The Mammoth Book of the Best of Best New Horror Read online

  PRAISE FOR BEST NEW HORROR

  “A worthy reflection of the diversity and high quality of contemporary horror and dark fantasy, this annual volume remains an absolute necessity.”

  – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “Anyone who is interested in the contemporary horror scene should buy a copy of this book and devour it.”

  – The Times (London)

  “The best horror anthologist in the business is, of course, Stephen Jones.”

  – Time Out

  “From its inception, the Best New Horror series has been an invaluable resource for all of us who believe in the genre.”

  – Clive Barker

  “An essential volume for horror readers.”

  – Locus

  “The Best New Horror series continues to break from the herd, consistently raising the bar of quality and ingenuity.”

  – Rue Morgue Magazine

  “An essential record, invaluable and irreplaceable, of modern horror fiction in all its range and variousness.”

  – Ramsey Campbell

  “All you need to bring you up-to-date with the horror scene.”

  – SFX

  “No self-respecting relisher of the macabre should ever deny him- or herself a copy.”

  – Gahan Wilson, Realms of Fantasy

  “Essential reading.”

  – Hellnotes

  “A real treat for any lover of the genre.”

  – SF Site

  “Best New Horror is a darkly shining beacon of hope in an unimaginative world.”

  – Neil Gaiman

  “The most valuable horror book of the year.”

  – Kirkus Reviews

  “An Ordnance Survey map of the terrain of contemporary horror and dark fantasy.”

  – Fantazia

  “Stephen Jones’ always reliable series remains the key horror anthology of the year.”

  – Starlog

  “The definitive series of Horror ‘Bests’.”

  – Science Fiction Chronicle

  “The collection we’d recommend if you had to make a choice.”

  – Interzone

  “The sheer range of dark fantasies here is impressive.”

  – Shivers

  “Best New Horror continues to provide a valuable and salutary service for horror.”

  – Fear

  Also available

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  The Mammoth Book of Dirty, Sick, X-Rated & Politically Incorrect Jokes

  The Mammoth Book of Egyptian Whodunnits

  The Mammoth Book of Erotic Online Diaries

  The Mammoth Book of Erotic Women

  The Mammoth Book of Extreme Fantasy

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  The Mammoth Book of Hard Men

  The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits

  The Mammoth Book of Illustrated True Crime

  The Mammoth Book of Inside the Elite Forces

  The Mammoth Book of International Erotica

  The Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper

  The Mammoth Book of Jacobean Whodunnits

  The Mammoth Book of the Kama Sutra

  The Mammoth Book of Killers at Large

  The Mammoth Book of King Arthur

  The Mammoth Book of Lesbian Erotica

  The Mammoth Book of Limericks

  The Mammoth Book of Maneaters

  The Mammoth Book of Modern Ghost Stories

  The Mammoth Book of Modern Battles

  The Mammoth Book of Monsters

  The Mammoth Book of Mountain Disasters

  The Mammoth Book of New Gay Erotica

  The Mammoth Book of New Terror

  The Mammoth Book of On the Edge

  The Mammoth Book of On the Road

  The Mammoth Book of Pirates

  The Mammoth Book of Poker

  The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance

  The Mammoth Book of Prophecies

  The Mammoth Book of Roaring Twenties Whodunnits

  The Mammoth Book of Sex, Drugs and Rock ’N’ Roll

  The Mammoth Book of Short Spy Novels

  The Mammoth Book of Sorcerers’ Tales

  The Mammoth Book of The Mafia

  The Mammoth Book of True Crime

  The Mammoth Book of True Hauntings

  The Mammoth Book of True War Stories

  The Mammoth Book of Unsolved Crimes

  The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance

  The Mammoth Book of Vintage Whodunnits

  The Mammoth Book of Women Who Kill

  The Mammoth Book of Zombie Comics

  Constable & Robinson Ltd

  3 The Lanchesters

  162 Fulham Palace Road

  London W6 9ER

  www.constablerobinson.com

  First published in the US as The Very Best of Best New Horror by Earthling Publications.

  First published in the UK by Robinson,

  an imprint of Constable & Robinson, 2010

  Collection and editorial material copyright © Stephen Jones 2009, 2010.

