I Am Legend- audiobook review

I am Legend and Other Stories by Richard Matheson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It is just as good the second time around. It has been a few years since I read the book the first time. This time I listened to the audio. The director of the audio book made some different interpretations of the I Am Legend story, but the reading was well done. The other stories, though, I couldn't get through due to the reading. I remember enjoying several of the stories previously, especially the Mad House one and the monster funeral, but there were funny voices and whatnot and It kind of ruined the mood. I would suggest reading instead of listening to this one.

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Super Shorts: 20th Century Ghosts, by Joe Hill

I admit that I had a certain amount of skepticism about Joe Hill as a writer. Being the son of Stephen King, I couldn’t help but think that just maybe he hadn’t quite earned his entrance into the world of publishing the way that other writers had.

I felt a little vindicated with this feeling when I read his novel Heart Shaped Box, because I liked the book well enough, but I didn’t feel it was really ground-breaking or noteworthy in particular.

So, it was with a bit of a raised eyebrow that I noticed his short story collection 20^thCentury Ghosts had won the Stoker Award for Best Collection in 2005. Based on that award, I decided to give Hill another shot.

And I’m glad I did. 20^th Century Ghosts is stellar collection of short stories. As you might expect, there’s a good portion of horror, other “supernatural” type stories, and even a couple that are surprisingly sweet natured.

20th Century Ghosts, by Joe Hill

There are two trends in the stories throughout this collection that set it apart from other “good” horror collections. The first is the sheer imaginativeness behind so many of the ideas. For example, Pop Art was based on perhaps the most absurd-sounding premise I’ve heard in a long time, but in the end was probably one the best and most emotional stories in the book. My Father’s Mask was disturbing in that it portrayed a don’t-look-too-closely world that seemed like ours, but had some damn unsettling things going on behind the scenes.

The second thing that Hill excelled at in these stories is breaking the expected “horror story” formats and cadences. Hill even pokes fun at this in the first story, Best New Horror, which is about a horror magazine editor who has seen it all and read it all a thousand times. Like that jaded and cynical editor, I found something new, interesting, and occasionally truly horrific in Hill’s stories. They are constantly taking unexpected turns leaving the reader (or in my case, the listener) off balance. They also tend to end at unexpected times, almost in mid-story sometimes (or at least that’s the way it felt), leaving the reader to stop, put away their expectations, and consider that ending — and the entire story in a new light.

Just a superb collection. I will definitely re-visit these stories again and again.

Five stars.

Book Review: "Full Dark, No Stars" by Stephen King

Good things, when short, are twice as good. ~Baltasar Gracian, The Art of Worldly Wisdom

Sometimes when I’m perusing the books at Costco, I see the hardback copy of Stephen King’s mammoth novel Under The Dome and I think to myself, “Maybe… maybe…” And then I pick it up.

I’m sorry, 1000+ pages is just too many and unfortunately reminds me of the giant tomes from the 1980s (The Tommyknockers, IT, and their ilk) that turned me off to King for at least a decade. Recently though, when I was considering what was going to be my next audiobook, I opted for his most recent novella collection Full Dark, No Stars and am glad that I did.


After listening to these stories – each one of them gripping and creepy– I want to ask King why he doesn’t explore the novella form more often, because clearly he’s great at it (think of The Body, Shawshank Redemption, Secret Window Secret Garden, Apt Pupil).

The four stories in this collection focus on revenge and retribution and represent a very human (rather than supernatural) exploration of the impulses and consequences around these driving forces. I won’t give away any spoilers or go into the details other than that each story had its gut-dropping moments – some that you can see coming and others that come as an (un)pleasant surprise.

Highly recommended 4 stars out of 5

Book Review: “Stories”, Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio, eds.

Like many people, my commute can be pretty variable. With little traffic, and favorable traffic-light timing, I can make it to work in less than 20 minutes. Add something innocuous as a car on the side of the road, and it can almost double. In the early part of the summer, I started to get pretty annoyed at grinding through traffic and the same old iPod playlists and my patience were wearing a bit thin.

So, in an effort to stave off crankiness, I decided that I might try listening to audiobooks during my commute. I have to say, that it’s really helped the crawl to the point that I almost don’t really mind if things are a little slow. Almost.

For the latest book, I tried an anthology of short stories succinctly named “Stories”, edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio, which includes a number of very well-known authors as contributors.


Reading a bunch of short stories consecutively can get a little tough (which I tend to read a few between other books, sort of like a literary intermezzo), but I thought that here they serve as good “commute-sized” fare, and I wasn’t disappointed. The aural format really fits the short story very well, feeling like someone is “telling you a story” rather than “reading this novel outloud”.

As with any anthology, there were hits and misses, but overall this was a very strong selection – varied in scope and tone, which I think kept it fresh. Some standouts:

"Blood" by Roddy Doyle: interesting take on a vampire story and wonderful lead-off to the collection. Great off-beat wry-writing. Irish accent of reader was perfect for the story – definitely rethinks the whole “bloodsucker” cliché.

"Fossil-Figures" by Joyce Carol Oates: An evil twin story. Incredibly creepy and dark. Told slowly and dreamily – there were conventions in the writing that really worked aloud – but I’d be curious if they worked in text.

"The Stars Are Falling" by Joe R. Lansdale: Wonderfully dark tale about a WWI veteran returning home to a wife that isn’t necessarily happy to see him. Gripping. Sad.

"Loser" by Chuck Palahniuk: Dirtball frat kid on LSD goes on a game show that is never referred to by name but is clearly “The Price Is Right”. Not really dramatic, but pretty funny and a nice counterpoint to the standard "fantasy" short story.

"Unwell" by Carolyn Parkhurst: Nasty tale of an old woman that manipulates her sister – as she had her entire life. Pretty mean-spirited but pretty good.

"Parallel Lines" by Tim Powers: Strangely enough, another story about an old lady’s overbearing sister. Here, her twin dies and seeks to return from the grave. Taut story, good turns. Very well-executed.

"Human Intelligence" by Kurt Anderson: Clever story of a young scientist that discovers an alien base in the Arctic and of the alien “spy” who’s been marooned here for more than a millennium. Odd, abrupt, comic twist on the ending that I’m not sure will work for everyone, but did for me.

I have to say that I'd be very curious to see how this list would change if I'd read these stories rather than heard them. That aside, all in all, this is a very good collection that I’d recommend to even the most casual “fantasy” fan.