Starred review from November 1, 1999
Carroll & Graf's Mammoth Horror series is remarkable not only for presenting an outstanding selection of the best in horror and dark fantasy every year, but for doing so during a decade that has not been kind to the genre. As Jones points out in his introduction to this 10th volume, "the erosion of the mid-list and the cancellation of genre imprints" have resulted in the "all-but-collapse of the commercial field." Despite the decline, this multiple-award-winning anthology includes a wealth of fine offerings from both new and established authors. As usual, the volume includes a catch-all essay about horror in the past year. This time, more than a third of the hefty volume is devoted to two novellas--yet the space is well used. The first, Peter Straub's brilliant revenge story "Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff" (inspired by Herman Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener"), has won both Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild awards. The second, "The Boss in the Wall," is a posthumous work of old-fashioned horror from Avram Davidson (completed by his former wife Grania Davis). From the Hollywood noir of Dennis Etchison's "Inside the Cackle Factory" to the starkly eerie "The Dead Boy at Your Window" by Bruce Holland Rogers to the elegant "A Victorian Ghost Story" by Kim Newman, these tales evoke the grand tradition of horror while attesting to its lively and innovative future. Indispensable reading for horror lovers, this anthology and its predecessors must also be credited with having a hand in keeping horror itself alive.
Starred review from November 11, 2002
Fans of horror fiction will no doubt read special auguries in this dependable anthology series tallying its "lucky" 13th volume. Like all previous incarnations, though, the book distinguishes itself simply by offering a cross-section of what Jones, one of the genre's most enthusiastic cheerleaders, reckons the best short horror fiction of the previous year. More than before, the contents seem to fall into categories that are easily discerned if not explicitly advertised. Travel to alien lands full of mystery and menace is a theme shared by a several stories, notably Graham Joyce's "First, Catch Your Demon," a fever dream of erotic fantasy and creepy physical transformation for a visitor to the Greek isles, and Ramsey Campbell's "All for Sale," which extrapolates its stranger-in-a-strange-land premise into the ultimate traveler's nightmare. Horrors seem to grow just as easily from the everyday in Charles L. Grant's "Whose Ghosts Are These," in which the ennui of small-town life transmutes into sociopathy; Thomas Ligotti's "Our Temporary Supervisor," which finds a supernatural consciousness behind routines that ensnare the average office drone; and Donald Burleson's "Pump Jack," a dandy bit of dark folklore involving ubiquitous oil wells in the American southwest. A high number of selections—by Tanith Lee, Chico Kidd (two stories), Michael Chislett and Conrad Williams—reference well-known supernatural works and showcase the recent resurgence of interest in horror's classic tradition. Jones's comprehensive summary essay and eloquent reflections on horror fiction's importance in the wake of the international events in 2001 help to make this volume one of horror's best. (Dec. 9)FYI:Last year's
Mammoth Book of Best New Horror won the British Fantasy Award for best anthology.
February 1, 1999
Offering 19 stories from writers both well and little known, this ninth volume in Jones's award-winning (World Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Award, etc.) series lives up to its title. The remarkably varied fiction, impeccably crafted for the most part, is divided evenly between U.S. and U.K. writers (nine of each, plus one American author who resides in England). Some of the strongest stories offer imaginative twists on traditional tropes. David Schow's hilariously mordant "Dying Words" deals with a writer, zombies and the state of the genre; Doug Winter's deft and quietly dramatic "Zombies of Madison County" also deals with a writer and zombies--and, perhaps, the state of the world. Both Kim Newman's "Coppola's Dracula" and Brian Hodge's "The Dripping of Sundered Wineskins" feature vampires, but these novellas go in entirely different directions. Hodge's trio of weird sisters takes in a lapsed Irish priest whose destiny is entwined with theirs, while Newman parallels the traditional Romanian Dracula to his latest cinematic incarnation. With "Words," Ramsey Campbell has dark fun in a strange story involving a fantasy fan who becomes a publishing phenomenon and a critic who resists his sway. Chilling reality-based terror is included, as are several tales that slipstream into SF. The knowledgeable, prolific (editor of more than 40 books) and opinionated Jones's 60-page summation of the year in horror, his compendium of useful addresses and a necrology co-authored with Kim Newman are alone worth the book's low cover price. Displaying the vitality of the field, as well as some of its top-flight talent, the book is, like most of its predecessors, a must-have, must-read anthology for horror buffs.
