The Best New Horror 2
Read The Best New Horror 2 Online
Authors: Ramsay Campbell
S
TEPHEN
J
ONES
is the winner of the World Fantasy Award, the Horror Writers of America Bram Stoker Award, and eight-time recipient of The British Fantasy Award. A full-time columnist, film-reviewer, television producer/director and horror movie publicist (
Hellraiser, Hellhound, Grave Misdemeanours, Nightbreed
etc.), he is the co-editor of
Horror: 100 Best Books, The Best Horror from Fantasy Tales, Gaslight & Ghosts, Now We Are Sick
and the
Fantasy Tales
and
Dark Voices
series, and compiler of
Clive Barker’s The Nightbreed Chronicles, The Mammoth Book of Terror, Clive Barker’s Shadows in Eden
and
James Herbert: By Horror Haunted
.
R
AMSEY
C
AMPBELL
is the most respected living British horror writer. After working in the civil service and public libraries, he became a full-time writer in 1973. He has written hundreds of short stories (his latest collection is titled
Waking Nightmares
) and the novels
The Doll Who Ate His Mother, The Face That Must Die, The Parasite, The Nameless, Incarnate, Obsession, The Hungry Moon, The Influence, Ancient Images, Midnight Sun
and
The Count of Eleven
. A multiple winner of both the World Fantasy Award and British Fantasy Award, he has also edited several anthologies, broadcasts weekly on Radio Merseyside as a film critic, and is President of the British Fantasy Society. He especially enjoys reading his stories to audiences.
BEST NEW
HORROR 2
HORROR 2
Edited by
STEPHEN JONES
and
RAMSEY CAMPBELL
Robinson Publishing
London
First published by
Constable & Robinson Ltd.
55–56 Russell Square
London WC1B 4HP
www.constablerobinson.com
Best New Horror series copyright
©
Robinson Publishing 1991
This selection copyright
©
by Stephen Jones and Ramsey Campbell
1991
Cover illustration
©
by Luis Rey, courtesy Sarah Brown Ltd, 1991
All rights reserved
.
ISBN 1 85487 094 7
eISBN 978 1 47211 362 7
Typeset by Selectmove Ltd, London
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Mackay’s of Chatham plc, Kent
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Incident on a Rainy Night in Beverly Hills
His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood
T
HE EDITORS WOULD
like to thank Avon Books, Pulphouse Publishing, and Chris Reed, for their help and support. Thanks are also due to the magazines
Locus
(Editor & Publisher Charles N. Brown, Locus Publications, P.O. Box 13305, Oakland, CA 94661, USA) and
Science Fiction Chronicle
(Editor & Publisher Andrew I. Porter, P.O. Box 2730, Brooklyn, NY 11202–0056, USA) which were used as reference sources in the Introduction and Necrology.
INTRODUCTION: HORROR IN 1990 Copyright © 1991 by Stephen Jones and Ramsey Campbell.
THE FIRST TIME Copyright © 1990 by K.W. Jeter. Originally published in
Alien Sex
. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agent.
A SHORT GUIDE TO THE CITY Copyright © 1990 by The Seafront Corporation. Originally published in
Houses Without Doors
. Reprinted by permission of the author.
STEPHEN Copyright © 1990 by Elizabeth Massie. Originally published in
Borderlands
. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THE DEAD LOVE YOU Copyright © 1990 by Jonathan Carroll. Originally published in
Omni
Vol.13, No.3, December 1990. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agent.
JANE DOE#112 Copyright © 1990 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation. Originally published in
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
No.576, December 1990. Reprinted by permission of the author.
SHOCK RADIO Copyright © 1990 by Ray Garton. Originally published in
Methods of Madness
. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THE MAN WHO DREW CATS Copyright © 1990 by Michael Marshall Smith. Originally published in
Dark Voices 2: The Pan Book of Horror
. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THE CO-OP Copyright © 1990 by Melanie Tem. Originally published in
Women of Darkness II
. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THE LAST FEAST OF HARLEQUIN Copyright © 1990 by Thomas Ligotti. Originally published in
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
No.467, April 1990. Reprinted by permission of the author.
NEGATIVES Copyright © 1990 by Nicholas Royle. Originally published in
Interzone
No.35, May 1990. Reprinted by permission of the author.
1/72ND SCALE Copyright © 1990 by Terminus Publishing Co., Inc. Originally published in
Weird Tales
No.298, Fall 1990. Reprinted by permission of the author.
CEDAR LANE Copyright © 1990 by Karl Edward Wagner. Originally published in
Walls of Fear
. Reprinted by permission of the author.
