Through a Mythos Darkly (Cthulhu Anthology #11) 2.5Stars

 

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Title: Through a Mythos Darkly
Series: Cthulhu Anthology #11
Editor: Glynn Barrass & Brian Sammons
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Cosmic Horror
Pages: 257
Words: 98K

The title of this anthology is a rip off of the Bible verse from 1^st Corinthians, Chapter 13, verse 12 which starts out “For now we see in a mirror, darkly;” so I knew going in that this might very well be quite blasphemous. Thankfully, it wasn’t.

But it wasn’t that good either. I have built up my expectations about Glynn Barrass as an editor and he really let me down this time. I think a large part of that was the inclusion of a bunch of woke buzz words and ideas that shaped the stories into more political screeds than actual good story telling. Plus, several of them were using very modern terms (health care practitioner in the 1920’s, I don’t think so!) in stories where said words weren’t used that way. It just threw me out of the story every time it happened and damped down my enjoyment.

Plus, several of the stories had that “man is evil, man is a monster, man should just destroy himself to make the world a better place” mentality which has nothing to do with cosmic horror and more to do with the author’s thoughts and feelings about humanity. Which if they really believed that, they would put a gun in their mouth and blow their brains out. And we would all be better off not having to put up with their stupidity. But what they MEAN is that everyone ELSE is a monster and should destroy themselves, obviously not them!

The short story “Fate of the World” had a tie in with the King in Yellow in that Carcosa is a real place on Earth and is at war with the rest of world who are under the sway of various elder gods. But that was it and was barely there. The King doesn’t even appear. So it wasn’t what I expected or wanted.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed with this collection. While not egregiously bad like The Black Wings of Cthulhu, I am actually rating this lower because there wasn’t even one story that really rose above the rest. Everything was grey, mediocre pablum. That is the very antithesis of Cosmic Horror.

★★✬☆☆

---

Publisher’s Blurb & Table of Contents:

In this Cthulhu Mythos inspired anthology, editors Glynn Owen Barrass & Brian M. Sammons invited their authors to Take a steampunk world, fill it with giant steam powered robots, and have them herding shoggoths for the betterment of mankind. Have them rebel, and have do-gooders set about trying to free them. Fill a world with Deep Ones or Ghouls, or create a world where magic is a part of everyday life, or where America was never discovered because something kept eating the ships, or the Nazis won WWII thanks to outside influences. Perhaps the Chinese built the Great Wall to keep something out other than Mongol hordes. So, how did they do? Fantastically of course.

TOC:

Introduction (Through a Mythos Darkly) • essay by Glynn Owen Barrass and Brian M. Sammons

The Roadrunners • short fiction by Cody Goodfellow

Scrimshaw • short fiction by Jeffrey Thomas

Sweet Angie Tailor in: Subterranean Showdown • short story by John Langan

An Old and Secret Cult • short fiction by Robert M. Price

Stewert Behr—Deanimator • short fiction by Peter Rawlik [as by Pete Rawlik]

To Kill a King • short fiction by Don Webb

The Last Quest • short story by William Meikle

Fate of the World • short fiction by Christine Morgan

Red in the Water, Salt on the Earth • short fiction by Konstantine Paradias

The Night They Drove Cro Magnon Down • short fiction by D. A. Madigan

Sacrifice • short fiction by Sam Stone

Get Off Your Knees, I'm Not Your God • short fiction by Edward R. Morris

Excerpts from the Diaries of Henry P. Linklatter • short fiction by Stephen Mark Rainey

Plague Doctor • short fiction by Tim Waggoner

Amidst the Blighted Swathes of Grey Desolation • short fiction by Lee Clark Zumpe

Cognac, Communism, and Cocaine • short fiction by Nick Mamatas and Molly Tanzer

Kai Monstrai Ateik (When the Monsters Come) • short fiction by Damien Angelica Walters

• All of My “Cthulhu Anthology” Reviews

Alive and Screaming 3Stars

 

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Title: Alive and Screaming
Series: ----------
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 163
Words: 61K

There are times when I read this Hitchcock collections that I get really jazzed up. Other times, I simply sit back and enjoy the ride. My experience with this book was of the latter.

