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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Three excellent stories and a handful of good ones make this worthwhile,,
By
This review is from: Strange beasts and unnatural monsters (A Fawcett crest book) (Paperback)
"Strange Beasts and Unnatural Monsters" is a fairly uneven anthology of horror shorts, but there are a couple of excellent stories on display here.
The book starts with the brief but entirely readable "The Nature of the Evidence", a chilling ghost story with many sexual overtones. May Sinclair's writing flows well and the ending will leave you pondering. The second story, and primary reason I bought the book to begin with, is "Slime" by Joseph Payne Brennan. This tale follows an amorphous life form that's dislocated from its deep-sea dwelling by volcanic activity, and ends up in an unsuspecting coastal town, where it swiftly begins absorbing the local populous. A great story this one is, suspenseful and well-written, easily a classic horror short. Also worth noting that it showed up in a LEAST five or six other horror anthologies I've read (and perhaps inspired the 1958 film "The Blob"?). Next up is the obscure story "The Garden of Paris" by the even more obscure Eric Williams. This one is very short but overall pretty good, dealing with a very nasty, prehistoric botanical terror growing in a prosperous zoo garden. Will F. Jenkins's "Doomsday Deferred" is another story that's appeared in multiple anthologies I've read. This one deals with a very real threat (killer ants) but ultimately feels rather muddled and underdeveloped despite being skillfully written, and the title seems rather irrelevant to the content of the story. "The Cocoon", by John Goodwin, sadly follows the footsteps of Jenkins's story. This one, like the previous entry, is written in an efficient prose, but the plot is hardly monstrous in any ways, dealing with an unusual moth that simply won't die. "Aepyornis Island", by well-known sci-fi author H.G. Wells, follows the misadventures of a man stranded on a deserted island for a prolonged period of time, his only company being a quarrelsome prehistoric bird. This story is amusing, but ultimately feels dated. I felt a little reluctant to read the next entry, "The Terror of Blue John Gap" by Arthur Conan Doyle, on the grounds that I'm not a huge fan of the horror fiction of Doyle's day (I'm talking late 1800's-really early 1900's) but boy am I glad I forced myself to read it, as it's easily one of the best stories here! Dealing with a monstrous thing haunting a deep and forgotten gap, this story is surprisingly scary at times, and boasts a very interesting and intelligent concept behind its creature (which many other stories, most notably Jeff Long's "The Descent", have since elaborated upon). Next up is Daphne Du Maurier's short novella, "The Birds". All I can say is wow. Cold and bleak, this story follows a secluded family and their struggle against an innumerable army of birds of all species, working in unison to destroy humanity. Suspenseful and deeply shrouded in ambiguity, this is a greatly underappreciated story with a genuinely creepy ending. Hitchcock's film adaptation packs about 1/10th the punch this story delivered-and I'm sure the planned remake won't fair any better. Less riveting is Bram Stoker's "The Judge's House", a story about a (student? Teacher? Mathematician? It's been like three days and I've already forgotten...) that refuses to leave a creepy mansion, even though it's plagued by malevolent rodents and the ghost of a not-so-nice executioner. Boring and dreary, you're likely to yawn your way through this one and then forget it. Peter Fleming's "The Kill" is a decent, if a tad cliché, werewolf story. Fleming has an interesting prose and it features a surprise ending you won't see coming. "Mrs. Amworth" by E.F. Benson is a vampire story that begins well but ultimately fails to deliver shocks or shivers, and feels a little too long for its own good. More enjoyable is Ray Bradbury's "Skeleton", a witty and sinister tale about a man coming to the realization that his skeleton may have an evil sentience all its own, and the grim yet somehow comical ending is rather unforgettable. The concluding story in this anthology is one that I don't feel entirely belongs in this book. "The Elephant Man", by Sir Frederick Treves, is the sad account of a real man, John Merrick, who was plagued with a horrific case of elephantitis. Why doesn't this story belong? Merrick, a gentle and kind-hearted man, was hardly a monster. Nevertheless, the story is eye-opening and touching. This isn't a perfect anthology, but there are three really great stories here-Brennan's "Slime", Doyle's "The Terror of Blue John Gap", and Maurier's "The Birds"-as well as a handful or good entries, outweigh the bad or average ones and make it worthwhile. A fine addition to any horror fan's collection, and if you find it for a reasonable price (I got mine through Amazon for about $5 w/ shipping!) then grab it, and prepare to be scared!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mixed bag is generally worth your time,
By Ron "mvg@whidbey.com" (Whidbey Island, WA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Strange beasts and unnatural monsters (A Fawcett crest book) (Paperback)
This book is a collection of short stories "selected and with an introduction by Philip Van Doren Stern."
The contents are: The Nature of the Evidence by May Sinclair Slime by Joseph Payne Brennan The Garden of Paris by Eric Williams Doomsday Deferred by Will F. Jenkins The Cocoon by John B. L. Goodwin Aepyornis Island by H.G. Wells The Terror of Blue John Gap by A. Conan Doyle The Birds by Daphne du Maurier The Judge's House by Bram Stoker The Kill by Peter Fleming Mrs. Amworth by E. F. Benson Skeleton by Ray Bradbury The Elephant Man by Sir Frederick Treves An eclectic collection, for sure, these stories have the common thread of being about animals or strange monsters (mostly.) Worth picking up just to read the original story that Alfred Hitchcock based his movie "The Birds" on, it contains an interesting bunch of other stories. (And, yes, the last story is about John Merrick, the subject of another movie.)
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