Reviews

The Best of Richard Matheson by Richard Matheson

quinn_albright's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

3.0

librarian_of_trantor's review against another edition

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2.0

A few good stories here but a lot are pretty dated And some of the stories weren't horror, SF, or fantasy at all. One story was just about someone from a man's past showing up for revenge. The man had hidden his youthful criminal past from his wife. After he kills the intruder he tells wife to call police and he will confess that he is that wanted criminal. The wife calls police and tells them her husband killed an unknown intruder. ??? What was the point of that story?
Many of the stories in the book I didn't even finish.
One reasonably good story was "Nightmare at 20.000 Feet", which Matheson turned into a script for The Twilight Zone (one of his 16 scripts for that show). The best of the stories for me was "Mute" about 7 yo boy who had been raised by his parents as a scientific experiment to only communicate telepathically. He was never taught to speak or read and had no contact with the outside world. After his parents die in a fire he is taken in by a couple has to adjust to a world of words as opposed to pure thought.

dantastic's review against another edition

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4.0

The Best of Richard Matheson is a collection of 32 of Matheson's best.

Around the turn of the century, I was enduring the agonizing gulf between Dark Tower books four and five when the local bookstore owner turned me on to Richard Matheson, saying he was one of Stephen King's biggest influences. After devouring one of his westerns and [b:I Am Legend and Other Stories|547094|I Am Legend and Other Stories|Richard Matheson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1317791583s/547094.jpg|2223519], I was hooked.

After a creepy introduction by Victor LaValle, we're treated to many of Matheson's iconic tales, some of which were turned into Twilight Zone episodes or adapted to TV or film in other ways. Many of the greats are here: Button, Button, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, Duel, Third from the Sun, as well as others I'd never read before, like The Prisoner, Big Surprise, and Mute.

It's funny that Matheson's is one of Stephen King's influences in that their writing isn't all that similar. Where King's prose is overly verbose at times, Matheson's is more like a sharpened knife. He cuts you hard and deep, knowing just how to hurt you the most. He knew just how to let the suspense build, like a pressure cooker. It's no wonder many of his stories were adapted for the Twilight Zone and other shows. Richard Matheson was the master of the twist ending.

The Best of Richard Matheson is a must read for anyone who likes suspenseful short stories, fans of the Twilight Zone, or Stephen King fans interested at getting a peek at some Kingly lineage. Four out of five stars.

livingdeadenby's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

sopranoreader's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

_sal_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

 

