anthology

October 31, 2016

Ellen Datlow’s Tachyon anthologies: The complete previews

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized Ann Monn, anthology, darkness, darkness: two decades of modern horror, elizabeth story, Ellen Datlow, excerpt, horror, john coulthart, josh beatman, lovecraft's monsters, nightmares, nightmares: a new decade of modern horror, nihil, preview, the cutting room, the cutting room: dark reflections of the silver screen

Much as we did over the past week for NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, Tachyon has produced previews from several Ellen Datlow’s anthology. The following is a complete and comprehensive list of all the previews.

DARKNESS: TWO DECADES OF MODERN HORROR

“My Father’s Mask” by Joe Hill

“Calcutta, Lord of Nerves” by Poppy Z. Brite

“The Pear-Shaped Man” by George R. R. Martin

“Dancing Chickens” by Edward Bryant

“The Power and the Passion” by Pat Cadigan

“Stitch” by Terry Dowling

“A Little Night Music” by Lucius Shepard

LOVECRAFT’S MONSTERS

All previews accompanied by a John Coulthart illustration

“That of Which We Speak When We Speak of the Unspeakable” by Nick Mamatas

“The Dappled Thing” by William Browning Spencer

“Bulldozer” by Laird Barron

“The Same Deep Waters as You” by Brian Hodge

“Love Is Forbidden, We Croak and Howl” by Caitlín R. Kiernan

“Children of the Fang” by John Langan

“The Bleeding Shadow” by Joe R. Lansdale

THE CUTTING ROOM: DARK REFLECTIONS OF THE SILVER SCREEN

“Cuts” by F. Paul Wilson

“The Hanged Man of Oz” by Steve Nagy

“The Cutter” by Edward Bryant

“Final Girl Theory” by A. C. Wise

“Lapland, or Film Noir” by Peter Straub

“The Thousand Cuts” by Ian Watson

NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR

“The Atlas of Hell” by Nathan Ballingrud

“Lonegan’s Luck” by Stephen Graham Jones

“Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8)” by Caitlín R. Kiernan

“The Shallows” by John Langan

“Omphalos” by Livia Llewellyn

For more info about DARKNESS: TWO
DECADES OF MODERN HORROR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Ann Monn

For more info on
LOVECRAFT’S
MONSTERS, visit the Tachyon page

Cover by John Coulthart

For info on
THE
CUTTING ROOM: DARK REFLECTIONS OF THE SILVER SCREEN, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Josh Beatman

For more info about NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Nihil

Design by Elizabeth Story

October 31, 2016

Tachyon tidbits (Halloween edition) featuring Ellen Datlow, Laird Barron, Jeff VanderMeer, and Lauren Beukes

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized adam morgan, adam sockel, anthology, broken monsters, chicago review of books, clarkesworld, Ellen Datlow, Halloween, horror, jacob mcmurray, jeff vandermeer, john denardo, kirkus, Laird Barron, lauren beukes, nightmares, nightmares: a new decade of modern horror, nihil, overdrive, short story, swift to chase, the third bear

The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.

Ellen Datlow (credit: THIS IS HORROR), Laird Barron (opionator.files.wordpress.com), Jeff VanderMeer (Kyle Cassidy), and Lauren Beukes

At KIRKUS, John DeNardo’s 13 Horror Books to Put You in the Mood for Halloween includes Ellen Datlow’s new anthology NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR and frequent contributor to Datlow’s books (NIGHTMARES, CUTTING ROOM, LOVECRAFT’S MONSTERS) Laird Barron’s new novel SWIFT CHASE.

NIGHTMARES: A NEW
DECADE OF MODERN HORROR edited by Ellen Datlow

I cannot think of
any single editor more qualified to helm an anthology of modern
horror than Ellen Datlow. NIGHTMARES, her latest themed horror
anthology, collects the best short horror fiction from the last 10
years. Stories include ones where a home invasion goes horribly,
horribly wrong for the invaders…and an antique bookseller teams up
with a mob enforcer to retrieve the Atlas of Hell. Serving as a
companion volume to DARKNESS: TWO DECADES OF MODERN HORROR, this
edition includes terrifying tales by Margo Lanagan, Gene Wolfe, M.
Rickert, Richard Kadrey, Kaaron Warren, Garth Nix, Laird Barron and
more.

