edited by Karl Edward Wagner
'The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series XII' (239 pp) was published in November 1984 and features cover artwork by Segrelles. It's DAW Book No. 503.
All of the stories in this collection were previously published in 1982 - 1983 in various magazines and anthologies.
In his Introduction, editor Wagner does a bit of pontificating, announcing to his satisfaction that the 'horror fad' is receding, and
......people are no longer standing in line to see films like Rototiller Dentist or assaulting the paperback racks to buy novels about giant maggots gobbling up Los Angeles or possessed teenagers turning other teenagers inside out. Readers have been affronted by enough garbage served up as horror; now they demand something better.
And what is, indeed, 'better' ? Why, the entries in 'The Year's Best Horror Stories', edited by Karl Edward Wagner, of course !
(Devotees of Paperbacks from Hell and splatterpunk novels undoubtedly will grasp my sarcasm).
So here are my capsule reviews of the gems awaiting you in this DAW anthology:
Uncle Otto's Truck, by Stephen King: in the 80s, having an entry by King in your anthology was marketing magic. This story is about an abandoned truck that menaces the first-person narrator's Uncle Otto. It's a successful enough horror tale from King, one that takes advantage of being set in his familiar territory of rural Maine.
3:47 am, by David Langford: psychological horror tale of a man beset with increasingly disturbing nightmares.
Mistral, by Jon Wynne-Tyson: on the French Riviera, a middle-aged man enjoys the company of a beautiful mistress whose attitude is a bit........feral.
Out of Africa, by David Drake: big-game hunting in Africa, for an unusual animal. A competent tale, if not all that imaginative.
The Wall Painting, by Roger Johnson: an English ghost story in the M. R. James tradition.
Keepsake, by Vincent McHardy: children in an elementary school use witchcraft against their teacher. The premise is interesting, but the story is so over-plotted that it misfires.
Echoes, by Lawrence C. Connolly: a short-short story about a grieving family. One of the better entries in the anthology.
After-Images, by Malcolm Edwards: World War Three strikes an English town and the results are unexpected. Effectively mixing horror and sci-fi along with a unique depiction of growing dread, this is not only one of the better entries in this anthology, but one of the best horror stories of the 1980s.
The Ventriloquist's Daughter, by Juleen Brantingham: a woman confronts her father and her past. Unremarkable.
Come to the Party, by Frances Garfield: Garfield was Manly Wade Wellman's wife. This haunted-house tale adheres to a pulp writing style and would have been at home in Weird Tales.
The Chair, by Dennis Etchison: ahhh, yes, the inevitable Etchison 'quiet horror' entry. So superior to those novels about 'giant maggots' !
Here, Etchison gives us a high school reunion that goes awry.
Etchison wasn't shy about vying with Ramsey Campbell for the use of purplish metaphors:
A rusty tricycle like a twisted spider littered a shadowy yard.
Like too many Etchison stories, the over-effort to depict mood, atmosphere, and setting fails to offset weak plotting.
Names, by Jane Yolen: Yolen was an established writer of children's books, and this apparently was her first attempt at something for the adult market. 'Names' is about Rachel, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor; Rachel is psychologically distressed. The premise is contrived, and the story unimpressive.
The Attic, by Billy Wolfenbarger: editor Wagner was really scraping the barrel by including this entry, which is a chapter from some poet's unpublished novel, rather than a short story per se. 'The Attic' is a prose poem about a man's reveries, triggered when he rummages around his attic. Yeah, it's that lame................
Just Waiting, by Ramsey Campbell: the opening pages of this story about a man who returns to a forest, and the scene of childhood trauma, were written in an unusually clear and unadorned manner........ and my hopes rose that here, finally, Campbell might deliver something worthwhile ! Sadly, however, the story's final pages are so overloaded with descriptions of phantasmagorical happenings that the plot simply collapses under their weight.
One for the Horrors, by David J. Schow: less a horror story than a treatment of classic movies, old movie theatres, and nostalgia.
Elle Est Trois, (La Mort), by Tanith Lee: in 18th century Paris, three Starving Artists are confronted by Death ('La Mort') in its feminine incarnations. This being a Tanith Lee story from the early 80s, I anticipated a thin plot burdened with ornate prose, and that's what I got. But the denouement holds up well enough.
Spring-Fingered Jack, by Susan Casper: short-short story about a particularly disturbing video game.
The Flash! Kid, by Scott Bradfield: Rudy stumbles across an Alien Artifact concealed in a termite nest; there are Big Consequences. This story is a humorous sci-fi tale (it was originally published in Interzone) with no horror content. Its presence in this anthology suggests that editor Wagner wasn't trying as hard as he could have to collect worthy material for this volume.
The Man with Legs, by Al Sarrantonio: Willie, and big sis Nellie, decide to take the bus on a cold Winter's day to a house where their father - assumed to be dead - may in fact be alive and well. Or so it seems.............
This story is not only another of the best entries in the anthology, but a gem of 80s horror, period. I actually devoted an entire post to a comic based on 'Legs'.
The verdict ? I finished 'The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series XII' thinking that editor Wagner could have done a better job of seeking out genuine horror short stories, written with genuine skill, rather than settling for too many duds as part of his effort to promote material of the 'highest quality'.
That said, the inclusion of the stories by Connolly, Edwards, and Sarrantonio is enough to give this particular incarnation of 'The Year's Best Horror Stories' a three-star rating, and it is these stories that make this volume worth searching out.
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