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Borderlands 5/From the Borderlands
BORDERLANDS 5
EDITED BY ELIZABETH E. AND THOMAS F. MONTELEONE. Borderlands(www.borderlandspress.com), $35 (282p)
ISBN 1-880325-37-3
Initiated in 1990 to “expand the envelope” of horror writing, the Borderlands anthologies have yielded an abundance of quirky and eccentric tales from writers who pushed “beyond the usual metaphors” by which contemporary horror and dark fantasy are usually defined. This fifth volume - the first in a decade - features a healthy quotient of offbeat efforts that resist simple categorization. Stephen King's “Stationary Bike,” for example, is a deft blend of paranoid fantasy and social satire about a successful weight watcher pursued by hypostatized versions of his metabolism who resent being put out of work. In “Father Bob and Bobby,” Whitley Steiber maps the mind of his priest protagonist, whose thoughts are an unsettling mix of Christian imagery and pederastic fantasy. David Schow, in “The Thing Too Hideous to Describe,” stands the horror B-movie on its head in its amusing account of a bug-eyed monster struggling to understand its symbolic role in human affairs. As in previous volumes, experimentations misfires in several stories that traffic in the grotesque and outrageous, among them Bentley Little's “The Planting,” about a man growing a new life form from a neighbor's undergarments. The majority of the 25 selections are brief, virtually plotless exercises that are triumphs of mood or narrative trickery over storytelling. Still, the range of themes that propel these uncommon tales - personal alienation, religious intolerance, the quest for transcendence, the torture of hope - expand the horror story's reach, and the wealth of relatively new writers features is encouraging. (Mar.)
Forecast: The presence of an original Stephen King tale, his first contribution to the Borderlands series, should ensure major review attention (for a specialty press) and increase the chances of a paperback reprint.
EDITED BY ELIZABETH E. AND THOMAS F. MONTELEONE. Borderlands(www.borderlandspress.com), $35 (282p)
ISBN 1-880325-37-3
Initiated in 1990 to “expand the envelope” of horror writing, the Borderlands anthologies have yielded an abundance of quirky and eccentric tales from writers who pushed “beyond the usual metaphors” by which contemporary horror and dark fantasy are usually defined. This fifth volume - the first in a decade - features a healthy quotient of offbeat efforts that resist simple categorization. Stephen King's “Stationary Bike,” for example, is a deft blend of paranoid fantasy and social satire about a successful weight watcher pursued by hypostatized versions of his metabolism who resent being put out of work. In “Father Bob and Bobby,” Whitley Steiber maps the mind of his priest protagonist, whose thoughts are an unsettling mix of Christian imagery and pederastic fantasy. David Schow, in “The Thing Too Hideous to Describe,” stands the horror B-movie on its head in its amusing account of a bug-eyed monster struggling to understand its symbolic role in human affairs. As in previous volumes, experimentations misfires in several stories that traffic in the grotesque and outrageous, among them Bentley Little's “The Planting,” about a man growing a new life form from a neighbor's undergarments. The majority of the 25 selections are brief, virtually plotless exercises that are triumphs of mood or narrative trickery over storytelling. Still, the range of themes that propel these uncommon tales - personal alienation, religious intolerance, the quest for transcendence, the torture of hope - expand the horror story's reach, and the wealth of relatively new writers features is encouraging. (Mar.)
Forecast: The presence of an original Stephen King tale, his first contribution to the Borderlands series, should ensure major review attention (for a specialty press) and increase the chances of a paperback reprint.
Comments
Borderlands 5 won the Stoker Award in the Anthology category! Bev, now that's a pretty awesome addition to your writing resume! That goes for the three other Borderlands 5 writers that frequent this board - Brian, Bill and Ms. Lori!
You guys (and gal) are an inspiration to the rest of us aspiring writers!
Author: Ms. Lori
I'm so thrilled for Tom and Elizabeth (Tom also won a Stoker for his “Mothers and Fathers Italian Association”), and I'm so honored to be a part (albeit a tiny one) of this amazing anthology. Wish I could've been there to meet them both.
I went to the banquet last year, had a great time, but this year would've been even more special. !@#$ Why, oh, why must I be so poor...
Author: Bev Vincent
Perhaps the closest I'll ever get to a Stoker! The award actually goes to the editors, and there is a proposal on board at the HWA to make this clearer in the future. The kudos belong to the Monteleones, not only for picking such a great set of stories, but also for helping each of the contributors whip their stories into the best they could possibly be. I'm thrilled to be a part of it--I wonder if there's time for them to get a blurb on the cover of FROM THE BORDERLANDS to this effect.
Author: The Drawing of the 7
“...but also for helping each of the contributors whip their stories into the best they could possibly be.”
They seem like wonderful people. My wife recently got her rejection letter for Borderlands 6, and it was very nice. They said the story was well-written but not right for BL6, and that she should try again with another story. This is SO much nicer than the faceless form letters we're all so used to getting.
