Stephen Jones & David Sutton (eds.) – Dark Terrors 4

Stephen Jones & David Sutton (eds.) – Dark Terrors 4  (Gollancz, 1998)

Les Edwards
Stephen Jones & David Sutton – Introduction

Richard Christian Matheson – The Great Fall
Christopher Fowler – Normal Life
Neil Gaiman – The Wedding Present
Ramsey Campbell – Never To Be Heard
Donald R. Burleson – Tumbleweeds
Stephen Baxter – Family History
David J. Schow – The Incredible True Facts In The Case
Roberta Lannes – Mr. Guidry’s Head
Dennis Etchison – Inside The Cackle Factory
Poppy Z. Brite – Entertaining Mr. Orton
Joel Lane – The Country Of Glass
Lisa Tuttle – My Pathology
Thomas Tessier – Curing Hitler
James Miller – Weak End
Jay Russell – Sullivan’s Travails
Conrad Williams – The Suicide Pit
Geoff Nicholson – Making Monsters
Michael Marshall Smith – A Place To Stay
Terry Lamsley – Suburban Blight

Stephen Jones & David Sutton – Dark Terrors 2

Stephen Jones & David Sutton (eds.) – Dark Terrors 2: The Gollancz Book of Horror  (Gollancz, 1996)

 Stephen Jones & David Sutton – Introduction

 Nicholas Royle – The Comfort of Strangers
 Brian Lumley – A Really Game Boy
 Conrad Williams  – Something for Free
 David J. Schow  – (Melodrama)
 James Miller  – Absolute Zero
 Paul J. McAuley  – Negative Equity
 Caitlín R. Kiernan – To This Water (Johnstown, Pennsylvania 1889)
 Ramsey Campbell – Out of the Woods
 Steve Rasnic Tem – The Rains
 Graham Masterton – Underbed
 Clive Barker  – Animal Life
 Jay Russell – Lily’s Whisper
 Michael Marshall Smith – Hell Hath Enlarged Herself
 Thomas Tessier – Ghost Music: A Memoir by George Beaune
 Dennis Etchison – The Dead Cop
 Kim Newman – Where the Bodies Are Buried 2020
 Harlan Ellison – The Museum on Cyclops Avenue
 Peter Straub – Hunger: An Introduction

Stephen Jones & David Sutton – Dark Terrors 4

Stephen Jones & David Sutton  (eds.) – Dark Terrors 4   (Gollancz, 1998)

Les Edwards

Stephen Jones & David Sutton – Introduction

Richard Christian Matheson – The Great Fall
Christopher Fowler  – Normal Life
Neil Gaiman – The Wedding Present
Ramsey Campbell  – Never To Be Heard
Donald R. Burleson – Tumbleweeds
Stephen Baxter – Family History
David J. Schow  – The Incredible True Facts In The Case
Roberta Lannes – Mr. Guidry’s Head
Dennis Etchison  – Inside the Cackle Factory
Poppy Z. Brite  – Entertaining Mr. Orton
Joel Lane – The Country Of Glass
Lisa Tuttle – My Pathology
Thomas Tessier – Curing Hitler
James Miller – Weak End
Jay Russell – Sullivan’s Travails
Conrad Williams – The Suicide Pit
Geoff Nicholson – Making Monsters
Michael Marshall Smith – A Place to Stay
Terry Lamsley – Suburban Blight

 

 

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – The Giant Book Of Best New Horror

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – The Giant Book Of Best New Horror (Magpie, 1993, 1994)

