The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Fourteen

 © 2022 by Ellen Datlow — my previous reviews of this editor’s books here: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/ellen-datlow/

Stories by Simon Bestwick, Matthew Holness, Glen Hirshberg, Michael Marshall Smith, Lee Murray, G. V. Anderson, A. C. Wise, Christopher Golden, Steve Duffy, Gerard McKeown, Brian Evenson, Jonathan Raab, Eoin Murphy, Kaaron Warren, Simon Strantzas, Sarah Lamparelli, Ian Rogers, Steve Toase, Gemma Files, Carly Holmes, Eric LaRocca, Robin Furth, Laird Barron.

When I read this book, my thoughts will appear in the comment stream below…

Nox Pareidolia

Nightscape Press 2019

Edited by Robert S. Wilson

Stories by Paul Jessup, Kristi DeMeester, Christopher Ropes, Duane Pesice, Don Webb, Greg Sisco, Matt Thompson, Michael Wehunt, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, Lynne Jamneck, Dino Parenti, Kurt Fawver, doungjai gam, Daniel Braum, Sean M. Thompson, Elizabeth Beechwood, David Peak, K.H. Vaughan, LC von Hessen, Brian Evenson, Amelia Gorman, Carrie Laben, Wendy Nikel, Andrew Kozma, Annie Neugebauer, Gwendolyn Kiste, Dan Coxon, Zin E. Rocklyn, Laird Barron, Steve Toase, S.P. Miskowski, S.L. Edwards.

When I read this book, my thoughts will appear in the comment stream below…

The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Eleven

NIGHT SHADE BOOKS 2019

Edited by Ellen Datlow (my previous reviews of this editor: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/ellen-datlow/)

Stories by Anne Billson, Ralph Robert Moore, Ray Cluley, Michael Marshall Smith, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Sam Hicks, Peter Sutton, Dale Bailey, Krist DeMeester, John Langan, Gemma Files, Eloise C. C. Shepherd, Amelia Mangan, Steve Toase (two ace stories), Bill Davidson, Damien Angelica Walters, Richard Thomas, Michael Wehunt, Thana Niveau, Laird Barron, Robert Shearman, Joe Hill, Adam-Troy Castro, Orrin Grey, Siobhan Carroll, Carly Holmes.

When I read this book, my thoughts will appear in the comment stream below…

Swift to Chase – by Laird Barron

JOURNALSTONE 2016

‘Swift to Chase’ by Laird Barron

When I real-time review this book, my comments will appear in the thought stream below.

Autumn Cthulhu

Lovecraft Ezine Press 2016

Introduction – Mike Davis
The Night is a Sea – Scott Thomas
In the Spaces Where You Once Lived – Damien Angelica Walters
Memories of the Fall – Pete Rawlik
Andy Kaufman Creeping Through the Trees – Laird Barron
There is a Bear in the Woods – Nadia Bulkin
The Smoke Lodge – Michael Griffin
Cul-De-Sac Virus – Evan Dicken
DST (Fall Back) – Robert Levy
The Black Azalea – Wendy N. Wagner
After the Fall – Jeffrey Thomas
Anchor – John Langan
The End of the Season – Trent Kollodge
Water Main – S.P. Miskowski
The Stiles of Palemarsh – Richard Gavin
Grave Goods – Gemma Files
The Well and the Wheel – Orrin Grey
Trick… or the Other Thing – Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.
A Shadow Passing – Daniel Mills
Lavinia in Autumn – Ann K. Schwader

When I real-time this anthology, my comments will appear in the thought stream below.

Robert Aickman – a new article

Laird Barron’s recent eye-opening article on Robert Aickman’s ‘The Hospice’ HERE. .  Something I wrote in 2013 on my blog: “I don’t want to harp on about this, but I genuinely think that – at least in part – that The Hospice (and Into The Wood?) forms a tribute to ‘The Magic Mountain’ by Thomas Mann and covers many of its themes which you can tick off one by one. And I think we know that Thomas Mann was one of Aickman’s major influences according to his letters. But I have been the first to decry this biographical type of literary criticism based on my life-long interest in the Intentional Fallacy! So I am torn.” My original real-time review of ‘The Magic Mountain’ (including comparison with Aickman) started HERE

A book I have compared to both ‘The Magic Mountain’ by Thomas Mann and ‘The Hospice’ by Robert Aickman is ‘The Inmates’ by John Cowper Powys: HERE

“and a dog’s eyes answered his stare with a look of such unutterable loneliness…” – from ‘The Inmates’

My proposal is that Aickman would not only have been a big fan of Mann but also of Powys.

