This huge book is too big to take in at once -- too big to take in over a month, really. There are excellent, fun stories, and stories that seem to slog on forever (what is the latter for me might be the former for you), and there's no way to tell the difference until you're hip deep in them. Always nice to have some Hammett and Chandler (and unexpected treasures) lying ready at hand, though. ( )

The jacket blurbs claim it's the ultimate anthology of pulp noir. The three introductions (one for each volume, here collected between two covers) make much the same claim. After roughly a third of the way through, this boast is justified a few different ways. First, not only are high profile authors like Chandler, Hammett, Woolrich, and Gardner represented, but other names familiar primarily (so I gather) to pulp aficianados are featured with the same attention and respect. Second, the quality of the stories from the latter give the former a run for the money. Which is saying something. Sure, the hardboiled dialogue is rampant, the tough-guy is clearly a breed apart from his adversaries, and the reader's need for willful suspension of disbelief -- they're all here. But for the most part the writing is quite accomplished. Hacks these writers were not.

Third: it's meant to be representative of the pulp oeuvre, as opposed to a "best of", as some of the stories are introduced with reservations while dishing up a history of the authors and various serials in the genre. Perhaps the most persuasive case for backing this claim is illustrated by one selection. Penzler candidly introduces the story (I won't say which) as poorly written. "But wait", he seems to say, "pay attention to how it's plotted. Think of the story, not the writing. No one did it better." I definitely agree the story was tiresome to read after a bit: amusing at first, but the hackneyed language was just bad, the main character almost laughable. But Penzler's admonition to look beyond this? It paid off. I can see how the story would make for an intriguing screenplay. And yes, the plot is tight. No way I'd have read this selection if it wasn't compiled here, and it was worth it.

I think Penzler's conviction that pulp writing deserves a larger audience is borne out in these pages. Definitely worth a read, both for fans of film noir and those of 20th century fiction. And Chandler & Hammett really deserve their literary reputations, their skill and style are immediately evident. ( )

Should have bee called the Big Book of Black Mask for all the reprints from that magazine... ( )