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caroldemort's review
5.0
A great compendium, beautifully selected, with the smart detail of including weird biographical intros to the authors. Awesome starting point to find your favorite fiction author
qalminator's review
Note: This is a very long anthology. I'm going to be reading out of order as I pick out the ones on the Tor Lovecraft reread, first, and then, at some point, going back to finish the rest. And I think I've given up trying to choose shelves per story. If any themes show up in a majority of stories, I'll mark those, but otherwise just going generic on this one.
Most recent:
The Screaming Skull by F. Marion Crawford, 1908 [4 stars, 3.5 tentacles] - Enjoyably chatty creeper. I guessed the likely ending halfway through (some might guess it sooner), but the ride to get there was still quite fun. The most interesting question, to my mind, is whether the MC's "guest" was actually there or not.
The Salamander by Merce Rodoreda, 1967 (translation, Catalan) [2.5 stars, 2 tentacles] - Interesting, but I wanted more of a resolution. It's weirdly unclear what's actually going on. The villagers are clearly more horrific than the so-called "witch".
Alfred Kubin, “The Other Side” (excerpt), 1908 (translation, Austria)
The Screaming Skull by F. Marion Crawford, 1908 [4 stars, 3.5 tentacles] - Enjoyably chatty creeper. I guessed the likely ending halfway through (some might guess it sooner), but the ride to get there was still quite fun. The most interesting question, to my mind, is whether the MC's "guest" was actually there or not.
Algernon Blackwood, “The Willows,” 1907
Saki, “Sredni Vashtar,” 1910
M.R. James, “Casting the Runes,” 1911
Lord Dunsany, “How Nuth Would Have Practiced his Art,” 1912
Gustav Meyrink, “The Man in the Bottle,” 1912 (translation, Austria)
Georg Heym, “The Dissection,” 1913 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Germany)
Hanns Heinz Ewers, “The Spider,” 1915 (translation, Germany)
Rabindranath Tagore, “The Hungry Stones,” 1916 (India)
Luigi Ugolini, “The Vegetable Man,” 1917 (new translation by Anna and Brendan Connell, Italy; first-ever translation into English)
A. Merritt, “The People of the Pit,” 1918
Ryunosuke Akutagawa, “The Hell Screen,” 1918 (new translation, Japan)
Unseen—Unfeared Francis Stevens (Gertrude Barrows Bennett), 1919 [3 stars, 3 tentacles] - More enjoyable upon rereading than the first time I read it. A nicely ambiguous tale, that might be little more than drug-addled confusion, or might hint at a great deal more.
Franz Kafka, “In the Penal Colony,” 1919 (translation, German/Czech)
Stefan Grabinski, “The White Weyrak,” 1921 (translation, Poland)
H.F. Arnold, “The Night Wire,” 1926
H.P. Lovecraft, “The Dunwich Horror,” 1929
The Book Margaret Irwin, 1930 [4 stars, 3 tentacles] - Nicely creepy one. It's deliberately unclear what sort of entity is connected to "The Book". Ghost? Demon? Revenant? The descent into madness and obsession is eerily plausible, much more so than in most of Lovecraft's attempts at similar themes.
The Mainz Psalter Jean Ray, 1930 (translation, Belgium) [3 stars, 4 tentacles] - Enjoyable sea yarn. Hints of Whisperer in Darkness, with, though how the thing appeared animate that way is a bit unclear. Weirdly spooky. I wonder if the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie got some inspiration from this one.
Jean Ray, “The Shadowy Street,” 1931 (translation, Belgium)
Clark Ashton Smith, “Genius Loci,” 1933
Hagiwara Sakutoro, “The Town of Cats,” 1935 (translation, Japan)
Hugh Walpole, “The Tarn,” 1936
Bruno Schulz, “Sanatorium at the Sign of the Hourglass,” 1937 (translation, Poland)
Robert Barbour Johnson, “Far Below,” 1939
Fritz Leiber, “Smoke Ghost,” 1941
Leonora Carrington, “White Rabbits,” 1941
Donald Wollheim, “Mimic,” 1942
Ray Bradbury, “The Crowd,” 1943
William Sansom, “The Long Sheet,” 1944
Jorge Luis Borges, “The Aleph,” 1945 (translation, Argentina)
Olympe Bhely-Quenum, “A Child in the Bush of Ghosts,” 1949 (Benin)
Shirley Jackson, “The Summer People,” 1950
Margaret St. Clair, “The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles,” 1951
Robert Bloch, “The Hungry House,” 1951
Augusto Monterroso, “Mister Taylor,” 1952 (new translation by Larry Nolen, Guatemala)
The Complete Gentleman by Amos Tutuola, 1952 (Nigeria) [3 stars, 2 tentacles] Feels more like a slightly dark folk tale than weird fiction to me, but it was enjoyable enough. Skulls rent bodies to be "complete", and don't like being followed home. The daughter being given as a wife, without so much as being consulted, was obnoxiously annoying.