  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 978-1-84901-304-8

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  First published in the United States in 2010 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: 2009929923

  US ISBN 978-0-7624-3841-9

  Running Press Book Publishers

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  Printed and bound in the EU

  Cont
ents

  Acknowledgments

  Editor’s Foreword

  Introduction: Bettering the Best

  RAMSEY CAMPBELL

  1989

  No Sharks in the Med

  BRIAN LUMLEY

  1990

  The Man Who Drew Cats

  MICHAEL MARSHALL SMITH

  1991

  The Same in Any Language

  RAMSEY CAMPBELL

  1992

  Norman Wisdom and the Angel of Death

  CHRISTOPHER FOWLER

  1993

  Mefisto in Onyx

  HARLAN ELLISON®

  1994

  The Temptation of Dr Stein

  PAUL J. McAULEY

  1995

  Queen of Knives

  NEIL GAIMAN

  1996

  The Break

  TERRY LAMSLEY

  1997

  Emptiness Spoke Eloquent

  CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN

  1998

  Mr Clubb and Mr Cuff

  PETER STRAUB

  1999

  White

  TIM LEBBON

  2000

  The Other Side of Midnight: Anno Dracula,

  KIM NEWMAN

  2001

  Cleopatra Brimstone

  ELIZABETH HAND

  2002

  20th Century Ghost

  JOE HILL

  2003

  The White Hands

  MARK SAMUELS

  2004

  My Death

  LISA TUTTLE

  2005

  Haeckel’s Tale

  CLIVE BARKER

  2006

  Devil’s Smile

  GLEN HIRSHBERG

  2007

  The Church on the Island

  SIMON KURT UNSWORTH

  2008

  The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates

  STEPHEN KING

  Index to Twenty Years of Best New Horror

  I: Index by Contributor

  II: Index by Title

  III: Contents of Previous Omnibus Editions

  Acknowledgments

  I would like to thank Ramsey Campbell, Paul Miller, Hugh Lamb, Val and Les Edwards, Duncan Proudfoot, Pete Duncan, Dorothy Lumley and all the authors, editors and publishers who have contributed to the series over the past twenty years, for their help and support.

  EDITOR’S FOREWORD copyright © Stephen Jones 2009.

  INTRODUCTION: BETTERING THE BEST copyright © Ramsey Campbell 2009.

  NO SHARKS IN THE MED copyright © Brian Lumley 1989. Originally published in Weird Tales No.295, Winter 1989. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE MAN WHO DREW CATS copyright © Michael Marshall Smith 1990. Originally published in Dark Voices 2: The Pan Book of Horror. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE SAME IN ANY LANGUAGE copyright © Ramsey Campbell 1991. Originally published in Weird Tales No.301, Summer 1991. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  NORMAN WISDOM AND THE ANGEL OF DEATH copyright © Christopher Fowler 1992. Originally published in Sharper Knives. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  MEFISTO IN ONYX by Harlan Ellison® copyright © The Kilimanjaro Corporation 1993. Originally published in Mefisto in Onyx. Reprinted by arrangement with, and permission of, the author and the author’s agent, Richard Curtis Associates Inc., New York, USA. Harlan Ellison® is a registered trademark of The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

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

  QUEEN OF KNIVES copyright © Neil Gaiman 1995. Originally published in Tombs. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE BREAK copyright © Terry Lamsley 1996. Originally published in Conference with the Dead: Tales of Supernatural Terror. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  EMPTINESS SPOKE ELOQUENT copyright © Caitlín R. Kiernan 1997. Originally published in Secret City: Strange Tales of London. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  MR CLUBB AND MR CUFF copyright © Peter Straub 1998. Originally published in Murder for Revenge. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  WHITE copyright © Tim Lebbon 1999. Originally published in White. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT: ANNO DRACULA, 1981 copyright © Kim Newman 2000. Originally published in Vampire Sextette. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  CLEOPATRA BRIMSTONE copyright © Elizabeth Hand 2001. Originally published in Redshift. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  20TH CENTURY GHOST copyright © Joe Hill 2001. Originally published in High Plains Literary Review, Vol.XVII, No.1–3, 2002. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agent, The Choate Agency.

  THE WHITE HANDS copyright © Mark Samuels 2003. Originally published in The White Hands and Other Weird Tales. First published in substantially different form as “Amelia” in Black Tears No.1, 1993. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  MY DEATH copyright © Lisa Tuttle 2004. Originally published in My Death. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  HAECKEL’S TALE copyright © Clive Barker 2005. Originally published in Dark Delicacies. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  DEVIL’S SMILE copyright © Glen Hirshberg 2006. Originally published in American Morons. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agent, Anderson Grinberg Literary Management, Inc.

