Case Notes by Peter Tennant Books Reviews 41
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40 REVIEWS CASE NOTES BY PETER TENNANT BOOKS REVIEWS 41 CASE STEPHEN JONES: HOME IS WHERE THE HORROR IS With more than a hundred books under told from the viewpoint of the child. This NOTES his belt, as writer and editor, renowned one was filled with small, subtle touches of anthologist Stephen Jones is one of the detail and unsettling imagery, with a hint PETER TENNANT movers and shakers of the UK horror scene, that the fate of the man is related to the but for many people he’s principally known antipathy of the child. ON BOOKS for his editorship of The Mammoth Book of ‘Norman Wisdom and the Angel of Death’ Best New Horror, which is now in its twenty by Christopher Fowler is a chilling portrait 40–47 first year of separating wheat from chaff, the of a serial killer obsessed with the comedian. STEPHEN JONES great from the merely good. Each word here is carefully chosen for BEST OF BEST NEW HORROR* To mark the twentieth anniversary of the maximum effect, the tale gradually revealing BEST NEW HORROR 21* series Jones has edited THE MAMMOTH how truly disturbed this ostensibly harmless ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE* BOOK OF THE BEST OF BEST NEW individual is and the terrible things that plus interview HORROR: TWO DECADES OF DARK he may have done. An advantage of this FICTION (Robinson paperback, 746pp, volume’s size is the capacity to publish work 47–55 £9.99), selecting a favourite story from each at novella length, and the first of these is NEIL GAIMAN & AL SARRANTONIO year of publication. And the mammoth ‘Mefisto in Onyx’, which has just the sort STORIES label is even more apposite than usual of prose pyrotechnics you’d expect from CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN for this doorstop of a book, with not just Harlan Ellison in his prime, the story of a ZOMBIE stories on offer but a wealth of supporting young man who can reach into the minds NANCY KILPATRICK material, including indexes to the series, of others and who uses that ability to find EVOLVE reproduction covers and Jones’ illuminating out if a serial killer is guilty of his crimes, IAN WHATES comments about the difficulties the only he has blundered into a trap. This is a THE BITTEN WORD series has contended with, insights into superb story, with beautiful characterisation, CHARLES BLACK the publication backdrop and the horror crackling dialogue, vivid descriptions and Courtesy of Robinson five readers can win all three anthologies. To be entered into the draw email your name and postal THE SIXTH BLACK BOOK OF HORROR genre itself. This is more than simply an a full appreciation of who these people are address to [email protected] using STEPHEN JONES as your subject line. Closing date is November the 14th GARY FRY anthology: it is also a history lesson. and what such powers would mean to the WHERE THE HEART IS But the stories are the thing, and from user, a story with twist and counter twist that account of metamorphosis, a young woman There’s a sinister quality to the matter of fact considering the fiction a few words ALLYSON BIRD & JOEL LANE the opening pages the reader knows that he keep the reader constantly off balance. At a who has been raped transformed into a narrative here, the way in which so much is about the two sections that bookend this NEVER AGAIN is in good hands. Jones has a keen sense of similar length, Terry Lamsley’s ‘The Break’ is giant moth that feeds on men. Elizabeth taken for granted by the priest in the church collection. At a hundred pages, Jones’ D.F. LEWIS what works in a story, developed over many a story in the vein of Aickman, as a boy and Hand’s prose, as ever, is a delight to read, and how easily the world forgets all about introductory essay ‘Horror in 2009’ is a NULL IMMORTALIS: NEMONYMOUS TEN years in the business, and while individual his grandparents visit a seaside town where but what makes the story special is the Charlotte, an existential horror that places comprehensive overview of how the genre ELLEN DATLOW readers may disagree with certain of his strange things seem to be going on. The story characterisation, the wealth of emotion human concerns in thrall to some greater, has fared during the year, and I do mean THE BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR 2 choices (I personally didn’t think so highly builds superbly well, with new elements conveyed so that we identify with the inexplicable purpose. comprehensive. If you want to know what’s DARKNESS of the Stephen King story that represents being introduced that move it ever further protagonist and feel for her, even though we These twelve stories and eight more that available, then this is the place to look. But 2008) you can be assured that the stories are away from the comfort and normality of the know that what she is doing is wrong. I haven’t discussed for reasons of space, Jones doesn’t simply list things, he expresses all going to be of the finest quality. English seaside, and the subtle intimations of There’s a Lovecraftian feel to ‘The together form a substantial and important opinions and offers insight into the general *WIN A COPY! Leading off is the ironically titled ‘No a form of vampirism at the end. White Hands’ by Mark Samuels, with the volume, a landmark anthology that all lovers publishing situation. You may not agree Sharks in the Med’ by Brian Lumley, in The magnificent ‘Mr Clubb and Mr Cuff’ protagonist delving into the secrets of a of well written horror fiction will want to with him, but he’s earned the right to be which a young couple on holiday in Greece is one of the masterpieces of the anthology, a writer and unearthing a ghastly secret. This have on their shelves. If the genre needs a heard. I’m less gung ho for the eighty page run foul of a local who has a secret island to detailed and thoroughly absorbing account is classic horror written as the masters might flagship to lead it through the treacherous ‘Necrology’ compiled by Jones and Kim which he lures tourists. The foreign setting is of how a man gets drawn into the macabre have done, with a shudder at the end, and waters of modern publishing, then you Newman that closes the book. In principle, perfectly evoked and there’s a growing sense plans of two assassins for hire with an agenda far more hinted at than is actually revealed. couldn’t ask for a finer vessel than this. I think it’s great that these people get of unease as events unfold, with a ‘happy’ of their own. Author Peter Straub doesn’t set Lisa Tuttle’s ‘My Death’ is another wonderful THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF remembered and their achievements noted, ending of sorts, though I was bit wary of the a foot wrong here, with each detail building example of the storyteller’s art, its female BEST NEW HORROR #21 (Robinson even down to the lowliest spear carrier, ease with which the couple go off with the on top of the previous one, the protagonist’s narrator uncovering the past of a famous paperback, 512pp, £7.99) carries on where the and there’s often the shock of recognition, local, given that he is such a creepy character. whole life coming unravelled at the hands artist’s model and how it connects to a previous volume left off, with the nineteen learning the fate of an actor or writer who Michael Marshall Smith’s first published of the hired help, people who so casually barren island, and indeed to herself. Tuttle’s stories Jones considers to be the best of once meant a lot to you personally. But all story, ‘The Man Who Drew Cats’ is a tale inflict on him the things he had planned measured prose gives the characters time to 2009’s crop, and again quality is assured, the same it doesn’t make for an engaging of supernatural justice, in which the artist’s for others, and with subtle warning signs of develop and grow, lures us into their world though we will each have our own opinions read, is nothing more than a compendium ability to create extremely realistic work is what is to come embedded in the text. Tim and compels us to stay there, presenting an as to what should have been included. of obituaries no matter how the authors try put to ‘good’ use. It’s written with sensitivity Lebbon’s novella ‘White’ is almost as good, intoxicating meld of past and present, art Personally I much preferred Nicholas Royle’s to present it, exhaustive but also exhausting. and a genuine feel for the material, the real the story set in a snowbound future England and history, with each detail carefully slotted novella The Enigma of Departure to the story And some of the people mentioned seem thrust of the story being trapped in the where the inhabitants of an isolated country into place and setting the stage for the that represents him in this volume, and of of only marginal interest to horror fans. carefully interwoven relationships and the house learn that there is something out there reversals and revelations of the end. We’re the stories that I’ve seen from The British For example, why are we being told about dark hints of something much bigger going in the snow and it doesn’t mean them well.