Dark fantasy, horror and weird fiction is not always about the gruesome or the gross out. It has long been acknowledged that the line between horror and humour is thin to non-existent. The sudden jump shock will often be greeted by nervous laughter with the release of tension, while some forms of comedy can generate unease in the audience (and not simply because it’s bad comedy). Clowns – ostensibly figures of amusement – provoke feelings akin to terror in some people; they even named a phobia after it: coulrophobia. Fear and fun are inextricably mixed. The writers behind such comedy classics as Inside No. 9 and Psychoville knew this all too well (as well as clearly being fans of the old Hammer and Amicus films, which didn’t hurt). Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit used death as the springboard to a well-loved play and film. The number of books, stories, films and comic books (think of EC’s Tales from the Crypt, for instance) which mix laughs and shudders is legion.
And so it is with this anthology, edited by the seasoned publisher-editor-author team of Peter Coleborn and Mike Chinn. Contributors include some of the top names in speculative fiction – Samantha Lee, Joyce Chng, Ramsey Campbell, Gary McMahon, Joanne Anderton, John L. Probert, Garry Kilworth, Stephen Gallagher, Stephen Volk, Steve Rasnic Tem, Thana Niveau, Michael Marshall Smith, Peter Atkins – alongside a handful of stories selected from open submissions. Here you will encounter elements of bleak and black humour, of wry observation with a touch of satire and hints of the absurd. Humanity has always done its best to laugh at darkness and the unknown – how better to deal with it? – and although many things may appear to be no laughing matter, in truth they always are and will be.
The Flame Tree Beyond and Within short story collections bring together tales of myth and imagination by modern and contemporary writers, carefully selected by anthologists, and sometimes featuring short stories from a single author. Overall, the series presents a wide range of diverse and inclusive voices with myth, folkloric-inflected short fiction, and an emphasis on the supernatural, science fiction, the mysterious and the speculative. The books themselves are gorgeous, with foiled covers, printed edges and published only in hardcover editions, offering a lifetime of reading pleasure.