The Best of Borderlands

icompiled by Elizabeth E. Monteleone

Quite possibly the best anthology of short weird fiction ever!

My husband, Thomas F. Monteleone, was the mastermind of this award winning series. For you readers just discovering us—(1) Borderlands is a non-themed anthology, which means writers are free to explore any topic they choose; however (2) we are usually not very excited to see stories which are basically re-treads of familiar genre symbols, staples, and icons. But if you do bump into a recognizable device, you can count on it being turned upside down and examined in an entirely new light. (3) This anthology is not restricted or "invitation-only," which means you’ll always find plenty of new writers right alongside some of the most familiar and popular "names" in the business.

Bottom Line

Any story from any of the entire Borderlands series could have been chosen for this book. Yeah, we believe they’re all that good.

So why this Best of?

I hear from a lot of people that they can’t find the earlier volumes. You see, we publish books in limited edition for the collector. Fancy stuff, signed, numbered, and even lettered books in snazzy leather cases which makes the book even harder to find. Borderlands Press rarely ventures out to paperbacks or trade hardcover. And here’s the simple reason, we’re a "Boutique Press" and we like it that way.

So now that we have five volumes under our belt, I thought it a good idea to compile at least ten stories from each book to give newer writers and readers a chance to sample what it is we do so well . . . .

The Process

I had no idea how to begin to choose stories for this book. I enlisted the help of my friend, as well as my trusted and most loyal assistant, Tamara Keurajian to help me in the final compilation. I went to conventions and asked "which are your favorite stories?" I checked out past reviews to see which ones were mentioned the most. This plan didn’t work out so well because the answers were all over the place. I finally asked four readers (who shall, at their request, remain anonymous) to rate the stories. Tamara and I did the same . . . so here you go . . . completely unscientific, but a good sampling of Borderlands.

I hope you’ll find it a great read!

Elizabeth E. Monteleone

Includes stories by: John Edward Ames, Kim Antieau, David F. Bischoff, Gary A. Braunbeck, Poppy Z. Brite, Ramsey Campbell, Michael Cassutt, J.L. Comeau, Lawrence C. Connolly, Peter Crowther, Avram Davidson, John DeChancie, Rachel Drummond, Dennis Etchison, John Farris, Brian Freeman, Bill Gauthier, Darren O. Godfrey, Ed Gorman, Charles L. Grant, David Herter, Brian Hodge, Gerard Houarner, Stephen King, T.E.D. Klein, Joe R. Lansdale, Bentley Little, John Maclay, Elizabeth Massie, Jon F. Merz, G. Wayne Miller, Rex Miller, Holly Newstein, Philip Nutman, John R. Platt, David J. Schow, Darrell Schweitzer, David B. Silva, William Browning Spencer, Peter Straub, Whitley Streiber, Steve Rasnic Tem, Thomas Tessier, Lois Tilton, Bev Vincent, Stanley Wiater, F. Paul Wilson, William F. Wu, and L. Lynn Young

Trade Paperback: $25.00 plus S&H

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