One can’t take issue with the title HE IS LEGEND: AN ANTHOLOGY CELEBRATING RICHARD MATHESON, because it’s true: Richard Matheson is a legend. It’s amazing the sheer amount of his fiction that exists in the public consciousness: tales of shrinking men and fetish dolls, haunted houses and post-apocalyptic vampires.
In this Gauntlet Press collection edited by Christopher Conlon, several noted horror authors show their appreciation by presenting all-new stories that serve as prequels or sequels to — or are simply inspired by — Matheson’s many influential works.
The book is likely to get noticed first and foremost because of the tale that runs first (yet isn’t among the very best): the premier collaboration between Stephen King and son Joe Hill. Their “Throttle” kneels at the altar of “Duel,” with motorcyclists pursued by a nut in a semi truck they can’t see, save for an arm tattoo reading “Death Before Dishonor.” This meth-and-machetes story is a grisly one, with downed riders described in bone-crunching detail.
Before such carnage, though, King and Hill get off a darkly comic bit in which one of the riders describes why getting “his nuts clipped” wasn’t such a bad thing: “What sold me on it was when I saw that I’d only ever have to pay for one vasectomy … which is not something you can say about abortion. There’s theoretically no limit there. None. Every jizzwad is a potential budget buster. You don’t recognize that until you’ve had to pay for a couple of scrapes and begin to think there might be a better use for your money. Also, relationships aren’t ever the same after you’ve had to flush Junior down the toilet.”
In “Recalled,” F. Paul Wilson cleverly chronicles the machinations of a man scheming to turn his new neighbors against one another, by doing everything from planting gay porn mags in one’s shed to burning racial epithets in the yard of another. It’s a sequel to Matheson’s “The Distributor,” which I’ve never read, and luckily, that’s not a problem with this or any of the others; no advance knowledge is required.
Mick Garris’ I AM LEGEND prequel, “I Am Legend, Too,” didn’t do much for me, except paint Robert Neville as an unlikable character. Similar suburban unrest and marital discord lies in Thomas F. Monteleone’s THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN-inspired “The Diary of Louise Carey,” which reveals how little the title character’s wife cared about her increasingly diminutive husband’s unique predicament.
Gary A. Braunbeck does the near-impossible by crafting a sequel out of “Button, Button,” in “Everything of Beauty Taken from You in Life Remains Forever.” It probably succeeds because he keeps it so short. Establish concept, twist ending, get out.
Taking a cue from “Disappearing Act,” Gauntlet publisher Barry Hoffman explores what would happen to a photojournalist when no one — not the security guard at work, not a sexual conquest of the past, not even his own parents — recognizes him anymore. Joe R. Lansdale revisits the infamous Zuni fetish doll of “Prey” in “Quarry”; it’s not much different from its source, but Lansdale injects it with a slight outlawish nature.
The longest new story belongs to Nancy A. Collins, who dares “Return to Hell House” in a prequel to HELL HOUSE. Here, 15-year-old psychic medium Benjamin Fischer accompanies a research team to the sprawling mansion for the first time, and witnesses unspeakable horrors wrought with perverse sexuality. It’s bound to offend more fragile readers, and it turned out to be my favorite among all the contents.
Other authors within include Ramsey Campbell (who provides the introduction), John Shirley, William F. Nolan, Ed Gorman, Whitley Streiber and Matheson’s son, Richard Christian Matheson, whose “Venturi,” I’m afraid, didn’t make much sense to me. The man of the hour is represented by CONJURE WIFE, a screenplay based on Fritz Leiber’s novel that Matheson wrote with TWILIGHT ZONE scribe Charles Beaumont, eventually rewritten and filmed as the unmemorable BURN WITCH BURN. I’m not a fan of reading screenplays, but its inclusion here sweetens an already plentiful pot. —Rod Lott
Buy it at Amazon or Gauntlet Press.
“She could plainly see a naked man and woman on the bed. The woman was on her belly with her hindquarters raised, her face buried in a pillow. The man was on his knees behind her, pounding away with the finesse of a jackhammer. From the violence of his strokes, the woman’s partner seemed more interested in using his penis as an instrument of punishment than pleasure, even his own.”
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• BLOOD LINES: RICHARD MATHESON’S DRACULA, I AM LEGEND, AND OTHER VAMPIRE STORIES by Richard Matheson
• BUTTON, BUTTON: UNCANNY STORIES by Richard Matheson
• I AM LEGEND by Richard Matheson
• MATHESON UNCOLLECTED: VOLUME ONE by Richard Matheson
• THE RICHARD MATHESON COMPANION edited by Stanley Wiater, Matthew R. Bradley and Paul Stuve
• RICHARD MATHESON’S THE TWILIGHT ZONE SCRIPTS: VOLUME TWO edited by Stanley Wiater
• WOMAN by Richard Matheson
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
You should go ahead and read The Distributor–you’ll never forget it.
This sounds like a great collection. Thanks for the heads up. I just heard Matheson is going to be a Guest of Honor at the Stokers in L.A. this summer. I wonder what he thinks of the stories.