The Mammoth Book of Monsters

Edited by Stephen Jones. Illustrated by Randy Broecker.

A World of Monsters. Everybody knows the most memorable monsters — vampires, werewolves, zombies, mad scientists' creations — and you will find all of those classic creatures well represented in this monsterrific new anthology from multiple award-winning editor Stephen Jones. But other monstrosities are also ably represented within these pages... An academic goes in search of a mythological creature in Thomas Ligotti's "The Medusa", a stone gargoyle is brought to life in "Downmarket" by Sydney J. Bounds, and a reclusive islander shares his world with shape-changing selkies in Robert Holdstock's haunting tale "The Silvering". Late-night office workers are menaced by hungry horrors in Ramsey Campbell's claustrophobic "Down There", while the monsters of both Brian Lumley's "The Thin People" and Basil Copper's "The Flabby Men" share only a semblance with humanity. The King of the Monsters himself turns up in "Godzilla's Twelve Step Programme" by Joe R. Lansdale, R. Chetwynd-Hayes' "The Shadmock" and Clive Barker's "Rawhead Rex" are genuinely new monsters, and the last monster-fighter and the last classic monster confront each other in Kim Newman's "The Chill Clutch of the Unseen". If you like monsters, then there are plenty to choose from in this creature-filled collection featuring some of the biggest names in horror, fantasy and science fiction.

Contents:

• INTRODUCTION: HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER by Stephen Jones
• VISITATION by David J. Schow
• DOWN THERE by Ramsey Campbell
• THE MAN HE HAD BEEN BEFORE by Scott Edelman
• CALLING ALL MONSTERS by Dennis Etchison
• THE SHADMOCK by R. Chetwynd-Hayes
• THE SPIDER KISS by Christopher Fowler
• CAFÉ ENDLESS: SPRING RAIN by Nancy Holder
• THE MEDUSA by Thomas Ligotti
• IN THE POOR GIRL TAKEN BY SURPRISE by Gemma Files
• DOWNMARKET by Sydney J. Bounds
• THE HORROR FROM THE MOUND by Robert E. Howard
• FAT MAN by Jay Lake
• THE THIN PEOPLE by Brian Lumley
• THE HILL by Tanith Lee
• GODZILLA'S TWELVE STEP PROGRAMME by Joe R. Lansdale
• .220 SWIFT by Karl Edward Wagner
• OUR LADY OF THE SAUROPODS by Robert Silverberg
• THE FLABBY MEN by Basil Copper
• THE SILVERING by Robert Holdstock
• SOMEONE ELSE'S PROBLEM by Michael Marshall Smith
• RAWHEAD REX by Clive Barker
• THE CHILL CLUTCH OF THE UNSEEN by Kim Newman