Red Stains A Lexicon of Lesions: Bible of Blood, edited by Jack Hunter (Creation Press), is a strange, repellent anthology from England. The plots are minimal, the descriptions disgusting, but structurally there’s some interesting experimentation within the stories. The only contributors with whom I’m familiar are Ramsey Campbell (whose reprint is by far the best piece in the book) and D. F. Lewis (£5.95 to Creation Press, 83 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1 U.K.)
Dark Voices 4 edited by David Sutton and Stephen Jones (Pan). Even though this series is never as interesting or scary as I’d like, there are always a few standout stories in each volume. This year they were by Christopher Fowler and Graham Masterton, both reprinted here.
Temps, devised by Alex Stewart and Neil Gaiman (Roc, U.K.) and Eurotemps (Roc, U.K.)—a pair of British shared-world anthologies several cuts above their American counterparts. The hook is that the Department of Paranormal Resources keeps their “talents” on tap as temporary workers as the need arises. Clever, sometimes horrific stories. Very enjoyable, particularly Eurotemps, with excellent stories by Jenny Jones, Storm Constantine, and Roz Kaveney.
Darklands 2, edited by Nicholas Royle (Egerton Press), is the second volume of the British dark fantasy/horror anthology series. It is a solid follow-up to last year’s volume. Most of the writers are unfamiliar to me, but all the stories are good. (£4.99 to Egerton Press, 5 Windsor Court, Avenue Road, London N15 5JQ, U.K.)
Lovers and Other Monsters, selected by Marvin Kaye (GuildAmerica Books), features stories on the “darker and supernatural aspects of love.” A handful of original works by Steve Rasnic Tem and various unknowns includes some good pieces. Among the reprints are stories by Gorky, Lovecraft, Sturgeon, Bradbury, de Balzac, Poe, Rosetti, and Hammett. A nice package created for and available only through the Literary Guild.
Cat Crimes II and III edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Ed Gorman (Donald I. Fine): Volume II has fine stories with horrific overtones by Richard Laymon and Sharyn McCrumb, a charming fantasy by Charlotte MacLeod and some real dogs (if you’ll excuse the expression). Not as much for horror readers as for cat fanciers. Volume III is the best and the darkest of the series so far, with more variety than usual and several hard-hitting stories, including a nasty by Barbara and Max Allan Collins.
New Crimes 3 edited by Maxim Jakubowski (Carroll & Graf) came out in 1992 despite the 1991 copyright. Generally, this series isn’t dark enough to call horror, but there are invariably a few horrific stories in each volume. Volume 3 had excellent contributions by Norman Partridge and Steve Rasnic Tem.
Constable New Crimes 1, edited by Maxim Jakubowski, seems to be the same series as the above but now is being published in the U.K. by Constable instead of Robinson—hence the numerical confusion. This volume of dark suspense opens with a powerful story by Mark Timlin, a writer with whom I’m familiar only through his stand-out story in In Dreams. Although there are a few weak contributions, on the whole the anthology is very readable, with excellent stories by Wayne Allen Sallee, H. R. F. Keating, and Ed Gorman.
Short Circuits: Thirteen Shocking Stories by Outstanding Writers for Young Adults edited by Donald R. Gallo (Delacorte). In his introduction Gallo strangely admits to hating being scared and that he avoids frightening stories and movies. So why a horror anthology? Gallo has previously edited three mainstream young adult anthologies, and I presume his publisher, perceiving the popularity of horror, requested the book. The criteria for Gallo’s choices were that each contributor “write a story that focused on a teenage character and that was creepy, scary, weird, horrifying, or shocking in some way.” There’s some creepiness and a lot of weirdness but no shocks or horror. Even so, almost half, particularly those by Robert Westall, Vivien Alcock, and Joan Aiken are good, interesting fantasies.
Writers of the Future Volume VIII, edited by Dave Wolverton (Bridge), is generally considered a science fiction showcase for new writers, but VIII had more horror than usual. There were good stories with horrific overtones by Sam Wilson, Maria C. Plieger, Bronwyn Elko, Stephen Woodworth, and Astrid Julian.
