ABOUT THIS BOOK
When putting this anthology together, I was determined that it should not be called The Best of ParSec or anything of that ilk. A title such as that would be a slight on those stories that were not selected, suggesting they are in some way inferior to those that have been, and that’s simply not the case.
Permit me to explain.
Two thirds of the stories published in the first seven issues of ParSec, from which this volume is drawn, came to us via the three brief open submission periods we’ve held to date. During those three windows I received around 1,000 submissions. Of these, I’ve accepted just 8%. I’ve turned away some good stories in the process, I know that, but those that have made it into the magazine are all stories I love.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction by Ian Whates
Down and Out Under the Tannhauser Gate – David Gullen
Nineteen Eighty-Nine – Ken MacLeod
A Moment of Zugzwang – Neil Williamson
From Below – Warren Benedetto
Lustre Mining – Eliza Chan
The Summer Husband – Angela Slatter
Radicalised – Lavie Tidhar
Rotten Things – Kim Lakin
It Only Amplifies – Shih-Li Kow
Personal Satisfaction – Adrian Tchaikovsky
CSGCOVWR – Natalia Theodoridou
Portuguese Essay – George Tom
A Kingdom of Seagrass and Silk – Cécile Cristofari
Theo Ballinchard And The Oranges Of Possibility – Patrice Sarath
Lovers on the Yuleton Lip – Aliya Whiteley
The Power of 3 – Anna Tambour
Red Horse, Running – Joanne Harris
Umbilical – Teika Marija Smits
Are We Going Under? – Simon Bestwick
Within The Concrete – Steve Rasnic Tem
The Primacy Of The Cube – Paul Di Filippo
The Equality Virus – Gwyneth Jones
The Operculum Necklace – Alison Littlewood
But Once a Year – Ramsey Campbell
FiveO’Clock In The Bar At The End Of The World – Bryony Pearce
Dark bleatings, my lovely tribe. On the chopping block today, we have Parsec in Print, an anthology from the fabulous PS Publishing. Parsec is a magazine from the press that contains, amongst other features, short stories. This anthology is a collection of some of their favourites, and I think they chose well because the stories are incredibly varied. We have some quiet horror, barely a whisper of horror at all. You’ll find science fiction, dystopia, supernatural spookiness, unease – basically, almost all horror bases are covered.
I have several favourites, but I think my top 3 are, in no particular order:
Rotten Things – by Kim Lakin
A kid is flung beneath the trailer she lives in with her awful parents, not in spite of but because of, the alligator lurking beneath it. But luckily for her, there might be a little magic in the air, the kind that makes one capable of revenge. I loved this one at surface level, and then even more when I got to the quite unexpected ending.
Umbilical – by Teika Marija Smits
This one really isn’t horror per se, truth be told, but that didn’t stop me loving this lovely idea. Very hard to explain, but it deals on a metaphysical level with the concept of the mother/child bond.
But Once a Year – by Ramsey Campbell
As always, Ramsey scares me with a Christmas story. He seems particularly good at Christmas horror, now that I think about it. Dickie fancies his cousin (he’s a kid and does not yet know better) and hopes to catch her beneath the mistletoe, but unfortunately for him, something else is lurking around that spikey green plant.
I tend to love everything produced by PS Publishing, and this anthology is no different. I’d recommend it to people who are looking for an extremely varied mix of stories because there are bits of everything here. If you’d like to check out the press or the books, there are links below for you:
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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