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The Best of Michael Marshall Smith
In 1990, British-born author Michael Marshall Smith burst on to the literary scene with his first story "The Man Who Drew Cats." It won the prestigious British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction, and he went on to win the award again the next year. In a career that has now spanned three decades he has written nearly 100 short stories, published more than a dozen best-selling novels around the world, and scripted numerous movie and television projects.
Now, to celebrate his three decades as a writer, The Best of Michael Marshall Smith brings together thirty of his most emotive and powerful stories (including all his award-winning short fiction), along with extensive story notes by the author.
Featuring evocative heading illustrations by Les Edwards, this career-spanning collection includes such memorable tales as "Hell Hath Enlarged Itself," "More Tomorrow," "To Receive is Better," "What You Make It," "Later," "The Dark Land," "What Happens When You Wake Up in the Night," "Always," and many others, in their definitive versions.
By turns touching, disturbing, and frightening, these stories are not limited by theme or genre, but reveal a writer always in command, and whose imagination knows no bounds. The Best of Michael Marshall Smith is the ultimate compilation of the author's work, and stands as a testament to his mastery of, and commitment to, his craft.
Now, to celebrate his three decades as a writer, The Best of Michael Marshall Smith brings together thirty of his most emotive and powerful stories (including all his award-winning short fiction), along with extensive story notes by the author.
Featuring evocative heading illustrations by Les Edwards, this career-spanning collection includes such memorable tales as "Hell Hath Enlarged Itself," "More Tomorrow," "To Receive is Better," "What You Make It," "Later," "The Dark Land," "What Happens When You Wake Up in the Night," "Always," and many others, in their definitive versions.
By turns touching, disturbing, and frightening, these stories are not limited by theme or genre, but reveal a writer always in command, and whose imagination knows no bounds. The Best of Michael Marshall Smith is the ultimate compilation of the author's work, and stands as a testament to his mastery of, and commitment to, his craft.
568 pages, Hardcover
Published December 31, 2020
36 people are currently reading
152 people want to read
About the author
Michael Marshall Smith
253 books1,057 followersMichael Marshall (Smith) is a bestselling novelist and screenwriter. His first novel, ONLY FORWARD, won the August Derleth and Philip K. Dick awards. SPARES and ONE OF US were optioned for film by DreamWorks and Warner Brothers, and the Straw Men trilogy - THE STRAW MEN, THE LONELY DEAD and BLOOD OF ANGELS - were international bestsellers. His most recent novels are THE INTRUDERS, BAD THINGS and KILLER MOVE.
He is a four-time winner of the BFS Award for short fiction, and his stories are collected in two volumes - WHAT YOU MAKE IT and MORE TOMORROW AND OTHER STORIES (which won the International Horror Guild Award).
He lives in Santa Cruz, California with his wife and son.
He is a four-time winner of the BFS Award for short fiction, and his stories are collected in two volumes - WHAT YOU MAKE IT and MORE TOMORROW AND OTHER STORIES (which won the International Horror Guild Award).
He lives in Santa Cruz, California with his wife and son.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 16, 2021
This collection took me a while to get through. It’s huge, hefty, positively fat. It’s something that certainly works for books in a nicer way than it does for people, but still for this specific reader, it’s a turn off. Then again, if any book has a right to be fat, it’s a best of collection. Especially by an author as excellent as Michael Marshall Smith.
In his case, the page count denotes not the dearth of discipline, not a lamentable tendency for verbosity, but a sheer immense quality of work. All these stories can easily be described as best. In fact, as of now I’m yet to read a MMS (or any his pseudonymed work) and now find it worthy of the inclusion in best as a category or a collection. I did read some of the stories included in this volume before, but even those were a pleasant reread. Most of them were new to me, though. New and great and difficult to put down. Thank goodness for kindles, because unputdownable 544 page book is an entirely different proposition.
So is 544 pages too long for a best of? Is it still selective at all? Well, yes, if you consider that MMS’ career spans 30 years and, as of the time of the boo’s afterword, 96 published short stories. But here are some of the most impressive things about his short stories…they usually take no more than two of three days to write and they are usually written on demand, as in prompted by publishers, solicited for themed anthologies, etc. In fact, in general, MMS is a highly commercial author, specializing in the most marketable of genres and hopping them with ease, simply shifting gears, changing his name and presto….there it is, another fun adventure.
