The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Volume 23 edited by Stephen Jones
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
This volume once again provides horror enthusiasts with an
exhaustive overview of where the genre stands and what new directions it is taking by reporting what books, magazines and movies
have been offered in 2011.
As is customary, the bulk of the volume is the twenty-six stories that editor Stephen Jones deems to be the
best that have appeared in print. The reader should pay particular attention to the copyright page, which clearly indicates
which were the more accomplished anthologies and collections of the year.
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Volume 22 edited by Stephen Jones
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
Now in its 22nd year, this anthology remains one
of the few opportunities, for those unfamiliar with the secrets of the genre magazines and of the small,
specialized press, to enjoy some good horror fiction through the mass market channels, available even at
the local bookstore. For those who follow more closely the labyrinthine ways of horror
fiction, the annual compilation always provides material which somehow had escaped their attention.
The Mammoth Book of Dracula edited by Stephen Jones
reviewed by Sandra Scholes
Vampires are a part of us. They are the dark side within all of us. Who wouldn't want to have special powers,
be able to live forever and keep looking young even though we might be over a hundred years old. Vampires,
like werewolves and Frankenstein's monster have a special place in our hearts, and Dracula is the crown
prince of all vampires. Since Bram Stoker penned his 1877 novel, it has been the basis for a whole host
of writers who enjoyed its sinister premise, the characters and its dark outlook on life.
Visitants edited by Stephen Jones
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
Angels are generally represented as either God-sent messengers or guardians protecting our souls from evil. And
we must remember that devils and demons are, supposedly, just fallen angels. All in all, angels are supernatural
beings bringing either light or darkness into our life. What better topic, then, for an anthology of fantasy /dark fiction?
Zombie Apocalypse! created by Stephen Jones
reviewed by David Maddox
The cleverly designed collection
of short stories, strung together as journal entries, police reports, emails, texts, medical records and
classified documents, tells of a near future London that, over the course of about a month, goes from being
a country trying to celebrate its history in a failing economy, to ground zero of a massive zombie outbreak.
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Volume 21 edited by Stephen Jones
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
The book continues to be the source of exhaustive and invaluable information about
what has happened in the field of horror (books, magazines, movie etc.) during the previous year.
Of course, the core of each volume is represented by a number of horror stories considered to be
the best of the year. The current anthology includes nineteen tales.
The Mammoth Book of the Best of Best New Horror edited by Stephen Jones and Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror edited by Ellen Datlow
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
The last twenty years have offered plenty of excellent short horror fiction, so it doesn't come as a surprise that
the two major anthologists in the field, Stephen Jones in the UK and Ellen Datlow in USA, have endeavoured
to collect the short stories they liked better, among the ones they chose for either Best New Horror
or the horror section of Year's Best Fantasy and Horror.
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Volume 20 edited by Stephen Jones
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
The annual Best New Horror anthology edited by Stephen Jones celebrates its twentieth anniversary
with flying colours providing one of its more compelling and satisfying selections in years.
With a few exceptions, the large majority of the twenty pieces of dark fiction included in the latest volume
of this long lasting, successful series are either outstanding or simply excellent.
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The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Volume 19 edited by Stephen Jones
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
Enhanced by the usual list of genre books and movies from the previous season, news, obituaries and addresses of interest
to horror fans, here's the annual collection of the allegedly best horror stories published during the year.
For the nineteenth volume in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror series,
editor Stephen Jones has assembled twenty-six stories penned by a number of
distinguished genre writers.
H.P. Lovecraft In Britain by Stephen Jones
reviewed by Kit O'Connell
When writer and anthologist Stephen Jones was compiling
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft for British publisher Gollancz, he was given access to the
archives of their communications with Arkham House and Lovecraft's estate. Since Gollancz was the first to publish that
author in the United Kingdom this gave Jones a unique window onto a tiny but formative part of horror publishing history.
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror #18 edited by Stephen Jones
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
The present volume features a number of excellent tales.
Outstanding examples are "What Nature Abhors" by Mark Morris, a superb, breathtaking tour de force of terror depicting a man who
wakes up alone on a deserted train to be engulfed in a nightmarish adventure, and the splendid "The American Dead" by Jay
Lake, a melancholy fable set in a marginal world of cruelty and poverty where a young boy nurses his personal version of the
American Dream.
The Mammoth Book of Monsters edited by Stephen Jones
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
Monsters represent a standard, time-honored theme in horror fiction. They haunt our dreams, lurk in dark corners, stalk us
in dark alleys. It was high time, therefore, that one of the various Mammoth anthologies would be devoted to monsters and
who more suitable than Stephen Jones to deal with the task?
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror #17 edited by Stephen Jones
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
Year after year the autumn brings in, besides falling leaves, a new volume of this reprint anthology, supposedly
featuring the best horror stories published during the previous year.
The value of "best of" anthologies -- where the selection of the material is entirely based on the editor's personal choice -- is moot.
Let's just consider what the present volume can offer to the faithful horror fan
as well as to the general reader who takes his dose of horror once or twice a year from the mass market.
Shadows Over Innsmouth edited by Stephen Jones
reviewed by Stephen M. Davis
Innsmouth is a town that was once prosperous, once important, but that
gradually became irrelevant to the world around it. Mistakes were made by
the original settlers that led to the sea's encroachment onto the land, and
the widening of salt marshes surrounding the town, leading to isolation from
the settlements around it, like Arkham. At some point in the 19th
century, a deal was struck between the members of the town and the Deep
Ones, a race of sea-dwelling, amphibious, vaguely humanoid creatures who worshipped Dagon.
White of the Moon edited by Stephen Jones
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
Descents into madness, tales of crazed revenge, megalomaniacs, pyrophobes,
serial killers, designer psychopaths, places where alternate worlds become
reality -- they're are all here in this solid set of intelligent stories.
The little gore or graphic violence is more than made up for by the
portrayal of the skewed mental processes and associated twisted individuals
who fall prey to their madness.
Dark of the Night edited by Stephen Jones
reviewed by Rodger Turner
Rodger wonders why we see so few horror anthologies
from mainstream publishers anymore.
He believes that most of the cutting-edge stuff first appears in them and in the magazines. Someone
once said that if you want to see what
going to be in novels in three years, read the magazines and original anthologies.
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