Cover: Luis Rey

Introduction – Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell

Robert R. McCammon – Pin
Brian Lumley – No Sharks In The Med
Chet Williamson – … To Feel Another’s Woe
Stephen Gallagher – The Horn
Peter Straub – A Short Guide To The City
Robert Westall – The Last Days Of Miss Dorinda Molyneaux
Ian Watson – The Eye Of The Ayatollah
Cherry Wilder – Alive In Venice
Thomas Tessier – Blanca
Steve Rasnic Tem – Carnal House
Michael Marshall Smith – The Man Who Drew Cats
Thomas Ligotti – The Last Feast Of Harlequin
Donald R. Burleson – Snow Cancellations
J. W. Jeter – True Love
J. L. Comeau – Firebird
Karl E. Wagner – Cedar Lane
D. F. Lewis – Mort Au Monde
Nicholas Royle – Negatives
Richard Laymon – Bad News
Elizabeth Hand – On The Town Route
Alan Brennert – Ma Qui
David J. Schow – Incident On A Rainy Night In Beverly Hills
Kathe Koja – Impermanent Mercies
Ian MacLeod – 1/72nd Scale
Ramsey Campbell – The Same In Any Language
Poppy Z. Brite – His Mouth Will Taste Of Wormwood
Charles L. Grant – Our Life In An Hourglass
Grant Morrison – The Braille Encyclopedia
David Sutton – Those Of Rhenea
Joel Lane – Power Cut
Harlan Ellison – Jane Doe
F. Paul Wilson – Pelts
Jean-Daniel Breque – On The Wing
Douglas Clegg – Where Flies Are Born
Garry Kilworth – Inside The Walled City
Jonathan Carroll – The Dead Love You
S. P. Somtow – Chui Chai
Dennis Etchison – When They Gave Us Memory
Gene Wolfe – Lord Of The Land
Gahan Wilson – Mister Ice Cold
Kim Newman – The Original Dr. Shade

600+ page compilation derived from the first two Best New Horror collections. The customary lengthy introduction and Necrology are missed, but this all-story Best New Horror is possibly my favourite of the entire series to date.

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – Best New Horror 3

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – Best New Horror 3 (Robinson, 1992)

Luis Rey

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – Introduction:  Horror in 1991

K.W. Jeter – True Love
Ramsey Campbell – The Same in Any Language
Kathe Koja – Impermanent Mercies
Alan Brennert – Ma Qui
Robert R. McCammon – The Miracle Mile
Steve Rasnic Tem – Taking Down the Tree
Douglas Clegg – Where Flies Are Born
Roger Johnson – Love, Death and the Maiden
S.P. Somtow – Chui Chai
Kim Newman – The Snow Sculptures of Xanadu
Edward Bryant – Colder Than Hell
Nancy A. Collins – Raymond
Charles L. Grant – One Life, in an Hourglass
Grant Morrison – The Braille Encyclopedia
Elizabeth Hand – The Bacchae
David J. Scow – Busted in Buttown
Russell Flinn – Subway Story
Thomas Ligotti – The Medusa
Joel Lane – Power Cut
Nicholas Royle – Moving Out
Norman Partridge – Guignoir
William F. Nolan – Blood Sky
David Starkey – Ready
Karl Edward Wagner – The Slug
Michael Marshall Smith – The Dark Land
Dennis Etchison – When They Gave Us Memory
J.L. Comeau – Taking Care of Michael
Thomas Tessier – The Dreams of Dr. Ladybank
Nina Kiriki Hoffman – Zits

Stephen Jones & Kim Newman – Necrology: 1991

Thanks to Alan J. Frackelton for the cover scan and contents!

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – Best New Horror

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell (eds.) – The Best New Horror (Robinson, 1990)

Les Edwards

Introduction: Horror in 1989 – Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell

Robert R. McCammon – Pin
Cherry Wilder – The House On Cemetery Street
Stephen Gallagher – The Horn
Alex Quiroba – Breaking Up
Ramsey Campbell – It Helps If You Sing
Laurence Staig – Closed Circuit
Steve Rasnic Tem – Carnal House
Kim Newman – Twitch Technicolor
Gregory Frost – Lizaveta
Donald R. Burleson – Snow Cancellations
Nicholas Royle – Archway
Thomas Ligotti – The Strange Design Of Master Rignolo
Chet Williamson – …To Feel Another’s Woe
Robert Westall – The Last Day Of Miss Dorinda Molyneaux
Brian Lumley – No Sharks In The Med
D. F. Lewis – Mort au Monde
Thomas Tessier – Blanca
Ian Watson – The Eye Of The Ayatollah
Karl Edward Wagner – At First Just Ghostly
Richard Laymon – Bad News

Necrology: 1989 – Stephen Jones & Kim Newman

includes:

Stephen Gallagher – The Horn: Three strangers, Mick, Dave and the narrator, are marooned inside a hut during a snow blizzard. The cabin is base to the clean-up team who attend the grim business of scraping up accident casualties and one wall is plastered with newspaper accounts of this stretch of motorway’s greatest hits.

