Shivers III [Paperback]

Richard Chizmar (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With this third compilation of new and reprinted horror stories, Chizmar (Shivers II) establishes the Shivers series as the first nonretrospective horror annual in nearly a decade. There are selections to satisfy all tastes in terror, ranging from Meggan C. Wilson and F. Paul Wilson's "Itsy Bitsy Spider...," a giant spider infestation tale with overtones of 1950s B-movies, to Kealan Patrick Burke's "Underneath," a psychological suspenser spun from teenage angst. Thomas F. Monteleone's "Horn of Plenty," about a musical instrument that preys vampirically on a jazz musician, is a gracefully subtle dark fantasy at the opposite extreme from Edward Lee's "Please Let Me Out," a shamelessly puerile romp of erotic horror. There are highlights of both supernatural and nonsupernatural horror, including Tom Piccirilli's "This, and That's the End of It," a haunting afterlife fantasy fueled by powerful expressions of grief and loss, and Douglas Clegg's "Becoming Men," which evokes The Lord of the Flies in its gripping depiction of juveniles in revolt against authorities at a tough-love disciplinary boot camp. In contrast to previous volumes, this one leans more heavily on reprints, which represent most of the book's best selections. Nevertheless, the core horror audience for whom this anthology is intended will appreciate a series that has become as dependable for horror as Halloween.
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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications (August 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587671174
• ISBN-13: 978-1587671173
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,491,161 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Brian James Freeman sold his first short story when he was fourteen years old and his first novel when he was twenty-four. His short stories, essays, novellas, and novels have been published by Warner Books, Leisure, Cemetery Dance, Borderlands Press, Book-of-the-Month Club, and many others.

His newest book-length work of fiction is The Painted Darkness, which took the Internet by storm during the summer of 2010 and will be published in hardcover in December 2010 by Cemetery Dance Publications. The Painted Darkness was also offered as the "Free eBook of the Month" by WOWIO.com in October 2010, and within two weeks it became the most downloaded title in the program's history.

Brian's short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies since 1994 including From the Borderlands (Warner Books), Borderlands 5 (Borderlands Press), Corpse Blossoms (Creeping Hemlock Press), and all six volumes of the acclaimed Shivers anthology series (Cemetery Dance Publications).

Brian is currently the managing editor of Cemetery Dance magazine, where his column "The Final Question" appears. His essays, columns, and interviews have been published in The Stephen King Library Desk Calendar 2009 (Book of the Month Club), The Stephen King Library Desk Calendar 2010 (Book of the Month Club), Jobs in Hell, Hellnotes, and Cemetery Dance.

Brian is also the publisher of Lonely Road Books where he has worked with Stephen King, Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan, Mick Garris, Stewart O'Nan, and other acclaimed authors. You can learn more on the official Lonely Road Books website at LonelyRoadBooks.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Horror, May 16, 2005

By 

Horror Reader (Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shivers III (Paperback)

This is the best collection of horror short stories I've read to date, whether magazine, ezine or anthology. Usually, in a good collection, you have to read four or five bad stories to get to one good one. A truely scary story is rare. Most of the stories in this collection are entertaining at worst. Some of the better stories include Underneath, Becoming Men, Itsy Bitsy Spider, The Questions of Doves, The Lingering scent of Brimstone, Please Let me Out, What they left Behind, and This House is Not My Home. The Itsy Bitsy Spider was scary enough to make my stomach hurt. Chizmar clearly knows how to put a collection of horrific stories together.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fine diverse horror collection, January 30, 2006

By 

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

This review is from: Shivers III (Paperback)

This eighteen story horror collection features tales that first appear in this book though some will have probably reappeared elsewhere since. As were the cases of the previous two collections, SHIVERS III runs the gamut of horror from the supernatural to the psychological to the suspense. Douglas Clegg makes his third appearance with several newcomers to the series like Wrath James White provide entries. None of the contributions are sub par. Especially extraordinary are Meggan C and F Paul Wilson's "Itsy Bitsy Spider", Thomas Monteleone's "Horn of Plenty" (Satchmo - enough said) and the haunting "This, That's the End of It" by Tom Piccirilli. This is a fascinating anthology especially for readers who appreciate diverse shorts.

Harriet Klausner