999

There's a trio of anthologies edited by Al Sarrantonio. The first is a horror anthology, titled 999. The second is science fiction, Redshift. And the third is fantasy, Flights. I first bought Redshift and read it straight through. There are many good stories in there, and I think even the first science fiction story by Joyce Carol Oates. If it's not her first, it's at least an early one. Very good. The other two I've only read bits of, but what I've read is excellent.

What I want to get to is this: in 999 there is an excellent horror story. It's not your usual story about monsters, or the dark, or the unknown (although it could be construed to be about the unknown), but it still fits in the category. I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but I highly recommend reading it. It's called The Owl And The Pussycat, and is written by Thomas M. Disch. Now, I've never read anything of his before this, but I've got to pick up some of his work now. I'm just not sure where to start.

Actually, I've just looked over at his website, and wikipedia, and the locus awards page, and I think I've got a good handle on where to start. There a a few award nominated single author collections by him, as well as some novels with the same sorts of nominations. Good start I think.

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