The Best New Horror 6 Read online

  STEPHEN JONES is the winner of two World Fantasy Awards and two Horror Writers of America Bram Stoker Awards, as well as being a ten-time recipient of the British Fantasy Award and a Hugo Award nominee. A full-time columnist, television producer/director and genre film publicist and consultant (the first three Hellraiser movies, Nightbreed, Split Second, Mind Ripper, Last Gasp etc.), he is the co-editor of Horror: 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, Dark Terrors and the Best New Horror, Dark Voices and Fantasy Tales series. He has written 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 Terror, The Mammoth Book of Vampires, The Mammoth Book of Zombies, The Mammoth Book of Werewolves, The Mammoth Book of Frankenstein, Shadows Over Innsmouth, The Vampire Stories of R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Clive Barker’s Shadows in Eden, James Herbert: By Horror Haunted, Clive Barker’s The Nightbreed Chronicles and The Hellraiser Chronicles.

  THE

  BEST NEW

  HORROR

  VOLUME SIX

  Edited by

  STEPHEN JONES

  Constable & Robinson Ltd.

  55–56 Russell Square

  London WC1B 4HP

  www.constablerobinson.com

  First published in the UK by Raven Books,

  an imprint of Robinson Publishing 1995

  The Best New Horror copyright © Robinson Publishing Ltd

  Selection and editorial material

  copyright © Stephen Jones 1995

  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

  ISBN 1-85487-421-7

  eISBN 978-1-4721-1360-3

  Printed and bound in the EC

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Cover Art by Luis Rey

  CONTENTS

  Acknowledgements

  Introduction: Horror in 1994

  THE EDITOR

  Dead Babies

  LAWRENCE WATT-EVANS

  Sensible City

  HARLAN ELLISON

  Blade and Bone

  TERRY LAMSLEY

  Harvest

  NORMAN PARTRIDGE

  Sometimes, in the Rain

  CHARLES GRANT

  Ménage à Trois

  RICHARD CHRISTIAN MATHESON

  Like Shattered Stone

  JOEL LANE

  Black Sun

  DOUGLAS E. WINTER

  Isabel Avens Returns to Stepney in the Spring

  M. JOHN HARRISON

  The Dead Orchards

  IAN MacLEOD

  What Happened When Mosby Paulson Had Her Painting

  Reproduced on the Cover of the Phone Book

  ELIZABETH MASSIE

  The Alternative

  RAMSEY CAMPBELL

  In the Middle of a Snow Dream

  KARL EDWARD WAGNER

  The Temptation of Dr Stein

  PAUL J. McAULEY

  Wayang Kulit

  GARRY KILWORTH

  The Scent of Vinegar

  ROBERT BLOCH

  The Homecoming

  NICHOLAS ROYLE

  The Singular Habits of Wasps

  GEOFFREY A. LANDIS

  To Receive is Better

  MICHAEL MARSHALL SMITH

  The Alchemy of the Throat

  BRIAN HODGE

  Out of the Night, When the Full Moon is Bright . . .

  KIM NEWMAN

  Lovers

  ESTHER M. FRIESNER

  Necrology: 1994

  STEPHEN JONES & KIM NEWMAN

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I would like to thank Ramsey Campbell, Kim Newman, Sara Broecker, Jo Fletcher, Mandy Slater, David Pringle, Gordon Van Gelder, Ellen Datlow, John Maclay, Stefan Dziemianowicz and Stuart Hughes for their continued help and support. Special thanks are also due to Locus, Science Fiction Chronicle, Interzone, Variety, Screen International and all the other sources that were used for reference in the Introduction and the Necrology.

  INTRODUCTION: HORROR IN 1994 copyright © 1995 by Stephen Jones.

  DEAD BABIES copyright © 1994 by Lawrence Watt Evans. Originally published in South from Midnight. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  SENSIBLE CITY by Harlan Ellison. Copyright © 1994 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation. Originally published in Dark Destiny. Reprinted by arrangement with, and permission of, the author and the author’s agent, Richard Curtis Associates, Inc., New York, USA. All rights reserved.