Discussion forum thread about all this HERE.

Year’s Best Weird Fiction – Volume One

 I have just received YEAR’S BEST WEIRD FICTION Volume One as purchased from Amazon UK.

Guest Editor: Laird Barron – Series Editor: Michael Kelly

Undertow Publications (2014)

Stories by: Simon Strantzas, Paul Tremblay, A.C. Wise, Chen Qiufan, Sofia Samatar, Livia Llewellyn, Damien Angelica Walters, John Langan, W.H. Pugmire, Maria Dahvana Headley, Anna Taborska, Joseph S. Pulver Sr., Jeffrey Thomas, Richard Gavin, Scott Nicolay, Anne Sylvie Salzman, Kristi DeMeester, Jeffrey Ford, Michael Blumlein, Karin Tidbeck, John R. Fultz, Jeff VanderMeer.

MY EVENTUAL REAL-TIME REVIEW OF THIS BOOK WILL TAKE PLACE IN THE COMMENT STREAM BELOW AS AND WHEN I READ IT.

Puppets in Carcosa

I have just received these two books as purchased from Amazon UK.

A SEASON IN CARCOSA – THE GRIMSCRIBE’S PUPPETS : edited by Joseph S. Pulver Sr.

Miskatonic River Press 2012 & 2013

Stories by Eddie M. Angerhuber, Laird Barron, Allyson Bird, Michael Cisco, Nicole Cushing, Gemma Files, Cate Gardner, Richard Gavin, Cody Goodfellow, Michael Griffin, Pearce Hansen, Michael Kelly, Joel Lane, John Langan, Livia Llewellyn, Richard A. Lupoff, Gary McMahon, Daniel Mills, Edward Morris, Scott Nicolay, Jon Padgett, Kristin Prevallet, Robert M. Price, Joseph S. Pulver Sr., Ann K. Schwader, Darrell Schweitzer, Robin Spriggs, Simon Strantzas, Anna Tambour, Jeffrey Thomas, Paul Tremblay, Kaaron Warren, Don Webb.

Links above are to my reviews.

In the comment stream below, I hope eventually to conduct a gestalt real-time review – by surname alphabetical order of authors.

Ana Kai Tangata – Scott Nicolay

I have just received this book after purchasing it from Amazon UK.

Ana Kai Tangata by Scott Nicolay
Tales of the Outer the Other the Damned and the Doomed
Fedogan & Bremer 2014

Introduction by Laird Barron
Afterword by John Pelan (John Palen according to contents list)
Artwork by David Verba

I look forward to real-time reviewing this book once my Sabbatical is over in September.

MY EVENTUAL REAL-TIME REVIEW OF THIS BOOK WILL TAKE PLACE IN THE COMMENT STREAM BELOW AS AND WHEN I READ IT.

Fearful Symmetries

I have just received FEARFUL SYMMETRIES: edited by Ellen Datlow, as purchased from Amazon UK.

ChiZine Publications (2014)

Stories by: Gemma Files, Nathan Ballingrud, Bruce McAllister, Gary McMahon, Pat Cadigan, Helen Marshall, Terry Dowling, Stephen Graham Jones, Brian Evenson, Jeffrey Ford, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Robert Shearman, Michael Marshall Smith, Kaaron Warren, Laird Barron, Catherine MacLeod, Siobhan Carroll, John Langan, Carole Johnstone, Garth Nix.

MY EVENTUAL REAL-TIME REVIEW OF THIS BOOK WILL TAKE PLACE IN THE COMMENT STREAM BELOW AS AND WHEN I READ IT.

My previous review of an Ellen Datlow anthology: Wild Justice.