Mike Ashley Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of Standalone Novels
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction | (1977) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Fantasy Reader's Guide to Ramsey Campbell | (1980) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Illustrated Book of Science Fiction Lists | (1982) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazines | (1985) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Barrington J. Bayley | (1987) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Algernon Blackwood | (1987) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Work of Robert A.W. Lowndes | (1988) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Work of David H. Keller | (1994) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Work of William F. Temple | (1994) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Supernatural Index | (1995) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Gernsback Days | (1997) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Mammoth Book of British Kings & Queensof Britain and Ireland | (1997) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
British Monarchs | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Time Machines | (2000) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Starlight Man | (2001) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Brief History of British Kings & Queens | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Transformations | (2005) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Age of the Storytellers | (2005) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Gateways to Forever | (2007) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Brief History of King Arthur | (2010) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Out of This World | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Yesterday's Tomorrows | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Collections
Publication Order of Anthologies
The Best of British SF 2 | (1977) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Best of British SF 1 | (1977) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Sf Choice 77 | (1977) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Weird Legacies | (1977) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Souls in Metal | (1977) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Gaslight & Ghosts | (1988) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Pendragon Chronicles: Heroic Fantasy from the Time of King Arthur | (1989) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Camelot Chronicles | (1992) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Historical Whodunits | (1993) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
100 Vicious Little Vampire Stories | (1995) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
100 Wicked Little Witch Stories | (1995) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Merlin Chronicles | (1995) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Giant Book Of Myths And Legends | (1995) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Classical Whodunnits | (1996) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The collected Classical stories and Classical whodunnits | (1996) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Fantasy Stories | (1996) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Space Stories | (1996) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Chronicles Of The Holy Grail | (1996) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures | (1997) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Shakespearean Whodunnits | (1997) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Random House Book of Fantasy Stories | (1997) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Shakespearean Detectives | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Heroic Adventures | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Men O'War | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Chronicles of the Round Table | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Royal Whodunnits | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Phantom Perfumes And Other Shades | (2000) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The World's Greatest Master and Commander Stories | (2001) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Mammoth Book of Egyptian Whodunnits | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Modern Crime Fiction | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Mammoth Book Of Science Fiction | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Mammoth Book of Roman Whodunnits | (2003) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction | (2006) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Mammoth Book of Extreme Fantasy | (2008) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Great American Ghost Stories | (2008) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Unforgettable Ghost Stories by Women Writers | (2008) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Darker Sex | (2009) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF | (2009) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Dreaming Sex | (2010) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Steampunk Prime | (2010) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Dreams and Wonders | (2010) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Vampires | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Duel of Shadows | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Sisters in Crime | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
[Insert Coin Here] | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Mammoth Book of Classical Whodunnits | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Feminine Future | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Toward the Golden Age | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Lost Mars | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Menace of the Monster | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Fighters of Fear | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Born of the Sun: Adventures in Our Solar System | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Nature's Warnings: Classic Stories of Eco-Science Fiction | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Ghost Slayers | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Editor Mike Ashley also works as a compiler of anthologies, researcher. There are times, when he finds certain works of fiction, that he is able to get some out of print work back in print. He points out that some authors have some output that no one notices, because people have forgotten about it or were not widely published for everyone to read. This is why he writes bibliographies and anthologies, and show that there are more great authors from a hundred or so years ago than just what people have always thought.
He won an Edgar for “The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Modern Crime Fiction.
As someone who has looked through a lot of science fiction from about 1920, he will tell you that it is impossible to view the work from modern day eyes. It has to be viewed through the mind of someone living at that time. He also points out that the writers from back then were not really professional. They were typically not from this country and wrote like English was a second language or were scientists and everything was an academic paper. This makes the writing from back then pretty bad.
He also feels that an ongoing fascination with certain literary characters causes things like imitation and less original in the devotees. More and more stories about classic characters is something that does more to stifle than it does to liberate the imagination. Imagination, he says, is something there needs to be more of in fiction; that and less imitation.
Mike Ashley views the internet as a poor way to access short stories, but it is the greatest research tool that will ever be invented. He does not want to read short stories on a screen, or print it out because this makes it seem like any other manuscript. He would rather see it printed up, in books and magazines.
When it comes to humor, he likes Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear and Terry Pratchett, for fiction. The Goons, Monty Python, and the Marx Brothers (especially Harpo, who he says is one of the best comic geniuses ever born) for film. He believes that fantasy is a great place for surreal comedy, something he likes, he also likes humor that is cleverly worded.
He has compiled for “Best of British Science Fiction” and “The Mammoth Book of…” series.
“Algernon Blackwood” is a non fiction book by Ashley and was released in the year 1987. Algernon Blackwood was big time writer of such hit novels as “The Willows” and “The Wendigo”. Besides being a very inventive writer, Algernon Blackwood traveled a lot. He also was a very popular storyteller on both television and the radio (appearing on the very first British television program). He was also a secret agent during the great war. He was also the reason, not Andrew Lloyd Webber, who started “The Starlight Express”. Some thought of him as an ancient child, other people, as an accomplished athlete.
He was able to spend time with members of the literary establishment: like H. G. Wells, P. G. Wodehouse, Hilaire Belloc, and Compton Mackenzie. He even was able to inspire such writers as Carlos Casteneda and Henry Miller.
No one, before this book, had ever told the story of this elusive, fascinating, charming, and enigmatic man. It took twenty years of researching and a lot of interviews of the different colleagues and friends of Blackwood’s.
It took Ashley a few stories before he actually got into Blackwood’s work. Because the first couple did nothing to impress him. He had to read “The Willows” and “The Wendigo” and some of the stories with John Silence before he really saw how great he was with atmosphere. You see, feel, and smell the work, not to mention his command of the English language. Now, he sees the man as being a unique writer, even to this day. Blackwood was someone that was able to explore the nature mysticism and supernatural in fiction.
“The Time Machines” is a non fiction book by Ashley and was released in the year 2000. Part one of a three volume series of his that shows the history of a science fiction magazine, from the very beginning to present day. This one shows the interesting times of the pulp magazines. You see the development, starting with Hugo Gernsback launched the first issue of “Amazing Stories”, which was in the year 1926. It moves through to the birth of the atomic age, later the death of the pulp magazine, which occurred in the fifties.
This is the time when science fiction was young; a time period when it was raw, exciting, and brash. Magazines, for four decades, were the center of science fiction. This book thinks about how magazines, their authors and editors and publishers were able to influence the growth and how people think about this interesting genre.
“Transformations” is a non fiction book by Ashley and was released in the year 2005. Despite the fact that most people think about television shows and movies, when they think of science fiction, the actual place science fiction rose to prominence was in pulp magazines.
Mike Ashley brings his extensive knowledge to this book. It starts at the beginning of the Cold War and ends at the end of the sixties. A tremendous change occurred by the end of this period, both in the writing and marketplace for science fiction.
Science fiction got more respectable, once the pulp magazines went away and were replaced by digest sized and glossy magazines. This was right around the same time of a golden age for the genre at the start of the fifties. Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, Philip K. Dick, and Harlan Ellison were just some of the giants that were being published in a bunch of different magazines at the time.
That being said, by the end of the fifties, it was a different story. Sales started to slump and only six science fiction magazines were left. It made the future for the genre looked bleak. Then, a surprising rebirth happened, propelled by J. G. Ballard and Michael Moorcock, who are both British writers. Ashley also considers how “Star Trek” and “2001: A Space Odyssey” helped shape the future of science fiction magazines.
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