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Obsidian: A Decade of Horror Stories by Women
In 2016, NewCon Press celebrates its 10th anniversary. To commemorate this, a number of very special publications are planned, including Obsidian, an eBook only retrospective anthology gathering together the best horror stories written by women authors that NewCon have published during our first 10 years. Our early titles were never issued as eBooks, so many of these stories appear here in digital format for the first time. The book also includes an original story by Laura Mauro, bringing the collection right up to date.
1.Introduction – Ian Whates
2.Sarah Pinborough – Do You See?
3.Liz Williams – Indicating the Awakening of Persons Buried Alive
4.Marie O’Regan – The Cradle in the Corner
5.Kari Sperring – Seaborne
6.Tanith Lee – Underfog (The Wreckers)
7.Kelley Armstrong – Young Bloods
8.Alison Littlewood – On the Grey Road
9.Molly Brown – Living with the Dead
10.Donna Scott – The Grimoire
11.Susan Sinclair – Lifeline
12.Lisa Tuttle – Paul’s Mother
13.Emma Coleman – Home
14.Maura McHugh – Valerie
15.Laura Mauro – Obsidian
1.Introduction – Ian Whates
2.Sarah Pinborough – Do You See?
3.Liz Williams – Indicating the Awakening of Persons Buried Alive
4.Marie O’Regan – The Cradle in the Corner
5.Kari Sperring – Seaborne
6.Tanith Lee – Underfog (The Wreckers)
7.Kelley Armstrong – Young Bloods
8.Alison Littlewood – On the Grey Road
9.Molly Brown – Living with the Dead
10.Donna Scott – The Grimoire
11.Susan Sinclair – Lifeline
12.Lisa Tuttle – Paul’s Mother
13.Emma Coleman – Home
14.Maura McHugh – Valerie
15.Laura Mauro – Obsidian
187 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 29, 2016
About the author
Tanith Lee
637 books2,075 followersTanith Lee was a British writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She was the author of 77 novels, 14 collections, and almost 300 short stories. She also wrote four radio plays broadcast by the BBC and two scripts for the UK, science fiction, cult television series "Blake's 7."
Before becoming a full time writer, Lee worked as a file clerk, an assistant librarian, a shop assistant, and a waitress.
Her first short story, "Eustace," was published in 1968, and her first novel (for children) The Dragon Hoard was published in 1971.
Her career took off in 1975 with the acceptance by Daw Books USA of her adult fantasy epic The Birthgrave for publication as a mass-market paperback, and Lee has since maintained a prolific output in popular genre writing.
Lee twice won the World Fantasy Award: once in 1983 for best short fiction for “The Gorgon” and again in 1984 for best short fiction for “Elle Est Trois (La Mort).” She has been a Guest of Honour at numerous science fiction and fantasy conventions including the Boskone XVIII in Boston, USA in 1981, the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, Canada, and Orbital 2008 the British National Science Fiction convention (Eastercon) held in London, England in March 2008. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious title of Grand Master of Horror.
Lee was the daughter of two ballroom dancers, Bernard and Hylda Lee. Despite a persistent rumour, she was not the daughter of the actor Bernard Lee who played "M" in the James Bond series of films of the 1960s.
Tanith Lee married author and artist John Kaiine in 1992.
Before becoming a full time writer, Lee worked as a file clerk, an assistant librarian, a shop assistant, and a waitress.
Her first short story, "Eustace," was published in 1968, and her first novel (for children) The Dragon Hoard was published in 1971.
Her career took off in 1975 with the acceptance by Daw Books USA of her adult fantasy epic The Birthgrave for publication as a mass-market paperback, and Lee has since maintained a prolific output in popular genre writing.
Lee twice won the World Fantasy Award: once in 1983 for best short fiction for “The Gorgon” and again in 1984 for best short fiction for “Elle Est Trois (La Mort).” She has been a Guest of Honour at numerous science fiction and fantasy conventions including the Boskone XVIII in Boston, USA in 1981, the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, Canada, and Orbital 2008 the British National Science Fiction convention (Eastercon) held in London, England in March 2008. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious title of Grand Master of Horror.
Lee was the daughter of two ballroom dancers, Bernard and Hylda Lee. Despite a persistent rumour, she was not the daughter of the actor Bernard Lee who played "M" in the James Bond series of films of the 1960s.
Tanith Lee married author and artist John Kaiine in 1992.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 3, 2025
Entertaining horror listening 🎶🔰
This kindle e-book novel is from my Kindle Unlimited account
Fourteen short horror stories by fourteen different authors.
I would recommend this novel to readers of fantasy world 🌐 horror adventure novels 👍🔰. 2025 👒😉🌙
This kindle e-book novel is from my Kindle Unlimited account
Fourteen short horror stories by fourteen different authors.
