As the Sun Goes Down »

his landmark volume marked the first U.S. publication of British horror phenomenon, Tim Lebbon. As the Sun Goes Down collected 90,000 words of his best work, including several original pieces, like "The Unfortunate", which went on to win a Bram Stoker award, and was included in several "Year's Best" anthologies. As the Sun Goes Down also features an introduction by Ramsey Campbell.

This collection presents a tableau of stories each very distinct in content and form, yet inextricably linked in disturbing the reader and challenging their accepted values. Not one tale is wasted in Lebbon's determination to subvert our perceptions of love, life, nature, beauty and the innocence of childhood. His use of language and narrative form is unrelenting, each vying to create images from words that incessantly chip away at our confidence in the so-called 'truths' of existence.

In addition to winning the British Fantasy award, and the Bram Stoker Award, Lebbon managed, with this collection, to completely disgust a reviewer at Publishers Weekly, who went out of his or her way to trash As The Sun Goes Down... "Unpleasant people doing disgusting things is a theme that bludgeons its way through this collection of 16 horror stories... If only the nightmares and unpleasantries created by this collection would ... fade ... away."

Other critics have had nicer things to say about Tim Lebbon, and As the Sun Goes down:

"...the darker moments of life are central to Lebbon's work. Few writers can plumb the depths of these moments with his sensitivity and unflinching frankness."

- SF Site

"Lebbon is quite simply the most exciting new name in horror for years."

- SFX Magazine

"Lebbon is the real thing. He's going to be Major

- Steve Rasnic Tem

"..A firm and confident style, with elements of early Clive Barker."

- Phil Rickman, author of The Chalice

"Lebbon never disappoints. His consistently first-rate stories crackle with invention and surprises galore."

- Simon Clark, author of Nailed by the Heart and Darkness Demands

Contents:

• Introduction by Ramsey Campbell

• The Empty Room

• Life Within

• The Butterfly

• Endangered Species in C Minor

• Dust

• Fell Swoop

• Recent Wounds

• The Repulsion

• Unto Us

• The Last Good Times

• King of the Dead

• Recipe for Disaster

• The Beach

• Reconstructing Amy

• The Unfortunate

• Bomber's Moon

Publishers Weekly

Unpleasant people doing disgusting things is a theme that bludgeons its way through this collection of 16 horror stories (12 previously unpublished), by British Fantasy Award winner Lebbon. First up is "The Empty Room," an unsuspenseful gagger about one boy tormenting another then leaving him in the clutches of a monster, while he bargains with the dying kid for his stuff. Equally heinous is "The Butterfly," in which Mary's mother, who "must have shit me out, then carried on fucking the doctor," tries to get Mary eaten by lions to collect on insurance money. When the lions won't bite, Mummy Dearest runs over Mary's legs. Ultimately Mary has her revenge when wild creatures only she can see eat her neighbors, innocent and guilty alike. In Lebbon's science fictional exercise, "Dust," an overweight man in a downed spacecraft is tormented by his companions. Locking him away from the little food left, they delight in torturing him. Some "aliens" and an abusive father also appear, but they do nothing to illuminate these characters or make them more appetizing. There's also a fantasy, "King of the Dead," in which every living thing on an otherwise innocuous island dies horribly. In the closer, "Bomber's Moon," death is clearly the preferred outcome as Danny, who did a horrible deed in wartime, is "feeling the tides of life slowly drawing away from him. With them, went the nightmares." If only the nightmares and unpleasantries created by this collection would also fade so peacefully away. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.