Sisters in Crime 5, edited by Marilyn Wallace (Berkley), doesn’t have any actual horror, but it does contain two very dark, effective stories by Joyce Carol Oates and Susan Taylor Chehak.
Aladdin: Master of the Lamp, edited by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg (DAW), has no actual horror but includes two excellent dark pieces by Pat Cadigan and Barry N. Malzberg.
The Magic of Christmas: Holiday Stories of Fantasy and Science Fiction, edited by John Silbersack and Christopher Schelling (Roc), is entertaining although there is only one horror story and one sweet ghost story.
The following original or mostly original anthologies cross genres and contain some horror: Sword and Sorceresses IX, edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley (DAW)— stories by Bruce Arthurs, Mary Frey, and David Smeds; Dragon Fantastic, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Rosalind M. Greenberg (DAW); After the King, edited by Martin H. Greenberg (Tor), published stories in honor of J. R. R. Tolkien, with two, by Peter S. Beagle and Stephen Donaldson, veering toward the horrific; Universe 2, edited by Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber (Bantam)—Kathe Koja; Villains!, edited by Neil Gaiman and Mary Gable (Roc, U.K.)—Graham Higgins and Charles Stross; New Worlds 2, edited by David Garnett (Gollancz)—Simon Ings.
The following anthologies used mostly reprint material. Not all of them have been seen by me personally, particularly some of the British ones:
Kingpins: Tales from Inside the Mob, edited by Cynthia Manson and Charles Ardai (Carroll & Graf), reprints stories from Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and includes stories by Stephen King, Andrew Vachss, Brian Garfield, Raymond Chandler, and Keith Peterson; Women of Mystery: Stories from Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine edited by Cynthia Manson (Carroll & Graf); Fifty Best Mysteries, edited by Eleanor Sullivan (Carroll & Graf); The Best of the Rest 1990, edited by Stephen Pasechnick and Brian Youmans (Edgewood Press—a 1992 book despite the ’91 copyright); Modem Ghost Stories by Eminent Women Writers, edited by Richard Dalby (Carroll & Graf), includes stories by A. S. Byatt, Penelope Lively, Jean Rhys, Ruth Rendell, Antonia Fraser, Edith Wharton, Joan Aiken, and other, lesser-known writers; A Taste for Blood: Fifteen Great Vampire Tales, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Robert Weinberg, and Stefan R. Dziemianowicz (Dorset), includes stories by Clive Barker, Robert Bloch, Tanith Lee, Dan Simmons, and H. P. Lovecraft; Weird Vampire Tales: 30 Blood-chilling Stories from the Weird Fiction Pulps, edited by Robert Weinberg, Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, and Martin H. Greenberg (Gra-mercy), includes stories by Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, C. L. Moore, Lester del Rey, A. E. van Vogt, Robert Bloch, William Tenn, and Charles Beaumont; Foundations of Fear, edited by David G. Hartwell (Tor), the monumental companion volume to the award-winning historical survey, The Dark Descent, reprints novellas by Daphne Du Maurier, John W. Campbell, Jr., Clive Barker, Richard Matheson and the first full-length publication of Scott Baker’s “The Lurking Duck”; Dark Crimes 2: Modern Masters ofNoir, edited by Ed Gorman (Carroll & Graf), includes stories ranging from 1950 to 1992 by David Morrell, Lawrence Block, Marcia Muller, Joe R. Lansdale, and John Shirley (and glaringly omits Ruth Rendell and Patricia Highsmith); Future Crime: An Anthology on the Shape of Crime to Come, edited by Cynthia Manson and Charles Ardai (Donald I. Fine), reprints stories from Ellery Queen’s and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazines, as well as from Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and Analog Science Fiction / Science Fact Magazine. It has original stories by C. J. Cherryh, Alan Dean Foster and George Alec Effinger—but nothing dark enough to call horror; The Mammoth Book of Vampires, edited by Stephen Jones (Carroll & Graf), had a few originals, the exceptional novella “Red Reign,” by Kim Newman, and two good ones by Steve Rasnic Tem and Graham Masterton. The reprints included stories by Clive Barker, Brian Lumley, Richard Christian Matheson, David