Pride (Edge Books)

Rating:
Summary: What Happened?
Review: "Pride" would seem to have all the ingredients of a minor classic. A unique endeavor between father and son, each an immensely successful practitioner of the art of the terror tale in his own right, "Pride" features short stories based on the same plot-seed by Richard Matheson and his son, Richard Christian Matheson. The stories themselves are no great shakes, though interesting enough (one problem is that they simply resemble each other too much--neither author really goes off in a dramatically different direction). The trouble here, alas, is in the physical production of the volume. This book is loaded with obvious typographical errors ("well-fiscshed out" is a good, or bad, example) and is so poorly copy-edited that part of a sentence is actually missing from the bottom of page 36, which ends with these words: "Thick smoke rose and she turned as he came"

The next sentence, on p. 37, begins a new paragraph. This is clearly a mistake, not an intentional effect.

Considering the very high price of this slender volume, these kinds of crude errors are inexcusable. Moreover, the editors never even bother to clarify some of what we are asked to read. There is, for instance, an intriguing typed draft of Richard Christian Matheson's story, filled with linings-out and interpolations--clearly a working draft. But there is also a handwritten draft of the finished story, word-for-word as it appears in the final version. Are we to believe that R.C. Matheson types his first drafts, then, mysteriously, reverts to longhand for his final drafts? It would appear that Matheson was asked to simply write out his story once it was in finished form. But why? What in the world is this obviously bogus "draft" doing in this book? There is no explanation whatsoever.

On the positive side, "Pride" does represent Richard Matheson's first short story in many years, and the teleplay which both authors derive from their combined drafts is an effective little piece. But the powers-that-be at Gauntlet Press should be ashamed of themselves for putting such a shoddy product into the hands of the Mathesons' loyal readers.