The Best Horror of the Year. Volume 4

Picking the Bones is by Brian Hodge (Cemetery Dance Publications) who is an excellent short story writer and this is his fourth collection. Three of the seventeen stories appear for the first time, one is from a sort-of-a-shared world anthology that was never published.

The Last Days of Kali Yuga by Paul Haines (Brimstone Press) is the third collection of raw, unflinching dark fiction by the multi-award winning Australian writer. All but one of the twenty stories and novellas are reprints. Included is his acclaimed, harrowing novella “Wives.”

Two Worlds and In Between The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan (Volume One) (Subterranean Press) is, at 600 pages, a very generous helping of this excellent writer’s short fiction output between 1993 and 2004. A must-have for fans of Kiernan’s dark fictions. Her background in geology and vertebrate paleontology infuse her science fiction work as well as her Lovecraftian influenced stories.

Stories from the Plague Years by Michael Marano (Cemetery Dance Publications) is the author’s debut collection and brings together nine stories and novellas (two original to the collection) published in a variety of venues in print and online, beginning in 1995. John Shirley provides the introduction and the author provides individual story notes.

We Live Inside You by Jeremy Robert Johnson (Swallowdown Press) contains eighteen very readable stories and short-shorts of crime, horror, and sf/horror, all but one reprints.

The Devil’s Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs by Ambrose Bierce (Library of America) collects four books and an additional eight stories. Edited and with notes and chronology by S. T. Joshi.

The Engines of Sacrifice by James Chambers (Dark Regions Press) is a well-written interconnected collection of four Lovecraftian novellas.

Campfire Chillers by Dave Jeffery (Dark Continents Publishing) contains thirteen brief tales of nasty things that happen to those who go camping.

Voices: Tales of Horror by Lawrence C. Connolly (Fantastist Enterprises) is a collection of thirteen stories published between 1982 and 2010, with two new ones. Each comes with commentary by the author.

Talespinning by David J. Howe (Telos Publishing)) has seventeen new and previously published short stories and movie scripts by a writer who is better known as the publisher of Telos.

Richard Matheson’s Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (Gauntlet Press) edited by Tony Albarella includes the short story, Matheson’s original script for the Twilight Zone episode, the George Miller/Matheson script for The Twilight Zone movie and storyboards from the TZ movie. There’s also an interview with Matheson by the editor for the book.

Ewerton Death Trip by A. R. Morlan (Borgo Press) is a collection of dark stories about one fictional town and is inspired by the classic photography book: Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy. It contains twenty-five stories, four new.

Published by Centipede Press, Masters of the Weird Tale: Karl Edward Wagner, is a 700+ page limited edition of Wagner’s short stories, with introductions by Stephen Jones and Peter Straub, an afterword by Laird Barron, and new color illustrations by J. K. Potter.

The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares by Joyce Carol Oates (Mysterious Press) contains seven dark stories by the prolific author. One was published in my cat horror anthology back in 1996, one recently won the World Fantasy Award, one was published in 2011, first in the literary journal Boulevard, and now in this collection.

Ash-tree Press has not published any books for the past couple of years but in November, publisher Christopher Roden launched a new series of e-books. Included in the series are collections of stories by Frederick Cowles, H. R. Wakefield, Matt Cardin, Reggie Oliver, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Steve Duffy, Barbara Roden, and others.

MIXED-GENRE COLLECTIONS