CAPTAIN STEEL and Other Stories

Steel and Other Stories

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Even if only two of the stories are Harrington-related, LOL. I love the strategy, politics, and economic issues involved in this short. Very well thought out. This story finds President Mike Steams realizing that the U. And he is doing this off his own initiative and against orders…eek…! Originally published in the anthology, Alternate Generals. This was later expanded into The Excalibur Option of which there only appears to be a French version.

Specifically written to go with a reissue of Oath of Swords War Gods, 1.

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Oh, god, it was so amazing with its combination of exile, home, love, friendship, and honor. The title is from a poem by Robert Frost, and just thinking about this story is making me cry again. To ask other readers questions about Steel , please sign up. Lists with This Book. Nov 22, Dan Schwent rated it liked it Shelves: And Other Stories is a collection of Richard Matheson tales. Not long ago, I read The Best of Richard Matheson and experienced the great man's stories for the first time in a decade or more.

My whistle had been wetted so I picked this one up at the used bookstore a few days later. First off, there was very little overlap between the two collections, only two or three stories. When most of Matheson's iconic tal Steel: When most of Matheson's iconic tales were in the other collection, I should have expected as much.

The stories in Steel are a mixed bag in tone, subject matter, and quality. Steel was good but not great. The Splendid Source felt like a Monty Python sketch and was one of my favorite stories in the book. There are some thought-provoking stories, like The Traveler or Lemmings. Present in many of them, however, are Richard Matheson's twist endings.

The man really loved his bite-you-in-the-ass endings, didn't he? And Other Stories was a nice way to spend a few hours but it is in no way an essential Richard Matheson read. Three out of five stars. A free download from my local library by Black Stone Audio. Narrated by Scott Brick.

The Queen of Spades and Other Stories by Alexander Pushkin | www.farmersmarketmusic.com: Books

Steel was good, but the book descriptions tout that this is what the movie with Hugh Jackman in it was based on. Pretty much perfect justice. Matheson's got a mean side, no doubt. The wedding just goes to show there's nothing to A free download from my local library by Black Stone Audio. The wedding just goes to show there's nothing to all the superstitions surrounding the institution or is there? I repeat, Matheson has a mean side.

The Captain’s Daughter and Other Stories

I wonder how often it really happens that way. Two girls' diaries years apart. Only the year has changed. Descent just how much change can men take?

Which choice would you have made? This story asks a very hard question. The doll that does everything there really are people like this out there. If you have kids, this is truly horrible. The Traveler I've read a lot of time travel stories, but few have ever made several points so well.

I don't think this was a Twilight Zone, but should have been. Just how far can ego take a man? Worse, it was believable. The splendid source I read an SF story, also done in the 50's I believe, about where jokes came from. I wondered if anyone could top it. Matheson gave it a good run. Interesting, although I don't really agree with his basic interpretation of what jokes are for or do in this story.

Not really sure to make of it. Felt in some ways like a haunting fragment. I'm still thinking about it. The edge was a nightmare for a man. Was this ever a Twilight Zone? Maybe part of one?

A visit to Santa Claus is another nightmare of a man's own making. It went on a bit long building the tension, but never stopped. My mind kept writing the story after Matheson was done. Morton's folly is fun. Matheson never comes right out and tells us who or what the man with the bad tooth is. That's left to our imagination, although it is fairly obvious.

One of the things I always liked about Matheson was his brevity. I'm sorry he seems to have lost it. Overall, this was a pretty good listen. There are a couple of 5 star stories, so I rounded this up from a 3. Only a couple of stories were misses. Nov 02, Michael rated it liked it Shelves: As I've said in multiple reviews centering on the works of Richard Matheson, the best news in all the recent Hollywood adaptations of his work is that much of the Matheson catalog is coming back into print, allowing readers to discover that Matheson is much, much more that the guy who wrote, "I Am Legend.

That fact alone made me want to see the movie more than any of As I've said in multiple reviews centering on the works of Richard Matheson, the best news in all the recent Hollywood adaptations of his work is that much of the Matheson catalog is coming back into print, allowing readers to discover that Matheson is much, much more that the guy who wrote, "I Am Legend.

That fact alone made me want to see the movie more than any of the previews I'd seen for the film or the buzz I'd heard surrounding the film. How much or how little of the original short story remains in the movie remains to be seen. But it should be interesting to see when I finally get around to seeing it most likely when it hits DVD. The good thing with a short story collection is that if you don't love one story, there's always another one coming up soon that may be more appealing.