I enjoyed this while reading it but honestly, not a single story stood out. Even now, 2 weeks after I’ve read it, I couldn’t tell you from memory any of the storylines. It wasn’t that they were bad, they just “were”.

It’s like drinking a caramel latte. In and of themselves, they are just good. But sometimes you get that little “extra” something that makes it better and you remember those and wish that you could get that particular barista to make your caramel latte’s forever. But that doesn’t happen and you still enjoy the latte the next day. But after years of drinking them, it all kind of blends together in your mind. Except the bad ones or the REALLY good ones. That doesn’t mean you are dissatisfied with your daily latte though.

I guess my point is that this book was a caramel latte and Hitchcock would have been even fatter if he’d had caramel latte’s to drink back when he was alive. So here’s to looking at you kid.
~sips~

★★★✬☆

---

Table of Contents:

The Hand from the Past—CHRISTOPHER ANVIL

The Confident Killer—TALMAGE POWELL

The Blue Man—WENZELL BROWN

The Murderess—MAX VAN DER VEER

Light o’ Love—FLETCHER FLORA

Positive Print—RICHARD DEMING

A Weighty Promotion—BRUCE HUNSBERGER

Death, the Black-eyed Denominator—ED LACY

Beware the Righteous Man—DICK ELLIS

A Message from Marsha—JAMES HOLDING

Seven Million Suspects—FRANKLIN M. DAVIS, JR.

Heaven is a Frame of Mind—RICHARD HARDWICK

The Eye of the Pigeon—EDWARD D. HOCH

The Tuesday Club—C. B. GILFORD

• All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

Rehearsals for Oblivion: Act One (The King in Yellow Anthology #9) 3Stars

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Title: Rehearsals for Oblivion: Act One
Series: The King in Yellow Anthology #9
Editor: Peter Worthy
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Cosmic Horror
Pages: 252
Words: 99K

This was much more melancholic than cosmic horror’y. It reminded me of the later stories in Chamber’s original King in Yellow than of the first ones. Everything was just kind of sad. Part of that I know is because of the inclusion of several poems.

Several of the stories were about the degradation of the human spirit. One in particular was about a drug addict who would screw anything on two feet. The King in Yellow uses him as a prophet, but everything that made him proper malleable material for the King was because of his own choices. The King simply reaped the benefit of the man’s own self-destructive choices. Several of the stories went that route and I thought it devalued the power and the horror that the King in Yellow is supposed to have and be. One might see it as a little thing, but if you are going to write The King in Yellow, you need to write him correctly. Man, look at me, turning into some kind of KiY purist, sigh.

Now, some of the stories were downright awesome. One was a Sherlock Holmes and Watson pastiche where Holmes and Watson face down a Protege of Moriarty’s. Said Protege wants to bring the King in Yellow to our plane of existence to rule so that he can resurrect Moriarty and the three of them (Protege, Moriarty and the King in Yellow) can rule the world. I don’t think the Protege really understood that once he had brought the KiY into our world, well, he would have brooked no challengers to his power. Holmes does a little razzle dazzle bippity boo and defeats the Protege and thus keeps the world safe.

Another story that I thought did the mythology great service was “Yellow is the Color of Tomorrow”. It takes place in the alternate universe of the United States where Winthrop and Thorndyke had been President, the Indian and Negro states had formed their own union and the suicide booths were in regular operation. The story follows a man who buys a used collection of books as a way to push off the ennui of living in such a society. He ends up reading the King in Yellow, goes completely mad, kills the old bookseller and the story ends with him realizing what he’s done and heading off to the suicide booth so he doesn’t go to jail. It captured the feel perfectly from Chamber’s original story.

The final story in the anthology, “The Purple Emperor” tries to open up a greater cosmology. In it the narrator is a devotee of the Purple Emperor, some higher order being that is in charge of multiple dimensions, one of which contains the King in Yellow. The whole story revolves around the King in Yellow trying to spread his influence through psychics so that when the time is right, he can challenge the Emperor and take his place. I like the idea of a wider cosmology, as it brings more story options to the table. My only fear would be that the KiY would get lost in it all and become just a bit player instead of the main force of the mythology.

Overall, I thought the various authors did a great job of either taking a tiny piece of the original stories and spinning a wider web from them or simply extrapolating from the original and running wild with a logical conclusion from that extrapolation.

★★★☆☆

---

Table of Contents:

The Curse of the King 

Richard L Tierney

The Dream-Leech 

Willliam Laughlin

Ambrose 

John Scott Tynes

In Memoriam 

Roger Johnson and Robert M. Price

Cordelia's Song From The King In Yellow 

Vincent Starret

Chartreuse 

Michael Minnis

Cat With The Hand Of A Child

Mark McLaughlin

Lilloth

Susan McAdam

Reflections in Carcosa

Mark Francis

Broadalbin

John Scott Tynes

The Adventure Of The Yellow Sign

G. Warlock Vance

Tattered Souls

Ann K Schwader

What Sad Drum

Steve Lines

The Machine In Yellow

Carlos Orsi Martinho

The Peace That Will Not Come

Peter A. Worthy

Yellow Is The Color Of Tomorrow

Ron Shiflet

The Purple Emperor

Will Murray

A Line Of Questions

Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.

• The King in Yellow & Other Stories (Book 1)

• In the Court of the Yellow King (Book 2)

• The King in Yellow Tales (Book 3)

• A Season in Carcosa (Book 4)

• New Tales of the Yellow Sign (Book 5)

• The Hastur Cycle (Book 6)

• Cassilda’s Song (Book 7)

• The Yellow Sign (Book 8)

Let It All Bleed Out ★★★★☆

 

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Title: Let It All Bleed Out
Series: ----------
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 172
Words: 69K

From the Inside Cover:

Alfie Doesn’t Mind Being Called Square

Alfred Hitchcock is frankly shocked by the temptations that surround us today. X-rated movies. Sweaty centerfolds. Naughty novels. Kids who used to cut grass now smoking it. All of this fills Alfie with alarm.

Let’s return to old-fashioned fun, he pleads. A nice gory stabbing. A neatly drawn strangler’s noose. A proper pistol shot in the dark. A scream of horror that makes you walk away whistling.

For, as the master shows in this nerve-twisting new collection, fads come and go, but evil is here to stay. So let’s strip the mod clothes off the victims, and—

LET IT ALL BLEED OUT

Table of Contents:

COLD NIGHT ON LAKE LENORE

     Jonathan Craig

THE ATTITUDE OF MURDER

     Nedra Tyre

HAND

     William Brittain

SHERIFF PEAVY’S DOUBLE DEAD CASE (A NOVELETTE)

     Richard Hardwick

RICH—OR DEAD

     David A. Heller

YELLOW SHOES

     Hal Ellson

THE MAN WHO HATED TURKEY (A NOVELETTE)

     Elijah Ellis

COFFEE BREAK

     Arthur Porges

A PADLOCK FOR CHARLIE DRAPER

     James Holding

MAC WITHOUT A KNIFE

     Talmage Powell

THE CHINLESS WONDER

     Stanley Abbott

NO TEARS FOR AN INFORMER

     H. A. De Rosso

A RARE BIRD

     John Lutz

THE COMIC OPERA

     Henry Woodfin

---

As much as I really like the stories Hitchcock puts together, I am realizing that having a smaller amount actually works in its favor. Being left wanting more actually enhances the stories I’ve already read. Instead of being a book glutton and gorging myself and feeling sick, having just enough is the correct amount. Looking back over the various books, it seems like 300 pages is the upper limit. After that I start to feel too full and get cranky about stuff I wouldn’t normally.

