mcj_writer96's review against another edition

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5.0

It is a series of short stories.

Some of the short stories were adaptations of teleplays from the original show.

Others were original stories that were later turned into Twilight Zone episodes.

I feel comfortable rating it - while not completing the entire thing - because the stories that I wanted to read, I've read, and I enjoyed them. I will return to this book on occasion for a short story fix.

saroz162's review against another edition

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4.0

I've been kicking this collection around for twenty years or more, since the days when, as a teenager, I used to watch the Sci-Fi Channel's daytime hour block of Twilight Zone repeats with my mom at lunch. The surprise for me isn't that I went looking for the older stories the 1960s episodes were based on; that's very much in keeping with my reading habits in my late teens. What's surprising is that I never read them.

I think it might be partly because I'd already read and shrugged off one of Anne Serling-Sutton's collections novelizing her father's teleplays. They were reasonable stories, but they weren't anything special; they were more like videos for the age before video. It's an unfortunate if somewhat understandable decision that the editors chose to open this book - subtitled, after all, The Original Stories - with one of Serling-Sutton's after-the-fact efforts. It doesn't help that it's not a very good tale ("One for the Angels") on paper without the charm of the actors' performances. I remember reading that one story, and I suspect that put me off the entire collection.

That's too bad, because what's here is largely very good. There are thirty stories in the collection, and only two are Serling-Sutton's efforts. Most of the rest would count as "the original stories" by anyone's definition. Among these are Lynn A. Venable's "Time Enough at Last" and Jerome Bixby's "It's a Good Life," both excellent and considerably darker than the televised adaptations; you could publish Bixby's today. Damon Knight's "To Serve Man" is a little more thinly drawn, and it's easier to guess the twist than in the TV episode, but it's still fun to feel the penny drop. I personally think Rod Serling's adaptation improved on C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner's "What You Need," but it's interesting to see the same basic bones of story in very, very different clothes.

Of the remainder, eight stories each are by Twilight Zone stalwarts Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont. Most of these are stories they wrote in the '50s, although one or two publication dates make me wonder if they were either adapted from script to prose (or possibly simultaneously submitted). In general, Matheson is the more variable writer. Although he is rightly lauded as a screenwriter, some of Matheson's prose stories feel like teleplays with "he said" and "she said" bolted on. "Third from the Sun" is particularly thin, which is disappointing. Others, like "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" and "Steel," reveal some wonderfully tense internal character work. I suspect his strength was in depicting emotion - ratcheting tension, crushing despair - as opposed to dense narrative.

Beaumont comes across as a slightly more traditional narrative writer, although his stories don't always pop like Matheson's. They also don't always stick the landing. There's a lot to be said for the overall tone of "The Howling Man" or "Song for a Lady," but you can see the endings coming at quite a distance, and they aren't especially clever. His best contribution here is probably "Elegy"; it's short, it's snappy, and realization dawns for the reader just a step ahead of the characters involved.

Only one final story requires a disclaimer, and that's Ray Bradbury's "I Sing the Body Electric," which - God help me - is simply operating on an entirely different level from almost anything else in the entire anthology. It's true love-it or hate-it stuff, and having not read any Bradbury in a few years, it slammed my face into the wall and reminded me why he's a legend. It also happens to be the other "fake" in the collection, because it's obvious Bradbury took a semi-failed teleplay and improved it as short story most of a decade later. I don't mind - if you're going to break your collection's rules, let it be for something this good.

This is, ultimately, a very strong collection of classic "twist ending" speculative fiction, most of it from the 1950s or early 1960s. It stands up proudly alongside any anthology of contemporaneous material, and better than most of the ones Greenberg and Waugh edited in the '80s. Even if you only get it for a half-dozen of the stories, it's still well worth picking up.

pocketvolcano's review against another edition

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5.0

Anyone who loves the Twilight Zone, or great sci fi stories in general should pick this up. It’s a must read. I knew a lot of the stories from watching the shows but it was interesting to see the changes made from print to tv. Absolutely loved it.

frogggyyyyy's review

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4.0

nothing too groundbreaking. just a bunch o nostalgia 

lalulorlor's review against another edition

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5.0

If you are a fan of the Twilight Zone, you need to read this. It's wonderful in its own right, but it gives more depth and context to episodes you already know and love.

raynaking93's review

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adventurous mysterious reflective

5.0

andmyaxe's review against another edition

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4.0

Great stories from the original series. I read this in high school as an assignment from an English teacher who thought I might like the stories, and he was right! I'd love to track this down and read it again.

buildhergender's review

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5.0

The Twilight Zone: The Original Stories Edited by Martin Harry Greenberg
One for the Angels by Anne Serling-Sutton (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?23990)
This is one of the ones I have seen. A sidewalk pitchman, Lew Bookman, is finishing up his day. On his way home he talks to some of the children, remember this was the 50’s not so weird to stop and talk to children and give them small toys. He gets home to find a man waiting for him in his lounger. The man explains that he is an agent of God and that it is time for the Lew to move on to the afterlife. The pitchman asks to keep living and the angel gives him the few reasons he would take. One of them would be a lifelong unfulfilled dream. Lew says he always wanted to make that one pitch, that big one, the one for the angels. The angel informs him that this meets the criteria and asks when he thinks it can be delivered. Lew replies soon but plans on never selling again. Later one of the kids he was talking to gets hit by a car and a doctor is rushed to her side. She is taken up to her apartment and the doctor says it will be hours but by midnight they should know if she is going to survive. The pitchman sees the angel hanging around and asks what’s going on. His response is that he has to bring in one person today so if it isn’t going to be him it will be the little girl. He states he will be by later to come collect her. That night the angel is approaching the apartment and Lew is outside with his table set up. He tells the angel he isn’t going to try to change his mind but first has he see the ties that are on sale? Then he is off going over all the different things he has for sale each one better than the last and the angel is buying them all. Soon the clock has struck 12 and the angel has missed his appointment. The angel is disturbed but then it becomes apparent that the Lew has done his one big pitch. The man accompanies the angel but first stops to pack his bag, stating “Who knows who might want to buy something up there, up there right?” After a few seconds of tense silence the angel replies, yes, up there.
Perchance to Dream by Charles Beaumont (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Beaumont)
I have seen this one. Dr. Jackson is a psychologist that has an appointment with one Mr. Hall. When Hall arrives he is in an agitated state and refuses to lay down. The Dr. manages to calm him down and asks Hall to tell him why he is so upset. Hall states that he is afraid to fall asleep as he will die the next time he goes to sleep. As a young man, he has poor health and a heart condition. His doctors have warned him that a bad scare will finish him. As a child, he believed he had the ability to make his dreams come true. Lately, he has been having a reoccurring dream that gets further along each time he has it. He is at a carnival and a woman has grabbed his hand and plans to take him on a roller coaster. He knows that the next time he dreams she is going to get him on the roller coaster and he will have a heart attack. At this point, the psychiatrist calls in his receptionist. Upon seeing her Hall freaks out and says she is the girl from his dream and that his dreams have become real again. In a panic, he jumps out of the office window and falls to his death. However, it is then revealed that this is a dream and that Hall walked into the office, sat on the couch and fell asleep, and a minute after died. The Dr. quips that at least he died in peace dreaming.
Disappearing Act by Richard Matheson (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Matheson)
This is one that I have not seen. An unnamed author is writing about the last few weeks of his life. A couple of weeks ago he had an argument with his wife over money, in particular, his inability to provide with a writing career he is pursuing. The fight escalates and he leaves the house and looks up a friend of his. A few drinks later they look up some girls they know and one thing leads to another and he ends up having an affair. The next morning he is sorry and starts to try to make things up to his wife, without telling her. However, any peace he builds up gets thrown out the window when he receives another rejection slip from a publisher. The author starts to think about how nice the girl was to him and about cheating. He goes to give a call to her apartment, this is when some of the apartment houses shared a phone and asks for her. No one at the apartment house knows of her. The next day while at work he tries to call her work and ask for her, they say they have never had an employee by that name. Later on, he decides to walk to her office, no that isn’t creepy at all guys, but when he arrives he finds the company doesn’t exist and the building has a totally different business in it. Confused he calls his friend who was with him that night. Being circumspect he tries to ask about the girl but his friend acts like he has no idea what happened. After some time to think it over the author decides that he must have not asked directly and tries to call his friend. He is told at that number that his friend doesn’t work there. As the days go on more and more people he knows no longer exist and no one he talks to knows who they were. Eventually, he goes into his part-time job only to find it not there. His bank account doesn’t exist and his bankbook, if you don’t know what that is, look it up, is blank. Then he gets home and finds his wife is gone. He started to write this down as a way to prove he isn’t going insane. The story ends with him speculating that he will soon disappear, the last sentence ending mid-word.
Time Enough at Last by Lynne A. Venable (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?13531)
This is a favorite of a friend of mine and I like it as well.
Henry Bemis is a mild-mannered man who just wants to read but is never able to find the time to do so. One day while in the vault of his bank there is a large explosion and part of the bank collapses. By the time he is able to get out the rubble he finds that it looks like there has been some type of attack that has killed all the humans on earth but him. Most of the city is damaged but quite a bit of it is still standing. He makes his way through town till he gets to the library and it occurs to him that he finally has time to read. However, as he is rejoicing his glasses fall off and break revealing that he has terrible sight and will be unable to read without them.
The story and the show do differ some. In the show, the man is always trying to read but keeps getting pulled away by his wife, his boss, and others. However, in the book there isn’t this interplay, it’s simply stated that he wants to read but his family and busy life keep him from doing so. In the show it makes the man looks bad and his wife a shrew, I feel the characters come out more likable in this version. Another big difference is that after the bomb goes off there are a few descriptions in the story of what he sees, including bodies in various states of damage. The show did not have any of this, just sets full of bricks and broken windows. The last difference is in the show when he leans over to pick up a book he drops his glasses. Something he would not have done considering how careful he is with them. In the story a piece of the rock he is sitting on snaps off dumping him, making the glass breaking more believable.
What You Need by Lewis Padgett (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Padgett)
A man who is a reporter, I guess he is what we would now call an expose reporter, is looking for his next story when he notices a sign for a store. The sign says “We Have What You Need.” The display of items are eccentric and make no sense, the pretentiousness of the sign and the eccentricity of the stock perks his interest. He tries to interview the store owner only to be turned down. Not taking a no he starts to watch the customers and the delivery boy and eventually thinks he has enough information to force a story. Claiming that the store is a scam he says he will write a report about a store that sells ordinary items such as eggs for thousands of dollars. The owner says that if he is quiet he will take the reporter on as a client and that his first and only order will be free, after that he does not want to see the reporter again. He goes in the back and then returns and hands the reporter a package. Outside the reporter finds that the package contains a pair of tailor shears. Miffed that he has no story and thinking the shears are a joke he puts the item into his pocket and heads to the office to catch his boss. The boss is next to a printing press and when the reporter goes to talk to the boss, the reporter's tie gets caught in the press and starts to pull him to what would be a grisly death. He remembers the shears and cuts the tie. The next day the reporter breaks his promise and returns to the store saying that he has to know what he needs the next day. The owner hands him a pair of dress shoes that have no traction on the bottom. The reporter puts them on and leaves. In the back of the office, the reporter turns on a machine and watches the reporter walk out of the store and into the subway. During a bit of crowding the reporter is pushed and because his shoes are slick, he loses balance and falls onto the track, then he is run over by a train. It is revealed that the machine is showing the future. The man then tunes into the future where he instead gave the reporter a good pair of shoes and sees that the reporter will keep extorting him until one day he becomes greedy and decides to kill the shop owner for his machine.
Third from the Sun by Richard Matheson (Repeat Author)
I have not seen. An astronaut is supposed to take his spaceship up for a test flight. He has different plans. The world is going to hell in a handbasket and a devastating war is about to break out so he has gotten his family and a few friends together. They plan on leaving the world and finding another planet to live on. The astronaut has squirreled away food and other resources on the spaceship. He uses the excuse that his family wants to say goodbye to get them on the base. They sneak into the ship and he takes off. Once in space, the Astronaut reveals their destination as being a small yellow sun, in particular, the third planet from the sun.
Elegy by Charles Beaumont (Repeat Author)
Another I have not seen. Damaged a spaceship makes a landing on an asteroid that seems to have a biosphere on it. After landing the crew walk around and find the biosphere is set up like earth and that there are different scenes set upon them. In each of the scenes, lifelike mannequins are set in various poses. Eventually, they discover an old man named Mr. Greypool, who introduces himself as the caretaker. He serves all the men wine and starts to tell about the place. It is a cemetery for the rich. When someone rich dies they have their body sent to space and get placed into a set that is decorated like the place they loved the most. This means that some of the mannequins are actually bodies. Creeped out the Captain orders his men to the ship. As they board they all start to get tired and one by one die. Mr. Grepool enters and tells the captain that he will make sure that the ship and his crew are well taken care of and starts to finish the embalming process he started with chemicals in the wine. After everything is set and still the caretaker goes back to a rocking chair and stops moving. It is revealed he is more robot than human and goes into suspended animation unless there is work.
Brothers Beyond the Void by Paul Fairman (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_W._Fairman)
I feel like I have seen this one but not sure. An astronaut lands on a planet and discovers it is inhabited. He works on learning their language and being peaceful with them. Eventually one day he wakes up and finds they have built him a house, based on drawings he made for them. He gets in and the front windows open. He sees a sign and realizes that sentient life is the same everywhere and that he is now an exhibit at a zoo.
The Howling Man by Charles Beaumont (Repeat Author)
This is one I have seen. I thought the whole backpack through the European countryside was a newer thing, however here is a story from the fifties where the protagonist does just that. It starts off as a good trip but somewhere along the way he picks up a virus and wakes up in a monastery. Everything seems normal and he has a monk introduce himself explaining that he got close to dying. During the middle of the conversation, the young man hears a howling. However, the monk acts like he heard nothing. This goes on for a few days as he recovers. Finally, one day as the monk is sleeping the man slips out and finds a cell where the screaming is coming from. Inside there is a man who claims that he was kidnapped from his family by the monks. Before he can do anything the monk finds him and brings him to the director of the monastery. The director explains that the man is not a man, but instead the devil in human form. The monks keep him in a cell and ever since there has been peace in the world. Feigning interest, the young man acts like he believes it and returns to his room. That night he slips the man out of his cell. Immediately he knows it was a mistake as the man changes in appearance and runs off. The young man finally returns home and watches the news as he sees a familiar face start to show up and a terrible war brews. Years later the war has ended the man receives a postcard telling him that he can rest, the monastery has their captive back.
It’s a Good Life by Jerome Bixby (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bixby)
This one was so good that they made two versions of it. One for the tv show and one for the movie. The TV show one had Billy Mummy as the child. Anthony is a young boy who lives in a town in the middle of nothing. Generally this means a town surrounded by a desert or forest but in this case, it is literally surrounded by a great mass of nothingness. The reason is that Anthony has the ability to make whatever he wants to happen, happen. And if the idea of a grown man with unlimited power makes you nervous, think of a small child without any of the moral or social control having the same power. It goes about as well as you can expect. Anthony generally spends his days making people do what he wants, and if they disappoint him he punishes them by killing them, transforming them, or even mentally castrating them. The title of the story comes from the phrase that all the villagers have to say to each other to remember not to screw up and complain.
The Valley Was Still by Manly Wade Wellman (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manly_Wade_Wellman)
I have not seen this one. Joe Paradise is a Confederate scout. He is sent to explore a small town that is a bottleneck on the part of the country his army is going to go through. The leadership expects that the Union might have put up an army in the town to delay the
