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The Best of Robert Bloch Robert Bloch Lester del Rey 9780345257574 Books

Download As PDF : The Best of Robert Bloch Robert Bloch Lester del Rey 9780345257574 Books

The Best of Robert Bloch Robert Bloch Lester del Rey 9780345257574 Books

The stories in _The Best of Robert Bloch_(977) were selected by Bloch himself. In an introduction to the collection, Lester Del Rey writes that he would have been tempted to include a Lefty Feep tale. But I think that while those Runyanesque comedies are mildly entertaining, they do not represent Bloch at his best. It is hard to quibble with Bloch's selections. The overall quality is high, and there is a reasonable balance between the horific and the comic. One story ("The Movie People") is effectively sentimental, and one story ("The World Timer") might be described as a kind of oddball utopian story. The tales are arranged in rough chronological sequence, begining with "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" and ending with "The Learning Maze".

Of course, Bloch's Hugo winning story, "That Hell-Bound Train" is included. It is a marvelous blend of a deal with the devil story and an American folk tale. Ah, yes. You may say that you could see the ending coming. But it doesn't matter, because the ending is just right. Paul Alexander's cover illustrates this story-- and yes, that is just what a demonic train would look like. At least on the outside. But inside, there are "the drunks and the sinners, the gambling men and the grifters, the big-time spenders, the skirt-chasers, and all the jolly crew" (287). Ah, yes.

"The Man Who Collected Poe" has been reprinted almost as many times as "That Hell-Bound Train". Bloch says that it was the hardest story in the collection for him to write. He began by trying as an exercise to write some passages from Poe into a modern setting. The result is one of the best pastiches of Poe that I have ever read. Incidently, the story contains a reference to Poe's _Conchologist's First Book_. It was a book on seashells and was the only book he published that went into a second printing during his lifetime.

"All on a Golden Afternoon" is another literary nod-- this time to Lewis Carroll. Bloch states that he wrote it under pressure in the space of a single day. I suspect that Carroll's mad logic is particularly appealing to Bloch.

"Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper," "Enoch," and "Catnip". are early horror stories from _Weird Tales_. The first two have been frequently anthologized, and the first has been filmed several times. Bloch writes that "Yours Truly..." does not now seem to him what a well-written story should be. He may be right. But the story holds up fairly well and conceals its ending on a first reading.

"The Hungry House," "I Like Blonds," and "Mr. Steinway" are all effective horror stories-- but all pieces that Bloch has done on numerous other occasions. Somewhat more original (though no less grim) are some of his studies of godlike power run amok: "The Funnel of God," "How Like a God," and "Daybroke". "Broomstick Ride" and "Sleeping Beauty" are new twists on a couple of old fashioned supernatural tales.

So. A good collection by Bloch. Well-crafted. Professional. An expert mixture of horror and humor. But not a lot of variety. It's not like a collection by Theodore Sturgeon, Avram Davidson, R.A. Lafferty, Alfred Bester, Ray Bradbury, Damon Knight, Robert A. Heinlein, or Roger Zelazny. Stories tend to repeat themselves after a while, even in this one volumn. It is best read in small doses.


Tags : The Best of Robert Bloch [Robert Bloch, Lester del Rey] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Contents: Yours Truly Jack the Ripper; Enoch; Catnip; The Hungry House; The Man Who Collected Poe; Mr. Steinway; The Past Master; I Like Blondes; All on a Golden Afternoon; Broomstick Ride; Daybroke; Sleeping Beauty; Word of Honor; The World-Timer; That Hell-Bound Train; The Funnel of God; Beelzebub; The Plot is the Thing; How Like a God; The Movie People; The Oracle; The Learning Maze,Robert Bloch, Lester del Rey,The Best of Robert Bloch,Del Rey Ballantine Books,034525757X,VIN034525757X,Science fiction

The Best of Robert Bloch Robert Bloch Lester del Rey 9780345257574 Books Reviews

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The Best of Robert Bloch what more?
The stories in _The Best of Robert Bloch_(977) were selected by Bloch himself. In an introduction to the collection, Lester Del Rey writes that he would have been tempted to include a Lefty Feep tale. But I think that while those Runyanesque comedies are mildly entertaining, they do not represent Bloch at his best. It is hard to quibble with Bloch's selections. The overall quality is high, and there is a reasonable balance between the horific and the comic. One story ("The Movie People") is effectively sentimental, and one story ("The World Timer") might be described as a kind of oddball utopian story. The tales are arranged in rough chronological sequence, begining with "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" and ending with "The Learning Maze".

Of course, Bloch's Hugo winning story, "That Hell-Bound Train" is included. It is a marvelous blend of a deal with the devil story and an American folk tale. Ah, yes. You may say that you could see the ending coming. But it doesn't matter, because the ending is just right. Paul Alexander's cover illustrates this story-- and yes, that is just what a demonic train would look like. At least on the outside. But inside, there are "the drunks and the sinners, the gambling men and the grifters, the big-time spenders, the skirt-chasers, and all the jolly crew" (287). Ah, yes.

"The Man Who Collected Poe" has been reprinted almost as many times as "That Hell-Bound Train". Bloch says that it was the hardest story in the collection for him to write. He began by trying as an exercise to write some passages from Poe into a modern setting. The result is one of the best pastiches of Poe that I have ever read. Incidently, the story contains a reference to Poe's _Conchologist's First Book_. It was a book on seashells and was the only book he published that went into a second printing during his lifetime.

"All on a Golden Afternoon" is another literary nod-- this time to Lewis Carroll. Bloch states that he wrote it under pressure in the space of a single day. I suspect that Carroll's mad logic is particularly appealing to Bloch.

"Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper," "Enoch," and "Catnip". are early horror stories from _Weird Tales_. The first two have been frequently anthologized, and the first has been filmed several times. Bloch writes that "Yours Truly..." does not now seem to him what a well-written story should be. He may be right. But the story holds up fairly well and conceals its ending on a first reading.

"The Hungry House," "I Like Blonds," and "Mr. Steinway" are all effective horror stories-- but all pieces that Bloch has done on numerous other occasions. Somewhat more original (though no less grim) are some of his studies of godlike power run amok "The Funnel of God," "How Like a God," and "Daybroke". "Broomstick Ride" and "Sleeping Beauty" are new twists on a couple of old fashioned supernatural tales.

So. A good collection by Bloch. Well-crafted. Professional. An expert mixture of horror and humor. But not a lot of variety. It's not like a collection by Theodore Sturgeon, Avram Davidson, R.A. Lafferty, Alfred Bester, Ray Bradbury, Damon Knight, Robert A. Heinlein, or Roger Zelazny. Stories tend to repeat themselves after a while, even in this one volumn. It is best read in small doses.