I admit to not having read as many of them as I would have liked, because despite his commercial appeal, our library doesn’t seem to have any of his ebooks. But in an ideal world I would very much like to. Because I absolutely love his writing. The man is a natural born storyteller, he writes so vividly, so realistically that his tales play put cinematically on the silver screen of the mind. Absolutely first rate character development too, with these complex, flawed and completely believable individuals populating his worlds. And the imagination on that guy…the plots he comes up…it’s a thing of beauty. There's also his awesome ability to pivot the story on a dime and turn it and its protagonists into something much darker and scarier. And all of it is wildly original to boot.
In fact, the only story in the entire book that reminded me of something (and strongly) is The Gist which read almost like a bookish pastiche to The Story of The Late Mr. Elvesham, but then it’s followed up by a terrific and terrifically original stab at metafiction where the author shows himself interact with the characters he created. So clever. And such an excellent reminder of MMS’ creativity and ability to pivot in any direction and excel. Nowhere is it more obvious than toward the end, with a crazybutitworks juxtaposition of a nightmarish fecal driven apocalypse (yes, seriously) and a subtle poignant tale of dealing with death of parents. Yes, the man can do it all. Even the ways he takes on genre standards (zombies, cosmic, etc.) is wildly original.
So yes, I’m not even going to try to name my favorites, there were too many. If ever there was a fat book worth the time, it’s this one. Mind you, it might not be for everyone. It’s very dark, with barely a story (Seventeenth Kind)or two to change things up. It’s dark often in a bleak depressing way, in a way that someone who glimpsed behind the gaudily colored curtain of positivity and cheer and beheld the true state of things might write. For me, it’s a major attractor. That level of realism. Might not be for some. But for fans of literary dark psychological fiction spanning a gamut of genres, this will work awesomely. Because that’s what this collection is, in a word, awesome. Even despite the author’s seeming inability to write a nonsmoking character or his lamentable passion for felines. Still awesome. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
In his case, the page count denotes not the dearth of discipline, not a lamentable tendency for verbosity, but a sheer immense quality of work. All these stories can easily be described as best. In fact, as of now I’m yet to read a MMS (or any his pseudonymed work) and now find it worthy of the inclusion in best as a category or a collection. I did read some of the stories included in this volume before, but even those were a pleasant reread. Most of them were new to me, though. New and great and difficult to put down. Thank goodness for kindles, because unputdownable 544 page book is an entirely different proposition.
So is 544 pages too long for a best of? Is it still selective at all? Well, yes, if you consider that MMS’ career spans 30 years and, as of the time of the boo’s afterword, 96 published short stories. But here are some of the most impressive things about his short stories…they usually take no more than two of three days to write and they are usually written on demand, as in prompted by publishers, solicited for themed anthologies, etc. In fact, in general, MMS is a highly commercial author, specializing in the most marketable of genres and hopping them with ease, simply shifting gears, changing his name and presto….there it is, another fun adventure.
I admit to not having read as many of them as I would have liked, because despite his commercial appeal, our library doesn’t seem to have any of his ebooks. But in an ideal world I would very much like to. Because I absolutely love his writing. The man is a natural born storyteller, he writes so vividly, so realistically that his tales play put cinematically on the silver screen of the mind. Absolutely first rate character development too, with these complex, flawed and completely believable individuals populating his worlds. And the imagination on that guy…the plots he comes up…it’s a thing of beauty. There's also his awesome ability to pivot the story on a dime and turn it and its protagonists into something much darker and scarier. And all of it is wildly original to boot.
In fact, the only story in the entire book that reminded me of something (and strongly) is The Gist which read almost like a bookish pastiche to The Story of The Late Mr. Elvesham, but then it’s followed up by a terrific and terrifically original stab at metafiction where the author shows himself interact with the characters he created. So clever. And such an excellent reminder of MMS’ creativity and ability to pivot in any direction and excel. Nowhere is it more obvious than toward the end, with a crazybutitworks juxtaposition of a nightmarish fecal driven apocalypse (yes, seriously) and a subtle poignant tale of dealing with death of parents. Yes, the man can do it all. Even the ways he takes on genre standards (zombies, cosmic, etc.) is wildly original.
