 | by Charles Beaumont Remember that TWILIGHT ZONE episode? The one that gave you nightmares? Chances are it was written by Charles Beaumont. Beaumont's talents also helped bring to life such cinematic terrors as "The Premature Burial" and "The Masque of the Red Death." As a writer of short stories, his contribution to the landscape of our nightmares is unequalled. THE HOWLING MAN is the definitive collection of Beaumont's most haunting work. Here are the classics: "The Hunger", "Miss Gentibelle", "Free Dirt" along with five never-before-published stories. THE HOWLING MAN features introductions by Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Roger Corman, Dennis Etchison, Harlan Ellison, Richard Matheson and many other masters of horror and dark fantasy. They offer illuminating tributes to Beaumont - as a friend, a colleague, and a man whose dark magic left an indelible stamp on modern horror fiction, and on their own imaginations. |
10/10 | REVIEW Charles Beaumont was a master. And sadly, he was cut short in his prime, dying before he reached 40. Where Rod Serling was God's gift to TV, Beaumont was God's gift to short stories. It is no accident that Serling, Beaumont and Richard Matheson hung around together, and there is no doubt that they fed on eachother's creativity. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in a Serling-Beaumont-Matheson meeting. The Howling Man is the best collection of Beaumont work you will find anywhere. From his Twilight Zone adapted stories to his last few as illness overpowered him, you won't find anything better than this. A lot of these stories you won't find anywhere else anymore. Stop your searching through old copies of Amazing Stories and Alfred Hitchcock Presents and just buy this book now. |
 | by Robert Bloch Best known as the author of Psycho, Robert Bloch is world-renowned for his stories of horror, mystery, fantasy and science fiction. Many of the stories in this 3 volume set have been unavailable for decades. The stories are in his classic style of gripping suspense, science fiction and fantasy and are a must for fans of the genre. |
10/10 | REVIEW This 3 volume set could be called the "Bloch Bible" as it traces Bloch's early works, all the way through his "Psycho"-led blockbuster years and further. Never a nicer man would you meet, and never a more twisted story you will read. Bloch was the bridge from the olde worlde H.P. Lovecraft horror to the new world modern day horror writers of today. Everyone read him, everyone respected him and here for the only time is so many of Bloch's works presented in such fine form and in such a format. Don't just buy one or two, buy the whole three volumes because Bloch will keep you up all night, screaming your head off. |
 | by Robert Bloch Steve Collins is looking for the Big Score, the crime that will set him up for life. He thinks he's found it. He's going to kidnap Shirley Mae Warren, daughter of a wealthy banker and industrialist. The $200,000 ransom will get Collins his new start. He can't do it alone. He'll need help. First, Shirley Mae's nanny, Mary - for her, Collins is the perfect lover. Then, a driver and front man - the man Collins calls his best friend. The plan goes wrong. And Collins must decide whether he sacrifices all to save himself. |
9/10 | This is Bloch at his most darkest and scariest. And, believe it or not, his most "Lamonesque". A short novel that cuts to the bone, literally. No padding, no unnecessary fluff, this is a ride through hell from first to last page. The kidnapping is central, but also most importantly so are the characters. You'll love them, and you'll certainly hate them, but The Kidnapper is for the most part a character study of three desperate individuals who will try anything to get the break they think they deserve. This is an early, long-lost Bloch novel that deserves to be read by all fine Horror readers. Buy it now. |
 | by Robert Bloch On the loose in the shadowy, gaslit streets of London's East End - JACK THE RIPPER. Baffled by the horrific series of murders in Victorian London, Detective Inspector Frederick Abberline is struck by the fact that all the killings have taken place near the London Hospital - famous for its surgeons. A young American doctor at the hospital, Mark Robinson, comes to share Abberline's suspicions, but finds himself caught in a hall of mirrors in which one person after another seems to be a possible murderer... Who was Jack The Ripper? In this chilling, harrowing tale of terror, master of the macabre Robert Bloch proposes a new answer - as shocking and ingenious as the conclusion of his classic Psycho. |
7/10 | If you enjoyed Laymon's SAVAGE then you'll enjoy Bloch's take on the Jack The Ripper mystery. Set in the swirling London fog and in the rein of the Whitechapel menace, this is the page churning thriller by the man who brought you the award winning short story, "Yours truly, Jack The Ripper" a short story that has never been out of print. There's everything you'd expect in a Bloch novel here, blood, gore, horror and frights, with a few pretty lassies thrown in. A must to have and hold. |
 | by Robert Bloch Bestselling author Robert Bloch is famed as the creator of that great American horror classic, Psycho, the inspiration for the spine-tingling motion picture. He continued the story of Norman Bates and the Bates Motel - where Death is the desk clerk - in Psycho II and then Psycho House. Now, for the first time, all three suspense thrillers appear in one hardcover volume. |
10/10 | Okay, they don't come any better than this. Not only do you get the original and the best, "PSYCHO" in this volume, you also pick up Bloch's two follow-ups "PSYCHO II" and "PSYCHO HOUSE". These are not to be missed. You've seen the film, heard the soundtrack and looked at the poster, but have you actually read the book that started it all? You must own this, there's just no two ways about it. You should be told, however, that "Psycho" and especially "Psycho II" differ from the movie versions so don't expect that you're just going to be reading the movie here. Hitchcock did a good job, but he can't beat Bloch in printed form. All three Psycho novels are richly textured and the characterisation of everyone, even poor old Norman Bates, shines through. This three-in-one edition is a horror-junky's overdose of dreams. Buy it, or I'll send mother around. |
 | by Robert Bloch The Will to Kill and Firebug might be described as literary portraits of Carl Jung's "Shadow" archetype. The anguished protagonists of these roman noirs struggle (often unsuccessfully) against possession by the dark and repressed elements of their own psyches. The Star Stalker shares a somewhat similar plot with The Will to Kill and Firebug: an unknown killer haunts the protagonist and his social circle. But instead of those earlier novels' guilt-ridden, intensely internal focus, The Star Stalker's narrative is more concerned with the outer world - in this case Hollywood in the Golden era. |
7/10 | When you have written for decades, as Bloch had done, some of your earlier and less-well-known works fade out of publication and off the bookshelves. Thankfully, this three-in-one mammoth of a book is just what the good doctor ordered. The Will to Kill; Firebug and The Star Stalker are three of Bloch's earlier novels that deal very heavily with the outcast in society and the dark thoughts and reasonings behind them. A beautifully produced book, with lovingly-drawn illustrations, is just a delight to have on the shelf. A terrific addition to any Bloch collection. But, if you are after your first Bloch, perhaps try some of the above first, where he has refined his skills and honed his craft. |
 | by David Eddings But that was only a story, and Garion did not believe in magic dooms, even though the dark man without a shadow had haunted him for years. Brought up on a quiet farm by his Aunt Pol, how could he know that the Apostate planned to wake dread Torak, or that he would be led on a quest of unparalleled magic and danger by those he loved - but did not know? For a while, his dreams of innocence were safe, untroubled by knowledge of his strange heritage. For a little while... |
9/10 | Okay, forgive us for lapsing into Fantasy and Sci-Fi for a moment, but this really must be done. Many horror fans are also Sci-Fi / Fantasy readers and the following are just a couple of our "Must Have" selection. David Eddings has been around for years and is well known for many Fantasy sagas. But his most famous is The Belgariad series of five books, followed by the sequel series The Malloreon, also five books in length. If there's anything to be said against the two series' it would be that 10 books with the same characters can wear just a *little* thin with the reader, but believe me, you'll enjoy every page. Where does one begin to explain The Belgariad?? Well, let's see. If you threw King Arthur, Merlin, Christ, Xena and the whole case of Gladiators into a cooking pot, added a bit of romance and the action from all of the Lethal Weapon films, you *might*, just *might* begin to get an idea of the story of Garion, warrior-king-who-doesn't-know-it-yet. Buy the first volume, read it, and then make up your mind. If you like it, you've got nine books to go! |
 | by Harlan Ellison - From the Introduction by Terry Dowling |
8/10 | |
 | by Philip Jose Farmer It is not like our world - or any world that can be imagined by anyone but Philip Jose Farmer. It is huge and mysterious. It has a central river, rimmed by mountains, with a hidden source and an unknown end. Reborn there is every last soul who ever lived on Earth - from prehistoric apemen to moondwelling future civilizations. Reborn there is Sir Richard Francis Burton, translator of The Arabian Nights, explorer, brawler, scholar, womanizer - adventurer. His quest to discover the end of the river, the meaning of the world's existence - and lovely Alice Hargreaves (the real life model for Alice in Wonderland) form a science fiction adventure that is already recognized as a classic. |
10/10 | |
 | by Philip Jose Farmer For most people in the 35th Century AD the seasons flash by: six out of seven days are spent in suspended animation. The government is a benevolent but watchful dictatorship. One crime they keep a lookout for is 'daybreaking' - disobeying the law that says you come alive only one day a week. The most dangerous daybreakers are members of a secret organisation who posses a secret beyond price - the secret of extending their lives seven times beyond the normal lifespan. Jeff Caird is one such daybreaker, holding down seven completely different identities - until one day the insane Doctor Chang Castor escapes. Castor thinks he is God. He also thinks that Caird is Satan... |
9/10 | |
 | by Philip Jose Farmer Herald Childe has just seen a home movie in which his partner was brutally murdered, his life fluids drained by a lady with razor-sharp dentures. Childe is a private dick. He's used to sticking his nose into other people's business, and it's usually dirty. But he's not prepared for the gut-churning horrors which await him as he wades through the LA smog following up a lead in the most disgusting case of his career. He is plunged into a waking nightmare of sexual brutality and supernatural bestiality; he becomes entangled with a snake-woman; he is seduced by a filthy human sow; and he lays a ghost, only to realize that he's the one getting laid - by a woman working off the frustrations of over a century in ectoplasmic exile. But what can he do? He can hardly tell the police that he's discovered a crown of sex-mad vampires and werewolves from another universe... |
8/10 | |
 | by Richard Matheson "I DO NOT INTEND for this introduction to my colleeted short stories to be either a soul-baring confession or an in-depth psychological analysis of my personality. In the first place, I do not believe that the contents of this volume are comprehensive enough to provide the raw material for a baring of my soul. In the second place, I am not skilled enough at psychological analysis to do justice to an in-depth study of my personality as revealed by these stories. What I plan to do is present a few observations which I hope will cast some illumination on the genesis of these stories and the general theme which runs through most of them. It has been my contention that a reasonably careful examination of a fiction writer's body of work can reveal a workable profile of the writer's mental state in toto as well as during most if not every step along the creative way. I am sure that this contention is neither innovative nor profound. But, since I have never applied it to my own work-and, since your acquisition of this book indicates interest, on your part, in my writing-it might prove thought-provoking for you to examine the stories in this collection from the standpoint of their psychological source. I have, with this in mind, stipulated that the stories be printed in chronological order. In this way, I can comment on my mental state along the aforementioned creative way which took place between the years 1950 and 1970." -- from the introduction by Richard Matheson. |
10/10 | |
 | by Richard Matheson "In his own extensive introduction to Richard Matheson --Collected Stories (Dream Press,1989), Richard said,"The leitmotif of all my work ... is as follows: The individual, isolated in a threatening world, attempting to survive." Robert Neville, the protagonist of I Am Legend, and for the purposes of the book Richard's alter ego, is certainly that. He is also a very implacable individual given to sudden rages at his fate, with an analytical mind and the ability to set himself goals. He is very aware of his objective, and aware also of the means he uses to achieve his purpose. When balked in his course he immediately invents new strategies, always aware of the danger, always prepared to act ruthlessly in order to survive. Though filled with action, I Am Legend is basically an interior novel of detection as he tries to understand the nature of his enemy--and from whence the enemy came. We are concerned with Robert's thoughts, his fears, his feelings, his fantasies, his plans, because it is through these that we come to know him and thereby to identify with him in his terrifying world. Richard went on to write," ... Add to this aspect of my paranoic leitmotif: the inability of others to understand the male protagonist, to give him proper recognition. Their inclination (virtual insistence) on victimizing him with ignorance, stupidity, cliche thinking, and unwitting power. That I sometimes give alternative emphasis to the possibility that the male protagonist may be partially responsible for his own problems--that his real adversary is his own mind--does not alter the fact that he is, in the end, threatened by real outside forces. Or, to paraphrase an old joke, just because he's paranoid doesn't mean that someone isn't out to get him."" - from the introduction by George Clayton Johnson. |
9/10 | |
 | by Robert McCammon In a future world born of nuclear rage, an ancient evil as old as time roams a devastated, nightmare wilderness. He is the Man with the Scarlet Eye, the Man of Many Faces, gathering under his power the forces of human greed and madness. He is searching for a child who has the gift of life, a child named Swan, the child who must be destroyed... |
10/10 | |
 | by David Schow JUSTICE - Lucas Ellington's daughter is dead, trampled by an out-of-control mob at a rock concert turned riot. There was no trial, but Lucas has identified the murderers - the band, Whip Hand. VENGEANCE - Two of Gabriel Stannard's old bandmates are dead. Whip Hand's former lead singer knows who killed them. Stannard will not be a passive target. MADNESS - Rock and roll forever...until death. |
8/10 | |
 | by Dan Simmons They are 'mind vampires' - creatures with the psychic ability to 'use' humans: read their minds, subjugate them to their wills, experience through their senses, feed off their emotions, force them to acts of unspeakable violence. Each year three of them, Melanie, Willi and Nina, meet to discuss their on-going competition of vampirism and slaughter. But this year something goes wrong and they, and their innocent victims, are plunged into a struggle that will determine the future of the world itself. Ranged against them are a handful of normals: Saul Laski, psychologist and concentration camp survivor, who has devoted his life to tracking down the Nazi vampire von Borchert; Natalie Preston, whose father inadvertently and fatally crossed the path of the ancient and deadly Melanie; Sheriff Bobby Joe Gentry, dragged in while investigating a series of bizarre murders. Together they create a strange and vulnerable alliance against evil. |
10/10 |
