The Mammoth Book of Monsters (Mammoth Books) [Paperback]

"The Mammoth Book of Monsters" is a satisfying collection of monsterrific tales of various types. Not every one is a hit, but if you buy this book you will undoubtedly find a few that tickle your fancy. I may as well tell you what my favourites - and least favourites - were.

I particularly enjoyed three stories, which also happened to be some of the longer ones in the collection. The first is THE HILL by Tanith Lee. The language this story is written in is bizarrely old-fashioned given it isn't THAT old, but it is genuinely disquieting and original. The second story I liked was THE FLABBY MEN by Basil Copper. This is a slightly sci-fi story about parasitic blob monsters on a government research island. And the third story, which was probably the best in the collection, was Clive Barker's RAWHEAD REX. Rawhead is an original monster, and this story devotes a good deal of time to his point of view, which was interesting, and it reads quite like a mini-novel, so complete is the story Barker concocts. This story is what this collection is all about.

Other stories which intrigued and entertained me, but not so much as those listed above, were DOWN THERE by Ramsey Campbell (takes a while to get going, but suitably horrific by the end), THE HORROR FROM THE MOUND by Robert E. Howard (a vampire tale from the 1930s which reads surprisingly modern today), THE THIN PEOPLE by Brian Lumley (a weird, largely goreless and non-violent tale, but fun nevertheless), OUR LADY OF THE SAUROPODS by Robert Silverberg (bio-engineered dinosaurs...inspiration for "Jurassic Park", perhaps?)and SOMEONE ELSE'S PROBLEM by Michael Marshall Smith (in which a man sees - or thinks he sees - monkey-like monsters on a train; has a bit of the feel of the classic Twilight Zone episode starring William Shatner on the plane to it). All of these contain fun takes on monsters, although only the first two could be truly said to be horror stories.

As for ones to avoid: don't bother with VISITATION by David J. Schow. It has a reasonable premise - that of a certain hotel which acts as an inter-dimensional gateway for various nasty creatures - but it overwhelms the plot with tons of spiritualist mumbo-jumbo that turned me right off. Also steer clear of Scott Edelman's THE MAN HE HAD BEEN BEFORE; it markets itself as an apocalyptic zombie story, but is really just a story about a kid with a mean daddy. I'm not averse to having character drama and human monsters in stories, but in this case the zombies might as well not have been there, rendering it largely pointless in this collection.

Any other stories that I have not mentioned here (there are eleven others) are ones that simply made no impression on me at all. You may enjoy them; you may not, but I think my above lists of the ones that I enjoyed are sufficient to allow you to decide whether this collection is your cup of tea or not.

This is a mixed bag, some great tales, some novellas or short books virtually reproduced (Rawhead Rex) and all the authors featured are either well enough known for horror writing or are likely to be of interest to anyone enjoying that style of writing.

I suspect that my favourite stories where the two which where adapted to film, Clive Barker's Rawhead Rex and The Shadmock, although the film story adaptation (by Amicus films, The Monster Club) was not the same as the story itself. These both introduced new creatures which where unmistakeably monsterous, Barker's a child eating giant, The Shadmock a descendent of interbreeding between vampires, werewolves and ghouls.

There are other tales which prove memorable and amusing but which are shorter or even humourous, such as Godzilla's 22 Step programme, which involves monsters attempting to overcome their addiction to trashing entire cities. Downmarket is a pretty formulaic tale of human sacrifice, a little reminiscent of a snap shot from The Wicker Man, only featuring a monster as opposed to a bunch of mad yokels. It was a quick tale but one of the best.

There are some rotten tomatoes, including tales by popular writers such as Brian Lumnley or Robert Silverberg, really the story of the blob in the basement in Down There seemed like free wheeling and Silverberg's queen of the dinos tale was silly compared with the good work he has produced.

The book has a good introduction and each chapter and story begins with an introduction to the writer and their writing, sometimes with some note about the story itself. This permits some anticipation of the style, pace and content of each tale which is helpful. I would recommend this book to fans of the mammoth books series or monster stories. The cover art is good because it provides a clue that this book does contain some scary stories, I wouldnt recommend it for younger or adolescent readers. That said there are no adult themes of a sexual nature. General readers could enjoy it too because of the variety of tales.

This is a great collection if you're looking for stories about monsters that aren't among the "classics". Not all of the stories are great, but there are some really good ones in there. One of the better Mammoth book of books.