Still haven't gotten my rejection, but I entertain no delusions: I'm totally sure my story won't be picked. It's a good little tale, but I doubt it's right for BL6. I look forward to coment from T&E, though.
I wonder: will BL6 be released in paperback as FROM THE BORDERLANDS 2?
In other Stoker news: LOST BOY, LOST GIRL took home the best novel award. I haven't read the books it was up against (aside from WOLVES OF THE CALLA, which probably should not have been nominated), but I thought LB, LG was wonderful.
THE RISING was voted best first novel. It's in my TBR pile...
Congrats on being a part of BORDERLANDS 5, Bev!
Author: Bill Gauthier
BL 5 got it?! Wow. Hey, congrats everyone and thanks to those who congrat-ed us!
Bill
Author: newinside
Congrats all around.
I can't really say too much about the award since I don't know anything about the competition, but I thought BL5 was a great read and I enjoyed everything in it.
Author: Rache4173
Ditto what new said.
Author: Bev
The awards are voted on by the active membership of the HWA (Horror Writers Association).
For anthology, the nominees were:
Southern Blood: New Australian Tales of the Supernatural edited by Bill Congreve
Gathering The Bones edited by Jack Dann, Ramsey Campbell and Dennis Etchison
The Dark edited by Ellen Datlow
The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: 16th Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling
Borderlands 5 edited by Elizabeth and Thomas Monteleone
Author: newinside
I don't know any of those other anthologies.
Clearly, they must be good, since they are all nominees. I am curious, is there is any one or two that those of you more familar with this stuff would recommend?
Author: Bev Vincent
The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror is always a good bet. It's a sort of “best of” collection of things that have were published last year. My story “Harming Obsession” received honorable mention in the back of this edition. It's a big chunk of fiction and will introduce you to a wide selection of what's hot in both genres.
Author: newinside
Interesting. I will check it out (After I get through SoS, of course).
Author: Old Darth
Congrats to everyone connected with the book.
Adds another book to his evergrowing reading list....
"Since the Monteleones emphasize newer talent, sometimes a story's shivers are clumsily achieved, but tales of metamorphosis by Bev Vincent ("One of Those Weeks") and Bill Gautier ("The Growth of Alan Ashley") and Dominick Cancilla's study in psychopathology ("Smooth Operator") are shockingly polished."
Very cool to see names of people you sorta, kinda, know if you know what I mean. 8)
Great piece of work Bev. I chuckled several times. The last two entries were clever.
BTW - I'm not a big mystery reader so I'm curious if those fictional detectives you came up with are homages to other fictional ones?
Solid piece of work and belated congrats!
It's an odd mishmash of "real" fictional detectives and unreal settings. I don't know any crime novels set in Iceland, for example. Cozies are an entire genre of crime fiction (Agatha Christie's Miss Marple mysteries, for example), but none set in New Delhi as far as I know.
Tough but sensitive detective with a golden retriever: Spenser by Robert B. Parker (Boston, not Gdansk). Former child psychologist: Alex Delaware by Jonathan Kellerman (LA). Burglar running a used bookstore: Bernie Rhodenbarr in Lawrence Block's "The Burglar Who..." series. (NY)
HBJ,
in awe of kinda knowing a bona-fide author, do ya ken?
Enter to win one of five limited edition hardcovers. You will also receive a copy of the new paperback edition to keep or share with a friend. An additional 5 people will be selected to receive only the paperback version
I heard reports that the book has been getting prominent displays everywhere, including in Detroit airport!
-DOG
I mentioned the anthology in my interview with the book critic with USA Today yesterday to get another little back door plug in -- maybe he'll mention it in the article next week.
I'm looking forward to reading The Road to the Dark Tower. What else have you got coming out?
-Darren
I have a story in the current issue of All Hallows (June '04), and a story coming out in the Michael Bracken anthology Fedora III from Wildside Press later this fall. Whenever Here and Now gets issue 7 out, I have one in there, too. I have an essay in Studies in Modern Horror #5 next spring and there's The Illustrated Stephen King Trivia Book from CD this fall, too.
I'm working on a proposal for the next non-fiction book and revisions of a novel that my agent is very excited about.
How about you?
I'll add my thoughts here later.
I have stories in the Kealan-edited anthos, Quietly Now: An Anthology in Tribute to Charles L. Grant, and Tales From the Gorezone.
Next summer Apathetic Flesh, a story collection will be released.
Presently, though, I'm focused on completing a novel. Then again, who isn't?
-Darren
Hope you like it. Well, "like" isn't really the right word, I suppose.
I wrote the thing back in the early 90's. Feels a bit odd to have such an old work in a new publication.
Best,
-Darren
It is easy to see why this collection won the Bram Stroker Award.
Writing in second-person, present tense is not normally the way to appeal to a mass audience, but, what the hell, eh?
-Darren