Masters of Darkness III

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Masters of Darkness III

Masters of Darkness III.jpg

Cover of first edition
Author edited by Dennis Etchison
Country United States
Language English
Series Masters of Darkness
Genre Horror short stories
Publisher Tor Books
Publication date
1991
Media type Print (paperback)
Pages 332 pp.
ISBN 0-812-51766-0
Preceded by Masters of Darkness II

Masters of Darkness III is an anthology of horror short works edited by Dennis Etchison, the third and last in the "Masters of Darkness" series. It was first published in paperback by Tor Books in May 1991. It was gathered together with the previous two volumes of the series into the omnibus anthology The Complete Masters of Darkness issued by Underwood-Miller in the same year. [1]

In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, anthology is used to categorize collections of shorter works such as short stories and short novels, by different authors, each featuring unrelated casts of characters and settings, and usually collected into a single volume for publication.

Horror fiction genre of fiction

Horror is a genre of speculative fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, disgust, or startle its readers by inducing feelings of horror and terror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon defined the horror story as "a piece of fiction in prose of variable length... which shocks, or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing". It creates an eerie and frightening atmosphere. Horror is frequently supernatural, though it can be non-supernatural. Often the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for the larger fears of a society.

Dennis Etchison American writer

Dennis William Etchison is an American writer and editor of fantasy and horror fiction. Etchison refers to his own work as "rather dark, depressing, almost pathologically inward fiction about the individual in relation to the world". Stephen King has called Dennis Etchison "one hell of a fiction writer" and he has been called "the most original living horror writer in America". While he has achieved some acclaim as a novelist, it is his work in the short story format that is especially well-regarded by critics and genre fans. He was President of Horror Writers Association from 1992 to 1994. He is a multi-award winner, having won the British Fantasy Award three times for fiction, and the World Fantasy Award for anthologies he edited.

The book collects fifteen novelettes and short stories by various authors, together with an "author’s note" after each story and a general preface by the editor.

Contents

Jack Vance American mystery and speculative fiction writer

John Holbrook "Jack" Vance was an American mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writer. Though most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance, he also wrote 9 mystery novels using his full name John Holbrook Vance, three under the pseudonym Ellery Queen, and one each using the pseudonyms Alan Wade, Peter Held, John van See, and Jay Kavanse. Some editions of his published works give his year of birth as 1920.

Nigel Kneale Film and television screenwriter

Thomas Nigel Kneale was a British screenwriter. He wrote professionally for more than 50 years, was a winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, and was twice nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay. In 2000, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers Association.

Avram Davidson novelist

Avram Davidson was an American writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many stories that do not fit into a genre niche. He won a Hugo Award and three World Fantasy Awards in the science fiction and fantasy genre, a World Fantasy Life Achievement award, and an Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine short story award and an Edgar Award in the mystery genre. Davidson edited The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1962 to 1964. His last novel The Boss in the Wall: A Treatise on the House Devil was completed by Grania Davis and was a Nebula Award finalist in 1998. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says "he is perhaps sf's most explicitly literary author".

Notes

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Shadows was a series of horror anthologies edited by Charles L. Grant, published by Doubleday from 1978 to 1991. Grant, a proponent of "quiet horror", initiated the series in order to offer readers a showcase of this kind of fiction. The short stories appearing in the Shadows largely dispensed with traditional Gothic settings, and had very little physical violence. Instead, they featured slow accumulations of dread through subtle omens, mostly taking place in everyday settings. While Grant himself was very adept at this kind of fiction, he contributed no stories to the anthologies, writing only the introductions and author profiles. The first volume in the series won the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology.

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Stephen Dedman is an Australian author of dark fantasy and science fiction stories and novels.

Cemetery Dance Publications

Cemetery Dance Publications is a specialty press publisher of horror and dark suspense. Cemetery Dance was founded by Richard Chizmar, a horror author, while he was in college. It is associated with Cemetery Dance magazine, which was founded in 1988. They began to publish books in 1992. They later expanded to encompass a magazine and website featuring news, interviews, and reviews related to horror literature.

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