Customer Reviews (1)

an excellent anthology of modern horror classics
The Greatest Horror Stories of the 20th Century is truly a classis collection of horror. While the first few stories start the collection off slowly, by the time you listen to THE VIADUCT you will be hooked! Myfavorites include STICKS (about strange wooden configurations found in thewoods), THE WORDS OF GURU (about a child discovering the demons all aroundus), and especially Ray Bradbury's THE SMALL ASSASSIN (about a new motherwho believes her baby is trying to kill her). Most of the stories aregenuinely horrifying, and the audio production throughout is excellent. Iwould definitely reccomend this for those who like short horror storieslike me. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Night of the ripper
Quick, easy read. Great paced book with obvious historical research about the ripper cases. Ending was very tidy so be prepared if that's not your thing.

Fun But Formulaic Mystery
This is a rather predictable mystery novel that benefits from an interesting premise. The mystery is mixed with solid historical fiction concerning the enduring enigma of Jack the Ripper, in the London of 1888. Fans of unsolved mysteries in history can have fun with this premise, remembering the fact that Bloch advances a culprit out of his own sense of writing a fun novel. However, one of the reasons that the Jack the Ripper story remains so fascinating with enthusiasts is the cover-up angle, as many investigators (in many non-fiction books) suspect a person of high standing in British society who benefited from a cover-up. In Bloch's story here, the conspiracy angle is examined but the perpetrator turns out to be someone far less interesting. Also, the motive (the key to any strong mystery story) is weak and under-explored. Add to that Bloch's very formulaic construction of the story, as if he was working straight from a "How to Write a Mystery" manual, along with completely unnecessary cameos by historical personages like Arthur Conan Doyle and the Elephant Man. This treatment of the Jack the Ripper legend is a fun read but is not an especially strong example of the mystery genre. [~doomsdayer520~]

Too superficial and sensational to be effective
Working from the facts of the Whitechapel murders, Robert Bloch takes on Jack the Ripper in The Night of the Ripper and proposes a novel, logical, yet highly imaginative solution to the crimes.This is pure fiction, so one should not think that Bloch proposes a reasonable theory behind the Ripper murders and the identity of Saucy Jack.A number of entirely fictitious characters find themselves at the heart of this tale of murder.Mark Robinson, a young American doctor working at London Hospital, becomes the centerpiece of the action, working in conjunction with Inspector Abberline to find a solution to the horrific crimes sending London into fits of panic.Eva Sloane, a young nurse at the hospital, catches his eye early on and becomes the object of his unrequited affections and concern.With several of the doctors at the hospital initially considered suspects of a sort, particularly the eccentric Dr. Hume who seems to enjoy his surgical work just a little too much, Robinson adopts the role of Eva's protector, but this aspect of the story could have been much better incorporated into the larger picture of the murders.While this novel failed to win me over completely, I must say that the ending, highly imaginative as it is, does provide a surprise or two and in its way manages to explain some of the discrepancies in the Ripper evidence, particularly that surrounding the most brutal slaughter of Mary Jane Kelly.One interesting touch that I did like was Bloch's means of introducing each chapter; working his way through history, he gives short descriptions of some of mankind's most brutal and horrifying activities.

It may well be that someone unfamiliar with the details of the Ripper murders would enjoy this novel more than I did.Being an armchair Ripperologist myself, the true facts of the actual murders in this novel fail to shock or horrify me; rather, I tend to dwell on the facts that Bloch left out and the general incompleteness of the facts he chose to play with.Bloch also chose to mention all manner of past theories over the course of the novel without attempting to explain the real significance (or impossibility) of some of them.Also, I can't say I care for the insertion of such well-known characters as Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and John Merrick (the Elephant Man) into the narrative.These characters serve no purpose at all in this novel beyond making it more sensational; each of them makes a brief, wholly unimportant appearance and is then forgotten.As talented a writer as Bloch was, I can't imagine why he would resort to such needless sensationalism.The main problem I have with the novel is in fact the shallowness of all the characters.These characters never come alive; for the most part, we merely watch them come and go like puppets controlled by the author.The presentation of such historical individuals as Inspector Abberline, Sir William Gull, and Sir Charles Warren is superficial and more misleading than insightful.Abberline remains quite inscrutable, although Bloch chooses to repeat ad nauseum the conditions of the poor man's troublesome stomach.

Only a certain breed of author would attempt a fictionalized explication of Jack the Ripper's crimes.Bloch was certainly one of that rare breed, but I believe his fictional engine was not clicking on all cylinders as he wrote The Night of the Ripper.His determination to bring in some of the actual facts of the murders, give lip service to all manner of Ripper theories, and insert a number of famous men having little or no connection to the crimes seemed to distract him from the more important issue of character development; that deficiency makes this novel a superficial read that fails to impress this reader.

