McSweeny's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales (Unabridged Selections)

By: Michael Chabon, Stephen King

Narrated by: Kevin Gray

A Vintage Contemporaries original

Includes:

Jim Shepard's "Tedford and the Megalodon"

Glen David Gold's "The Tears of Squonk, and What Happened Thereafter"

Dan Chaon's "The Bees"

Kelly Link's "Catskin"

Elmore Leonard's "How Carlos Webster Changed His Name to Carl and Became a Famous Oklahoma Lawman"

Carol Emshwiller's "The General"

Neil Gaiman's "Closing Time"

Nick Hornby's "Otherwise Pandemonium"

Stephen King's "The Tale of Gray Dick"

Michael Crichton's "Blood Doesn’t Come Out"

Laurie King's "Weaving the Dark"

Chris Offutt's "Chuck’s Bucket"

Dave Eggers's "Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly"

Michael Moorcock's "The Case of the Nazi Canary"

Aimee Bender's "The Case of the Salt and Pepper Shakers"

Harlan Ellison's "Goodbye to All That"

Karen Joy Fowler's "Private Grave 9"

Rick Moody's "The Albertine Notes"

Michael Chabon's "The Martian Agent, a Planetary Romance"

Sherman Alexie's "Ghost Dance"

©2002 by McSweeney's Publishing; 2003
(P)2003 by Random House, Inc.

Read Carefully

Please note that this is "unabridged SELECTIONS," not an unabridged book. Of the 8 stories in here, only 2 were excellent. 4 were okay, and 2 of the stories were incomprehensible or pointless. I'm disappointed in this audiobook.

Skip This Book

Not a very good collection of stories. Nick Hornsby writes wonderfully, but his plot is weak and derivative. Dave Eggers is the most over-rated writer of his generation. Elmore Leonard's story is well-written. Michael Crichton's story is pointless. It's good to fall asleep to, however. The reader performs the stories in a hushed and sleep-inducing fashion. The title is supposed to make anxiously hip readers feel ironically ok with reading despised genre tales. Poor tragically hip folks. Skip this book and purchase the audible recordings of Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine available on this site. The writing is infinitely better.

M2T3=Great Entertainment

Each time I have downloaded a collection of short stories from audible, I have not been disappointed. Nor was I surprised to find these unabridged selections from <U>McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales</U> to be very entertaining.

I purchased this selection based primarily on the fact that it contained a short story (short excerpt) by Stephen King from his forthcoming novel <U><B>The Dark Tower V:</B>The Wolves of the Calla</U> due out in November,(hopefully, please, available on audible.) This was okay but, based on the fact that is an excerpt from 7 part series, it is actually probably the weakest story in the collection. (Begging again, the first four volumes of <U><B>The Dark Tower</B></U> are due to be rereleased on audio at the end of June. I hope that audible can get them...)

All of the stories are really good but I especially liked Nick Hornby's "Otherwise Pandemonium" and Elmore Leonard's "How Carlos Webster Changed His Name to Carl and Became a Famous Oklahoma Lawman." I also very much enjoyed Dave Egger's "Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly, which contains probably the best narrative description of altitude induced psychosis (temporary) that I will ever hear.

Every story here, from Michael Crichton's very short and quite disturbing "Blood Doesn't Come Out" to Rick Moody's dark New York future in "The Albertine Notes", has something to offer any listener. Short stories and audio books are a perfect match and this collection is highly recommended by this reviewer.

Disappointing

While there are some very good stories in this collection, they are unfortunately outweighed by the remaining stories.Perhaps the stories which were not included are better. I also enjoyed Mr. Leonard's and Mr. Hornby's stories. The rest were simply forgettable.

Strange but Entertaining

Would you listen to McSweeny's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales (Unabridged Selections) again? Why?

Once is fine. The mystery wouldn't be there the second time around.

What was one of the most memorable moments of McSweeny's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales (Unabridged Selections)?

Surprise endings.

Which scene was your favorite?

Can't choose only one.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

No

Any additional comments?

Great for listening while walking. Short story collections make a good

booring!!!

There are only about 5 stories and three are so long winded that I ended up skipping parts because they were sooooo boring.

Couldn't finish

I found myself forwarding from one story to the next, hoping maybe there was a good one somewhere. I never found it. I think I only listened to two stories through to the end, and neither one of them left me feeling like I hadn't wasted my time. One of them had a nice idea about a drug that let you relive your memories, but it kinda floundered by end and ventured into the realm of nonsense. Maybe it wasn't nonsense, but the idea wasn't clarified enough by the author to be seen as anything else.

In other words, don't get this book. I'd give it zero stars if I could. I'm just glad I got it for free with my introductory membership. I feel kinda bad for the people who actually used a credit to get it or, worse yet, paid money!