Synopses & Reviews
Descend into shadowy cities, grotesque rituals, chaotic festivals, and deadly cults. Plunge into terrifying domains, where bodies are remade into surreal monstrosities, where the desperate rage against brutal tyrants. Where everything is lethal and no one is innocent, where Peake began and Lovecraft left offthis is where you will find the New Weird.
Edgy, urban fiction with a visceral immediacy, the New Weird has descended from classic fantasy and dime-store pulp novels, from horror and detective comics, from thrillers and noir. All grown-up, it emerges from the chrysalis of nostalgia as newly literate, shocking, and utterly innovative.
Here is the very best of the New Weird from some of its greatest practitioners. This canonic anthology collects the original online debates first defining the New Weird and critical writings from international editors, culminating in a ground-breaking round-robin piece, Festival Lives,” which features some of the hottest new names in New Weird fiction.
Review
"Highly recommended for all libraries interested in the latest in sf and fantasy as well as modern horror." Library Journal
Review
"Ann and Jeff VanderMeer bring their expertise and affection for sci-fi and fantasy to a detailed examination of one of the latest styles to hit this constantly evolving scene." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Jeff VanderMeer is one of the most remarkable practitioners of the literary fantastic in America today." Locus
Review
The VanderMeers (
Best American Fantasy) ably demonstrate the sheer breadth of the New Weird fantasy subgenre in this powerful anthology of short fiction and critical essays. Highlights include strong fiction by authors such as M. John Harrison, Clive Barker, Kathe Koja, and Michael Moorcock, whose work pointed the way to such definitive New Weird tales as Jeffrey Fords At Reparata and K. J. Bishops The Art of Dying. Lingering somewhere between dark fantasy and supernatural horror, New Weird authors often seek to create unease rather than full-fledged terror. The subgenres roots in the British New Wave of the 1960s and the Victorian Decadents can lend a self-consciously literary and experimental aura, as illustrated by the laboratory, where more mainstream fantasy and horror authors, including Sarah Monette and Conrad Williams, try their hands at creating New Weird stories. This extremely ambitious anthology will define the New Weird much as Bruce Sterlings landmark Mirrorshades anthology defined cyberpunk.”
Publishers Weekly
This collection of 16 stories and essays, including a round-robin (Festival Lives) in seven parts plus a conclusion available on the publishers website, presents a select sample of previously published and new examples of the new weird.... Highly recommended for all libraries interested in the latest in SF and fantasy as well as modern horror.”
Library Journal
The first comprehensive anthology of the movement....”
The Guardian
...mix(es) elements of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror into a style that reaches back to Lovecraft and Jack Vance while grasping at the darker future of speculative fiction.”
The A.V. Club
If youre into lit-speak and the debate over what any of this means, this is your kind of collection. If you dont care and are just interested in some cool disturbing stories set in gritty alternative worlds, this is your kind of book, too.”
Black Gate
This anthology is a must-read for lovers of literate dark fiction.... If the only way to grade an anthology is by its ability to provide fascinating dreams, then The New Weird gets an A+.”
Internet Review of Science Fiction
Synopsis
This avant-garde anthology that presents and defines the New Weirda hip, stylistic fiction that evokes the gritty exuberance of pulp novels and dime-store comic bookscreates a new literature that is entirely unprecedented and utterly compelling. Assembling an array of talent, this collection includes contributions from visionaries Michael Moorcock and China Miéville, modern icon Clive Barker, and audacious new talents Hal Duncan, Jeffrey Ford, and Sarah Monette. An essential snapshot of a vibrant movement in popular fiction, this anthology also features critical writings from authors, theorists, and international editors as well as witty selections from online debates.
About the Author
Ann VanderMeer is the Hugo Awardwinning editor of Weird Fiction Review. She was the fiction editor at Weird Tales and the publisher of Buzzcity Press, work for which received the British Fantasy, International Horror Guild, and Rhysling awards. An expert on Victoriana, she is the co-editor of the best-selling World Fantasy Awardnominated Steampunk series. Her other anthologies include the Best American Fantasy and Leviathan series,
The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases,
The New Weird, and
Last Drink, Bird Head.
Jeff VanderMeer is the best-selling author of City of Saints and Madmen, the noir thriller Finch, and the quintessential guide to writers, Booklife. His award-winning novels have made the years best lists at Publishers Weekly, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Wall Street Journal. His nonfiction and reviews have appeared in Washington Post Book World, the Huffington Post, and the New York Times Book Review.