Backteria: & Other Improbable Tales
Jul 2011 · Rosetta Books
5.0star
1 review
Ebook
266
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About this ebook
An essential collection of rare tales of terror from the multi-award-winning Twilight Zone scripter and I Am Legend author—only available in ebook format.
A researcher encounters an exotic new strain of “Backteria” that causes the infected person to vanish—leading the doctor on a path of discovery deep into a past he should have left buried.
A simple “Haircut” that starts off as a routine trim becomes a dark and terrifying experience when a barber is confronted with a sick customer who seems otherworldly.
A case of mistaken identity leads to a darkly farcical story of marriage, murder, and a love that knows no bounds in “Getting Together.”
Backteria & Other Improbable Tales gathers these and sixteen more uncanny short stories from master storyteller Richard Matheson, “one of the great names in American terror fiction” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
Stories include: “Backteria”, “He Wanted to Live”, “Life Size”, “Man with a Club”, “Professor Fritz and the Runaway House”, “Purge Among Peanuts”, “The Prisoner”, “The Last Blah in the ETC”, “Counterfeit Bills”, “1984 ½”, “Pride”, “Now Die In It”, “Leo Rising”, “Where There’s a Will” (written with Richard Christian Matheson), “Getting Together”, “Person to Person”, “CU: Mannix”, “Haircut”, “An Element Never Forgets”
“The author who influenced me the most as a writer was Richard Matheson.” —Stephen King
“Perhaps no other living author is as responsible for chilling a generation with tantalizing nightmare visions.” —The New York Times
“Matheson’s a writer who just has the special knack, the deft skill to imagine terrifying scenarios on any scale, large and small, and give them chilling possibility.” —Los Angeles Times
A researcher encounters an exotic new strain of “Backteria” that causes the infected person to vanish—leading the doctor on a path of discovery deep into a past he should have left buried.
A simple “Haircut” that starts off as a routine trim becomes a dark and terrifying experience when a barber is confronted with a sick customer who seems otherworldly.
A case of mistaken identity leads to a darkly farcical story of marriage, murder, and a love that knows no bounds in “Getting Together.”
Backteria & Other Improbable Tales gathers these and sixteen more uncanny short stories from master storyteller Richard Matheson, “one of the great names in American terror fiction” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
Stories include: “Backteria”, “He Wanted to Live”, “Life Size”, “Man with a Club”, “Professor Fritz and the Runaway House”, “Purge Among Peanuts”, “The Prisoner”, “The Last Blah in the ETC”, “Counterfeit Bills”, “1984 ½”, “Pride”, “Now Die In It”, “Leo Rising”, “Where There’s a Will” (written with Richard Christian Matheson), “Getting Together”, “Person to Person”, “CU: Mannix”, “Haircut”, “An Element Never Forgets”
“The author who influenced me the most as a writer was Richard Matheson.” —Stephen King
“Perhaps no other living author is as responsible for chilling a generation with tantalizing nightmare visions.” —The New York Times
“Matheson’s a writer who just has the special knack, the deft skill to imagine terrifying scenarios on any scale, large and small, and give them chilling possibility.” —Los Angeles Times
Ratings and reviews
5.0
1 review
About the author
Richard Burton Matheson (born February 20, 1926) is an American author and screenwriter working primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. Between 1950 and 1971, Matheson produced dozens of stories, frequently combining elements from the different genres in which he works, making important contributions to the further development of modern horror. Matheson wrote fourteen episodes for the American television series The Twilight Zone, including the famous "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet." Notably, Steven Spielberg's first full length film (made for television) was based on the story "Duel," for which Matheson also wrote the screenplay.Matheson's first novel, Someone is Bleeding, was published in 1953. His thirty novels since then include The Shrinking Man (filmed as The Incredible Shrinking Man, again adapted from Matheson's own screenplay), and a science fiction/vampire novel, I Am Legend (made into film as The Last Man on Earth, 1964, The Omega Man, 1971, andI Am Legend, 2007).A new film based on Matheson's story "Steel," entitled Real Steel, is a major motion picture that was released in October 2011. His most recent novel, Other Kingdoms, appeared in March 2011.According to film critic Roger Ebert, Matheson's scientific approach to the supernatural in I Am Legend and other novels from the 1950s and '60s anticipated the "pseudorealistic fantasy novels like Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist." In 2010, Matheson was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, and Stephen King has cited Matheson as a creative influence; his novel Cell is dedicated to Matheson along with filmmaker George A. Romero. Author Anne Rice has said that Matheson's short story, "A Dress of White Silk" was a primary early influence on her interest in vampires and fantasy fiction.
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