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- World Fantasy Award winner,
2004
- Strange Tales
- 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
-
- Price:
£30/$50inc. p&p.
-
- See also
Strange Tales,
Volume Two.
-
- See also
Strange Tales,
Volume Three.
-
- Special offer: buy
all three volumes together for just
£70/$125.
-
- 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.
- 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." - David
Longhorn, Supernatural
Tales
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- "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
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- "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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- Although Strange Tales
collects pieces divergent in
style and content, there is a cohesiveness in
the authors’ mutual exploration of and
descent into an unsettling and disturbing
arena of the bizarre. True horror grips us on
a visceral level, and settles in our psyche.
Strange Tales accomplishes that
effectively.
- Bob Freeman,
Monsterlibrarian.com
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Page updated
4th September 2009
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