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The Terror and Other Stories: Vol. 3 of The Best Weird Tales of Arthur Machen (Call of Cthulhu Fiction) | 
| Author: S. T. Joshi (Editor) Arthur Machen
Publisher: Chaosium Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
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Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 377118
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Pages: 328
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.7
ISBN: 1568821751
EAN: 9781568821757
ASIN: 1568821751
Publication Date: April 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 A mixed bag of Welsh weird tales January 17, 2008
The Northern Light (Europa, Close to Ultima Thule)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is the third and final book in the Chaosium trilogy consisting of material from the early 1900's Welsh author, Arthur Machen. H. P. Lovecraft was a huge fan of a lot of his work, and this is a book put together in large part by S. T. Joshi, author of the prizewinning Lovecraft-biography. Whereas the two previous books were mostly larger tales or a few big ones with an addition of miscellaneous material, this is mostly miscellaneous material. Even though Joshi in his introduction mentions several pieces of unenclosed material as read worthy, he has still added an unabridged edition of the tale "The Terror", hence the title. This seems like a very strange choice to me; why not just include the other material referred to, instead of adding the same tale that came in the previous book, if in a slightly different version? A strange choice. The tale is fine until the end, when the badly chosen ending comes, which really ruins an otherwise fine tale.
The other tales included that I enjoyed were for example "The Lost Club", about a secret club for the rich elite in London, where each time one of the members is chosen to disappear from this earth. Quite original and creepy. "Johnny Double", a fine and amusing tale about an evil doppelganger wrecking someone's life without his knowledge. Don't you suspect you may have had someone like that too, after a night on town? I sure have, since someone looking exactly like me occasionally in my youth was rumoured to be quite the idiot after a G&T too many, but it couldn't have been me, so... ;-)
There's "Change", a great tale about the ancient European phenomenon of the "Changeling", something I in all honesty tend to not disregard at all in real life, but which would explain a thing or two sometimes. Another tale that I loved is "Out of the Picture", a tale very much in relation to Lovecraft's famous "Pickman's Model". Wonderful!
Apart from this the rest of the tales are a very varying mix of tales, some simply bad, some mediocre and some very much read worthy without having that tiny extra. I still highly recommend this book, since the good ones are tales you simply have to read if you like the genre.
Third in Chaosium's series on Arthur Machen March 11, 2006
Alexander Scott (Birmingham, AL)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
When I first read THE TERROR & OTHER TALES, I was under the impression from ST Joshi's introduction that he thought Arthur Machen's remaining works (the ones printed in this volume) were of poor quality. I spent the rest of the book determined to prove him wrong. Although I like Joshi as an editor (much better than Robert Price and his higher-criticism hangups), I think that academics sometimes become too focused on purity of form and lose sight of otherwise good writing. I personally like all of Arthur Machen's writing, both the cosmic horror and the everyday gone wrong. I was pleased to see, however, than when I reread the introduction I found that Joshi now agreed with me :)
Chaosium has previously produced 2 novels of Arthur Machen's fiction: THE THREE IMPOSTERS AND OTHER STORIES (which primarily contains "The Great God Pan" and the title story "The Three Imposters", which is actually a series of short stories) and THE WHITE PEOPLE AND OTHER STORIES (which contains "The White People" which heavily influenced HPL, "Ornaments in Jade", and "A Fragment of Life"). THE TERROR is the third (and presumably last) of the Arthur Machen line; I would call it a grab bag of anything remaining of Machen's work that is fit to print.
Machen's story "The Terror" is the title piece for this collection, and oddly it was the story I liked the least. It's about the animal kingdom turning on humanity during WW I, but the government is doing a coverup. Frankly it is somewhat slow and dry, and Machen seemed to be making a point rather than telling a story. Interestingly, at the end of "The Terror", the investigators find a farmhouse where some people took refuge from the "Terror" and read their diary - I was struck by the similarity to zombie movies (!) of all things, and I now wonder if George Romero had this story in mind when scripting "Night of the Living Dead"? Stranger things have happened...
The rest of the collected stories seem to me to be quieter, more prosaic stories where something has gone weird and it may be beyond the power of anyone to fix. Sometimes Machen will insert himself into the story as an ordinary journalist, a man interested in the story but with little power to affect the outcome. In style and substance, the remainder reminds me of MR James, which is high praise indeed.
Some of the better stories here are "The Lost Club" (which is distinctly eerie in finding the secret group of wealthy and famous, where at each gathering one member disappears), "The Dover Road" (which is sort of a ghost story but involves something more like spiritualism), and "Change" (where the children encounter something like "the White People" of Machen's earlier work). Some, like "The Islington Mystery", "Out of the Picture", and "The Bright Boy" are about criminals and their misdeeds, but there is some supernatural element that twists the whole thing into some horrible aspect. I can defintiely see hints and phrases that HPL would pick up on and use in some of his work; also, the two were writing at the same time towards the end of Machen's life, so perhaps there was a common style of the times for them to use.
I can highly recommend this anthology as being worth collecting.
 Superfluous October 17, 2005
Tord Nygjelten (Norway)
4 out of 9 found this review helpful
S.T. Joshi concludes in his introduction to Chaosium second volume of the Best Weird Tales of Arthur Machen: "All that one need read of Arthur Machen in the weird vein are contained in these two Chaosium volumes of his tales..." As always Joshi is quite correct, so it begs the question why he found this third volume necessary at all. The stories included here are only a pale shadow of Machen at his best (e.g. The Three Impostors or the fabulous "A Fragment of Life"), and is only interesting for the sake of completeness. Greatly disappointing.
Machen, An Incomparable Mystic June 21, 2005
G. Vehar (Aurora, CO United States)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
Arthur Machen is, of course, one of the preminent weird fiction writers of the early 20th century. Working at the same time as the Decadents, but most decidedly not one of them, his works would influence such writers as Lovecraft and his circle, as well as modern masters like Peter Straub.
The Terror is Chaosium's third volume of Arthur Machen's work, and as can be expected the best stories can be found in the previous two volumes. Editor S.T. Joshi admits as much in his introduction, but The Terror is still a worthy read.
"The Terror" is the same story featured in The White People, however this is the compete version, and the additions are most welcome. Most of the other stories do not reach such heights of sustained suspense as this story, the largest of the collection. "The Lost Club" deals with two men stumbling on a gentlemen's club that may be far more ominous than they first believe. "Munitions of War" is tale of ghosts and war. "The Islington Mystery" asks if a man can be a murderer if there's no body. "Johnny Double" concerns a boy who cannot possibly be in two places at once... but is. "The Cosy Room" also deals with a murder, but is it his guilt or the chase that drives him over the edge? "Opening the Door" deals with a man who literally disappears through a mysterious door in his garden. "The Children of The Pool" deals with a malignant genius loci that gives literal birth to the monstrous beings lurking within unwary visitors. "The Bright Boy" is an implausible story concerning a little boy who is not what he seems. In "Out Of The Picture," the subject of an artist's paintings menaces London. "Change" harkens back to Machen's early work concering the Little People; while on vacation in a sleepy Welsh town a family finds out just why the locals keep their lights on at night. "The Dover Road" deals with the mystery of a man who disappears within a haunted house... "Ritual," the final story, continues Machen's fascinations with children and pagan remnants of the dim past.
On the whole, these stories do not match Machen's earlier works... but at times the chills are just as sharp as they used to be... witness the first half of "The Dover Road," "Change" and "The Terror." If you like Arthur Machen's work you are well advised to read this book. If you're merely a fan of Lovecraft's predecessors or of Victorian/Edwardian fiction in general, try the previous Chaosium Machen collections first.
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