The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre
by H.P. Lovecraft
from Del Rey
Lovecraft is "the American writer of the twentieth century most frequently compared with Poe, in the quality of his art ... [and] its thematic preoccupations (the obsessive depiction of psychic disintegration in the face of cosmic horror)," writes Joyce Carol Oates in the New York Review of Books. Del Rey has reprinted Lovecraft's stories in three handsome paperbacks. This first volume collects 16 classic tales, including "The Rats in the Walls," "The Call of Cthulhu," "The Dunwich Horror," and "The Colour Out of Space." Introduction by Robert Bloch. Wraparound cover art by Michael Whelan.
This is the collection that true fans of horror fiction have been waiting for: sixteen of H.P. Lovecraft's most horrifying visions, including Lovecraft's masterpiece, THE SHADOW OUT OF TIME--the shocking revelation of the mysterious forces that hold all mankind in their fearsome grip.
"I think it is beyond doubt that H.P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the Twentieth Century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale."
Stephen King
Complete Stories of Robert Bloch: Final Reckonings (Complete Stories of Robert Bloch, Volume 1)
by Robert Bloch
from Citadel
Best known as the author of "Psycho", Robert Bloch is world-renowned for his stories of horror, mystery, fantasy, and science fiction. Many of the 25 stories in this first volume of "The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch" have been unavailable for decades. The stories are in his classic style of gripping suspense, science fiction and fantasy.
As Bloch writes, "These stories in this collection have a common theme; they deal with monsters. Some of the monsters are human, some are not-- but all of them embody, in one way or another, the fears common to us in our dreams. We call these monsters by many names-- ghosts, vampires, extraterrestrials, changelings. But we recognize them for what they are; manifestations of the secret dreads and desires which lurk beneath the surface of consciousness."
"Bloch has become a virtual fixture on the popular culture landscape." --Publishers Weekly
"If you're not familiar with Bloch's short fiction, find someone to borrow this from; if you already are familiar, you know that you want to own these volumes." --Locus
Psycho
Her room was musty buy clean and the plumbing worked. Norman Bates, the manager, seemed nice, if a little odd....
Completely Doomed
by Robert Bloch
from IDW Publishing
This special collection hearkens back to the best creepy, eerie horror comics of yesteryear, only these feature the added bonus of being adapted from stories by horror literature legends Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson, David J. Schow and Paul F. Wilson by comics luminaries like Ashley Wood, Ted McKeever and many more. Completely Doomed features the Eisner-nominated "Blood Son" by Wood and Chris Ryall, and 15 other adapted tales of wretched excess and predestined downfall, all presided over by the macabre madame, Ms. Doomed.
Three Complete Novels (Psycho, Psycho II, and Psycho House)
Complete Stories of Robert Bloch: Bitter Ends (Complete Stories of Robert Bloch, Volume 2)
Robert Bloch's Psychos
by Stephen King
from Pocket Books
The late, great Robert Bloch (author of Psycho) was a master of macabre humor: he was fond of clever, grisly one-liners, often used as twist endings. He also liked to write about psychotic and psychopathic killers. This solid anthology, put out by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) and completed after Bloch's death, honors his legacy with 22 tales about murderers and crazies of various stripes. A good many of the stories, most memorably Esther Friesner's "Lonelyhearts," have Blochian twists at the end. The weakest of the bunch have no other flaw than predictability, and the strongest, such as Ed Gorman's powerful "Out There in the Darkness" are classics of traditional storytelling. You'll find excellent stories here by Denise M. Bruchman, Del Stone Jr., Edo van Belkom, Gary A. Braunbeck, and others. Stephen King contributes a little gem of a tale in which the narrator finds himself in an autopsy room: "It fits. It fits everything with a horrid prophylactic snugness. The dark. The rubbery smell.... Dear God, I'm in a body bag."
Note: the two previous HWA anthologies are Under the Fang, edited by Robert R. McCammon, and Peter Straub's Ghosts, edited by Peter Straub. --Fiona Webster
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