The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series X

by Karl Edward Wagner (Editor), Gardner R. Dozois, Jack M. Dann

HORROR TIMES TEN! Horror fascinates the imagination of today's public and the novels that stir the most terror in readers' hearts are up there among the bestsellers. Yet, despite the rising tide of this eerie category, there remains but one annual anthology that gives you the real leaders among the new short stories of each year. That is this one, The Year's Best Horror Stories, now in its tenth successful year.

Unique among the paperbacks, edited by the master hand of Karl Edward Wagner, this latest volume, Series X, brings to every reader guaranteed gooseflesh tales by the most skilled purveyors of ice for the veins. Its contents include sleep-destroying potions by Ramsey Campbell, Dennis Etchison, Harlan Ellison, Gardner Dozois, M. John Harrison, and many more....

Contents:
Introduction: A Decade of Fear: Karl Edward Wagner .
Touring,: Gardner R. Dozois, Jack M. Dann & Michael Swanwick.
Every Time You Say I Love You: Charles L. Grant.
Wyntours: David G. Rowlands.
The Dark Country: Dennis Etchison.
Homecoming: Howard Goldsmith.
Old Hobby Horse: A.F. Kidd.
Firstborn: David Campton.
Luna: G.W. Perriwils.
Mind: Les Freeman.
Competition: David Clayton Carrad.
Egnaro: M. John Harrison.
On 202: Jeff Hecht.
The Trick: Ramsey Campbell.
Broken Glass: Harlan Ellison.

Genres: Horror, Anthologies

240 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Karl Edward Wagner (12 December 1945 – 13 October 1994) was an American writer, editor and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. His disillusionment with the medical profession can be seen in the stories "The Fourth Seal" and "Into Whose Hands". He described his world view as nihilistic, anarchistic and absurdist, and claimed, not entirely seriously, to be related to "an opera composer named Richard". Wagner also admired the cinema of Sam Peckinpah, stating "I worship the film The Wild Bunch".

Reviews

[Jack Tripper · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Mind” (1980) by Les Freeman has got to be one of the most nightmarish and intense stories I’ve read in recent years. It concerns a British man who, while on a train through the English countryside during a business trip, keeps arriving at the same middle-of-nowhere station, witnessing the same scene play out over and over through his window (a man consoling four hysterical children on the station platform), only it gets subtly worse each time. There’s seemingly no escape from this. And somehow no one else on the train to help him. This one had several moments that sent serious shivers down my spine, and my only negative (other than the fact that I can’t stop thinking about it) was finding out that Les Freeman — journalist and playwright — only has one other piece of short fiction to his name, and nothing else, at least that I could find.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an outstanding collection of short horror fiction, the third that Wagner edited in the series, and presents his picks as the best of 1981. He ranged further afield that usual and selected works from unlikely venues and from little known authors. The Michael Whelan cover is even more of a knockout than usual. I thought all of the stories were worth a chilly shiver or a thoughtful pause; there wasn't a lame one in the book. My favorites were from Harlan Ellison, M. John Harrison, and Ramsey Campbell.

[Graham P · Rating 3 out of 5]

***1/2

More solid & sordid entries from divers horror hands via 1981. Man, this decade encapsulated renaissance and revitalization in the early parts of the decade, only to stunt and degrade come the last celluloid, spine-creasing years. Pick and share your poisons accordingly.

Through the Walls • (1978) • novelette by Ramsey Campbell - A suburban Liverpool home is secretly invaded by fumes from a makeshift lab next door. We're not quite sure whether it's LSD being made, but it surely feels like it when the family goes through a hellbent osmosis of 'not feeling quite right'. And once they allow an injured pedestrian into their house, things shift downward with little explanation. Campbell mentions he had an acid flashback that horrified him, and this story is partly the result, I assume. Strange undercurrents of seediness in this one, perspectives unhinged, blood on the wall and sleazy desires ensue.

Touring • (1981) • novelette by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois and Michael Swanwick - Oh no, another classic rock dead-soldiers come alive kind of tale. But this one, written by 3 legends of the bizarre speculative, actually pulls it off with a bit of earnest melancholia. Where do dead idols go to die? In this case, Buddy Holly, Elvis and Janis Joplin share the stage one final time for the faceless masses. Eloquent and heartfelt, especially when the time-eating tide rolls in closer. Limbo is a bitch!

Every Time You Say I Love You • (1981) • short story by Charles L. Grant - Charles Grant, the King of Quiet Horror, actually takes a page from EC Comics, complete with an amorous corpse in a closet and a needy love that will never wither. Necro funk in Oxrun Station. Solid.