Cold Night on Lake Lenore was a great opener. A man patiently waits for the perfect opportunity to kill his wife. It arrives but he is seen by another woman, who thinks he did it to be with her. He marries her and the last thought is of him thinking he just has to wait for the perfect opportunity again, and that he’s a patient man. It got me thinking about the kind of people who murder others. I’d like to think that the kind of person who could do something like this (murder someone and yet showing perfect restraint until the “perfect” moment) doesn’t exist, as the willingness to do the one would preclude the ability to do the other, but alas, all you have to do is read the news and you read about some guy who’s killed 3 wives and they only caught him because he got cocky about disposing of the remains of Number 4. Just goes to show humans aren’t just simple blobs of matter, even if that’s a negative example, sigh.

The Chinless Wonder was kind of on the other side. A loser of a man decides that he’s sick of being himself and gets a disguise and creates a new identity and hooks up with some chick. Everything is going extremely well until he gets mixed up with the mob. In the end, the girl and her boyfriend were playing him and set him up for the murder of his alter-ego and then to really nail him, the mob boss. Oh, it was priceless watching the pieces move into place. I wasn’t sure exactly where the story was going but after he helped sink a big sack in the river, I figured it out and like I said, just watched the pieces move into position. It was a thing of wonder.

This was just long enough to satisfy me and yet still leaving me wanting more. The perfect combination really.

★★★★☆

• All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

Tales to Take Your Breath Away ★★★☆☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Tales to Take Your Breath Away
Series: ----------
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 370
Words: 140K

Table of Contents:

THE ARROWMONT PRISON RIDDLE—Bill Pronzini

END OF THE LINE—Edward D. Hoch

THE DETTWEILER SOLUTION—Lawrence Block

THE WHITECHAPEL WANTONS—Vincent McConnor

CORA’S RAID—Isak Romun

A CUP OF HERBAL TEA—Robert S. Aldrich

ALBION, PERFIDIOUS ALBION—Everett Greenbaum

LIFE OR BREATH—Nelson DeMille

THE SILVER LINING—Mick Mahoney

A PRIVATE LITTLE WAR—William Brittain

SUPERSCAM—Francis M. Nevins, Jr.

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THIS WOMAN?—John Lutz

JOE CUTTER’S GAME—Brian Garfield

A CABIN IN THE WOODS—John Coyne

CROOK OF THE MONTH—Robert Bloch

DEATH OF A PERUKE-MAKER—Clayton Matthews

THE FOREVER DUEL—James McKimmey

THE CHALLENGE—Carroll Mayers

EXTRA WORK—Robert W. Wells

THE FIRST MOON TOURIST—Duffy Carpenter

THE LONG ARM OF EL JEFE—Edward Wellen

DEATH SENTENCE—Stephen Wasylyk

KID CARDULA—Jack Ritchie

INVISIBLE CLUE—Jeffry Scott

ACCIDENTAL WIDOW—Nedra Tyre

ELEMENT OF SURPRISE—Bruce M. Fisher

LOOKING FOR MILLIKEN STREET—Joyce Harrington

JUDGMENT POSTPONED—Robert Edward Eckels

THE WINDOW—William Bankier

Separator

Unfortunately, while there were some intriguing stories in this collection, I’d already read about 1/3 of the stories in other Hitchcock anthologies. Also, one of the stories dealt with the rape of a 15 year old girl while another dealt with a woman being tricked and as a result losing her unborn baby. That is why I’ve given this the Disturbing tag.

After I realized there were multiple stories I’d already read, I just started skipping them as soon as I recognized that I’d already read them. I really don’t like doing that but I’m not going to waste my time re-reading a short story that I’m not intentionally re-reading.

The new stories, when they weren’t disturbing, were all good and what I’d expect from a book like this. I just hope I don’t run into this situation again.

As for that cover. Is Hitchcock a fatso or what?!? I always knew he was chubby but my goodness, he’s beyond portly. This is why you should never put a real person on the cover of a book. Because people like me come along and mercilessly mock them.

