At the library sale April 2024

At the library sale 

April 2024

Earlier this month, it once again was time to patronize the annual library sale, held at a shopping center in the northern part of town. 

With each passing year attendance continues to grow, and on opening day, the lines to get in the door are getting longer and longer.

I made a couple of trips, and came away with a decent enough selection of hardcovers and paperbacks.

I was surprised to see that Robert Sheckley had authored an entry in the 'Aliens' franchise, 1995's 'Alien Harvest.' Given Sheckley's penchant for humor in his writings, it will be interesting to see what he does with the sci-fi horror theme that marks 'Aliens.'

The Alfred Hitchcock anthology is a monster of a book, at 631 pages. It has some entries from sci-fi stalwarts such as Barry Malzberg and Ron Goulart, as well as authors more anchored to the crime / thriller / horror genres, such as August Derleth, Bill Pronzini, Lawrence Block, and Brian Garfield.

'Psychlone', from Greg Bear, is an earlier work (1979), so I'm not sure what to expect there.

While I like Bruce Sterling's short stories and novelettes, his longer works can be hit-or-miss. I'll have to see how 'Holy Fire' turns out.

The 1970 Dell reprint of 'Cotton Comes to Harlem' was part of a movie tie-in. And I'm always up for another collection of Shirley Jackson short stories.

And that's the story of the library sale, April, 2024. Quite a lot of inventory for the sci-fi and fantasy section of the floor, but lots of the books were one I'm not overly interested in: many, many Stephen King hardbacks, Anne McCaffrey, Piers Anthony, Peter Hamilton, Dean Koontz, David Eddings, etc. The dealers usually wind up taking the bulk of those books. 

I was happy with what I got, it didn't cost me all that much, and with my car insurance and my cable bill going up by big margins this Spring, I'm looking for cheap thrills..............!

Greatest Science Fiction Hits by Neil Norman

Greatest Science Fiction Hits
by Neil Norman

DMG Records, 1979

If, by chance, you opened up the June, 1980 issue of Questar magazine, inside you would see a column-sized advertisement for an LP titled Greatest Science Fiction Hits, by Neil Norman. 

The advertisement touted the LP as 'The greatest science fiction album ever made !!!.'

At that time only in his early twenties, Neil Norman was the son of impresario Gene Norman, who owned GNP records, an independent record company located in Burbank, California. A musician and ardent science fiction fan, in the 1970s Norman formed 'Neil Norman and His Cosmic Orchestra', to perform science fiction-inspired rock instrumentals (while dressed in costumes mingling both glam, and science fiction, stylings). 

In 1979 Norman and his band released Greatest Science Fiction Hits as a GNP production on its DMG Records label. 

The album focused on covers of instrumental tracks from such well-known films as Moonraker, Alien, and Superman, as well as original compositions by Les Baxter, who scored horror films for American International Pictures. While Moonraker, Star Trek and Close Encounters receive a straightforward disco sensibility, Norman's treatment of the Star Wars theme has a marching-band arrangement that works quite well in evoking a martial atmosphere. 

Norman's rendition of the theme for Space 1999 not only incorporates the chucka-whucka rhythms of Isaac Hayes's theme from Shaft, but the quintessential seventies guitar affectation, the 'wah wah' pedal. For the theme from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, 'Also Sprach Zarathustra', Norman leads with an orchestral treatment, before segueing into a disco beat overlaid with an unrestrained guitar solo.

It's all available for your nostalgia, and listening appreciation, at this link to Rumble. Complete with all the scratches and pops and crackles that made vinyl so special, way back in 1979. Enjoy !

(A CD of the album is available from the GNP Records website).

Book Review: The Encyclopedia of Horror

Book Review: 'The Encyclopedia of Horror' edited by Richard Davis

2 / 5 Stars

'The Encyclopedia of Horror' first was published in 1981 by Octopus Books. This large trade paperback edition (192 pp.) was issued by Hamlyn in the UK 1987.

Richard Davis (1945-2005) was a major editor and advocate for horror fiction in the UK, editing the seminal 'Year Best Horror Stories' series in both Britain and the U.S. 

I had high hopes for this book, as usually these UK volumes on pop culture feature high quality illustrations, and tiny-type, informative text written by acknowledged experts in the field. Unfortunately, 'The Encyclopedia of Horror' falls short of its aims.

While some of the illustrations indeed are of high quality, many of the black and white movie stills used in the book have been tinted with pink or red colors. Others have selected features retouched (below). All of this is distracting and gimmicky.

The book is made up of chapters devoted to prominent aspects of horror media, as it stood in 1981. Thus we get Frankenstein; vampires and werewolves; the Devil and Satan; ghosts ('The Supernatural'); and zombies ('The Undead'). A final chapter, 'Travelling Beyond', covers sci-fi.

Inevitably, the contributions to the Encyclopedia suffer from the overly wide scope of the book. There is only so much space that can be devoted to each topic, and thus the contributors are pretty much left to shape their chapters according to their own attitudes about what is noteworthy. Thus, the book is something of a hodgepodge in terms of depth of coverage.

As a result, Tom Hutchinson in his chapter on 'Evil Monsters', which is intended as an overview of the phenomenon of horror, winds up expatiating on the trope of the monster from the era of Western mythology, up to the movie Alien. His overview focuses too much on philosophical and psychological analyses to be effective.

The chapters on Frankenstein, and vampires and werewolves, are a bit more engaging, but their authors (Michel Perry and Basil Copper, respectively) can really do no more than provide a superficial recitation of the vast body of books and films dealing with these subjects.

'The Supernatural', by Michael Ashley, is perhaps the best chapter in the book. Ashley wisely decides to concentrate on something manageable, and that is supernatural fiction from Geoffrey Chaucer all the way up to the late 1970s, and the works of Robert Aickman and Ramsey Campbell. While there probably isn't much here that will be new to aficionados of the genre, newcomers will find this chapter to be informative. 

Douglas Hills' chapter on horror in science fiction, 'The Beyond', is competent, but like much of the other contributions to the Encyclopedia can't do much more than provide a skimming of the large amount of relevant media.

'The Encyclopedia of Horror' concludes with two appendices. One provides an essay on horror comic books, most of these published in the USA. There is a comic book cover gallery and a listing of titles. The second appendix lists the more prominent horror films issued up to 1980.

Summing up, 'The Encyclopedia of Horror' is one of those volumes that by its very nature arguably was predestined to fail. I can't see it offering enough novelty and insight to be of value to the serious fan of horror in films and print media. I do think it could be of value to those new to the horror genre, albeit with an acknowledgement that its 1981 publication date makes it necessarily dated. Accordingly, I'm fine with assigning the book a Two Star Rating.

Book Review: The Dragons of Heorot

Book Review: 'The Dragons of Heorot' by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes

1 / 5 Stars

‘The Dragons of Heorot’ was published by Orbit Books (U.K.) in 1996. The cover illustration is by Fred Gambino. 

Given the title ‘Beowulf’s Children’ in the U.S., this is the second volume in the so-called ‘Heorot’ series, the first being ‘The Legacy of Heorot’ (1987), and the third being ‘Starborn and Godsons’ (2020).

[ My review of ‘The Legacy of Heorot’ is posted here. ]

‘Dragons’ is set twenty years after the events of ‘Legacy’. Having secured their island redoubt, Camelot, from the hostile life forms indigenous to the planet Avalon, our multi-ethnic, sexually liberated team of colonists have set up a safe and prosperous society that fulfills the dreams and wishes of everyone who agreed to place themselves in cryosleep for a one-way trip to colonize the stars.

However, as the novel opens, discontent is rising among the 280 sons and daughters – known portentously as the ‘Star Born’ – of the colonists. Smart, physically impressive, and ambitious, the Star Born chafe at their elders’ prohibitions against setting up colonies on the mainland of Avalon. Whiling away their time with orgies, glorified boy scout camping trips, surfing, and pranking the old folks, is only increasing the impatience of the Star Born and their de facto leader, a golden boy named Aaron Tragon.

Cadmann Weyland, the hero of ‘Legacy’ and the embodiment of the legendary Beowulf, now is older and a little wiser, but still the authority figure in the colony. Weyland is willing to allow the Star Born greater autonomy in setting up operations on the mainland, but the collective trauma the colonists suffered at the hands of the monsters causes them to overmanage these efforts, angering Tragon and his followers. 

But even as tensions between the Star Born and their parents threaten to give rise to overt violence, the wildlife of Avalon presents a new danger to the Earthmen who thought they had tamed an alien world………. 

‘The Dragons of Heorot’ is a mediocre book. I had to struggle to get through it.

