Gallery of Horror [Paperback]

Charles L. Grant (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1997

An anthology of twenty horror stories features an all-star list of best-selling authors, including Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, William F. Nolan, Stephen R. Donaldson, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Tanith Lee, and Eric Lustbader. Reprint."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

As editor Charles Grant writes, "These stories are variously graphic, quiet, oriented toward the supernatural, aimed at the psychological; some are bludgeons and some are razors; some will ask you for more work than others, and some will do their work more than once--like the shock of a virulent poison entering your system ... and the aftertaste that lingers." Horror fans should jump at the chance to pick up this reprint of the 1983 Dodd Mead Gallery of Horror: the 20 stories include several classics not readily available elsewhere, such as Joseph Payne Brennan's singularly creepy "Canavan's Back Yard," and Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann's powerful World War II story, "Down Among the Dead Men." Stephen R. Donald's "The Conqueror Worm" has a great shocker of an ending; Michael Bishop's wacky werewolf tale is hilarious; and T. E. D. Klein's "Petey" is one of the best city-folk-in-the-country stories ever written. Grant has won multiple World Fantasy Awards for his horror fiction and editing/publishing work in the field; he edited the acclaimed Shadows anthology series from 1978 to 1991.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Roc; Reprint edition (June 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451455150
• ISBN-13: 978-0451455154
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,385,866 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Top Name Artists in this Gallery but Not Many Masterpieces, April 14, 2007

By 

James N Simpson (Gold Coast, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Gallery of Horror (Paperback)

This 1996 republished collection is the same collection as The Dodd Mead Gallery of Horror published in 1983, just with a new cover and shorter title so buy whichever one is cheaper.

Some of Horror's best authors are in this collection but to be honest these are not their best stories. Saying that though, fans of horror legends Stephen King or Bernard Taylor will still want to read the inclusions by these masters. So will David Morrell fans with his sensational story The Typewriter, although this story has appeared in a few different collections so you may well have come across it before. I have to be honest and say there are a fair few fillers in here as well so I wouldn't be paying a collectors item price for these stories. A far better short story collection by the same editor (Charles L. Grant) is titled Final Shadows which also has Bernard Taylor and other authors who appear in this one. A modern day anthology worth owning is Death Do Us Part which is full of high quality stories with only two average stories in the whole collection. Dangerous Women is also very good.

Anyway the best tales within The Gallery of Horror are Out of Sorts by Bernard Taylor, a classic werewolf tale about a woman who discovers he husband is having an affair and decides to do something about it. The Typewriter by David Morrell about a writer who finds a hideous old typewriter in a junk shop. Whenever he types something on it the keys type something else. Nona by Stephen King is all right but not in the same league as The Mist from Skeleton Crew or any of the stories in Four Past Midnight. Nona is the story of a hitchhiker wronged by those he comes across who meets a female also in the same predicament and they decide to turn the tables in a bid to get where they need to go.

The other stories include tales about an evil old man mentally torturing a little girl, an antique bookstore owner disappearing in his overgrown backyard, a domestic argument being constantly interrupted by the terrifying attacks of a centipede, a group of people planning a trap to kill the Easter Bunny and a Nazi worshipper in a padded cell, vampire tale set in World War II, and victim of racism who decides to take revenge by killing jumping from a tower. Stories and authors are -
Something Nasty by William F Nolan
Canavan's Backyard by Joseph Brennan
The Conqueror Worm by Stephen Donaldson
Death to the Easter Bunny by Alan Ryan
The Rubber Room by Robert Bloch
Petey by T.E.D Klein
The Sunshine Club by Ramsey Campbell
Down Among the Dead Men by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois
The Crazy Chinaman by John Coyne
Nunc Dimittis by Tanith Lee
Derelicts by Steve Rasnic Tem
In Darkness Angels by Eric Van Lustbader
The Arrows by Theodore Sturgeon
Aim for the Heart by Craig Shaw Gardner

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic Collection of Short Horror Fiction, December 7, 1997

By 

William P. Dillon (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gallery of Horror (Paperback)

This is a reprint of the Dodd, Mead Gallery of Horror from the early 1980's. There are a number of stories which stand out but "Down Among the Dead Men" by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann in particular. This is a story you will not soon purge from your subconscious. There is also the classic "Canavan's Back Yard" by Joseph Payne Brennan which is one of the master's best. Seek out other collections from Jospeh Payne Brennan, he is one of the unknown masters. This is a collection which deserved to be reprinted although they marketed it as if it was a new collection. Highest marks!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good, April 24, 2004

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gallery of Horror (Paperback)

This interesting book is a collection of some twenty horrific short stories, all written by great authors. As with any anthology, this one is a mix of great, good and merely OK stories. I suppose it depends on your tastes.

As for me, my absolute favorite was Down Among the Dead Men by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann. In it, a Nazi concentration camp inmate discovers that one of his fellow prisoners is a vampire. But, with such horror occurring all around him, what does it mean to be a monster? My second favorite was Petey by T.E.D. Klein - I love monsters stories.

Overall, I thought that this was a very good book, one that kept me up late each night reading. I highly recommend it to you.