More Anthologies

More Horror Anthologies

     I didn’t realize this until I was preparing to write this post but I bought a lot of anthologies this year.  While I’ve read a bunch of different stories out of each one of them I haven’t read any of them in their entirety.  Because I have so many of these damned things I tend to bounce around from one to the other.  Unlike last year I’m not going to review any of these anthologies but instead describe some of the stories I’ve read and the reasons why these anthologies were must haves for my collection.

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian

     If you’ve seen the 1980’s Conan movies or read the comics you know these stories aren’t horror.  It should be noted though that Robert E. Howard appeared in some of the same pulp magazines that H.P. Lovecraft did.  The stories compiled here are arranged in the order they were written which can be quite confusing.  From one story to the next Conan can be a middle aged king, or a young thief, or a mercenary, or a pirate.  The way Howard explained it was when you talk to a great adventurer he relates stories out of sequence.  I’ve been meaning to pick up this book for years now and all I can say is it was worth the wait.

Shadows 3

     I’ll admit I judged a book by its cover, but I didn’t just buy this book because I thought it had a cool green skull on its cover.  I’ve read the odd Charles L. Grant story in different anthologies and I was curious about the kind of stories he liked or found scary.  I was also intrigued by his self-described “quiet horror” that he reserved both for his stories and the stories he collected here.  It didn’t hurt that it was really cheap either.  I paid 1 penny for the book and 4 dollars for the shipping.

     I’ve only read two stories so far.  “The Brown Recluse” by Davis Grubb is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche.  It was okay if not a little long and boring at times.  I did however enjoy “The Ghost Who Limped” by R. Chetwynd-Hayes.  The story has a twist that I saw coming a mile away but that didn’t stop me from enjoying it.

The Year’s Best Horror Stories VIII

     Might as well get these out of the way.  Karl Edward Wagner was not exactly what you’d the most prolific writer but he still remains my favorite.  It’s a quality over quantity thing.  I didn’t technically buy vol. VIII this year (I bought it at the tail end of last year) but I’m including it here because ya know what?  I didn’t talk about it last year and I figured since I’m featuring the other ones might as well feature this one.  I obviously bought these books to complete my Karl Edward Wagner collection.  Also as a lover of horror anthologies I wanted the see what he thought the best ones were of any given year.  Turns out me and Mr. Wagner disagree on some things but it’s not a bad anthology especially for his debut on the series.

     Later on in this list you’ll see Dennis Etchison’s “The Dead Line” and Hugh B. Cave’s “From the Lower Deep” in “Whispers I and II” and both are great stories and just goes to show how good this anthology is.  Also collected is two stories by Harlan Ellison and “Needle Song” by Charles L. Grant.  As with many editors Wagner was a little biased towards his friends.  Ramsey Campbell, Dennis Etchison, and Hugh B. Cave are regulars in this series but what sets these books apart from other anthologies is what and who Wagner picked.  You’ll see famous names like Stephen King but at the same time you’ll see an author who hadn’t written anything before or since his appearance in this series.  I would like to note that this book is in excellent condition despite its age not that that has anything to do with anything.  I just appreciate it when online sellers are honest about what they are selling.

The Year’s Best Horror Stories IX

     So far this is my least favorite volume in the series.  Some of the stories are a lot longer so you don’t get as many of them.  The first story in this volume is “The Monkey” by Stephen King, which I read a long time ago but you can’t fault a 30+ year old anthology for that.  It also contains a story by Basil A. Smith called “The Propert Bequest”.  I wasn’t able to find any information online about him but Wagner says in his introduction to the story that it “may seem at first a contradiction for a best-of-the year anthology to include a story by an author who has been dead for a number of years,” and describes him a clergyman who died in 1969.  After his death several manuscripts were found and later published.  As fascinating as that is the story itself is a little long winded and boring.  The copy I have is a first edition (also in great condition) and I did spot a rather amusing typo.  In the copyright page Ramsey Campbell’s story “The Gap” is listed as “The Gay”.

The Year’s Best Horror Stories X

As of this date I haven’t cracked this book open yet.  I bought it when I was out of town for a long time and had it sent to my address so it was months before I was able to recover it.  That coupled with the fact that I collect so many of these things I often forget to read them, at least for a time.  I’ll get to this one eventually though.  Once again we have Harlan Ellison, Ramsey Campbell (2 stories), and Charles L. Grant.  Dennis Etchison is for some reason absent from this volume.  My copy of volume X is in pristine condition, so much so I’m a little afraid to read it.  The binding is very tight and looks to never have been read.  You may have noticed that I keep these books wrapped in plastic.  I do this to preserve their condition, which brings me to my next anthology.

