This startling, high-octane collection includes short novels by Clive Barker and Karl Edward Wagner, and stories by such luminaries of fear as Lisa Tuttle, David J. Schow, Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, Dennis Etchison, and others.
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From Publishers Weekly
Terror fans surely will devour this ample collection from masters of the genre. Beginning with Clive Barker's novella "The Last Illusion," the tale of a magician's deal with the devil and its consequences, and ending with the unspeakably gory "Pig's Dinner" by Graham Masterton, the volume will surprise and horrify hardcore devotees and newcomers alike. The one exception may be Stephen Laws's "Junk," the story of a junk dealer who refuses to deliver the goods to an ungodly stet cap/pk Stranger. Alert readers will predict the conclusion almost from the start. Lisa Tuttle's "The Horse Lord" is a wonderful, traditional, spooky story with a supernatural theme that will keep readers guessing until the last paragraph. But terror's always better when the bad guys get what they deserve, as in "Out of Copyright," a piece by Ramsey Campbell that should scare writers into keeping their copyrights current. The science fiction field also is well represented by "The Late Shift," by Dennis Etchison, a tale that compels us to give cashiers a second glance. Jones is a British horror writer.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA-- A widely varied collection of stories and styles. The tales run the gamut from the thought-provoking splatter of F. Paul Wilson to the gothically inspired fright of Hugh B. Cave. It is just this variety that makes this anthology so enjoyable. Each entry has its own brief introduction and, since the stories do not revolve around a central theme, each must stand, or fall, on its own merits. YAs will shudder to learn what most adults already know: terror has many forms. --Phillip J. Clark, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
this is an interesting collection. 4 great stories by Tuttle, Chetwynd-Hayes, and others. a few ok stories here too. that makes it pretty good for an anthology. well picked. not bad invented stories. more plot-driven stories than in most anthologies.
There are only two other horror anthologies that I think are better than this one, and those two really ARE classics (THE DARK DESCENT and GREAT TALES OF TERROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL) Not only are the stories in this anthology very good, but offer a very wide variety of horror tales. Many different "flavors" of terror are available in this collection, from nice suspensful terror, to really visceral horror at something unspeakable occurring, to the completely physical revulsion to seeing a living mammal pulped in a feed thresher. Nice touch, that. There are vampires and Things Out of Time, possession tales and Mysterious Strangers. My favorites included: a short gothic horror novel ("Murgunstrumm" by Hugh B. Cave), Lumley's Lovecraftian "The House of the Temple", a real gem by Ramsey Campbell ("Out of Copyright") that ought to make the most jaundiced reader of horror think a little whenever s/he thumbs open a familiar text, and a simply AWESOME story by Lisa Tuttle ("The Horse Lord"). Rober Bloch's "Yugoslaves" shows why he's a master, and "The Jumpity-Jim" by R. Chetwyd-Hayes is a pretty nasty little tale. These are just the very best of the stories there; all of them are pretty good. Stephen Laws' "Junk" deserves mention as well. Jeesh. "The Black Drama" might give away its punchline a bit too soon, but it still provides some nice pulpy entertainment. All in all, this collection EARNS its 11 bucks worth of chills.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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4.0 out of 5 stars
5 reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
variety is the spice of life
Oct 28 1998
By vedamuth@pilot.msu.edu
- Published on Amazon.com
There are only two other horror anthologies that I think are better than this one, and those two really ARE classics (THE DARK DESCENT and GREAT TALES OF TERROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL) Not only are the stories in this anthology very good, but offer a very wide variety of horror tales. Many different "flavors" of terror are available in this collection, from nice suspensful terror, to really visceral horror at something unspeakable occurring, to the completely physical revulsion to seeing a living mammal pulped in a feed thresher. Nice touch, that. There are vampires and Things Out of Time, possession tales and Mysterious Strangers. My favorites included: a short gothic horror novel ("Murgunstrumm" by Hugh B. Cave), Lumley's Lovecraftian "The House of the Temple", a real gem by Ramsey Campbell ("Out of Copyright") that ought to make the most jaundiced reader of horror think a little whenever s/he thumbs open a familiar text, and a simply AWESOME story by Lisa Tuttle ("The Horse Lord"). Rober Bloch's "Yugoslaves" shows why he's a master, and "The Jumpity-Jim" by R. Chetwyd-Hayes is a pretty nasty little tale. These are just the very best of the stories there; all of them are pretty good. Stephen Laws' "Junk" deserves mention as well. Jeesh. "The Black Drama" might give away its punchline a bit too soon, but it still provides some nice pulpy entertainment. All in all, this collection EARNS its 11 bucks worth of chills.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gore ahoy!
