New Treasures: The Monster’s Corner
Monsters!
I have a weakness for monsters. And who doesn’t, really? I have a theory that sword & sorcery readers all loved monster movies as a kid. We talk about a fondness for the literature of the rugged individual, but secretly we just want to read about monsters.
But enough about me. The topic at hand is monsters. And the book at hand, compliments of today’s mail and the publicity department at St. Martin’s Press, is The Monster’s Corner, an anthology of all-new stories edited by Christopher Golden.
All new monster stories, I hasten to point out. 19 tales of classic and original creepy-crawlies, all told from the point of view of the monster. Here’s the marketing blurb:
Demons and goblins, dark gods and aliens, creatures of myth and legend, lurkers in darkness and beasts in human clothing… these are the subjects of The Monster’s Corner, an anthology of never-before published stories assembled by Bram Stoker Award-winning author Christopher Golden.
With contributions by Lauren Groff, Chelsea Cain, Simon R. Green, Sharyn McCrumb, Kelley Armstrong, David Liss, Kevin J. Anderson, Jonathan Maberry, and many others, this is the ultimate anthology on the dark heart of a monster.
I like it. I also like the author line-up: a fine mix of names I admire — including David Moody, Tananarive Due, Michael Marshall Smith, Gary A. Bruanbeck, and the marvelous Tom Piccirilli — and a terrific sampling of up-and-coming novelists whose work I have not yet tried. A great way to survey the horror field while enjoying some fine monster fiction, I think.
Christopher Golden’s previous anthology for St. Martin’s Press was The New Dead, which I quite enjoyed (when my teenage sons finally let me have it back, anyway). The Monster’s Corner is 389 pages in trade paperback, with a cover price of $14.99. The official on-sale date is Sept. 27.
a bit of a offtopic, I’m a great fan of horror literature, my favourite genre, but I prefer the modern psychological quiet horror, classic monsters like vampires, the mummy, werewolves and gothic horror bored me, I like writers like Stephen King and others not so known as T.E.D. Klein, Dennis Etchison, Steve Rasnic Tem, Graham Masterton… and late authors like Charles L Grant and Karl Edward Wagner, I know this kind of horror had a boom in the 80’s but are these authors and his nowadays counterparts still read in America? I know King sells a lot but and the others? or like in Spain, zombies and supernatural romance top the genre?
by the way with the exception of KEW for his Kane stories these authors I comment are not usually read by the people on this blog or in others like the REH related ones, it’s that kind of genre the lesser read in the field of fantasy literature?
I’ve read all those people. I know that ‘modern quiet horror sub-genre.’
It has it’s moments, good, bad, and ugly
Like everything else.
I think KEW is underappreciated as a horror writer.
TEDK, is known well enough, and is a midlister ( that’s a good thing commercially speaking ) me thinks.
CLG seems largely forgotten…
King rarely does ‘it’ for me.
King is responsible for some truly horrifying literature and not in the way he intended.
One of my favourite living writers is Thomas Ligotti.
What’s your take on that dude fransico72?
ehem, what’s a midlister? there’s a lot of words and idioms in english I haven’t know
What’s your take on that dude fransico72?
??? with Thomas Ligotti?
by the way what about Tom Piccirilli and Jack ketchum?
fancisco72 –
Like stated in parenthesis a ‘midlister’ is ‘good thing commercially…’ A ‘midlister’ is a writer that sells considerably more than most writers however is not necessarily
famous.
Becoming a ‘midlister’ is as good as it gets for most writers. Even some famous to semi-famous ones.
Thomas Ligotti is a writer of subtle horror.
If you don’t know Thomas Ligotti just go to amazon or google or something and search the name.
I’ve sampled Piccirilli and Ketchum.
Their okay I guess.