Time Travel SF edited by Mike Ashley

The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF is edited by Mike Ashley, and is out from Robinson on 4 July (£7.99):

“These stories show what happen once you start to meddle with time and the paradoxes that might arise. It also raises questions about whether we understand time, and how we perceive it. Once we move outside the present day, can we ever return or do we move into an alternate world? What happens if our meddling with Nature leads to time flowing backwards, or slowing down or stopping all together? Or if we get trapped in a constant loop from which we can never escape. Is the past and future immutable or will we ever be able to escape the inevitable? These are just some of the questions that are raised in these challenging, exciting and sometimes amusing stories...”

Contributors include: 

• Kage Baker
• Gregory Benford
• Simon Clark
• Fritz Leiber
• Christopher Priest
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• Robert Silverberg
• Michael Swanwick
• Steve Utley
• John Varley
• Ian Watson
• Liz Williams
• ...and many others

 Twenty-five stories in all – an excellent anthology, for quality and value.

Zombie Apocalypse! Fightback edited by Stephen Jones

Zombie Apocalypse! Fightback, edited (created) by Stephen Jones (Robinson £8.99) is the follow up to 2010’s highly successful Zombies Apocalypse. Both are portmanteau novels rather than an anthology of short stories, involving a host of horror stars, including Christopher Fowler, Reggie Oliver, Guy Adams, Sarah Pinborough, Peter Crowther, Lisa Tuttle and Nancy Holder.

“There is nothing to fear but fear itself … and zombies! Following the outbreak of Human Reanimation Virus — more commonly referred to as 'The Death' — from a hidden crypt beneath a south London church, the centuries-old plague quickly spreads throughout the world, turning its victims into flesh-eating zombies. As we learn more about the mysterious Thomas Moreby — 'Patient Zero' — the surviving members of the human race begin their fightback against the legions of the walking dead, and the Infected themselves are mutating into something ... different. Told through interconnected eyewitness accounts — emails, text messages, reports, diaries, found video footage and graphic adaptations — the remnants of humanity battle to survive in a world gone mad.”

Best New Horror edited by Stephen Jones

Stephen Jones’s essential annual, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, volume 23 (Robinson £7.99) hits the bookshops in a week or so.

The publisher states: “The year's best, and darkest, tales of terror, showcasing the most outstanding new short stories by both contemporary masters of the macabre and exciting newcomers. As ever, this acclaimed anthology also offers a comprehensive overview of the year in horror, a necrology of recently deceased luminaries, and a list of indispensable addresses horror fans and writers.”

Can’t argue with the above. In this year’s issue you’ll encounter 26 stories, including tales by Ramsey Campbell, Christopher Fowler, Tim Lebbon, Alison Littlewood, Peter Atkins, Joan Aiken, Michael Marshall Smith, Robert Silverberg and Evangeline Walton. As usual, editor Jones includes a detailed introduction to horror in 2011, plus a necrology by Jones and Kim Newman. Stephen Jones picks from both the small press and mainstream, ensuring a selection of the very best. 

The Mammoth Book of Body Horror

In his introduction to The Mammoth Book of Body Horror (edited by Paul Kane & Marie O’Regan [Robinson £7.99]), Stuart Gordon reminds us that “Body Horror” is not about the dead, it’s about your body malfunctioning, becoming different. Your body rebels against itself. See this in movies such as Shivers, The Human Centipede and The Fly.

But we’re in Literature Land here. We’re dealing with prose, short stories. The MBO Body Horror collects 25 tales by folk ranging from Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe and H P Lovecraft through to Clive Barker, Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Neil Gaiman, Nancy A Collins, Brian Lumley and Michael Marshall Smith (and more).

It does as it says on the cover: “25 horrific tales of transformation, mutation and contagion.”