The Year’s Best Horror Stories XV

     As a collector I was furious when I received this one through the mail.  Just look at it, it’s in terrible condition and it was not listed as such.  The cover is absolutely trashed, there’s even a chunk missing from it.  The inside cover is filled with library stamps and stickers including a stamp that states: This Book Has Been Discarded By The Richland Public Library. 

On the side of the book is also a stamp that says Westover Hills.  I can only imagine that this book was discarded by two different libraries before it was sold by an unscrupulous seller on amazon.  I’m ashamed to have it next to the other three in the series but however bad the condition is it remains readable.  So I’m cheating again.  I ordered this the same time I ordered volume VIII but have yet to talk about it on this blog.  I ordered a book later in the series because I was more familiar with both the stories and the authors.  My biggest reason for buying it was the Joe R. Lansdale story.  It also has Robert Bloch and Charles L. Grant stories that can be found in “The Mammoth Book of Terror”.  All around it’s a good collection in very poor condition.

Whispers

     Because there are six volumes in the series I often refer to this as Whispers I, but the title on the spine of the book simply reads Whispers.  This anthology takes some of the stories published in the “Whispers” fanzine and also adds a few new ones.  Collecting Karl Edward Wagner, Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, Dennis Etchison, Brian Lumley, Hugh B. Cave, and Manly Wade Wellman “Whispers” is a powerhouse.  It is an excellent anthology.  Once again I was screwed by amazon.  I should have known from last time but I stupidly ordered this one and “Whispers II” from the same seller.  They were listed in Very Good condition for $0.01 and since I wanted to add as many as possible to my collection I figured why not.  Once again I got discarded library books.  Both are first editions which means they were in circulation for a very long time.  Volume one doesn’t even have a dust cover and still has the library card slip in the back. 

Because this has already happened before I wasn’t as pissed as I was with “The Year’s Best…” but I am curious about this book’s history, the places it’s been and the stories it could tell.  It’s in okay condition more or less.  It’s still readable and most of the pages are intact(the last page was torn out, the best I can tell it was an about the artist section that described the artists for some of the drawings from the magazine and book).

Whispers II

     Another discarded library book.  It has a dust cover (wrapped in protective mylar, you can see indentions where someone tried to trace the cover art) but is in even worse condition than its predecessor.  The binding is coming loose in some places.  Quality aside we have another great “Whispers” anthology consisting of Karl Edward Wagner, Charles L. Grant, Hugh B. Cave, Dennis Etchison, and Manly Wade Wellman.

Whispers III

     “Whispers III” is in decidedly better condition (and I ended up paying a lot more for this one but hell it was worth it) than the previous two books and the seller saw to it to include a mylar bag to preserve it.  The cover is also intact and beautifully colored.  Once again I am wary of reading this because it is such good condition.  As luck would have it I have already read a few of the stories in different collections.  I’ve obviously read Karl Edward Wagner’s “The River of Night’s Dreaming”, (I’ve achieved that accomplishment in two books now, why not a third?) and Dennis Etchison’s “The Dead Line”.  I have David Campton’s “Firstborn” collected in “The Mammoth Book of Terror”.  The rest are “Whispers” standards such as Hugh B. Cave and Fritz Leiber.

Whispers IV

     As good condition as 3 was in somehow 4 is in better condition.  This book is like new.  I’ve never bought a used book with tighter binding and the pages are bleach white.  It’s like this book was never read.  Unlike volume 3 most of the stories collected here I don’t have in other anthologies, except for Karl Edward Wagner’s “Into Whose Hands” which I only have because it’s in Wagner’s Centipede collections.   “Whispers IV” is a beautiful book and welcomed edition to my collection.

New Terrors II

     Not sure what possessed me to buy this book.  I don’t like Ramsey Campbell as an author so I have no idea why I thought he’d be a good editor.  I’m sure it was the cover that got my attention and the fact that it’s an early 80’s horror anthology.  Staring at that cover I could only imagine what the story which it’s connected to could be about.  The story titled “The Ice Monkey” by M. John Harrison is about a cursed object that may cause someone close to you to die in a horrible accident.  It wasn’t a bad story but at the same time it wasn’t great.  I’ve already talked about Robert Bloch’s “The Rubber Room” in the entry that precedes this one.  “Symbiote” by Andrew J. Offutt is a great story about a parasite that causes to a man fulfill murderous and sexual impulses.  Also included here is Charles L. Grant and Graham Masterton but I haven’t read their stories yet.  Finally R. A. Lafferty’s “The Funny Face Murders” has now taken the mantle as the worst story I have ever read anywhere.  After 31 grueling pages of nonsense I kept hoping it would start making sense but it never did.

Borderlands 2

     “From the Borderlands” is one of my favorite anthologies and I’ve always wanted to get more in the series.  I haven’t read that many stories from this one yet but the ones I have read are definitely very weird.  F. Paul Wilson, Charles L. Grant, and Joe R. Lansdale make appearances.  The book itself was reasonable priced and in great condition.  I bought this one from the same seller that I bought “Whispers III and IV”.  The pages are a little yellowed but other than that the binding is tight.

