Horror Aficionados discussion

The anthologies you read during the boom horror of the 80's. Charles L Grant's quiet horror anthologies Shadows, Karl Edward Wagner The best horror of the year, Borderlands edited by Thomas F Monteleone, Masques by JN Williamson, Dark Forces by Kirby McAuley, Cutting Edge by Dennis Etchison, Ramsey Campbell and New Horrors... do you know them or you're too young on this forum? have you read them? which are your favourites?

I just finished The Barrens and Others. I believe most of the stories were written in the 1980's. This was a fun and varied compilation of well-written horror and speculative fiction. 'The Barrens' was the obvious stand-out and I loved it to bits. I wanna throw a shout-out to 'Pelts' and 'Slasher' as well.

Technically I am probably too young (born in the 90s), but I quite enjoy these sorts of anthologies and pick them up whenever I find them at used book stores (my main source of books). I would say that the "Shadows" series and related volumes are my favourites.

I'm pretty sure I read all of those as a young person but I was always partial to the Hot Blood series which started in the late 80's.


Hot Blood: Tales of Erotic Horror

I am a huge fan of many of these, as well as Prime Evil: New Stories by the Masters of Modern Horror, edited by Douglas E. Winter.
I'm personally partial to single-author collections from the same era.
I was born in 1983, so I may be "too young" by your standards, seeing as Dark Forces: New Stories of Suspense and Supernatural Horror, for one, was released before my birth. I am somewhat insulted by that assertion; any well-versed genre fan has to do some crate-digging. Is anybody still around from when Frankenstein or Dracula was published? No, but they're touchstones, and I believe many boom-era stories and novels are in the same boat.

I was born in 1987 and don't claim to be a baby prodigy, so figure for yourself...

I've partially read Dark Forces, mainly because of one particular story by T. E. D. Klein, I know Karl Edward Wagner and his works as an editor and I own several installments of Williamsons's Masques series which I still have to read.

I've recently finished Tim Sullivan's Tropical Chills: Fourteen Tales of Scorching Horror to Make Your Blood Run Cold and Dark Fantasies by Chris Morgan. One thing I love about older anthologies is their low-price availability as paperback editions.

I loved the Hot Blood series and wish there more like them out there.

I would suggest:
Silver Scream edited by David Schow
Blue World and Other Storeis by Robert McCammon
Whispers 1 - 4 edited by Stuart David Schiff
The Best of Masques edited by J.N. Williamson
and my two all time favorites: The Best Horror Stories From The Magazie of Science Fiction and Fantasy volumes 1 & 2.

Seconding,
Dark Forces ed. by Kirby McCauley, featuring what I think was first publication of King's "The Mist"

These were also edited by McCauley, pulling out some fine older work to bring to then young readers:
Night Chills -- this might be where I first read Wagner's "Sticks"; with good stories by Marjorie Bowen, Carl Jacobi, Robert Bloch and others
Frights: New Stories of Suspense & Supernatural Terror -- good stories by Joe Haldeman and Dennis Etchison, among others.

Apparently another one got by me back in the day,
Beyond Midnight -- ISFDB lists stories I know are good from Russell Kirk and Joe Haldeman (someone should publish a collection just of his horror stories)

I just scored a couple of anthologies from a used book store today.

Under the Fang

And

The Skin Trade

Bark wrote: "I'm pretty sure I read all of those as a young person but I was always partial to the Hot Blood series which started in the late 80's.


[book:Ho..."

This first volume had a few stand outs! To me Ray Garton's "Punishments" was tough as Nails and Hard to Read(in that challenging way)

Jamie wrote: "I just finished The Barrens and Others. I believe most of the stories were written in the 1980's. This was a fun and varied compilation of well-written horror and speculative fiction. 'The Barrens'..."

I was(just seconds ago) looking for a cleaner audio version of Wilson's "The Barrens", Starship Sofa did one years back but the audio quality was a little weak, Oh well, A great story regardless.

Some of these sound really good!