May 26 2006
By RIJU GANGULY
- Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase
This book epitomises the 80-s streak of horror stained by blood & gore. Neverthless, "it is not without a few" stories "of interst". Specially recommended reading: THE LAST ILLUSION and THE YOUGOSLAVS. Stephen Jones had made a stellar beginning with this book and it stands tall till date.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Cartoonish, the Quietly Effective, and Others
April 19 2009
By Reader in Tokyo
- Published on Amazon.com
This book was published in 1991 and contained 18 short stories by as many authors. There were 10 from Great Britain and 8 from the U.S.
The oldest writers were Manly Wade Wellman (1903-86), Hugh B. Cave (1910-2004), Robert Bloch (1917-94), Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes (1919-2001), David Campton (1924-2006) and Basil Copper (1924-). Among the youngest were Clive Barker (1952-), Stephen Laws (1952-), Lisa Tuttle (1952-) and David Schow (1956-). Others included Brian Lumley (1937-), Charles L. Grant (1942-2006), Dennis Etchison (1943-), Karl Wagner (1945-94), Graham Masterton (1946-), Ramsey Campbell (1946-), F. Paul Wilson (1946-) and David Riley. Many of the authors also wrote in the SF, fantasy and mystery genres.
Most of the stories ranged from the late 1960s to the early 90s, with 11 from the 1980s. There were also two from the 1930s, by the pulp pioneers Wellman and Cave, which together took up nearly a third of the book.
As might be guessed from the cover, the anthology gave a great deal of space to pulp authors, extending from those who wrote for Weird Tales in the 1930s (Wellman, Cave and Bloch, though Bloch was represented by something more recent) to later Britons influenced by Lovecraft (Lumley, Campbell), to those from the 1970s or 1980s whose writing combined horror with graphic violence (Masterson, Barker, Schow). There were also more quiet but effective contemporary horror writers (Copper, Riley, Wagner, Grant, Laws), some of whom included sexual matters in more detail than encountered previously in horror stories.
Most interesting for this reader were Riley's "The Satyr's Head," about a man who became haunted by a satyr, Wilson's "Buckets," which combined a contemporary social/ethical issue and horror in an original way not read before, Masterson's "Pig's Dinner," which was so grotesquely over the top it was hard to forget, and Wagner's "The River of Night's Dreaming," which tried to show psychological dysfunction, among other things. Many of the other stories were too cartoonish or crude, or just didn't capture my interest.
An earlier anthology of somewhat similar work might be Dark Forces (1980).
The oldest writers were Manly Wade Wellman (1903-86), Hugh B. Cave (1910-2004), Robert Bloch (1917-94), Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes (1919-2001), David Campton (1924-2006) and Basil Copper (1924-). Among the youngest were Clive Barker (1952-), Stephen Laws (1952-), Lisa Tuttle (1952-) and David Schow (1956-). Others included Brian Lumley (1937-), Charles L. Grant (1942-2006), Dennis Etchison (1943-), Karl Wagner (1945-94), Graham Masterton (1946-), Ramsey Campbell (1946-), F. Paul Wilson (1946-) and David Riley. Many of the authors also wrote in the SF, fantasy and mystery genres.
Most of the stories ranged from the late 1960s to the early 90s, with 11 from the 1980s. There were also two from the 1930s, by the pulp pioneers Wellman and Cave, which together took up nearly a third of the book.
As might be guessed from the cover, the anthology gave a great deal of space to pulp authors, extending from those who wrote for Weird Tales in the 1930s (Wellman, Cave and Bloch, though Bloch was represented by something more recent) to later Britons influenced by Lovecraft (Lumley, Campbell), to those from the 1970s or 1980s whose writing combined horror with graphic violence (Masterson, Barker, Schow). There were also more quiet but effective contemporary horror writers (Copper, Riley, Wagner, Grant, Laws), some of whom included sexual matters in more detail than encountered previously in horror stories.
Most interesting for this reader were Riley's "The Satyr's Head," about a man who became haunted by a satyr, Wilson's "Buckets," which combined a contemporary social/ethical issue and horror in an original way not read before, Masterson's "Pig's Dinner," which was so grotesquely over the top it was hard to forget, and Wagner's "The River of Night's Dreaming," which tried to show psychological dysfunction, among other things. Many of the other stories were too cartoonish or crude, or just didn't capture my interest.
An earlier anthology of somewhat similar work might be Dark Forces (1980).
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