Aftershock & Others: 19 Oddities (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: lightning detector, medical thriller, Repairman Jack, The Ingraham, Dennis Nickleby (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Wilson (By the Sword) displays an expert grasp of storytelling mechanics and an impressive breadth of themes and approaches in what he says in an afterword is his last collection. The title tale is a moving meditation on love and loss, built on the unlikely premise of lightning-strike survivors seeing the spirits of their dear departed at their near-death moment of electrocution. Dreams riffs on the Frankenstein theme with its speculation on how the monster might act were its brain to have retained aspects of its predeath personality. In Interlude at Duane's, urban mercenary hero Repairman Jack must foil a four-man holdup with found weapons fashioned from consumer goods on the shelves of the drugstore where it takes place. In all these efforts, Wilson establishes characters with a few deft strokes, quickly sets up a tricky plot, and then masterfully maneuvers the reader to a well-orchestrated (and sometimes surprising) ending. Fans will hope they haven't seen the last of Wilson's short fiction. (Mar.)
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Review

Praise for F. Paul Wilson:

“F. Paul Wilson is a great storyteller and a thoughtful one. He speculates about real science to generate real suspense while raising troubling, real issues we may all be dealing with much sooner than we expect.”
--David Morrell, author of First Blood

“F. Paul Wilson is a writer’s writer, and I grab anything he’s written with enthusiasm.”
--Joe R. Lansdale, author of Freezer Burn

“Like the best of Dean Koontz’s work, Wilson’s work combines an action-adventure yarn with a touch of the fantastic.”
--The Denver Post

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1 edition (March 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765312778
• ISBN-13: 978-0765312778
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #175,087 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for fans, but a great starting point, too., May 6, 2009

By	Joshua Mauthe (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Wilson's third - and reportedly, last - collection of short fiction shows off both his talents and his weaknesses, but still makes for a great read. Wilson's talent isn't so much in his prose - it's serviceable, but nothing extraordinary - but in his characters and his plotting, and both are in great evidence here. From the title tale, which spins a ghost story of sorts into a haunting portrait of loss, to "Sex Slaves of the Dragon Tong," a Yellow Peril homage, it's clear that Wilson writes for the love of his tales, and it's hard not to get caught up in his enthusiasm. At worst, he still spins a fun tale; at his best, as in "Aryans and Absinthe," he evokes the mood and atmosphere of a time tastefully but horrifically. And when everything is firing - for instance, in a tale about a magical word (whose title is designed to be impossible to type) - you're in for a hell of a ride. And if that doesn't sell you, what about one of the best short Repairman Jack stories you'll ever get a chance to read? Definitely a must for fans, but a great place to start, too.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Anthology, September 17, 2009

By	James Tepper (Boonton Township, NJ United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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"Aftershock & Others|19 Oddities" is F. Paul Wilson's third and last (according to the Afterword) collection of short stories. Too bad! The stories are great - almost every one a home run. I am familiar with (and a great fan of) his Repairman Jack novels and the Adversary Cycle, but had not read either of his two previous collections of short stories, something that I intend to remedy quickly.

The stories in "Aftershock & Others|19 Oddities" are collected into "chapters" corresponding to the year in which they were written from 1990 through 2005. Each chapter/year, including several in which no short stories were written begins with a recap by Wilson of his literary activities during that year. These little vignettes are almost as entertaining as the stories themselves, and shed quite a bit of light on the author's personality and prodigious productivity and work ethic.

But the gold here is in the short fiction. There isn't a stinker in the bunch, and so many are so good that I can't pick a favorite. They run the gamut from SF (WHen He Was Fab) through SF- horror (Itsy-Bitsy Spider, Aftershock) to ghost stories (Anna) and many others impossible to genre-alize (e.g., Aryans and Abysinthe -a Nazi Germany tale set in 1923, Foet -a fashionista nightmare and one of my favorites whose title I cannot write. It all ends with a great Repairman Jack shorty in which the action is strictly on Jack sans the Secret History context (Interlude at Duane's).

The writing and plotting are simply outstanding. I was blown away. If you are already a fan of Wilson's novels, this is a no-brainer - buy it, you'll like it. If you have never read anything by F. Paul Wilson (who is far better known for his novels than his short stories) but like fantasy/SF/horror and/or short stories, buy it, you'll like it. And even if you're read some of his novels and are not particularly a fan, there is enough dry humor suffused though some of the stories and the wonderful year by year synopses that I still say, buy it, you'll like it. I sure did.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars super compilation , March 31, 2009

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

As the Contents and the subsequent "The Secret History of the World" shows there are two ways to catalog AFTER SHOCKS AND OTHERS: 19 ODDITIES. First the Contents uses the standard to break down the entries by the year they were published with the earliest in 1990 and the latest in 2005. The Secret History uses the F. Paul; Wilson's classification system, which separates the tales by "The Past", three distinct years before Year Zero, and of course "Year Zero" the "end of civilization as we know it". The compilation is terrific with Repairman jack having an "Interlude at Duane's" where he deals his style (mindful of MacGyver) with a robbery. "Aftershock" is a Bram Stoker Award winner; yet, all the entries are super due to the key characters even in short form feeling developed to the point of understanding them as each deals with twisting plots. Fans will enjoy tales like "Offshore" in which Mr. Wilson extrapolates a segment of our current health system to a rationing of medical services in which money buys health and Frankenstein's "Dreams" as he remembers his pre-monster life and personality. This is another winner as this great author displays his skills in short form with this super compilation.

Harriet Klausner