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The Mammoth Book of the Best of Best New Horror: A Twenty Year Celebration (2010)

Edited by Stephen Jones
With an Introduction by Ramsey Campbell
(a) Robinson Publishing, UK • tp • £9.99
ISBN: 978-1-84901-304-8
(2nd printing, • £9.99)
(3rd printing, • £9.99)
The Mammoth Book of the Best of Best New Horror: A Twenty Year Celebration (2010)
Cover by Joe Roberts

A Twenty Year Celebration of Best New Horror. For the past two decades the annual Best New Horror series has been the major showcase for superior short stories and novellas of horror and dark fantasy. The World Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Award and International Horror Guild Award-winning series has published more than 450 stories by around 200 of the genre’s most famous and acclaimed authors, as well as those newcomers who are just starting out on their careers. To celebrate the anthology’s twentieth anniversary, the editor has selected from each volume one story that represents some of horror’s biggest names. The Mammoth Book of the Best of Best New Horror is introduced by Ramsey Campbell and includes an indispensible index detailing the entire contents of the series over all twenty volumes.

  • (b) Running Press, USA • tp • $13.95 ISBN: 978-0-7624-3841-9
    The Mammoth Book of the Best of Best New Horror: A Twenty Year Celebration (2010)
    (c) as THE VERY BEST OF BEST NEW HORROR: A TWENTY-YEAR CELEBRATION Earthling Publications, USA • hc (limited to 300 numbered copies signed by the editor, 2011) • $60.00 ISBN-13: 978-0-9795054-8-5 ISBN-10: 0-9795054-8-8
  • Cover design by Smith & Jones
    The Mammoth Book of the Best of Best New Horror: A Twenty Year Celebration (2010)
    (d) as THE VERY BEST OF BEST NEW HORROR: A TWENTY-YEAR CELEBRATION Earthling Publications, USA • hc (limited to 200 numbered and slipcased copies signed by all the contributors, 2011) • $250.00 ISBN-13: 978-0-9795054-8-5 ISBN-10: 0-9795054-8-8
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  
EDITOR’S FOREWORD Stephen Jones
INTRODUCTION: BETTERING THE BEST Ramsey Campbell
NO SHARKS IN THE MED Brian Lumley
THE MAN WHO DREW CATS Michael Marshall Smith
THE SAME IN ANY LANGUAGE Ramsey Campbell
NORMAN WISDOM AND THE ANGEL OF DEATH Christopher Fowler
MEFISTO IN ONYX Harlan Ellison
THE TEMPTATION OF DR STEIN Paul J. McAuley
QUEEN OF KNIVES Neil Gaiman
THE BREAK Terry Lamsley
EMPTINESS SPOKE ELOQUENT Caitlín R Kiernan
MR. CLUBB AND MR. CUFF Peter Straub
WHITE Tim Lebbon
THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT: ANNO DRACULA, 1981 Kim Newman
CLEOPATRA BRIMSTONE Elizabeth Hand
20TH CENTURY GHOST Joe Hill
THE WHITE HANDS Mark Samuels
MY DEATH Lisa Tuttle
HAECKEL’S TALE Clive Barker
DEVIL’S SMILE Glen Hirshberg
THE CHURCH ON THE ISLAND Simon Kurt Unsworth
THE NEW YORK TIMES AT SPECIAL BARGAIN RATES Stephen King
INDEX TO TWENTY YEARS OF BEST NEW HORROR
  I: Index by Contributor
  II: Index by Title
  III: Contents of Previous Omnibus Editions

Reviews

  • “The Best of Best New Horror two-volume set is a sublime, and very important, collection of some of the highest
    quality genre literature over recent decades . . . The best horror anthology in the business.”
    —Trevor Kennedy
    PHANTASMAGORIA Issue #16, Late Summer-Autmn 2020
  • “The Best of Best New Horror volumes provide a lasting record of the genre through its history, as well
    as a feast of classic tales . . . The enduring popularity of the Jones “Best of” empire across three decades shows that
    readers of quality horror are an intellectually sophisticated audience who will delight in these important collections.”
    —Clare Rhoden
    AUREALIS #134, 2020
  • “For over thirty years now, the annual Stephen Jones-edited (earlier editions were co-edited by Ramsey Campbell) Best New Horror series
    has been a staple of the highest quality genre literature around, unsurprisingly including work from the biggest names in the field and considered
    by many as the most reliable go-to horror anthology in the world . . . There is a self-explanatory reason why this book is titled
    The Best of Best New Horror and it really does live up to this promise. A must for genre fans!”
    —Trevor Kennedy
    PHANTASMAGORIA Issue #15, Early Summer 2020
  • “This is more than simply an anthology: it is also a history lesson . . . a substantial and important volume, a landmark anthology that all lovers of well written horror fiction will want have on their shelves. If the genre needs a flagship to lead it through the treacherous waters of modern publishing, then you couldn’t ask for a finer vessel than this.”
    —Peter Tennant
    BLACK STATIC Issue 19, Oct-Nov 2010
  • “Best New Horror has always featured stories by the best-selling writers in the genre, and there are many of those big names here . . . Even if you have most of the first twenty volumes, every story here is worth re-reading, and you are sure to make rewarding new discoveries or rediscover old favourites.”
    —David Longhorn
    SUPERNATURAL TALES 18, Winter 2010
  • “A good summation of what contemporary short story writers have produced in the horror area.”
    —Mario Guslandi
    SF SITE, June 2010
Promo for signing at Fantasycon 2010, Nottingham, England
FANTASYCON 2010, NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND