altheaann

Overall, not a bad anthology, mixing elements of horror, sci-fi and fantasy. Most of the stories are not original to this book, so if you're a fan of the authors, it's likely you've read them before. They tend toward the dark, extreme and often grotesque and disgusting, so if that's not your scene, you probably won't enjoy.
My main issue with the book is its tendency toward navel-gazing. It should have just stuck with presenting the work, rather than going on and on about how to define the term "new weird," reprinting online forum arguments, and asking random industry people what they think of it. The introduction is also 'weirdly' full of China-Mieville-hero-worship. Not that Mr. Mieville doesn't necessarily deserve it, but it was slightly odd. Basically, I don't care about ultra-narrow genre-defining; let's just skip to the stories, and let them speak for themselves!

Contents:

Introduction
“The New Weird: ‘It’s Alive?’ Jeff VanderMeer

Stimuli
M. John Harrison “The Luck in the Head”
Michael Moorcock “Crossing into Cambodia”
Clive Barker “In the Hills, the Cities”
Simon D. Ings “The Braining of Mother Lamprey”
Kathe Koja “The Neglected Garden”
Thomas Ligotti “A Soft Voice Whispers Nothing”

Evidence
China Mieville “Jack”
Jeffrey Thomas “Immolation”
Jay Lake “The Lizard of Ooze”
Brian Evenson “Watson’s Boy”
K .J. Bishop “The Art of Dying”
Jeffrey Ford “At Reparata”
Leena Krohn “Letters from Tainaron”
Steph Swainston “The Ride of the Gabbleratchet”
Alistair Rennie “The Gutter Sees the Light That Never Shines” (original)

Discussion
“New Weird: The Creation of a Term”
Michael Cisco “‘New Weird’: I Think We’re the Scene”
Darja Malcolm-Clarke “Tracking Phantoms”
K. J. Bishop “Whose Words You Wear”
“European Editor Perspectives on the New Weird” (featuring the views of Michael Haulica from Romania, Martin Sust from the Czech Republic, Hannes Riffel from Germany, Konrad Waleski from Poland, and Jukka Halme from Finland)

Laboratory (Original round-robin story)

“Festival Lives”

Preamble: Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
View 1: “Death in a Dirty Dhoti” Paul Di Filippo
View 2: “Cornflowers Beside the Unuttered” Cat Rambo
View 3: “All God’s Chillun Got Wings” Sarah Monette
View 4: “Locust-Mind” Daniel Abraham
View 5: “Constable Chalch and the Ten Thousand Heroes” Felix Gilman
View 6: “Golden Lads All Must…” Hal Duncan
View 7: “Forfend the Heavens’ Rending” Conrad Williams

Recommended Reading
Biographical Notes