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Post by dem bones on Oct 17, 2008 12:27:07 GMT
Sam Moskowitz - Horrors Unknown (Kaye & Ward, 1972: Berkley Medallion, Feb. 1976)  Alan Lee
Edison Marshall - The Flying Lion
Frank Norris - Grettir At Thorhallstead
C. L. Moore - Werewoman
Fitz-James O'Brien - From Hand To Mouth
Seabury Quinn - Body And Soul
Francis Stevens - Unseen - Unfeared
Ray Bradbury - The Pendulum
Ray Bradbury & Henry Hasse - Pendulum
Edwin L. Sabin - The Devil Of The Picuris
W. Fenimore - The Pool Of The Stone GodBlurb: Danger! This book contains hazardous levels of horror, shock and panic. Ten stories from the darkest recesses of the world of fantastic horror. Read only at your own risk! Yes, our old friend the Fontana Ghost cover - still minus a credit! The round-robin story may boast five fine collaborators, but it did very little for me. The Frank Norris story is a retelling of the legend swisher Sabine Baring-Gould wrote as Glamr and The Pendulum is a very early Ray Bradbury story, one he couldn't find a home for until he gave it to a tiny fan publication, Futuria Fantasia (Fall 1939). The Seabury Quinn is a De Grandin vampire adventure and Pool Of The Stone God is a short but sweet pseudonymous horror by Abraham Merritt!
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Oct 17, 2008 13:04:49 GMT
Yes instantly recognised the cover and the story which it portrays then lost all the brownie points by forgetting who wrote it and what it was called - vicar, bible, preaching to no one, someone famous wrote it...damn damn damn!
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Post by dem bones on Oct 17, 2008 13:16:18 GMT
It's from the later versions of Fontana Ghost 5, but I'm not sure what story inspired it. Maybe John Betjamen's Lord Mount Prospect? Here's the slightly psychedelic cover of the Kaye & Ward edition, illustrating From Hand To Mouth. |
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Oct 17, 2008 13:31:47 GMT
Its a story about an obscure sect who move to Ireland and their church is in the middle of a swamp. Essentially the minister preaches until everyone dies or goes away and he's the one left there still representing the deity in death.
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Post by allthingshorror on May 18, 2009 10:08:43 GMT
Kaye and Ward (1972)
CONTENTS:
Introduction
The Challenge From Beyond - C L Moore, A Merritt, H P Lovecraft, Robert E Howard, Frank Belknap Long.
The Flying Lion - Edison Marshall
Grettir at Thornhall-stead - Frank Norris
Werewoman - C. L. Moore
From Hand to Mouth - Fitz-James o'Brien
Body and Soul - Seabury Quinn
Unseen - Unfeared - Francis Stevens
The Pendulum - Ray Bradbury and Henry Hasse
The Devil of the Picuris - Edwin L Sabin
The Pool of the Stone God - W Fenimore
Really lovely to see The Challenge From Beyond heading this ecclectic, but pretty damn fine anthology.
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Post by dem bones on May 18, 2009 14:04:04 GMT
Thought Challenge From Beyond was just turgid and only sporadically interesting, but then I'm not a fan of round robin stories. I guess that Horror Cafe thing with Barker, Campbell, Corman, Lisa Tuttle and the one everyone forgets gave me an aversion for A fair few more Moskowitz horrors start here:
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Post by allthingshorror on May 18, 2009 14:20:21 GMT
Thought Challenge From Beyond was just turgid and only sporadically interesting, but then i'm not a fan of round robin stories. I guess that Horror Cafe thing with Barker, Campbell, Corman, Lisa Tuttle and the one everyone forgets gave me an aversion for life. Here's the paperback - sure you''ll recognise the cover painting ..... Horrors Unknownand a fair few more Moskowitz horrors start here: Oh bollocks - I searched all over for this as well! Never heard or read of the Barker roundrobin - why is it so terrible? |
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Post by dem bones on May 19, 2009 8:36:31 GMT
Some fond reminiscences start here: Horror CafeI should stress that not everyone is of the same mind and, somewhere online you'll find a fellow speaking in terms of it being an "honour" to have watched it or some-such, which i find incredible but he's entitled to his opinion. Stephen Jones transcribed the event for Fear magazine (number 23, Nov. 1990), but i don't have that issue so i'm not sure if he included the story. Gonna shift this thread into the Fantastic Pulps thread if that's Ok 'cause Sam Moskowitz was American and the material's all revived from the pulps. |
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Post by dem bones on Jan 20, 2014 12:19:00 GMT
Edison Marshall - The Flying Lion: (The Blue Book, Aug. 1919). Lying at the bottom of the ravine with his leg all broken up and the Timber wolves closing in, it looks all up for our narrator - until a physically repulsive but no less welcome female Tarzan comes charging to the rescue!
