Showing results by publisher "Deadtree Publishing" in Science Fiction & Fantasy

In this series we listen to short stories that are NOT by perhaps the most well-known author of this type. But the many other rich talents in the volume may have treated the subject matter a little differently, or were perhaps just overlooked in the stampede to applaud the winner, but these authors are of equal merit. Each of their works is laden with talent, has purpose, and is rich and textured in this gloried niche of literature.

These stories reveal the truth about vampires as told by a rather special vampire. Not the romantic or even the really nastily horrific stories that the non-vampires amongst us have dreamed up. Tracing a life lived over centuries, from ancient Rome right through to the more modern Texas, these stories are linked by the narrator, with interludes of explanation. Subtly dark, and with enough horror behind to send a shudder down the spine in places, but with gentle humour and a facility for twisting the historic truth just so much that the fictitious explanation makes sense in context.

For an atheist it’s a great deal, though it does suggest atheism may have a weak point. For those of faith it’s a matter of jam now and purgatory tomorrow. A bargain many artists feel is something they can live with. For agnostics it’s usually a question of can the afterlife really be that bad, would workplace regulations reach all parts of heaven and hell. However, in this volume the terms are agreed and the Devil pays his fees and the character his dues, each happy to wait a few decades for the eternal payback.

The human form is familiar to all of us. We like limbs connected to bodies. Writers of the dark and macabre are not too concerned if that remains the case. Indeed limbs, or rather pieces of the body, sometimes are best written about when not connected. It’s one of our greatest fears. It quite rightly riddles us with a very unsettling feeling. So why then do we turn the page? We’re about to find out.

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. They can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. In this volume the Mad Scientist takes centre stage. Naturally the stories come in all shapes and sizes and in the pens of our classic authors the scientists more usually arrive as dark, twisted and evil as they go about their work illuminating humanity as only a mad scientist can.

The novelist and screenwriter James Hilton was born in 1900. He is best remembered for the novels ‘Lost Horizon’ and ‘Goodbye, Mr. Chips. He earned an Oscar for co-writing Mrs. Miniver in 1942.

The problem with the dark is you don’t really know what’s lurking in there. Something hiding? Something menacing? Or just an inky dome for the stars to twinkle on? Writers rarely let us dwell on the latter. No, they would much rather they put our nerves on edge, that our skin would begin to crawl and that the cold sweat of fear propels our pulse and heartbeat to nightmare-inducing trauma. I think they’re ready.

In this story two men strike up a conversation and one reveals that he is, in fact, dead as the result of titanic war in the future. In this bold premise Wells once more reveals a startling and empathetic story.

Edward Page Mitchell was born in Bath, Maine on 24th March 1852 into a wealthy family. When he was eight the family moved to a house on New York’s famed Fifth Avenue. The Tachypomp is a glorious mixture of a youth looking to impress his prospective father-in-law with a seemingly outlandish solution to a scientific problem.

Ernest Richard Suffling is one of those authors about whom little is known. In his career he wrote across travel, local history, and folklore. His short stories bring out another side of his literary style that, though now neglected, add measurably to the genre.

Simon Newcomb was born in 1835. He was a Canadian-American astronomer, applied mathematician and autodidactic polymath. He was fluent in several languages, and also published several popular science books, a science fiction novel and short stories.

Herbert Currington Ridout was born in 1881. His literary life included being a journalist, editor, and short story writer although he also had various jobs in the music business and was later a radio broadcaster on the BBC. He died in 1948.

Louisa May Alcott was born on 29th November 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania. She is most definitely a writer of her own experiences. Her father was a transcendentalist, philosopher and educational experimenter who founded, Fruitlands, a utopian community. Well-loved for her classic ‘Little Women’ she was a superb writer in difficult times for any woman, a strong advocate of women’s issues, the anti-slavery movement, temperance and social reform.

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born on the 30th August 1797 in Somers Town, London. Her mother, the famous feminist philosopher, educator, and writer Mary Wollstonecraft died when Mary was only 11 days old and she was raised by her father. Her short stories, some based in Europe, tackle difficult situations and genres as well the obstacles that women were burdened with in society. Her editorship of her late husband’s poetry was also widely praised.

Robert Barr was born in Glasgow, Scotland on the 16th September 1849. Five years later the family emigrated to a farm near Muirkirk in Upper Canada. Although a number of his crime novels and short stories are parodies on Sherlock Holmes and other best-selling detectives of the time, he also wrote short stories across a whole range of subjects and genres usually with intriguing ideas and many laced with wit and humour.

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born on 24th June 1842 at Horse Cave Creek in Meigs County, Ohio. His parents were poor but they introduced him to literature at an early age, instilling in him a deep appreciation of books, the written word and the elegance of language. He began his first foray as a fabulist, publishing ‘Fantastic Fables’ in 1899. But tragedy struck two years later when his second son Leigh died of pneumonia relating to his alcoholism. He continued to write short stories and poetry and also published ‘The Devil’s Dictionary’.

There is something about the number 3. The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two. Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore themes and literary avenues that classic authors were so adept at creating.

Richard Garnett C.B. was born on the 27th February 1835. Educated in Bloomsbury he then joined the nearby British Museum as an assistant librarian in 1851, shortly after his father’s death. As an author he wrote several volumes of verse, a book of short stories and several biographies and history books.

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born on 24th June 1842 at Horse Cave Creek in Meigs County, Ohio. His parents were poor but they introduced him to literature at an early age, instilling in him a deep appreciation of books, the written word and the elegance of language. In 1891 Bierce wrote and published the collection of 26 short stories which included ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’. Success and further works including poetry followed.

In this volume your flesh may creep and crawl a little bit as our classic authors delve into the world of vampires. Some stories you may be familiar with but for most these will be new and unsettling experiences.