Jerome Bixby, “It’s a Good Life,” 1953
Julio Cortazar, “Axolotl,” 1956 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Argentina)
William Sansom, “A Woman Seldom Found,” 1956
Charles Beaumont, “The Howling Man,” 1959
Mervyn Peake, “Same Time, Same Place,” 1963
Dino Buzzati, “The Colomber,” 1966 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Italy)
Michel Bernanos, “The Other Side of the Mountain,” 1967 (new translation by Gio Clairval, France)
The Salamander by Merce Rodoreda, 1967 (translation, Catalan) [2.5 stars, 2 tentacles] - Interesting, but I wanted more of a resolution. It's weirdly unclear what's actually going on. The villagers are clearly more horrific than the so-called "witch".
Claude Seignolle, “The Ghoulbird,” 1967 (new translation by Gio Clairval, France)
Gahan Wilson, “The Sea Was Wet As Wet Could Be,” 1967
Daphne Du Maurier, “Don’t Look Now,” 1971
Robert Aickman, “The Hospice,” 1975
Dennis Etchison, “It Only Comes Out at Night,” 1976
James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Sheldon), “The Psychologist Who Wouldn’t Do Terrible Things to Rats,” 1976
Eric Basso, “The Beak Doctor,” 1977
Jamaica Kincaid, “Mother,” 1978 (Antigua and Barbuda/US)
George R.R. Martin, “Sandkings,” 1979
Bob Leman, “Window,” 1980
Ramsey Campbell, “The Brood,” 1980
Michael Shea, “The Autopsy,” 1980
William Gibson/John Shirley, “The Belonging Kind,” 1981
M. John Harrison, “Egnaro,” 1981
Joanna Russ, “The Little Dirty Girl,” 1982
M. John Harrison, “The New Rays,” 1982
Premendra Mitra, “The Discovery of Telenapota,” 1984 (translation, India)
F. Paul Wilson, “Soft,” 1984
Octavia Butler, “Bloodchild,” 1984
Clive Barker, “In the Hills, the Cities,” 1984
Leena Krohn, “Tainaron,” 1985 (translation, Finland)
Garry Kilworth, “Hogfoot Right and Bird-hands,” 1987
Lucius Shepard, “Shades,” 1987
Harlan Ellison, “The Function of Dream Sleep,” 1988
Ben Okri, “Worlds That Flourish,” 1988 (Nigeria)
Elizabeth Hand, “The Boy in the Tree,” 1989
Joyce Carol Oates, “Family,” 1989
Poppy Z Brite, “His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood,” 1990
Michal Ajvaz, “The End of the Garden,” 1991 (translation, Czech)
Karen Joy Fowler, “The Dark,” 1991
Kathe Koja, “Angels in Love,” 1991
Haruki Murakami, “The Ice Man,” 1991 (translation, Japan)
Lisa Tuttle, “Replacements,” 1992
Marc Laidlaw, “The Diane Arbus Suicide Portfolio,” 1993
Steven Utley, “The Country Doctor,” 1993
William Browning Spenser, “The Ocean and All Its Devices,” 1994
Jeffrey Ford, “The Delicate,” 1994
Martin Simpson, “Last Rites and Resurrections,” 1994
Stephen King, “The Man in the Black Suit,” 1994
Angela Carter, “The Snow Pavilion,” 1995
Craig Padawer, “The Meat Garden,” 1996
Stepan Chapman, “The Stiff and the Stile,” 1997
Tanith Lee, “Yellow and Red,” 1998 [3 stars, 3 tentacles] - Nice creeper. I would have liked to learn more about the "creature", but the story worked quite well without that sort of detail, and was probably the creepier for it. Man inherits house, discovers a "spirit" by spilling spirits on old photographs.