194 pages in and so far i am loving this book
Favorite stories so far
-Blood son: little kid is crazy to be a vampire and he reads Dracula so much he memorizes it. Finally he goes so crazy that he steals a Vampire bat from a zoo and locks himself in a shed with it. He slices his OWN throat so that the bat can suck at his neck but he finally sees clarity and gets scared and runs out of the shed nearly dying when suddenly a tall man with ruby eyes (Obviously DRACULA) saves him and says "My son"
-Where There's a Will: A classic buried alive story that made reminisce on Premature Burial by Poe I enjoyed the small backstory that always loomed in the back, about him being buried by his business partners and him never wanting to give up. Loved the twist at the end when he escapes, call his wife, looks at himself in the mirror, and realizes he has been dead for seven months so his face is decaying.
-Dying Room was very interesting and impactful: a couple on a road trip stops at a cafe in the middle of nowhere and the environment is already weird. She goes to the bathroom and without he knowing he goes in the men's room as well but a mysterious man follows him in. She comes out and after waiting a bit she realizes that her partner is not there, she tells the people to search for him in the bathroom but they all say they don't know where he is. But she knows something is off for there is a door leading to a shed in the bathroom; a shed that supposedly hadn't been open in years. She runs out and calls the sheriff he comes and after a while investigates the bathroom and make the men open the shed, the men insist that it hadn't been opened in years but the sheriff finds a newspaper of the day PRIOR. Then there is a chase until they locate the couples car that men had taken to an abandoned spot in the desert where they nearly killed the man.
-Death ship: very cool sci fi where a group of future astronauts discover another hospitable planet to colonize due to earth being over populated. One of them spots a ship looking thing and they go down and after investigating they go in the cock pit and see THEMSELVES dead. Some can't believe it and so they go back to their plane and many chose not to leave and some do. They end up leaving but one of the scientist believes it was the tactic of an alien species that made them imagine that so they go back but everything goes wrong. Inspired by the Flying dutchman.
-Button Button: A couple receive a package they open it and find its an enclosed button that needs a key to open the glass dome covering it to prevent it being accidently clicked. A man knocks at their door and tells them that for every time they press it they get 50,000 dollars ( 387,680.41 today )
 but someone they don't know will die. They fight about pressing it and ultimately she alone decides to press it and she kills her HUSBAND. she calls the man frantically shouting that it was supposed to be someone she didn't know and the man says "Do you really think you knew your husband?"
-Duel: inspired steven Spielberg's short film and is about a man who is driving and surpasses a truck, what ensues is a chase where the truck tries to run the man off the road it was great and the ending was unexpected.
-Day of Reckoning: Abuse mother tortures her son and ultimately kills her much more to it but this is getting long lmao.
- The Prisoner: My favorite so far. it reminded me of the time machine by wells, a man wakes up in a cell where they mock him and say he is someone he is not. It turns out he is a Nuclear Scientist who after an explosion is transported into the future from 1944 to 54. He tries to convince the guards and even a priest and no one believes him. He has 2hrs before he is executed. No matter what he said he ultimately gives up.
20 October 2023
Edit
67%
20 October 2023
Edit
67%
Again writing because another story fascinated me
Deus Ex Machina- A man starts his morning like any other and while shaving he falls and accidently cuts his throat only to find that not only does it not hurt, that instead of blood there is oil coming out of his veins, or wires?! He tries to hide it from his family but his wife notices and he freaks out and leaves the house only to be more freaked out by the world around him. Are there other like him? is it his imagination? How did he never notice before? Had he been replaced by a robot? Was his family all robots like other people in the outside world seemed to be? So many questions i loved it.
-Nightmare at 20,000 feet, such a classic it not be explained but basically Wilson sees a hairy looking man outside his window on the wing of a plane and tries to convince people on the plane but each time the creature flees.
-Third From The Sun: very interesting read where a future family flees from earth on a space ship to began over again together with their neighbors so as to not interbreed. It was very post apocalyptic yet at the same time it felt very real since that reality does not seem far removed with the current state of the earth.
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20 October 2023
Edit
72%
wow I just got done reading another great
-One for the books: was a fantastic read that I would have probably read as a whole book if there was one. its about a university janitor who discovers himself absorbing the knowledge of every volume that he comes in contact with … automatically! But how much knowledge can this poor man take, and why is this happening, anyway? well after talking to doctors and psychologists and to a whole room of people asking him any question which he answers he runs out of the room only to see a bright light above him. After all he had wondered why he was learning all that Earthly knowledge and i guess it turned out like he said he was a sponge that came to be squeezed. I guess there is many ways to think about it but i think it alludes to an Alien civilization doing this to him to then later squeeze it out of him which left him unable to talk until many months later because they had wanted him to acquire exactly all the Earthly knowledge possible!
20 October 2023
Edit
72%
This book has a bit of everything! Although I never thought there would an old western story here. I absolutely loved it.
Conqueror: told by an old grocery shop owner from “Grantville” Texas who meets a city boy in a stage coach and the boy says to him “who is the fastest pistol man in town” what ensues is as perfectly summarized by Matheson in the story it’s self…”The diary completed the picture. It told of a twisted mind holding up as idols those men whose only talent was to kill. It told of a young city boy who bought himself pistols and practiced drawing them from their holsters until he was incredibly quick, until his drawing speed became coupled with an ability to strike any target instantly.
It told of a projected odyssey in which a city boy would make himself the most famous pistol fighter in the Southwest.
It listed towns that this young man had meant to conquer.
Grantville was the first town on the list.”
5/5
20 October 2023
Edit
88%
-A visit to Santa Claus: was again another very anxious read as you are in the mind of an un happily married man who as you read you realize why he is so nervous, pale, dizzy. It's because after arguing with his wife about taking their son to see Santa he leaves his wife in the car. He has plans to murder his wife and give the keys to a hitman who will drive the car and presumably dump the body somewhere "ill make it look good" lures in the back of the mans mind as we nauseously rethinks his life and his future and trying to think that this is the only way to be happy, Rita south America and 20,000 dollars life insurance is what he tries to calm himself with. in the end he walks back to the lot to find his wife still there which is bittersweet to him. I assume the hitman was fake since he made the husband pay 100 in advance so he basically made free money by not doing anything lol.
20 October 2023
Edit
Finished


 

rancidslopshop's review

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

heathersbike's review against another edition

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5.0

These were quite good. I should read some of his longer works.

lucdiamant's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

wetigers's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

4.0