"Borderlands 5: An Anthology of Imaginative Fiction" Signed Limited First Edition, Slipcased No. 429 of 500 [Very Fine]

Personally Signed By All Twenty-Seven Contributors and Limited To Only 500

Grantham, New Hampshire. Borderlands Press (November 2003). "Borderlands 5: An Anthology of Imaginative Fiction" Signed Limited Edition. First Edition. Signed by all 27 contributors (including Stephen King) on two limitation pages. It is one of a special edition of only 500 signed and numbered copies. This is number 429. Very Fine in slipcase the same.

Edited by Elizabeth E. Monteleone & Thomas F. Monteleone.

Personally signed by all 27 contributors, including:

Gary Braunbeck, John R. Platt, Holly Newstein, Adam Corbin Fusco, Barry Hoffman, Bill Gauthier, Whitt Pond, Jon F. Merz, Michael Canfield, John Farris, Brian Freeman, Dominick Cancilla, Whitley Strieber, Barbara Malenky, Bentley Little, John McIlveen, Darren O. Godfrey, David J. Schow, Brett Alexander Savory, Gene O'Neill, Lon Prater, Tom Piccirilli, L. Lynn Young, Bev Vincent, and Stephen King.

From Publishers Weekly 1/19/2004: "This fifth volume -- the first in a decade -- features a healthy quotient of offbeat efforts that resist simple categorization." and "the range of themes that propel these uncommon tales -- personal alienation, religious intolerance, the quest for transcendence, the torture of hope -- expand the horror story's reach, and the wealth of relatively new writers featured is encouraging."

Initiated in 1990 to "expand the envelope" of horror writing, the Borderlands anthologies have yielded an abundance of quirky and eccentric tales from writers who pushed "beyond the usual metaphors" by which contemporary horror and dark fantasy are usually defined. This fifth volume-the first in a decade-features a healthy quotient of offbeat efforts that resist simple categorization. Stephen King's "Stationary Bike," for example, is a deft blend of paranoid fantasy and social satire about a successful weight watcher pursued by hypostatized versions of his metabolism who resent being put out of work. In "Father Bob and Bobby," Whitley Streiber maps the mind of his priest protagonist, whose thoughts are an unsettling mix of Christian imagery and pederastic fantasy. David Schow, in "The Thing Too Hideous to Describe," stands the horror B-movie on its head in its amusing account of a bug-eyed monster struggling to understand its symbolic role in human affairs.

As in previous volumes, experimentation misfires in several stories that traffic in the grotesque and outrageous, among them Bentley Little's "The Planting," about a man growing a new life form from a neighbor's undergarments. The majority of the 25 selections are brief, virtually plotless exercises that are triumphs of mood or narrative trickery over storytelling. Still, the range of themes that propel these uncommon tales-personal alienation, religious intolerance, the quest for transcendence, the torture of hope-expand the horror story's reach, and the wealth of relatively new writers featured is encouraging.

Eventually sweet stories flank quite a creepshow in the nine-years-gestating new number of the Monteleones' irregular anthology series showcasing dark fantasy. Relief from the chills comes just twice, in Adam Corbin Fusco's satiric research report "N0072-JK1" early on and later in David J. Schow's lampoon of the monster-versus-the-villagers horror-flicker convention, "The Thing Too Hideous to Describe." Since the Monteleones emphasize newer talent, sometimes a story's shivers are clumsily achieved, but tales of metamorphosis by Bev Vincent ("One of Those Weeks") and Bill Gautier ("The Growth of Alan Ashley") and Dominick Cancilla's study in psychopathology ("Smooth Operator") are shockingly polished. It would be nice to say that the few well known contributors are overshadowed by the unknowns, but 'tain't so. Gary Braunbeck's collection-opener, John Farris' revenant yarn, and especially Whitley Strieber's angry anticlerical piece are excellent, and Stephen King's cautionary volume-closer about heart-healthiness, "Stationary Bike," is as artful as anything he has ever written--every sentence seems ideally weighted, every word well chosen, every flight of fantasy inevitable.

Table of Contents

"Rami Temporalis" by Gary A. Braunbeck
"All Hands" by John R. Platt
"Faith will Make You Free" by Holly Newstein
"N0072-JKI" by Adam Corbin Fusco
"Time for Me" by Barry Hoffman
"The Growth of Alan Ashley" by Bill Gauthier
"The Goat" by Whitt Pond
"Prisoner 392" by Jon F. Merz
"The Food Processor" by Michael Canfield
"Story Time with the BlueField Strangler" by John Farris
"Answering the Call" by Brian Freeman
"Smooth Operator" by Dominick Cancilla
"Father Bob and Bobby" by Whitley Strieber
"A Thing" by Barbara Malenky
"The Planting" by Bentley Little
"Infliction" by John McIlveen
"Dysfunction" by Darren O. Godfrey
"The Thing too Hideous to Describe" by David J. Schow
"Slipknot" by Brett Alexander Savory
"Magic Numbers" by Gene O'Neill
"Head Music" by Lon Prater
"Around it Still the Sumac Grows" by Tom Piccirilli
"Annabell" by L. Lynn Young
"One of those weeks" by Bev Vincent
"Stationary Bike" by Stephen King

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Initiated in 1990 to "expand the envelope" of horror writing, the Borderlands anthologies have yielded an abundance of quirky and eccentric tales from writers who pushed "beyond the usual metaphors" by which contemporary horror and dark fantasy are usually defined. This fifth volume-the first in a decade-features a healthy quotient of offbeat efforts that resist simple categorization. Stephen King's "Stationary Bike," for example, is a deft blend of paranoid fantasy and social satire about a successful weight watcher pursued by hypostatized versions of his metabolism who resent being put out of work. In "Father Bob and Bobby," Whitley Streiber maps the mind of his priest protagonist, whose thoughts are an unsettling mix of Christian imagery and pederastic fantasy. David Schow, in "The Thing Too Hideous to Describe," stands the horror B-movie on its head in its amusing account of a bug-eyed monster struggling to understand its symbolic role in human affairs. As in previous volumes, experimentation misfires in several stories that traffic in the grotesque and outrageous, among them Bentley Little's "The Planting," about a man growing a new life form from a neighbor's undergarments. The majority of the 25 selections are brief, virtually plotless exercises that are triumphs of mood or narrative trickery over storytelling. Still, the range of themes that propel these uncommon tales-personal alienation, religious intolerance, the quest for transcendence, the torture of hope-expand the horror story's reach, and the wealth of relatively new writers featured is encouraging.
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From Booklist

Eventually sweet stories flank quite a creepshow in the nine-years-gestating new number of the Monteleones' irregular anthology series showcasing dark fantasy. Relief from the chills comes just twice, in Adam Corbin Fusco's satiric research report "N0072-JK1" early on and later in David J. Schow's lampoon of the monster-versus-the-villagers horror-flicker convention, "The Thing Too Hideous to Describe." Since the Monteleones emphasize newer talent, sometimes a story's shivers are clumsily achieved, but tales of metamorphosis by Bev Vincent ("One of Those Weeks") and Bill Gautier ("The Growth of Alan Ashley") and Dominick Cancilla's study in psychopathology ("Smooth Operator") are shockingly polished. It would be nice to say that the few well known contributors are overshadowed by the unknowns, but 'tain't so. Gary Braunbeck's collection-opener, John Farris' revenant yarn, and especially Whitley Strieber's angry anticlerical piece are excellent, and Stephen King's cautionary volume-closer about heart-healthiness, "Stationary Bike," is as artful as anything he has ever written--every sentence seems ideally weighted, every word well chosen, every flight of fantasy inevitable. Ray Olson

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