Customer Reviews

Foundations of Fear (Tor Horror)

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...convinced me that horror fiction wasn't just a "slum" genre, that it was in fact home to some of the best writing ever set to paper. Elisabeth Engstrom's "When Darkness Loves Us" changed my perception of the short story. In just a few pages she makes a more profound impact on the emotions of the reader than most 500-page novels. This book is a startling demonstration of craft and fine storytelling.

Foundations of Fear is a huge anthology of horror stories by good writers, and certainly worth the trouble of obtaining. It includes Thomas Disch's "Torturing Mr. Amberwell," which I believe is hard to find, but deserves to be read widely by horror and crime fans. (There is no supernatural or SF stuff, everything is believable.)

"Torturing Mr. Amberwell" is a sort of wish-fulfillment fantasy for ruthless environmentalists and leftists; a smug intellectual tortures a businessman accused of polluting the environment. Or maybe it is a dark satire of such a wish fulfillment fantasy. Disch is a very skilled writer, and the story is worth reading for his style alone, but perhaps the most interesting feature of the story is how successful it is as a horror story on a number of levels, and to different kinds of readers. Unlike so many "horror" stories, which are really just adventure stories, "Torturing Mr. Amberwell" is actually horrifying. Disch's three characters are all easy to identify with but also easy to deplore, which makes what they do and what fates befall them all the more disturbing and satisfying.