Kelly Link, “The Specialist’s Hat,” 1998
Caitlin R. Kiernan, “A Redress for Andromeda,” 2000
Michael Chabon, “The God of Dark Laughter,” 2001
Details by China Mieville, 2002 [4 stars, 4 tentacles] - Huh. The only other Mieville story I read was long and rambling, and struck me as pointless and absurd. I wonder if I would have liked it more if I'd gone in expecting "Weird" rather than SF. This one is very, very good. Eerily creepy with a satisfying payoff. Hints of the Hounds of Tindalos, but in a more plausible framework than just "angles".
Michael Cisco, “The Genius of Assassins,” 2002
Neil Gaiman, “Feeders and Eaters,” 2002
Jeff VanderMeer, “The Cage,” 2002
Jeffrey Ford, “The Beautiful Gelreesh,” 2003
Thomas Ligotti, “The Town Manager,” 2003
Brian Evenson, “The Brotherhood of Mutilation,” 2003
Mark Samuels, “The White Hands,” 2003
Daniel Abraham, “Flat Diana,” 2004
Margo Lanagan, “Singing My Sister Down,” 2005 (Australia)
T.M. Wright, “The People on the Island,” 2005
Laird Barron, “The Forest,” 2007
Liz Williams, “The Hide,” 2007
The Dust Enforcer Reza Negarestani, 2008 (Iran) [2 stars, 2 tentacles] So, first, this is an excerpt, a chapter taken from a larger work. However, the work seems to be some sort of fictional encyclopedia (of demons? possibly other things?). While parts of it were interesting, I've read too many works trying to be serious that read exactly like this to really enjoy it. On the other hand, I can see why Jeff VanderMeer included it; it reminds me of Whitby's terroir idea in Area X.
Micaela Morrissette, “The Familiars,” 2009
Steve Duffy, “In the Lion’s Den,” 2009
Stephen Graham Jones, “Little Lambs,” 2009
K.J. Bishop, “Saving the Gleeful Horse,” 2010 (Australia)
Most recent:
The Screaming Skull by F. Marion Crawford, 1908 [4 stars, 3.5 tentacles] - Enjoyably chatty creeper. I guessed the likely ending halfway through (some might guess it sooner), but the ride to get there was still quite fun. The most interesting question, to my mind, is whether the MC's "guest" was actually there or not.
The Salamander by Merce Rodoreda, 1967 (translation, Catalan) [2.5 stars, 2 tentacles] - Interesting, but I wanted more of a resolution. It's weirdly unclear what's actually going on. The villagers are clearly more horrific than the so-called "witch".
Alfred Kubin, “The Other Side” (excerpt), 1908 (translation, Austria)
The Screaming Skull by F. Marion Crawford, 1908 [4 stars, 3.5 tentacles] - Enjoyably chatty creeper. I guessed the likely ending halfway through (some might guess it sooner), but the ride to get there was still quite fun. The most interesting question, to my mind, is whether the MC's "guest" was actually there or not.
Algernon Blackwood, “The Willows,” 1907
Saki, “Sredni Vashtar,” 1910
M.R. James, “Casting the Runes,” 1911
Lord Dunsany, “How Nuth Would Have Practiced his Art,” 1912
Gustav Meyrink, “The Man in the Bottle,” 1912 (translation, Austria)
Georg Heym, “The Dissection,” 1913 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Germany)
Hanns Heinz Ewers, “The Spider,” 1915 (translation, Germany)
Rabindranath Tagore, “The Hungry Stones,” 1916 (India)
Luigi Ugolini, “The Vegetable Man,” 1917 (new translation by Anna and Brendan Connell, Italy; first-ever translation into English)
A. Merritt, “The People of the Pit,” 1918
Ryunosuke Akutagawa, “The Hell Screen,” 1918 (new translation, Japan)
Unseen—Unfeared Francis Stevens (Gertrude Barrows Bennett), 1919 [3 stars, 3 tentacles] - More enjoyable upon rereading than the first time I read it. A nicely ambiguous tale, that might be little more than drug-addled confusion, or might hint at a great deal more.
Franz Kafka, “In the Penal Colony,” 1919 (translation, German/Czech)
Stefan Grabinski, “The White Weyrak,” 1921 (translation, Poland)
H.F. Arnold, “The Night Wire,” 1926
H.P. Lovecraft, “The Dunwich Horror,” 1929
The Book Margaret Irwin, 1930 [4 stars, 3 tentacles] - Nicely creepy one. It's deliberately unclear what sort of entity is connected to "The Book". Ghost? Demon? Revenant? The descent into madness and obsession is eerily plausible, much more so than in most of Lovecraft's attempts at similar themes.