SWIFT TO CHASE by
Laird Barron

Speaking of modern
horror and Laird Barron, you’d be hard-pressed to find a collection
as suitable for Halloween reading than Barron’s fourth collection. A
peek at just some of the dozen stories contained herein: a modern day
Jack the Ripper is set loose in a massive apartment complex during a
blizzard; a team of man hunters, searching for a missing B-movie
actor, crash lands in the Yukon Delta where their hell has only just
begun; an atomic-powered cyborg war dog loyally assists his master
with the overthrow of a dystopian empire in the far-future; and a man
is stalked by a psychopathic sorority girl and her team of
horrifically disfigured henchmen.

Adam Morgan for CHICAGO REVIEW OF BOOKS lists Jeff VanderMeer’s “The Third Bear” among The 9 Best Horror Stories You Can Read Online (For Free) This Halloween.

The author of the
SOUTHERN REACH trilogy, CITY OF SAINTS AND MADMEN, and FINCH is also
a prolific short story writer, including this gem that was nominated
for a Shirley Jackson Award in 2007. It’s also the title story from
his 2010 collection by Tachyon Publications. He must really like
bears, given the appearance of a giant one in his next novel from
FSG, BORNE.

For OVERDRIVE, Adam Sockel places Lauren Beukes’ BROKEN MONSTERS on his list of THE BEST IN BOOOOOKS FOR HORROR LOVERS.

Set in one of America’s broken cities, Beukes gives us a cast of equally broken characters. It takes a look at a horror that we’ve all imagined looming in all of our backyards, a very familiar monster, a serial killer hell-bent on ruining the world. When broken bodies start turning up, part animal, part man, fused together in horrific and grotesque fashion, a city of nightmares is born. What’s so great about this one, is how much the reader hopes to escape reality. You’ll hope, beyond anything, for something supernatural by it’s end. Because the worst scary stories are those that are very real.

For more info about NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Nihil

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about THE THIRD BEAR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Jacob McMurray

October 28, 2016

NIGHTMARES preview: “Omphalos” by Livia Llewellyn

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized anthology, elizabeth story, Ellen Datlow, excerpt, horrow, livia llewellyn, nightmares, nightmares: a new decade of modern horror, nihil, omphalos, preview, short story

In celebration of the recently released NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, Tachyon and editor Ellen Datlow present glimpses into terror from several of the volume’s horrifying tales.

Omphalos

Livia Llewellyn

Vacation
doesn’t begin when Father pulls the Volkswagen camper out of the
driveway, and speeds through the sleepy Tacoma streets toward Narrows
Bridge. It doesn’t begin on the long stretches of Route 16 through
Gig Harbor, Port Orchard, and Bremerton, your twin brother Jamie fast
asleep beside you on the warm back seat, his dark blond hair falling
over his eyes. It doesn’t begin with the hasty lunch at the small
restaurant outside Poulsbo, where your father converses with the worn
folds of the Triple-A map as your mother slips the receipt into a
carefully labeled, accordioned envelope. 16 whittles down to 3,
blossoms into 104 as the camper crosses Hood Canal onto the Olympic
Peninsula, and still your vacation does not begin. Discovery Bay,
Sequim, Dungeness: all the feral playgrounds of vacations and summers
past: no. It is in Port Angeles, under a storm-whipped sky, against
the backdrop of Canada-bound ferries gorging their wide, toothless
mouths on rivers of slow-moving cars, when Father turns away from
your mother, thin-lipped and tearful from the forced confession that
another envelope holding four passports sits on the quiet kitchen
counter back in Tacoma. You roll your eyes. Why do they go to such
trouble of pretense? Oh, yes: for the neighbors. For the pastor, for
colleagues and relatives, for all the strangers and passers-by who
wouldn’t understand, who want to hear only the normal. Father sees
the look on your face, and takes you aside as his large flat thumb
rubs against your cotton-clad arm in that old familiar way, that way
you’ve known all of your fifteen long and lonely years, the way
that always sends your mind into the flat black void. Old Spice
tickles your nose, and you rub the itch away as Jamie scowls, the
color fading from his perfect face like the sun.

