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 World Fantasy
Award winner, 2004
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- Strange Tales
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- edited by Rosalie Parker
- Stories by: Quentin S. Crisp, Anne-Sylvie
Salzman, David Rix, Brendan Connell, Rhys Hughes, Mark
Valentine & John Howard, Adam Daly, William Charlton,
Dale Nelson, Tina Rath, Nina Allan, Len Maynard &
Mick Sims, John Gaskin, Don Tumasonis.
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- This
collection of fourteen new stories, representing the very
best writing in the fields of supernatural, fantasy and
horror fiction, will entertain, chill and delight in
equal measure. Strange Tales was the recipient
this year of the World
Fantasy Award for the best anthology.
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- The
stories are immersed in both traditional themes and
twenty-first century anxieties, and range from the
melancholy, folk-tale fantasy of Anne-Sylvie Salzman's
'Meannanaich', to the pleasing mystery of Mark Valentine
and John Howard's 'The Descent of the Fire'; from the
seductive horror of Quentin S. Crisp's 'Cousin X', to the
visceral terror of Adam Daly's 'The Self-Eater'; from the
devastating psychological disintegration of David Rix's
'Number 18', to the gradual emotional disarray of Nina
Allan's 'Terminus'.
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- There
are ghosts too; an achingly beautiful, Classically Greek
one in John Gaskin's 'From Lydia with Love and Laughter';
and the merest fang-trace of vampirism in William
Charlton's 'The Grand Hotel'. Dale Nelson's subtly
masterful 'Shelter Belt' is haunted by a presence that
may or may not materialise.
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- In 'Eye
of the Storm' Don Tumasonis imbues a
semi-autobiographical memoir with a troubling
undercurrent of unease, whilst in Brendan Connell's
'Maker of Fine Instruments', and Maynard and Sims's
'Between the Dead Men and the Blind', the horror is more
up-front: the former a kind of warped, Grimm-like
morality fable, the latter a modern portrait of sick
despair.
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- Fans of
Rhys Hughes will delight in the post-modern pyrotechnics
of 'The Itchy Skin of Creepy Aplomb', and for the more
historically minded, Tina Rath's tour-de-force 'Mr
Manpferdit' brilliantly evokes the eighteenth-century
London (and the secret desires) of Boswell and Dr
Johnson.
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- Strange Tales is a sewn hardback book of
289+vi pages with silk ribbon marker, head and tailbands,
and d/w. ISBN 9781872621807
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- Price:
£30/$60 inc. p&p.
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- See also
Strange Tales,
Volume Two.
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- Special offer: buy
both together for just £45/$90.
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- To read
The Descent of the
Fire from Strange
Tales right-click with your mouse on the title
and choose "Save target as". You can then decide where to
download the story onto your computer. You will need
Adobe Acrobat to be able to view the story.
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- Reviews:
- 'Few
of the contributions to Rosalie Parker’s beautifully
presented collection of new short stories fail to
unsettle or disturb, and yet, as a whole, the volume’s
success can be attributed to the sheer variety of tone,
effect and subject matter.' - Dara Downey,
The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror
Studies
- "Taken as a whole, Strange Tales is one
of the best original anthologies of recent years."
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David Longhorn, Supernatural Tales
- "A
most impressive feature of the collection is the eclectic
variety of style and content, and the way in which the
various tales forge themselves into a collective
exploration of 'strangeness' that is most disconcerting.
As such, it fulfils the true purpose of an anthology: not
simply a mix of interesting pieces, but a cohesive whole
infused with a unifying vision, something greater than
the sum of the total parts. Quite apart from the
intrinsic merits of the stories, this book is, as much as
anything, a triumph of editing by Rosalie Parker. . .
This excellent volume is presented with all the quality
one has come to expect from Tartarus." - Peter Bell,
All Hallows
- "At
the end of this entertaining anthology the reader is left
not only with the pleasant sensation that his time and
his money have not been wasted, but with the reassuring
discovery that weird horror fiction is alive and well and
that, due to a number of emerging new talents, the future
of the genre appears to be bright." - Mario
Guslandi, Infinity
Plus.
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Page updated
1st July 2008
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