New review of Digital Domains from Library Journal

Digital Domains: A Decade of Science Fiction & Fantasy. Prime. Jul. 2010. c.312p. ed. by Ellen Datlow. ISBN 978-1-60701-208-5. pap. $14.95. FANTASY

http://tinyurl.com/2albbto

From James Blaylock’s eerie tale of one man’s discovery of time’s fluidity (“Thirteen Phantasms”) to the terrible inevitability in Simon Ing’s story of a relationship between invader and native (“Russian Vine”), the 15 stories in this collection display the vibrancy and variety of online fiction as seen in the virtual “pages” of three related online magazines: Omni Online , Event Horizon , and SciFiction. Contributors include Paul Park, Jeffrey Ford, Kim Newman, Karen Joy Fowler, and other writers of both analog and digital fiction. VERDICT The easy availability of fiction on the web attracts a large following, and this volume is proof of its staying power. Suitable for lovers of short fiction of all genres.

2010 World Fantasy Award eligible material

June 30th is the last day for members of the most recent WFC and the current one to nominate. You can do so by email to Rodger Turner or by paper ballot, that must be postmarked by June 30th.

I edited or co-edited three original anthologies in 2009, all of which (with their contents, obviously) are eligible for the World Fantasy Award:

Poe: 18 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe (Solaris)
Lovecraft Unbound: Tales Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft (Dark Horse) -three reprints
Troll's Eye View and Other Villainous Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (Viking)

and and a couple of reprint anthologies
The Best Horror of the Year, volume One (Night Shade)
Nebula Awards Showcase 2009 (Roc)

I'll post what I consider other worthy material in my next blog post.

Worthy material to consider for the 2010 World Fantasy Award

First off, here are my picks --with word count and venue, for the best horror of 2009 (not including novellas, for which I had no room).

Lowland Sea Suzy McKee Charnas Poe 8200
The End of Everything Steve Eller Phantom 4600
Mrs Midnight Reggie Oliver The Fifth Black Book of Horror 9400
each thing I show you is a piece of my death Gemma Files and Stephen J. Barringer 8800 Clockwork Phoenix 2
The Nimble Men Glen Hirshberg The Rolling Darkness Review 4200
What Happens when you wake up in the night Michael Marshall Smith 2700 chapbook
Wendigo Micaela Morrissette Weird Tales Nov/Dec 2008 6500
In the Porches of My Ears Norman Prentiss This is the Summer of Love 4900
Lonegan’s Luck Stephen Graham Jones New Genre 6 9000
The Crevasse Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud Lovecraft Unbound 5900
The Lion’s Den Steve Duffy Cern Zoo 11,800
Lotophagi Edward Morris Farrago’s Wainscot 11 5900
The Gaze Dogs of Nine Waterfall Kaaron Warren Exotic Gothic 3 7300
Dead Loss Carole Johnstone Black Static 13, October/Nov. 5200
Strappado Laird Barron Poe 6000
The Lammas Worm Nina Allan Strange Tales III 13,800
Technicolor John Langan Poe 12,000

Some favorite novels from 2009

Midnight Picnic by Nick Antosca (Word Riot Press) (actually, this might qualify as a novella)

The Domino Men by Jonathan Barnes (William Morrow) (better than his first, The Somnabulist)

The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry (Penguin Press) is an utterly charming first novel that brings to mind G.K. Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday and some of the works of Franz Kafka.

Last Days by Brian Evenson (Underland Press) combines the novella “The Brotherhood of Mutilation,” published in 2003 as a chapbook, with a new section added.

The City & The City by China Miéville (Del Rey) just won the Locus award, which it deserves

Finch by Jeff VanderMeer (Underland Press) is the culmination of the author’s series on the imaginary city of Ambergris stand very well on its own

Slights by Kaaron Warren (Angry Robot) is the long and complex debut novel by a talented Australian teller of dark tales.

Audrey’s Door by Sarah Langan (HarperCollins)

2009 notable anthologies

Anthologies are the hardest for me to judge and I usually stay out of the anthology fray since that's my business these days. Even mentioning them often seems like a conflict of interest. So you may take my opinions of the best anthologies (other than my own, of course ;-) --with a grain of salt). Also, while there were some excellent mostly reprint anthologies, I'm only mentioning original anthologies here.


Phantom edited by Paul G. Tremblay and Sean Wallace (Prime Book) is a fine follow-up to the 2007 non-theme anthology Bandersnatch. This one, with fourteen new stories is more to my dark taste, with some very strong horror stories by Steve Rasnic Tem, Stephen Graham Jones, Steve Eller, Vylar Kaftan, Nick Mamatas, Steve Berman, and Lavie Tidhar.

