Mark Samuels—“the contemporary British master of visionary weirdness”, as Ramsey Campbell has called him—stands at the forefront of 21st century Horror, combining an unparalleled understanding of the Weird Fiction tradition with his own modern take on cosmic dread. An acknowledged influence on numerous writers in the field, his stories depict the isolation and despair of urban life giving way to vistas of universal alienation and, on occasion, spiritual transcendence.
Now, in this collection of original works inspired by Samuels’ writing, his characteristic themes are extended into previously undreamt-of settings: the hull of a Russian nuclear submarine headed to the heart of Chaos; the compound of a Japanese death cult with designs on the human race; a hospital run by the Men with Paper Faces; the Crying Rooms of London’s secret Reverse; the far reaches of the collapsed future and even the private thoughts of St. John of the Cross. Fed by the “strange tales” of the 19th and 20th centuries but firmly rooted in the present, Marked to Die is a digest of urban terror shot through with intimations of a monstrous Sublime. Featuring contributions from: Mark Valentine, Reggie Oliver, Colin Insole, Daniel Mills, Adam Nevill, Justin Isis, DF Lewis, John Mundy, Kristine Ong Muslim, James Champagne, Brendan Connell, Quentin S. Crisp, Thana Niveau, Simon Clark, Stuart Young, John L. Probert, Ralph C. Doege, Yarrow Paisley, Jon Paul Rai and David Rix.
Table of Contents:
The Shadowy Companion, foreword by Mark Valentine
Rapture, Reggie Oliver
The Golden Dustmen, Colin Insole
Canticle, Daniel Mills
White Light, White Heat, Adam Nevill
The Black Mass, Justin Isis
The Big-Headed People, DF Lewis
Attraction, John Mundy
The Early Signs of Blight, Kristine Ong Muslim
Chaoskampf, James Champagne
A Bad Un to Beat vs. The High Gate Waterman: It’s All About the Benjamins, Brendan Connell and Quentin S. Crisp
Language of the City, Thana Niveau
The Singular Quiddity of Merlin’s Ear, Simon Clark
The Carnivore of Monsters, Stuart Young
The Men With Paper Faces, John L. Probert
Empty Houses, Ralph C. Doege
Reinformation Theory, Yarrow Paisley
Prison Inquieta, Jon Paul Rai
Slag Glass Lachrimæ, David Rix
Coda
