Tartarus Press

publishers

Strange Tales IV is a sewn hardback book of 252 pages with silk ribbon marker, decorated boards, head and tailbands, and d/w.

 

ISBN 978-1-905784-60-8

 

Sorry - out of print

Strange Tales, Volume IV

edited by

Rosalie Parker

 

Stories by

Christopher Harman, Rhys Hughes, Rebecca Lloyd, John Howard, A.J .McIntosh,

V.H. Leslie, Andrew Apter, Angela Slatter, Matt Leyshon, Mark Francis, H.V. Chao,

Andrew Hook, Jason A. Wyckoff, Richard Hill and John Gaskin

 

This fourth volume of strange tales from Tartarus presents fifteen new stories in the fields of fantasy, horror, decadence and the supernatural.

 

Christopher Harman’s ‘By Leaf and Thorn’ mines the not-to-be underestimated magick of the English countryside, while John Howard’s uneasy timeslip piece ‘You Promised You Would Walk’ is set in modern Berlin. Rebecca Lloyd’s ‘Gone to the Deep’ explores the Celtic sea-myths of the Scottish isles, while Rhys Hughes’ ‘The Secret Passage’ follows the architectural obsession of a would-be good son.

 

Matt Leyshon has his ne’er-do-well anti-hero escape to a Greek island in ‘The Amber Komboloi’, while Angela Slatter’s ‘The Badger Bride’ follows the adventures of her shape-shifting, grown-up fairy-tale characters. H.V. Chao’s ‘The Recovery’ details a writer’s decadent working holiday in the South of France, while in ‘Drowning in Air’, Andrew Hook’s protagonist visits an anxiety filled, post-war Japan.

 

More stories of the highest quality—by John Gaskin, Jason A. Wyckoff, Richard Hill, Alan McIntosh, V.H. Leslie, Mark Francis and Andrew Apter—contribute to a fascinating, rewarding, and sometimes bracing trip through the highways and byways of contemporary strange fiction.

 

Containing: 'By Leaf and Thorn' by Christopher Harman, 'The Secret Passage' by Rhys Hughes, 'Gone to the Deep' by Rebecca Lloyd, 'You Promised You Would Walk' by John Howard, 'Forth' by A.J. McIntosh, 'Preservation' by V.H. Leslie, 'The Man Who Wore His Father’s Clothes' by Andrew Apter, 'The Badger Bride' by Angela Slatter, 'The Amber Komboloi' by Matt Leyshon, 'For a Last Spark of the Divine' by Mark Francis, 'The Recovery' by H.V. Chao, 'Drowning in Air' by Andrew Hook, 'The Homunculus in the Curio' by Jason A. Wyckoff, 'Time' by Richard Hill, 'The Memento Mori' by John Gaskin.

 

See also:

Strange Tales I

Strange Tales II

Strange Tales III

Strange Tales V

Strange Tales: Tartarus Press at 30

 

Cover artwork by Stephen J Clark of The Singing Garden

 

Reviews

'Tartarus Press has always displayed impressive production values but Strange Tales IV raises them to a new height ... With its colour frontispiece by Stephen J. Clark and colour foil-stamped boards bearing another Clark design, this is a book whose physical package is commensurate with the literary quality of its contents.' Locus

'The stories selected for this volume attest to the diversity and imaginative possibilities inherent in the strange tale.' Starred review at Publishers Weekly

'...the contents of this anthology more than justify the editor’s claim that 'the strange tale is alive and well.' Peter Tennant, Black Static

 

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