I gave ‘The Legacy of Heorot’ four stars, because it was a well-plotted, action-adventure sci-fi novel with touches of horror. I was rooting for the monsters all throughout the novel (which probably was not the authors’ intentions) and while the colonists won in the end, there was a sufficiently high body count that I was satisfied that the monsters got their due.

‘Dragons’ suffers in comparison. Its length of 594 pages works against it, because the authors fail to provide a single, focused narrative as they did in ‘Legacy’. ‘Dragons’ is not an action novel but a world-building novel, meandering and scattered. 

For example, there is exposition on the cultivation, processing, and consumption of coffee on Avalon. There are lengthy passages describing efforts to convert the indigenous herbivores into the equivalent of pack animals. There are passages that provide ‘first person’ insights into the thinking and behavior of one of the monsters. And the presence of much bed-swapping triggers plentiful soap opera-style melodramas. 

The monsters don’t make an appearance until nearly 200 pages into the novel, and then, only in a brief and cryptic fashion. Afterwards, they primarily stay offstage, emerging every now and then to lend some brief momentum to an otherwise dull narrative.

The book’s denouement, which commences on page 532, is lumbering, obtuse, and seemed to take forever to unfold, probably the result of being having to accommodate ingredients from three authors. It is gratifying in that the monsters finally get do so some crunching and munching on the colonists, but it seemed a thin reward for having to plow through the preceding chapters.

For a book published in 1995, the prose in ‘Dragons’ reads as if it was composed in the 1970s. Dialogue is wooden, and segments detailing the emotional and psychological conflicts of the lead characters have a trite quality that indicates that Niven and Pournelle were not all that motivated to try and emulate the advances in the qualities of sci-fi prose brought about by the New Wave era and the cyberpunks.

The verdict ? I finished ‘The Dragons of Heorot’ with no interest in pursuing the final volume in the series. 

‘Dragons’ mainly will appeal to those who are keenly interested in the fate of the protagonists in ‘The Legacy of Heorot’. All others can pass on this novel.

Book Review: The High Crusade

Book Review: 'The High Crusade' by Poul Anderson

3 / 5 Stars

'The High Crusade' first was published in 1960 in hardcover by Doubleday. That same year it was serialized in Astounding / Analog. It has been issued in mass-market paperback format since 1962. My copy of the novel was published by Berkley Books in March, 1978, with the cover artist uncredited.

The novel opens in 1345 in the English countryside. Sir Roger de Tourneville of Ansby has assembled his soldiers for participation in King Edward the Third's campaign in France. As the troops await orders and occupy themselves with drinking, wenching, and squabbling in Ansby's muddy streets, suddenly a spaceship descends from the sky. Blue-skinned, humanoid aliens - known as the Wersgorix -  step out of the airlock and immediately try to intimidate the assembled throng. This proves to be a mistake, as the English archers respond........and the aliens are cut down. 

In due course, assisted by the first-person narrator, Brother Parvus, Sir Roger takes possession of the craft, piles his soldiers, their wives, and livestock on board, and orders the alien pilot, Branithar, to fly all of them to France. This is to be the first step on Sir Roger's crusade to introduce the beneficence of English rule to those otherwise disinclined to accept it.

Although forced to operate the ship under duress, Branithar is not stupid, and he sets the autopilot for the star system ruled by the Wersgorix Federation. Once Sir Roger, Brother Parvus, and the noblemen of Castle Ansby realize what has taken place, it is too late to intervene and the party finds themselves set down on Tharixan, an Earth-like planet where the Wersgor hold the populace in thrall. 

The remainder of the novel relates the adventures of Sir Roger and his compatriots as they confront the Wersgor, who are dumbfounded that a tribe of medieval humans should have the audacity to defy the Wersgor's military capabilities. But as the aliens are to discover, beneath his primitive exterior, Sir Roger has a cunning and calculating mind, one that will serve him well in the conflict with the Wersgor forces on Tharixan. Well enough, to eventually mount a challenge to the Federation itself........

Poul Anderson was one of the more capable science fiction and fantasy authors of the postwar era. While Anderson wrote for a living and certainly was prolific, he was as good as, if not a better, prose writer than many of his contemporaries (such as Isaac Asimov, Murray Leinster, Clifford Simak, and Keith Laumer, among others) and 'The High Crusade' is a competent example of sci-fi on the cusp of the New Wave.  

