A Natural History of Hell
2016 short story collection by Jeffrey Ford
978-1-61873-118-0 A Natural History of Hell is a collection of thirteen stories written by Jeffrey Ford and released in July 2016.[1] The collection has won the 2017 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection[2] as well as the 2016 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Single-Author Short Story Collection.[3]
Author
Jeffrey Ford is an American fantasy, science fiction, and mystery writer, born in Long Island, New York State on 8 November 1955.[4] He now lives in Ohio and teaches writing part-time at Ohio Wesleyan University.
Contents
- The Blameless: A world where exorcisms are as casual as a sweet sixteen
- Word Doll: A take on the harvest spirit/monster theme
- The Angel Seems: A town suffers the predations of a monstrous angel who offers protection in exchange for occasional poetic and indifferent murder.
- Mount Chary Galore: A bone-chilling story of three young children in a more innocent, more difficult time, and their encounter with the local wise woman.
- A Natural History of Autumn: Evil Japanese demons and their wild shenanigans.
- Blood Drive: A re-imagined America encourages both high school students and teachers carry firearms
- A Terror: Emily Dickinson takes that famed carriage ride with Death.
- Rocket Ship to Hell: A science fiction writer meets an old man in a bar who spins a truly "weird tale"
- The Fairy Enterprise: A heartless industrialist determines to manufacture an unusual sort of product, but finds the process unexpectedly demanding.
- The Last Triangle: An addict is rescued by a little old lady.
- Spirits of Salt: A Tale of the Coral Heart
- The Thyme Fiend: A young in Ohio who sees strange things. The spirits of the dead come back to resolve some mysteries in the living world.
- The Prelate's Commission: A story about trying to put a face on the devil and how the devil feels about such efforts.
References
- ^ "Review on "A Natural History of Hell" By Catherine Grant". HuffPost. Feb 17, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
- ^ "Word Fantasy Award 2017 Winners List". Locus. November 5, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
- ^ "Shirley Jackson Award 2016 :Best Single-Author Short Story Collection Winners List". Retrieved May 8, 2018.
- ^ "Fishpond Book Review". Retrieved May 8, 2018.
External links
- LibraryThing : Reviews by Members
- Publishers Weekly : Fiction Book Review
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World Fantasy Award—Collection
- Worse Things Waiting by Manly Wade Wellman (1975)
- The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy by Avram Davidson (1976)
- Frights by Kirby McCauley (1977)
- Murgunstrumm and Others by Hugh B. Cave (1978)
- Shadows by Charles L. Grant (1979)
- Amazons! by Jessica Amanda Salmonson (1980)
- Dark Forces by Kirby McCauley (1981)
- The Dark Country by Terri Windling and Mark Alan Arnold (1982)
- Nightmare Seasons by Charles L. Grant (1983)
- High Spirits by Robertson Davies (1984)
- Books of Blood, Vols. I-III by Clive Barker (1985)
- Imaginary Lands by Robin McKinley (1986)
- Tales of the Quintana Roo by James Tiptree Jr. (1987)
- The Jaguar Hunter by Lucius Shepard (1988)
- Angry Candy by Harlan Ellison / Storeys from the Old Hotel by Gene Wolfe (1989, tie)
- Richard Matheson: Collected Stories by Richard Matheson (1990)
- The Start of the End of It All and Other Stories by Carol Emshwiller (1991)
- The Ends of the Earth by Lucius Shepard (1992)
- The Sons of Noah & Other Stories by Jack Cady (1993)
- Alone with the Horrors by Ramsey Campbell (1994)
- The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians and A Conflagration Artist by Bradley Denton (1995)
- The Grass Princess by Gwyneth Jones (1996)
- The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye by Jonathan Lethem (1997)
- The Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton (1998)
- Black Glass by Karen Joy Fowler (1999)
- Moonlight and Vines by Charles de Lint / Reave the Just and Other Tales by Stephen R. Donaldson (2000, tie)
- Beluthahatchie and Other Stories by Andy Duncan (2001)
- Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson (2002)
- The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories by Jeffrey Ford (2003)
- Bibliomancy by Elizabeth Hand (2004)
- Black Juice by Margo Lanagan (2005)
- The Keyhole Opera by Bruce Holland Rogers (2006)
- Map of Dreams by M. Rickert (2007)
- Tiny Deaths by Robert Shearman (2008)
- The Drowned Life by Jeffrey Ford (2009)
- There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya / The Best of Gene Wolfe by Gene Wolfe (2010, tie)
- What I Didn't See and Other Stories by Karen Joy Fowler (2011)
- The Bible Repairman and Other Stories by Tim Powers (2012)
- Where Furnaces Burn by Joel Lane (2013)
- The Ape's Wife and Other Stories by Caitlín R. Kiernan (2014)
- The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings by Angela Slatter / Gifts for the One Who Comes After by Helen Marshall (2015, tie)
- Bone Swans by C. S. E. Cooney (2016)
- A Natural History of Hell by Jeffrey Ford (2017)
- The Emerald Circus by Jane Yolen (2018)
- The Tangled Lands by Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias S. Buckell (2019)
- Song for the Unraveling of the World by Brian Evenson (2020)
- Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda (2021)
- Midnight Doorways: Fables from Pakistan by Usman T. Malik (2022)