Shivers [Paperback]

Richard Chizmar (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Chizmar (Trick or Treat), who edits horror's flagship fiction magazine, Cemetery Dance, assembles 22 previously unpublished stories in a compilation that reads much like a heftier version of his periodical. And like a periodical, this anthology seems more a snapshot of the genre at a given moment than an enduring monument. A fair share of the selections will doubtless earn archiving in annual "best of" anthologies, among them Douglas Clegg's "256 and Heaven," an unsettling account of a supernatural force that feeds on guilt and loneliness and drives its victims to psychopathic behavior. Al Sarrantonio's "The Green Face" is a similarly adept blend of psychological and supernatural horror. In "The Wager," Thomas F. Monteleone spins an old-fashioned revenge tale in the EC comics mode that, for all its creakiness, compels reading until its final ghoulish twist. The book's lack of a specific thematic focus gives writers a chance to explore a variety of topics and approaches, ranging from John Pelan's "The Sailor Home from the Sea," a work steeped in the classic ghost story tradition, to Simon Clark's "The Hand of Glory," which effectively imports a classic horror theme into an incongruous contemporary setting. Some shorter selections are little better than back-of-the-book filler, and others, like Graham Masterton's "The Sympathy Society," bury ideas with intriguing possibilities under piles of gore. Nevertheless, the diversity of contents and writing talents ensures something to suit each horror reader's tastes.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications (August 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587670631
• ISBN-13: 978-1587670633
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,253,906 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 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent horror collection, January 18, 2006

By 

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

This review is from: Shivers (Paperback)

This twenty-two story horror collection features tales written in 2002 that first appear in this book though some have probably reappeared elsewhere. The tales run the gamut of horror from the supernatural to the psychological to the suspense and include several of the who's who of the genre like Douglas Clegg, Bentley Little, and Graham Masterson. As stated the contributions encompass much of the genre as Richard Chizmar must have provided the authors with one apparent instruction to entertain the readers, which they do as no tale is bad and with some like those of Little, Brian Freeman, and John Pelan quite good. Fans who like a wide variety of themes from ghost stories to revenge to the millennium end will want to read this enjoyably shivering compilation.

Harriet Klausner

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Free SF Reader, February 9, 2008

By 

Blue Tyson "- Research Finished" (Legion clubhouse) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shivers (Paperback)

A pretty average original horror anthology, in general, with a few good stories - Nancy Collins' Sonja Blue tale, Monteleone's old school nasty bet story and Simon Clark's short and savage take on the Hand of Glory.

Otherwise, the average here is only 3.25. There is nothing else in this book but a copyright page and a paragraph about the editor, so that is a bit on the lame side, leaving you completely unenlightened as to its origin, other than who published it.

So, this book is basically a very solid three.

Shivers : Fodder - Brian Keene and Tim Lebbon
Shivers : Ice Box - Jay Bonansinga
Shivers : The Hand of Glory - Simon Clark
Shivers : Whisper When You Drown - Tom Piccirilli
Shivers : Hermanos De El Noche - Bentley Little
Shivers : Walking with the Ghosts of Pier 13 - Brian Freeman
Shivers : 265 and Heaven - Douglas Clegg
Shivers : The Sailor Home from the Sea - John Pelan
Shivers : This Is the End; My Only Friend, The End - David B. Silva
Shivers : White-Out - Peter Crowther & Simon Conway
Shivers : The Holding Cell - Jack Ketchum
Shivers : The Wager - Thomas F. Monteleone
Shivers : Always Traveling Never Arriving - Robert Morrish
Shivers : That Extra Mile - David Niall Wilson & Brian A. Hopkins
Shivers : Bleed With Me: A Brackard's Point Story - Geoff Cooper
Shivers : The Green Face - Al Sarrantonio
Shivers : Tender Tigers - Nancy A. Collins
Shivers : Spin-Cycle - David G. Barnett
Shivers : Throwing Caution to the Wind - Kelly Laymon
Shivers : Portrait of a Sociopath - Edward Lee
Shivers : The Other Man - Ray Garton
Shivers : The Sympathy Society - Graham Masterton

War corpse carpet.

3 out of 5


Fraternal urban legend freeze.

3.5 out of 5


Broadcast appendage horror.

4 out of 5


Sigmund and the dead sea girl monsters.

2.5 out of 5


Busnapping vamps.

3.5 out of 5


Fair dead.

3 out of 5


Dead room addition.

3 out of 5


Longtime crabby mistress.

3.5 out of 5


Black nothing.

3.5 out of 5


Dead hubby penetration.

3 out of 5


Prison limbo assimilation.

3 out of 5


Coffin house shock.

4 out of 5


Freak show research feeding.

3.5 out of 5


Pill murder visions.

3 out of 5


Old pain pain.

2.5 out of 5


Just can't cut my own throat.

3 out of 5


"Ogres were not fatallay allergic to silver like vampires and werewolves, but a knife in the brain is a bad thing, no matter what species you are."

4 out of 5


Bikini butcher.

3 out of 5


Minicon.

3.5 out of 5


Byatch work.

2.5 out of 5


Soul travel mate subterfuge.

3.5 out of 5


Same death wish.

3.5 out of 5