J. Schow, Melanie Tem, Howard Waldrop, and Nancy Holder; The Years 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories: First Annual Edition, edited by the staff of Mystery Scene (Carroll & Graf), reprints stories from 1989 and 1990, including those by Sue Grafton, Ruth Rendell, Andrew Vachss, Joe R. Lansdale, Faye Kellerman, and Charlotte MacLeod; Best New Horror 3, edited by Stephen Jones and Ramsey Campbell (Carroll & Graf); The Years Best Horror XX edited by Karl Edward Wagner (DAW); Great American Ghost Stories, edited by Frank D. McSherry, Jr., Charles G. Waugh, and Martin H. Greenberg (Rutledge Hill Press); Strange Tales of Mystery and the Paranormal, edited by Cecilia Heathwood (Excaliber Press, U.K.), a collection of thirty-one occult stories and essays, originally published in the magazine Ireland's Eye; Fairy Tales and Fables from Weimar Days, edited by Jack Zipes (University Press of New England—according to Locus published in 1989)—twenty-seven fairy tales translated from the German by Zipes with a lengthy critical and historical introduction; The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales edited by Chris Baldick (Oxford University Press, U.K.), an anthology of thirty-seven Gothic short stories dating from the eighteenth century to the present including contributors as diverse as H. P. Love-craft, Patrick McGrath, Eudora Welty, Jorge Luis Borges, Joyce Carol Oates, and Ray Russell; The Second Dedalus Book of Decadence: The Black Feast edited by Brian M. Stableford (Dedalus, U.K.); The Little Book of Horrors: Tiny Tales of Terror, edited by Sebastian Wolfe (Barricade), an anthology of seventy short-short horror stories, poems, and cartoons; Best of the Midwest’s Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror, edited by Brian Smart (ESA Books), an anthology of twenty-one stories that originally appeared in small press magazines—1991; Forbidden Journeys: Fairy Tales and Fantasies by Victorian Women Writers edited by Nina Auerbach and U. C. Knoepflmacher (University of Chicago Press), an anthology of eleven nineteenth-century fantasy stories by women writers with introduction and commentary by the editors; Great Ghost Stories edited by John Grafton (Dover), an anthology of ten classic ghost stories with an introduction by the editor; Chilling Christmas Tales, ed. Anonymous (Scholastic, U.K.), an original anthology of ten young-adult horror stories, including pieces by Joan Aiken and Garry Kilworth; Great Irish Stories of the Supernatural, edited by Peter Haining (Souvenir Press, U.K.), twenty-eight Irish supernatural stories; Murder on the Menu : Cordon Bleu Stories of Crime and Mystery edited by Peter Haining (Carroll & Graf), stories by P. D. James, Ruth Rendell, Michael Gilbert, Patricia Highsmith, and Roald Dahl; Reel Terror edited by Sebastian Wolfe (Carroll & Graf), an entertaining collection of stories that inspired some of the great horror films. The book includes Richard Matheson’s “Duel,” which, as a film, was Steven Spielberg’s directorial debut; “Spurs,” a story by the now-obscure Tod Robbins that strongly influenced Tod Browning’s great film Freaks (it’s interesting to compare the two versions—Browning’s goes much further and is far more shocking than the original story). Also included are stories by Angela Carter (“The Company of Wolves”), John Cheever (“The Swimmer”), Philip K. Dick (“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,” on which Total Recall was based), George Langelaan (“The Fly”), and Robert Bloch (“Psycho”) among others; Tales of the Lovecraft Mythos, edited by Robert M. Price with an amusing cover by Gahan Wilson (Fedogan and Bremer); The Puffin Book of Ghosts and Ghouls, edited by Gene Kemp (Viking, U.K.); Quick Chills II, a hardcover anthology edited by Robert Morrish and Peter Enfantino (Deadline Press), the best horror stories from the small press published during 1990 and 1991. The book includes excellent fiction by Nancy A. Collins, Adam-Troy Castro, Norman Partridge, Susan M. Watkins, and Nancy Holder, among others. Limited to 575 signed, numbered copies. $45 (Deadline Press, 4884 Pepperwood Way, San Jose, CA 95124); and The Definitive Best of The Horror Show, edited by David B. Silva with a cover by Harry O. Morris (CD Publications). $25 for the trade edition.