Best of Best New Horror: Two Decades of Dark Fiction

     This is another book I bought late last year and have yet to include it on this blog.  I bought this brand new at a second hand bookstore.  I believe it must have been an overstock from a firsthand store because there were a few other copies.  This one collects what Stephen Jones considers to be the best stories he’s collected editing “The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror” series.  I picked it up because I don’t have the full series (I do have 15, 16, 17, and 18 but I can’t say I have much interest in having a full collection) and I wanted to read some of the stories from volumes I don’t have.  Here we have Brian Lumley, Ramsey Campbell, Harlan Ellison, Christopher Fowler, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Joe Hill, Kim Newman, and Peter Straub.  A great collection but I tend to disagree with his idea of “best” with some of the volumes I own even though Stephen Jones tries to negate that title in his introduction.  If you’re interested the series is ongoing and still being edited by Jones, it should be on the 24^th volume.

In the Flesh and The Inhuman Condition

     I’ve got all the various authors anthologies out of the way so now it’s time for the singular author collections.  I acquired these books on a very fun and eventful day.  My great aunt had passed away and it was up to me and some other family members to claim and pack up her belongings from her house.  My aunt lived in a small town and I still have some family and friends there even though many of them have either died or moved away.  A cousin of mine was still living there and while we were working she mentioned a pawn shop where she buys movies and a used bookstore.  I didn’t have much cash on me but I told her the last day I was there that we should go to both places.  I’m an old school gamer and when I spotted a used Nintendo 64 I knew I just had to have it.  As it turns out after the 40 bucks I dropped on the 64 and a game I only had 3 bucks in my pocket.  At the used bookstore I went over to see if they had any Star Trek books I wanted to buy.  This is usually my first stop at any secondhand bookstore.  In a cardboard box I found a novelization of Batman’s legendary fight with Bane (the comic book version not the movie version) that I wanted but under it were two Clive Barker books.  Each book was in good condition and had a sticker over the barcode that read “Please Scan Inside Cover”.  I went over to the counter and asked the guy how much the books cost because I only had 3 bucks and he answered me back 3 bucks.  

     Although I already read “The Forbidden” in “In the Flesh” I’ve only read two other stories from “The Inhuman Condition”.  “The Age of Desire” is about a failed medical experiment involving aphrodisiacs that causes an ordinary man to turn into a crazed rapist and murderer.  It was very good and among the best Clive Barker stories I’ve read.  It’s more of a sci fi story than horror though.  “Revelations” is a quirky ghost story set in an Amarillo motel in Texas featuring two bitter ghosts who killed each other and an evangelist preacher, his wife, and associate.  It was okay but not quite what I expected.

 

House of the Restless Dead and Other Stories by Hugh B. Cave

     I am a great admirer of Hugh B. Cave’s work and that’s exactly why I bought this book… well not exactly.  Yes it’s true I’ve been wanting to buy this book for a while now but if I didn’t need a couple bucks to be eligible for free shipping on amazon I might not have bought it all.  It also took forever and a day to be delivered.  Looking at the very last page I think I know why.  The books copyright proclaims 2011 but at the very last page of the book is a barcode and a message that says “Made in the USA/ Lexington, KY/ 31 August 2013.  If this is true it is the only book I own that was made to order.  I never imagined a publisher would do that and my only guess is that they’re a small independent press that can’t afford to print books and have them lying around until someone orders one.

     The book collects Cave’s early and previously unpublished works from the pulps.  I’ve only read two stories so far.  The first story I read, “Daughters of Dark Desire”, had more typos than any story I have ever read.  I ignored the first two thinking they were simple mistakes but then started writing down the mistakes and their locations on an index card.  I noticed 9 more mistakes including the title which read “Daughter of Dark Desire” instead of daughters which is how it is presented on the index as well as at the top of every other page of the story.  Typos aside it’s a great story.  The book also features an informative introduction which talks about Cave’s life during and after the pulps.

Remember Why You Fear Me: The Best Dark Fiction of Robert Shearman by Robert Shearman

     Out of all my new anthologies I’ve read the most out of this one.  It is just that good.  Each story I’ve read is creative, original, and downright bizarre which makes setting down the book and leaving it alone very difficult.  I’ll bet if you buy this book and begin to read it you’ll agree you’ve never read anything or anybody that even closely resembles it.  There’s story about homicidal cherubs, very weird grandmas, odd Lovecraftian creatures that shouldn’t exist, Adolf Hitler’s favorite dog, and a man mourning the death of his wife who believes she’s coming back through his own face.


To check out my anthology post from last year go here: last year's anthologies