Jack Dann

Yes it is well written and contains some heady ideas about where mankind is heading, yet I still found it a difficult slog. Why? Too many lines lost to meandering introspection and lint-gathering. Dann's three main protagonists can't get their acts together as they spin their wheels in and out of one psychic pothole after another and despite the woo-woo explanations behind their actions it just gets annoyingly repetitious. Could have been trimmed by at least 50 pages or so.

A collection of classic horror and thriller tales by some very famous and some not so well known, including some overlooked stories by the famous. The Introduction is by Uncle Stevie, and briefly covers a lot of the same ground as did his non-fiction masterpiece on horror, [Danse Macabre]. The book is worth the price just for this missive on the inner workings of horror literature. Some of the names you'd expect: [[Edgar Allan Poe]], [[H. G. Wells]], [[H. P. Lovecraft]]. Others, not so: show more [[Winston Churchill]] with a thriller about a man overboard; [[Theodore Dreiser]] with a spiritualism tale.

Rather than capture all the stories, I'll hit what I thought were the high points:

The Squaw by [[Bram Stoker]], a tale of revenge from the most unlikely of characters, a cat. While this one has been largely lost to the world, no doubt owing partially to the less than politically correct title, it's chilling.

The Girl with the Hungry Eyes by Fritz Leiber, a vampire of a very different sort, and one that is imminently more frightening than most, especially the sparkly kind so popular these days.

Camps by Jack Dan, a man balances on the edge of death, dreaming of a life he didn't live in a concentration camp.

Sardonicus by Ray Russell, beware what you wish for, as the consequences may outstrip your expectations. A horribly disfigured man coerces a doctor to cure him, but the cure imprisons him beyond his original disfigurement.

The Oblong Room by Edward D. Koch, a police procedural that requires the gumshoe to expand his mind beyond the natural.

The Party by William F. Nolan, a fevered dream that cannot be escaped.

The Crate by Stephen King, this one bears a slight resemblance to [[Douglas Preston]]'s [The Relic]. Here, a man opens a long forgotten crate in a university research laboratory and unleashes a very hungry entity. But the twist here - after the beast eats a couple people, the man's friend realizes its utility in doing away with his shrew of a wife.

Highly Recommended!!!!!
4 1/2 bones!!!!! show less

Harlan Ellison's Run for the Stars was pretty awesome. I'm loving that it's about a vengeful addict who wants to kill the human race - into it.

I didn't bother with Echoes of Thunder since its summary described it as 'an indian magic' story written by two white dudes. So, fuck that racist shit forever.

My reaction to reading these stories in 1991. Spoilers follow.

"Run for the Stars", Harlan Ellison -- Ellison proves, in this story, that he can write an action adventure story. This story has a cowardly junkie turned into a time bomb by his fellow humans so they can flee a world beseiged by the Kyben. (This story is part of the same series as his Outer Limits episode "Demon with a Glass Hand."). The plan is for the junkie, Benno Tallant, to try to preserve his pathetic life as long as show more possible and provide distraction for the Kyben. Tallant does, but he's a little too successful. He survives long enough to put the implanted bomb under his control and become leader of the Kyben fleet against Earth. Tallant's development from pathetic whiner to confident survivor bent on conquest is realistically handled, but I'm not sure what the point is. Tallant loses the urge for vengeance against the men who planted the bomb; indeed he comes to admire them for taking what they wanted. He seems to engage in conquest at story's end for the sheer desire for power, to become "God on his own". I suspect Ellison might be trying to make the point that the actions, necessary actions for all humanity's survival, of Commander Parkhurst and his men somehow are responsible for turning Tallant into a would-be conqueror at the head of an alien arm. It's the "Now look at what you've made me do." school of defense.

"Echoes of Thunder", Jack Dann & Jack C. Haldemann II -- This was a competently done tale of corporate intrigue and Indian mysticism rationalized by visions hinted to be the result of Earth receiving alien transmissions, but it didn't do much for me. And I still don't buy, in this age of growing "tribalism", the almost cliche sf default future of corporate domination or a one-world government. The background setup of snatching satellite weapons and sentries was interesting as was the corporate competition to cash in on secretly received alien transmissions. (In an ironic comment, corporations, unlike nation-states, are said to be concerned with long-term planning. Certainly not true of American corporations.) The corporations are working on "deep-sleep" research so they can send crews to meet possible alien civilizations. The tugging of two worlds, white and Indian shamanism, on protagonist John Stranger was fairly well-done. It's just the story didn't gel to a particularly interesting whole for me. show less