Richard Matheson: Collected Stories, Vol. 1 by Richard Matheson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Richard Matheson: Collected Stories, Vol. 1
Book Review: Brilliant stories, TERRIBLE edition
Summary: 1 Stars
Matheson is one of the all-time greats, but this edition is just terrible. Typos galore, cheap paper, poor quality ink - Matheson deserves a lot better than this! Five-star stories, but a one-star edition. Shame on the editor, press, and publisher!Book Review: Good, but not great
Summary: 2 Stars
This author is plugged by one of my favorite authors, Stephen King. I enjoyed some of these stories, but just because you like Stephen King, that does not mean you will necessarily like these. Most are weird, with sci-fi endings that seem tacked on. Not bad.Book Review: amazing stories
Summary: 5 Stars
Before the newly released version of "I am Legend" with Will Smith, i never heard of Richard Matheson. However after seeing the movie and reading a few of his stories i am convinced that the man is a great and compelling writer.
I have never been a fan of reading short stories because i always felt that there was never enough time to get to know the characters that you are reading about. However after reading this authors writing i was blown away at how in just a few lines you can be totally absorbed in the little world that you are currently holding in your hands.
Of course some of his stories are better then others but when you have so many stories collected in one amazing volume (25+!!!)thats bound to happen. One feature that i really enjoyed was that after every story your given a small paragraph by the author giving you some sort of history of the story. For example after reading one story he explains how he originally wrote that story on a single sheet of yellow legal pad paper as he walked down the block, and he sold the story to a magazine company for $ 50. Again just a neat little bit of info.
I also never know that i was already aware of his excellent story telling abilities. Many of the stories written in this volume and in 2 and 3 respectively, have made it to film in the form of "Twilight Zone" TV episodes.
In regards to the reviewer that gave this book a single star for poor grammar and editing, i have to say i failed to notice such mistakes. There are a few stories were it is written from the perspective of a child(or a creature with child like intellect), in these stories the grammar and spelling is made to reflect the persons state of mind and as such is written in a child like sentence structure( poor grammar and obvious spelling errors). Aside from these stories i failed to find any mistakes.
Over all this is a great book by a great author with only one problem: it is very hard to put down!!!
Book Review: One of the all-time greats
Summary: 5 Stars
I always like to describe Richard Matheson as the best writer whose work you know but whose name you don't. Certainly, his name as not been as big as some of the people he's influenced such as Stephen King, but his work is unforgettable. Movies that have been based on his work include the very recent I Am Legend (previously filmed as The Last Man on Earth and the Omega Man), The Incredible Shrinking Man, Somewhere in Time, Stir of Echoes, Hell House and What Dreams May Come. Beyond those are the TV adaptations, including a number of Twilight Zones, Trilogy of Terror and Duel. Then there are his screenplays, most notably his work for Roger Corman with the Poe movies.
Collected Stories, Volume 1 (of 3) has a couple dozen of Matheson's earliest short stories, and while not every story is a classic, there is also not a dud in the bunch. I can't describe them all, but some of the highlights include stories that would later become Twilight Zone episodes: Third From the Sun (about a couple families fleeing into space from a worldwide disaster), Death Ship (about space explorers who come across a crashed spaceship with a disturbing surprise inside), Little Girl Lost (about a young child falling into another dimension) and Long Distance Call (involving an invalid old lady receiving mysterious phone calls).
Those may be the more familiar stories, but there are other gems as well, including Matheson's first story, Born of Man and Woman, a child's story of maltreatment by his parents. Blood Son involves another child, this one whose sole aspiration is to become a vampire; F--, a science fiction story of a future era where food is no longer not consumed, its very mention is considered obscene; Mad House, about a man whose rage eventually poisons his very home; Shipshape Home, about an apartment complex with a strange janitor and stranger things in the basement; and The Disinheritors, a twist on the Goldilocks story. And there are many more stories as well.
Nowadays, when many short stories are artistic slice-of-life stories with more style than substance, Matheson's stories may come off as old-fashioned, but I'll take them there straightforward brilliance any day over more literary efforts. This book is a bag of candy, a whole collection of wonderful treats; and even better, there are two more volumes to go!
Book Review: Great Stories - Poor Editing
Summary: 3 Stars
I have read all three of the volumes in this collection. I must say that this collection is so poorly edited, that I find it impossible to believe that it was edited at all.
The excellence of Matheson's work has caused it to be melded into the very culture of America. Some of the stories here were adapted to serve as episodes of the television series, Amazing Stories, Night Gallery, and the Twilight Zone.
The poor editing of this collection, or, rather, the lack of editing, certainly does not pay a worthy tribute to such a great and culturally significant writer.
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