As a collection, "Steel" is far more hit and miss than the other Matheson collections I've read, but there are still a few gems in here. The title story is fairly well done, though it's not quite up the standards of other more solid entries in this collection. Interestingly, it was turned into a "Twilight Zone" episode with Lee Marvin in the lead role. Fascinating to read it and then watch the episode. In fact, several of the stories in here feel like they're ready to be translated into "Twilight Zone" episodes.

Several early entries all lead up to that twist or tweak of things that linger with you after the final paragraph is read. However, the misses in this collection outweigh the hits see what I did there?!? There aren't any out and out terrible stories, but there's not really a great one in here either.

Oct 20, Kat Hooper rated it really liked it Shelves: Most were originally published in pulp magazines in the s, though two are recent and have never been collected before. Each is quite short: This one is amusing. This story is intense and moving. The twist ending to this story is ironic and disturbing.

The Stories

Morton's Folly" — , Vice Magazine Another horror story about a dentist treating a man who refuses to let him extract his left canine tooth Dick and Ray Bradbury. Brick seems to be the master of old SFF on audio — he has this style down right and he always does a great job. I recommend Steel and Other Stories for fans of Richard Matheson, s SFF or anyone who wants to become better educated in that genre , and anyone who likes their SFF with a focus on character especially male psychology. Oct 25, Alyssa Nelson rated it really liked it Shelves: I really enjoyed this collection of short stories.

I have never read anything by Matheson before, so I was surprised to find that I actually enjoyed his style and outlook of the world. Of course, some I liked better than others, but overall, I thought they were enjoyable science fiction pieces. Sprinkle it with some happy reading on I really enjoyed this collection of short stories.

Sprinkle it with some happy reading on the side. To be fair, Matheson does add some levity with ironic humor. These are relatively old pieces dated from the 's , but they don't show their age. Instead of focusing on man's downfall from technology-related issues as many science fiction authors from his time period do , Matheson focuses on people themselves. Whether it be how people are their own downfall, or explorations of life and people in general.

What this collection shows is that Matheson is brilliant at creating characters and situations that stick with you. He takes the reader out of his or her comfort zone and plops them down into a strange, Twilight Zone-esque environment. If you're at all a fan of science fiction, you'll love his work. Nov 18, Carmen rated it liked it Recommends it for: This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Short stories of science-fiction.

The story, though, is only about a man and his friend who own a robot that is rundown. The man fights in the place of the robot, secretly during one fight because his robot is too busted to fight. No son, no real plot. The second story is called To Fit the Crime. A very unpleasant man, a poet is dying.

He ends up in hell, which for him is a land of slang. The third story is called The Wedding Short stories of science-fiction. The third story is called The Wedding and it tells of a very superstitious man who makes everyone and himself crazy by making them follow all his bizarre demands. In the end he dies of heart failure from carrying her over the threshold and his wife a non-believer blames Satan. The fourth story is called The Conqueror and is a Western about a young man who moves from the city to the West looking for a fight.

He trained himself to be very fast with guns and sees the West as a romantic setting and ends up getting killed for it.

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The fifth story is called Dear Diary and it is very short — just three diary entries, one from the s, one from the s and one from cave days. They are all from a female perspective and show that no matter what time you live in, you long for a better one. Sixth is Descent, a tale about everyone having to go live underground because a bomb is going to be dropped and no one will be able to live on the surface anymore.

A couple has a very destructive and mischievous one-year-old not evil, mind you, just trouble. The mom is convinced that he needs a playmate and buys a robot one-year-old to help out. But their biological kid is a bad influence on the robot and it starts misbehaving. In the end, the parents decide to kill off their son and keep the robot The last line tells that it lasts until the robot short-circuits in college due to a sexual encounter.

A humorous ending to a dark story. Eighth is the Traveller, a surprising religious entry into this text. A man agrees to be part of a time traveling experiment and gets transported back to Jesus' crucifixion. The man is an atheist, but he is very moved by Jesus' selflessness and gentleness. The story is strange, because it seems to convert an atheist to Christianity, and yet it seems also to be saying that there is nothing supernatural about Jesus — that he was an amazing, astonishing, selfless person, but not the son of God. A man believes he is the only survivor of the apocalypse. Fancying himself a poet, he starts writing poems about it.

