Joyce, Graham

The Tooth Fairy: A Novel

The disquietude in Graham Joyce's coming-of-age tale is that of having too much power as a child--the kind of power that turns your slightest wishes into mayhem. This power is granted to the rather ordinary and fearful member (neither the smartest nor the strongest) of a trio of friends growing up in small-town England by his stinky and enigmatic night visitor, the Tooth Fairy. The charm of this British Fantasy Award-winning novel is in his subtle and unsentimental portrait of a supernaturally benighted childhood. As Ellen Datlow writes in Omni, "Joyce immediately hooks his readers from the very first page with a small sharp shock and holds the reader with engaging characters and an air of menace. This tooth fairy is ... mischievous and destructive, representing our own worst aspects." --Fiona Webster

The Stormwatcher

"Of those writers who stoically refuse to trudge along horror fiction's well-worn path, Joyce, with British Fantasy Awards to his credit for Requiem and The Tooth Fairy, has perhaps had the most success. And now we can add to that list The Stormwatcher... For this remarkable, fine and almost unclassifiable book is a complete breath of fresh air, even considering his past achievements. The story is simply (!) the interaction of a group of somewhat dysfunctional friends during a two-week holiday in a lonely cottage in the Dordogne region of France. The group comprises James and his French wife, Sabine, and their two young daughters - Beth and the confused Jessie -plus James's one-time colleague Matt and his wife, Chrissie ... and, just to make things interesting, the sultry Rachel, another work-chum of James and one with whom he has shared considerably more than the occasional business meeting. As the story progresses we discover that one of the party - an unnamed instructor whose identity is kept hidden until the end of the book - is engaged in secret lessons with the impressionable Jessie, for reasons not immediately clear. Meanwhile, courtesy of a nicely-realized series of tense-changed flashbacks, we learn more of the instructor's background and an almost symbiotic relationship in which both she and her lover speak only lies to each other. All the time, Jessie grows more intense and confused while, around her, other members of the party grow, by turn, increasingly belligerent or subservient, manipulative or malleable, paranoid or confident. And underpinning the sequence of events is an intense feeling of primal sensuality evoked both by the environment and an approaching storm (its progress cleverly interjected into the proceedings by a series of half-page chapters explaining meteorological behaviour) and by the behaviour of the adults as their feelings for each other - and their protectiveness and confusion at the antics of and comments from young Jessie - swirl and eddy." Signed by the author. This is the only US edition.

Dark Sister

Dark Sister is the third book by British fantasy writer Graham Joyce to be published in the United States--and the author travels further into the realm of pure horror than he did in The Tooth Fairy or Requiem. Maggie, an unfulfilled, restless housewife in England, comes to terms with her nascent, otherworldly power amidst a disheveled and antagonistic domestic life. Her archaeologist-husband Alex is subtly dominating, which makes for an unfulfilling marriage. So, Maggie buries herself in the chaos of her small children, until a chance discovery both liberates her and invokes catastrophe.

During a routine cleaning of a chimney fireplace, she discovers an herbalist's journal; soon after, her life unfurls wildly and runs horribly aground. It seems that the owner of the journal was not just an herb woman, but also a witch with real powers. Inspired by this forgotten woman, Maggie begins to dabble in the arts of Wicca. The gifts it brings her are powerful--a sense of freedom, purpose, even clairvoyance. But every gift has its counterbalance, and Maggie's newfound telepathy allows her to see things she might have wanted to remain hidden. Even more ominously, it seems that in unearthing the journal, Maggie has awakened deep tragedies from an abandoned time, and the evil that now stalks her and her family might be insatiable and unstoppable. --Tamara Hladik

Alex and Maggie think they live in an ordinary townhouse, until they discover the diary of a previous occupanta diary containing secret Wiccan herb-lore passed down through the generations. Maggie is drawn to investigate the diary and discovers hidden powers within herself. But Maggie also awakens a malevolent force she cant control.An unlikely sprite assumes a sinister incarnation in this exceptional supernatural novel. ~ Publishers Weekly (starred review) on The Tooth Fairy Sharp, freshly imagined, and evocative work. Kirkus Reviews (pointer review) on The

Dreamside

Requiem

"The city is like a fractured mirror: you can see yourself, but you get a shock at how it comes back to you. "The city is contemporary Jerusalem, described in all the richness of its walls and gardens, shrines and religions--ancient dust, olive trees, the smell of falafel oil and balsam, mysterious writing on crumbling stones. The man who comes to find (or lose) himself there is a schoolteacher from England who quit his job in the aftermath of his wife's tragic death and a fuss about his possible involvement with a student. Graham Joyce weaves an absorbing tale about friends and lovers tugging at the delicate strands of ancient mysteries with both Islamic mythological and Christian religious elements. Requiem has ghosts, demons ("djinns"), doppelgängers, crazy people, and passionate main characters; it is a well-constructed dark novel, only flawed slightly by a listless ending. Winner of the 1996 British Fantasy Award for Best Novel.

Indigo: Learn to See - Try to Stay Alive

Binary (Gollancz)

The Web: 2027

THE WEB: 2027 depicts a world very different from ours. Life is dominated by the Web - a global cybernetwork of virtual worlds. And no-one's lives are dominated more than the children's - most of their schooling is in the Web and nearly all their leisure time is spent there. The Web has become big business. But there are pressure groups who see its influence as insidious, evil even. The actions of one ageing technocrat are about to make the worst fears of the doomsayers come true. And the children of the world are in the front line.

Partial Eclipse and Other Stories

Smoking Poppy (Gollancz)

One of the most respected names in genre writing returns with an extraordinarily powerful and moving story of one man's search for his daughter in the myth-shrouded jungles of Thailand.