The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 16 Read online

  STEPHEN JONES lives in London, England. He is the winner of three World Fantasy Awards, three Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Awards and three International Horror Guild Awards as well as being a sixteen-time 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 and the Dark Terrors, Dark Voices and Fantasy Tales series. He has written 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, 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, 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, The Conan Chronicles by Robert E. Howard (two volumes), The Emperor of Dreams: The Lost Worlds of Clark Ashton Smith, Sea-Kings of Mars and Other-worldly Stories by Leigh Brackett, Clive Barker’s A–Z of Horror, Clive Barker’s Shadows in Eden, Clive Barker’s The Nightbreed Chronicles and the Hellraiser Chronicles. He was a Guest of Honour at the 2002 World Fantasy Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the 2004 World Horror Convention in Phoenix, Arizona. You can visit his web site at www.herebedragons.co.uk/jones

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  THE

  MAMMOTH BOOK OF

  BEST NEW

  HORROR

  VOLUME SIXTEEN

  Edited and with an Introduction by

  STEPHEN JONES

  ROBINSON

  London

  Constable & Robinson Ltd

  55–56 Russell Square

  London WC1B 4HP

  www.constablerobinson.com

  First published in the UK by Robinson,

  an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd 2005

  Collection and editorial material copyright

  © Stephen Jones 2005

  Cover art copyright © Les Edwards www.lesedwards.com

  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 1–84529–117–4

  eISBN 9781780337135

  Printed and bound in the EU

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  CONTENTS

  Acknowledgments

  Introduction: Horror in 2004

  Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire

  NEIL GAIMAN

  Lilies

  IAIN ROWAN

  Breaking Up

  RAMSEY CAMPBELL

  “The King”, in: Yellow

  BRIAN KEENE

  A Trick of the Dark

  TINA RATH

  The Mutable Borders of Love

  LESLIE WHAT

  Flour White and Spindle Thin

  L.H. MAYNARD & M.P.N. SIMS

  Tighter

  CHRISTA FAUST

  Restraint

  STEPHEN GALLAGHER

  Israbel

  TANITH LEE

  The Growlimb

  MICHAEL SHEA

  This is Now

  MICHAEL MARSHALL SMITH

  Remnants

  TIM LEBBON

  Safety Clowns

  GLEN HIRSHBERG

  The Devil of Delery Street

  POPPY Z. BRITE

  Apocalypse Now, Voyager

  JAY RUSSELL

  Stone Animals

  KELLY LINK

  Soho Golem

  KIM NEWMAN

  Spells for Halloween: An Acrostic

  DALE BAILEY

  My Death

  LISA TUTTLE

  The Problem of Susan

  NEIL GAIMAN

  Necrology: 2004

  STEPHEN JONES & KIM NEWMAN

  Useful Addresses

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I would like to thank David Barraclough, Kim Newman, Rodger Turner and Wayne MacLaurin (sfsite.com), Hugh Lamb, Clau
dia Dyer, Gordon Van Gelder, Barbara Roden, Mandy Slater, Brian Mooney, Sara and Randy Broecker, Del Howison, Douglas E. Winter, Jo Fletcher, David J. Schow, Jay Broecker, Basil Copper, Lucy Ramsey, Andrew I. Porter, Alan Beatts, Andy Cox and, especially, Pete Duncan and Dorothy Lumley for all their help and support. Special thanks are also due to Locus, Variety and all the other sources that were used for reference in the Introduction and the Necrology.

  INTRODUCTION: HORROR IN 2004 copyright © Stephen Jones 2005.