“Don’t
worry, June-Bug. I know a place. Better than Victoria. No
distractions, no tourists. Where there’s nothing at all. You know
the place. You’ve been there, before. It’s where you always go.”
He places his calloused finger at the center of your forehead, and
you almost piss yourself in fear: does he know?

“Where
we can—you know.”

Your
mother takes Jamie aside, her fingers sliding around his slender
waist as she spins her own version of the same tale. Father winks and
parts his lips, coffee and cigarette breath drifting across your face
as he whispers in your ear.

“Be
alone.”

Vacation
has begun.

For more info about NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Nihil

Design by Elizabeth Story

October 27, 2016

NIGHTMARES highlights the best the genre has to offer

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized anthology, elizabeth story, Ellen Datlow, fantasy literature, horror, library journal, nightmares, nightmares: a new decade of modern horror, nihil, Publishers Weekly, review, terry weyna

A pair of STARRED reviews and a very nice mention for Ellen Datlow’s stunning NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR.

Ellen Datlow (credit: THIS IS HORROR)

LIBRARY JOURNAL praises the anthology with a starred review.

Renowned authors such as Caitlin R. Kiernan, Robert Shearman, Garth Nix, and Kaaron Warren vividly capture the darkness, evil, and fear found in great horror fiction. VERDICT Noted anthologist Datlow once again draws upon her curating skills to highlight the best the genre has to offer. The variety of stories shines a light on the depth and breadth of this sometimes marginalized literary form.

In their starred review, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY lauds the volume.

Editor Datlow has compiled a stunning array of horror in her newest anthology, drawing on new and terrifying leaps in the genre. Some stories are plausible and others are otherworldly and fantastical, but all maintain a feeling of dread.

<snip>

This is the perfect introduction to the horror genre, especially for readers who don’t crave easy scares but appreciate slow burn that lingers long after the book is closed.

At FANTASY LITERATURE, reviewer Terry Weyna delivers this reading status.

I’ve moved from that anthology to Ellen Datlow‘s NIGHTMARES, where I’m back to one story at a sitting, mostly because these stories are absolutely terrifying and my heart can take only so much.

For more info about NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Nihil

Design by Elizabeth Story

October 27, 2016

NIGHTMARES preview: “The Shallows” by John Langan

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized anthology, elizabeth story, Ellen Datlow, excerpt, horror, John Langan, nightmares, nightmares: a new decade of modern horror, nihil, preview, short story, the shallows

In celebration of the recently released NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, Tachyon and editor Ellen Datlow present glimpses into terror from several of the volume’s horrifying tales.

The Shallows

John
Langan

“Il
faut cultiver notre jardin.”—Voltaire, Candide

“I
could call you Gus,” Ransom said.

The
crab’s legs, blue and cream, clattered against one another. It did
not hoist itself from its place in the sink, though, which meant it
was listening to him. Maybe. Staring out the dining room window, his
daily mug of instant coffee steaming on the table in front of him, he
said, “That was supposed to be my son’s name. Augustus. It was
his great-grandfather’s name, his mother’s father’s father. The
old man was dying while Heather was pregnant. We … I, really, was
struck by the symmetry: one life ending, another beginning. It seemed
a duty, our duty, to make sure the name wasn’t lost, to carry it
forward into a new generation. I didn’t know old Gus, not really;
as far as I can remember, I met him exactly once, at a party at
Heather’s parents’ a couple of years before we were married.”

The
great curtain of pale light that rippled thirty yards from his house
stilled. Although he had long since given up trying to work out the
pattern of its changes, Ransom glanced at his watch. 2:02 p.m., he
was reasonably sure. The vast rectangle that occupied the space where
his neighbor’s green-sided house had stood, as well as everything
to either side of it, dimmed, then filled with the rich blue of the
tropical ocean, the paler blue of the tropical sky. Waves chased one
another toward Ransom, their long swells broken by the backs of fish,
sharks, whales, all rushing in the same direction as the waves, away
from a spot where the surface of the ocean heaved in a way that
reminded Ransom of a pot of water approaching the boil.

(Tilting
his head back, Matt had said, How
far up do you think it goes? I
don’t know, Ransom had answered. Twenty feet in
front of them, the sheet of light that had descended an hour before,
draping their view of the Pattersons’ house and everything beyond
it, belled, as if swept by a breeze. This
is connected to what’s been happening at the poles, isn’t it?
Matt had squinted to see through the dull glare. I
don’t know, Ransom had said, maybe.
Do you think the Pattersons are okay? Matt had
asked. I
hope so, Ransom had said. He’d doubted it.)

He
looked at the clumps of creamer speckling the surface of the coffee,
miniature icebergs. “Gus couldn’t have been that old. He’d
married young, and Heather’s father, Rudy, had married young, and
Heather was twenty-four or -five … call him sixty-five,
sixty-six, tops. To look at him, though, you would have placed him a
good ten, fifteen years closer to the grave.

For more info about NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Nihil

Design by Elizabeth Story

October 26, 2016

NIGHTMARES preview: “Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8)” by Caitlín R. Kiernan

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized anthology, Caitlín R. Kiernan, elizabeth story, Ellen Datlow, excerpt, horror, interstate love song (murder ballad no. 8), nightmares, nightmares: a new decade of modern horror, nihil, preview, short story

In celebration of the recently released NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, Tachyon and editor Ellen Datlow present glimpses into terror from several of the volume’s horrifying tales.

Interstate
Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8)

Caitlín
R. Kiernan

“The
way of the transgressor is hard.” —Cormac McCarthy

The
Impala’s wheels singing on the black hot asphalt sound like frying
steaks, USDA choice-cut T-bones, sirloin sizzling against August
blacktop in Nevada or Utah or Nebraska, Alabama or Georgia, or where
the fuck ever this one day, this one hour, this one motherfucking
minute is going down. Here at the end, the end of one of us, months
are a crimson thumb smudge across the bathroom mirror in all the
interchangeable motel bathrooms that have come and gone and come
again. You’re smoking and looking for music in the shoebox filled
with cassettes, and the clatter of protective plastic shells around
spools of magnetically coated tape is like an insect chorus, a cicada
symphony. You ask what I want to hear, and I tell you it doesn’t
matter, please light one of those for me. But you insist, and you
keep right on insisting, “What d’you wanna hear?” And I say,
well not fucking Nirvana again, and no more Johnny Cash, please, and
you toss something from the box out the open passenger window. In the
side-view mirror, I see a tiny shrapnel explosion when the cassette
hits the road. Cars will come behind us, cars and trucks, and roll
over the shards and turn it all to dust. “No more Nirvana,” you
say, and you laugh your boyish girl’s laugh, and Jesus and Joseph
and Mother Mary, I’m not going to be able to live in a world
without that laugh. Look at me, I say. Open your eyes, please open
your eyes and look at me, please. You can’t fall asleep on me.
Because it won’t be falling asleep, will it? It won’t be falling
asleep at all. We are on beyond the kindness of euphemisms, and maybe
we always were. So, don’t fall asleep. Don’t flutter the
eyelashes you’ve always hated because they’re so long and pretty,
don’t let them dance that Totentanz tarantella we’ve delighted at
so many goddamn times, don’t let the sun go down on me. You shove a
tape into the deck. You always do that with such force, as if there’s
a vendetta grudge between you and that machine. You punch it in and
twist the volume knob like you mean to yank it off and yeah, that’s
good, I say. That’s golden, Henry Rollins snarling at the sun’s
one great demon eye. You light a Camel for me and place it between my
lips, and the steering wheel feels like a weapon in my hands, and the
smoke feels like Heaven in my lungs. Wake up, though. Don’t shut
your eyes. Remember the day that we, and remember the morning, and
remember that
time in—shit, was it El Paso? Or was it Port Arthur? It doesn’t
matter, so long as you keep your eyes open and look at me. It’s
hours until sunrise, and have you not always sworn a blue streak that
you would not die in the darkness? That’s all we’ve got here. In
for a penny, in for a pound, but blackness, wall to wall, sea to
shining sea, that’s all we’ve got in this fluorescent hell, so
don’t you please fall asleep on me.

For more info about NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Nihil

Design by Elizabeth Story

October 25, 2016

NIGHTMARES preview: “Lonegan’s Luck” by Stephen Graham Jones

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized anthology, elizabeth story, Ellen Datlow, excerpt, horror, lonegan's luck, nightmares, nightmares: a new decade of modern horror, nihil, preview, short story, stephen graham jones

In celebration of the recently released NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, Tachyon and editor Ellen Datlow present glimpses into terror from several of the volume’s horrifying tales.

Lonegan’s
Luck

Stephen
Graham Jones

Like
every month, the horse was new. A mare, pushing fifteen years old.
Given his druthers, Lonegan would have picked a mule, of course, one
that had had its balls cut late, so there was still some fight in it,
but, when it came down to it, it had either been the mare or yoking
himself up to the buckboard, leaning forward until his fingertips
touched the ground.

Twenty
years ago, he would have tried it, just to make a girl laugh.

Now,
he took what was available, made do.

And
anyway, from the way the mare kept trying to swing wide, head back
into the shade of town, this wasn’t going to be her first trip
across the Arizona Territories. Maybe she’d even know where the
water was, if it came down to that. Where the Apache weren’t.

Lonegan
brushed the traces across her flank and she pulled ahead, the wagon
creaking, all his crates shifting around behind him, the jars and
bottles inside touching shoulders. The straw they were packed in was
going to be the mare’s forage, if all the red baked earth ahead of
them was as empty as it looked.

As
they picked their way through it, Lonegan explained to the mare that
he never meant for it to be this way. That this was the last time.
But then he trailed off. Up ahead a black column was coming into
view.

Buzzards.

Lonegan
nodded, smiled.

What
was dead there was pungent enough to be drawing them in for miles.

“What
do you think, old girl?” he said to the mare. She didn’t answer.
Lonegan nodded to himself again, checked the scattergun under his
seat, and pulled the mare’s head towards the swirling buzzards.
“Professional curiosity,” he told her, then laughed because it
was a joke.

The
town he’d left that morning wasn’t going on any map.

The
one ahead of him, as far as he knew, probably wasn’t on any map
either. But it would be there. They always were.

When
the mare tried shying away from the smell of death, Lonegan got down,
talked into her ear, and tied his handkerchief across her eyes. The
last little bit, he led her by the bridle, then hobbled her upwind.

The
buzzards were a greasy black coat, moved like old men walking
barefoot on the hot ground.

Instead
of watching them, Lonegan traced the ridges of rock all around.

“Well,”
he finally said, and leaned into the washed-out little hollow.

The
buzzards lifted their wings in something like menace, but Lonegan
knew better. He slung rocks at the few that wouldn’t take to the
sky. They just backed off, their dirty mouths open in challenge.

Lonegan
held his palm out to them, explained that this wasn’t going to take
long.

For more info about NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Nihil

Design by Elizabeth Story

October 24, 2016

NIGHTMARES preview: “The Atlas of Hell” by Nathan Ballingrud

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized anthology, elizabeth story, Ellen Datlow, excerpt, horror, nathan ballingrud, nightmares, nightmares: a new decade of modern horror, nihil, preview, short story, the atlas of hell

In celebration of the recently released NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, Tachyon and editor Ellen Datlow present glimpses into terror from several of the volume’s horrifying tales.

The
Atlas of Hell

Nathan
Ballingrud

“He
didn’t even know he was dead. I had just shot this guy in the head
and he’s still standing there giving me shit. Telling me what a big
badass he works for, telling me I’m going to be sorry I was born.
You know. Blood pouring down his face. He can’t even see anymore,
it’s in his goddamn eyes. So I look down at the gun in my hand and
I’m like, what the fuck, you know? Is this thing working or what?
And I’m starting to think maybe this asshole is right, maybe I just
stepped into something over my head. I mean, I feel a twinge of real
fear. My hair is standing up like a cartoon. So I look at the dude
and I say, ‘Lay down! You’re dead! I shot you!’”

There’s
a bourbon and ice sitting on the end-table next to him. He takes a
sip from it and puts it back down, placing it in its own wet ring.
He’s very precise about it.

“I
guess he just had to be told, because as soon as I say it? Boom.
Drops like a fucking tree.”

I
don’t know what he’s expecting from me here. My leg is jumping up
and down with nerves. I can’t make it stop. I open my mouth to say
something but a nervous laugh spills out instead.

He
looks at me incredulously, and cocks his head. Patrick is a big guy;
but not doughy, like me. There’s muscle packed beneath all that
flesh. He looks like fists of meat sewn together and given a suit of
clothes. “Why are you laughing?”

“I
don’t know, man. I don’t know. I thought it was supposed to be a
funny story.”

“No,
you demented fuck. That’s not a funny story. What’s the matter
with you?”

It’s
pushing midnight, and we’re sitting on a coffee-stained couch in a
darkened corner of the grubby little bookstore I own in New Orleans,
about a block off Magazine Street. My name is Jack Oleander. I keep a
small studio apartment overhead, but when Patrick started banging on
my door half an hour ago I took him down here instead. I don’t want
him in my home. That he’s here at all is a very bad sign.

The
bookstore is called Oleander. I sell used books, for the most part,
and I serve a very sparse clientele: mostly students and disaffected
youth, their little hearts love-drunk on Kierkegaard or Salinger.
That suits me just fine. Most of the books have been sitting on their
shelves for years, and I feel like I’ve fostered a kind of
relationship with them. A part of me is sorry whenever one of them
leaves the nest.

The
bookstore doesn’t pay the bills, of course. The books and documents
I sell in the back room take care of that. Few people know about the
back room, but those who do pay very well indeed. Patrick’s boss is
one of those people. We parted under strained circumstances a year or
so ago. I was never supposed to see him again. His presence here
makes me afraid, and fear makes me reckless.

For more info about NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Nihil

Design by Elizabeth Story

October 21, 2016

We’re celebrating Halloween by giving away Ellen Datlow’s new anthology NIGHTMARES

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized anna taborska, anthology, Brian Hodge, Caitlín R. Kiernan, dan chaon, Ellen Datlow, garth nix, Gemma Files, Gene Wolfe, giveaway, goodreads, horror, John Langan, kaaron warren, Laird Barron, lisa tuttle, livia llewellyn, m. rickert, margo lanagan, mark samuels, nathan ballingrud, nicholas royle, nightmares, nightmares: a new decade of modern horror, ray cluley, reggieoliver, robert sherman, simon destwick, stephen graham jones, steve duffy

With the help of fine folks over at GOODREADS, we’re giving away a copy of Ellen Datlow’s NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR.

For full details, visit GOODREADS.

“Noted anthologist Datlow (The Best Horror of the Year) once again draws upon her curating skills to highlight the best the genre has to offer.”
— Library Journal (starred review)

NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR

Edited by Ellen Datlow

“Horror anthologist extraordinaire”
—Publishers Weekly on Ellen Datlow

From horror’s most acclaimed editor comes the most groundbreaking horror of the new millennium. In NIGHTMARES, editor extraordinaire Ellen Datlow has skillfully reprised her classic anthology DARKNESS: TWO DECADES OF MODERN HORROR.

“Ellen Datlow is a tremendously influential figure in horror circles, and this collection is one more significant milestone to be set among the score or so other titles and collections listed in its front matter.”
—See the Elephant

In these twenty-four chilling tales, you will find iconic authors—including Richard Kadrey, Garth Nix, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and Gene Wolfe—reminding us that evil will simply not go away. Two inexperienced thieves discover a residence that makes Home Alone seem like a playground romp. Concerned parents struggle with morality while their cruel child courts fairy revenge. The Ash Mouth Man might be just a legend to girls who wish to waste away—but is he worth just one kiss?

“An excellent collection over all, featuring some of the best voices in horror. It has something to suit a wide variety of tastes, blending stories about real life trauma and bloodshed, to stories that pass into the realms of cosmic terror, horror in the old west and even those with a grim fairytale-like feel. In these pages you will find a nightmare for every horror fan.”
—This is Horror

“There is something for everyone here from serial killers, to zombies, to demons to shape shifters.”
—Shining Star Reviews

“Shallaballah” by Mark Samuels
“Sob in the Silence” by Gene Wolfe
“Our Turn Too Will One Day Come” by Brian Hodge
“Dead Sea Fruit” by Kaaron Warren (Aurealis Awards nominee)
“Closet Dreams” by Lisa Tuttle (International Horror Guild winner/Bram Stoker nominee)
“Spectral Evidence” by Gemma Files
“Hushabye” by Simon Bestwick
“Very Low-Flying Aircraft” by Nicholas Royle
“The Goosle” by Margo Lanagan (Ditmar Award winner)
“The Clay Party” by Steve Duffy
“Strappado” by Laird Barron (Shirley Jackson nominee)
“Lonegan’s Luck” by Stephen Graham Jones (Shirley Jackson nominee)
“Mr Pigsny” by Reggie Oliver
“At Night, When the Demons Come” by Ray Cluley
“Was She Wicked? Was She Good?” By M. Rickert
“The Shallows” by John Langan
“Little Pig” by Anna Taborska
“Omphalos” by Livia Llewellyn (Shirley Jackson Award nominee)
“How We Escaped Our Certain Fate” by Dan Chaon (Shirley Jackson Award nominee)
“That Tiny Flutter of the Heart I Used to Call Love” by Robert Shearman (Shirley Jackson Award nominee)
“Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8)” by Caitlín R. Kiernan
“Shay Corsham Worsted” by Garth Nix (Shirley Jackson Award nominee)
“The Atlas of Hell” by Nathan Ballingrud
“Ambitious Boys Like You” by Richard Kadrey

“[This] whole book of horror tales was rather fantastic. “
—Brad K. Horner

“Nightmares, horror reprinted for works originally published from 2005-2015 is of the highest quality of anthology available.”
—Unnerving Magazine

“Another excellent anthology by a skilled, widely acclaimed editor.”
—Nudge

“Datlow offers another impressive, diverse and hugely enjoyable collection of short fiction… This is a great collection of horror fiction. I’d highly recommend it.
—The Book Lover’s Boudoir

For more info about NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Nihil

Design by Elizabeth Story

October 11, 2016

NIGHTMARES is another excellent anthology by the skilled, widely acclaimed Ellen Datlow

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized Ann Monn, anthology, darkness, darkness: two decades of modern horror, elizabeth story, Ellen Datlow, horror, interview, Mario Guslandi, nightmares, nightmares: a new decade of modern horror, nihil, nudge, podcast, review, three guys with beards, turtle's songs

A pair of fresh reviews for Ellen Datlow’s NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR. Plus an interview with the award-winning editor.

At NUDGE, Mario Guslandi praises the anthology.

In a way, this book represents the sequel to another of Ellen Datlow’s countless horror anthologies DARKNESS: TWO DECADES OF MODERN HORROR which included stories published up to 2005. The present, new volume collects twenty-four tales which appeared in print between 2005 and 2015, chosen on the basis of the editor’s expert, refined taste for dark fiction.

Needless to say, should I ever edit a similar anthology, probably almost 80% of the selected material would be different, but so would your own choices, dear reader, so let’s stick to what we’ve got here. And what we have, ignoring personal taste, is yet another of Datlow’s remarkable collections of notable horror tales.

<snip>

My favourite story in the book, however, is the outstanding “The Clay Party” by Steve Duffy, a powerful tale of desperation and madness revolving around an unlucky caravan of pioneers facing overwhelming difficulties, death and final, unspeakable horrors.

All in all, another excellent anthology by a skilled, widely acclaimed editor.

TURTLE’S SONGS likes the book.

NIGHTMARES is a collection of 24 short stories but they’re not just any short stories. in this collection, editor ellen datlow has once again drawn together stories that not only complement each other but work together to make it clear to the reader that evil exists and sometimes it can’t be beaten.

<snip>

overall, this is a great collection. it’s a little uneven in some places but all the stories deliver.

four out of five stars

THREE GUYS WITH BEARDS interview Ellen Datlow.

This week on Three Guys with Beards Ellen Datlow, one of the most awarded anthologists and editors in the fields of science fiction, fantasy and horror joins us to talk about books, current events and the sheer scope of what it is she does for the field. We only had one hour to talk, but the conversation was so delightful we’ll be having her on again, soon as we can arrange it.

For more info about NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Nihil

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about DARKNESS: TWO DECADES OF MODERN HORROR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Ann Monn

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anthology

Omphalos

The Shallows

Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8)

Lonegan’s Luck

The Atlas of Hell

With the help of fine folks over at GOODREADS, we’re giving away a copy of Ellen Datlow’s NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR.

Table of Contents

Interstate
Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8)

Lonegan’s
Luck

The
Atlas of Hell