The best horror of the year. Volume 9

457 Pages·2017·2 MB·English

by  coll.

Night Shade Books
an Imprint of Start Publishing
The Best Horror of the Year Volume Nine © 2017 by Ellen Datlow All rights
reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the
express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in
critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Start Publishing
LLC, 101 Hudson Street, 37th Floor, Jersey City, NJ 07302.
Night Shade Books is an imprint of Start Publishing LLC.
Visit our website at www.nightshade.start-publishing.com.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
Interior layout and design by Amy Popovich Cover art by Kevin Peterson
Cover design by Amy Popovich and Lesley Worrell Print ISBN: 978-1-59780-
630-5
Printed in the United States of America
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Michael Kelly, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, and Gardner Dozois for
recommendations.
Thanks to all the publishers and editors who sent me their books and
magazines.
Thanks to Video Watchdog, Rue Morgue, the British Fantasy Journal, and
Locus magazine for reference and reviews that pointed me to cover books I
might not have been aware of.
And thanks especially to Kristine Dikeman, my stalwart reader, and to my
patient editor Jason Katzman.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Summation 2016 – Ellen Datlow
Nesters – Siobhan Carroll
The Oestridae – Robert Levy
The Process Is a Process All Its Own – Peter Straub
The Bad Hour – Christopher Golden
Red Rabbit – Steve Rasnic Tem
It’s All the Same Road in the End – Brian Hodge
Fury – DB Waters
Grave Goods – Gemma Files
Between Dry Ribs – Gregory Norman Bossert
The Days of Our Lives – Adam L. G. Nevill
The House of Wonders – C.E. Ward
The Numbers – Christopher Burns
Bright Crown of Joy – Livia Llewellyn
The Beautiful Thing We Will Become – Kristi DeMeester
Wish You Were Here – Nadia Bulkin
Ragman – Rebecca Lloyd
What’s Out There? – Gary McMahon
No Matter Which Way We Turned – Brian Evenson
The Castellmarch Man – Ray Cluley
The Ice Beneath Us – Steve Duffy
On These Blackened Shores of Time – Brian Hodge
Honorable Mentions
About the Authors
Acknowledgment of Copyright
About the Editor
SUMMATION 2016
H
ere are 2016’s numbers: There are twenty-one stories and novelettes in
this year’s volume, ranging from 500 words to 14,400 words. They
were chosen from anthologies, print magazines, webzines, single-author
chapbooks, and single-author collections. Eleven of the contributors live in the
United States, one lives in Canada, and eight in the United Kingdom. One writer
grew up in Indonesia, one in New Zealand (as well as England). Six contributors
are female, fourteen male (two novelettes are by one male writer). The authors
of eight stories have never appeared in previous volumes of my year’s best.
AWARDS
The Horror Writers Association announced the winners of the 2015 Bram Stoker
Awards® May 14, 2016, at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The
presentations were made during a banquet held at the inaugural Stokercon. The
winners:
Superior Achievement in a Novel: A Head Full of Ghosts by
Paul Tremblay, (William Morrow); Superior Achievement in a
First Novel: Mr. Suicide by Nicole Cushing (Word Horde
Press); Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel: Devil’s
Pocket by John Dixon (Simon & Schuster); Superior
Achievement in a Graphic Novel: Shadow Show: Stories in
Celebration of Ray Bradbury: by Sam Weller, Mort Castle,
Chris Ryall, & Carlos Guzman (editors) (IDW Publishing);
Superior Achievement in Long Fiction: “Little Dead Red” by
Mercedes Yardley (Grimm Mistresses, Ragnorak Publications);
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction: “Happy Joe’s Rest
Stop” by John Palisano (18 Wheels of Horror, Big Time Books);
Superior Achievement in a Screenplay: It Follows by David
Robert Mitchell (Northern Lights Films); Superior Achievement
in an Anthology: The Library of the Dead edited by Michael
Bailey (Written Backwards); Superior Achievement in a Fiction
Collection: While the Black Stars Burn by Lucy A. Snyder (Raw
Dog Screaming Press); Superior Achievement in Nonfiction:
The Art of Horror by Stephen Jones (Applause Theatre Books
and Cinema Book Publishers); Superior Achievement in a
Poetry Collection: Eden Underground by Alessandro Manzetti
(Crystal Lake Publishing).
The Specialty Press Award: Borderlands Press.
The Richard Layman President’s Award: Patrick Freivald and
Andrew Wolter.
The Silver Hammer Award: Michael Knost.
Mentor of the Year went to Tim Waggoner.
Life Achievement Awards: Alan Moore and George R.
Romero.
The 2015 Shirley Jackson Awards were given out at Readercon on July 10,
2016, in Quincy, Massachusetts. Jurors were Robert Shearman, Bev Vincent,
Livia Llewellyn, Simon Kurt Unsworth, and Kaaron Warren.
The winners were: Novel: Experimental Film by Gemma Files
(ChiZine Publications); Novella: Wylding Hall by Elizabeth
Hand (PS Publishing-UK/Open Road Media-US); Novelette:
“Even Clean Hands Can Do Damage” by Steve Duffy
(Supernatural Tales #30, Autumn); Short Fiction: “The Dying
Season” by Lynda E. Rucker (Aickman’s Heirs); Single-author
Collection: The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King
(Scribner); Edited Anthology: Aickman’s Heirs edited by Simon
Strantzas (Undertow Publications).
The World Fantasy Awards were presented October 30, 2016, at a banquet held
during the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, Ohio. The Lifetime
Achievement recipients, David G. Hartwell and Andrzej Sapkowski, were
previously announced. The judges were Laird Barron, Rani Graff, Elaine Isaak,
Kay Kenyon, and Konrad Walewski.
Winners for the best work in 2015: Novel: The Chimes by
Anna Smaill (Sceptre, UK); Long Fiction: “The Unlicensed
Magician” by Kelly Barnhill (PS Publishing); Short Fiction:
“Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong
(Nightmare magazine, October 2015); Anthology: She Walks in
Shadows edited by Silvia Marino-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles
(Innsmouth Free Press); Collection: Bone Swans by C.S.E.
Cooney (Mythic Delirium Books); Artist: Galen Dara; Special
Award, Professional: Stephen Jones for The Art of Horror
(Applause Theatre Books and Cinema Book Publishers); Special
Award, Non-Professional: John O’Neill for Black Gate:
Adventures in Fantasy Literature.
NOTABLE NOVELS OF 2016
Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley (Little, Brown) is the long-awaited sequel to the
brilliantly entertaining The Rook, about the Checquy, a top secret group of
supernatural operatives working out of the British government. In this book,
Mythwany Thomas, who is The Rook, plays a secondary role to two young
women who couldn’t be more unalike. One is a member of the Checquy. The
other is a Grafter, the Checquy’s centuries long enemy. Although deeply
distrustful of each other, the two are forced to work together when the tenuous
peace is seemingly being sabotaged. Murder, mayhem, humor, and a fascinating
look at diplomacy on a supernatural scale.
The Everything Box by Richard Kadrey (HarperCollins) is the
first in a new dark fantasy series by the author of the
celebrated Sandman Slim novels. One thing is immediately
apparent: angels are assholes. The plot revolves around a box
that a low-ranking but ambitious angel is ordered to use to
destroy the world. Alas, the angel loses the box and has been
stuck on Earth for thousands of years, searching for it. But the
book is really about Coop, a thief immune to magic who is
coerced into stealing the box back. Violent and full of action,
the novel is also very funny.
The Perdition Score by Richard Kadrey (HarperCollins) is the