First off, any anthology that boasts talents like Bradbury, Matheson, Nolan, Hamner, Tomerlin, George Clayton Johnson, Frank N. Robinson and others automatically gets high ranking from me. These are some of the names that laid the groundwork for all the later horror and fantasy writers. They are legends whose work is all too often overlooked in favor of the ready-made superstars of today.
Second, The Bleeding Edge appears to be a labor of love and it has been published in a lavish edition. Sadly, it's going to be cost-prohibitive for many of you. Those of you with the means to afford it need to own a copy.
I'm normally a novel reader, jumping from one book to another. As much as I do enjoy short stories, I tend to rarely read an entire collection or anthology without breaking off to read another novel. I made an exception in the case of The Bleeding Edge. It wasn't difficult as this is an outstanding collection.
Despite some impressive names in the beginning of The Bleeding Edge, I felt that it got off to a pedestrian start. It really kicked in about a third of the way into the book. As with any anthology some of the stories worked for me better than others. Rather than waste time pointing out the ones I didn't care as much for, I'll discuss the ones I liked the most.
My favorite is probably William F. Nolan's semi-autobiographical Getting Along Just Fine. This one cut me to the bone, but ends up being an optimistic, life-affirming piece.
I don't mean to play Kiss the Editors' Asses, but Jason Brock's The Central Coast was a damned strong short story. Very well-written, with nice foreshadowing at the beginning.
I've always enjoyed reading screen or teleplays and all three of the ones in The Bleeding Edge were good. O'Bannon's Omnivore gives us a glimpse of a film-that-could-have-been that might well have rivaled Alien. George Clayton Johnson's The Grandfather Clock was a sheer delight. It felt like I was watching a TZ episode in my head. And Norwin Corwin's hardboiled How It Feels To Murder brought Poe to mind.
Frank N. Robinson's nostalgic essay, My Father and Weird Tales, was a joy to read.
Lisa Morton's Silk City is definitely not for arachnophobes. It's one of the creepiest spider-horror stories I've ever read.
No one writes quite like Steven Rasnic Tem and his somber Red Light is a deeply disturbing peek at the frailty of age.
Joe R. Lansdale's The Boy Who Became Invisible is a sad and sobering study of the results of how much torment one misfit boy can take.
Those were the ones that affected me the most. I'm certain your list won;'t be identical. And, again, I didn't think a single story in The Bleeding Edge was unworthy of publication in this deluxe edition.
I mentioned that many of you might find The Bleeding Edge to be too expensive to purchase. I can understand and sympathize, especially given the dire economic circumstances our society is currently in. Hopefully one day it will become available in a mass market edition. With the kind of talent between the covers of this book, it seems like a shoo-in.
Second, The Bleeding Edge appears to be a labor of love and it has been published in a lavish edition. Sadly, it's going to be cost-prohibitive for many of you. Those of you with the means to afford it need to own a copy.
I'm normally a novel reader, jumping from one book to another. As much as I do enjoy short stories, I tend to rarely read an entire collection or anthology without breaking off to read another novel. I made an exception in the case of The Bleeding Edge. It wasn't difficult as this is an outstanding collection.
Despite some impressive names in the beginning of The Bleeding Edge, I felt that it got off to a pedestrian start. It really kicked in about a third of the way into the book. As with any anthology some of the stories worked for me better than others. Rather than waste time pointing out the ones I didn't care as much for, I'll discuss the ones I liked the most.
My favorite is probably William F. Nolan's semi-autobiographical Getting Along Just Fine. This one cut me to the bone, but ends up being an optimistic, life-affirming piece.
I don't mean to play Kiss the Editors' Asses, but Jason Brock's The Central Coast was a damned strong short story. Very well-written, with nice foreshadowing at the beginning.
I've always enjoyed reading screen or teleplays and all three of the ones in The Bleeding Edge were good. O'Bannon's Omnivore gives us a glimpse of a film-that-could-have-been that might well have rivaled Alien. George Clayton Johnson's The Grandfather Clock was a sheer delight. It felt like I was watching a TZ episode in my head. And Norwin Corwin's hardboiled How It Feels To Murder brought Poe to mind.
Frank N. Robinson's nostalgic essay, My Father and Weird Tales, was a joy to read.
Lisa Morton's Silk City is definitely not for arachnophobes. It's one of the creepiest spider-horror stories I've ever read.
No one writes quite like Steven Rasnic Tem and his somber Red Light is a deeply disturbing peek at the frailty of age.
Joe R. Lansdale's The Boy Who Became Invisible is a sad and sobering study of the results of how much torment one misfit boy can take.
Those were the ones that affected me the most. I'm certain your list won;'t be identical. And, again, I didn't think a single story in The Bleeding Edge was unworthy of publication in this deluxe edition.
I mentioned that many of you might find The Bleeding Edge to be too expensive to purchase. I can understand and sympathize, especially given the dire economic circumstances our society is currently in. Hopefully one day it will become available in a mass market edition. With the kind of talent between the covers of this book, it seems like a shoo-in.
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