Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.
Best Horror of the Year Volume One edited by Ellen Datlow
Promo copy:
An Air Force Loadmaster is menaced by strange sounds within his cargo; a man is asked to track down a childhood friend… who died years earlier; doomed pioneers forge a path westward as a young mother discovers her true nature; an alcoholic strikes a dangerous bargain with a gregarious stranger; urban explorers delve into a ruined book depository, finding more than they anticipated; residents of a rural Wisconsin town defend against a legendary monster; a woman wracked by survivor’s guilt is haunted by the ghosts of a tragic crash; a detective strives to solve the mystery of a dismembered girl; an orphan returns to a wicked witch’s candy house; a group of smugglers find themselves buried to the necks in sand; an unanticipated guest brings doom to a high-class party; a teacher attempts to lead his students to safety as the world comes to an end around them…
What frightens us, what unnerves us? What causes that delicious shiver of fear to travel the lengths of our spines? It seems the answer changes every year. Every year the bar is raised; the screw is tightened. Ellen Datlow knows what scares us; the twenty-one stories and poems included in this anthology were chosen from magazines, webzines, anthologies, literary journals, and single author collections to represent the best horror of the year.
Legendary editor Ellen Datlow (Poe: New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe), winner of multiple Hugo, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards, joins Night Shade Books in presenting The Best Horror of the Year, Volume One.
Table of Contents:
Cargo — E. Michael Lewis
If Angels Fight — Richard Bowes
The Clay Party — Steve Duffy
Penguins of the Apocalypse — William Browning Spencer
Esmeralda — Glen Hirshberg
The Hodag — Trent Hergenrader
Very Low-Flying Aircraft — Nicholas Royle
When the Gentlemen Go — Margaret Ronald
The Lagerstatte — Laird Barron
Harry and the Monkey — Euan Harvey
Dress Circle — Miranda Siemienowicz
The Rising River — Daniel Kaysen
Sweeney Among the Straight Razors — JoSelle Vanderhooft
Loup-garou — R.B. Russell
Girl in Pieces — Graham Edwards
It Washed Up — Joe R. Lansdale
The Thirteenth Hell — Mike Allen
The Goosle — Margo Lanagan
Beach Head — Daniel LeMoal
The Man From the Peak — Adam Golaski
The Narrows — Simon Bestwick
Showcase Presents: Warlord Vol. 1 by Mike Grell
Promo copy:
Inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Jules Verne, WARLORD is the story of Air Force Pilot Travis Morgan, who crash-lands in the primitive, hidden land of Skartaris. Morgan becomes a leader of Skartaris, fighting to protect his newly adopted home from invaders wielding magical powers and hand-held weapons. Morgan becomes a leader of Skartaris in this paperback collecting 1ST ISSUE SPECIAL #8 and WARLORD #1-28.
About time DC collected these…
Search for Philip K. Dick, 1928-1982: Revised with New Material by Anne R. Dick
Promo copy:
Anne Dick s book is part memoir, and part a kind of detective novel, as she sifts through the details of her life with Philip K Dick, a prolific genius whose books and novels are being recognized as significant works of literature. Much of Dick’s work, currently being celebrated in college courses and prestigious anthologies like The Library of America, consists of a kind of surreal autobiography and Anne’s memoir helps us connect his fictional characters to his life. Philip K Dick was quite a character himself, both on and off the page, and Anne’s memoir bravely explores her tumultuous relationship with this mercurial man in an attempt to better understand him and his writing. A touching aspect of this memoir is that it represents Anne’s search as well.
Anne witnessed first-hand the most prolific period in Dick’s career, a five year period from 1958 – 1964 during which time Philip wrote many of his most celebrated novels including: The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Martian Time-Slip, Confessions of a Crap Artist, Dr. Bloodmoney, We Can Build You, Now Wait For Last Year, and The Simulacra.
Anne, a fifty-four-year resident of Point Reyes Station, still lives in the modern Campbell and Wong house she shared with Philip, a house that was featured in many of Dick’s books. Reading Anne’s memoir will open up many of Philip’s works, revealing the autobiographical material often buried deep in his texts. Biography lovers will enjoy the intensity of detail Anne brings to Dick’s complex and intense struggles. Anne spent several years conducting interviews with Dick’s friends, family, and colleagues, assembling perhaps the most thoroughly researched biography of Philip K Dick currently available.
Lots more on this book in the coming weeks.
More in Part I.