Gathering the Bones [Paperback]

Jack Dann (Editor), Ramsey Campbell (Editor), Dennis Etchison (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 16, 2003

A Chilling new anthology of all-original tales of horror

Includes New Stories by:
Ray Bradbury
Graham Joyce
Peter Crowther
Kim Newman
Sara Douglass
Thomas Tessier
M. John Harrison
Gahan Wilson


The anthology market these days is awash with small, themed works focused on very specific markets, like vampire erotica and tales of werewolves, or it features best of the year reprints. It has been years since anyone has dared to bring out a broad-reaching anthology that seeks to define the current state of the genre with all original tales from both masters and hot new writers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

English is the common language and horror the dialect in this melting pot anthology of 34 new stories drawn about equally from each editor's country of residence: the U.S., Great Britain and Australia. Mixing contributions from seasoned pros with the work of newcomers and showcasing approaches that vary from graphic realism to surrealistic nightmare and cross-genre splices, the contents resist pigeonholing and fulfill the editors' ambition to portray horror as "a field whose boundaries are no longer rigidly defined and where literary values coexist with the leading edge of popular culture." Steve Nagy leads off with "The Hanged Man of Oz," a creepy riff on The Wizard of Oz that subversively sets the "we're not in Kansas any more" tone for selections that follow. Kim Newman excels with "The Intervention," a Kafkaesque black comedy about a deprogramming victim that deftly balances absurdist social satire with paranoid horror. Lisa Tuttle's "The Mezzotint" is one of several stories that evoke classic horror fiction, in this case a tale by M.R. James, whose plot she brilliantly inverts in an account of sinister deceptions that darken a romantic relationship. In most stories the subtle and suggestive trump the physical and gruesome, such as "No Man's Land" by Chris Lawson and Simon Brown, where vividly described horrors of trench warfare prove an avenue to more awe-inducing terrors. Although there are as many competent but unremarkable stories as there are standouts, this book shows that distinctions of national origin and cultural difference dissolve in horror stories expertly cast from a crucible of quality.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

This big anthology's editors hail from the U.S., Britain, and Australia, respectively, and so do the contributors. Thus the volume could be taken to indicate the current state of Anglophone horror fiction, but that seems as vainglorious as its subtitle, which implies that Steve Nagy, receiving his first professional publication here, is as much a master as arch-veteran Ray Bradbury. It's really a bunch of fair to superb stories that altogether bear out Neil Gaiman's contention that horror is a condiment. Horror laves humor in Gahan Wilson's marvelous "The Big Green Grin," which comes complete with a cartoon. Horror becomes the ultimate antiwar comment in Chris Lawson and Simon Brown's "No Man's Land." Horror arises from inexplicability in Isobelle Carmody's "The Dove Game." Horror is the undeniable aftertaste of Robert Devereaux's devastating "Li'l Miss Ultrasound," a satire on the sexualization of everything and the voyeurization of everyone that for sheer, enraging outrageousness very nearly equals Swift's "A Modest Proposal." And there are 30 more flavors of horror in the book. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 447 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1 edition (August 16, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765301792
• ISBN-13: 978-0765301796
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,877,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Horror Dead and Buried, August 15, 2005

By 

doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Gathering the Bones (Paperback)

This book's back cover proclaims that "horror may never be the same." Well if this predominantly mediocre collection is any indication, that statement is unfortunately accurate. Perhaps modern writers, trapped with the rest of us in our media-saturated society, have lost the ability to be truly scary. Personally I've never read anything more frightening than ol' Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft; and even Stephen King, Clive Barker, or Dean Koontz, when each was in his prime, could deliver serious thrills and chills. But this collection, of what currently passes for "horror," proves that it may be time to nail the coffin shut on this genre for good.

Granted, of the 34 short stories here, there's a smattering of winners. Robert Devereaux offers a quite disconcerting look at our society's obsession with beauty, while Michael Marshall Smith, Stephen Dedman, and Adam L.G. Nevill show an affinity for inherent human evil that's healthily influenced by the classics. Still-dependable Ray Bradbury even supplies a whimsically dreadful update on the Grim Reaper. There are a few other stories here that can keep the reader perfectly interested even if they're not particularly scary, with well-drawn themes and characters.

But otherwise, the majority of selections here illustrate, embarrassingly, everything that's wrong with current "horror" writing (plus the editing of collections such as this). I'll make an example of Lisa Tuttle. Her story features a woman who is suspicious of her boyfriend's secrecy, so she goes through his stuff, learns he's a murderer, and that's pretty much the end. Oh the horror! Aaron Sterns and Chris Lawson/Simon Brown deliver stories that frightfully showcase human cruelty or struggle, only to have stock undead creatures or supernatural processes pop up in the final paragraphs, as unsatisfying explanations for man's inhumanity. These so-called surprises are actually far more predictable than they are scary. Several other tales are so genre-deficient that you wonder why they're even in a "horror" collection, those by Melanie Tem and Fruma Klass being prime examples. This collection is a failure in so many respects that it's almost scary. But not in a good way. [~doomsdayer520~]

5.0 out of 5 stars Nagy's "Hanged Man of Oz" story in Gathering The Bones, November 25, 2002

By 

"doctorkoan" - See all my reviews

This particular story in "Gathering The Bones" has made it impossible for me to watch The Wizard of Oz without looking for the fabled "hanged man."
I'd heard of this urban legend many times before, but Nagy's well-drawn characters and compelling, mindbending narrative has brought the cinematic oddity to life. I'll never be able to watch that movie again without feeling just a bit creeped out.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Contemporary horror, November 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Gathering the Bones (Paperback)

The two stories I most enjoyed in this book, convince me that I am not a fan of contemporary horror. Tiger Moth by Graham Joyce, and the Big Green Grin, by Gahan Wilson, are more in tune with the fantasy genre.

Most of the other stories are well written, but they didn't scare me, or make me break out in a cold sweat. In my opinion, several are simply depressing, (Picking up Courtney, Sounds Like, Bedfordshire) and that is not what I look for in any story. Terry Dowling's "The Bone Ship" reminded me of Roald Dahl's story The 'Landlady', except I didn't care for the protagonist. I didn't finish Lil' Miss Ultrasound because the subject matter didn't interest me. I thought Stephen Dedman's story was interesting, but in the end seemed to be a fairly predictable tale of revenge. I lost interest in Andrew Brown's story half way through, I thought it was too long. Perhaps it is OK to use said bookisms/adverbs in dialogue, if Simon Brown's story is a guide. No man's land, finished suddenly, I thought there might be more to it, the ending didn't impress me at all.

Overall, this is a better anthology than "Dreaming Down Under", but if these tales are representative of where contemporary horror is headed, then it is not my cup of tea.