Carol Serling, Rod Serling's widow and a consultant on later Twilight Zone projects, has collected 19 stories for the 50th anniversary anthology. Although the nature of the different medium lends a slightly different tone to the stories — often planting us firmly inside the head of the protagonist — many of them play clear tribute to the television series. By far the clearest of these tributes is the opening story, David Hagberg's "Genesis," a story set in the Philippines during World War II that pays homage not only to individual Twilight Zone episodes, but to Rod Serling himself. A second war story, Jim Defelice's "The Soldier He Needed to Be," is a delightfully straight update of the series, about a flailing soldier in Afghanistan who turns his life around after receiving an iPod he believes to be magical.

Most of the stories are, however, set in that slightly sinister suburbia we see so often in Serling's show, where people trip and fall while chasing down the American Dream. Deborah Chester's "The Street That Time Forgot," one of the anthology's more science fiction entries, is set in one of those anonymous condo complexes that dot the United States. It's only when one of the residents adopts a stray dog and begins to wake from the slumber of his daily grind that he begins to suspect that his condo association may be taking more away from him than his HOA. And in Whitley Strieber's "The Good Neighbor," a middle class man worries about the falling value of his home after insectoid aliens move in next door.

Other standouts include Timothy Zahn's "Vampin' down the Avenue," in which a movie star goes to extreme lengths to foil the paparazzi — a story that's amusing enough even before the satisfying twist at the end — and Mike Resnkick and Lezli Robyn's beautifully sad "Benchwarmer," which takes us into the world of imaginary friends, and introduces us to one friend who simply can't let go of the boy who created him. And for fans who want a peek into Serling's process, Carol Serling has included his previously unpublished treatment for a possible episode, entitled "El Moe."

The stories in this anthology do stick a little bit too close to home; we get none of the space travelers or robots we would see from time to time on the show. But each tale is a quick and fun read where ordinary people are ensnared by the extraordinary, the wicked get what's coming to them, and nothing is ever quite as simple as it seems.

It's been a year since we first announced that DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way, was hunting down scripts for a Twilight Zone film. And it appears that they have finally chosen their scribe, writer and television producer Rand Ravich. Ravich is probably best known for creating the NBC police drama Life, but he also scripted the B-movie-inspired thriller The Astronaut's Wife (which he also directed) and the horror sequel Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh.

And, in fact, Ravich has also written for a series modeled on TV anthologies like The Twilight Zone — but instead of science fiction or horror, the stories featured in Playboy's Inside Out anthology are, naturally, based around sex. Still, the description from IMDB of his entry "Put Asunder" suggests that Ravich would have rather been writing for Rod Serling than Hugh Hefner:

A battling divorced couple cannot keep their hands off of each other, so they hire a hitman to kill one of them, based on chance.

Still no word from Appian on whether the film, like its ill-fated 1983 predecessor, will feature remakes of old Twilight Zone episodes or an original (and potentially pornographic) tale from Ravich.

[Variety]

The feud appears to have started with science fiction scholar and urban fantasy novelist Justine Larbalestier. Although Larbalestier’s young adult novels feature magic and fairies, she detests all things unicorn. In praising Simon Pegg’s discussion on zombies as metaphor, she notes that the unicorn metaphor hasn’t successfully been brought into the 21st Century:

Maybe in the olden days, Diana. But I don’t know if you noticed: this isn’t the olden days. No one allegories or alchemises no more. Unicorns are metaphorically as dead as the dodo.

Although Larbalestier has found some support on this matter (fellow young adult novelist John Green described unicorns as “the horned beasts of suck”), Holly Black, author of The Spiderwick Chronicles, believes that the failure of writers to explore unicorns with a modern eye is exactly what gives them potential:

1. Justine says that zombies are so chilling because they represent inescapable death and that unicorns have no resonance. This is massively untrue. Unicorns symbolize eternal life, hence their healing powers and their association with both religious figures and kings. Eternal life can be pretty chilling.

2. For example, but also as a separate point, the photoshopping and painting of Obama with unicorns and McCain with (or into) zombies as a means to make a political argument. Unfair? Maybe, but resonant. (I did find a single McCain unicorn picture, for anyone who's interested in that kind of thing.)

3. Unicorns are interesting because there is something to subvert, something to transgress. No one wants to see the zombie transgressed. Well, only crazy people.

So, with that in mind, the pair conceived of Zombies vs. Unicorns, an anthology that will be half zombie stories and half unicorn stories, with Larbalestier editing the former and Black the latter. It’s an interesting idea, but I think the unicorn folks have their work cut out for them. While it’s a challenge to keep zombies fresh and interesting, I’m hard pressed to think of instances of unicorns being successfully brought into the science fiction or urban fantasy sphere. But, perhaps knowing that the stories will be published with zombie tales will push unicorn writers farther outside the high fantasy conventions.

