999: Twenty-nine Original Tales of Horror and Suspense

The horror genre is by far my favorite. The bookshelves in my home are overflowing with horror, thriller and suspense novels. And anthologies.This one has easily taken the place of my favorite horror anthology.There's something here for everyone: vampires, zombies, haunted houses, ghosts, time rifts and perhaps the scariest of all - the evil humans are capable of.There's only a few here I didn't care for: 'Growing Things', 'Des Saucisses, Sans Doute' and 'The Theater'. The latter disappointed me most I think because I am a huge fan of Bentley Little and his short story was just up to par with his usual writings, in my opinion.However, considering there are 29 stories in this anthology, and I only was disappointed with three of them, and that they were all pretty short, speaks volumes for this book.'Good Friday' is an excellent, scary vampire tale. 'Hemophage' was also a great vampire story. I just wish it had been longer.The longer stories are real gems. 'The Ruins of Contracoeur', 'Rio Grande Gothic' and 'Mad Dog Summer' are just suberb.In my opinion, Sarrantonio saves the best for last. William Peter Blatty's 'Elsewhere'. This is simply a wonderful, good old story of a hanuted house and the ghosts that do the haunting.If you love horror and short horror stories, then this anthology is a must have addition to your library.

You certainly can't say that you don't get your money's worth out of 999: New Stories of Horror and Suspense, a horror anthology edited by Al Sarrantonio and released in 1999. With twenty-nine different stories, ranging in length from quick bites to a full short novel, 999 sets out to give a sense of the range of writing you can find in modern horror writing. Like any anthology, it's a mixed bag, with a few knockouts and a few duds; for all of that, though, it's a great survey of the genre, even if some of it feels familiar if, like me, you're catching up with it a couple of decades down the road.Really, that familiarity is a big problem, though, because a lot of 999's best stories are ones that I'd already read in other places. Stephen King's "The Road Virus Heads North" has since been anthologized in Everything's Eventual, for example; that doesn't mean it's not a solid story - indeed, I love the effectiveness of it, telling a horror tale with a painting that changes each time it's looked at - but there's not the thrill of finding something new. The same applies to Joe R. Lansdale's "Mad Dog Summer," a novella about a small Southern town during the Depression and a series of horrific murderers. Again, it's a phenomenal story, but it's one I've read since then, which robs 999 of some of the thrill you get when an anthology gives you something truly great.There are still some treats to be found here, though. I loved the opening story, Kim Newman's "Amerikanski Dead at the Moscow Morgue," a zombie story set against the backdrop of communist Russia; it's dryly funny, turns the setting into the theme of the story, and even gives a couple of genuinely great images and scares. Chet Williamson's "Excerpts from the Records of the New Zodiac and the Diaries of Henry Watson Fairfax" is part horror story, part gloriously dark satire about wealth and power, all told through a mundane series of meeting minutes. For those who love their horror a bit more in the vein of The Twilight Zone, Thomas F. Monteleone's "Rehearsals" is a treat, as a young man enters a theater only to see scenes from his own life unfolding on the stage, and then...well, you should read to find out.There are more solid entries - typically grotesque tales from Edward Lee and Bentley Little, a solid thriller from David Morrell - but you still can't help but feel the sheer length of 999 by the end of its 666 pages (yes, really). That it ends with a short novel by William Peter Blatty, he of the turgid, lifeless prose that gave us The Exorcist, doesn't help things; of all the authors we had to get a long piece from, it's Blatty, whose ghost story here feels dashed off and overwrought, relying on a hoary old chestnut we've heard over and over again? Add some other weaknesses - Steven Spruill's story which only serves as an advertisement for his own series, is probably the worst offender - and a lot that are basically fine but little more, and 999 ends up feeling weaker than it should. You get a lot of stories for your money here, and most of them are good, but in the end, you can't help but think you'd settle for a bit less and have been just as happy, especially if we cut some of the deadweight (see you, Blatty). Still, if you're looking for a horror anthology, you could do far worse, and the highlights are definitely worth the time.