★★★☆☆

• All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

Cassilda’s Song (The King in Yellow Anthology #7) ★★★★☆

 

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Title: Cassilda’s Song
Series: The King in Yellow Anthology #7
Editor: Joseph Pulver
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Cosmic Horror
Pages: 241
Words: 92K

Table of Contents:

Introduction by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.

Black Stars on Canvas, a Reproduction in Acrylic by Damien Angelica Walters

She Will Be Raised a Queen by E. Catherine Tobler

Yella by Nicole Cushing

Yellow Bird by Lynda E. Rucker

Exposure by Helen Marshall

Just Beyond Her Dreaming by Mercedes M. Yardley

In the Quad of Project 327 by Chesya Burke

Stones, Maybe by Ursula Pflug

Les Fleurs du Mal by Allyson Bird

While The Black Stars Burn by Lucy A. Snyder

Old Tsah-Hov by Anya Martin

The Neurastheniac by Selena Chambers

Dancing the Mask by Ann K. Schwader

Family by Maura McHugh

Pro Patria! by Nadia Bulkin

Her Beginning is Her End is Her Beginning by E. Catherine Tobler and Damien Angelica Walters

Grave-Worms by Molly Tanzer

Strange is the Night by S.P. Miskowski

Separator

This was a collection centered around the character of Cassilda, the former queen of Carcosa that the Yellow King subjugate/co-opted/seduced depending on which story you decide to hold to. In some of these stories she is fighting against the King in Yellow, other times the story is about her influence in our world and in some instances it’s just a feminist story wrapped in the liturgical wrappings of the King in Yellow.

I actually started to read this back in January, but with everything that was going on medically at the time, stories that dealt with despair and madness and hopelessness were way more than I could handle at that time. But now that we appear to be on the other side, I could dive into this cesspool with nary a shudder or twinge of disgust.

Two stories stood out to me. Not that they were the most enjoyable ones, but I felt like they encapsulated the best and worst of the King in Yellow mythology.

In the Quad of Project 327 was about a group of school kids who find the play The King in Yellow and one girl reads it. Unlike everyone else who has ever read it, it doesn’t drive her crazy but gives her psychic powers and she in turn gives these powers to the other kids. They use the power to make their Quad (apartment building area) a better place and to make their white male teacher hate Columbus and be a “nicer” guy. This exemplified the worst in my opinion. The author wrapped up her white male hatred and used some of the literary terms used in the King in Yellow stories. But she either didn’t understand or chose to ignore that the play has to drive people mad, or it isn’t The King in Yellow. As such, this didn’t have that hopeless, the walls are closing in, claustrophobic feel that a genuine KiY story should have. There is no hope, there is no betterment, there is no strength in a King in Yellow story. And if you choose to go outside of those bounds, then your story isn’t a KiY story. It wasn’t necessarily a bad story, but it was missing that downward punch that was needed.

Old Tsah-Hov was a story about a dog that ends up being owned by a woman named Cassilda, in Jerusalem. She adopts him as a stray and gets married and has a kid and then a war breaks out and her husband breaks under the strain and tries to hit her. The dog intervenes, only the son tries to stop him and the dog ends up biting the son by accident instead of the father. So he’s taken away to be put down. Once he’s put down, he awakens in Carcosa, where a mob is waiting for him, with hands filled with stones. To kill him. Again. Now THAT is how you tell a KiY story. The dog is loyal to Cassilda, loves the little boy and is doing his best to protect and serve. And his reward? To be killed again by the King in Yellow. The pure perversity of the entire situation, the twistedness of it, is exactly how a KiY story should be written.

Black Stars on Canvas, a Reproduction in Acrylic, the lead story, is a great KiY primer. If you can read that story and like it, The King in Yellow is for you. If you read it and don’t like it, or aren’t interested, I sincerely doubt you’ll like much else in the King in Yellow mythology. I’ve never been tempted to write a book, or even a short story, but if I ever did, it would be something to do with the King in Yellow.

The main reason I didn’t give this a 4 ½ rating was because one of the stories was poetry. Poetry is an essential element in the play The King in Yellow, but I don’t like poetry and I don’t have to.