He is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson edited by Christopher Conlon (Gauntlet) has an in interesting variety of sequels, prequels, and just stories inspired by a master writer who has written some of the most memorable pieces of horror in the genre’s history. Fifteen stories and novellas, the best by Gary A. Braunbeck, Stephen King and Joe Hill, F. Paul Wilson, Joe R. Lansdale, and Richard Christian Matheson.

Gaslight Grotesque edited by J.R Campbell and Charles Prepolec (Edge) is surprisingly fresh and entertaining, possibly because it’s the rare volume that allows Holmes and Watson to be dumbfounded by matters (which is course, the antithesis of the ratiocination for which Holmes is known. There’s much that’s actually supernatural in here. The most interesting stories are by Neil Jackson, Robert Lauderdale, J. R. Campbell, and Barbara Roden.

Exotic Gothic 3: Strange Visitations edited by Danel Olson (Ash-Tree Press) is an all original anthology with some terrific stories by Simon Clark, Terry Dowling, Simon Kurt Unsworth, and Kaaron Warren and good stories by most of the other nineteen stories that take place all over the world.

Dark Delicacies III: Haunted edited by Del Howison and Jeff Gelb (Running Press) has nineteen new stories and a poem. The strongest stories in the book are by Marie Alexander, Michael Boatman, Simon Clark, Gary A. Braunbeck, John Connelly, Mick Garris, Richard Christian Matheson, and David Morrell (the latter, very moving but not horror).

Notable Collections of 2009

Northwest Passages by Barbara Roden (Prime) is an impressive debut collection of ten stories (two appearing for the first time). Four of the reprints were given honorable mentions in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror series, and one was reprinted in #19. With an introduction by critic Michael Dirda. One of the best collections of the year.

Madder Mysteries by Reggie Oliver (Ex Occidente Press) is a very attractive volume from a new press that has, in addition to eight stories (several published for the first time), several critical essays, and “curiosities”--a series of amusing vignettes, black and white illustrations by the author throughout, and a lovely frontispiece painting by Joanna Dunham. The stories are uniformly entertaining and most are extraordinarily creepy. Oliver introduces the volume.

Cold to the Touch by Simon Strantzas (Tartarus Press) is the second collection by the author, with thirteen stories, six of them new, all of them quite powerful and dark. With an afterword by the author.

Monstrous Affections by David Nickle (Chizine Publications) is this Canadian’s first collection, although the stories in it were originally published between 1994 and 2009. That story from 1994, “The Sloan Men,” was chosen for the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror: Sixth Annual Collection. Michael Rowe provides an introduction to a powerful collection.

Pictures of the Dark by Simon Bestwick (Gray Friar Press) is the author’s second collection, following A Hazy Shade of Winter published in 2004. Of the twenty-three stories of supernatural and psychological horror, almost half appear for the first time. The originals are very strong and the collection is highly recommended.

A Blood of Killers by Gerard Houarner (Necro Publications) collects thirteen reprints and twelve original dark, intense psychological horror stories, many about the brutal amoral hired assassin called Max and the Beast within him--a darkness that is even more depraved and brutal than he. Although a few of the stories about Max and his missions have story arcs that are a bit too similar, most of the stories are still powerful and very readable.

Putting the Pieces in Place by R. B. Russell (Ex Occidente Press) is an excellent and very satisfying debut collection of five stories of the supernatural, all published for the first time.

Remove the Eyes by Ralph Robert Moore (Sentence Publishing) is the first collection by a fine writer, with nine stories, one reprinted in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror: Nineteenth Annual Collection, and four new stories.

Mixed-genre anthologies

Fugue State by Brian Evenson (Coffee House Press) features nineteen, surreal, strange, and sometimes extremely dark stories, a prolific short story writer under appreciated in the horror community. Several of the stories in the his collection were given Honorable Mentions in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror.

The Nightfarers by Mark Valentine (Ex Occidente Press) from an ambitious new publisher out of Romania, contains fourteen stories that are more in the weird and gothic tradition than outright horror but the collection is a very good example of its kind. Eight of the stories are published for the first time.

Zoo by Otsuichi translated by Terry Gallagher (fixed: Haikasoru) showcases eleven weird, fantastic, horrific, and just plain odd stories by the thirty-two year old Japanese writer.

Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Collected Stories by Lewis Shiner (Subterranean Press) is a gorgeous retrospective of forty-one stories by an underrated writer who has been writing stories of sf/f/h for over thirty years. With story notes by the author.

That's it. I hope these mentions will remind you of the possibilities and will get eligible voters to vote for their favorite stories and books.