  FORBIDDEN BRIDES OF THE FACELESS SLAVES IN THE NAMELESS HOUSE OF THE NIGHT OF DREAD DESIRE copyright © Neil Gaiman 2004. Originally published in Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  LILIES copyright © Iain Rowan 2004. Originally published in Postscripts Number 2, Summer 2004. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  BREAKING UP copyright © Ramsey Campbell 2004. Originally published in Acquainted With the Night. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “THE KING”, IN: YELLOW copyright © Brian Keene 2004. Originally published in A Walk on the Darkside: Visions of Horror. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  A TRICK OF THE DARK copyright © Tina Rath 2004. Originally published in The Mammoth Book of Vampires (New Edition). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE MUTABLE BORDERS OF LOVE copyright © Leslie What 2004. Originally published in Amazing Stories No. 605, November 2004. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  FLOUR WHITE AND SPINDLE THIN copyright © L.H. Maynard and M.P.N. Sims 2004. Originally published in Falling Into Heaven. Reprinted by permission of the authors.

  TIGHTER copyright © Christa Faust 2004. Originally published in Strange Bedfellows: The Hot Blood Series. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  RESTRAINT copyright © Stephen Gallagher 2004. Originally published in Postscripts Number 1, Spring 2004. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  ISRABEL copyright © Tanith Lee 2004. Originally published in Realms of Fantasy, April 2004. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE GROWLIMB copyright © Spilogale, Inc. 2004. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction No. 624, January 2004. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THIS IS NOW copyright © Michael Marshall Smith 2004. Originally published on www.bbc.co.uk/cult/vampires. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  REMNANTS copyright © Tim Lebbon 2004. Originally published in Fears Unnamed. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  SAFETY CLOWNS copyright © Glen Hirshberg 2004. Originally published in Acquainted With the Night. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agents, Anderson Grinberg Literary Management, Inc.

  THE DEVIL OF DELERY STREET copyright © Poppy Z. Brite 2004. Originally published in McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  APOCALYPSE NOW, VOYAGER copyright © Jay Russell 2004. Originally published in Apocalypse Now, Voyager. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  STONE ANIMALS copyright © Kelly Link 2004. Originally published in Conjunctions 43: Beyond Arcadia. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  SOHO GOLEM copyright © Kim Newman 2004. Originally published on SciFiction.com, October 2004. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  SPELLS FOR HALLOWEEN: AN ACROSTIC copyright © Dale Bailey 2004. Originally published in the Catawba Valley Neighbors/Charlotte Observer, October 13th–31st, 2004. Reprinted by permission of the author.

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

  THE PROBLEM OF SUSAN copyright © Neil Gaiman 2004. Originally published in Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  NECROLOGY: 2004 copyright © Stephen Jones and Kim Newman 2005.

  USEFUL ADDRESSES copyright © Stephen Jones 2005.

  In memory of

  John Brosnan

  (Harry Adam Knight/Simon Ian Childer/ James Blackstone)

  (1947–2005)

  “They are not long, the days of wine and roses.”

  INTRODUCTION

  Horror in 2004

  A REPORT RELEASED IN APRIL revealed that British public libraries were in “near-terminal” decline, with visitor numbers falling so sharply that they would barely be used at all by 2020. According to the study by the charity Libri, book-lending had halved in the UK since 1984. It blamed local councils for not spending enough of their budgets on actually buying new books.

  However, a government report two months later revealed that 65 per cent of people in Britain are reading for pleasure – up from 55 per cent in 1979. More people apparently prefer to buy their own books, and sales in the UK have risen 19 per cent over the past five years. Demand was so great that charity chain Barnardo’s announced it was transforming many of its secondhand clothes shops into used bookstores. In 2003 Barnardo’s sold around a million books, while an Oxfam charity shop in Reading reported it sold 1,500 books a week.

  Meanwhile, a report in December by the education watchdog Ofsted revealed that a number of British primary schools were failing to teach children to read properly, with many pupils not being encouraged to read for pleasure.

  In the United States, it was estimated that a record $3.12 billion would be spent on celebrating Halloween in 2004. Even in Britain, where it was barely glorified a decade earlier, £100 million is spent on the event annually. It is now the UK’s third most lucrative festival of the year after Christmas and Easter, and the second-biggest social event after New Year. However, research carried out by the Tesco supermarket chain discovered that a third of all Hallowe’en items in the UK were sold to adults between their late teens and early thirties, not to children.