I’ve included a large version of the cover as it is hard to see in the little one I include with most reviews.

★★★★☆

• The King in Yellow & Other Stories (Book 1)

• In the Court of the Yellow King (Book 2)

• The King in Yellow Tales (Book 3)

• A Season in Carcosa (Book 4)

• New Tales of the Yellow Sign (Book 5)

• The Hasture Cycle (Book 6)

Stories To Stay Awake By ★★★✬☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Stories To Stay Awake By
Series: ----------
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 198
Words: 78K

Table of Contents:
Introduction by Alfred Hitchcock (ghost written)

Success of a Mission by William Arden

The Splintered Monday by Charlotte Armstrong

Death by Judicial Hanging by Francis Beeding

Floral Tribute by Robert Bloch

Red Wine by Lawrence G. Blochman

Canavan's Back Yard by Joseph Payne Brennan

A Murderous Slice by Marguerite Dickinson

The New Deal by Charles Einstein

Boomerang by Guy Fleming

Sleep is the Enemy by Anthony Gilbert

The Second Coming by Joe Gores

From the Mouse to the Hawk by Dion Henderson

Letter to the Editor by Morris Hershman

The Spy Who Came to the Brink by Edward D. Hoch

Second Talent by James Holding

The Ohio Love Sculpture by Adobe James

Homicide House by Day Keene

Every story here revolves around somebody dying or being killed or being a killer. I found them linked thematically quite well and they didn’t seem like random stories just lumped together.

I really liked the final story, Homicide House by Day Keene. As soon as the narrator revealed that he was bricking up the body of his murdered wife, I knew exactly where the story was going to end and it was ghoulishly delightful to watch as the story went down the path I had predicted.

This book was originally released in hardback with 35 stories and then later on was released in two paperbacks with each containing half the stories. The second paperback was called More Stories To Stay Awake By but I haven’t been able to track down an ebook version, not even a pdf scan, so I will probably not be able to read the other 18 stories from the original. What a shame.

★★★✬☆

• All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes #9) ★★★☆☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes
Series: Sherlock Holmes #9
Author: Arthur Doyle
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 309
Words: 84K

A bunch of short stories to round out and end the career of Sherlock Holmes. While nothing was really good, nothing was bad and I feel like this book sums up my overall experience with Holmes.

I’ve always thought I was strictly an idea guy when it came to stories and that the characters were simply meant as bones to hang the “idea” on. Well, reading Holmes has made me realize that I’ve changed and I like a good, fleshed out and relatable character. Holmes and Watson are none of those and so it makes it hard for me to enjoy these. Of course, it might just be the era that Doyle wrote in. Then I realize that Dickens didn’t write like this, at all, so I think it was all on Doyle. When I’m reading a collection of short stories like this, I don’t expect great characterization, but none of the previous novels have ever given that to me either, so I can’t even rely on that.

While I am glad to have finally read the entire Holmes canon, I don’t foresee myself ever wanting to re-read these. I want something more than they offer and I don’t think the future me is suddenly going to want that “lack” and thus desire to try these again :-D

★★★☆☆

• All of my “Sherlock Holmes” reviews

Universe 2 ★★★☆☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Universe 2
Series: Universe Anthology #2
Author: Terry Carr (ed)
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 231
Words: 70K

Marginally better than the previous volume, but with some of the names involved, I expected a LOT better. Here’s the TOC:

RETROACTIVE

by Bob Shaw

WHEN WE WENT TO SEE THE END OF THE WORLD

by Robert Silverberg

FUNERAL SERVICE

by Gerard F. Conway

A SPECIAL CONDITION IN SUMMIT CITY

by R. A. Lafferty

PATRON OF THE ARTS

by William Rotsler

USEFUL PHRASES FOR THE TOURIST

by Joanna Russ

ON THE DOWNHILL SIDE

by Harlan Ellison

THE OTHER PERCEIVER

by Pamela Sargent

MY HEAD’S IN A DIFFERENT PLACE, NOW

by Grania Davis

STALKING THE SUN

by Gordon Eklund

THE MAN WHO WAVED HELLO

by Gardner R. Dozois

THE HEADLESS MAN

by Gene Wolfe

TIGER BOY
by Edgar Pangborn

The weirdest, out there, completely bonzo’d gourd story was without a doubt the one by Grania Davis. A couple of druggies go to Mexico or South America, or some place south of California and get stoned out of their gourd and eventually turn into monsters. It was very disturbing.

