Post by steppedonwolf on Feb 22, 2011 13:44:34 GMT
Another glowing review - this time from BFS member Terry Grimwood on the Exaggerated Website:
"I love themed anthologies and M is for Monster certainly is themed. It’s about well, monsters for a start and surely any horror fan loves a good monster. The other theme is that there are twenty-six stories each one represented by a letter of the alphabet. Some are obvious, D for demon for example, but some are harder to pin down. Part of the fun, for me anyway.
It called to mind a long ago, much thumbed and loved Four Square paperback called, I think, The ABC of Science Fiction, which was a collection in which the authors' surnames were in alphabetical order. M is for Monster has that same witty, slightly tongue-in-cheek feel and shares its ability to suck you in and lose you for a while.
Overall, M is for Monster is a highly entertaining read, it is exciting and compelling and yes, I did want to know what the next story was going to be each time I finished the one before, always a good sign.,
Ron Spencer’s cover is a striking, action-packed and dramatic pencil drawing which sets the tone perfectly as well as making the book an attractive package. There is a sense of love about the work, that this is a collection compiled by someone who relishes the genre, that he was aided and abetted by a group of authors who wallowed deliciously in the primal swamp from which monsters are created and that the resulting book was meant to be read by those with a real passion for being pursued by hulking, slavering nightmares made flesh.
Some monsters are obvious and immediate, such as the Calumus, D M Younquist’s war mongering demons, Paul Freeman’s devilish elephant, and the seemingly innocent woman by a river who turns out to be anything but when unleashed by Andrew Taylor.
Some of the monsters are more insidious, creeping up on us unawares, like Adrian Chamberlin’s tale of the patriotic resistance against the might of the occupying Third Reich. These partisans, however, are far from human. Then there is that gorgeous item of jewellery sold to an exclusive store for a pittance, but soon it is obvious that the real price is much higher, as revealed to us by Carson Buckingham. These are two of my favourite stories from the collection by the way.
Other monsters never really show their faces but lurk in the mind. But they are just as terrifying and loathsome. Kate Jonez shows us guilt and retribution for example, while Dean Drinkel teaches us that the consequences of unwholesome acts in our past will be unleashed eventually.
Simon Kurt Unsworth leads the wittier side of the monstrous with a trip to the local noodle bar, while Brooke Vaughn gives us the epic story of siege and shape changers set in the dank, dripping isolation of the jungle. My own personal favourite is T by Magen Toole in which the clockwork working life and domestic routine of an ordinary, somewhat dull, man is shattered by his first glimpse of a young woman standing outside her house as he drives home from work one evening.
This is a big anthology, picked with fangs, claws and torn flesh, but also with subtly and shadowed menace. Yes, the familiar is there, the werewolf, the demon, but for the most part, they’ve been given a fresh set of clothes, an injection of steroids and sent out to play once more. There are some very well written tales here, and some that are great stories though told in a more workmanlike style. These are few and more than compensated for by the sheer glee with which humanity is chased, clawed, tormented and eaten by the thing that haunts us from the day we first become aware of the dark.
Monsters."
;D
exaggeratedpress.weebly.com/reviews.html
"I love themed anthologies and M is for Monster certainly is themed. It’s about well, monsters for a start and surely any horror fan loves a good monster. The other theme is that there are twenty-six stories each one represented by a letter of the alphabet. Some are obvious, D for demon for example, but some are harder to pin down. Part of the fun, for me anyway.
It called to mind a long ago, much thumbed and loved Four Square paperback called, I think, The ABC of Science Fiction, which was a collection in which the authors' surnames were in alphabetical order. M is for Monster has that same witty, slightly tongue-in-cheek feel and shares its ability to suck you in and lose you for a while.
Overall, M is for Monster is a highly entertaining read, it is exciting and compelling and yes, I did want to know what the next story was going to be each time I finished the one before, always a good sign.,
Ron Spencer’s cover is a striking, action-packed and dramatic pencil drawing which sets the tone perfectly as well as making the book an attractive package. There is a sense of love about the work, that this is a collection compiled by someone who relishes the genre, that he was aided and abetted by a group of authors who wallowed deliciously in the primal swamp from which monsters are created and that the resulting book was meant to be read by those with a real passion for being pursued by hulking, slavering nightmares made flesh.
Some monsters are obvious and immediate, such as the Calumus, D M Younquist’s war mongering demons, Paul Freeman’s devilish elephant, and the seemingly innocent woman by a river who turns out to be anything but when unleashed by Andrew Taylor.
Some of the monsters are more insidious, creeping up on us unawares, like Adrian Chamberlin’s tale of the patriotic resistance against the might of the occupying Third Reich. These partisans, however, are far from human. Then there is that gorgeous item of jewellery sold to an exclusive store for a pittance, but soon it is obvious that the real price is much higher, as revealed to us by Carson Buckingham. These are two of my favourite stories from the collection by the way.
Other monsters never really show their faces but lurk in the mind. But they are just as terrifying and loathsome. Kate Jonez shows us guilt and retribution for example, while Dean Drinkel teaches us that the consequences of unwholesome acts in our past will be unleashed eventually.
Simon Kurt Unsworth leads the wittier side of the monstrous with a trip to the local noodle bar, while Brooke Vaughn gives us the epic story of siege and shape changers set in the dank, dripping isolation of the jungle. My own personal favourite is T by Magen Toole in which the clockwork working life and domestic routine of an ordinary, somewhat dull, man is shattered by his first glimpse of a young woman standing outside her house as he drives home from work one evening.
This is a big anthology, picked with fangs, claws and torn flesh, but also with subtly and shadowed menace. Yes, the familiar is there, the werewolf, the demon, but for the most part, they’ve been given a fresh set of clothes, an injection of steroids and sent out to play once more. There are some very well written tales here, and some that are great stories though told in a more workmanlike style. These are few and more than compensated for by the sheer glee with which humanity is chased, clawed, tormented and eaten by the thing that haunts us from the day we first become aware of the dark.
Monsters."
;D
exaggeratedpress.weebly.com/reviews.html