999: New Stories of Horror and Suspense

The weaving of fictional suspense and terror is as ancient as humankind itself. But where does this age-old tradition stand at the cusp of a new decade, a new century, a new millennium? This mammoth volume seeks to answer that question. Your hold in your hands the state of the art -- of fear.To prepare this groundbreaking anthology, writer and editor Al Sarrantonio challenged a distinguished roster of authors to demonstrate with all-new stories the shape of horror/suspense literature as we enter the twenty-first century. As you will read the twenty-nine contributors responded by displaying the infinite variety which is the very hallmark of this field. Some of these stories will startle you or fill you with terror. Some will haunt you long after you finish reading them. There is even an eerily echoing chuckle or two found inside. But together, these weirdest of tales join to form a great literary mosaic, a vivid contemporary portrait of a genre which is proud, potent, and irresistible.Not only is this the largest anthology of original horror/suspense fiction of all time -- not one story in 999 has ever been published before -- but it is also the finest. Here is a major publishing event with an attitude: to shake you up and scare you silly.

Amazon.com Review

This colossal collection of truly original horror and nonsupernatural suspense proves that the contemporary horror genre is alive and kicking--with enough talented heirs to keep it breathing for many years to come. Here the well-known masters of the macabre--Stephen King, Bentley Little, Ramsey Campbell--join up with those who deserve to be: P.D. Cacek, who chills us to the bone with her disturbing story, "The Grave"; and Michael Marshall Smith, author of a one-of-a-kind mathematical horror story, "The Book of Irrational Numbers." Exceptionally different in style, the common denominator of these 29 never-before-published short stories is their ability to haunt and terrify. As editor Al Sarrantonio states in his introduction, "if it scares you, that's it." Worthy stand-outs in this massive fear factory are Joyce Carol Oates's quasi-gothic tale, "The Ruins of Contracoeur," the sorrowful tale of a family forced into exile because of the patriarch's fall from grace. "Not ten days following the upheaval of our lives, ... Father, disgraced and defeated, uprooted his family from the state capital to live in the ruin of Cross Hill, his grandfather's estate in the foothills of the Chautauqua Mountains." Despite its classic horror style, Oates's contribution is very much set in the contemporary world of computers and high technology, and for 13-year-old Graeme Matheson, losing access to the Internet is almost as disturbing as the faceless man who haunts him at night. F. Paul Wilson (The Barrens and Others, The Tomb) contributes the book's most traditional vampire story, "Good Friday." Vampires have taken over Europe, and America seems about to suffer the same fate. The nuns of a New Jersey Catholic school quickly realize that no amount of holy water can save them from the undead. Over 650 pages, a quarter of a million words, and enough adrenaline rushes to keep the average horror reader up for nights, 999 is dark decadence indeed . --Naomi Gesinger

From Publishers Weekly

SF, to Roc. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

From Kim Newman's grotesque tale of zombies in Communist Russia ("Amerikanski Dead at the Moscow Morgue") to "Darkness," an eerie new short novel by William Peter Blatty, the 29 tales of horror and suspense that make up this end-of-the-millennium collection illustrate a broad spectrum of new and veteran talent. Including contributions from Stephen King, F. Paul Wilson, Neil Gaiman, Nancy A. Collins, this volume belongs in most libraries. Heavy online promotion may increase demand. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Editor Sarrantonio hopes this fat story collection will launch a new golden age of horror. Because a novel by King, Rice, Koontz, Barker, or Harris seems to be best-selling at any given time, isn't such hope unnecessary? Not if we are talking horror short stories, for the magazines that published them are gone or uninterested. So what are the odds that these particular stories will revive the form? If proven talents alone could do it, here comes horror utopia. King offers a well-written 20-pager, though he recycles the metamorphosing picture gimmick of Wilde's Dorian Gray only adequately. David Morrell's "Rio Grande Gothic" impressively resembles a nail-biting TV cop-series episode. Ed Gorman's "Angie," as oh-no sickening as a Jim Thompson tale, is even more satisfying; and Bentley Little's "The Theater" is as flesh curdling as any horror maven could wish. Thomas F. Monteleone's "Rehearsals" is chilly, but with its warm heart, is it really a horror story? Exorcist creator William Peter Blatty, who hasn't published a book in ages, resurfaces with a 100-page haunted-house story. Neil Gaiman, Thomas M. Disch, Joyce Carol Oates, and other veteran chillmongers also pitch in, but newcomers are scarce. If this isn't the first lode from a new Golconda of short horror fiction, it is at least a surefire fan pleaser. The title, with its double whammy invocation of millennium anxiety and end-times hysteria (999 is 666--the number of the beast of Revelation 13:18--upside down), is gratifying all by itself. Ray Olson

From Kirkus Reviews

Following the steps of groundbreaking anthologies such as Harlan Ellisons Dangerous Visions (not reviewed) and Kirby McCauleys Dark Forces (1980), this major publication of supernatural horror and nonsupernatural suspense offers 27 original works (no reprints) by Young Turks and top authors in the field. Stephen Kings The Road Virus Heads North, while suspenseful, is gimmicky and lacks the great warmth of his forthcoming Hearts in Atlantis (p. 988), which has spoiled us for lesser works from the master. Kim Newmans Amerikanski Dead at the Moscow Morgue, in every way an outstanding tale, finds the ever-fanciful Newman in solemnly hilarious spirits as he speaks with a straight face of captured and shuffling dead American zombies herded into an onion-domed church-turned-morgue in Communist Russia back in the time of the holy zombie healer, Rasputin. Joyce Carol Oatess The Ruins of Contracoeur is a tour de force of moody poetics in the death-stillness of a stonily moonlit night. Thomas Dischs The Owl and the Pussycat tells of a church owl brought home from an AA meeting who marries a pussycat and of their putting up with and overcoming an abusive, alcoholic master. Eric van Lustbaders romantic fantasy An Exaltation of Termagants takes place in the addled brain of a mescal addict. William Peter Blatty (of The Exorcist) gives a slick, sly novella, Elsewhere, concerning a haunted house and the truth about its ghosts. Blattys hackneyed writing falls far below the stylishness of Newman, Oates, and several others in a sheaf that also includes Neil Gaiman, David Morrell, T. E. D. Klein, F. Paul Wilson, Ramsey Campbell, Ed Gorman, Gene Wolfe, and Nancy A. Collins just to whet your appetite. Perhaps not quite the literary benchmark editor Sarrantonio hopesnor is its excellence as consistent as some annuals by female editors of erotic suspense and vampire talesbut it will certainly be around for decades. ($200,000 ad/promo) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Al Sarrantonio is an acclaimed author, and the editor of anthologies such as 999: New Stories of Horror and Suspense and Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy. He lives in Newburgh, New York.

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