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At last someone else who understands the dark delight of Aickman! One of the most gifted and original talents to surface in the ghost story genre for a very long time, and a totally worthy successor to the great British tradition of Sheridan Le Fanu and MR James. It doesn't hurt that he can also rub his modernist credentials up against Borges or even Beckett with the best of them. Now all we need is for someone to digitize many more of his great stories.
Gazella, it's a really hard call, since all three volumes currently in Kindle are fabulous and you won't be disappointed. Easiest to buy all three, of course. But on balance, I'd say start with "The Wine-Dark Sea". For one thing, it has 11 stories, the most out of any of the three. Some are weird and unsettling but not overtly scary: the title story or the exquisite concluding piece 'Into the Woods', for instance. But others - 'The Inner Room', 'Never Visit Venice', 'The Trains' or 'Your Tiny Hand is Frozen' - are plain chilling. And his marvellous prose seldom falters. He's the kind of writer who leaves a mark on your awareness - even a stain, maybe? Fabulous stuff.
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