Simon & Schuster will publish the anthology in 2010.

Zombie unicorn from jawboneradio.

[Justine Larbalestier and Holly Black via Shaken & Stirred]

On the heels of Jason Stoddard’s “Happier Science Fiction” manifesto, Solaris has announced that science fiction writer and former Interzone magazine editor de Vries will be soliciting manuscripts for stories depicting a kinder, gentler future:

Shine is a collection of near-future, optimistic SF stories where some of the genres brightest stars and some of its most exciting new talents portray the possible roads to a better tomorrow. Definitely not a plethora of Pollyannas (but neither a barrage of dystopias), Shine will show that positive change is far from being a foregone conclusion, but needs to be hardfought, innovative, robust and imaginative. Most importantly, it aims to demonstrate that while times are tough and outcomes are uncertain, we can still bend the future in benevolent ways if we embrace change and steer its momentum in the right direction.

De Vries is looking for stories set within the next 50 years that would persuade “the biggest skeptics on the planet” that the near future can be a better place. He has also set up a blog for Shine, hoping to create an “open platform” for discussing the nature and challenges of an optimistic future.

[Shineanthology’s Weblog via Jason Stoddard]

October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween: This anthology, which weighs in at a whopping 650 pages, collects works from science fiction writers such as Ray Bradbury and John Shirley and dark fantasy writers Thomas Ligotti and Poppy Z. Brite. In addition to its reference entries – “A Short History of Halloween,” “Overview of Halloween Films,” and “Reader’s Guide to Halloween Fiction” – and numerous short stories (including Jack Ketchum’s “Gone”), writers also share their own favorite Halloween memories.

13 Horrors of Halloween: Isaac Asimov’s Halloween collection includes his own short story “Halloween” and Ray Bradbury’s “The October Game.” Other literary luminaries, such as Edith Wharton, contributed to the volume, but the most famous tale of the lot may be Al Sarrantonio’s “Pumpkin Head,” the tale of a childhood Halloween party that ends in terror.

Isaac Asimov’s Halloween: Despite the title and cover, tragically none of these stories take place on Halloween in space, not does Asimov contribute his own tale to the collection. Although many of the stories deal with religious horror – a fight to the death with the devil, a train to Hell, and a man who tries to invoke the power of Mephistopheles using the Books of Moses – it also features the genetic alteration horror “Renaissance” and a pair of Lovecraftian send ups: Lawrence Watt-Evans’ “Pickman’s Modem” and Esther Friesner’s “The Shunned Trailer.”

Science Fiction Terror Tales: An all-star cast of 1950s scifi writers contribute to this volume, which republished works from genre magazines like Astounding, Other Worlds, and Fantasy and Science Fiction. Philip K. Dick’s paranoid android tale “Imposter” (the basis for the 2002 Gary Sinise flick) and Robert Heinlein’s solipsistic “They” number among the works, with stories from Richard Matheson, Theodore Sturgeon, and Robert Sheckley rounding out the collection.

Dark Forces: Literary agent Kirby McCauley was inspired to collect the stories for Dark Forces by Harlan Ellison’s Dangerous Visions. Seeking works that innovate and push the quality of the genre, authors include horror anthology regulars Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, and Theodore Campbell, but also includes such genre jumpers as Joyce Carol Oates and Edward Gorey. Its release also marks the first publication of Stephen Kings novella “The Mist.”

Here's an excerpt from her weird tale, which is as much about prison social networking websites as it is about zombies. Link's main character, an ex-con named Soap, is infatuated with zombies, and here he explains why:

Zombies weren’t complicated. It wasn’t like werewolves or ghosts or vampires. Vampires, for example, were the middle/upper-middle management of the supernatural world. Some people thought of vampires as rock stars, but really they were more like Martha Stewart. Vampires were prissy. They had to follow rules. They had to look good. Zombies weren’t like that. You couldn’t exorcise zombies. You didn’t need luxury items like silver bullets or crucifixes or holy water. You just shot zombies in the head, or set fire to them, or hit them over the head really hard . . .

Zombies didn’t discriminate. Everyone tasted equally good as far as zombies were concerned. And anyone could be a zombie. You didn’t have to be special, or good at sports, or good-looking. You didn’t have to smell good, or wear the right kind of clothes, or listen to the right kind of music. You just had to be slow.

Read the rest today at lunch.

Some Zombie Contingency Plans [via Living Dead]