Hornets and Others [Hardcover]

Al Sarrantonio (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 226 pages
• Publisher: Cemetery Dance Pubns; Sgd Ltd edition (June 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587670984
• ISBN-13: 978-1587670985
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,813,471 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Collection of Entertaining Stories, November 20, 2006

By 

Charles Glover - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hornets and Others (Hardcover)

Contains the following stories:

Preface
1) The Ropy Thing - Explores the possible dangers of a child's imagination making things become real.
2) The Only - Written for the Greystone Bay anthology, a fast paced and tightly written story of a young man who returns to his home town to fulfill his strange destiny.
3) The Beat - Suspenseful story about death and dancing.
4) In the Corn - Brief yet entertaining story about a boy and his brother and a horrible childhood memory.
5) Two - A mother and son try to pick up the pieces after the death of his father.
6) The Coat - A man dons a coat that makes him want to kill.
7) The Haunting of Y-12 - A haunted computer.
8) Billy the Fetus - Billy the Kid as a gunslinging fetus.
9) Stars - Could a teenager's unhealthy obsession with stars lead to a strange and horrifying truth?
10) Bags - A lonely writer does a study on bag people and finds a strange cube that changes her life.
11)The Red Wind - a man goes to work for a weird count at a weird castle and falls in love with a mysterious girl.
12) The Green Face - A mysterious reflection may drive a man to murder.
13) White Lightning - A kid goes on a killing Spree.
14) The Glass Man - A man wakes up, finds himself to be made of glass, and his life goes downhill.
15) Violets - A scientist discovers a deadly plant.
16) The Quiet Ones - Sidewalks begin to swallow people and one man must hide from them to save his life.
17) Hornets - The first in Sarrantonio's ever expanding Orangefield series. In this one, an author with writer's block and a failing marriage finds inspiration. At the same time, strange things begin to happen around him. Introduces Detective Bill Grant.

The stories in this collection were written between 1981-2004. The bulk of them (and the strongest in the collection) were written between the mid-eighties to mid-nineties. The Hornets novella is the best of them all, the draw to the collection, but this book is every bit as powerful and disturbing and well-written as Sarrantonio's earlier story collection "The Toybox." Hopefully this will be released in a mass market edition as was "Toybox." As it stands, this is limited to a 750 copy signed limited edition that is well worth the price of admission. Sarrantonio rivals Bradbury in the way his stories build in suspence and the way the endings deliver. Like Bradbury, even the ones where you see the end coming from a mile away are entertaining. I look forward to Sarrantonio's next collection or, better yet, his next Orangefield story.

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars strong horror collection, January 24, 2006

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hornets and Others (Hardcover)

Al Sarrantonio displays his talent with this strong seventeen collection anthology that runs the full scope of the horror genre. Each tale is well written and for the most part contains fascinating protagonists, not an easy feat to accomplish in the short format. There are two new tales while seven were printed in other works during the 1980s; four in the 1990s; and four in this decade. The title tale is especially exciting as hornets attack residents of Orangefield (locale of two of his novels) on Halloween and so is Mr. Sarrantonio's version of Carlyle's clothing theory of man, The Coat that will send shivers down readers' spines. Whether the contribution is psychological suspense, blood and gore, suspense, ghosts, or something other, HORNETS AND OTHERS is consistently an entertaining winner for horror fans who appreciate a compilation that reflects a wide range of sub-genres.

Harriet Klausner