However, I still wasn’t sold on this series. I’ll give it one more book to try to actually interest me but if it doesn’t, I’m going to have to call it quits. I’d probably be better off quitting now but I don’t have another anthology series lined up and I want that. Now that I just wrote that, that is absolutely silly. I would be better served simply not reading something than something that is sub-par, like this Universes series. So I’m done.

And this is one reason WHY I write reviews as well as rate the books I read. Being introspective sometimes takes time to allow my thoughts to stop swirling and to settle and that is when I have moments of clarity like the above paragraph.

★★★☆☆

• Universe 1

Dates with Death ★★★✬☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Dates with Death
Series: ----------
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 210
Words: 76K

Due to everything going on when I read this (see my “Personal” section of the January ‘23 Roundup and Ramblings post), I simply don’t remember a thing. So I’m including the table of contents and calling it good. The rating is based off of my previous Hitchcock reads and the fact that I can remember nothing bad about any of the stories.

TOC

THE DUSTY DRAWER - Harry Muheim

DRUM BEAT - Stephen Marlowe

THE USES OF INTELLIGENCE - Matthew Gant

THE QUEEN’S JEWEL - James Holding

THAT TOUCH OF GENIUS - William Sambrot

THE CROOKED ROAD - Alex Gaby

THE AMATEUR - Michael Gilbert

THE SINGING PIGEON - Ross Macdonald

JUSTICE MAGNIFIQUE - Lawrence Treat

GREEDY NIGHT - E. C. Bentley

A HUMANIST - Romain Gary

THE OBLONG ROOM - Edward D. Hoch

DEAD MAN’S STORY - Howard Rigsby

THE JANISSARIES OF EMILION - Basil Copper

CHINOISERIE - Helen McCloy

★★★✬☆

• All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

The Hastur Cycle (The King in Yellow Anthology #6) ★★★✬☆

 

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Title: The Hastur Cycle
Series: The King in Yellow Anthology #6
Editor: Robert Price
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Cosmic Horror
Pages: 329
Words: 139K

Price appears to be a HP Lovecraft and Cthulhu buff and one of those bores who will kill a party quick as spit by telling you the historical importance of the works of HPL and why it matters. HPL did enfold some of the King in Yellow mythology into his works and thus, Price splits this book into stories directly about the King in Yellow and the rest are about Cthulhu with some of the KIY mythology names tacked on.

They were still good stories and I enjoyed them, but I wanted All the King in Yellow, All the time and I didn’t get that. So I waffled between giving this 3 or 4 stars and ended up coming down in the middle because my disappointment was perfectly balanced with my overall enjoyment.

This definitely felt puffed. Price includes a full story from both Chambers (who wrote The King in Yellow) and Lovecraft (who wrote Cthulhu) and while I appreciated that as it helped tie down the other stories by reminding us of why they were included. Saying a “random” name once in your story appeared to be enough to be included, so knowing how that “random” name actually tied into the mythology was good. But it didn’t take away from the fact that Price was including copyright/royalty free stories to pad the page and word count. Instead, I wanted all new stories and I didn’t get that.