Wyntours • [Father O'Connor] • (1980) • short story by David G. Rowlands - Two versions of the same seaside village, a Jamesian ghost tale siphons into a double-exposure story where two timelines co-exist in a decaying manor. Haunted house mediocrity guided by a supernatural-loving Priest, Father O'Connor, who may have been napping in his minced meat pie during this fireside tale narrated by a railway enthusiast. However stiff that may sound, there's suggestions of an evil crayfish type creature that eats human souls -- I'd chalk that up as a bonus.

The Dark Country • [Jack Martin] • (1981) • short story by Dennis Etchison - On holiday in Baja, pseudonym stand-in, Jack Martin, spends a hungover week at an oceanside bungalow resort where Americans absolutely lose their shit partying, drinking, drugging, partner-swapping...basically invading the townspeople's integrity with garish zipper-down and bottle-breaking excess. It's when the body of a boy merchant is found horribly beaten, which tourist will take the blame. Feelings of Daphne du Maurier in this one, as well as the great Paul Bowles who made a career writing about disillusioned American tourists.

Homecoming • (1981) • short story by Howard Goldsmith - What the Hell was this? A raging ghost inside a TV? Another scarred individual returning home to where the haunt lays heavily on the psyche? Is this Goosebumps School of plotting? Basically, this entry was not my best friend.

Old Hobby Horse • (1981) • short story by Chico Kidd [as by A. F. Kidd] - Lite anthropological study of a rural dance in small town English village. Provincial, forgetful, dusty.

Firstborn • (1981) • short story by David Campton -Exotic vegetable terrors in the Scottish Highlands! Mad scientists, flesh-eating plants, and enough tawdry shenanigans in this tale of two different organisms breaking natural law and giving birth to its own Little Shop of Horrors. Amusing for all its pulpy and purple-veined dimensions. Take it for what it is: gory candy.

Luna • (1981) • short story by Georgette Perry and William J. Wilson [as by G. W. Perriwils] - Astronaut back from the moon is having nightmares of being pursued on a nameless alien planet. A NASA psychiatrist tries to get to the bottom of things. Looks like two authors were needed to finish this short and amnesia-inducing tale. This is not Barry Malzberg or James Tiptree, sadly.

Mind • (1980) • short story by Les Freeman - Fine tale about an average chump stuck in a time loop aboard a haunted train. Freeman takes that moment from the everyday railway passenger: witnessing an ugly moment on the platform as the same train passes by the same station, leaving a horrible moment in a blur of indecision, forever and ever and back again. While the story ratchets the right tension, we the reader ask, can moments be passed to others like a curse, or are we submitted to nightmare logic indefinitely because our lives are pitifully dull and routine-based just like a train schedule.

Competition • (1981) • short story by David Clayton Carrad - Carrad takes the jogging boom in the late 1970s as fodder for this story about an avid runner avoiding a game of cat and mouse with a killer pick-up truck. Of course, Richard Matheson's DUEL comes to mind, but what is more memorable is the actual preparation of our main character's daily routine and not the Most Dangerous Game template this story uses so unapologetically.

Egnaro • (1981) • novelette by M. John Harrison - Faraway places of maps that were never drawn. Directions to a new city, a lost village, a new world - all encased the madness of the sooty and sorrowed Londoner. How we all wish we could manufacture our own oasis, and find that our own Paradise Lost is really a Lost and Found in some basement of Hell. Harrison's London is full of deranged wonder. Everything is a veil slowly lifting in his obscured universe of double-exposure and urban decay.

On 202 • (1981) • short story by Jeff Hecht - Cantankerous young married couple argue in a snowstorm covering the Western Massachusetts roadways. Lots of bitching, lots of snow, and a radio station that only plays dead songs of dead singers. More Janis Joplin and Hendrix, a tale that satisfies but leaves little endorsement.

The Trick • (1980) • novelette by Ramsey Campbell - I love tales about witches...just so I can see what familiars they have in tow for companionship. In this case, the familiars are the stars of this fine tale: a grey monkey with a hangdog human jaw, and a little boy who is turning into porcelain. Two friends ignore the old woman's warning to stay out of the tunnel. Of course the friends must enter the tunnel in hopes of finding a lost dog, only to visit with the familiars around their own precious little campfire.

Broken Glass • (1981) • short story by Harlan Ellison - Mind invasion full of the tawdriness that Harlan wielded so liberally. Ellison can be grating and at times so tiresome, yet this sordid tale is a strong one in that it details a damaged woman sleeping on a Greyhound bus, only to have her dream-like fantasies be invaded by a fellow passenger. This story will offend more contemporary readers, but Ellison manages to elicit some genuine terror from a sleazy tale about all types of invasive immoralities.

Another gem culled and manicured by Karl Edward Wagner.

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the used books I got at the World Science Fiction which was held this past September.

I think all the stories are worth reading, in my opinion they range from 3.5 to 5.0. Most of the stories are set in the 'here and now'. And there are different types of horror here--supernatural, science fiction, and naturalistic.

