Search Results for: Robert Shearman

Weird Fiction at its Best From a Modern Scheherazade: We All Hear Stories in the Dark by Robert Shearman

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We All Hear Stories in the Dark by Robert Shearman PS Publishing (Three volume set, 586/628/585 pages, £90.00, April 2020) How can a reviewer comment meaningfully on a three-volume collection featuring 101 stories? (That’s right, you read correctly). Simply impossible. Yet this huge, unusual  opus is worth a mention, and a recommendation. First, because the writer is one of the very best fantasists around, the author of excellent, critically acclaimed collections such as Remember Why You Fear Me and They Do the Same Things Different…

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New Treasures: Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Volume Five edited by Robert Shearman and Michael Kelly

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We’re almost at the end of our 2018 coverage of the annual crop of Year’s Best anthologies, and today’s title has traditionally been one of the highlights — Undertow Publication’s Year’s Best Weird Fiction. The series is edited by Undertow publisher Michael Kelly, side-by-side with a different guest editor every year. Past editors have included Laird Barron, Kathe Koja, Simon Strantzas, and Helen Marshall. This year it’s Robert Shearman, author of the celebrated collections Remember Why You Fear Me (2012)…

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Learn the ABC’s of Horror with Mark Morris

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The first four volumes of the ABCs of Horror anthology series, edited by Mark Morris and published by Flame Tree Press. Covers by Nik Keevil and Flame Tree Studio I miss the days of the paperback horror anthology. The great horror anthologists of the late 20th Century — Peter Haining, Sam Moskowitz, Charles L. Grant, Karl Edward Wagner, David Hartwell, and others — curated dozens of volumes of top-notch fiction that kept me thrilled and entertained many a late night,…

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Track Down Michael Kelly’s Year’s Best Weird Fiction While You Can

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Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Volumes One – Five, edited by Michael Kelly and Divers Hands (Undertow Publications, 2014-2018 ) Two weeks ago I caught this brief note on Michael Kelly’s Facebook page. It was 5 years ago that I published the fifth, and final, volume of the Year’s Best Weird Fiction. My proudest publishing endeavour. These are all out of print, now. Could that be true? Were all five of these fabulous volumes no longer available? Alas, it appears to…

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Future Treasures: The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: Volume One edited by Paula Guran and The Best Horror of the Year Volume Twelve edited by Ellen Datlow

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The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: Volume One (Pyr) and The Best Horror of the Year Volume Twelve (Night Shade Books). Both published October 20, 2020. Covers by unknown and Reiko Murakami The pandemic has shaken up publishing schedules, including the usual batch of Year’s Best anthologies. (The 2020 edition of Rich Horton’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy didn’t have a publication date until last week; it now looks like it will appear Dec. 8 from Prime Books.)…

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A Delicious Mixed Bag of Dark Fiction: Apostles of the Weird, edited by ST Joshi

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Apostles of the Weird PS Publishing (337 pages, £25/$33 in hardcover, March 1, 2020) Cover by John Coulthart Weird fiction is an umbrella term that applies to a number of literary genres such as horror, fantasy, science fiction and so on. Editor ST Joshi has assembled a new anthology of weird fiction keeping in mind the various shades which constitute the “weird,” and leaving the contributors free to develop plots and outcomes as they please. The result is a collection…

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Future Treasures: After Sundown, edited by Mark Morris

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Mark Morris is known primarily as a British horror writer with over 20 novels under his belt, including Toady, The Immaculate, The Deluge, and the Obsidian Heart trilogy. More recently he’s earned a rep as a fine editor with two volumes of the New Fears anthology series from Titan. His latest effort is After Sundown from Flame Tree Press, containing 20 original horror stories from some of the biggest names in the biz, including Ramsey Campbell, Tim Lebbon, John Langan, Robert Shearman, Alison Littlewood,…

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Future Treasures: The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2019 edited by Paula Guran

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Usually when I write a Future Treasures piece, it’s about a book that hasn’t been published yet. And that applies in this case. The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2019, the tenth volume in Paula Guran’s excellent anthology series, definitely ain’t out yet. Now, the official publication date was yesterday, so this is a little frustrating. I look forward to this book every year. It’s the companion to my favorite Year’s Best volume, Rich Horton’s Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy,…

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The Silent Garden: A Journal of Esoteric Fabulism is a Beautiful New Fantasy Magazine

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I don’t usually buy books or magazines sight unseen. But I made an exception for the inaugural volume of The Silent Garden, a beautiful new “Journal of Esoteric Fabulism.” Part of the reason was the publisher. Mike Kelly’s Undertow Publications has produced some of the most memorable dark fantasy and horror of the past few years, including the anthology Aickman’s Heirs, Simon Strantzas’s new collection Nothing is Everything, and five volumes of Year’s Best Weird Fiction. To be honest the…

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Sentient Starships, Cyborgs, and Eerie Horror: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018 edited by N.K. Jemisin and John Joseph Adams

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The Year’s Best season came to a close last month. It was a pretty spectacular year, with no less than 10 volumes from editors Rich Horton, Gardner Dozois, Neil Clarke, Jonathan Strahan, Paula Guran, Jane Yolen, Michael Kelly, David Afsharirad, and others. We’ve covered them all, and we close out 2018 with The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018. This is the fourth volume; the series is edited by John Joseph Adams with a different co-editor every year. His…

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