Overall, between the “feels like padding” stories and the fact that this wasn’t strictly a KIY collection, I had to ding it. As a cosmic horror collection, I think it’s pretty good though. So there’s your mixed message for the day :-)

★★★✬☆

• The King in Yellow & Other Stories (Book 1)

• In the Court of the Yellow King (Book 2)

• The King in Yellow Tales (Book 3)

• A Season in Carcosa (Book 4)

• New Tales of the Yellow Sign (Book 5)

Universe 1 ★★☆☆☆

 

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Title: Universe 1
Series: Universe Anthology #1
Author: Terry Carr (ed)
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 213
Words: 63K

Man, I had forgotten what utter balderdash was written by hippy wannabe’s in the 70’s for SF. Bunch of prententious wanktards thinking sex and psychology are enough to sell a story without having to actually write a good story. There’s a reason most of the authors in this collection are completely forgotten today and probably made zero impact back in their own time. What a bunch of losers. People like them are what gave SF a bad name.

And yet.

There are at least 14 volumes in this series. I’ve got some random ones and despite my trashing above, I’m going to give the editor, Terry Carr, one more chance. But after this book, each one has to impress me or I’m dnf’ing the series and consigning Mr Carr to the dust bins of forgotten history, where he already appears to be though if I’m being honest.

★★☆☆☆

Slay Ride ★★★☆☆

 

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Title: Slay Ride
Series: ----------
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Weird Fiction
Pages: 213
Words: 86K

There were 7 short stories and then a full length novel (by the standards of yesteryear, today jackasses call it a novella) by John Wyndham, best known for his novel Day of the Triffids. I was not a fan of that novel and so wasn’t expecting much from this one. I was not disappointed. Wyndham’s novel is boring and blasé and as snobby as you can expect from a London is the Center of the World jackass.

Thankfully, a few of the short stories really carried the collection. Unfortunately, they came before the novel so the book as a whole was dragged down. But looking back, overall things were weird. Every once in a while an Alfred Hitchcock collection includes a story that outright disturbs me and makes me wonder what am I thinking in reading his stuff. This collection had one of those stories.

Party Games by James Burke is about a childrens birthday party where the local social outcast comes uninvited and the story ends with him murdering the birthday boy’s father because the boys locked the outcast in a closet during one game. It was just horrific, not because it was graphic but because the writer did a fantastic job of creating this aura of dread that hung over every paragraph. It was simply unsettling. I think as long as I keep finding stories like this disturbing that I am ok. It will be once I stop being made uncomfortable that I have something to worry about.

★★★☆☆

• All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

The Collected Stories (The Russians) ★★☆☆☆

 

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Title: The Collected Stories
Series: (The Russians)
Author: Nikolai Gogol
Translator: Unknown
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 575
Words: 166K

If peasants getting drunk and doing stupid things amuses you, if the devil being outfoxed by said peasants sounds interesting and if constantly worrying about your class status is something you do, then these short stories are probably for you.

They were not for me. Thankfully, this was the last of Gogol. There are some plays left, but I'm not going to bother.

★★☆☆☆

• The Russians

• Leo Tolstoy

• Fyodor Dostoyevsky

• Ivan Turgenev

• Nikolai Gogol

Predator: Eyes of the Demon ★✬☆☆☆

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Title: Predator: Eyes of the Demon
Series: ----------
Authors: Bryan Schmidt (Ed)
Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 298
Words: 111K

★✬☆☆☆

Totally woke bs. The only reason this didn't get just a half star was because Scott Sigler wrote the final story and it was awesome and was a REAL Predator story. No pregnant predators bonding emotionally with human mothers and the universal bond of motherhood or some other such bologna.

Stories for Late at Night ★★★☆☆

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Title: Stories for Late at Night
Series: ----------
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 436
Words: 184K

★★★☆☆

• All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

New Tales of the Yellow Sign (The King in Yellow Anthology #5) ★★✬☆☆

 This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: New Tales of the Yellow Sign
Series: The King in Yellow Anthology #5
Editor: Robin Laws
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Cosmic Horror
Pages: 143
Words: 51K

★★✬☆☆

• The King in Yellow & Other Stories (Book 1)
• In the Court of the Yellow King (Book 2)
• The King in Yellow Tales (Book 3)
• A Season in Carcosa (Book 4)

Fireside Book of Suspense ★★✬☆☆

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Title: Fireside Book of Suspense
Series: ----------
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 343
Words: 138K

★★✬☆☆

• All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews