Horrible Beginnings [Paperback]

Steven H Silver (Author), Martin Harry Greenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 4, 2003

The biggest names in horror and dark fantasy reach into the literary vaults and dig up their long-buried fiction debuts-with a brand new introduction to each story from the author.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

To accompany Wondrous Beginnings and Magical Beginnings [both BKL Ja 1 & 15 03], collections of first-published stories by sf and fantasy writers, respectively, editors Silver and Greenberg present 17 horror-story debuts, usually introduced by their writers' reminiscences about them. This all makes pretty marvelous reading, beginning with the 16-year-old Robert Bloch's 1934 debut, which, since Bloch has passed on, another writer introduces. Next up, the long-deceased Henry Kuttner's entry, introduced by Frederik Pohl, is one of two H. P. Lovecraft pastiches--the other is Ramsey Campbell's "The Church in High Street"--which appear at the front of the book; at the back are Dracula pastiches by P. N. Elrod and Matthew J. Costello. If those and the others aren't as good as their authors' subsequent best, they're not bad, and best-in-the-book is the one by the brightest star, the hard-boiled Mother Goose caper "The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds," by Neil Gaiman. If, like Kathe Koja's grim sf tale "Distances," the Gaiman isn't exactly horror, it is dark, darkly hilarious fantasy. No complaints. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: DAW (March 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756401232
• ISBN-13: 978-0756401238
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,126,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars more for the die-hard horror guru, March 8, 2003

By 

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

This review is from: Horrible Beginnings (Paperback)

This horror anthology provides fans with the introductory story that seventeen reader favorites started their illustrious respective career (déjà vu with last month's MAGICAL BEGINNINGS). The contributions are fun to read if only to compare the opening gamut of a renowned author with their most recent work. Each tale provides an introduction that brings further focus on the writer. The collection is well done with delightful selections from a virtual who's who of the genre, but the quality varies though none are horrible. As with MAGICAL BEGINNINGS, HORRIBLE BEGINNINGS is more for the die-hard horror guru than the occasional horror reader.

Harriet Klausner