Customer Reviews

Horror: Another 100 Best Books

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While its predecessor was pretty essential, this somehow fails to deliver. Inevitably, searching for another hundred critics and a further hundred works to look at meant a danger of scraping the barrel, but that's not the problem somehow. While the first volume felt bold in expanding the remit of the genre, this time round you can't help feeling that you bought a book with 'horror' on the cover, but with a load of voices inside trying to sell you on material that simply doesn't fit the bill. Are they trying to be clever? Are they too good to review genre 'trash'? Maybe they just haven't read much horror?

The latter suspicion is raised by the number of critics contained herein with very dubious horror credentials. The lay-out doesn't help either - the review is now followed by a CV of the writer responsible, and I really didn't want to know how many corny dragon books or redundant movie tie-ins they've put their names to.

There's good stuff in here, and it's nice and easy to dip into, but it all feels rather strained and uneven. There are far too many horror anthologies, too much personal anecdote posing as critique and - I'll say it again - far too many non-genre books posing as horror. Maybe I'm a little oversensitive as a lifelong fan of a genre that's long been regarded as the bottom of the literary heap - but reading sci-fi hacks recommending thrillers in a supposed exploration of horror gets my goat a little.

Do buy the first one - it's a classic - but this is a rather weaker effort that suffers by comparison.

I picked up "Horror: 100 Best Books" back in 1988/89 because I wanted to read something exciting. I love horror novels and the 80's saw a boom in the market but 90% of the material coming out was cliche and weak. Here was a book listing 100 horror novels, and not chosen by reviewers but by authors in the field. My first thought on buying the book was to see how many I had read of the 100. I was a savvy teenager (in my mind) and I had read tons of books. I felt I had probably read half the books listed. It turns out I read 9 of the books listed. (Just tape the L to my forehead).
I went out to read a fair portion of the books listed but I'm falling off track. This review is about "Horror: Another 100 Best Books".

I enjoyed this one leaps and bounds over its predecessor (which is saying something). First off, the original only covers books published from 1987 back. A lot of the titles listed are old or they are major classics (remember, I was looking for new blood; I wanted to try books which slipped under the radar). The essays by the writers are very short and in some cases cold. These authors are discussing the books that influenced them but their essay reads like Joe Friday's "Just the facts, Ma'am".

There is none of that in the the new book. The new time frame covers books from 2003 back. The essays feel expanded and are filled with the wided eyed awe you would expect from authors discussing their inspirations. There are some well known books listed but many more "new blood" titles to put me on the hunt. (I had read 17 of the books listed but I've picked up 10 more of the recommended material without a shred of disappointment).

Each essay begins with a synopsis of the author whose work is being covered (what else they wrote, a brief bio, and a history of the books publication) and ends with a brief bio on the author covering the book of choice. There were a few cases when the discussion felt more focused on a film version of the selected title or the book covered is questionable as being of the horror genre but they are easily dismissed when moving on to the next installment (though these reasons account for the 4 out of 5 stars).

I recommend this book for any fan of horror fiction (even fans of fantasy and suspense). The essays give enough material to let you know what the book is about without giving away spoilers (for the most part anyway).
There is even an appendix in the book that lists futher reading and it's not a sparse appendix. Basically, if you enjoy reading Amazon's reviews to see if a book sounds good to you then this is required reading. Not everything is for everyone here but it will arouse your curiosity.

This is a sequel to Jones and Newman's superb 1988 "Horror: 100 Best Books" and may be even better than the first installment. The editors continue to seek out books that bend the genre, like Orwell's "1984" and Fowles' "The Collector." There's also new evaluations of contemporary classics, like King's "Pet Sematary", Harris' "The Silence of the Lambs", and Levin's "Rosemary's Baby." And of course the most recent best books since '88 are here. The editors also include a massive list of "Further Reading" that mentions a whole boatload of books from in and around the genre. Web resources that detail internet locations for both the authors of the 100 books listed and their reviewers appear as add-ons at the back of the book. The reviewers this time are a mix of familiar names in horror, and some new faces that I didn't know but was happy to meet. This book should take its place alongside the first volume as essential for horror fans.

I enjoyed the first collection and I'm glad Jones and Newman added another one. As the editors point out, even though the first collection contained a hundred titles it was not an exhaustive list. The editors don't want to give the impression that these were the ONLY books worth reading. Also - especially with horror - it is important to have some sort of guide to help separate the good stuff from the dross.

The only problem with this particular compilation is that the contributors are not of the same caliber as the first one. The original Horror: 100 Best Books included contributions by Stephen King and Harlan Ellison, as well as snippets of criticism from deceased masters such as Poe, Lovecraft, and James. I think the editors are aware of this, which is why the contributors' bios follow the mini-essays immediately rather than being placed in the back of the book as they were before. Some of the names are familiar to me but most are not. The contributors are not all authors but editors, illustrators, translators, etc. The result is that general quality of the essays is not as good. For instance, I am glad that The Phantom of the Opera is included in this volume, but the interpretation provided by Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier is the worst analysis of that novel that I've ever read.

This book is a collection of essays, in the majority. There is, of course, given the title, an earlier volume. This I have not gotten around to reading yet, but I probably will now.

However, in a really well packaged publication, the editors have listed what was chosen in that volume in the back of this one. Very well done, as this is one of the first things a reader will wonder about, especially as some choices are referenced throughout the text.

The project has been constructed by asking a lot of writers and editors to choose a book they would like included to write about, and write a short piece about why. Given the essay part is around 400 pages, these are all quite short. I imagine there might have been the odd grumpy argument about who was chosen for particular selections.

A wide range of new and older material, and novels, anthologies and collections all feature, which makes this even better, I think, not just being full of novel after novel.

The weakest part of the book is the tendency to have somewhat bloated--given the length of the essays--author bibliographic or career summaries, large chunks of some not being relevant to horror. Given they know what a URL is, for those that had bilbliographies, could have given the link. Maybe the promo was part of the deal to get the writing.

Also included at the end is a further reading list, in chronological publication order - and for the average type and speed reader of books, this will take a lifetime or two to get through - and also a list of writers, with actual urls to find them on the web.

This 'webliography' also includes links to the actual novels, for public domain examples such as William Hope Hodgson, and evinces a very 21st century feel throughout the essays, in general, as far as being aware of what is going on technologically and in the media. Not always the case, it would appear, in books.

So, high marks all around for this book.

For people looking to start on horror that hadn't read anything, really, this pair of books would be a fantastic find, no doubt.

I think I found this volume to be more helpful than the first one. A lot of obvious choices marked the first volume, and found more inspiration from this second list. Some more recent works are covered here. Nice job.

I disliked this book very much. I bought under the impression that it would be a nice compilation of horror stories. I was disappointed to find that it was essays and no stories. I could not muster enough courage to even finish the first section.