Black Static

Listed below are the books received for review since the last update, which was back on 15 April 2010.

We have twenty five titles in, and as I on average review fifteen titles in each bi-monthly issue, the chances of being reviewed are now running at about 30%. In the circumstances, I urge anyone who is thinking of sending us review copies to consider if you're happy with those odds. If you have a limited number of review copies, then sending one to Black Static may not be the optimum use to make of them. Yes, that does weigh in favour of the larger publishers, who can afford to blitz review outlets. We are looking to support the smaller presses (every title I've been sent by Gray Friar, Screaming Dreams, Tartarus, Ex-Occidente and Pendragon has been reviewed, though I make no guarantees for the future, and other publishers may not have been quite so lucky), but that doesn't mean I'm going to chuck over the latest book by Peter Straub or Joe Hill to make way for the first collection from Joe Newguy just because it's published by a micro-press.

Anyway, looking down the list of latest candidates, I see that the fashion for literary mash-ups continues, with Little Women and Jane Eyre getting the treatment, while Pride and Prejudice and Zombies takes the graphic route. I'm wondering if there isn't a zombie metaphor to be found in this trend - dead classics being dragged out of their graves and injected with a pale, half life that sees them shuffling around and feasting on the creative juices of newer, more original work, taking up space on bookstore shelves and in bestseller charts that should have gone to more deserving works of fiction. P&P&Z was a great idea for a five minute comedy sketch that got beefed up into a book and became a bestseller, and I've grown tired of all the others that have tried to coast along on the coat tails of its success. Nothing listed here changes my mind about that.

Zombies also continue to be popular, with some 20% of these new titles featuring our favourite brain munching monster. The challenge for writers is to do something new with the archetype, instead of taking the path of least resistance, which means having them wander aimlessly in search of the next meal. It'll be interesting to see what new angle(s) this latest crop comes up with, if any (and on that score the cover notes are not encouraging, with plenty of echoes of the same old, same old). I've been reading and reviewing a lot of zombie stuff lately and it might be time to cut back a little, give one of the other monsters a chance.

I'm also receiving quite a few titles aimed at children and/or the young adult demographic. It's great to see horror publishers catching them while they're young, but I doubt my fitness to review this material. I'm fifty five years old and really not down with the kids, despite an occasional propensity for behaviour that might get classified as childish.

Four anthologies edited by Ellen Datlow have arrived in the last week or so, and as I plan an anthology feature in the August issue that's rather timely. I believe I have something like a dozen anthologies waiting in the TBR pile, and of course not all of those are going to get covered, but as ever I'll do my best. The last few issues have been heavily weighted in favour of short stories, with collections and anthologies in the ascendant. For the October and December issues I'm thinking I might get back to focusing on longer work, though of course the short form won't be ignored entirely. There are a lot of novels in the TBR pile that I'm anxious to sink my teeth into - work by Nevill, Lee, Crisp, Sokoloff, Fletcher, Oyeyemi etc. Watch this space.

Trivia - Black Static took its name from a Paul Meloy story that appeared in The Third Alternative #40, but writer David Conway got there first. His story 'Black Static' was published in The Starry Wisdom back in 1994/95. Any earlier claims?

The Standard Offer and Disclaimer - If anyone wants to query with me the suitability of their book(s) for a review in Case Notes, then I can be contacted by writing to whitenoise@ttapress.com and, as ever, an expression of interest in seeing the book does not guarantee that a review will be done. We receive many books and space is limited.

August 2010

• Rob Scott - 15 Miles - Gollancz paperback (ARC)
• Bob Fingerman - Pariah - Tor paperback (ARC)

July 2010

• Amelia Beamer - The Loving Dead - Night Shade Books paperback (ARC)
• A. E. Moorat - Henry VIII: Wolfman - Hodder & Stoughton paperback (ARC)
• David Gatward - The Dead - Hodder Children's Books paperback (ARC)

June 2010

• J. L. Bourne - Day By Day Armageddon - Pocket Books paperback

May 2010

• Ken Bruen - The Devil - Transworld paperback
• Louisa May Alcott & Porter Grand - Little Women and Werewolves - Del Rey Books paperback (ARC)
• Z. A. Recht - Plague of the Dead: The Morningstar Strain - Pocket Books paperback

April 2010

• Jeffrey Thomas - The Fall of Hades - Dark Regions Press paperback
• Edited Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling - The Beastly Bride: Tales of the Animal People - Viking hardback
• Tony Richards - Going Back - Dark Regions Press paperback
• Mike Raicht, Brian Smith & Charles Paul Wilson III (illustrator) - The Stuff of Legend, Book 1: The Dark - Villard Books
• Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith, Tony Lee (adapter) & Cliff Richards - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (graphic novel) - Titan Books Ltd paperback
• Charlotte Bronte & Sherri Browning Erwin - Jane Slayre - Simon & Schuster paperback

March 2010

• Quentin Crisp - Remember You're a One-Ball - Chomu Press paperback
• Edited by Ellen Datlow - Best Horror of the Year Volume 2 - Night Shade Books paperback

February 2010

• Brendan Connell - Metrophilias - Better Non Sequitur paperback
• Sarah Totton - Animythical Tales - Fantastic Books paperback

January 2010

• David Conway - Death Disco - Radical Robot Books paperback
• David Conway - Kinky Kabuki - Radical Robot Books paperback
• Edited by Ellen Datlow - Tails of Wonder & Imagination: Cat Stories - Night Shade Books paperback

October 2009

• Edited Ellen Datlow - Lovecraft Unbound - Dark Horse paperback

September 2009

• Michael Kelly - Undertow and Other Laments - Dark Regions Press paperback

January 2009

• Gary William Crawford - Voices from the Dark - Dark Regions Press paperback