I would recommend this novel to readers of fantasy world 🌐 horror adventure novels 👍🔰. 2025 👒😉🌙
August 17, 2016
Really good stuff
Some strong stories by some excellent authors. I have become a big fan of Sarah Pinborough and Alison Littlewood over the last two years and I can see myself reading the others over time.
Some strong stories by some excellent authors. I have become a big fan of Sarah Pinborough and Alison Littlewood over the last two years and I can see myself reading the others over time.
October 17, 2025
- Living with the Dead (3 estrellas): Inesperadamente conmovedor, una perspectiva diferente de los muertos vivientes y los vivos que viven, los cuidan y viven junto a ellos.
Leído para el reto "13 sustos literarios" del Club de lectura "Clásico es leerte" (consigna "mención a una película de terror") - octubre 2025
- Do you see? (Sarah Pinborough) - 3 estrellas
- Peter's mother (Lisa Tuttle) - 3 estrellas
Leído para el reto "13 sustos literarios" del Club de lectura "Clásico es leerte" (consigna "mención a una película de terror") - octubre 2025
- Do you see? (Sarah Pinborough) - 3 estrellas
- Peter's mother (Lisa Tuttle) - 3 estrellas
October 21, 2016
Some beautifully written stories in here from some amazingly talented writers. Perfect for the season and wonderful for discovering new authors.
August 8, 2023
Pretty weak stuff, sad to say. It starts with a bang with the first story, and had me very much excited--but the rest of the work isn't nearly of as high a quality. The other standouts are the Lee and Tuttle stories:
The Tanith Lee story is basically just The Fog but retold in Lee's great prose, so that's a plus.
The Tuttle story is classic Tuttle--dark explorations of family emotional dynamics with a genre overlay--and good, but I'd just read it in a standalone Tuttle collection so its inclusion here didn't rate as highly for me as maybe it should have.
Otherwise, the stories are mostly competent but uninteresting, or else overly confusing (and not in a good way).
If you have Kindle Unlimited or see it at the library, then it might be worth checking out on the basis of the stories I mentioned (and, horror being subjective, you may find others you like as well). but it's just sort of...meh.
The Tanith Lee story is basically just The Fog but retold in Lee's great prose, so that's a plus.
The Tuttle story is classic Tuttle--dark explorations of family emotional dynamics with a genre overlay--and good, but I'd just read it in a standalone Tuttle collection so its inclusion here didn't rate as highly for me as maybe it should have.
Otherwise, the stories are mostly competent but uninteresting, or else overly confusing (and not in a good way).
If you have Kindle Unlimited or see it at the library, then it might be worth checking out on the basis of the stories I mentioned (and, horror being subjective, you may find others you like as well). but it's just sort of...meh.
February 27, 2017
As is to be expected with an anthology like this, there were stories I enjoyed and others I really didn't connect with. A few of the good ones : Do You See, by Sarah Pinborough. On The Grey Road, by Allison Littlewood. Living With The Dead, by Molly Brown, The Grimlore, by Donna Scott. Lifeline, by Susan Sinclair. Paul's Mother, by Lisa Tuttle and Obsidian by Laura Mauro.
Many of the rest of the stories fell flat for me and had a feeling of being unfinished. The writing itself is fine but I often wished for more context to the narrative to make the story better to follow along with. And obviously, this was just how I reacted to these particular tales.
Many of the rest of the stories fell flat for me and had a feeling of being unfinished. The writing itself is fine but I often wished for more context to the narrative to make the story better to follow along with. And obviously, this was just how I reacted to these particular tales.
April 16, 2022
RA
A mixed bag of mildly horrifying stories. Some seem as if written by someone a decade old within the time limit of an English lesson at school! One story was like a dream describing itself in a stream of unconsciousness. There were a couple that really were good reads: the beautiful poetic title story; and Paul's Mother, by Lisa Tuttle, who I'm already a huge fan of.
A mixed bag of mildly horrifying stories. Some seem as if written by someone a decade old within the time limit of an English lesson at school! One story was like a dream describing itself in a stream of unconsciousness. There were a couple that really were good reads: the beautiful poetic title story; and Paul's Mother, by Lisa Tuttle, who I'm already a huge fan of.
May 5, 2017
3.5 stars, gave it less points because very few of the stories were actually scary or spooky. Some of these could hardly be called horror. But I did enjoy the lot of them, and would recommend it simply as an anthology of stories by women!
Want to Read
May 26, 2024I am sorry to leave a comment here under reviews for a book that I have not read yet but I wanted to assign a date for this book and the date set functionality of the website currently seems to be broken. If they get this working I will use this and delete this review.
02-09-2016
02-09-2016
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews