The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. Fifth Annual Collection

More: “For two centuries, horrid short stories have been one-note compositions, reducible to a gimmick apiece. Their length, of course, compels simplification, along with a narrow focus of emotional appeal . . . they seldom try anything radically new. ...” Where has Kendrick been the last twenty years? Has he read any Shirley Jackson, Dennis Etchison, Karl Edward Wagner, Peter Straub or Joyce Carol Oates?

An awful lot of irrelevancies (his survey of theatre in the nineteenth century) and contradictions. He calls Poe and Hawthorne “two of the nation’s finest writers,” then pretty much trashes Poe and goes on to assert I m paraphrasing here that Poe’s unreliable narrators, who can call into question the nature of reality or of human knowledge, are an unintentional narrative device by Poe because he [Poe] obviously believes in rationality, proven by his detective M. Dupin stories. Hasn’t Kendrick ever heard of using different narrative devices for different stories?

This is not to say he doesn’t have some interesting points. He does. For example, he says “The effects of death are horrific, but immortality redeems them. We have forgotten the second half but preserved the first.” For the most part, though, this book is a lot of glib nonsense.

Other nonfiction titles of note: A Youth in Babylon: Confessions of a 1 rash-Film Movie King by David F. Friedman (Prometheus); The Charm of Eviclass="underline" The Life and Films of Terrence Fisher by Wheeler Dixon (McFarland); The Cosmical Horror of H. P. Lovecraft: A Pictorial Anthology (Glittering Images-Italy [215] 374-7477 for information on ordering); Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror: 1990 by Charles N. Brown and William G. Contento (Locus Press); The Trial ofGilles de Rais by George Bataille (Amok—first English translation of 1965 French); So You Want to Make Movies by Sidney Pink (Pineapple Press); Science Fiction Stars and Horror Heroes by Tom Weaver (McFarland); The Modem Horror Film: 50 Contemporary Classics from “The Curse of Frankenstein” to “The Lair of the White Worm” by John McCarty (Citadel); Beauty and the Beast: Visions and Revisions of an Old Tale by Betsy Hearne (University of Chicago); The Annotated She: H. Rider Haggard’s Victorian Romance, introduction and notes by Norman Ether-ington (Indiana University Press); Haunting the House of Fiction: Feminist Perspectives on Ghost Stories by American Woman edited by Lynette Carpenter and Wendy K. Kolmar (University of Tennessee); The Shape Under the Sheet: The Complete Stephen King Encyclopedia by Stephen Spignesi (Popular Culture Ink); Horror Comics: The Illustrated History by Mike Benton (Taylor Publishing); How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy, & Science Fiction edited by J. N. Williamson (Writer’s Digest Books); True Stories from the Great Ghost Hunter by Elliott O’Donnell (Avery); Phantom of the Opera by Philip J. Riley, includes script facsimile, complete pressbook, Lon Chaney’s notes, art department sketches, and a reconstruction of the five versions of the 1925 production (Samuel French Trade); The Nightmare Considered: Critical Essays on Nuclear War Literature edited by Nancy Anisfield (Bowling Green State University Popular Press); Mad Doctors, Monsters and Mummies!: Lobby Card Posters from Hollywood Horrors and Things, Its and Aliens! Lobby Card Posters from Sci-Fi Shockers! by Denis Gifford are large format poster books (Green Wood-UK); Boris Karloff by Scott Allen Nollen (McFarland); An Epicure in the Terrible: A Centennial Anthology of Essays in Honor of H. P. Lovecraft by David E. Schultz and S. T. Joshi (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press); Night Stalking: A 20th Anniversary Kolchak Companion by Mark Dawidziak (Image Publishing); H. R. Giger Art by H. R. Giger—art book/autobiography (Taschen-Germany); Edgar Allen Poe: Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance by Kenneth Silverman (HarperCollins); Hoffman’s Guide to SF, Horror and Fantasy Movies 1991-1992 (Corgi); Images of Fear: How Horror Stories Helped Shape Modern Culture (1818-1918) (McFarland); The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: Texts, Contexts, Histories edited by Mike Budd (Rutgers University Press); Invasion of the Body Snatchers edited by A1 LaValley— script of classic film plus reviews, essays, and commentary (Rutgers University Press); The Dark Shadows Companion: 25th Anniversary Collection by Kathryn Leigh Scott (Pomegranate Press); Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn (Knopf); How to Write Horror Fiction by William F. Nolan (Writer’s Digest); Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon (Houghton Mifflin); The Stephen King Story: A Literary Profile by George Beahm (Andrews & McMeel).