In a novel that only is 167 pages in length, Anderson keeps his characterization concise, his dialogue believable, and the action flowing. The novel is in many ways a satirical / comedic portrayal of technologically superior aliens stymied by the craftiness of the enterprising Terrans, but it does have moments of pathos that keep it from getting overly glib.

The verdict ? 'The HIgh Crusade' retains its status as one of the better sci-fi novels of the early 1960s and while I wouldn't necessarily recommend searching it out, if you're in a secondhand book shop and see a copy, it's worth picking up.

Night and the Enemy

Night and the Enemy

by Harlan Ellison and Ken Steacy

'Night and the Enemy' was a collection of comics, graphics, and illustrated text bundled into an 81-page graphic novel from independent comics publisher Comico, and released in November 1987. 

The stories in 'Night' were adapted from the so-called 'Earth-Kyba' stories Ellison published from 1956 to 1987.

The Comico edition of 'Night and the Enemy' is long out of print, so Ellison enthusiasts were pleased when, in 2015, a trade paperback reprint edition (85 pp.) was issued from Dover. The 2015 edition reprints the entirety of the 1987 volume, and includes some ancillary material in the form of an 'Afterward and Pictures' section.

Canadian artist Ken Steacy (b. 1955) teamed up with Dean Motter to produce the comic, and later graphic novel, of 'The Sacred and the Profane' in the mid-1980s, so he was familiar with the process of composing and rendering science fiction content.

The stories in 'Night and the Enemy' all display Steacy's distinctive art style, both in color, and in black-and-white. Rather than speech balloons, dialogue is presented in a minimalist manner, as typeface with tails to indicate who is speaking.

As I noted in my review of 'The Sacred and the Profane', Steacy is not a traditional comic book artist in the sense of using art that lends itself to dynamic action. The artwork in 'Night and the Enemy' has a static quality, even in scenes of action, and while this works well for some of the stories, it is less effective in others. But the reader is invited to view the book and make their own judgments.

As for Ellison's writing, the Earth-Kyba stories were intended, in that inimitable Harlan Ellison style, to be vigorous repudiations of the sci-fi ideology of the postwar era, where virtuous Terrans battled malevolent alien invaders and won a noble victory. The tales in 'Night and the Enemy' avoid jingoism and remind us all, in a blunt way, that War is Hell.

There are a couple short stories included in 'Night and the Enemy'. 'Trojan Hearse' is a two-pager that gets the job done, while 'The Few, the Proud' takes the theme of the war hero and subverts it with a particularly caustic, 'surprise' ending.

Summing up, 'Night and the Enemy' is one of the better efforts to mingle Ellison's text with graphic art. It's on par with 'The Illustrated Harlan Ellison' from 1978, and superior to the comic book series 'Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor' from 1996. So, if you're an Ellison fan, you'll want to have a copy of 'Night and the Enemy' in your library. 

Book Review: Crystal Express

Book Review: 'Crystal Express' by Bruce Sterling

5 / 5 Stars

'Crystal Express' (278 pp.) was issued by Ace Books in December 1990. The cover illustration (fractals were very 'in' as a design theme in the early 1990s) is by Ian Entwistle.

This book is an anthology of short stories Sterling published over the interval from 1982 to 1987, in magazines and books such as Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Interzone, and Universe.

The initial five entries in 'Crystal' are stories set in Sterling's  far-future Shaper / Mechanist universe, in which mankind - split into two adversarial factions - tries to find a place in a galaxy dominated by alien races and their advanced technologies. 'Swarm' (1982), the inaugural story in the Shaper franchise, features an imaginative treatment of an alien hive society, while 'Spider Rose' (1982) pits the eponymous protagonist, who possesses a unique alien artifact, against malevolent Shapers. 

The 1983 novelette 'Cicada Queen' deals with political intrigues between the factions, with a project to terraform Mars hanging in the balance. The terraforming project is the topic of the 1984 story 'Sunken Gardens'. 'Twenty Evocations' (1984) uses a series of vignettes to recount the life and times of a Shaper named Nikolai Leng.

I find the Shaper stories to be interesting, if over-written, science fiction pieces. There are simply too many concepts, wordsmithings, and story beats competing for limited text space. 

That said, these stories are as good as, if not better than, contemporaneous material from more recognized writers like John Varley. The early 1980s were a relentlessly staid period when it came to 'hard' science fiction, with editors and publishers focusing on churning out duds from bankable authors like Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Frederik Pohl, and Asimov. So Sterling's contributions to the field certainly injected a degree of innovation into the scene.

