Tales of Pain and Wonder

This collection of twenty-two short stories by the author of Daughter of Hounds and Alabaster, originally published in 2000, firmly established Caitlín R. Kiernan as one of the preeminent voices in dark fantasy today. Through a cycle of interconnected narratives, Kiernan unflinchingly explores a surreal world where the fantastic and the mundane are never separated by more than the insubstantial thickness of a shadow. From the murderous backstreets of New Orleans to an abandoned shipyard of the Hudson River, from sun-weary Los Angeles to a maze of dank and forgotten tunnels beneath Manhattan, these stories present a landscape at once alien and undeniably familiar.Including such acclaimed tales as "Estate" (selected for The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror), "Postcards from the King of Tides" (selected for The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror), "In the Water Works" (the basis of Kiernan's award-winning second novel, Threshold), and "Tears Seven Times Salt" (to be reprinted in The Century's Best Horror), Tales of Pain and Wonder is destined to stand as a modern classic of weird and supernatural fiction. This edition includes a new, previously unpublished story, as well as an introduction by Douglas E. Winter and an afterword by Peter Straub.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Each story in this definitive third edition of Kiernan's loosely linked collection stands alone as a visceral slice of life. While Anamorphosis and To This Water rely on the overdone menaces of pedophilia and rape, Bela's Plot (a four-time IHG award winner) establishes a delicate balance between the romance of decay and deliberately undercutting characters' gothic pretensions. Glass Coffin, Salammbô, Salmagundi, ...Between the Gargoyle Trees and the previously unpublished Salammbô Redux relate the history of sisters Salmagundi and Salammbô Desvernine and their disturbed and disturbing extended family. Paedomorphosis and Rats Live on No Evil Star approach closest to classic horror, driven by revulsion and fear of the alien, while in Estate, a human terrorizes a supernatural creature, and San Andreas relies on pure human nature for its shuddery effect. Together, the impact of these stories is stunning: glancing collisions between psychics, runaways, junkies, artists and whores (who, as in Kiernan's Silk, function as a loose alternative to a family) add up to a portrait of something broken and beautiful. (Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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