November 3, 1997
Jones, a veteran with more than 20 years of credits in the horror field, has once again sifted gold from the dross of a year's yield of genre and mainstream publications to produce a fine collection that will appeal to a wide variety of tastes in terror. The considerable number of new talents among his 24 choices as the top stories from 1996 suggest horror fiction's enduring vitality. Styles vary from Gregory Frost's "That Blissful Height," a pastiche of 19th-century spiritualist stories, to Iain Sinclair's "Hardball," a postmodern black comedy that uses linguistic legerdemain and compares a football game to a primitive sacrificial ceremony. Some stories work inventive variations on classic themes: Terry Lamsley, in "The Break," creates a new type of vampire for a hotel resort setting, and Scott Edelman, in "A Plague on Both Your Houses," casts a Shakespearean tragedy with zombies. In most of the selections, horror begins at home, rooted in the most fundamental relationships: husband and wife in Douglas Clegg's "Underworld"; mother and son in D.F. Lewis's "Kites and Kisses"; father and daughter in Roberta Lannes's "Butcher's Logic"; boyfriend and girlfriend in Joel Lane's "The Moon Never Changes." In his highly informative introduction, Jones speculates that "horror fiction is set for a renaissance as the new millennium approaches." The contents of this expertly assembled anthology would suggest that the rebirth has already arrived.
Starred review from October 30, 2000
Horror-lovers have to wait till after Halloween for one of their biggest treats of the year: the latest volume of this World Fantasy Award-winning series. Editor Jones offers his usual comprehensive look at the year, including a quick history of horror small press as well as opinion on its future in the face of an onslaught of self- and e-publishing. The fiction startsD"Halloween Street"Dand endsD"Tricks and Treats One Night on Halloween Street"Dwith delicious short tales from Steve Rasnic Tem and rarely flags between. Standout stories include those from newcomers Gemma Files ("The Emperor's New Bones") and Tim Lebbon ("White"), as well as from veterans like Ramsey Campbell ("The Entertainer") and Peter Straub ("Pork Pie Hat"). Lightning literally strikes with F. Paul Wilson's "Aftershocks," and Kim Newman cleverly explains Edgar Allan Poe and his doppelg nger, Edgar Allen Poe, in "Just Like Eddy." Most of the 21 stories are superb, and Jones again provides his ever-useful address section andDassisted by Kim NewmanDa sobering necrology. A worthy reflection of the diversity and high quality of contemporary horror and dark fantasy, this annual volume remains an absolute necessity and bargain-priced to boot. Buy two: one to read and one to give.
October 22, 2001
Defending his picks of the best horror stories for the year 2000, Jones writes of his "obligation to my publishers and my readers to deliver a commercial and entertaining work that will appeal to as wide a readership as possible." As
proof that the best defense is a sterling offense, he has assembled a formidable lineup of must-read creepers whose merits are indisputable even to entrenched enthusiasts of the genre. Most major horror subtypes are represented: urban horror by Ramsey Campbell, dark fantasy by Paul McAuley, the elliptical weird tale by Nicholas Royle, physical horror by Mick Garris and two nips of vampire fiction from Kim Newman's endlessly inventive Anno Dracula
epic. A major chunk of the book is devoted to tales of suggestively evoked horrors whose subtlety is inversely proportional to their potency. Dennis Etchison's "The Detailer" is a perfect dark suspense story that builds to a shattering revelation. Graham Joyce crafts an atmosphere of mounting menace in "Xenos Beach," which leaves its foreign traveler wondering "if he had narrowly escaped something deeply dangerous; or if he had forfeited some experience transcendent and beautiful." Thomas Ligotti's darkly funny "I Have a Special Plan for This World" is set in a modern office where the atmosphere of tension manifests as an obscuring fog. Both Steve Rasnic Tem, in "Pareidolia," and Caitlín Kiernan, in "In the Waterworks (Birmingham, Alabama, 1888)," use symbols drawn from nature for unsettling reflections on death and mortality. Jones's usual comprehensive summary of the year in horror fiction, film and other media further shows that he has done his homework for the reader's enrichment.