The Best of Michael Marshall Smith - hardcvr

Dust jacket illustration by Stefan Koidl.

Interior story heading illustrations by Les Edwards.

We’re pleased to announce The Best of Michael Marshall Smith, a mammoth collection, containing classic tales, as well as over 60,000 words of previously uncollected fiction.

About the Book:

In 1990, British-born author Michael Marshall Smith burst on to the literary scene with his first story “The Man Who Drew Cats.” It won the prestigious British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction, and he went on to win the award again the next year. In a career that has now spanned three decades he has written nearly 100 short stories, published more than a dozen best-selling novels around the world, and scripted numerous movie and television projects.

Now, to celebrate his three decades as a writer, The Best of Michael Marshall Smith brings together thirty of his most emotive and powerful stories (including all his award-winning short fiction), along with extensive story notes by the author.

Featuring evocative heading illustrations by Les Edwards, this career-spanning collection includes such memorable tales as “Hell Hath Enlarged Herself,” “More Tomorrow,” “To Receive is Better,” “What You Make It,” “Later,” “The Dark Land,” “What Happens When You Wake Up in the Night,”  “Always,” and many others, in their definitive versions.

By turns touching, disturbing, and frightening, these stories are not limited by theme or genre, but reveal a writer always in command, and whose imagination knows no bounds. The Best of Michael Marshall Smith is the ultimate compilation of the author’s work, and stands as a testament to his mastery of, and commitment to, his craft.

Trade: Fully cloth-bound hardcover edition

MICHAEL MARSHALL SMITH is a novelist and screenwriter. He has published nearly a hundred short stories, and five novels—Only Forward, Spares, One of Us and The Servants—winning the Philip K. Dick, International Horror Guild, and August Derleth awards, along with the Prix Bob Morane in France. He is the only author to have won the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction four times. 

He has published additional New York Times and Sunday Times-bestselling novels under the names Michael Marshall and Michael Rutger, and also works as a screenwriter in Los Angeles.

He lives in Santa Cruz, California, with his wife, son, and three cats.

www.michaelmarshallsmith.com

From Publishers Weekly (Starred Review):

“The 30 stories in this standout collection showcase Smith’s facility at imbuing genre tropes with humanity. Every entry offers something unexpected, while grounding inventive paranormal situations in recognizable emotion… This collection makes for a perfect introduction to a gifted writer who merits a larger audience.”

From Locus:

“Smith writes stories that draw the reader in and keep them mesmerized as they worm their disquieting way permanently into the psyche. He’s a perceptive observer of human passions, weaknesses, and everything in between. His scrutiny thereof usually results in dark conclu­sions. Normal folks have a tendency to do dread­fully abnormal things or wander into the horrific… As is befitting a ‘best of,’ there’s not a ‘meh’ story in the bunch. The Best of Michael Marshall Smith is simply brilliant.”

From The Independent (UK):

“The Best of Michael Marshall Smith (Subterranean Press) is a good collection for devotees of fantasy and horror fiction, bringing together 30 of the author’s most emotive and powerful stories…”

Table of Contents:

• The Handover
• Save As
• Being Right
• Hell Hath Enlarged Herself
• More Tomorrow
• The Motel Business
• Dear Alison
• The Man Who Drew Cats
• This is Now
• To Receive is Better
• They Also Serve
• The Scariest Thing in the World
• The Seventeenth Kind
• What You Make It
• Not Waving
• Later
• Walking Wounded
• The Gist
• Author of the Death
• The Dark Land
• Different Now
• The Things He Said
• The Window of Erich Zann
• Everything You Need
• What Happens When You Wake Up in the Night
• Failure
• Charms
• The Burning Woods
• Shit Happens
• Always
• Story Notes