My favorite story here is "Egnaro" by M. John Harrison. I read it more than once. I think this story is Borges level. In this story, the narrator is a manager at an independently owned book/music store. His boss talks about his enthrallment with a book, titled _The Castles of the Kings_, which presents a Fortean/paranormal worldview. The narrator observes the influence of this book on his boss--his boss descends into delusion.

A story I really liked is "Mind" by Les Freeman. This story hit my interests in trains, and supernatural horror. The story is a bit Kafkaesque. A man gets on a train, and the same terrible scene keeps getting repeated.

I also liked Harlan Ellison's story "Broken Glass". A man is able to be a Peeping Tom of a woman's dreams and fantasies, and she fights back. Due to the sexual content in the story, Reader Discretion Is Advised.

[Kevin Lucia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection. Some really fine stories in here. And the neat thing: lots of stories not from "career" horror folks, or from horror publications. Just very well written. The best stories are:

Touring · Gardner R. Dozois, Jack M. Dann & Michael Swanwick
Every Time You Say I Love You · Charles L. Grant
Wyntours · David G. Rowlands
On 202 · Jeff Hecht
The Trick & Through the Walls · Ramsey Campbell
Egnaro · M. John Harrison
Competition · David Clayton Carrad ·
Mind - Les Freeman

[M1ke M1ll1gan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, or close to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, darkness/horror here. Looking forward to trying some more of these Year’s Best anthologies, edited by Wagner.

Some of the standout stories being: Every Time You Say I Love You (by Charles L. Grant), The Dark Country (by Dennis Etchison), Broken Glass (by Harlan Ellison), Through the Walls (by Ramsey Campbell), and The Trick (by Ramsey Campbell)

[Daphne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a throw back for me and horror. Obviously there were duds because that is the nature of anthologies, but there were some incredible and really interesting pieces in here. Horror was definitely more experimental and strange, and I <3 it.

So happy I've been able to find ebook versions of this entire series collections. I now can have one them going whenever I want, and want to read a short horror story between my longer books.

[Hugo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another disappointingly middling selection from new editor Wagner, whose love of pastiche brings us more dusty, Jamesian ghost stories—all negligible and forgettable—while his wide-ranging and eclectic selections are perhaps too diffuse (more than half of this volume's contributors are entirely lost to history) and surely can't represent the best horror fiction of the year.

Of these nonentities, 'Firstborn' by David Campton actually represents a true horror story, with a fine, chilling ending; Les Freeman's 'Mind' takes the hoary time loop trope and fashions something psychologically haunting; while 'Competition' by David Clayton Carrad takes the basic plot of Matheson's 'Duel' and whittles it down effectively.

Of the Usual Suspects, Grant, Etchison, and Ellison offer their usual high standard, Campbell (who is inexplicably represented with two stories in this volume) is entering his '80s phase of garbled syntax word salad, and while M John Harrison's 'Egnaro' is probably the best story in the book, it's too vague and overwritten to be truly effective.

[Philip Guy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like most anthologies, this is a mixed bag. Also, many of the stories are very dated, with several stories relying heavily on 50s and 60s pop & counter-culture. One story which describes a wizened old man in a pub, and later the narrator estimates his age at 65, really shows how times have changed.
The editor, Karl Edward Wagner, was a hugely knowledgeable writer, but his fascination with psycho-sexual stories is on full display with his selection here. As such, several of the stories may not appeal to many readers, including myself.

[Megan Dabs · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like horror and short stories, this is for you. Anthologies are great because if you dont like one author's style, its just a few pages to a different vibe. I cant help but wonder if the writer of the movie Weapons has read the story The Trick. Minus one star for starting off with the worst story.

[Faisal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as strong as previous volumes but still a pretty good collection. Standouts are "Every Time You Say I Love You" by Charles L. Grant and "Egnaro" by M. John Harrison.

Have read "The Dark Country" by Dennis Etchison about 3-4 times now, still not sure if I actually like it!

[Charlie Pasta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my firsr experience with one of Karl Wagner's compilations and I really enjoyed it. Like all anthologies, the stories are hit or miss but most of them hit.

[Bill Borre]

"Mind" by Les Freeman - A woman in an insane asylum is tormented by the cries of her children who are killed in an automobile accident the same day she leaves on the train to visit family. She is eventually released from the asylum when the protagonist of the story attempts to ride the train and becomes trapped in her memory of screaming children at the station repeating over and over.

"Homecoming" by Howard Goldsmith - Mark returns to his childhood home and watches 50s television programming in the attic. The ghost of his stepbrother Jed attempts to kill Mark so that Jed can keep the house but Mark's murdered mother comes through the television and stabs Jed in the back with the same kitchen knife he used to kill her.

"On 202" by Jeff Hecht - wc
"Old Hobby Horse" by A. F. Kidd - wc