Total Recall by Philip K Dick

To coincide with the new movie, Gollancz is releasing a new edition of Philip K Dick’s Total Recall (£8.99).

When the book arrived I had was momentarily confused – Total Recall isn’t a 390-page novel. I was relieved to learn that my memory could recall it for me (wholesale?). This book is, in fact, an collection of some 25 short stories including “We Can Remember it for You, Wholesale” – the basis for the movie Total Recall.

Other stories include “Your Appointment will be Yesterday”, “A Game of Unchance”, “Return Match” and “The Little Black Box”. Also included are an introduction by Thomas M Disch and a series of notes by Dick on many of the stories.

Full marks to Gollancz for publishing this collection. It is important to keep such seminal works in print. But null points for the ridiculously small font. 

Wine and Rank Poison by Allyson Bird

Now available from Dark Regions Press: Wine and Rank Poison by Allyson Bird:

“Revenge. Best served cold. Here are ten stories involving most of the deadly sins: greed, lust, envy, wrath, and pride. Strange stories woven in time and place from Ancient Greece to 1929 Odessa, Italy to the modern United States ... stories that mix reality, mythology, legend, half-humans and the inhuman...

‘The stories in Allyson Bird's Wine and Rank Poison draw us into a world of dark magic, infinite possibility and abiding terror; and she does it with a style reminiscent of Shirley Jackson and Robert Bloch. Highly recommended.’ -- NY Times bestseller Jonathan Maberry, author of Rot & Ruin”

With cover art by Dani Serra and an introduction by Joe R Lansdale.

Zombies in New York by Sam Stone

Piper friend Sam Stone's collection of horror and dark fantasy, Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings, is set to appear in February 2011, published by Telos Press (£12.99). Vincent Chong provides the cover illustration and Russell Morgan the interior artwork. This promises to be a fine-looking book. More details on the BFS website.

Tragic Life Stories by Steve Duffy

Tragic Life Stories by Steve Duffy is available from Ash-Tree Press: "Duffy's work has been described as 'exquisite' and 'heart-breaking' (Mark Flowers, School Library Journal), 'compelling' (Charles Tan, Bibliophile Stalker), and 'exceptional ... full of menace, thrills, and growing terror (Mario Guslandi, The Short Review). Tragic Life Stories demonstrates all these qualities, bringing the classic ghost-story up to date in a way that is as unsettling as it is terrifying. In these nine stories, nothing is what it seems, no one is safe, and there is absolutely nowhere to hide.

Steve Duffy lives in North Wales. Since the mid-1990s his stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies in Europe and North America. Several have appeared in Ellen Datlow's annual Year's Best Fantasy and Horror anthologies, and in Best Horror of the Year. Ash-Tree Press has published two previous collections of Steve's work, both solo (The Night Comes On) and in collaboration with Ian Rodwell (The Five Quarters). His next collection, The Moment of Panic, is scheduled to appear in 2011, and will include his International Horror Guild award-winning short story from 2000, 'The Rag-and-Bone Men'."

The book, limited to 400 copies, costs £29.00 / $49.00 plus postage from Canada. Visit the Ash-Tree website to order.

Walkers in the Dark by Paul Finch

Due from the Ash-Tree Press: "In this new collection, Paul Finch draws on fact, legend, and myth to create five terrifying tales spanning the length and breadth of Great Britain, from the mountains of Snowdonia to industrial Lancashire, and from northern Scotland to a run-down district of Liverpool. Readers will encounter the shape-shifting Baobhan Sith and the horrifying 'Red Clogs'; search for the monstrous afanc of Wales; be haunted by the spectres of a war long past but not forgotten; and, in the spectacular title stry, take part in a treasure hunt that goes terrifyingly wrong. Walkers in the Dark is Paul Finch at his hard-hitting best, and a collection that will haunt you long after the last page has been turned.

Paul Finch is a former police officer and journalist. He first cut his literary teeth penning episodes of the British TV crime drama The Bill. However, he is probably best known for his work in horror, and his numerous collections and short stories have been published on both sides of the Atlantic. His first collection, After Shocks (Ash-Tree Press, 2001), won the British Fantasy Award, and he again won the award in 2007 for his novella Kid. In 2007, Paul won the International Horror Guild Award for his story 'The Old North Road'. A second Ash-Tree Press collection, Ghost Realm, was published in 2008. Paul lives in Lancashire, England, with his wife Cathy and children Eleanor and Harry."

For ordering details visit the Ash-Tree website.