I just finished reading “The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 22” (ed: Stephen Jones). I’ve had it sitting around the house here for quite a while and finally got around to reading it.

I do like these anthologies of short stories every once in a while. This one was pretty good. I could’ve done without the long introduction (105 pages!) giving the rundown on “horror in 2010). Lots and lots of information on all the new writers, books, movies, magazines, games, etc published in that year. If you’re into that, it’s great additional information. If you’re not, it’s a waste of real estate. (I’m not that into that stuff, but I don’t like skipping over things either). 😉

They did the same at the end, with a “Necrology” of another 84 pages. Long, long pages of everyone involved in any way with horror (and even sci-fi) who died in the year 2010. Movie actors, screenwriters, actors, writers, musicians, etc. They list pretty much everything a personality was involved in.

I was surprised to read some of the things people I remembered had been involved in. Meinhardt Raabe played the ‘munchkin coroner’ who declared the Wicked Witch of the West was dead in the Wizard of Oz worked for the next 30 years for Oscar Mayer as “Little Oscar, the World’s Smallest Chef”. I remember the Beaver’s mom, Barbara Billingsley.  She was great in “Airplane!” (hilarious!). She was also in the movie “Invaders from Mars” in her early days.

Even so, I would have preferred them to just skip all the extras and get right to the stories. Most of them were pretty short, but they still packed a punch. There were 23 in all. Most written by people I’ve never heard of.

I can’t say there was a bad one in the book. Lots of ghosts, zombies, demons and just plain weird goings on. I especially liked “The Lemon in the Pool” by Simon Kurt Unsworth,  “Lesser Demons” by Norman Partridge and “Fort Clay, Louisiana: A Tragical History” by Albert E. Cowdrey.

If you like horror and weird stories, you might like this book. It’s a little long, at 575 pages, but if you skip all the extras and just read the actual stories, it’s a pretty quick read. I finished it in only 3-4 days.

I enjoyed the book, now I need to figure out what to read next. I just got a couple of new ones. I’m really looking forward to “Sleeping Beauties” by Stephen & Owen King and “The Fireman” by Joe Hill. I love both of those writers. Stephen King has been a favorite for decades and the 3 (“NOS4A2”, “Horns”, “Heart-Shaped Box”) I’ve read so far by Joe Hill have all been excellent. What a talented family!

Has anybody read them yet? Which would you read first? 🙂