Moving on through 'Crystal', there are three stories, although not labeled as such, that represent what now is regarded as cyberpunk. 

'Green Days in Brunei' (1985) is a very readable novelette, set in a near-future southeast Asia, where engineer and hacker Turner Choi is charged with reviving the national economy of an impoverished Brunei. 'Spook' (1983) is about a political operative sent to destroy an anti-globalist rebellion. It has a cynical edge to it that places the story in the harder-edged realm of cyberpunk, and thus can be said to lie in William Gibson territory. 

'The Beautiful and the Sublime' (1986) resides firmly in Sterling's more genial approach to plotting and characters. There are no casualties, but much drawing-room machinations by social butterflies who like manipulating the wealthy.

The collection closes with stories set in past eras. These tend to have a subdued, ruminative quality. 'Telliamed' (1984) is about an 18th century French 'natural philosopher' who triggers the final conflict between the Age of Myth and Legend, and the Age of Enlightenment. 'The Little Magic Shop' (1987) comes across as a Roald Dahl-ish story in its treatment of an age-defying entrepreneur named James Abernathy.

'Flowers of Edo' (1987) relates the adventures of two Japanese men coping with the disruption to their society caused by the arrival of new technologies and ideas from the West. 'Dinner in Audoghast' (1985) sees a group of dissipated merchants and traders, residing in what at that time was the prosperous city of Aoudaghost in 11th century Mauritania, confronting a prophecy of doom and desolation.

In his zine Cheap Truth, Sterling had this to say about science fiction in the early 1980s: "American sf lies in a reptilian torpor". It was a depressing, but accurate statement.

When comparing the short stories in 'Crystal Express' with those published by the more well-publicized mainstream science fiction authors in the 1980s, it's clear that Sterling and the cyberpunks were updating and improving the genre, sometimes in small ways, sometimes in larger ways. The contents of 'Crystal Express' can be seen as examples of the storytelling the cyberpunks used to revitalize science fiction. 

'Crystal Express' is deserving of a Five Star Rating. 

My top 22 horror short stories, October 2023

 October 2023 is Spooky StORIES MOnth 
at the PORPOR BOOKS BLOG !

My Top 22 Horror Short Stories
October 2023 

I've been reading horror stories since 1970, when I was 9 years old and I saw a copy of Alfred Hitchcock's Monster Museum (Random House, 1965) on the shelf of my grammar school library. 

While most of the stories in the book were rather tame - it was aimed at an audience of juvenile Baby Boomers, after all - Joseph Payne Brennan's story 'Slime' immediately gripped my attention, and from then on, my interest in the genre began, and has lasted since.

After some contemplation, I've decided to stand forth with a list of 22 short stories that in my humble opinion are the better ones I've encountered in 50 years of reading all manner of horror fiction. Since it's the interval covered by this blog, I've concentrated on stories that first saw print from the 1960s into the mid-1990s. 

I've posted a brief, one-sentence synopsis for each story, to jog memories or to give the reader a sense of what to expect.

One problem with focusing on such stories is that in many instances the books where they first appeared long are out of print, and copies in good condition have steep asking prices. Accordingly, where available, I've tried to provide alternate sources for obtaining these stories.

My Top 22, in chronological order:

The First Days of May, by Claude Veillot, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 1961; Tales of Terror from Outer Space, 1975

‘Alien invasion’ theme, well done.

***

One of the Dead, by William Wood, The Saturday Evening Post, October 31, 1964; Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Scream Along with Me; A Walk with the Beast, 1969; Great American Ghost Stories, 1991

Although a bit over-written, this is a well-crafted melding of the haunted house theme with the anomie of mid-1960s life in suburban Los Angeles.  

***

The Road to Mictlantecutli, by Adobe James, Adam Bedside Reader, 1965; The Sixth Pan Book of Horror Stories,1965; The Arbor House Treasury of Horror and the Supernatural, 1981

Morgan, a ruthless criminal, is travelling on a mysterious road in Mexico. The strange sights and passions he encounters will lead him to change his life........for good, or for ill.

'Adobe James' was the pseudonym of American writer James Moss Cardwell (1926 – 1990), who had his short stories published in a variety of magazines and anthologies during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. 

***

Longtooth, by Edgar Pangborn, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1970; The Best of Modern Horror, 1989

A resident of rural Maine discovers something disturbing in the deep, dark woods.

