The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, Volume 12 (Paperback)

by Stephen Jones (Editor) "KIM NEWMAN LIVES IN LONDON..." (more)
Key Phrases: lettered edition, yellowish haze, nos feratu, Blaine Company, Orson Welles, Golden City (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
No doubt horror fans look forward to each yearly installment of this particular Mammoth series, and volume 12 should please them immensely. As usual, the collection begins with editor Jones' comprehensive precis of the year in horror, which covers new novels, movies, and television shows, keeping buffs updated on all the latest work in the genre. Then comes the meat of the book: noteworthy new stories from such hardworking and often acclaimed horror hands as Kim Newman, who boasts several entries, including "Castle in the Desert," the story of a man who goes to rescue his former stepdaughter from a gang of vampires, with help from an expected source. In Mick Garris' "Forever Gramma," a young boy is disturbed to see that his town's general store owner is still fixated on the boy's grandmother after her death. In "Bone Orchards," Paul J. McAuley tells the story of a man drawn into a young girl's murder after encountering her ghost. And those are just for starters. Ghoulish fun. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description
The acclaimed collection of contemporary horror fiction, this year's Best New Horror again showcases the talents of the finest writers working the field of terror. Sifting through the year in horror, award-winning editor Stephen Jones has chosen the year's best stories by the old masters and new voices alike. The latest volume of the Best New Horror series features stories by Ramsey Campbell, Dennis Etchison, Tim Lebbon, Kim Newman, and horror movie director Mick Garrick (adapter of the upcoming film of Stephen King's Desperation), among many writers. As a bonus, there is Jones's always-informative overview of the year in horror, making this a truly state-of-the-dark-art annual.

Product Details

• Paperback: 494 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers (December 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786709197
• ISBN-13: 978-0786709199
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #54,142 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Crop of Horror Stories this Year, November 28, 2001

By	David M. Elder (Pacifica, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Volume XII is arguably one of the best so far in the Best New Horror series. Packed with 494 pages of 22 stories and novellas, and including a definitive necrology and intro to the state of horror in 2000, it is well worth a read. Here are just some, but by no means all, of the gems you'll find inside:

Kim Newman continues his Alternate History Anno Dracula series with the short story "Castle in the Desert" and the novella "The Other Side of Midnight". IMHO, The latter is one of Newman's best works so far. Using the narrative hard-boiled detective story style of James Ellroy and Raymond Chandler, Newman walks us through the Hollywood noir of the 1980s in a world where the Vampire has become grudgingly accepted by the human race. Newman's main character is a beautiful, but ancient vampire detective involved in a mystery surrounding the making of Orson Welles' remake of Dracula. Along the way we meet the likes of Lt. Columbo, Barbie the Vampire Slayer and other familiar real and imagined characters in a world where true film and tabloid history become twisted.

In "I have a Special Plan for this World", a story of Corporate Horror, Thomas Ligotti gives us a nihilistic vision of a Dark Dilbert's rapid, but futile rise up the corporate ladder after his mysterious fog-shrouded company moves to Murderville and all it's management are slowly killed off.

Several of the stories follow in the style of some familiar women writers of horror. Two stories, Tim Lebbon's "The Repulsion", and Kathryn Ptacek's "The Grotto", set in exotic Italian settings where the past is ever pervading on the present, display the slow, rising horror of simple situations devloving into nightmare reminiscent of some Daphne du Murier stories. The influence of Shirley Jackson can be felt in Terry Lamsley's superb "Climbing Down From Heaven" where two spinster sisters fall under the spell of their new Updikian neighbor, who is not only very mysterious, but an eligible bachelor as well.

Paul J. McAuley's "The Bone Orchard" is a chilling story in the vein of "The Sixth Sense" and "The Changeling" that takes place in a Whitechapel cemetery. Graham Joyce uses the subtle style of English Horror defined by Ramsey Campbell in a story of ghosts on an ancient Greek island in "Xenos Beach", while Campbell's own "No Strings" reveals the hidden face of the horror of the urban nightmare.

Chris Fowler takes us on a tour of women and historic pubs in "At Home in the Pubs of Old London" with a Serial Killer as guide.

And if you thought there was nothing new to say about the Living Dead, Mick Garris takes Zombiedom to a whole new level of "Schlock" in "Forever Gramma."