So yes, I’m not even going to try to name my favorites, there were too many. If ever there was a fat book worth the time, it’s this one. Mind you, it might not be for everyone. It’s very dark, with barely a story (Seventeenth Kind)or two to change things up. It’s dark often in a bleak depressing way, in a way that someone who glimpsed behind the gaudily colored curtain of positivity and cheer and beheld the true state of things might write. For me, it’s a major attractor. That level of realism. Might not be for some. But for fans of literary dark psychological fiction spanning a gamut of genres, this will work awesomely. Because that’s what this collection is, in a word, awesome. Even despite the author’s seeming inability to write a nonsmoking character or his lamentable passion for felines. Still awesome. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
February 19, 2025
Most of these tales are characterized by a degree of chilling creepiness, blended with some genuinely touching and heartfelt emotion. While I didn't generally find the majority all that compelling, when the formula did work, it worked well. My favorites included:
Hell Hath Enlarged Herself (3.5) - Strange and chilling fusion of sci-fi and supernatural horror. A team of young scientists, full of hubris, attempt to leverage nanotechnology to communicate with the dead. What could possibly go wrong? Right near the middle the story pivots hard from pure sci-fi to what I guess is horror/fantasy. In some ways that felt unique and refreshing, but I also felt that it flew a bit too far off the handle.
What You Make It (4.0) - A disturbing sci-fi tale where a Disney like theme park has a uniquely creepy and darkly humorous way of dealing with offenders. The superficiality of the theme park is exposed, while still somehow maintaining its magical attraction.
Later (3.5) - Creepy yet heartfelt zombie romance.
The Dark Land (4.0) - A bizarre and claustrophobic alternative reality nightmare. This is the weird type of shit that your brain cooks up while dreaming, but that your conscious mind has no way to process and immediately jettisons upon waking.
Always (3.5) - Touching, heartfelt story of a young woman's coming to terms with the death of her mother.
Hell Hath Enlarged Herself (3.5) - Strange and chilling fusion of sci-fi and supernatural horror. A team of young scientists, full of hubris, attempt to leverage nanotechnology to communicate with the dead. What could possibly go wrong? Right near the middle the story pivots hard from pure sci-fi to what I guess is horror/fantasy. In some ways that felt unique and refreshing, but I also felt that it flew a bit too far off the handle.
What You Make It (4.0) - A disturbing sci-fi tale where a Disney like theme park has a uniquely creepy and darkly humorous way of dealing with offenders. The superficiality of the theme park is exposed, while still somehow maintaining its magical attraction.
Later (3.5) - Creepy yet heartfelt zombie romance.
The Dark Land (4.0) - A bizarre and claustrophobic alternative reality nightmare. This is the weird type of shit that your brain cooks up while dreaming, but that your conscious mind has no way to process and immediately jettisons upon waking.
Always (3.5) - Touching, heartfelt story of a young woman's coming to terms with the death of her mother.
March 8, 2021
I was leaving the library and this book just seemed to have my name on it. It didn’t stop as I got deeper into the stories:
“I couldn’t shut it out. I couldn’t believe that I was noticing how cold it was,...I wanted to feel something,..., but I couldn’t. All I could feel was the world round me, the same old world. But it wasn’t a world that had been there a week ago, and I couldn’t understand...”
“It’s funny how when you first know someone, it will be the face you notice most of all...Then over the years, it’s as if this part of them leaves the body and goes into your head, crystallizes there. You hardly notice what the years are doing, the way people’s actual faces thicken and dim and change. Every now and then something brings you up short, and makes you see the way things have become.”
“Her coffee isn’t too bad, once you’ve grown accustomed to it. Jack methodically poured five spoons of sugar into the brew, which is one of the ways of getting accustomed to it.”
“And kids of that age laughing is one of the best soothers is. It’s the kind of sound that makes the trees grow. They’re young and curious and the world spins round them and when they laugh they make it seem a brighter place, because it takes you back to the time when you knew no evil and everything was good, or if it wasn’t, it would be over by tomorrow.”
But best of all for me was “Being Right” - it really sets you right - or would that be not right, but right?
“I couldn’t shut it out. I couldn’t believe that I was noticing how cold it was,...I wanted to feel something,..., but I couldn’t. All I could feel was the world round me, the same old world. But it wasn’t a world that had been there a week ago, and I couldn’t understand...”
“It’s funny how when you first know someone, it will be the face you notice most of all...Then over the years, it’s as if this part of them leaves the body and goes into your head, crystallizes there. You hardly notice what the years are doing, the way people’s actual faces thicken and dim and change. Every now and then something brings you up short, and makes you see the way things have become.”
