Night Visions Seven

Night Visions #7

by Richard Laymon, Richard Laymon, Chet Williamson

Contents:

* Mop Up by Richard Laymon
* Wishbone by Richard Laymon
* Bad News by Richard Laymon
* Madman Stan by Richard Laymon
* Blue Notes by Chet Williamson
* The Confessions of St. James by Chet Williamson
* Assurances of the Self Extinction of Man by Chet Williamson
* Damntown by Gary Brandner (novella)

Genres: Horror, Anthologies, Short Stories

271 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Richard Laymon was born in Chicago and grew up in California. He earned a BA in English Literature from Willamette University, Oregon and an MA from Loyola University, Los Angeles. He worked as a schoolteacher, a librarian, and a report writer for a law firm, and was the author of more than thirty acclaimed novels.

He also published more than sixty short stories in magazines such as Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, and Cavalier, and in anthologies including Modern Masters of Horror.

He died from a massive heart attack on February 14, 2001 (Valentine's Day).

Also published under the name Richard Kelly

Reviews

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This hardcover is 270 of 550 and is signed by Gary Brandner, Richard Layman, Stanley Wiater, Chet Williamson, and Charles Lang and Wendy [Snow]-Lang.

[Jonathan Maas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Came to this Book for Richard Laymon, I Stayed for the Rest

A friend recommended I look into the great Richard Laymon, so I decided to start with some of his short stories, and got Night Visions 7.

I immediately recognized Laymon's talents - he's a cannon of plot, that keeps going until the end. His stories start out with a strong premise, and just keep ratcheting it up until the end.

If there is one fault - and not really a fault - it's that Laymon is exhausting. He doesn't give the reader a breather.

In any case, I loved him - and fell in love with the other two authors in Stanley Wiater's collection as well - Chet Williamson and Gary Brandner.

The latter ended up the collection with a particularly strong novella - more on this in the synopsis of each below!

Synopsis of each tale

Richard Laymon's Tales
* Mop Up - Just a pedal-to-the-metal tale of one man fighting strange humanoids in a post-apocalyptic world. Be warned - it does not stop until the end.
* Wishbone - A shorty, creepy tale about camping that might turn you off camping for awhile.
* Bad News - A short, fun tale about rodents in one's newspaper.
* Madman Stan - This might be Laymon's best. It's short, it has a spooky bedtime story feel to it - and it's about a spooky bedtime story - but it's great.

Chet Williamson's Tales
* Blue Notes - This is about a Jazz musician. Note that Williamson himself considers himself a jazz musician of horror - so this one might be his best.
* The Confessions of St. James - A long short story or a novella about something rather unpleasant.
* Assurances of the Self Extinction of Man - 80 words, but impactful.

Gary Brandner's Tale
* Damntown - This novella rounds out the collection, and might be the best of the lot. The others are great, but this one is so fully realized that it brings a powerful impact that can not be understated. It takes on a familiar premise - a trip to a town that seems odd for some reason, but Brandner finds a way to make it incredible.

In Conclusion

It's great. Stanley Wiater brings great tales to the reader, and interviews each author after their section. Also of note, the illustraions - Charles and Wendy Lang illustrate the cover - with a little bit of each tale, as well as sections in the middle of each tale. It just adds that little bit of impact for the reader.

So 5 stars - well deserved!

[William Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great selection of short stories could have been 5 star but I'm feeling tight! The standout is Brandners damntown for me. Laymons stories are good too, the only one I didn't click with was Chet Williamsons the confessions of St James, which for me was to long winded.... Mad considering it's a short story....... But I just didn't gel with it. Other wise an excellent collection, which I very highly recommend.

[Gerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

mop up was my fav

[Tim Meechan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite series of books. All of the stories are original works, specifically written for each issue. Some of the writers are well known, some are near to reaching fame, and some are just getting noticed, but they all deserve to be read and I’m confident you’ll enjoy these books as I have. I’ve now finished half of the twelve volumes and would rate this edition as a four, and as a book I’d recommend, especially to horror fiction lovers.

This series reads a tiny bit dated, compared to how it may have been received in the 80’s and 90’s when it was first published, and yet good horror is good horror whenever it is written, and a good story is “always” a good story. As I commented, these volumes do a fantastic job of presenting new authors in the horror genre, and also at giving writers that were close to reaching notoriety, the opportunity to showcase their style and skills, thus helping them get over that final hurdle.

I had read short fiction by Williamson but both Laymon and Bradner were new for me and both impressed me with their contributions to this anthology.

Laymon - my favorite was “Mop Up”, a story about a mismatched group of military, tasked with sweeping neighborhoods to kill any walking dead stragglers that were missed by the main assault. Laymon claims influence from the “King of Zombie” himself, George Romero and from the movie “The Crazies”. His plot created great intensity and he gave us a bit of a surprise ending.

Williamson - I liked “The Confessions of St. James” the best. The main character is a superb example of an insane person. Pastor Brandon is just soooo creepy and his justifications for his sickening behavior are perfect. Having grown up Catholic, this story was easy to connect with but should shock all comers at the same level. Well done.

Bradner - There’s really only one choice here as he gives us a novella titled “Damntown”. This story has a ton of traditional elements of a classic horror story including; the devil coming to town to make a deal, the unfulfilled pact that needs reckoning, new family generations paying for their ancestors sins, (although Quinn was far more deserving of this than his father Carl), and a setting stuck in a time loop and invisible to the rest of the world. Bradner puts his personal touch to these pieces and cranks out a winner.

There are some other good shorts in here and a couple of so-so’s as well, but overall, an easy four.

P.S. Anybody that knows where I might find volumes 1,2,3,10,11, or 12, I would love to know.

[Bill Borre]

"Madman Stan" by Richard Laymon - Rich and Billy's mean babysitter Agnes tells them a story about Madman Stan who goes around the neighborhood trying doors of houses to see if they are locked so that he can kidnap children from the unlocked ones. The story scares Billy so much that he takes Agnes' threat to leave the door unlocked seriously and crawls past Agnes sleeping on the couch to check the door. Billy realizes Agnes lied and returns to his room. When the parents return home the front door is wide open and Agnes is missing. Billy decides it is best to remain quiet about who really unlocked the door.

"Assurances of the Self-Extinction of Man" by Chet Williamson - This very short pessimistic story about the fate of mankind draws a parallel between a dead sea creature's shell being expelled by the sea onto the shore and the emergence of humans onto the land.

"Bad News" by Richard Laymon - Paul and his wife battle small creatures with sharp teeth that are attacking the neighborhood.

[Jk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume of Night Visions is edited by Stanley Wiater who keeps his introduction short and sweet and adds an interview piece with each author at the end of their section about the inspirations for their stories - a feature not seen in previous volumes of this anthology series and one which I really loved. The stories are a good mix of shorter, longer and novella length pieces and are all enjoyable. The standouts for me were "Mop Up" and "Madman Stan" by Richard Layman and "The Confessions of St. James" by Chet Williamson.

[Shawn]

PLACEHOLDER REVIEW: Got this through Inter-Library Loan for the Chet Williamson novella "The Confessions Of St. James". Which was well-written and good. A Methodist pastor contends with a troubling member of his congregation, an arrogant, intelligent teenager who has taken on all the philosophical, received trappings of rebellious "Satanism" (Crowleyist philosophy, mockery of the Church, etc.) and may be behind the recent grave-robbing of the Church's cemetery. But the Pastor himself has a secret, involving a personal (near fetishistic), specific interpretation of the Holy Eucharist. Well done, more of a crime story than a horror story (and it turns out how you might expect) but Williamson is to be lauded for working hard to make us understand the religious underpinnings for the Pastor's secret, as well as making the character's religious faith feel real. I wouldn't call it scary, exactly, but it was a good read.