Confederates. Joe watches the town for a while but can see no signs of Union activity, in fact, he can find no signs of activity at all. He rides down into the town and finds that there is a full deployment of Union soldiers right on the main street, but all them, including the horses, are laying flat on the ground. In addition so is every other person and animal in the town. He investigates and finds that they are not dead but seem to be in a very deep sleep. Before he can report back to his group a man approaches him. He claims to be a wizard and says that he cast a hex on these people so that the south can advance. In addition, he tells Joe that if he signs a pact with him he will make sure that Joe and he will together win the war for the Confederacy. It’s a tempting offer and the man gives a few demonstrations that show Joe that he can do as he says. However, Joe notices that the book he is reading from has words scratched out of it with words like God replaced with vile names he can not utter. He pretends to accept and when the man leans in so that Joe can sign a contract, in the blood, of course, Joe brings his sword up and decapitates the man. He then reads the spell the man read, but with the real words. The Union army starts to wake up and soon they are in battle with the Confederates. Joe has to spend the rest of his life knowing that he had the power to win the failed war.
The Jungle by Charles Beaumont (Repeat Author)
I found this one to be the weakest of the stories in the book. This is not one that I have seen. A man has built a magnificent city in the middle of Africa. It is intended to fix the overpopulation issue that earth is having with there not being enough space for everyone. There is a problem, everyone who hasn’t left the city has died of a terrible wasting disease, including the wife of the engineer. The disease is a result of a curse put on the city by the local medicine man as retribution for taking their land and relocating them. The engineer is certain that Science will be the answer to the disease and meets one last time with the head of the African village to convince them to be happy with what they have been given. The village refuses. The man returns to his city and sees part of it is being overtaken by the jungle. Inside his apartment he finds his wife being eaten by a lion.
To Serve Man by Damon Knight (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damon_Knight)
Chances are you know the Simpson parody of this, which was based on the Twilight zone episode, which was based on this story. Aliens come to Earth bringing peace. They offer technology to cure world needs of food, energy and medical care. The protagonist is a translator for the UN who soon finds himself out of a job as world peace no longer necessitates a reason for the UN. The aliens claim all they do for humanity is because of their book “To Serve Man.” One of his fellow translators is suspicious and manages to get ahold of a copy and starts to try to translate. In the meantime, the aliens are giving humans a chance to visit the world. At the very end, the protagonist and his friend are selected to go on the ship. As they are in line the friend who, as it turns out did not have a choice about going, mentions that he finally translated some of the books and “To Serve Man” is a cookbook.
Little Girl Lost by Richard Matheson(Repeat Author)
This is one that my dad said scared him as a kid. I didn’t care for it much when I saw it. Somehow a hole to the fourth dimension opens up inside the apartment of a family. During the night their daughter falls into it and can not be found. Soon the dog joins them and eventually, the dad does, however, he only goes in with the top half of his body. Once he has the girl his friend and wife drag him out. I think it might have been more of a better story in its time in the thought process that there might be more than the three dimensions that we are used to and that they would be beyond our ability to comprehend.
Four O’Clock by Prince Day
Mr. Crangle believes that he has some kind of power that randomly appears and then disappears. During this time he has the ability to make changes to all of anything he has power over. Currently, the power is telling him he can change all evil people. He thinks long and hard about it and decides that he will make it so that all evil people will be half their current size. As the time approaches he wills it to happen. The story notes at the end that he now has to stretch to give his bird a nut, something he was tall enough to do before.

anjanette's review

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4.0

I LOVE the original Twilight Zone series, but like the show, a lot of these stories are reflective of the times they were written. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet has smoking on an airplane.
Stories about the future set in the 1990s. Some of these are innocuous; some aren't. But the stories are still richly told. I could have sworn I'd seen every episode, but I didn't recall quite a few. Probably the best was 'I Sing the Body Electric' by Ray Bradbury. Very beautiful poetic writing. Other classic stories are 'Time Enough At Last' (which should appeal to everyone on Goordreads), 'An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge', my favorite episode 'To Serve Man', and 'Long Distance Call', which was turned into 'Night Call' for the series. That episode still scares the bejesus out of me (although this original story is altered a bit from the episode, if memory serves). Each story has the airdate and actors listed at the beginning.

stevenf's review

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

Rod Serling+--Superb.
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