Book Description

A ward-winning writer and editor Al Sarrantonio gathers together twenty-nine original stories from masters of the macabre. From dark fantasy and pure suspense to classic horror tales of vampires and zombies, 999 showcases the extraordinary scope of fantastical fright fiction. The stories in this anthology are a relentless tour de force of fear, which will haunt you, terrify you, and keep the adrenaline rushing all through the night.


About the Author
AL SARRANTONIO's twenty-five books includes the horror novels Moonbane, House Haunted, Skeletons,and Totentanz, as well as the critically acclaimed science fiction trilogy Five Worlds. He has been an editor, reviewer and columnist, and has been nominated for the Horror Writers Association's Bram Stoker Award and the Private Eye Writers of America's Shamus Award. His short stories have appeared in magazines such as Heavy Metal, Twilight Zone, and Realms of Fantasy, as well as in anthologies including The Year's Best Horror Stories, Great Ghost Stories, and The Best of Shadows. A collection of his best horror tales, Head Stories, has just been published.

FROM OUR EDITORS

This monstrous anthology (nearly 700 pages) of horror and suspense tales won the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for Best Anthology and features works from 29 masters of the macabre, including Stephen King, William Peter Blatty, Neil Gaiman, Joe R. Lansdale, David Morrell, Joyce Carol Oates, Ramsey Campbell, and Eric Van Lustbader.

ANNOTATION

Winner of the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for Best Anthology.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A ward-winning writer and editor Al Sarrantonio gathers together twenty-nine original stories from masters of the macabre. From dark fantasy and pure suspense to classic horror tales of vampires and zombies, 999 showcases the extraordinary scope of fantastical fright fiction. The stories in this anthology are a relentless tour de force of fear, which will haunt you, terrify you, and keep the adrenaline rushing all through the night.

FROM THE CRITICS

Associated Press

For horror fans, 999 is a romp in paradise.

People Magazine

Spine-tingling!

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 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Following the steps of groundbreaking anthologies such as Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions (not reviewed) and Kirby McCauley's 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 King's "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 Newman's "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 Oates's "The Ruins of Contracoeur" is a tour de force of moody poetics "in the death-stillness of a stonily moonlit night." Thomas Disch's "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 Lustbader's 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. Blatty's 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 towhet your appetite. Perhaps not quite the literary benchmark editor Sarrantonio hopes—nor is its excellence as consistent as some annuals by female editors of erotic suspense and vampire tales—but it will certainly be around for decades. ($200,000 ad/promo)