Great Tales of Madness and the Macabre

by Charles Ardai (Editor)

This anthology contains: The Madonna of Wolves by Somtow Sucharitkul; Placebo by Andrew Vachss; Real Time by Lawrence Watt-Evans; How the Wind Spoke at Madaket by Lucius Shepard; The Wedding Gig by Stephen King; The Leopard Man's Story by Jack London; Deathbinder by Alexander Jablokov; The Marked Man by David Ely; The Ones Who Turn Invisible by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre; Ever After by Susan Palwick; The Living Dead by Robert Bloch; Trinity by Nancy Kress; Report on a Broken Bridge by Dennis O'Neil; The Beast from One Quarter Fathom by George Alec Effinger; Was It a Dream by Guy de Maupassant; The Man At the Window by Charles Gordon; Yanqui Doodle by James Tiptree Jr.; An Inhabitant of Carcosa by Ambrose Bierce; Killer in the House by Jas. R. Petrin; Sometimes they Bite by Lawrence Block; Three Men in a Tub by Lemuel Cork; Flicks by Bill Crenshaw; Something Evil in the House by Celia Fremlin; The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe; Graffiti by Stanley Ellin; The Dive People by Avram Davidson; The Dim Rumble by Isaac Asimov; The Leather Funnel by Arthur Conan Doyle; and Island Man by R. A. Wilson.

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Anthologies

518 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1990

About the author

Charles Ardai is a founder of Hard Case Crime, a pulp crime novel publisher, as well as an editor and author. In 1991 he received the Pearlman Prize for his fiction. He also writes under the pen name Richard Aleas.

Reviews

[Alison C · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Great Tales of Madness and the Macabre" is a collection of reprinted short stories, compiled by Charles Ardai from the archives of Davis Publications, which includes the magazines EQMM, AHMM, and Asimov’s SF. First, the criticisms: reprint volumes should, to my mind, include brief biographies of the authors, here neglected. In addition, the copyright pages are very confusing, given that the authors are listed in alphabetical order but divided according to the magazine in which the story first appeared, which is just bizarre. That said, the stories themselves are quite good; they include out-of-copyright stories by Guy de Maupassant, Ambrose Bierce, Jack London, Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as more recent authors. My favourites include “Ever After,” by Susan Palwick, a kind of mash-up of vampires, fairy tales and stolen children; “How the Wind Spoke at Madaket,” by Lucius Shepard, a kind of ghostly horror story; Nancy Kress’s “Trinity,” in which the search for God is detailed; and R. A. Wilson’s “Island Man,” a post-apocalyptic tale of the future. There’s good stuff by every writer in here, though, and overall the collection is quite excellent, flaws aside.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

This may be the first book that I've found on Goodreads that didn't average three stars or better. Two stars is sufficient for this uninspired compilation. Two back-to-back vampire stories? Ho-hum. The obligatory quasi-erotic "werewolves are repulsive but also sexy" story? Gimme a break. A Stephen King story that, as far as I could tell, had nothing to do with madness or the macabre? A cynical hook for the careless consumer. The cyberpunk story near the end? Don't ask me. The best stories here were the classics by Poe, Conan Doyle and others. And I did like the post-apocalyptic story at the end, though, like others here, I don't think that it particularly fit the theme. And how do you have an anthology on madness and the macabre and not include a story by Lovecraft?

[Ronan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very nicely bound hardcover. Contents leave much to be desired. Not very scary in my opinion. Unclear if purpose of this book was to be a horror compilation or just... weird stories for the fun of it. Either way, I did not find myself entertained.

[Marilyn Saul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just for light reading in between great books :-) Nothing special.