STEPHEN JONES lives in London, England. He is the winner of three World Fantasy Awards, four Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Awards and three International Horror Guild Awards as well as being an eighteen-times recipient of the British Fantasy Award and a Hugo Award nominee. A former television producer/director and genre movie publicist and consultant (the first three Hellraiser movies, Night Life, Nightbreed, Split Second, Mind Ripper, Last Gasp etc.), he is the co-editor of Horror: 100 Best Books, Horror: Another 100 Best Books, The Best Horror from Fantasy Tales, Gaslight & Ghosts, Now We Are Sick, H. P. Lovecraft’s Book of Horror, The Anthology of Fantasy & the Supernatural, Secret City: Strange Tales of London, Great Ghost Stories, Tales to Freeze the Blood: More Great Ghost Stories and the Dark Terrors, Dark Voices and Fantasy Tales series. He has written Coraline: A Visual Companion, Stardust: The Visual Companion, Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide, The Essential Monster Movie Guide, The Illustrated Vampire Movie Guide, The Illustrated Dinosaur Movie Guide, The Illustrated Frankenstein Movie Guide and The Illustrated Werewolf Movie Guide, and compiled The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror series, The Mammoth Book of Terror, The Mammoth Book of Vampires, The Mammoth Book of Zombies, The Mammoth Book of Werewolves, The Mammoth Book of Frankenstein, The Mammoth Book of Dracula, The Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories By Women, The Mammoth Book of New Terror, The Mammoth Book of Monsters, Shadows Over Innsmouth, Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth, Dark Detectives, Dancing with the Dark, Dark of the Night, White of the Moon, Keep Out the Night, By Moonlight Only, Don’t Turn Out the Light, H. P. Lovecraft’s Book of the Supernatural, Travellers in Darkness, Summer Chills, Exorcisms and Ecstasies by Karl Edward Wagner, The Vampire Stories of R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Phantoms and Fiends and Frights and Fancies by R. Chetwynd-Hayes James Herbert: By Horror Haunted, Basil Copper: A Life in Books, Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H. P. Lovecraft, The Complete Chronicles of Conan and Conan’s Brethren by Robert E. Howard, The Emperor of Dreams: The Lost Worlds of Clark Ashton Smith, Sea-Kings of Mars and Otherworldly Stories by Leigh Brackett, The Mark of the Beast and Other Fantastical Tales by Rudyard Kipling, Clive Barker’s A–Z of Horror, Clive Barker’s Shadows in Eden, Clive Barker’s The Nightbreed Chronicles and the Hellraiser Chronicles. A Guest of Honour at the 2002 World Fantasy Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the 2004 World Horror Convention in Phoenix, Arizona, he has been a guest lecturer at UCLA in California and London’s Kingston University and St. Mary’s University College. You can visit his website at www.stephenjoneseditor.com
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THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF
BEST NEW
HORROR
VOLUME TWENTY
Edited and with an Introduction by
STEPHEN JONES
Constable & Robinson Ltd
3 The Lanchesters
162 Fulham Palace Road
London W6 9ER
www.constablerobinson.com
First published in the UK by Robinson,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson, 2009
Collection and editorial material copyright © Stephen Jones 2009
The right of Stephen Jones to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication
Data is available from the British Library
UK ISBN 978-1-84529-932-3
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
First published in the United States in 2009 by Running Press Book Publishers All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions
This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher.
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Digit on the right indicates the number of this printing
US Library of Congress number: 2008944135
US ISBN 978-0-7624-3727-6
Running Press Book Publishers
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Printed and bound in the EU
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Horror in 2008
Front-Page McGuffin and the Greatest Story Never Told
PETER CROWTHER
It Runs Beneath the Surface
SIMON STRANTZAS
These Things We Have Always Known
LYNDA E. RUCKER
Feminine Endings
NEIL GAIMAN
Through the Cracks
GARY McMAHON
Falling Off the World
TIM LEBBON
The Old Traditions Are Best
PAUL FINCH
The Long Way
RAMSEY CAMPBELL
The Pile
MICHAEL BISHOP
Under Fog
TANITH LEE
Arkangel
CHRISTOPHER FOWLER
The Camping Wainwrights
IAN R. MacLEOD
A Donkey at the Mysteries
REGGIE OLIVER
The Oram County Whoosit
STEVE DUFFY
The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates
STEPHEN KING
Our Man in the Sudan
SARAH PINBOROUGH
“Destination Nihil” by Edmund Bertrand
MARK SAMUELS
The Overseer
ALBERT E. COWDREY
The Beginnings of Sorrow
PINCKNEY BENEDICT
The Place of Waiting
BRIAN LUMLEY
2:00 pm: The Real Estate Agent Arrives
STEVE RASNIC TEM
Necrology: 2008
STEPHEN JONES & KIM NEWMAN
Useful Addresses
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank David Barraclough, Kim Newman, Mandy Slater, Amanda Foubister, Rodger Turner and Wayne MacLaurin (www.sfsite.com), Hugh Lamb, Peter Crowther, Gordon Van Gelder, Barbara Roden, Andrew I. Porter, Johnny Mains, Robert T. Garcia, Mark Samuels, Simon Clark, David J. Schow, Tina Jens and, especially, Duncan Proudfoot, Pete Duncan and Dorothy Lumley for all their help and support. Special thanks are also due to Locus, Variety, Ansible and all the other sources that were used for reference in the Introduction and the Necrology.
INTRODUCTION: HORROR IN 2008 copyright © Stephen Jones 2009.
FRONT-PAGE McGUFFIN AND THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD copyright © Peter Crowther 2008. Originally published in The Land at the End of the Working Day. Reprinted by permission of the author.
IT RUNS BENEATH THE SURFACE copyright © Simon Strantzas 2008. Originally published in Beneath the Surface. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THESE THINGS WE HAVE ALWAYS KNOWN copyright © Lynda E. Rucker 2008. Originally published in Black Static Eight. Reprinted by permission of the author.
FEMININE ENDINGS copyright © Neil Gaiman 2008. Originally published on Four Letter Word: Original Love Letters, February 14, 2008. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THROUGH THE CRACKS copyright © Gary McMahon 2008. Originally published in How to Make Monsters. Reprinted by permission of the author.
FALLING OFF THE WORLD copyright © Tim Lebbon 2008. Originally published in The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THE OLD TRADITIONS ARE BEST copyright © Paul Finch 2008. Originally published in Shades of Darkness. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THE LONG WAY copyright © Ramsey Campbell 2008. Originally published in The Long Way. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THE PILE copyright © Michael Bishop 2008. Originally published on Subterranean, Winter 2008. Reprinted by permission of the author.
UNDER FOG copyright © Tanith Lee 2008. Originally published as “Under Fog (The Wreckers)” in Subterfuge. Reprinted by permission of the author.
ARKANGEL copyright © Christopher Fowler 2008. Originally published on Exotic Gothic 2: New Tales of Taboo. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THE CAMPING WAINWRIGHTS copyright © Ian R. MacLeod 2008. Originally published in PostScripts Number 17, Winter 2008. Reprinted by permission of the author.
A DONKEY AT THE MYSTERIES copyright © Reggie Oliver 2008. Originally published on Exotic Gothic 2: New Tales of Taboo. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THE ORAM COUNTY WHOOSIT copyright © Steve Duffy 2008. Originally published in Shades of Darkness. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THE NEW YORK TIMES AT SPECIAL BARGAIN RATES copyright © Stephen King 2008. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November 2008 and Just After Sunset: Stories. Reprinted by permission of the author.
OUR MAN IN THE SUDAN copyright © Sarah Pinborough 2008. Originally published in The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“DESTINATION NIHIL” BY EDMUND BERTRAND copyright © Mark Samuels 2008. Originally published in PS Showcase #4: Glyphotec & Other Macabre Processes. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THE OVERSEER copyright © Albert E. Cowdrey 2008. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 2008. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THE BEGINNINGS OF SORROW copyright © Pinckney Benedict 2008. Originally published in Sonora Review No. 54, November 2008. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THE PLACE OF WAITING copyright © Brian Lumley 2008. Originally published in The Ghost Quartet. Reprinted by permission of the author.
