Reviews

The Best of Richard Matheson by Richard Matheson

rancidslopshop's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

heathersbike's review

5.0

These were quite good. I should read some of his longer works.

lucdiamant's review

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

wetigers's review

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

4.0

megansss's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

jamesball's review

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated

3.0

lapingveno's review

4.0

Not bad, but a few of the stories didn't quite resonate with me on a "Best of" frequency.

baruchbarnes's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

parodyerror's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

macheath's review

dark tense fast-paced

4.0

A pretty extensive selection edited by Victor LaValle. Some stories were rereads for me ("Prey," "Duel" and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"), some were first reads. Matheson was a master of the type of fiction published in the genre magazines in the 1950s and 1960s, with all the positives and negatives that mastery implies: he was a slicker read than Bradbury, for example, but was less fanciful or poetic. When Matheson tries to do Bradbury-style sentimentality and nostalgia he falls flat; he's much better when he's barreling toward a nasty shock ending. A few of Matheson's stories verge on the experimental, and those were the ones I thought most highly of ("Born of Man and Woman" and "Dance of the Dead," for example). There were a few too many EC Comics-style "surprise vampire" stories for my taste. Worth reading if you're familiar with Matheson's novels or the stories he adapted for The Twilight Zone.