The Mainz Psalter Jean Ray, 1930 (translation, Belgium) [3 stars, 4 tentacles] - Enjoyable sea yarn. Hints of Whisperer in Darkness, with
Spoiler
the fake head and handsJean Ray, “The Shadowy Street,” 1931 (translation, Belgium)
Clark Ashton Smith, “Genius Loci,” 1933
Hagiwara Sakutoro, “The Town of Cats,” 1935 (translation, Japan)
Hugh Walpole, “The Tarn,” 1936
Bruno Schulz, “Sanatorium at the Sign of the Hourglass,” 1937 (translation, Poland)
Robert Barbour Johnson, “Far Below,” 1939
Fritz Leiber, “Smoke Ghost,” 1941
Leonora Carrington, “White Rabbits,” 1941
Donald Wollheim, “Mimic,” 1942
Ray Bradbury, “The Crowd,” 1943
William Sansom, “The Long Sheet,” 1944
Jorge Luis Borges, “The Aleph,” 1945 (translation, Argentina)
Olympe Bhely-Quenum, “A Child in the Bush of Ghosts,” 1949 (Benin)
Shirley Jackson, “The Summer People,” 1950
Margaret St. Clair, “The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles,” 1951
Robert Bloch, “The Hungry House,” 1951
Augusto Monterroso, “Mister Taylor,” 1952 (new translation by Larry Nolen, Guatemala)
The Complete Gentleman by Amos Tutuola, 1952 (Nigeria) [3 stars, 2 tentacles] Feels more like a slightly dark folk tale than weird fiction to me, but it was enjoyable enough. Skulls rent bodies to be "complete", and don't like being followed home. The daughter being given as a wife, without so much as being consulted, was obnoxiously annoying.
Jerome Bixby, “It’s a Good Life,” 1953
Julio Cortazar, “Axolotl,” 1956 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Argentina)
William Sansom, “A Woman Seldom Found,” 1956
Charles Beaumont, “The Howling Man,” 1959
Mervyn Peake, “Same Time, Same Place,” 1963
Dino Buzzati, “The Colomber,” 1966 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Italy)
Michel Bernanos, “The Other Side of the Mountain,” 1967 (new translation by Gio Clairval, France)
The Salamander by Merce Rodoreda, 1967 (translation, Catalan) [2.5 stars, 2 tentacles] - Interesting, but I wanted more of a resolution. It's weirdly unclear what's actually going on. The villagers are clearly more horrific than the so-called "witch".
Claude Seignolle, “The Ghoulbird,” 1967 (new translation by Gio Clairval, France)
Gahan Wilson, “The Sea Was Wet As Wet Could Be,” 1967
Daphne Du Maurier, “Don’t Look Now,” 1971
Robert Aickman, “The Hospice,” 1975
Dennis Etchison, “It Only Comes Out at Night,” 1976
James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Sheldon), “The Psychologist Who Wouldn’t Do Terrible Things to Rats,” 1976
Eric Basso, “The Beak Doctor,” 1977
Jamaica Kincaid, “Mother,” 1978 (Antigua and Barbuda/US)
George R.R. Martin, “Sandkings,” 1979
Bob Leman, “Window,” 1980
Ramsey Campbell, “The Brood,” 1980
Michael Shea, “The Autopsy,” 1980
William Gibson/John Shirley, “The Belonging Kind,” 1981
M. John Harrison, “Egnaro,” 1981
Joanna Russ, “The Little Dirty Girl,” 1982
M. John Harrison, “The New Rays,” 1982
Premendra Mitra, “The Discovery of Telenapota,” 1984 (translation, India)
F. Paul Wilson, “Soft,” 1984
Octavia Butler, “Bloodchild,” 1984
Clive Barker, “In the Hills, the Cities,” 1984
Leena Krohn, “Tainaron,” 1985 (translation, Finland)
Garry Kilworth, “Hogfoot Right and Bird-hands,” 1987
Lucius Shepard, “Shades,” 1987
Harlan Ellison, “The Function of Dream Sleep,” 1988
Ben Okri, “Worlds That Flourish,” 1988 (Nigeria)
Elizabeth Hand, “The Boy in the Tree,” 1989
Joyce Carol Oates, “Family,” 1989
Poppy Z Brite, “His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood,” 1990
Michal Ajvaz, “The End of the Garden,” 1991 (translation, Czech)
Karen Joy Fowler, “The Dark,” 1991
Kathe Koja, “Angels in Love,” 1991
Haruki Murakami, “The Ice Man,” 1991 (translation, Japan)
Lisa Tuttle, “Replacements,” 1992
Marc Laidlaw, “The Diane Arbus Suicide Portfolio,” 1993
Steven Utley, “The Country Doctor,” 1993
William Browning Spenser, “The Ocean and All Its Devices,” 1994
Jeffrey Ford, “The Delicate,” 1994
Martin Simpson, “Last Rites and Resurrections,” 1994
Stephen King, “The Man in the Black Suit,” 1994
Angela Carter, “The Snow Pavilion,” 1995
Craig Padawer, “The Meat Garden,” 1996
Stepan Chapman, “The Stiff and the Stile,” 1997
Tanith Lee, “Yellow and Red,” 1998 [3 stars, 3 tentacles] - Nice creeper. I would have liked to learn more about the "creature", but the story worked quite well without that sort of detail, and was probably the creepier for it. Man inherits house, discovers a "spirit" by spilling spirits on old photographs.