AT A WINDOW FACING WEST Copyright © 1990 by Kim Antieau. Originally published in
Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
, Mid-December 1990. Reprinted by permission of the author.
INSIDE THE WALLED CITY Copyright © 1990 by Garry Kilworth. Originally published in
Walls of Fear
. Reprinted by permission of the author.
ON THE WING (Originally published as “A la Volette” in
Breves
No.33/34). English version copyright © 1990 by Jean-Daniel Breque and Nicholas Royle. First published in
Fantasy Tales
No.5, Autumn 1990. Reprinted by permission of the author.
FIREBIRD Copyright © 1990 by J.L. Comeau. Originally published in
The Women Who Walk Through Fire
. Reprinted by permission of the author.
INCIDENT ON A RAINY NIGHT IN BEVERLY HILLS Copyright © 1990 by David J. Schow. Originally published in
Seeing Red
. Reprinted by permission of the author.
HIS MOUTH WILL TASTE OF WORMWOOD Copyright © 1990 by Poppy Z. Brite. Originally published in
Borderlands
. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THE ORIGINAL DR SHADE Copyright © 1990 by Kim Newman. Originally published in
Interzone
No.36, June 1990. Reprinted by permission of the author.
MADGE Copyright © 1990 by D.F. Lewis. Originally published in
Back Brain Recluse
No. 15, Spring 1990. Reprinted by permission of the author.
ALIVE IN VENICE Copyright © 1990 by Cherry Wilder. Originally published in
Dark Voices 2: The Pan Book of Horror
. Reprinted by permission of the author.
DIVERTIMENTO Copyright © 1989 by Gregory Frost. Originally published in
Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine
, December 1989. Reprinted by permission of the author.
PELTS Copyright © 1990 by F. Paul Wilson. Originally published in
Pelts
. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THOSE OF RHENEA Copyright © 1990 by David Sutton. Originally published in
Skeleton Crew
, November 1990. Reprinted by permission of the author.
LORD OF THE LAND Copyright © 1990 by Gene Wolfe. Originally
published in
Lovecraft’s Legacy
. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agent.
AQUARIUM Copyright © 1990 by Steve Rasnic Tem. Originally published in
The Seaharp Hotel
. Reprinted by permission of the author.
MISTER ICE COLD Copyright © 1990 by Gahan Wilson. Originally published in
Omni
Vol.12, No.7, April 1990. Reprinted by permission of the author.
ON THE TOWN ROUTE Copyright © 1989 by Elizabeth Hand. Originally published in
Pulphouse
Issue Five, Fall 1989. Reprinted by permission of the author.
NECROLOGY: 1990 Copyright © 1991 by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman.
For
FORREST J ACKERMAN
father to all Famous Monsters
HORROR IN 1990
I
T WASN’T THE BEST
of years; it wasn’t the worst . . . And despite the multiplying prophecies of doom from the pundits, horror fiction continued to enjoy a healthy slice of the marketplace, although the total number of titles published was slightly down on the previous year.
In 1990 Stephen King remained productive, despite not having a new novel published. With more than 150,000 words added or restored to his 1978 apocalyptic SF/horror opus
The Stand
and a quartet of superb new novellas collected together in
Four Past Midnight
, there was plenty to keep his fans happy until the next blockbuster comes along.
Despite being dead for five years, V. C. (Virginia) Andrews continued to dominate the bestseller lists with
Web of Dreams
(in fact written by horror author Andrew Neiderman), and Dean R. Koontz was hot on her heels with
The Bad Place
(plus reissues of many of his earlier novels, the bulk of them originally published under various pseudonyms).
While Clive Barker had no new novel out he was represented by a trinity of movie tie-ins for his latest project as writer and director,
Nightbreed
: a reissue of the original short novel under the title of
Cabal: the Nightbreed
; a handsome coffee-table book of portraits and fiction vignettes,
Clive Barker’s The Nightbreed Chronicles
; and
Clive Barker’s Nightbreed: the Making of the Film
, which published the script along with interviews and photographs. Unfortunately, none of these (or even a
Nightbreed
computer game) saved the film from flopping at the box office on both sides of the Atlantic.
James Herbert was back at the top of the bestseller charts in Britain with his latest,
Creed
, about a sleazy paparazzo photographer who uncovers a cult of ancient demons, while the prolific Dan Simmons had two short stories published in limited editions of three hundred copies,
Entropy’s Bed at Midnight
and
Banished Dreams
. Ramsey Campbell brought out two new books:
Midnight Sun
, a novel which drew comparisons with Machen and Blackwood, and
Needing Ghosts
,
a novella which some readers found nightmarish, others hilarious. In the same Legend series Jonathan Carroll was as unpredictable as ever with his novella
Black Cocktail
.