When another man comes up to him, the poet kills him because he thinks the man is trying to steal his stuff. Tenth is the Splendid Source, about a man who is determined to find out where dirty jokes originate. They end up hiring him. Kind of a 'joke' story. Eleventh is Lemmings, a very short story about the end of the world. Thirteenth is A Visit to Santa Claus, a very dark story about a man who hires an assassin to kill his wife, near Christmas, so he can get the life insurance policy and run off with his younger lover.

He plans for the hit to happen when he takes his son to visit Santa Claus. But something goes wrong I am still not sure what and his wife is waiting for him when he gets out. Morton's Folly, about a vampire who goes to the dentist. Last is The Window of Time about a man who goes to a rest home only to find out that it offers him a way to travel to his past.

Overall, quite a wide variety of stories that I rather enjoyed. Dick , Richard Matheson's work seems fabulous fodder for the film industry: This is probably no surprise as his Like Philip K. This is probably no surprise as his screenwriting career was equally extensive, so he likely had an inside edge in terms of getting his work translated from print to screen.

Matheson penned one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek , several episodes for The Twilight Zone, most notably, Nightmare at 20, Feet which gave me horrible nightmares as a child--thanks, Richard , and even an episode of Family Guy the splendid source for this episode was, naturally, the short story The Splendid Source, included in this collection , of all things. And that's just a small sample. As has occurred before, I went to Matheson's source material in the hope that it would offer insights the film did not and probe themes the cinematic treatment touched upon but did not fully explore.

For example, the possibility that the plucky, scrap-heap robot, Atom, had developed consciousness. For the second time in as many tries, I was severely disappointed. There's no questioning Matheson's imagination. You can't have a pantheon of works of such breadth without it. But where What Dreams May Come came across as agonizingly meticulous many of these stories came across as thought orphans, or treatments of ideas that he might explore more fully later, abandoned after a single chapter.

I haven't yet read I Am Legend, yet, though I want to, but given my experiences so far I'm a bit reluctant to take that plunge.

Commander Steel

Apr 23, John added it Shelves: I've never delved into any Matheson, and so this collection of short stories has been both my introduction to his work, and a delightful surprise. The narrative styles, perspectives, and topics covered are surprisingly diverse, and despite the fact that 13 of the 15 stories were written in the 's, there are very few elements that feel "dated".

Standout tales for me include "To Fit The Crime", in which the cynical, hate-filled protagonist spews torrents of deliciously creative insults at every I've never delved into any Matheson, and so this collection of short stories has been both my introduction to his work, and a delightful surprise. Standout tales for me include "To Fit The Crime", in which the cynical, hate-filled protagonist spews torrents of deliciously creative insults at everyone around him while on his deathbed, and "The Splendid Source", an exceeding fun story with several laugh-out-loud moments about one man's quest to find the source of the dirty jokes in the world yes, this was redone in an episode of The Family Guy.

The quality here ranges from merely okay to excellent, but there are no true duds in the bunch, and this is a swift read. Recommended for anyone interested in sci-fi or weird fiction, especially if you haven't experienced Matheson's work beyond all that has been converted into visual media. Feb 03, Ron rated it really liked it Shelves: As with any collection of short stories, there are some good ones and some not so good ones.

It is interesting to read the story Steel and the compare it to the movie Real Steel. Let's just say that they weren't very similar. Enjoyed this collection a lot. Didn't realize my appreciation for Matheson. Definitely looking to read more by him. This is a review of Steel: It's 30 minutes long but really well done. The movie Real Steel was not true to the story. It would have been really cool to see Hugh Jackman whip out his Wolverine claws! Mar 28, Norman Howe rated it liked it Shelves: An interesting array of stories.

Is there any genre in which Richard Matheson has not written a landmark tale? I keep mistaking his works for stories by other writers. Feb 28, Jojo rated it it was ok Shelves: As a fan of "I am legend" I took on the book that seemed interesting, as I read story after story it seemed to be getting less and less interesting. I did enjoy, maybe 4 stories but again left me unsatisfied. Nov 27, Jessie Seagull rated it it was amazing.

Sep 25, Jordan Lundy rated it really liked it. Great but of sci-fi, and a couple human mental state explorations. Jun 19, B.

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