I enjoyed the stories for the most part. The Kindle version needs some serious editing. Tons of typos. The collection is enjoyable though. while the author believes he has collected the most literary examples of the horror genre I found one or two of these tales over blown in their style. That aside, many stories are wonderful. If you can handle the typos, this one is worth reading.

LOVED this '999: 29 Original Tales...' anthology. I've read a bunch of terrible reviews saying the downloadable version was loaded with typos, but the printed version didn't have more than a few that I recall (and I'm the kind of annoying person who can be pulled right out of a story by a spelling or punctuation error I perceive). There were some REALLY fine stories in this book. There were some okay stories, and some meh stories, but none of them were what I'd call poorly written. Some weird stories, some disturbing toward unpalatable stories, some stories that had me scratching my head about seeing them in a HORROR anthology, but all in all, well worth the bucks I spent. I ate it up in 3 days, and was disappointed when I reached the end.Thanks for reading. Enjoy the book! 10/6/17

Enjoyed all the stories, some more than others. The downside is the many typos or perhaps spellcheck errors. It’s not as bad as some e-books, but these errors really stand out in a collection as otherwise great as this one, which features some of the best writers out there. Seems almost disrespectful to the authors and these high quality stories themselves not to do a better job of proofreading. I downgraded to 4 stars only because of the poor proofreading.

I have read quite a lot of short 'horror' fiction mostly in anthologies and have always enjoyed them but reading this particular anthology reminded me how much depends on the editor and theme of the anthology. I have enjoyed most the various 'Best Of' anthologies of Stephen Jones and his dedication to finding the best literary works in any particular year sets a standard that is hard for others to match. Particularly when they are tied to such transient themes as the millennium. It may work for marketing but is not the basis for longevity. Millennium themed books are today like all those books that have been and are still being produced around the COVID outbreak, curiosities where they are not ridiculous.So I am prejudiced, the theme for this anthology is no longer relevant, the stories most closely associating themselves with it are the ones that bore me most. I have been spoiled by the anthologies of Stephen Jones which always offered up work consistently interesting beyond the 'horror' theme. The stories in this anthology are not all bad, some like Neil Gaiman's are superb but this is the only one I can say that about. Stephen King's story is bad enough that it made me wonder how I ever read anything by him. Many of the others are OK but at least one story stands out in a very bad way - Thomas F. Monteleone's 'Rehearsals' - is a reminder of how incredibly homophobic the Horror genre was until very recently. The story is not directly homophobic, it is not badly written, but it is clearly a story dealing with a son's incipient 'gayness' poisoning his relationship with his father, except that nowhere in the story is that made explicitly clear, it is there but can be ignored if the reader doesn't want any 'queer' stuff. It can be read as a father/son conflict story - obviously not all father/son conflicts arise out of the sons potential gayness. But this story was one about gayness, or at least could be, but back in 1999 it couldn't be said in a way that couldn't be denied. This internalised homophobia goes through horror/fantasy/sf genres and it is rather repellent to see how blatant it was at the turn of the millennium.

Ich schreibe nur in zwei Fällen Rezensionen, entweder wenn ich begeistert bin oder enttäuscht.Aufgrund des einen Sternes kann man sich denken, dass hier zweiteres zutrifft. Das Buch enthält zahlreiche (nicht gerade 999, aber gefühlt schon) Geschichten von Autoren die man kennt (Stephen King, David Morrell) oder, lt. Autor, kennen müßte (alleine wegen der vielen Ehrungen und Preise die jeder einzelne Schreiberling erhalten haben soll). Geschmäcker sind ja verschieden,meiner sagt mir, daß sich es bis auf die beiden Geschichten von King/Morrell eher nicht lohnt, das Buch zu lesen oder es gar zu kaufen. Dumm ist nur daß ich die Geschichte von King auch schon kannte weil sie in einer anderen Sammlung auftauchte. Nun ja, die Story von Morrell fand ich gut, ich kannte sie noch nicht und daher rührt der eine Stern. Schade, daß man e-books nicht gebraucht verkaufen kann....