  BLADE AND BONE copyright © 1994 by Terry Lamsley. Originally published in Ghosts & Scholars 17. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  HARVEST copyright © 1994 by Norman Partridge. Originally published in The Earth Strikes Back. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  SOMETIMES, IN THE RAIN copyright © 1994 by Charles Grant. Originally published in Northern Frights 2. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  MÉNAGE À TROIS copyright © 1994 by Richard Christian Matheson. Originally published in Little Deaths. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  LIKE SHATTERED STONE copyright © 1994 by Joel Lane. Originally published in The Science of Sadness. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  BLACK SUN copyright © 1994 by Douglas E. Winter. Originally published in Black Sun. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  ISABEL AVENS RETURNS TO STEPNEY IN THE SPRING copyright © 1994 by M. John Harrison. Originally published in Little Deaths. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE DEAD ORCHARDS copyright © 1993 by Terminus Publishing Co., Inc. Originally published in Weird Tales No. 308, Spring 1994. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MOSBY PAULSON HAD HER PAINTING REPRODUCED ON THE COVER OF THE PHONE BOOK copyright © 1994 by Elizabeth Massie. Originally published in Voices From the Night. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE ALTERNATIVE copyright © 1994 by Ramsey Campbell. Originally published in Darklands Two. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  IN THE MIDDLE OF A SNOW DREAM copyright © 1994 by Karl Edward Wagner. Originally published in South from Midnight. Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.

  THE TEMPTATION OF DR STEIN copyright © 1994 by Paul J. McAuley. Originally published in The Mammoth Book of Frankenstein. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  WAYANG KULIT copyright © 1994 by Garry Kilworth. Originally published in Interzone No. 90, December 1994. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE SCENT OF VINEGAR copyright © 1994 by Robert Bloch. Originally published in Dark Destiny. Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate and the author’s agent, Ricia Mainhardt, New York, USA.

  THE HOMECOMING copyright © 1994 by Nicholas Royle. Originally published in Shadows Over Innsmouth. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE SINGULAR HABITS OF WASPS copyright © 1994 by Geoffrey A. Landis. Originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, April 1994. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  TO RECEIVE IS BETTER copyright © 1994 by Michael Marshall Smith. Originally published in The Mammoth Book of Frankenstein. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE ALCHEMY OF THE THROAT copyright © 1994 by Brian Hodge. Originally published in Love in Vein. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  OUT OF THE NIGHT, W
HEN THE FULL MOON IS BRIGHT . . . copyright © 1994 by Kim Newman. Originally published in The Mammoth Book of Werewolves. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  LOVERS copyright © 1994 by Esther M. Friesner. Originally published in South from Midnight. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  NECROLOGY: 1994 copyright © 1995 by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman.

  In Memory of Karl

  – I hope they have pubs in Heaven,

  and Bob

  – who is probably telling jokes at the bar!

  INTRODUCTION:

  HORROR IN 1994

  ALTHOUGH, IN 1994, the number of original science fiction and fantasy novels dropped quite significantly from the previous year, horror remained fairly constant. The number of new anthologies being published even increased very slightly, and the market for role-playing, game- and media-related books also continued to grow significantly. However, it was once again in the young adult horror category that the biggest increase occurred, with the number of books published up more than a third on 1993 (itself a record year), the majority of those being series titles.

  There were new titles from all the Big Names of horror in 1994. In October, Stephen King undertook his first nationwide tour in a decade, visiting independent bookstores in ten American cities on his Harley Davidson motorcycle to promote his latest novel, Insomnia. James Herbert’s The Ghosts of Sleath was a sequel to his 1988 novel Haunted, in which psychic investigator David Ash once again encountered the supernatural. Clive Barker returned to the Sea of Quiddity, the world he first explored in The Great and Secret Show five years earlier, with another hefty fantasy opus, Everville: The Second Book of the Art. British book buyers were given the opportunity to find a special edition (one copy supplied with every ten ordered by the bookseller) which included a pre-printed message and signature from Barker.

  Winter Moon by Dean Koontz was a completely rewritten version of his 1974 novel Invasion, originally published under the pseudonym “Aaron Wolfe”. Meanwhile, Koontz’s Dark Rivers of the Heart was a totally new high-tec thriller set in an alternative reality. Anne Rice’s Taltos was the third volume in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches, following on from The Witching Hour and Lasher. Fires of Eden by Dan Simmons was a dark fantasy about the ancient gods of Hawaii, with a plot that revolved around the long-dead Mark Twain. Brian Lumley continued to please his many fans with Vampire World 3: Bloodwars, the third and final volume in his bestselling follow-up trilogy to the “Necroscope” series.

  Another bestseller, the young adult author Christopher Pike, moved over to the adult horror market with two new novels, The Cold One and The Listeners. The Quorum was Kim Newman’s unexpected follow-up to Anno Dracula. It was a highly individual reworking of the Faust legend, set in contemporary London. Meanwhile, under his “Jack Yeovil” pseudonym, Newman offered more pulpy thrills with Orgy of the Blood Parasites, about an escaped virus which resulted in physical mutations.

  Night Relics by James P. Blaylock was a fever-dream ghost story set in the Southern Californian wilderness, and although basically a crime thriller, Joe R. Lansdale’s Mucho Mojo had enough Southern weirdness to please those fans of the author’s distinctive horror fiction. Darkness, I by Tanith Lee was the third in her “Blood Opera” series chronicling the bizarre Scarabae family.

  The estate of the V.C. Andrews collected a tax refund of $500,000 from the IRS, while the late trademarked author published two new novels, Ruby and Pearl in the Mist, the first and second volumes respectively in the “Landry” series. These were probably still written by Andrew Neiderman, who also published the medical horror thriller Duplicates under his own byline.

  Charles Grant’s Jackals featured a less-than-human race preying upon highway travellers, while the author explored Ray Bradbury territory in The Black Carousel, about a dark carnival that arrived in the town of Oxrun Station. Brian Stableford’s The Carnival of Destruction was the third in the trilogy he began with The Werewolves of London and The Angel of Pain.

  R. Chetwynd-Hayes took his readers on a descent into a bizarre realm in the aptly titled Hell is What You Make It, while Thomas M. Disch looked into the personal hell of Father Bryce in The Priest. Garry D. Kilworth’s Archangel, a sequel to the author’s Angel, concerned the search for demons in London.

  There were plenty of other new novels by experienced hands, including In the Dark by Richard Laymon; Burial (the third in the “Manitou” series) and Flesh and Blood by Graham Masterton; The Homing by John Saul; Spanky by Christopher Fowler; The Plague Chronicles by Guy N. Smith; Evil Intent by Bernard Taylor; Skyscape by Michael Cadnum; The Ascending by T.M. Wright; Bride of the Rat God by Barbara Hambly; Blood Red Moon by Ed Gorman; and White Ghost, a thriller in the “Renegades” series by Shaun Hutson.

  The Judas Cross by Charles Sheffield and David Bischoff was a chiller set during the First World War, and Peter Tremayne’s 1984 novel Kiss of the Cobra appeared in a new hardcover edition with a specially commissioned final chapter. The popular superhuman serial killer “Chaingang” Bunkowski was back in two new novels, Butcher and Savant, by Rex Miller, while the combination of Canadian lawyers who comprise author “Michael Slade” came up with Ripper, in which the Vancouver Police Department’s Special X squad investigated a serial killer trying to resurrect Jack the Ripper.

  There were also impressive novels from the newer crop of writers, including Stephen Laws (Macabre), Douglas Clegg (Dark of the Eye), Ben Leech (The Bidden), Joe Donnelly (Shrike), Chaz Brenchley (Paradise), Melanie Tem (Revenant), Mark Morris (The Secret of Anatomy), Nancy Holder (Dead in the Water) and Phil Rickman (The Man in the Moss and December).

  Downlist, there was the usual mélange of small town serial killers, curses, reincarnation, possession, ghosts, voodoo and zombies with such titles as The Night School by Bentley Little, Prank Night by David Robbins, Night Mask by William W. Johnstone, Let There Be Dark by Allen Lee Harris, Sleep, Pale Sister by Joanne Harris, The Moons of Summer by S.K. Epperson, Lorelei by Mark A. Clements, Fear by Ronald Kelly, Creekers by Edward Lee, Fiend by C. Dean Anderson, Torment by Stephen R. George, The Beast by Marie Ardell White and James Gordon White, The Presence by David B. Silva, The Calling by Kathryn Meyer, Evil Reincarnate by Leigh Clarke, Dead Voices and The Uprising by Abigail McDaniels, Grave Markings by Michael Arnzen, Sacred Ground by Mercedes Lackey, Shadow Dance by Jessica Palmer, Shadows Fall by Simon R. Green, Tower of Evil by Martin James, A Room for the Dead by Noel Hynd, The Asylum by John Edward Ames, The Haunting by Ruby Jean Jensen, Ghost Boy by Jean Simon, Road Kill by Jack Ketchum, The Black Mariah by screenwriter Jay R. Bonansinga, 65mm by Dale Hoover and Red Ball by John Gideon (aka Lonn Hoklin).

  For those who preferred a more romantic feel to their chills, there was always Ghostly Enchantment by Angie Ray, Deborah Nicholas’s Silent Sonata, and Midnight is a Lonely Place by Barbara Erskine. The Only Thing to Fear was the fifth volume in the series about occult private investigator Teddy London by Robert Morgan (aka C.J. Henderson). Ron Dee published Succumb and, under his “David Darke” alias, Horrorshow, about a TV horror host who returned from the dead for revenge. In Vincent Courtney’s Goblins, a filmmaker’s wife gave birth to one of the title creatures, while Michael Green’s wonderfully titled The JimJams boasted flesh-eating gremlins.

  Bloodsuckers continued to take on a life of their own, with almost a fifth of all new horror fiction published in 1994 featuring vampires.

  Fred Saberhagen’s Séance for a Vampire was the eighth in his popular “Dracula” series, which also featured the inimitable Sherlock Holmes. Covenant with the Vampire: The Diaries of the Family Dracul was the first in a proposed trilogy by Jeanne Kalogridis, while Earl Lee’s Drakulya retold Bram Stoker’s Dracula in the form of a lost journal of Mircea Drakulya, Lord of the Dead. Mina by Marie Kiraly was another retelling/sequel of Dracula, this time told from the viewpoint of Mina Harker. Meanwhile, Masquerade Books’ The Darker Passions: Dracula by “Amarantha Knight” (aka Nancy Kilpatrick) was a pornographic retelling o
f Stoker’s original and the first in a series of sexually explicit reworkings of classic horror tales.

  Published under her own byline, Near Death by Nancy Kilpatrick was the first in a new series, as was Night’s Immortal Kiss by Cherlyn Jac, set on a Southern plantation. This was a location shared by This Dark Paradise and These Fallen Angels, both by Wendy Haley. Midnight Kiss and Midnight Temptation were the first and second volumes respectively in a series of vampire Regency romances by Nancy Gideon.

  A Dance in Blood Velvet was Freda Warrington’s follow-up to A Taste of Blood Wine, and Michael Romkey’s The Vampire Papers the sequel to I, Vampire. The Vampire Legacy: Bitter Blood by Karen E. Taylor was the second in a series, as was Knights of the Blood: At Sword’s Point, created by Scott Macmillan and his wife Katherine Kurtz, which featured Los Angeles cop John Drummond hunting Nazi vampires in Europe. The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton was the sequel to Guilty Pleasures, and once again featured tough “Executioner” Anita Blake tracking down zombies and vampires in an alternative world. Blood Rites by Elaine Bergstrom was the third in her “Austra Family” series, about a vampire artist stalked by a hired killer.

  In Bloodletter by Warren Newton Beath, a Hollywood horror novelist believed that his vampire creation was stalking him, while the title character in Shade by David Darke (aka the prolific Ron Dee) was Shade Scarlett, a bestselling vampire novelist who turned out to be a vampire herself. Love Me to Death (aka Tap, Tap) by David Martin was about a serial killer vampire, Cold Kiss by Roxanne Longstreet featured a vampire surgeon, and there was always Vampire’s Kiss by William Hill. Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Sins of the Blood featured rival siblings, one undead, the other a vampire hunter, and a vampire father attempted to track down his children in J.N. Williamson’s Bloodlines. Leslie H. Whitten’s The Fangs of the Morning, a vampire novel set in Washington DC, appeared in an omnibus edition with the author’s 1973 novel The Alchemist, while Nocturnas by Shawn Ryan was about vampires in the Romanian government.