"Night of the Ripper" is pure magic...I real page turner
For anyone who loves mysteries, this book is for you.
For anyone who loves Rober Bloch, this book is for you,
For anyone who is fascinated by the Jack the Ripper murders this book is your bible.
Bloch is one of the best writers out there today and he weaves a giant web of mystery and suspense that keeps the reader turning the pages.This is one of those books that grabs you and holds in in place until you turn the final page. You can't put it down. Soon, as the story deepens you find yourself sweating and biting your nails. With each turn of a page you tell yourself you don't want to know what happens next, that you want to put the book down and stop reading. This possibility, of course, is impossible.Whether you like it or not you are along for the ride with no exits.
If you're looking for a page-turner sure to give you goosebumps this is the book for you. You won't regret reading it.

Jack's back, and so is Bloch
The short stories Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper and A Toy for Juliette, as well as the Star Trek episode Wolf in the Fold show just how fascinated legendary writer Robert Bloch had been with the Whitechapel serial killer. This 1984 novel poses an original idea for who the killer may have been and why the crimes were committed.Bloch's voluminous knowledge not only of the crimes themselves but of the Victorian Era makes the novel worthy of repeated readings. A very good book from a great writer.Highly recommended. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Entertaining!
These stories are not Bloch's best, since whatever he himself had considered worthy of publication in book form, had been published in the Underwood-Miller collection ("Selected Stories of Robert Bloch", that mysteriously became "Complete Stories of Robert Bloch" when published as a Citadel Twilight imprint) or in the Bram Stoker Award winning "The Early Fears". The fact that in the years following Bloch's demise no publisher sought to encash upon the tagline "THE AUTHOR OF PSYCHO" by publishing these stories suggest that they had become really difficult to find. Thanks to the superlative efforts made by the Subterranean Press team that had given us the "Lost Bloch" series, now these stories are made available as "Reader's Bloch". Even as shadows of Bloch's best, these stories are authentic entertainers, with their peculiar mix of horror & humor, pain & pun, wit & weight,..... Highly recommended to fans of pulp-style stories and Bloch's readers everywhere.

Not Bloch's best but even his worst is still good.
Content clues tell you the bulk of this collection was written in WWII (gas rationing and the French underground are pretty good clues). The stories are pretty tacky with typical Bloch wit and wordplay. Most of the stories are new to me, probably because they're too bad to have been anthologized before now. There remain a few chestnuts and a lot of fun surprises. If you haven't already ordered your copy from Subterranean Press for $40, you can get it here a lot cheaper! ... Read more

Product Description
8 authors, named Grand Masters by the Science Fiction Writers of America, choose their finest short stories. Each story is accompanied by a biographical note, an introduction, and a list of the author's significant stories and novels, by Andre Norton. The book includes an Introduction by Robert Bloch; and these stories: "The Long Watch," by Robert A Heinlein "With Folded Hands," by Jack Williamson "The Autumn Land," by Clifford Simak "A Gun for Dinosaur," by L Sprague de Camp "Lean Times in Lankhmar," by Fritz Leiber "Toads of Grimmerdale," by Andre Norton "Transit of Earth," by Arthur C Clarke "The Last Question," by Isaac Asimov Alas, all these Grand Masters have passed on to that great typewriter in the sky, Arthur C Clarke leaving us most recently (2008). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Masterful science fiction
8 authors, named Grand Masters by the Science Fiction Writers of America, choose their finest short stories. Each story is accompanied by a biographical note, an introduction, and a list of the author's significant stories and novels, by Andre Norton. The book includes an Introduction by Robert Bloch; and these stories:

"The Long Watch," by Robert A Heinlein
"With Folded Hands," by Jack Williamson
"The Autumn Land," by Clifford Simak
"A Gun for Dinosaur," by L Sprague de Camp
"Lean Times in Lankhmar," by Fritz Leiber
"Toads of Grimmerdale," by Andre Norton
"Transit of Earth," by Arthur C Clarke
"The Last Question," by Isaac Asimov

Alas, all these Grand Masters have passed on to that great typewriter in the sky, Arthur C Clarke leaving us just this year (2008).

If you haven't read these stories, you are in for a treat.The Williamson story is one of the earliest, and still one of the best, stories about robots.The de Camp story is one of the earliest, and one of the best, time travel/alternate world stories.The Lieber is classic sword - and - sorcery as only he can pull it off.The Clarke story still brings tears to my eyes each time I read it.And Asimov says in one of his books that "The Last Question" is still one of his most asked-after stories by the fans. ... Read more

Product Description
Israel, tr Chana Bloch & Ariel Bloch ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Window
Poorly translated. Doesn't match poetic intent nor tempo.
Translation is a bit of an word for word english repetition of text rather than concentrating on the poetry. After all it is poetry that is being translated. Without knowledge of the Hebrew, poems appear very bland and soul-less. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good thriller but predictable
On my copy of the book, the publisher has to stress that Robert Bloch is the writer of Psycho (he might as well have changed his name to Author of Psycho Robert Bloch, but that might overflow the driver's license) and shows an old woman holding a large knife. That's great for tie-in except it gives away a major plot point.

A retirement community filled with disfunctional people is the setting of this book. The main character, Warren, has decided to kill himself and his interaction with other characters only confirms that he needs to die. Meanwhile everyone is converging on the party of Joe Marks, a semi-recluse whose wife is much more sociable than most. The only external problem (there are a lot of internal problems with these people) is that the caterers are planning on robbing everyone. It turns violent.

