The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease Paperback – September 1, 2009

This spellbinding anthology, "The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease", compiled by Sarah Eyre and Ra Page, uses Sigmund Freud theory of 'The Uncanny' (the notion of that which may seem familiar or ordinary somehow disturbs us or makes us uncomfortable due to repressed belief-systems from childhood) as its focus. The stories collected all use various tropes from Freud's theory (doppelgangers; inanimate objects such as dolls or even severed limbs suddenly becoming animate; confusion between reality and imagination such as waking dreams; etc.) to spin their yarns. Included are tales from Ramsay Campbell, A.S. Byatt, Hanif Kureishi, and others, who all do exemplary work. This book fulfills its goals, and then some. A marvelous read that will definitely keep you unnerved.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, although one of the stories (a very long one, unfortunately) is a reprint that I had read elsewhere. This is something that has happened a few times lately with compilations of steampunk/new Cthulhu/new weird style stories, and not just something that applies to this book. But I was a little surprised to find this happening in this anthology - I had assumed from the Amazon blurb that the stories were commissioned for the anthology. Since this does not seem to be the case, I recommend checking story titles before buying the anthology.Other than that, there is a good cross-section of tones and styles. I am not one to expect, or want, to love every short story in an anthology. Rather, I expect to find a couple I love, some I am indifferent to or that do not fit MY ideas about the theme, and some new writers that I can look out for; "The New Uncanny" provided all of that.I will not outline each storyline - there is always somebody that will do that and I, personally, don't find it helpful. Some stories barely fell within the guidelines of the theme - not surprising if they were not specifically commissioned - but from what I can tell the stories were chosen for being good stories, not for being written by an author with a recognised name.My main complaint is that it was over too soon - I wanted more. Not because the book is too short, but because I was enjoying it so much. The kind of complaint that is actually praise!

The Un(heim)lich(e)Man(oeuvre)Ian Duhig“I like the way Joyce writes ‘lookingglass’ as one word; it seems to goggle back at you, reflecting itself and on itself.”I share chronic iritis with Joyce. I have had it sporadically since I was 23, and I am now 73.Isn’t 23 in ILLUMINATUS!And 73 is the 21st prime number. Its mirror, 37, is the 12th and its mirror, 21, is the product of multiplying 7 and 3, and in binary 73 is a palindrome, 1001001, which backwards is 1001001.Well, enough of MY connections. This ‘story’ is a massive compulsive virus at variance with word disassociation. It is the first extended stream of consciousness that I have ever understood and fully appreciated. Spreading through the narrator’s lifetime, detached from his mother, pushed by his pyramid oculist if occultist or Masonic Dad, and the narrator became a spy controlled by someone called Tyr, dry-stone walling, too, and reading Melmoth with a fisheye, and he studied with the Bradford Five. Told you, I am master of my reviewing brief.This was indeed a highly infectious read of clause-connecting claws. A genius stream. Almost as good as Tristram Shandy that I have real-time reviewed on this site, as I have also Finnegans Wake. Even Oliver Onions, one of my favourite more obscure writers, was picked from the work’s net of spread allusions. A forerunner of the Liar’s Dictionary. So many allusions that have eluded this review, just the tip of the iceberg of them being adumbrated here, but I think I actually got all of them into the sump of my mind, AND I got the gestalt of the plot, too, despite not being a good plot-getter normally.“Why does Plague get such a bad press? Aren’t they just a life form like any other?”The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.

A great selection of uncanny stories (which I got based on there being a Christopher Priest story in there, and was better value for money to get the whole book than the single story). And it doesn't let us down! Really weird, unnerving stories! And not blatant horror. Under the skin unnervy, not every scary at all, just that weird creepy sensation when you kind of think something is wrong, but aren't sure. Sometime when reading Amazon late at night. And you hear a noise. Or get a feeling. That creepy feeling along your back. You think you notice something amiss, or your perception picks up something incorrect in the universe. Like when you decide to follow to find out what's wrong, just a check, see if there's

Not a bad collection of stories with some real highlights, but I can't say I felt any particular uncanniness about most of them.I would probably recommend skipping the introduction, after reading it I felt some of the stories were a little contrived to fit into the guidelines, and in some ways I think the idea of the book is a little detrimental to the stories contained within. Maybe if I skipped the intro and turned the lights off I might feel differently...Some were amusing but not very uncanny, some were both amusing and uncanny, and others were more serious. Probably the majority of them feature some kind of modern technology, gadgets, the interwebs, etc. which I guess is where the 'new' mostly comes from. When this is done right it really works but in other cases I think bringing such things into the story brings it back into reality and lessens the tension you might normally expect from a 'tale of unease'.My favourite is probably continuous manipulation which does have an element of uncanniness to it.I bought the book after searching for Christopher Priest, based on the strength of his more uncanny tales from the Dream Archipilego, primarily about the mysterious towers on Seevl, his effort was decent and the idea was amusing (and not set in the dream archipelago I might add, although they do have funny names...).Tamagotchi and Seeing Double were also goodI could go on and talk about the rest but it's really for you to make your own mind up. I would still recommend the book but don't go in expecting oodles of unease.

I was initially a little disappointed with this anthology. I was expecting a modern take on the traditional gothic genre horror/ghost/supernatural stories . However you get just what it says on the tin, "Tales of Unease", stories which are disquieting and which give you an undefined sense of unease without ever reaching any full expression of horror.They achieve this objective very well, they are skilfully written short stories, with strange themes that creep into your head leaving a disturbing uneasy feeling like a half-forgotten nightmare.Some of the authors like Ramsay Campbell, A.S Byatt and Hanif Kureishi, are well known writers, other names are far less familiar. I would recommend reading the introduction first (which I usually skip), because it does give an interesting insight into how the assignment was defined, and Freud's classification of the themes in literature which make us uneasy (and his theories about why they make us feel this way).So not quite what I expected, but still a well written, themed anthology that is definitely worth reading.

I've kind of lost interest in the horror short story genre recently, despite having been an ardent fan in the past. Too many writers these days try to impress by either being overtly visceral, or by writing in a "stream of consciousness" style that I find extremely off-putting. The overwhelming majority of these tales manage to convey a deep sense of unease without trying too hard to be "clever" or just plain sick. Thoroughly recommended.