: Robert Bloch brought out
Psycho House
, the third in his series about Mrs Bates’ boy Norman, and
The Jekyll Legacy
, a Gothic mystery written in collaboration with Andre Norton; meanwhile Hugh B. Cave pursued his fascination with Caribbean voodoo in
The Lower Deep
. To celebrate the centenary of H. P. Lovecraft, publisher Donald M. Grant produced the first separate edition of
At the Mountains of Madness
, an expensive oversize hardcover illustrated in full colour by Fernando Duval.

Rex Miller’s
Slice
once again featured detective Jack Eichord and everyone’s favourite Vietnam psycho Chaingang Bunkowski. Many
well-known horror writers had new books to their names: Peter James (
Sweet Heart
), Stephen Gallagher (
Rain
), Chet Williamson (
Reign
), John Farris (
Fiends
), John Coyne (
Child of Shadows
), T. M. Wright (
The School
and
Boundaries
), Ray Garton (
Trade Secrets
), Stephen Laws (
The Frighteners
), Brian Stableford (
The Werewolves of London
), the unstoppable Guy N. Smith (
Phobia, The Unseen
and
Carnivore
), and John Saul (
Second Child
and
Sleepwalk
).
Fairytales
by Steve Rasnic Tem appeared in a 300-copy edition, and David J. Schow could find only a British publisher for his superior second novel
The Shaft
.

Other noteworthy titles of 1990 included
Fire
by Alan Rodgers,
The Unseen
by Joe Citro,
The Vampire Files
by P. N. Elrod (three volumes confronting a hardboiled Chicago detective with vampirism during the Depression),
The Cartoonist
by Sean Costello,
October
by Al Sarrantonio,
Dead Voices
by Rick Hautala, and
Angel of Darkness
by Charles de Lint under his pseudonym Samuel M. Key. Kathryn Ptacek offered more Indian magic in
Ghost Dance
; Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, more historical horror from the Saint-Germain Chronicles in
Out of the House of Life
. A vampirish entity wiped out the members of a single family in Kim Newman’s aptly titled
Bad Dreams
, and vampirism, voodoo, possession and reincarnation all combined in
Tempter
by Nancy Collins, the follow-up to her acclaimed debut novel
Sunglasses After Dark
. Steve Harris’s
Adventureland
showed some promise among its derivations from King and Barker, while Michael Cadnum’s debut
Nightlight
was impressively assured. Comic relief was provided by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman in their hilarious
Good Omens
, which mercilessly lampooned the Satanic Apocalypse.

Demonstrating that horror is still a thriving market for the short form, David J. Schow had two substantial collections published,
Seeing Red
and
Lost Angels
, while
The Adventures of Lucius Leffing
continued the adventures of the late Joseph Payne Brennan’s occult detective.
The Call and Other Stories
by Robert Westall and
Methods of Madness
by Ray Garton were both slightly disappointing, given each author’s previous work, though less so than
A Fit of Shivers
by Joan Aiken. Michael Blumlein’s
The Brains of Rats
lived up to the weirdness of its title story, and
Houses Without Doors
showed that Peter Straub’s considerable talent extends to lengths shorter than the novel.
Blood and Grit
was a striking first small press collection by Simon Clark. Dan Simmons continued to proliferate with
Prayers to Broken Stones
, featuring thirteen stories with an introduction by Harlan Ellison, and Brian Lumley toured Lovecraft’s dreamland in
Iced on Aran and Other Dreamquests
. Peter Haining disinterred and introduced
The Best Supernatural Stories of Wilkie Collins
.

*

1990 was a year for anthologies, with a huge variety of titles flooding the market. Marvin Kaye, ever reliable as an anthologist, put together fascinating contents for
Witches and Warlocks: Tales of Black Magic, Old & New
and
13 Plays of Ghosts and the Supernatural
, two volumes published only by the Science Fiction Book Club.
Dark Voices: the Best from the Pan Book of Horror Stories
, edited by Stephen Jones and Clarence Paget, collected thirteen stories from Britain’s longest-running and most successful horror anthology series with introductions by contemporary writers in the field. The series subsequently entered its 31st year as
Dark Voices 2: the Pan Book of Horror
under the editorship of David Sutton and Stephen Jones. The same team were responsible for the move into America of the one-time small press magazine
Fantasy Tales
, which finally completed the transformation to a twice-yearly anthology format, and
The Best Horror from Fantasy Tales
saw American publication by Carroll & Graf.

The year’s most prolific anthologist was, as usual, Martin H. Greenberg, who was involved with a whole host of titles:
Mummy Stories, Devil Worshippers, Ghosts of the Heartland, Western Ghosts, Cults of Horror, Phantom Regiments
(with Robert Adams),
Lovecraft’s Legacy
(with Robert Weinberg),
The Rivals of Weird Tales
(a massive “instant remainder” collection with Weinberg and Stefan R. Dziemianowicz) and
Urban Horrors
(with William F. Nolan).

There were excellent stories to be found in
Alien Sex
edited by Ellen Datlow;
The Seaharp Hotel
, the third in the Greystone Bay series edited by Charles L. Grant;
Intensive Scare
edited by Karl Edward Wagner;
Walls of Fear
edited by Kathryn Cramer and
The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories
edited by Richard Dalby. Predictably, commentators who had had nothing to say against all-male horror anthologies were quick to condemn two all-female books,
Skin of the Soul
edited by Lisa Tuttle and
Women of Darkness II
edited by Kathryn Ptacek. Paul M. Sammon’s
Splatterpunks: Extreme Horror
was less representative of its chosen sub-genre than the title promised.

The Pulphouse publishing empire was among the most prolific of the year, and
Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine Issue 7: Horror
and
9: Dark Fantasy
(both edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch) featured an interesting mix of talents. An allegedly revised edition of
Weird Tales
, a facsimile volume edited by Peter Haining, differed little from the original 1976 edition. Worth noting were
Short Sharp Shocks
edited by Julian Lloyd Webber,
Hotter Blood: More Tales of Erotic Horror
edited by Jeff Gelb and Michael Garrett, and
The Man in Black: Macabre Stories from Fear on Four
, a tie-in with the (largely derivative and hack-ridden) BBC radio series.

On the banks of the mainstream could be found
When the Black Lotus Blooms
edited by Elizabeth A. Saunders, featuring mostly new fiction and an introduction by Robert McCammon;
Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic
edited by Alberto Manguel, which included sixty-four stories; and
The Omnibus of 20th-Century Ghost Stories
edited (and with a notably ill-informed introduction) by Robert Phillips, featuring a cover by Stanley Spencer and some out-of-the-way tales by such as Tennessee Williams, Denton Welch and Gertrude Atherton.

Two of the best anthologies of the year were
Digital Dreams
edited by David V. Barrett, ostensibly collecting science fiction tales about computers but featuring some memorable dark fantasy from the likes of Terry Pratchett and Garry Kilworth, and Thomas F. Monteleone’s
Borderlands
, the first in a proposed series which showcased fine work by an impressive range of writers.

Although the series was dropped by its British publisher, Ellen Datlow’s and Terri Windling’s
The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror: Third Annual Collection
was a hefty selection of forty-seven stories and poems, along with knowledgeable end-of-the-year summaries, while Karl Edward Wagner’s eclectic selection for
The Year’s Best Horror Stories XVIII
produced the usual number of obscure gems. New “Best of the Year” collections were
Quick Chills: The Year’s Best Horror Stories from the Small Press
Volume One edited by Peter Enfantino, featuring thirteen tales selected from semi-professional sources, and our own modest volume
Best New Horror
, which according to
Locus
suffered from being “slightly British-skewed”.

In America,
Weird Tales
proved a worthy continuation of “The Unique Magazine”, with some excellent stories presented in an attractive format. Although too much of the fiction in
Fear
was mediocre, the magazine continued to lead the market in the UK, despite the launch of such newsstand rivals as
Skeleton Crew
(which never really recovered from the sacking of its editor after the second issue) and
The Dark Half
(aimed principally at the horror video audience). Of the British magazines,
Interzone
published the most distinctive tales in the field.

Small press magazines proliferated, and there was worthwhile material to be discovered in a host of fanzines and semi-professional titles such as
After Hours, The Blood Review: The Journal of Horror Criticism, Cemetery Dance, Crypt of Cthulhu, Deathrealm, Eldritch Tales, Ghosts & Scholars, Grue, Haunts: Tales of Unexpected Horror and the Supernatural, Iniquities, Midnight Graffiti, Noctulpa, 2AM
, and the British Fantasy Society’s
Dark Horizons
and
Winter Chills
.

The first issue of
Gauntlet: Exploring the Limits of Free Expression
lived up to its subtitle with fiction by Ray Garton, Steve Rasnic Tem, Harlan Ellison, William F. Nolan and Douglas Winter, and articles
by Ray Bradbury, Ramsey Campbell, Rex Miller and Dan Simmons, amongst others.

Neil Barron’s
Horror Literature: A Reader’s Guide
was an expensive 600-page bibliographic reference book which included a lengthy section devoted to contemporary horror fiction.
The Weird Tale
by S. T. Joshi restricted itself to studying the work of Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood, M. R. James, Ambrose Bierce and H. P. Lovecraft; a follow-up volume is planned. James Van Hise managed to exploit two authors in one book with
Stephen King and Clive Barker: The Illustrated Guide to the Masters of the Macabre
. King feels that too many books are being written about him, and Stephen Spignesi’s
The Stephen King Quiz Book
is certainly one of them. Stanley J. Wiater continued in the footsteps of Doug Winter with
Dark Dreamers: Conversations with the Masters of Horror
, featuring twenty-four interviews with well-known horror writers.

On the film front, John McCarty’s
The Modern Horror Film
covered much the same post-
Night of the Living Dead
ground as Kim Newman’s
Nightmare Movies. Karloff and Lugosi: The Story of a Haunting Collaboration
was an in-depth comparison of the two actors by Gregory William Mank, and a worthy follow-up to the same author’s
The Hollywood Hissables
. David J. Skal’s
Hollywood Gothic
:
The Tangled Web of “Dracula” from Novel to Stage to Screen
provided fascinating insights into the making of both the US and Spanish versions of the 1931
Dracula
. Stephen Rebello did an equally fine job on
Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho
, while Mike Budd’s
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari: Text, Contexts, Histories
was exactly what its title described.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
edited by Al LaValley featured the original script along with associational material, and
Plan 9 From Outer Space
was similarly enshrined, together with cast biographies and an Edward D. Wood filmography, by Tom Mason.