***

Goat, by David Campton, New Writings in Horror and the Supernatural #1, 1971; Whispers: An Anthology of Fantasy and Horror, 1977

Creepy goings-on in an English village.

***

Satanesque, by Alan Weiss, The Literary Magazine of Fantasy and Terror, #6, 1974; The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series III, 1975

Starts off on a thoroughly conventional note, then unexpectedly transitions into something entirely imaginative and offbeat.

***

The Shortest Way, by David Drake, Whispers #3, March 1974; From the Heart of Darkness, 1983; Vettius and His Friends, 1989;  Night & Demons, 2012

A 'Vettius' story set in the days of the Roman empire. Our hero elects to travel on a road that the locals take care to avoid. An atmospheric, memorable tale.

***

The Taste of Your Love, by Eddy C. Bertin, The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series III, 1975; The Whispering Horror, 2013

One of the better Serial Killer tales I’ve read.

***

The Changer of Names, by Ramsey Campbell, Swords Against Darkness II, 1977; The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories: 4, 1978; Far Away and Never, 2021.

I've never been a fan of Campbell’s horror stories and novels, but his sword-and-sorcery stories featuring the ‘Ryre’ character are entertaining exercises in creepiness. There are metaphors and similes abounding in the Ryre tales, to be sure, but as compared to Campbell's horror stories the purple prose is reduced in scope, and plotting receives due consideration. 

While the Swords Against Darkness paperbacks have exorbitant asking prices, a new (October 2021) reprint of Far Away and Never from DMR Press collects all four of the Ryre stories, along with other fantasy tales from Campbell's early career.  

***

Long Hollow Swamp, by Joseph Payne Brennan, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, January 1976; The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series V, 1977

Another great 'monsters-on-the-loose' tale from Brennan.

***

Sing A last Song of Valdese, by Karl Edward Wagner, Chacal #1, Winter 1976; The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series V, 1977; Night Winds, 1978, 1983

One of two entries by Wagner, who wrote a lot of duds, but when he was On, he was On. In a remote forest, a lone traveler comes upon an inn filled with sinister characters.

***

Window, by Bob Leman, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1980; The 1981 Annual World’s Best SF, 1981; The Best of Modern Horror, 1989

A neat mix of sci-fi and horror, revolving around a portal to another dimension.

***

Where the Summer Ends, by Karl Edward Wagner, Dark Forces, August 1980; In A Lonely Place, 1983; The American Fantasy Tradition, 2002

 

A second entry from Wagner. It’s hot, humid, and dangerous in 1970s Knoxville. Stay away from the kudzu !

***

The New Rays, by M. John Harrison, Interzone #1, Spring 1982, The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series XI, 1983; The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, 2012

A disturbing tale with proto-steampunk leanings. 

***

After-Images, by Malcolm John Edwards, Interzone #4, Spring 1983, The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series XII, 1984; Interzone: The First Anthology, 1986

Another fine melding of sci-fi and horror, this time set in an English suburb. It’s too bad that Edwards, a playwright and editor, didn’t write more short stories.

***

The Man with Legs, by Al Sarrantonio, Shadows No. 6, October 1983, The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series XII, 1984

Two kids learn some disturbing secrets about their family history.

***

High Tide, by Leanne Frahm, Fears, 1983

Frahm, an Australian writer, sets this novelette in the vicinity of the Newry Islands in coastal Queensland. A family camping trip to Mud Island discovers something strange is going on amidst the mangrove swamps: Eco-horror at its creepiest !  

***

Mengele, by Lucius Shepard, Universe 15, 1985, The Jaguar Hunter, 1988

Troubling things are going on at an estate located in a remote region of Paraguay.

***

Red Christmas, by David Garnett, The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series XIV, 1986

What seems like a conventional Mad Slasher story has a neat little twist at the end.

***

The Picknickers, by Brian Lumley, Final Shadows, 1991, The Year's Best Horror Stories: XX, 1992.

Unsettling events are happening in the graveyard of a Welsh coal-mining village.

***

The Bacchae, by Elizabeth Hand, The Year's Best Horror Stories: XX, 1992.

In a decaying near-future America, women have gained mysterious, and deadly, powers. This story has the amorphous quality of Weird Fiction, but laces it with splatterpunk imagery.

***

Shining On, by Billie Sue Mosiman, Future Net, 1996

A mutant suffering from severe handicaps finds a friend online. But you know what they say about online friends: just who are they in person ?