The problems of this book are pretty obvious. One is that it gives away what's going to happen at the party pretty early on. A second is that with the exception of Warren, everyone is stereotypical. You got the paranoid former corporate spy whose suspicious of those long-hair types. You got the woman bitter at her son. You got the crazy person, that doesn't really confirm to mental illness so much as she babbles a lot. Some of them do indeed turn out to be interesting characters but not all of them.

However, this is a thriller and you forgive a lot more in a thriller than you would in other books. This is overall, a fun short read and is perfect post-Joyce (Faulkner/Eco/Erdrich/Silko/Morrison, etc.) reading. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Oops, I did it again!
Welcome back Norman, or not...

Blochs sequel to his most popular book is somewhat disappointing. That said, I will still read Psycho House, just to finish the sequels although I do so with a strange feeling that I may be disappointed again.

good sequel
good sequel
In the book they are trying to show what happened to Norman Bates after he was captured. He is in a state mental hospital for life. He somehow escapes and gets revenge on the couple that testified against him to get him imprisoned. He escaped from the hospital and stole a van from 2 nuns and then crashes and blows up the van with the nuns and a hitch hiker that he picked up to pretend it was him. While this was going on, in Hollywood there was a motion picture being made on the story of Norman and his killings. The movie executives are all in fear since they found out Norman escaped and he might be out to kill all of them.

I liked this book since I read the first book and had to read the second one. The author did a good job of creating imagery. He also showed the real pressures of psychology and living in a psyche ward.

I also liked how the author wouldn't let you forget about one character and how there was a consistency of what characters he was going to show you that chapter.

Not Like the Movie
Surprisingly this book has nothing in common with the movie "Psycho II" other than the title.I was glad, because I didn't enjoy this at all and that is rare for me to dislike something by Robert Bloch.It's a most forgettable book.It's good to obtain to see what it's like.But for entertainment purposes, I'd watch the movie instead.The movie takes us back to the Bates Motel with Norman getting out of the mental hospital after many years. And that's what we expect when we hear "Psycho II".Not this.

Well...
Well, I dont really know what to say. It is certainly much larger than the first book, but it doesnt get many more good points than that. It has a good begining that gets you wanting to read more and more, but in between the first few chapters and the end, it talks about hollywood life ... I kept reading because I thought it was going somewhere, but I was wrong. The begining and the end were good, but the 3hundred pages or so in between were just awefull. I only recomend it if you are a die hard Robert Bloch fan.

This should have been a flop. Yet why am I still shaking.
If your fortunate to have landed a copy of Psycho 2, I must be respectful to the public audience and warn you: your in for a big surprise. The prose is simple and efficent, Bloch dosen't bother with tantilising us with un-neccessary diolouge- everything that's in this book is there for a reason and every sentence has an alterior motive. I'm am 17 years old and I cant help asking, why dosen't anyone know who Bloch is. He's a mascot of writers past. He has influenced many writers ( McDonald, King, Straub) and myself. This is a fantastic book, very enjoyable and totally unpredicatable. Why was it never adapted for film? Bloch at his best. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not Free SF Reader
Novelisation of the anthology format movie.


Robert Bloch, in an interesting choice, takes the three screenplays for the various parts of this movie and puts them into book form.Not overly long, basically like episodes of a tv show.You wouldn't have thought that, would you?Just a garden variety job as far as this one goes, however.

A pretty well written book, but what was the point?
The legendary Robert Bloch penned this adaptation of the four story segments in Twilight Zone: The Movie.The opening and closing bookends are absent though, so it reads more like an anthology of longish short stories than a single narrative. As far as novelizations go this is pretty average stuff.The usual differences between film and novelization are skimpy, the order of the stories is not the same and some of the events in the notorious John Landis episode offer a glimpse at what may have been attempted had Vic Morrow not died during filming.Outside of a few of his trademarked word play zingers Bloch can do little to liven up the below average material he has to work with.So what was the point? I mean this is ROBERT BLOCH, author of Psycho and countless classic stories.Why waste time with this project?It had to have been the money.Bloch addicts may want this only for a complete library of the master's work, others should just stay with the mediocre movie.Can't recommend it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An excellent collection of horror and suspense fiction.
This retrospective volume, a companion to Ballantine's earlier THE BEST OF ROBERT BLOCH (which emphasized Bloch's fantasy fiction and sf), is an excellent introduction to his work in the frightening (and usually gallows-humorous) mode. You see where he (like his colleague Fritz Leiber) picked up the innovations of his mentor H. P. Lovecraft and refined them and took them in his own directions, helping to revolutionize horror in the process (if horror has a single Hammett/Hemingway figure, I nominate Bloch).

Another excellent collection of tales by the master.
The late, great Robert Bloch wrote many a legendary tale, some of which can be found in this anthology from 1979.A skilled blender of suspense and black humor, Bloch perfected the twist, or at times quite twisted, ending.Highly recommended. ... Read more