Diverse Tales [Hardcover]

Nicholas Grabowsky (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Diverse Media Books (2005)
• ASIN: B002ACR62G
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When Clive Barker says "Nicholas, I salute you!" the rest of us need to take notice, December 16, 2007

By 

Norman Applegate (Florida) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Diverse Tales (Paperback)

Creativity is a force we think we have, or at least some of us wish we had, well, Nicholas Grabowsky owns it. Consider this, author, actor, singer, songwriter, and tutor, which includes novels, screenplays, poetry and songs...WOW.
His journey of writing the short story goes as far back as elementary school and years later went by the pen names of Nicholas Randers (and occasionally Marsena Shane) but in the mid-nineties, the horror writer we know as Nick Grabowsky emerged.
His list of titles include Halloween IV, Sweet Dreams Lady Moon, The Rag Man, Nancy, Diverse Tales, Tale of the Makeshift Faire, Shocker II (for Wes Craven, though never produced), The Wicked Haze, Diverse Arcanum, a series of self-help books, scripts, poetry and short stories.
In 1995, he moved from Southern California to Sacramento, and in 2003, founded a publishing/promotions organization Diverse Media.
A couple of noteworthy points, his novel "The Everborn," was awarded the 2005 Predators & editors top 10 finisher, and with the Halloween novels he is helping to establish Mike Myers as an American horror icon.
His novel "Diverse Tales," published in 2004 with 13 short stories is an honor to review. Did I say 13 stories, oh yeah; I failed to mention there is more, as an added bonus a collection of poems and thoughts. His writing style is colorful, alarming and is guaranteed to leave you with scary thoughts that will come back and haunt you in your dreams.
If you are allowed to have a favorite story among so many I do, "The Newspaper Rack." I don't know where it comes from but out of nowhere Nick surprises you. Here is a story of a young hotel employee who works the night shift and out of boredom develops a personal challenge to help himself to whatever he finds and can loot, but gets so much more. In the tradition of the Grabowsky horror, layers are added to this tale until we realize we're in the middle of a chain reaction of events that end with a nightmarish finale.
With titles like The Wanting Seed, The Falling, and Mental this collection of macabre stories will remind you why Nicholas is a major voice in horror.

Norm Applegate
Author, "Into the Spell"

5.0 out of 5 stars A superior collection from a remarkable writer!, May 10, 2005

By 

Joseph Newton (Nevada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diverse Tales (Paperback)

This collection of stories by horror author Grabowsky blew me away, and books rarely do that for me. Its stories are utterly original, with unpredictable formulas and unique vision, and the writing works so well it was like watching a series of movies in my head.

"The Wanting Seed" and "Bring Back Eden" were so frightening I could barely sleep for the next couple of nights after reading, but the collection isn't entirely comprised of Grabowsky's brand of horror. I was very touched by "Trancer's Time", a real twist on a son's quest to see his father, blending sci-fi and fantasy elements in a bizarre chemistry that is reminiscent of Roald Dahl. "Granny Geraldine" left images in my head I still can't escape. A real treat is the "extras" section at the back of the book, loaded with twisted and surreal poetry and old stories that were written early on, according to their accompanying dates, short writings the author wrote when he was very young.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves to read fantastic tales, for this is truly a fantastic book. I give the author tremendous praise and hope for more, much much more!