“Her coffee isn’t too bad, once you’ve grown accustomed to it. Jack methodically poured five spoons of sugar into the brew, which is one of the ways of getting accustomed to it.”
“And kids of that age laughing is one of the best soothers is. It’s the kind of sound that makes the trees grow. They’re young and curious and the world spins round them and when they laugh they make it seem a brighter place, because it takes you back to the time when you knew no evil and everything was good, or if it wasn’t, it would be over by tomorrow.”
But best of all for me was “Being Right” - it really sets you right - or would that be not right, but right?
July 29, 2024
Most of the stories were fantastic. Not as much a fan of the stories that felt more Michael Marshall, alas. Still, glad I have it and read them all.
January 16, 2021
This is an amazing collection of Michael Marshall Smith's short stories over the past 30 years, highlighting the darker side of his imagination, for the most part, streaked through with a few lighter moments. A couple of the stories are related to some of his novels - one connects to Spares, an early novel he wrote under the MMS moniker. The other connects to one of the novels written under his Michael Marshall pseudonym. I've always enjoyed the MMS novels more - they feel more imaginative, unique, and emotionally satisfying. Those adjectives apply to almost every story in this collection. Even better, there are story notes at the back of the volume, giving his personal perspective on each story, making for very interesting and in some cases revelatory reading.
Highly recommended, a great collection from the always wonderful Subterranean Press.
Highly recommended, a great collection from the always wonderful Subterranean Press.
December 17, 2020
First off, this book is a Subterranean Press release, which means its going to be of the highest quality. They just don't make bad books. I've never read any of MMS's short stories before, however I've read a few of his novels and loved them all. There is a lot of book here to enjoy, the stories range from approximately 10-30 pages each and the book is about 540 pages long. I really enjoyed most of these stories, there is a few that were only okay for me and mostly because they were just too short to get into the story, I certainly found that I liked the longer stories in the collection. All in all a very good and fun collection of stories.
June 9, 2021
I started this (1kg) book just to read one story as a kind of palate cleanser. Once I was halfway through the book I gave up pretending that it wasn't on my 'Currently Reading' heap.
An enjoyable journey through the short fiction of Michael Marshall Smith, with some real surprises in there - just when you get used to the idea that the protagonist is almost certainly evil in some shape, you get hit with a story where the protagonist is just living their life, or trying to do the right thing, or make sure that they appear in a sequel. It adds a bit of spice, where otherwise these stories might have started to blend into each other.
An enjoyable journey through the short fiction of Michael Marshall Smith, with some real surprises in there - just when you get used to the idea that the protagonist is almost certainly evil in some shape, you get hit with a story where the protagonist is just living their life, or trying to do the right thing, or make sure that they appear in a sequel. It adds a bit of spice, where otherwise these stories might have started to blend into each other.
November 19, 2022
I didn't realize how many (several, 6 or 7 I think) short stories by MMS I had already read in various horror and fantasy anthologies until I read this Best Of. What a great collection. I was sorry when it ended. Smith is prolific and so very good, so deft in shifting from bleak to horrifying to laugh-out-loud sarcasm. I look forward to his next collection, whenever that will be. Meanwhile am reading some of his work written under other names. Love this author... he is truly a master of the short story, some of them properly horror-iffic, some with unforeseen twists ("Things My Father Said"), some unutterably poignant ("Later"), some darkly funny ("The Author of the Death"), some filled with pretty deep and relevant observations on life and memory and relationships and self ("The Burning Woods", which I read through twice and will surely read again.) Wonderful stuff.
January 30, 2021
Despite Michael Marshall Smith being one of my favorite writers, I had not read any of his short stories before getting this wonderful collection. His way of developing fully fleshed out characters so efficiently, and sticking a satisfying ending story after story is truly impressive. All of them are good, but ‘The Burning Woods’ sticks out as the highlight for me. Highly recommend.
August 27, 2021
A collection of 30 stories from the master of the macabre and the mysterious. Monsters, of the human variety as well as the mythological, cause mayhem and madness. But there is real sensitivity here too, particularly in the writing about grief.
March 29, 2021
Such a brilliant short story collection! Couldn't choose, which one is my favourite, each one is special! ❤
June 9, 2021
An author who excels at short stories.
May 28, 2022
Absolutely magnificent collection of short stories by Michael Marshall Smith.
March 17, 2024
If you enjoy Ray Bradbury, you owe it to yourself to check this out. This is the most Ray Bradbury stuff since Ray first Bradburied.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews