Foundations of Fear: An Exploration of Horror

I wish there was a way I could rate one star AND 5 stars. This book is a very broad overview of the development of horror. It has quite a few stories from the 1800's (some in Middle English) and a lot in the 1900's. The stories written in the later years tended to be smoother with sharper character developments, etc. A few of the stories were unreadable. Some approached genius. "Torturing Mr. Amberwell" and "Passengers" along with "They" were some of the best "out of the box" stories I have read in years. Every story in this large (650 words) uneven anthology is by a different author and it shows. I have mentioned a couple that were superb, some were just mediocre, some were horrible. Overall, however, it was worth the cost and proved to be well worth the effort.

An anthology designed to be a companion to the Dark Descent anthology, although it isn't broken up into Hartwell's 'three kinds of horror'. Also features a lot of novellas given this is a book that is moving towards 700 pages of smaller dense type, so he took the opportunity to put in longer stories that don't get reprinted much. Quite a few public domain type older works here, and for your fan of modern horror they won't be as interesting. I'd call this just about a 4.25. Foundations Of Fear : Don't Look Now - Daphne du Maurier Foundations Of Fear : They - Robert A. Heinlein Foundations Of Fear : At the Mountains of Madness - H. P. Lovecraft Foundations Of Fear : The Little Room - Madeline Yale Wynne Foundations Of Fear : The Shadowy Street - Jean Ray Foundations Of Fear : Passengers - Robert Silverberg Foundations Of Fear : The Moonstone Mass - Harriet Prescott Spofford Foundations Of Fear : The Blue Rose - Peter Straub Foundations Of Fear : Sandkings - George R. R. Martin Foundations Of Fear : The Great God Pan - Arthur Machen Foundations Of Fear : Aura - Carlos Fuentes Foundations Of Fear : Barbara of the House of Grebe - Thomas Hardy Foundations Of Fear : Torturing Mr. Amberwell - Thomas M. Disch Foundations Of Fear : The Prayer [The Story of a Ghost] - Violet Hunt Foundations Of Fear : Who Goes There? - John W. Campbell Foundations Of Fear : And My Fear Is Great - Theodore Sturgeon Foundations Of Fear : When Darkness Loves Us - Elizabeth Engstrom Foundations Of Fear : We Purchased People - Frederik Pohl Foundations Of Fear : The Striding Place - Gertrude Atherton Foundations Of Fear : In the Hills the Cities - Clive Barker Foundations Of Fear : Faith of Our Fathers - Philip K. Dick Foundations Of Fear : The Bell in the Fog - Gertrude Atherton Foundations Of Fear : The Sandman - E. T. A. Hoffmann Foundations Of Fear : Bloodchild - Octavia E. Butler Foundations Of Fear : Duel - Richard Matheson Foundations Of Fear : Longtooth - Edgar Pangborn Foundations Of Fear : Luella Miller - Mary E. Wilkins Freeman Foundations Of Fear : The Entrance - Gerald Durrell Foundations Of Fear : The Lurking Duck - Scott Baker Foundations Of Fear : Notes on the Writing of Horror: A Story - Thomas Ligotti Wrong short person, cutting. 3.5 out of 5 Protest destiny. 3 out of 5 Miskatonic Antarctic geology expedition uncovers alien architecture, Old One warfare evidence, and some definitely not dead Shoggoths. 4.5 out of 5 Full sized house toasted. 3 out of 5 Monster killed lots of us, at least they left cash. 3.5 out of 5 Mind ridden physical reservations. 4 out of 5 Frozen jewel fate. 4 out of 5 Mesmerism annoyance termination. 4 out of 5 Feed your pets properly, fool. 4 out of 5 Suicide ain't changeless. 3 out of 5 You ain't looking so hot, witchiep00. 3.5 out of 5 Statue clinger. 3.5 out of 5 Anti-environmentalist ex-Kali escapee. 4.5 out of 5 Hubster comeback putdo

...convinced me that horror fiction wasn't just a "slum" genre, that it was in fact home to some of the best writing ever set to paper. Elisabeth Engstrom's "When Darkness Loves Us" changed my perception of the short story. In just a few pages she makes a more profound impact on the emotions of the reader than most 500-page novels. This book is a startling demonstration of craft and fine storytelling.