McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales

Any collection of short stories, especially those anthologizing the works of various authors, will by its nature be a hit-or-miss proposition. Some of the stories will be better than others, some could be excellent, some could be outright duds. This collection, put together by Michael Chabon, has a much better average than most such books -- very few of the stories in this collection disappointed. Elmore Leonard's "How Carlos Webster Changes his Name to Carl and Became a Famous Oklahoma Lawman" stands out as one of the best in the book, although Gaiman's "Closing Time" and Moody's "The Albertine Notes" are also standouts. Hornby's "Otherwise Pandemonium" is something of a departure for him, a sci-fi short that's quite unlike his more famous works, and Sherman Alexie's "Ghost Dance" is a really good little horror tale. Stephen King's "The Tale of Gray Dick" is entertaining in and of itself, although his hardcore fans have already read the story, which is actually an excerpt from his (at the time of this volume) not-yet-published Dark Tower novel, "Wolves of the Calla." Chabon closes off the collection with a story of his own, but "The Martian Agent, a Planetary Romance" is not a complete story, but the beginning of a serial (and if anyone can tell me if or where the rest has been published, please do so -- it's not in McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories as I expected). Chabon's goal, he says in the introduction, was to put together an anthology of that endangered species, the plot-driven short story. He succeeded by leaps and bounds. The collection showcases a lot of different voices and a lot of different kinds of stories, but all in all, it's far more entertaining than most short story anthologies.

Nick Hornsby, Elmore Leonard, Dave Eggers, Laurie King and Michael Moorcock alone contrbute stories which would make any collection outstanding! "The Albertine Notes" shows a lot of narrative spunk and extroidinary sense of nostalgia, but lost narrative focus for me in the last few pages. I agree with others that Stephen King and Harlan Ellison let us down here. My guess is Nick Hornsby could turn out to be the best of this group. I doubt that any multi-author short story collection issued in a given year for the last century and a half had any higher percentage of good stories. Go buy this sucker!!!

The classic cover and title flavor of this collection of Thrilling Tales might lead one to think this a homogenous collection of pulp style fiction. Nothing could be further from the truth though.A talented and varied group of writers combine here to deliver short stories of excellent quality. While the styles and choices of the writers may not be altogether consistent with the likes of the reader they all do a commendable job of telling an entertaining story.As with most readers I found some stories more compelling than others, but I enjoyed the collection as a whole enough that the low points were outweighed by the highs. For many readers the strength of the short story can also be its weakness. The brevity of such a composition in some ways limits a writer, but the format also frees them to tell a story in a way that would not be possible in a novel format. For a reader this can easily lead to disappointment as story construction can vary widely from one to another. Expectations also vary from one author to another, especially with names as well known as some of those collected herein. Some of the best stories in this collection come from authors that have little name recognition. It behooves the reader to enjoy each of these tales as a separate entity and apart from the confines of the author's previous work. Overall, this is a fun exercise in storytelling enabling the reader to experience some well known and some not so well known authors in a format that is always entertaining.

I was really looking forward to this collection of short stories. I used to love reading short stories when I was in school, but outside of magazines there really aren't that many short stories written anymore. In fact, that was the supposed reason for bringing together this collection of stories. Some of the stories are rather good, but most are mediocre, and a few are just plain stinkers. The stories I enjoyed the most were:"The Tears of Squonk, and What Happened Thereafter" by Glen David Gold. This story tells the tale of a murderous elephant and how she was finally captured and hung. This is my personal favorite story in the treasury."How Carlos Webster Changed His Name to Carl and Became a Famous Oklahoma Lawman" by Elmore Leonard A young boy has his ice cream stolen by a famous gangster and moments later watches the criminal murder a lawmen. That one event (the stealing of the ice cream or the killing?) changes the life of Carlos Webster forever."Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly" by Dave Eggers I'll give him credit, Eggers is a more talented writer than I imagined him to be as this story illustrates. It's the tale of a woman's quest to hike up Kilaminjaro. Great storytelling."The Martian Agent, A Planetary Romance" by Michael Chabon This story is a "what if" piece of historical fiction. The last bit of a rebellion on the British controlled North American continent is crushed. The two sons of the rebellion leader are saved and rescued by their famous uncle, an inventor of air ships.Overall THRILLING TALES was a bit of a disappointment. Several of the tales were promising, but did not deliver in the end, such as Nick Hornby's "Otherwise Pandemonium" a story about a VCR that can veiw the future. Others were duds. However, the few outstanding stories make this collection worth reading, though not necessarily worth buying.

McSweeney's doesn't usually publish books of superstar authors like this, so I made sure to get my hands on one as soon as I could befor e they started flying off the shelves. I had high expectations for this collection, and I wasn't disappointed. Every book of short stories seems to have one or two that just aren't interesting, but this book is the exception that proves the rule: every single story is wonderful. While they are all truly great, I particularly enjoyed Glen David Gold's "The Tears of Squonk and What Happened Thereafter," Neil Gaiman's "Closing Time," and Nick Horby's "Otherwise Pandemonium." Stephen King fans will be pleased to note that his contribution, "The Tale of Gray Dick," is actually an excerpt from the upcoming Wolves of the Calla, the fifth book in the Dark Tower series.