Kelly Link, “The Specialist’s Hat,” 1998
Caitlin R. Kiernan, “A Redress for Andromeda,” 2000
Michael Chabon, “The God of Dark Laughter,” 2001
Details by China Mieville, 2002 [4 stars, 4 tentacles] - Huh. The only other Mieville story I read was long and rambling, and struck me as pointless and absurd. I wonder if I would have liked it more if I'd gone in expecting "Weird" rather than SF. This one is very, very good. Eerily creepy with a satisfying payoff. Hints of the Hounds of Tindalos, but in a more plausible framework than just "angles".
Michael Cisco, “The Genius of Assassins,” 2002
Neil Gaiman, “Feeders and Eaters,” 2002
Jeff VanderMeer, “The Cage,” 2002
Jeffrey Ford, “The Beautiful Gelreesh,” 2003
Thomas Ligotti, “The Town Manager,” 2003
Brian Evenson, “The Brotherhood of Mutilation,” 2003
Mark Samuels, “The White Hands,” 2003
Daniel Abraham, “Flat Diana,” 2004
Margo Lanagan, “Singing My Sister Down,” 2005 (Australia)
T.M. Wright, “The People on the Island,” 2005
Laird Barron, “The Forest,” 2007
Liz Williams, “The Hide,” 2007
The Dust Enforcer Reza Negarestani, 2008 (Iran) [2 stars, 2 tentacles] So, first, this is an excerpt, a chapter taken from a larger work. However, the work seems to be some sort of fictional encyclopedia (of demons? possibly other things?). While parts of it were interesting, I've read too many works trying to be serious that read exactly like this to really enjoy it. On the other hand, I can see why Jeff VanderMeer included it; it reminds me of Whitby's terroir idea in Area X.
Micaela Morrissette, “The Familiars,” 2009
Steve Duffy, “In the Lion’s Den,” 2009
Stephen Graham Jones, “Little Lambs,” 2009
K.J. Bishop, “Saving the Gleeful Horse,” 2010 (Australia)
eowyns_helmet's review
5.0
Excellent -- really something you want to buy, keep and thumb through when the mood hits or inspiration is required...
tarakingwrites's review
Only read a few stories: Stephen King's Man in the Black Suit, Angela Carter's Snow Pavilion, and Poppy Z. Brite's story. Will pick this one up again in the fall.
wildguitars's review
3.0
Some stories were brilliant, most of them mediocre, and some were very bad or just plain boring..
pamwinkler's review
5.0
I was going to do my usual list of stories and likes/dislikes. There is no way. This book is HUGE. If you like weird, buy this, because you'll get something good. If you don't; move on.
ethorwitz's review
3.0
The Vandermeers' mission to coin the term "New Weird" set them on this undertaking. It's an excellent anthology, a fine collection of great short stories, and a wonderful reference for obscure authors that deserve to be rediscovered. But it fails in it's stated purpose: to define a new genre. The concept of the "New Weird" is as evasive as it ever was; it remains essentially a shorter way of saying literary fantasy and horror, and that in turn is a nicer way of saying fantasy and horror that isn't derivative crap. The Vandermeers have excellent taste but they need to write their own nonfiction on just what exactly the "New Weird" is in order for the term to stick.
island_reader's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
2.0
Tedious. Boring. Snooze fest...