Seabury Quinn - Body And Soul: (Weird Tales, Sept. 1928). To disprove his cousin Michel's nonsensical prattling about the existence of something called a "soul", Professor Urban Kolisko, the great mad psychologist, agrees to an experiment in mesmerism. He will hypnotise a condemned prisoner to believe that, while he fries in the electric chair, his essence will animate an Egyptian mummy. Much to the Professor's chagrin it works, and the cop-killer is so infuriated at his tatty new body, he embarks on a murder spree, beginning with Kolisko. Jules de Grandin, ably assisted/ hindered by Dr. Trowbridge and Sergeant Costello, eventually settles the monster's hash, but not before its rid Harrisonville of the odd surplus old-timer.
W. Fenimore (A. Merrit ?) - Pool Of The Stone God: (American Weekly, Sept. 23 1923). Professor Marston and four colleagues escape in a lifeboat when the Moranus hits a reef 500 miles NE of Guinea and are washed up on an island. They chance upon a huge stone statue of a bat-winged God, as revolting to the touch as it is the eye. When night falls, the wings unfold and the creature attacks! Marston fortuitously evades the Stone God and hides in an abandoned hut until dawn. When he awakens, he realised he must have had a horrible dream, and his friends are probably safe and sound asleep elsewhere. But .....
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Post by dem bones on Jan 22, 2014 8:30:19 GMT
C. L. Moore/ A. Merritt/ H. P. Lovecraft/ Robert E. Howard/ Frank Belknap Long - The Challenge From Beyond: (Fantasy Magazine, Sept. 1935). Better than I remember it, but, for this reader, it takes an age to get going and much of the HPL sequence still acts as a soporific. George Campbell, our Everyman geologist, discovers the strange, crystal cube while camping in the Canadian forests. It goes without saying that, on closer examination, the crystal is revealed as a portal to another cosmos. Campbell is hurtled through time and space, eventually landing on the planet Yekub, home to a highly advanced centipede race. Tothe, essentially a ten foot penis with tiny limbs, exchanges bodies with Campbell who, once he's overcome his initial horror, is quick to to realise that he has the best of the deal. Back on earth, Tothe learns the harshest lesson; the human is too flawed and destructive a creature to host his kind. Campbell thrives on Yekub to become a great leader.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 25, 2014 12:49:19 GMT
Ray Bradbury - The Pendulum: (Futuria Fantasies, Fall, 1939). John Layville, scientist (benign, non-mad), invents a time machine. First public demonstration, worldwide TV audience of billions. A fireball engulfs the engine, incinerating thirty of the world's greatest boffins at a stroke! The machine is rebuilt as a huge glass pendulum, and sealed within, Layville, the "murderer," truly a prisoner of time! Possibly the one live burial story where the victim has the last laugh (of sorts).
Like much of the collection, an interesting story rather than a greatest hit. According to Mr. Moskowitz, the author had no joy selling The Pendulum to the day's established SF publications so took the fanzine route. Bemused by a growing pile of rejection slips, Bradbury turned to regular pulpster Henry Hasse to rewrite it as something more in keeping with what Astounding Stories & Co. would accept. There's some debate over whether the second version, Pendulum is actually a collaboration, but for this reader, the original is the pick of the pair.
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