  THE CHURCH ON THE ISLAND copyright © Simon Kurt Unsworth 2007. Originally published in At Ease with the Dead. 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.

  INDEX TO TWENTY YEARS OF BEST NEW HORROR copyright © Stephen Jones 2009.

  This volume is dedicated to

  NICK ROBINSON

  KENT CARROLL

  and

  HERMAN GRAFF

  for their trust and vision twenty years ago.

  And also for

  RAMSEY CAMPBELL

  for his continued guidance and

  inspiration during all those years.

  Editor’s Foreword

  OKAY, LET’S GET SOMETHING absolutely straight from the beginning – despite what the title of this book says, this volume does not necessarily represent the twenty finest stories that have ever appeared in the Best New Horror series over the past two decades. For a start, those previous twenty volumes have contained more than 450 stories by almost 200 authors and, given the nature of any “Year’s Best” series, all the stories in those books can be considered to be the “best” in some form or another – at least according to the criteria of those who compile them.

  Back in 1992, in the third volume, my co-editor Ramsey Campbell and I pointed out that: “Best New Horror does not purport to be a collection of the year’s best horror stories. Instead, we hope to present a varied selection of fiction – loosely connected by various notions of horror – that illustrates the range of themes and ideas currently being explored in the genre, by top names in the field and exciting newcomers.”

  That policy statement could just as well be applied to this current compilation as well.

  We decided very early on that it would be presumptuous to claim that Best New Horror contained a definitive selection of the year’s best horror stories. After all, such definitions are totally subjective and differ widely between each individual. So instead, as Ramsey and I explained, these anthologies over the years have attempted – based on the material seen – to present an annual “snapshot” of some of the best horror fiction writing to be published in a particular year.

  With so many superior stories and talented authors to choose from, and with the number of tales necessarily constrained by the word-length of a single book, I decided to limit my choice for this anniversary edition to
what I considered to be one of the best stories from each volume.

  When it came to my definition of “best”, I considered whether a particular story was the most effective, stylish or simply influential in any individual volume. As a consequence, this led to some juggling of titles and authors until I felt that I had achieved a representative selection of twenty superior horror stories (and don’t expect me to define my “various notions” of what constitutes “horror” here – this book speaks for itself).

  Unfortunately, because I also decided to allow authors only one story per volume, by necessity some very fine tales and their creators have had to be left out of this anthology.

  As a result, many excellent writers who have regularly contributed to the series over the years – including Poppy Z. Brite, Dennis Etchison, Stephen Gallagher, Charles L. Grant, Brian Hodge, Graham Joyce, Joel Lane, Tanith Lee, Thomas Ligotti, Kelly Link, Nicholas Royle, David J. Schow, Steve Rasnic Tem, Karl Edward Wagner, Cherry Wilder and Gene Wolfe, to name only a few – are not represented in this current volume.

  There is nothing to say that these and other equally talented writers could not be included in another compilation using the same criteria at a later date. There is certainly a wealth of talent and some extraordinarily powerful material to draw upon throughout the distinguished history of this anthology series. But until then – like the series itself – this current volume should be considered a representative sampling of some of the finest work that has been included in Best New Horror over the past twenty years.

  Is it actually the best of the Best? I’m not so sure . . . but I do know that these tales and the authors who crafted them represent the pinnacle of the horror genre from the preceding two decades. And that can’t be a bad thing for any “Best of” compilation . . .

  Stephen Jones

  Costa Dorada, Spain

  May 17, 2009

  Introduction

  Bettering the Best

  TWENTY YEARS! We’ve seen horror dwindle almost to nothing under the pitiless light of the marketplace, tottering away only to grope, however tentatively, back into the open. I’m reminded of the 1950s, when I discovered the field. The great pulps were dead or dying, and almost no horror was being published as such. All horror comics had been banned by the British parliament, and yet two years after the ban came into force, the august Faber & Faber published Best Horror Stories with a gleefully lurid cover. The genre was largely being kept alive – underground, if not in its grave – by enterprising small presses and short-lived magazines. In time it struggled to its feet, and by the mid-1970s it was prancing and showing all its many teeth. Like any monster, it was eventually overwhelmed, but we know monsters never really die. Perhaps we’re back in that stage of its eternal gestation where I began, with an undead hibernation behind us and an uncertain future to come.