Stephen (ed.) - The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 18

Fifteen years after the previous volume appeared, Gauntlet Press published Masques V as a handsome signed and numbered hardcover limited to 500 copies. Edited by the late J. N. Williamson with Gary A. Braunbeck, the anthology featured twenty-nine stories (one reprint), along with an Introduction and overly-enthusiastic story notes by Williamson and dust-jacket artwork by Clive Barker. The impressive line-up of contributors included Poppy Z. Brite, Richard Matheson, Ray Russell, Mort Castle, Barry Hoffman, Tom Piccirilli, John Maclay, Thomas F. Monteleone, Richard Christian Matheson, William F. Nolan, Ed Gorman, Ray Bradbury, and both editors. The lettered edition only also featured original drafts of the Bradbury and R. C. Matheson stories while, as a premium for those who ordered the book directly from the publisher, Masques V: Further Stories was an attractive chapbook with cover art by Barker. It contained more new fiction from Braunbeck, Hoffman, Castle and Tim Waggoner, and was limited to just 552 copies.

Bloodlines: Richard Matheson’s Dracula, I Am Legend and Other Vampire Stories was edited by Mark Dawidziak and included appreciations by Ray Bradbury, John Carpenter, Mick Garris, Richard Christian Matheson, Steve Niles, Rockne S. O’Bannon and Frank Spotnitz. It was published in a signed edition of 500 copies.

Also from Gauntlet, Harbingers was the tenth volume in F. Paul Wilson’s “Repairman Jack” series.

The Lost District and Other Stories was a major retrospective collection of twenty-four stories (five original) by Joel Lane, published by Night Shade Books in trade paperback. Dark Mondays contained nine offbeat tales (six original) by Californian writer Kage Baker. It was published in both trade and limited hardcover editions, the latter containing an extra new story.

The Ghost Pirates and Other Revenants of the Sea was the third volume in Night Shade’s “The Collected Stories of William Hope Hodgson”.

A West Virginia town found itself cut off from the rest of the world and invaded by creatures from another dimension in Stephen Mark Rainey’s novel The Nightmare Frontier . It was available for Halloween from Sarob Press in a limited hardcover edition and as a deluxe signed and slipcased edition signed by the author and cover artist Chad Savage.

In Lee Thomas’ novel Damage , something evil emerged into the suburban community of Pierce Valley. It was also published in hardcover by Sarob in a limited edition and a deluxe slipcased edition signed by Thomas and artist Paul Lowe.

Edited by Alison L. R. Davies with a Foreword by Stephen Jones and a frontispiece illustration by Clive Barker, Shrouded in Darkness: Tales of Terror was an anthology produced by Telos Publishing to raise money for DebRA, a British charity working on behalf of people with the genetic skin blistering condition Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB). The attractive trade paperback contained twenty-three stories by Neil Gaiman, Ramsey Campbell, Michael Marshall Smith, Poppy Z. Brite, Christopher Fowler, Tim Lebbon, Charles de Lint, Graham Masterton, Mark Samuels and Peter Crowther, amongst others, along with original tales from Justina Robson, Darren Shan, Paul Finch, James Lovegrove, Dawn Knox, Steve Lockley and Paul Lewis, Debbie Bennett, Simon Clark, publisher David J. Howe, and the editor herself. A signed, limited edition was also announced.

In Dominic McDonagh’s debut novella Pretty Young Things , one of a group of predatory lesbian vampires set out to rescue a former boyfriend from her fellow bloodsuckers. Joseph Nassie’s novella More Than Life Itself was about choice and consequences, as one desperate man was prepared to do anything to save his dying four-year-old daughter.

Also from Telos, A Manhattan Ghost Story was a reprint of T. M. Wright’s superior 1984 supernatural novel.

Available from Cemetery Dance Publications, Stephen King’s The Secretary of Dreams was a collection of six classic stories illustrated in varying styles by Glenn Chadbourne.

Dark Harvest was a short novel by Norman Partridge set on Halloween night in 1963, when the boys of a Midwestern town were pitted against the October Boy, a legendary creature with a Jack O’Lantern face.

Basic Black: Tales of Appropriate Fear was a twenty-year retrospective of Terry Dowling’s work from CD Publications, while Destination Unknown contained two stories and a novella about automobiles by Gary A. Braunbeck.

Havoc Swims Jaded collected thirteen short stories by David J. Schow (including a collaboration with Craig Spector), along with an Introduction by Bertrand Nightenhelser and a usual idiosyncratic Afterword by the author. Published by Subterranean Press, the special numbered edition was limited to 150 copies signed by Schow and artist Frank Dietz. Water Music was a special chapbook produced to accompany the limited edition. It contained Schow’s eponymous “Hellboy” story, a brief Afterword, and a fascinating article on the author’s Creature from the Black Lagoon fanzine, The Black Lagoon Bugle .

Made Ready & Cupboard Love collected two stories by Terry Lamsley, illustrated by Glenn Chadbourne. It was limited to a 500-copy signed edition and a twenty-six copy lettered edition.

Reassuring Tales contained ten stories, including a film treatment, by T. E. D. Klein, along with an Introduction by the author. There was also a signed edition of 600 copies and a twenty-six-copy lettered, leather-bound and slipcased edition.

Published by Subterranean as an attractive hardcover illustrated by Ted Naifeh, Alabaster collected all five stories featuring Caitlín R. Kiernan’s albino heroine Dancy Flammarion, including the original tale “Bainbridge” and a new Author’s Preface.

Joe R. Lansdale edited Retro-Pulp Tales , an anthology of pre-1960s style stories by such authors as F. Paul Wilson, Chet Williamson, Tim Lebbon, Kim Newman, Al Sarrantonio, Norman Partridge and Alex Irvine. A 1985 short story by Lansdale was the inspiration for Joe R. Lansdale’s Lords of the Razor edited by Bill Sheehan and William Schafer. The titular tale kicked off the anthology, followed by twelve contributions from Chet Williamson, Thomas Tessier, Bradley Denton, Gary A. Braunbeck and Elizabeth Massie, amongst others, including an original story from Lansdale to also close the book. It was limited to a 500-copy signed and slipcased edition, and a leatherbound, lettered and traycased edition of twenty-six copies.

Edited by Kealan Patrick Burke, Night Visions 12 was the latest volume in the long-running anthology series and included a total of eight stories by Simon Clark, Mark Morris and P. D. Cacek. It was also available in a signed edition of 250 copies.

The twentieth anniversary edition of Brian Lumley’s vampire novel Necroscope included an original Introduction by the author plus five full-colour and multiple black and white interior illustrations by Bob Eggleton. The book was available in both signed hardcover and deluxe slipcased editions. Lumley’s Screaming Science Fiction: Horrors from Outer Space , also from Subterranean, collected nine stories (one original) along with a new Foreword by the author and more interior illustrations from Eggleton. A 1,500-copy signed edition was available, along with a twenty-six lettered traycased edition.

Kim Newman’s The Man from the Diogenes Club was an attractive trade paperback from MonkeyBrain Books that collected eight tales (including an original novella) about outlandish psychic investigator Richard Jeperson and the secret organisation he answered to. For American readers, there was a very useful guide to the names and terms used in the stories.