The New Weird

I randomly bought this book at an event where the VanderMeers were promoting their newer "Steampunk" collection. I perused both books and found the "New Weird" stories much more captivating. Maybe this isn't fair as by chance I had opened it to Mieville's story and the long winded Victorian/Dickinson-ian writing on the other side never was my taste; even if I do like steampunk! So I bought this book for a friend, read a few stories and got hooked. The first half is good (not great) and basically serves to wet your appetite for the second half. In fairness I would expect this as the first half was supposed to be a kind of "inspiration" section that lead to the newer works of the psuedo-genre they would ask you to call "New Wierd." 4~5 of the stories where truly amazing and made it all worth while, even if some of the others felt a little hollow or seemed incomplete. I too am unsure why the cover art for such a genre would be so mild and steampunk-y (a mechanical geared beetle...) and have to agree with the other reviews that a few of the stories and excerpts didn't fit that well within the "genre/project." I also felt the symposium was a lot of hot wind, but overall was happy to be introduced to many new authors, and was surprised to find myself enjoying reading a book for the first time since college... wow!

A look at the darker side of the world with horrifying rituals, insane festivals and more disturbing imagery are to be found in this exciting new short story collection - "The New Weird". Featuring stories by acclaimed authors Clive Barker and Michael Moorcock among a dozen other authors of various level's of experience of fame, "The New Weird" is a collection set on pushing the envelope on what society defines as weird and terrifying - all written in exceptional prose and sure to send some shivers down the spines of readers. "The New Weird" is a highly recommended anthology for anyone who wants a sample of what the next generation of horror, science fiction, and fantasy will bring forth.

I thought this anthology would be interesting, and it doesn't disappoint. There's an introduction by VanderMeer, J. To sum that up he says wants to provide a rough guide to the New Weird, acknowledging that it is quite possibly a past history thing. On the rest of the non-fiction, there is part of a forum discussion from a few years ago, wherein the existence or not of the topic is debated. Amusingly, Jonathan Strahan calls it a load of old cobblers, then over the page comes up with this very anthology title (and also sort of implies that the New Space Opera might be something similar, and goes on to produce a great anthology titled exactly that, too). A kiss of life Super Editor, perhaps, is he? There are some essays by others talking about the subject, and also some European editors, some from more Eastern Europe, and a German, talking about this sort of fiction in their countries and how it does commercially. The Czechs hung a fiction line of it that has done well, and not so good in dour Germany, it seems. On the fiction front, things go from the fabulous find of a story about Jack Half-A-Prayer from China Mieville's New Crobuzon, to a poor excerpt from a novel by Steph Swainston. She is one of the names invoked along with Mieville, Di Filippo, and Bishop (whose story is rather good, and I had read before), as being part of the early moment of this stuff, around Perdido Street Station time. However, the Swainston excerpt isn't from the book mentioned - perhaps that one is better, being as it appears the first in a trilogy, and higher rated and more widely held on librarything, too. However, her writing in this excerpt isn't within a bulls roar of any of the others mentioned. Extremely cheesy science fantasy that veers more towards the romance science fiction romance subgenre at time, it seems to me. It has that crossover dabbler not quite getting it feel, it seems. Excerpts are problematic enough in anthologies without sticking in dodgy examples. Moorcock's war story seems to be just a garden variety slightly nutty people at war tale, certainly not even remotely weird, particularly if you are thinking of mad scientists in Gran Bretan, or Warlords of the Air, or multiversal chasing grail hunting super nazis. The actual cover itself isn't particularly weird, either, being sort of virginal white, with a clockwork bug - dime a dozen on the internet, these days, those sort of things, it seems. Jeffrey Thomas has a pure SF story here, though, and I noticed a free novel released recently online - if it is anythinglike this, it will be worth checking out. Judge Dredd meets Blade Runner, or something like that. Most of this stuff is fantasy or horror, and often both. Alistair Rennie being the classic example here of gross, grotesque horror-fantasy. This story is apparently new to the collection, so well done. I'd definitely like to see more of this. The last fiction part includes a 'laboratory', wherein the editors ask some write