More on censorship: on August 31, police seized more than four thousand comics from Manchester, England, publisher Savoy Books. The comics, issue #5 of Lord Horror, were considered obscene. In addition, Savoy has been found guilty of publishing an obscene book, the novel version of Lord Horror by David Britton. The book and comic is a fictional depiction of the life of the World War II traitor known as “Lord Haw Haw. ” The decision was made by Manchester Magistrates Court; Savoy plans to appeal. A Canadian subscriber to the American magazine Iniquities had the first issue of his subscription seized by Customs as a prohibited item. The offending story dealt with necrophilia. The subscriber planned to challenge the decision but had little hope for a reversal. In July, the Japanese translator of Salman Rushdie’s novels was slain by an Iranian attacker and Rushdie’s Italian translator survived a similar attack. Although there was an announcement that a consortium of American book publishers would together publish a paperback edition of The Satanic Verses, as of the end of February 1992, the group could not come to an agreement to do so.
In other news, a flap developed in Great Britain over the recent best-selling novels of the late V. C. Andrews. Barry Winkelman, managing director of her former publisher, HarperCollins, wrote an open letter to the trade saying the most recent book, Dawn, published by Simon & Schuster, was not written by Virginia Andrews but by Andrew Neiderman. The book’s cover describes it as “the new Virginia Andrews,” but a letter inside from the Andrews family notes that her estate has been working with a “carefully selected writer to expand upon her genius.” Simon and Schuster offered a money-back guarantee.
The first World Horror Convention, held in Nashville, TN, Feb. 28-March 3, barely managed to cover costs with only 300 attendees. Writer Guest of Honor was Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, who replaced Clive Barker when he cancelled due to work commitments. Artist Guest of Honor was Jill Bauman. Robert Bloch was honored as Grand Master.
The 1990 Bram Stoker Awards banquet and weekend took place in Redondo Beach, CA, June 21-23. The award winners were: Novel, Mine by Robert R. McCammon (Pocket); First novel, The Revelation by Bentley Little (St. Martin’s); Novelette, “Stephen” by Elizabeth Massie (Borderlands); Short Story, “The Calling” by David B. Silva (Borderlands); Collection, Four Past Midnight by Stephen King (Viking); Nonfiction, Dark Dreamers: Conversations with the Masters of Horror by Stanley Wiater (Avon); Lifetime achievement award, Hugh B. Cave and Richard Matheson.
The Readercon Small Press Awards were announced in Worcester, MA, at Readercon 4, July 13: Novel, Red Spider, White Web by Misha (Morrigan); Magazine Fiction, journal Wired, Mark V. Ziesing and Andy Watson, eds.; Magazine Nonfiction, The New York Review of Science Fiction, David Hartwell, et al., eds.; Magazine Design, Journal Wired, Andy Watson, design; Collection, The Brains of Rats by Michael Blumlein (Scream/Press); Anthology, When the Black Lotus Blooms, Elizabeth Saunders, ed. (Unnameable Press); Value in Book-craft, Slow Dancing Through Time, by Gardner Dozois et al. (Ursus/Ziesing); Short work, “Entropy’s Bed at Midnight,” by Dan Simmons (Lord John Press); Reprint, The Atrocity Exhibition, by J. G. Ballard (Re/Search); Nonfiction, Across the Wounded Galaxies, by Larry McCaffery (U. of Illinois Press); Jacket Illustration, H. R. Giger’s Biomechanics, H. R. Giger, illustrator (Morpheus International); Interior Illustrations, H. R. Giger s Biomechanics, H. R. Giger, illustrator (Morpheus International).
As in past years, my 1991 novel reading has been peripatetic. The following is a completely biased view of what I’ve found interesting. I’m particularly delighted to note all the excellent and promising first novels. I’ve covered few strictly genre titles, as I assume readers will already be aware of them:
Bones by Joyce Thompson (Morrow) is a psychological horror novel about secrets and child abuse. Freddy, a divorced mother, supports two children as a police artist and struggles to be a good and understanding mother. Then her alcoholic father is brutally murdered, his brain stolen and the killer begins a reign of terror on Freddy and her children. Freddy receives pieces of a “novel” which slowly reveal the motivation, if not the identity, of the killer. Although a red herring is introduced in the middle of the novel, and Thompson occasionally gets lost in details, Bones is a frightening and fascinating story, intelligently and gracefully written.
Stone City by Mitchell Smith (Signet) is a harrowing suspense novel about a former history professor sent to prison for hit-and-run manslaughter who is coerced, both by the administration and by the leader of the “lifers” (prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment), into investigating two murders in the prison. This novel is far more than just a suspense or a mystery; this is an epic about an average Joe caught in a squeeze who must learn to abide by rules “inside,” which are often the antithesis of those in the outside world. It's also a study of prison life that made me rethink the entire prison system. Although lengthy and occasionally overwritten, it’s the first book in quite a while that made me want to know what would happen after the book ended. With more promotion than it received, it might have made the best-seller lists. Highly recommended.
Eyes of Prey by John Sandford (Putnam) is the third in a series about Lucas Davenport, serial killer expert extraordinaire, whose home base is Minneapolis. This was better than the last novel (Shadow Prey) but not as good as the first (Rules of Prey). The best thing about these books is Davenport, a three-dimensional, soul-searching character. A woman is murdered by a “troll” at the behest of her drugged-out doctor husband who is called Dr. Death by his colleagues because of his obsession with the subject. Some nice twists.
Sliver by Ira Levin (Bantam), while not of the caliber of Rosemary’s Baby or A Kiss Before Dying, is better than I expected, considering his more recent attempts at horror/thrillers such as the male wish-fulfillment fantasy The Stepford Wives and the predictable The Boys from Brazil. Sliver is creepy. A rich nut has bought the building he lives in and wires it for sight and sound so he can spy on his neighbors—and manipulate their lives. Levin’s writing here is too elliptical; possibly trying to speed up the story, he sacrifices coherence. And the climax is pretty unbelievable.
Chicago Loop by Paul Theroux (Random House) is (like the following novel, Frisk) what Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho should have been. A successful businessman, husband and father, living in a Chicago suburb goes nuts. He’s already verging on crazy at the start of the noveclass="underline" he’s a compulsive liar, he plays weird sex games with his wife once a month, and he lives a secret life, placing personal ads to meet women. He becomes progressively stranger, murdering (almost unconsciously) a woman he picks up through an ad, then spends the rest of the novel trying to make amends, ultimately attempting to be her and get murdered himself. This strange, fast-moving novel by the author of The Mosquito Coast and other mainstream books is a fascinating descent into madness.