“Entire families wiped out. A teenage girl decapitated. Lorry drivers crushed when their cabs folded around them like stepped-upon Coke cans ….. an unwanted mistress dumped, Jimmy Hoffa-style, into the wire skeleton of a bridge piling that had been boxed-up ready to take concrete the next morning. ENTOMBED ALIVE! the headline said, but even that looked kind of pale next to the disaster involving the old folks’ outing and the pet food truck full of offal.

When their gas cylinder – the only source of heat – conks out, the men have an unpleasant decision to make. Stay here and probably freeze to death, or head out into the snowstorm, make for the huge articulated rig about half a mile on and sit it out in the warm cabin. Mick volunteers to go on ahead and give them a blast on the horn once he’s got the heater going.

But a murderous something else has beaten him to it ….

Michael Marshall Smith – The Man Who Drew Cats: One day old Tom just blew into Kingstown, stepped into The Hogshead Bar and the locals – unusually for them – took to the quiet fellow straight away. A quiet and private man, he makes his living from the extraordinary paintings he tosses off for tourists and sometimes when the mood takes him, he chalks his more complex designs on the pavement. But when he befriends little Billy and his mom and learns that her nogoodnik, drunken husband regularly beats the shit out of them both, he draws something really terrifying.

Chet Williamson – …To Feel Another’s Woe: The beautiful Sheila Remarque is a stage actress of exceptional ability but her gift is not for acting: she vamps the emotions of all those who come in close contact with her, draining them until they are little more than zombies.

Robert McCammon – Pin: The psychotic Joey Shatterly stands before the mirror diving the pin through each of his pupils in turn prior to stepping out with his rifle and seven bullets …

Nicholas Royle – Archway: From the day she moves into her North London flat, Bella is haunted by the scornful laughter of an old, grey faced tramp she’s see on the street. She is unfairly dismissed from her job, encounters the red-tape horrors of the DSS and faces eviction. Finally …

***

Several of these stories, along with selections from vols. 2 and 3, were resurrected in The Giant Book Of Best New Horror (Magpie, 1993, 1994)

Continues on the Vault Of Evil Forum: Best New Horror 1

Stephen Jones – Best New Horror 8

Stephen Jones – Best New Horror 8 (Robinson, 1997)

Stephen Jones – Introduction – Horror in 1996

Terry Lamsley – Walking the Dog
Poppy Z. Brite – Mussolini and the Axeman’s Jazz
Norman Partridge – An Eye for an Eye
Douglas Clegg – Underworld
Cherry Wilder – The Curse of Kali
Richard Christian Matheson – The Film
Storm Constantine – Of a Cat, But Her Skin
Donald r. Burleson – Hopscotch
Steve Rasnic tem – Ghost in the Machine
Joel Lane – The Moon Never Changes
Roberta Lannes – Butcher’s Logic
D.F. Lewis – Kites and Kisses
Marni Griffin – Last Train to Arnos Grove
Mark Chadbourn – The King of Rain
Iain Sinclair – Hardball
Thomas Ligotti – Gas Station Carnivals
Thomas Tessier – Ghost Music: A Memoir by George Beaune
Gregory Frost – That Blissful Height
Nicholas Royle – Skin Deep
Michael Marshall Smith – Hell Hath Enlarged Herself
Christopher Fowler – Unforgotten
Scott Edelman – A Plague on Both Your Houses
Karl Edward Wagner – Final Cut
Terry Lamsley – The Break

Stephen Jones & Kim Newman – Necrology – 1996

Thanks to Alan Frackelton for providing the table of contents!