In Concert

by Steve Rasnic Tem, Melanie Tem

Steve Rasnic & Melanie Tem : In Concert collects the collaborative short fiction of Melanie Tem and Steve Rasnic Tem, who have worked at the cutting edge of imaginative fiction for over a quarter century. In the twenty-one tales herein, the reader will find fear, joy, and mystery. In Concert showcases the wide range of their collaborative work. The title story tells of a lonely elderly woman who achieves rapport with a lost astronaut through the power of music. In "The Icy Region My Heart Encircles," an aging Mary Shelley, creator of Frankenstein, keeps the heart of her late husband on the mantel and is haunted by her dead children and the living incarnation of her Monster. And in "The Man on the Ceiling," the authors take turns telling of the fears and darkness common to all families, while reminding the reader that "everything I tell you is true." The publication of In Concert is an event well worth celebrating.

In Concert is one in a long series of short story collections by award-winning authors, including "Futile Efforts," By Tom Piccirilli, "Afraid - Tidbits of Terror," by Elizabeth Massie, "The Forgetting Wood," by Steven Savile, "Dark Dixie," by Ronald Kelly and "The Call of Distant Shores," by David Niall Wilson.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

STEVE RASNIC TEM's short fiction has been compared to the work of Franz Kafka, Dino Buzzati, Ray Bradbury, and Raymond Carver, but to quote Joe R. Lansdale: "Steve Rasnic Tem is a school of writing unto himself." His 300 plus published pieces have garnered him a British Fantasy Award, and nominations for the World Fantasy and Bram Stoker Awards.

MELANIE TEM's chronicles of the terrors that haunt families and the amazing resilience of the human spirit have collected a Bram Stoker award, a British Fantasy Award, and praise both here and abroad. Stephen King said of her first novel, Prodigal, "spectacular, far better than anything by new writers in the hardcover field." Dan Simmons declared it "A cry from the very heart of the heart of darkness . . . Melanie Tem may well be the literary successor to Shirley Jackson."

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Science Fiction

364 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 24, 2010

About the author

Steve Rasnic Tem was born in Lee County Virginia in the heart of Appalachia. He is the author of over 350 published short stories and is a past winner of the Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy Awards. His story collections include City Fishing, The Far Side of the Lake, In Concert (with wife Melanie Tem), Ugly Behavior, Celestial Inventories, and Onion Songs. An audio collection, Invisible, is also available. His novels include Excavation, The Book of Days, Daughters, The Man In The Ceiling (with Melanie Tem), and the recent Deadfall Hotel.

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let's say that I checked this book out for Hallowe'en. Let's say that the chains on the thing in the basement of my mind have not yet rusted through. Let's say that it's not always going to be dark inside. Let's say... that In Concert is a lush, creepy and melancholy best-of collection by some underappreciated fantasists, in a beautiful (if scarily expensive) limited-edition package.

All of the intense, surreal and unsettling stories here are colored from the palette of loss, all blues and purples and grays, dark imagery ranging from simple love unrequited to auto-cannibalism. The title story is actually uncharacteristically hopeful—while it too deals with approaching death, with loss of faculties, it does so in an ultimately positive way.

Let's just say that if you read this one at night, you may never want the morning to come...

[Karl]

This is number 48 of 300 signed numbered copies.

[Des Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am despairing of being able to convey to you the nature of some of such special rarefied Temmery,...

The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long to post here.
Above is one of its conclusions.

[Curtis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favorites were In Concert and The Man In The Window.