  A school in Puyallup, Washington State, banned Trick or Treating because, as Puyallup School District spokeswoman Karen Hansen explained, Halloween celebrations and children dressed up in costumes may have been offensive to real witches: “Witches with pointy noses and things like that are not respective (sic) symbols to the Wiccan religion and so we want to be respectful of that,” she revealed to a number of US newspapers.

  Back in Britain, several local councils also produced posters and advertising campaigns to discourage Trick or Treating in their areas, where the number of Hallowe’en-related anti-social incidents had risen over recent years.

  In 2004, Avalon Publishing Group, which owns Carroll & Graf amongst other imprints, acquired publisher Four Walls Eight Windows and integrated the list into its expanded Thunder’s Mouth Press imprint.

  Britain’s largest bookseller chain, WH Smith, began selling off most of its overseas operations during the summer and, in early August, the company sold its Hodder Headline publishing division to French publisher Hachette Livre (who also own Orion/Gollancz) for £233 million. The move was seen as an attempt by chief executive Kate Swann to plug a gap in the company’s £200 million pension fund and to focus on the company’s core retail and news distribution business. It was apparently a success, with shares eventually rising by almost six per cent after the group announced that its profitability had improved “substantially”.

  Also in August, troubled British broadcaster ITV sold off its loss-making Carlton Books imprint to its management for an estimated £2.5 million.

  In February, 38-year-old J.K. Rowling made the Forbes 2004 list of billionaires at #552 with an estimated fortune of $1 billion (£526 million).

  Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released in mass-market format (with a two million first print run in the US), along with various new “adult” editions of the earlier books in the series. Slightly more unecessary were Ancient Greek and Irish translations of the first Harry Potter book.

  Meanwhile, The Church of England criticized the BBC for showing the movie Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on terrestrial television on Christmas Day (watched by 7.9 million people), claiming “It was unsuitable for children at the best of times” because of its depiction of
wizards and witchcraft. One wonders what they would make of that perennial holiday favourite The Wizard of Oz?

  Despite not having a new Harry Potter title in 2004, publisher Bloomsbury had a strong year thanks to the success of Susanna Clarke’s acclaimed debut novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, about two rival nineteenth century magicians. The book went through multiple printings and became a bestseller in America.

  The sixth and penultimate volume in Stephen King’s The Dark Tower sequence, Song of Susannah focussed on the eponymous character raped by a demon in The Waste Lands. King even wrote himself into the narrative as the flawed poet chronicling Gunslinger Roland’s life. The book spent one week at the top of some American bestseller lists before being knocked off by Dan Brown’s phenomenally successful thriller The Da Vinci Code.

  The Donald M. Grant edition of Song of Susannah featured colour illustrations by Darrel Anderson and was also available in a deluxe signed and boxed edition of 1,400 copies and an “artist edition” of 3,500 copies. Anderson’s art was additionally published as a separate portfilio.

  The final novel in the sequence, somewhat unimaginatively titled The Dark Tower, appeared in September with illustrations by Michael Whelan. In this concluding volume, Roland and his band of pilgrims finally reached the end of their long quest. Once again, the Donald M. Grant edition was also available in a signed, deluxe slipcased edition of 1,500 copies ($225.00) and a 5,000-copy “artist edition” signed by Whelan. In Britain, Hodder & Stoughton produced a proof edition limited to just 100 copies, which quickly became a collector’s item.

  Thanks to a clause in their contract, the Boston Red Sox’s surprise win of the World Series resulted in an increase in the advance payment from Scribner for Stephen King and co-author Stewart O’Nan’s Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season, a book that looked at the ups and downs of the “cursed” baseball team that last won the World Series in 1918.

  Anne Rivers Siddons’ 1978 haunted house novel, The House Next Door, was reissued as part of the Science Fiction Book Club’s “Stephen King Horror Library” with a 1981 Introduction by King.