Although I love collections of short stories by a single author, anthologies always seem to disappoint me somehow. The good stories are too short and the bad ones are too long. The last anthology I really enjoyed was the Granta anthology on the Fall of Saigon. I just looked that book up and it was published in 1985. I remember picking it up in the Aardvark bookstore in San Francisco so the earliest I could have read it was 1991. Something like eighteen years later and I am still savoring the memory of reading it. That was a good read. That’s the magical thing about reading, isn’t it?
That and the little book pixies. They’re magical too. I’m not really into the book pixies, though. With their dust, and their little footprints. They put on a good show, and drive a librarian over the edge here and there, but to a monster they’re just more competition. Maybe someday they’ll surprise me.
I guess that I had high hopes for this anthology. I like my weird weird, and I like my dark dark, and my dark weird, and my weird dark, too. It’s like two great flavors that go great together. The book is split up into four parts. The first is a bunch of selections of early practitioners of new weird fiction. The second is new weird fiction from a younger crowd. The third is a long thread from an internet message board. And the fourth is a multi-author round-robin story that was commissioned for this book.
On the plus side anthologies tend to offer enough variety that there’s something for everyone, and there were some stories in this book that I found entertaining.
The Luck in the Head – M. John Harrison – Almost a cute nonsense story, except for the death, murder, and decay. As I read this I pictured it illustrated in an ’80s Heavy Metal Magazine. I liked it.
In the Cities the Hills – Clive Barker – A fine selection from his Books of Blood, but I have this feeling like it’s also his most reprinted selection.
Crossing into Cambodia – Michael Moorcock – Is it Isaac Babel who wrote a story where the only sane person in a band of troops was the person who should normally be the most evil, the intelligence officer? I know I’ve read something like that.
The Braining of Mother Lamprey – Simon D. Ings – Just plain weird. I actually wished this one was longer. The ending seemed much too abrupt.
The Neglected Garden – Kathe Koja – There must be better ways to exact revenge on a man.
A Soft Voice Whispers Nothing – Thomas Ligotti – I really liked this one. A man holds winter in his soul and assigns meaning to the ramblings of a doctor. I wish it had been further developed.
Jack – China Miéville – The are better ways to exact revenge on a man it seems.
Immolation – Jeffrey Thomas – Saw that one coming a mile away.
The Lizard of Ooze – Jay Lake – Would have made a good comic book. Not so hot as a short story.
Watson’s Boy – Brian Evenson – Annoying.
The Art of Dying – K. J. Bishop – Like some awful romance novel daydream but with death.
At Reparata – Jeffrey Ford – Entertaining satiric farce. Stupid in a good way and weird.
Letters from Tainaron – Leena Krohn – Italo Calvino’s novel Invisible Cities but the perfect length and about insect-like aliens. Awesome. Nice stomach-turning ending that you can’t think about too much.
The Ride of the Gabbleratchet – Steph Swainston – Another winner. A tour of improbable landscapes made to escape a monster that does not exactly exist.
The Gutter Sees the Light That Never Shines – Alistair Rennie – Very much a video game format story. Street fight. Street fight. Big Boss. A little humor. Another stomach-turning ending.
As mentioned above, the book ends in a round-robin story, Festival Lives, that I thought was extremely entertaining. It follows the adventures of a terrorist, a detective, and a factory worker caught in the machinations of two rival holy men in a weird other (maybe future) version of India. The different parts of the story are as follows:
Death in a Dirty Dhoti – Paul Di Filippo
Cornflowers Beside the Unuttered – Cat Rambo
All God’s Chillun Got Wings – Sarah Monette
Locust-Mind – Daniel Abraham
Constable Chalch and the Ten Thousand Heroes – Felix Gilman
Golden Lads All Must… – Hal Duncan
Forfend the Heavens’ Rending – Conrad Williams
Tangled in the Nets of the Gods – Paul Di Filippo
The round robin is finished online in a PDF that is available on Tachyon’s website.
Creepy Factor: 4 out of 5
Suspense Factor: 3 out of 5
Weird Erotic Tension Factor: 1 out of 5
Final result: Like any anthology, The New Weird has its ups and downs. There’s enough here that I would recommend it to fans of dark fantasy and dark science fiction, especially if you like anthologies. Have you read this book? How did you like it? Do you enjoy anthologies in general? Let us know in the comments!
The New Weird – Ann & Jeff Vandermeer – Tachyon – 2008
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