Don't Open This Book!

I loved the stories in this book. Some were freaky and others scarey and others just plain weird. But they all made for a great ride.

This is a collection of short stories dealing with the macabre, the weird, the frightening. Most of the stories are decent and worth your time, but there are a few standouts: "The Pandora Heart" by Tanith Lee tells a revised myth of Pandora -- where her body was buried and a tree springs forth bearing strange heart-shaped fruits. Those who eat the fruit are either driven to god-hood or madness, depending on the quality of their souls. Our protagonist, a lesser daughter of a king, is eventually bequethed one of these hearts, and the reader must dash to the end of the story to find out if she eats it. "Never Again the Same" by L. Jagi Lamplighter tells the story of a boy who, because of his Japanese heritage, ends up spending the summer with his grandfather. In his grandfather's garden is a temple containing a forbidden book. Should he read it? "Famous First Words" by Harry Harrison (the man of "Stainless Steel Rat" fame) tells a humorous story of a scientist who tracks down the origins of various historical calamities. The origins are so absurd that they are halarious, and for all we know, they might be true. "Black Bargain" by Robert Bloch is a creepy tale of a man who makes a bargain with the devil. The upshot is that this man's shadow gains a life of its own. It begins stalking him. "DP!" by Jack Vance is possibly the best story in the book. It tells of a weird migration of refugees that come boiling up out of the earth in Western Europe. The are homo sapiens sapiens... sort of. Pale, nearly blind, unable to comprehend time, possessers of a rudimentary lanuage. They are a completely benign race, but where would we put 5 million refugees? And others. There just isn't room here to review each story. Readers of horror, sci-fi, and weirdness will find some joy in this collection.

A collection of short-stories in weird fiction! Some of the authors are forgotten, some well-known, in science-fiction and fantasy circles. This is a book for a dark, stormy night...when the power is out. Light candles against the encroaching darkness, but don't try to see whats hiding in the shadows! Some of the authors featured within: A. M. Burrage, Tanith Lee, H. P. Lovecraft, Harry Harrison, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, William C. Morrow, Robert Bloch, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Jack Vance, ...and the "world's wickedest man" himself: Aleister Crowley.