Of only two minor criticisms I have, the first concerns the editor's neglect to cite some of the most important work of the deceased in the Necrology (how can one not mention, for example, "Dr. Zhivago and Bridge on the River Kwai for Alec Guinness?). The other concerns the over use in the 72 page Introduction by the editor of the word eponymous ("..having the same name as the title.." Cambridge International Dictionary of English - online) in describing many of the book and film titles: I didn't count, but it was a lot! A good Thesaurus might have helped here.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, September 12, 2002

By A Customer

Perhaps the title of this book raised my expectations excessively, but I found this collection somewhat disappointing. There are definitely some good stories here, but for every good one, there is at least another which is either a) not a horror story, or b) not a good horror story.
First, the bright spots. The best story in the collection is Charlee Jacob's wonderful Halloween tale, "Flesh of leaves, bones of desire." This story is creepy, imaginative, and erotic, and has an internal logic to it which is quite satisfying. Ramsey Campbell's "No strings", is another good one: well-written and scary... Other fine stories are "Xenos beach" and "In the pubs of Old London."
Now, for the bad news. Many of the stories simply don't belong in a horror collection. "The Repulsion" is about a couple who are having relationship problems while on vacation (pretty scary, huh?), Dennis Etchison's "The Detailer", while well-written, is not a horror story but a detective story, in which the detective is a Mexican-American car wash attendant. It's good, but it doesn't belong here. Kim Newman's two entries both deal with modern vampires, who are fully recognized as such, in Hollywood (Dracula meets The Player). These stories try hard to be cute, but play more as Fantasy than Horror. There is also a story (I don't remember the name) about a group of old people in a small town in Montana. The scary climax: an old lady dies in her sleep (boo!).
The story I found most difficult to judge was "Forever Gramma" by Mick Garris. It is definitely horror, scary and well-told. But it is so repugnant in parts (it deals quite explicitly with geriatric necrophilia) as to border on some kind of bizzare pornography.
In conclusion, I found this collection a mixed bag in terms of both quality and appropriateness to the genre. I cannot fully recommend it.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stephen Jones Knows his Job, February 9, 2004

By A Customer

The BEST NEW HORROR series edited by Stephen Jones is the most ecletic collection of dark fiction being
published today.Jones`selections covers a wide range of styles, themes and subgenres : Psycological Horror,
Black Humor,Gothic, Splatter, Ghost Stories and other kinds of dark fiction.There are stories for all tastes
and I must confess that quite a few gave me shivers, others made me think about the events and others
scared me a lot.

Here are some of my favourites with brief commentaries about them:

FOREVER GRAMMA - Mick Garris - 8,0 - Here is an amusing blend of Stephen King, Bradbury's nostalgia
,Romero's Night of Living Dead gorefest and... ( ooppsss!!! ).Brainless entertainement !!!!!!

THE GROTTO - Kathryn Ptacek - 8,0 - Good story about ancient myths marred by an anticlimatic ending.

NO STRINGS - 7,0 - Ramsey Campbell - I'm not a great fan of Campbell's style that seems to me
too cryptic and alusive, but this story about a strange busker with a violin is moving and creppy.

THE DETAILER - Dennis Etchison - 10,0 - One of the pleasures of reading a collection with new and well-known authors
is to sift through his contents and discover a hell of a good story like this one. This story revolves around an ingenuous wash car
attendant that becomes "involved" in a murder. It's IMPOSSIBLE to convey the sense of dread
that Etchison slowly builds using simple words. The Detailer is a masterpiece of psycological horror
and one of the most extraordinaries works of dark fiction that I ever read.Should be ranked with
the best american short fiction of ANY genre.

I HAVE A SPECIAL PLAN FOR THIS WORLD - Thomas Ligotti - 10,00 - I must confess that I was a little apreheensive in reading
this story because some commentaries about the "new" Ligotti phase made me think that his work would
degenerate in crass commercialism.I agree that his style is less tight and literate and his plots are
stronger than before, but this transition didn't marred Ligotti`s knack to show us the underside of human existence.
A disturbing nihilistic masterpiece of black humour.

XENOS BEACH - Graham Joyce - 9,5 - After a failed love affair, man tries to recover himself by vistiting
a lonely beach called Xenos.Beautiful hallucinatory work that lingers on the mind long after story is finished.

THE REPULSION - Tim Lebbon - 9.00 - This wonderful piece of magic realism and quiet surrealism
is perhaps better suited for fantasy anthologies than horror.Tim Lebbon is a major new talent that MUST
be discovered.

COMING HOME - Mark Morris - 8,00 - Pleaseant if predicable story about a man who dies in a car
accident and returns to his wife on Christmas day.

THE HUNGER OF THE LEAVES - Joel Lane - 9,00 -Thieves become trapped in an strange forest whose
menacing leaves with clawlike shapes and red veins running through them seems to be "hungry".
Wonderful weird fiction in the Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith tradition.

EMPTY STATIONS - Nicholas Royle - 8,5 - Like the magnificent HOMECOMING ( Best New Horror Vol 6)
this story about a lost underground London film is wonderfully allusive and metaphorical.
Nicholas Royle is perhaps the most extraordinary short story writer to emerge in small presses since
Thomas Ligotti.

Stories by Kim Newman,Steve Rasnic Tem, Caitlin R Kiernan among others didn't do much for me.