2:00 PM: THE REAL ESTATE AGENT ARRIVES copyright © Steve Rasnic Tem 2008. Originally published in Crimewave 10: Now You See Me. Reprinted by permission of the author.
NECROLOGY: 2008 copyright © Stephen Jones and Kim Newman 2009.
USEFUL ADDRESSES copyright © Stephen Jones 2009.
In memory of old friends
Forrest J Ackerman
and
Christopher Wicking
plus
Fantasy Centre
London’s last genre used bookstore
INTRODUCTION
* * *
Horror in 2008
FOLLOWING THE SURPRISE resignation of Jane Friedman, CEO of HarperCollins US, in June, executive editor of Children’s Books Ruth Katcher was fired after fifteen years with the company, and children’s executive editor Melanie Donovan was also let go in apparent cost-cutting measures. Several other editors and staff also lost their jobs.
Having lost its Arts Council grant in January, British publisher Dedalus Books was in danger of having to close down after twenty-five years. The imprint mostly specialized in translations, including genre fiction.
After twenty-nine years, the British weekly trade magazine Publishing News produced its final issue in July. Loss of advertising revenue was blamed.
Bertelsmann sold its struggling North American Direct Group, which included the Science Fiction Book Club, to a private firm, and all the assets of the Greenwood Publishing Group were transferred to a California company. As a result, Greenwood closed its UK office in early December.
With the global economic slowdown starting to bite, December 3 became “Black Wednesday” in the New York publishing industry when the mighty Random House, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Simon & Schuster all announced major firings, layoffs and restructuring of staff.
Casualties included Irwyn Applebaum, president and publisher of the Bantam Dell group, who left after twenty-five years with the company.
The following week Macmillan fired sixty-four people (4% of the company’s US workforce), while several other imprints announced pay and hiring freezes.
In February, a survey of 3,000 people discovered that more than half of Britons thought that Sherlock Holmes was a real person. Probably even more worryingly, 47% of people believed that Richard the Lionheart was not real, almost 25% didn’t believe that Winston Churchill ever existed, and 3% were convinced that Charles Dickens was a fictional character.
This perhaps comes as no surprise when, the p
revious month, Woolworths announced that it was launching a range of bedroom furniture online for young girls called “Lolita”. When it was pointed out that this was maybe not the most appropriate name, a spokesman for the soon-to-be-defunct British retail chain admitted that nobody at the company, or from the website responsible, had actually heard of Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel, Stanley Kubrick’s 1962 movie adaptation, or even the 1997 remake.
A study in March from the National Foundation for Educational Research discovered that comics and celebrity magazines have overtaken fiction books as children’s favourite reading matter in the UK.
It did not help that, from September, English Literature A-level students could study books selected by teachers rather than compulsory set texts. Critics of the move said that it was another example of exams being “dumbed down” in Britain.
That same month, compilers of Collins’ English dictionaries announced that they would have to cut certain obscure words for the forthcoming edition because there was not enough space for newer words. With the help of celebrity supporters and a public vote, words could be saved if it could be proved that they were still in popular usage. Among the words threatened with eradication were “Caliginosity” (darkness or dimness), “Exuviate” (to shed, skin or similar outer covering), “Fatidical” (prophetic), “Malison” (a curse), “Olid” (foul-smelling), “Periapt” (a charm or amulet) and “Vaticinate” (to foretell or prophesize).
When NASA’s Phoenix space probe landed on the surface of Mars on May 25, it was carrying a DVD compiled by the Planetary Society of the United States containing “personal messages from visionaries of our own time to future visitors or settlers on Mars”. Made from a special form of silica glass designed to last for 500 years, the disc contained messages “from beyond the grave” by Arthur C. Clarke and US astronomer Carl Sagan, along with books and audios that helped shaped mankind’s impression of the Red Planet. These included works by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Leigh Brackett, a “Flash Gordon” story, and Orson Welles’ 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds.
October 26 was designated “World Zombie Day”, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. People dressed up as the walking dead in cities all over the world, with many using the event to raise money for charity.