As the Sun Goes Down
Bram Stoker Award nominee 2001, British Fantasy Award nominee 2002.
Introduction by Ramsey Campbell. Jacket art by Alan Clark.
This landmark volume marked the first U.S. publication of British horror phenomenon, Tim Lebbon. As the Sun Goes Down collected 90,000 words of his best work, including several original pieces, like "The Unfortunate", which went on to win a Bram Stoker award, and was included in several "Year's Best" anthologies. As the Sun Goes Down also features an introduction by Ramsey Campbell.
This collection presents a tableau of stories each very distinct in content and form, yet inextricably linked in disturbing the reader and challenging their accepted values. Not one tale is wasted in Lebbon's determination to subvert our perceptions of love, life, nature, beauty and the innocence of childhood. His use of language and narrative form is unrelenting, each vying to create images from words that incessantly chip away at our confidence in the so-called "truths" of existence.
In addition to winning the British Fantasy award, and the Bram Stoker Award, Lebbon managed, with this collection, to completely disgust a reviewer at Publishers Weekly, who went out of his or her way to trash As The Sun Goes Down... "Unpleasant people doing disgusting things is a theme that bludgeons its way through this collection of 16 horror stories... If only the nightmares and unpleasantries created by this collection would... fade... away."
Other critics have had nicer things to say about Tim Lebbon, and As the Sun Goes Down:
"...the darker moments of life are central to Lebbon's work. Few writers can plumb the depths of these moments with his sensitivity and unflinching frankness." – SF Site
"Lebbon is quite simply the most exciting new name in horror for years." – SFX Magazine
"Lebbon is the real thing. He's going to be Major" – Steve Rasnic Tem
"...A firm and confident style, with elements of early Clive Barker." – Phil Rickman, author of The Chalice
"Lebbon never disappoints. His consistently first-rate stories crackle with invention and surprises galore." – Simon Clark, author of Nailed by the Heart and Darkness Demands
Contents:
- Introduction by Ramsey Campbell
- The Empty Room
- Life Within
- The Butterfly
- Endangered Species in C Minor
- Dust
- Fell Swoop
- Recent Wounds
- The Repulsion
- Unto Us
- The Last Good Times
- King of the Dead
- Recipe for Disaster
- The Beach
- Reconstructing Amy
- The Unfortunate
- Bomber's Moon
Tim Lebbon
Tim Lebbon (born 1969) is a horror and dark fantasy writer, and a judge at the 2005 World Fantasy Convention.
Tim Lebbon was born in London. His short story "Reconstructing Amy" won the Bram Stoker Award for Short Fiction in 2001 and his novel Dusk won the 2007 August Derleth Award from the British Fantasy Society for best novel of the year. His novelisation of the movie 30 Days of Night became a New York Times bestseller and won a Scribe Award in 2008. Tim lived in Devon until he was eight and then in Newport until the age of 26. He now lives in Goytre, Monmouthshire with his wife and two children.