This is a short story collection featuring 6 Robert Bloch tales and 4 by Ray Bradbury. As a sign of how long this has been on my shelves, I bought it for 5p in a second-hand shop. At least it has 5p written on the first page of the book.
Just take a moment to appreciate that cover art. They certainly don't make them like that any more.
It opens with The Shadow from the Steeple - a Bloch story. This is Bloch in full blown copying Lovecraft mode. This story is actually a sequel of sorts to Lovecraft's The Haunter in tthe Dark - this is explicitly referenced in the text, complete with a run down of the plot for those who haven't read it. I'm not 100% certain if this is a pastiche or if it's supposed to be serious. It does blow apart the plot hole at the end of the story it follows from. Our central character goes looking for the survivor of the HPL tale and things don't go amazingly well for him. It opens with a lovely introduction to a taxi driver, which lasts about a page and a half, but then he's never seen again and we're told he was the last person to see his passenger (a mr Fiske) alive, followed by a flashback to the original tale and Fisque's quest to find Dr Dexter and the eventual meeting.It's entertaining but too slavish to HPL and feels very dated indeed.
Next up - The Watchers - Ray Bradbury - A classic story featuring a man convinced that insects are spying on him and out to kill him because he thinks he knows their plan. There is a fairly gruesome twist at the end of this one. This one also wears a HPL influence proudly on its sleeve and also feels dated, though far less so than the preceding story. I don't know how much of an influence this was of Stephen King's Creepshow segment regarding a very similar phobic lead character.
Back to Bloch with The Grinning Ghoul - I might have enjoyed this story more 30 years ago. Another one that feels horribly dated. It hasn't aged well at all, a very predictable story about a psychiatrist whose latest patient's tale of subterrenean beasties turns out to be all too real. there are some nicely creepy sections but the structure of the story is not great and half the story could have been cut. The shock ending is barely worthy of the name.
Sticking with Bloch - Mannikins of Horror - the best of the Bloch stories so far. I think this was the basis for one of the segments in the Amicus portmanteau film Asylum (also written by Bloch so fairly likely) although the Amicus version doesn't have entrly the same plot as this one. An inmate in an asylum has been making incredibly realistic clay models, so realistic they start moving. This is good, gruesome and fairly original. Some of the imagery is still stuck in my head 4 days after reading it, always a good sign.
The title story, Fever Dream by Bradbury. This has long been one of my favourite Ray Bradbury stories. As many times as I've read it, the sense of creeping nightmare never fails. This is a possession tale like no other. A sick boy lying in bed feels bits of him suddenly stop belonging to himself. This one sends shivers down my spine every time. As long as it's still my spine, I suppose I should be happy. The ending is well nigh perfect.
The Druidic Doom - Bloch again on another slavish HPL impersonation. This starts by telling us our central character - the unlikelily named Sir Charles Hovoco, new owner of the Nedwick estates - is going to die and then spends many many pages giving us the back story for the new landowner's land, and in particular about the old altar he finds on one of his walks before finishing him off. In 20 pages, Sir Charles, our alleged lead character appears on maybe 5, mostly in the early part of the story, just to ask about a part of his land. Again, not a great story,
The Dead Man - Ray Bradbury - I'm sure I must have read this one before (I have literally every Ray Bradbury collection available except for Dark carnival), but I couldn't remember it at all. This is a quirky little gem of a story. I'm still not entirely convinced that farmers in small town America go to see a manicurist at their local barber shop, but it may have been a tradition at some point, I don't know. That minor point apart, this story of Odd Martin who believes he's dead and takes to lying in the street for hours on end is beautifully done. We get very little from his point of view, the vast majority of this story is through the eyes of the townspeople watching him and his odd behaviour and his unlikely finding of love. In just 21 pages Bradbury manages to paint the town and several of it's people in loving detail, and provides a hell of a good ending too, creepy and moving all at the same time.
A Question of Etiquette - Bloch - the new best Bloch story in the collection. This one has barely dated. A census taker knocks on the door of the latest house on his rounds and meets a captivating stranger who - erm - takes him captive through witchcraftery means and takes him to a meeting with the devil. This is so well done, it restored my faith in Bloch as a writer. Told in crisp prose, free of the HPL type embelishmets, this story twists and turns its way through to the ending it deserves.
The Handler - Bradbury - One of Bradury's more gruesome horror stories. A mortician likes to take his revenge on the inhabitants of his town after their deaths. Lucky for him there are very few open casket burials in his hown.Unluckily for him, revenge can come from any source in a Bradbury story. I seem to recall reading somewhere that Bradbury disowned some of his early work for being too unpleasant, and this was one of those. However it's another old favourite of mine with delightful poetic justice dished out to pretty much anyone alive or dead in the story.
The Man who Cried Wolf! - Bloch - A man decides to convince his wife she's mad with the assistance of a local lady werewolf. A fine story to end on, even though there is an irritating plot hole in the final couple of pages.
Overall this is a very good collection indeed. If you're a fan of Lovecraft imitations, you will probably get more mileage from a few of the Bloch tales than I did.
I have the exact same edition, and I've had it just as long as you! For many years, it was the only place you could hope to read "The Watchers". It was, at last, collected in BRADBURY STORIES in 2003, which is now probably the easiest place to find it.
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