A collection of 13 short stories by Robert Bloch, © 1962
Grade: B+
Thirteen stories, ranging from macabre, Poe-like tales to 1950s Golden Age SF. My favorite, “Edifice Complex” is a perfect little horrorfest that would be quite at home in a Stephen King collection. Plenty of anachronisms, more charming than distracting, mostly manifested in the mid-century slang spewed by the men and women of the future. Robots like the ones we watched on Lost in Space and Forbidden Planet. An extremely literal race of alien beings. One story featured a conspiracy so paranoid it makes Invasion of the Body Snatchers seem a heart-warming tale about gardening.
I always get the sense reading these types of stories of, say, oh, Humphrey Bogart or Edward G. Robinson mixed in with some type of live-action Jetsons. But I don’t mind that. In fact, it’s enjoyable. It’s pure escapist. Even the stories that are dark and end badly for the protagonists, there’s an inherent innocence about them. None of the jaded hipness so prevalent in modern-day tales. That old roll-up-your-sleeves-and-build-a-rocket-ship-in-your-attic attitude that we had as a nation just a few decades back is woven into every story, as important as nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
But the best part of Bloch’s stories is the M. Night Shyamalan factor. Every work in this collection has a twist ending, a sucker punch that comes in the last paragraph or two. Sometimes you see it coming, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes the payoff gives you goosebumps, sometimes you merely nod and say, “Well done, Mr. Bloch! Well done, sir!” I looked forward to each and every entry in this collection and was a little sad when I finished the last. It’s works like this that make me want to seek out back issues from Astounding Stories and the other great “pulp” magazines from the 40s, 50s, and 60s.
In addition to “Edifice Complex” I also liked “Change of Heart” (a creepy one about an elderly watchmaker and his sickly but beautiful daughter), “Block that Metaphor” (you really, really have to watch what you say and how you say it around some species of aliens), “You Got to Have Brains” (an unappreciated eccentric genius builds a rocket powered by a unique fuel), and “You Could Be Wrong” (you never know who among your closest friends is an automaton).
Mr. Bloch (1917 - 1994), in addition to numerous books and dozens of short stories, also wrote a couple of teleplays for Star Trek: The Original Series. However, he is probably best known as the writer of Psycho, the source material for Hitchcock’s most famous achievement (the rights of which Hitchcock bought via blind bid for $9500). I think I’ll put Psycho, the novel, on the massive To Buy list. It should be very interesting to compare Bloch’s vision to Hitch’s.
Grade: B+
Thirteen stories, ranging from macabre, Poe-like tales to 1950s Golden Age SF. My favorite, “Edifice Complex” is a perfect little horrorfest that would be quite at home in a Stephen King collection. Plenty of anachronisms, more charming than distracting, mostly manifested in the mid-century slang spewed by the men and women of the future. Robots like the ones we watched on Lost in Space and Forbidden Planet. An extremely literal race of alien beings. One story featured a conspiracy so paranoid it makes Invasion of the Body Snatchers seem a heart-warming tale about gardening.
I always get the sense reading these types of stories of, say, oh, Humphrey Bogart or Edward G. Robinson mixed in with some type of live-action Jetsons. But I don’t mind that. In fact, it’s enjoyable. It’s pure escapist. Even the stories that are dark and end badly for the protagonists, there’s an inherent innocence about them. None of the jaded hipness so prevalent in modern-day tales. That old roll-up-your-sleeves-and-build-a-rocket-ship-in-your-attic attitude that we had as a nation just a few decades back is woven into every story, as important as nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
But the best part of Bloch’s stories is the M. Night Shyamalan factor. Every work in this collection has a twist ending, a sucker punch that comes in the last paragraph or two. Sometimes you see it coming, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes the payoff gives you goosebumps, sometimes you merely nod and say, “Well done, Mr. Bloch! Well done, sir!” I looked forward to each and every entry in this collection and was a little sad when I finished the last. It’s works like this that make me want to seek out back issues from Astounding Stories and the other great “pulp” magazines from the 40s, 50s, and 60s.
In addition to “Edifice Complex” I also liked “Change of Heart” (a creepy one about an elderly watchmaker and his sickly but beautiful daughter), “Block that Metaphor” (you really, really have to watch what you say and how you say it around some species of aliens), “You Got to Have Brains” (an unappreciated eccentric genius builds a rocket powered by a unique fuel), and “You Could Be Wrong” (you never know who among your closest friends is an automaton).
Mr. Bloch (1917 - 1994), in addition to numerous books and dozens of short stories, also wrote a couple of teleplays for Star Trek: The Original Series. However, he is probably best known as the writer of Psycho, the source material for Hitchcock’s most famous achievement (the rights of which Hitchcock bought via blind bid for $9500). I think I’ll put Psycho, the novel, on the massive To Buy list. It should be very interesting to compare Bloch’s vision to Hitch’s.
No comments:
Post a Comment