The Mammoth Book of Terror

Rating:
Summary: variety is the spice of life
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: variety is the spice of life
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: give us the terror
Review: 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.