'The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series XIII' (251 pp.) is DAW Book No. UE 2086, and Book Collector's No. 608. It was published in October, 1985, and has fine cover art by Michael Whelan.
This is the 12th 'Year's Best Horror Stories' volume I've reviewed here at the PorPor Books Blog, so I pretty much know what to expect with volume XIII. Editor Wagner has entries from his usual list of favored contributors, as well as some newer authors. Most of the entries in this anthology first saw print in 1984, in magazines such as The Twilight Zone Magazine or in other anthologies, like Shadows. Others saw print in literary journals, or even convention booklets (?!).
My capsule summaries of the contents:
Mrs. Todd's Shortcut, by Stephen King: Mrs. Todd likes to save time in her errands in rural Maine by driving her sports car down obscure, backwoods roads. Some of the places she transits aren't on any map. A good story from King, and one of the best here in Series XIII.
Are You Afraid of the Dark ?, by Charles L. Grant: on a dark and stormy night, three obstreperous boys confront their babysitter. According to Wagner, this story was an inclusion in the program book for Fantasycon IX. I think it's intended to be a satire due to the purple prose (at one point, shrubs cringe under a window), but I can't be sure. Which doesn't say much for 'Are You Afraid'....
Catch Your Death, by John Gordon: two kids in a misty, drizzly English seacoast town encounter the notorious 'Black Shuck.' I had heard of this entity before, as it's the title of one of the tracks on the celebrated Darkness album, Permission to Land (2003). Now I know who Black Shuck is. Who says reading horror fiction isn't educative ?!
Gordon also contributes 'Never Grow Up,' about a boy troubled by his parent's marital discord
Dinner Party, by Gardner Dozois: in an alternate, dystopian USA, on a bleak Winter's day, private first class Hassmann goes on a fateful excursion. It's a powerful story, although strictly speaking, it's science fiction, not horror.
Tiger in the Snow, by Daniel Wynn Barber: little Justin walks home from a friend's house. There is menace in the quiet, Winter-time streets and yards of his hometown. This story is a refiguring of the Conrad Aiken short story 'Silent Snow, Secret Snow.'
Watch the Birdie, by Ramsey Campbell: editor Wagner introduces this tale by claiming that Campbell is "the best writer working in this field (i.e., horror) today."
'Watch' is a 'true' ghost story, about the haunting of the Baltic Fleet, a pub in Liverpool. Perhaps because of its brevity (it's only 5 1/2 pages long) it's one of Campbell's more accessible stories.
Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You, by David J. Schow: a splatterpunk sneaks into a Year's Best Horror Stories anthology ???!!!! This novelette is about Jonathan Stoner, a handicapped Vietnam Vet who finds his favorite theater in downtown L.A. has some.......peculiarities. A story that takes the 'sleazoid' cinema affection of Bill Landis's 42nd Street, and drops it into the City of Angels, to good effect.
Hands with Long Fingers, by Leslie Halliwell: a deceased man's library of Eldritch Tomes is coveted by a sinister character. A competent, British-style horror tale.
Weird Tales, by Fred Chappell: Sterling Croydon, an acquaintance of H. P. Lovecraft, is doing some worrisome activities in a Cleveland apartment. This is a good Mythos tale, if more than a little highbrow (I encountered the noun 'poetaster').
The Wardrobe, by Jovan Panich: yet another story about a little boy convinced that there are monsters hiding in the wardrobe / closet / under the bed / attic / basement, etc. Other authors have done better, with this trope.
Angst for the Memories, by Vincent McHardy: this story consists entirely of dialogue, involving disembodied voices inhabiting a dark space. There is a 'shock' ending, with splatterpunk tones, that would have worked much better had the preceding paragraphs not been so unintelligible.
The Thing in the Bedroom, by David Langford: genuinely funny treatment of the theme of the 'occult detective.'
Borderland, by John Brizzolara: the borderland is the U.S. - Mexico border, where CBP agents discover something very strange is going on in Dead Man's Canyon.
The Scarecrow, by Roger Johnson: a very readable English ghost story, in the classical mode. This should have been included in 'The Mammoth Book of Folk Horror' (2021), but that's just my opinion.
The End of the World, by James B. Hemesath: a family of New Yorkers transiting the plains of South Dakota discover the empty landscape can be unsettling. One of the best stories in this anthology.
Deadlights, by Charles Wagner: another story set in the Midwest, this time in rural Kansas. It's 1975 and on U.S. route 24, something spooky is looming up in the darkness of the roadway. 'Deadlights' takes its mid-70s setting, and does something Stephen King-ish with it. I liked this story.
Talking in the Dark, by Dennis Etchison: the obligatory Etchison entry. Victor Ripon is a damaged loner who finds some purpose to life via a correspondence with the bestselling horror author Rex Christian. Maybe Rex can come visit Victor, and instruct him in how to write horror fiction ? This tale has an interesting premise, but a Quiet Horror diet of figurative language, metaphors, and similes leads to a conclusion that I found contrived.
The verdict ? Somewhat surprisingly, I found myself willing to give 'Series XIII' a Four Star Rating (I usually give two or three Stars to these 'Year's Best' volumes). The contributions from King, Schow, Dozois, and the less well-known authors more than compensate for the duds from Grant, Campbell, and Etchison. The 'Year's Best Horror Stories' volumes have high asking prices in the used book markets, but this volume is worth spending a little extra money to obtain.
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