Everybody who appreciates horror fiction should have a Joseph Payne Brennan collection on their nightstand. His short fiction is expertly designed for late night reading when the dark is peering in through the cracks in the blinds and something is scratching at the window that might or might not be a tree branch. Widely published in the late fifties up until the 70's, Brennan perfected the pulp horror tale with unmatched skill. In the introduction to this particular anthology, Stephen King describes Brennan as one of the masters of pulp horror fiction and he is right on the money. (And when I use the word "pulp", I use it with all the respect and reverence the classification deserves. Forget about the literary snobs who use the word as an insult.) THE SHAPES OF MIDNIGHT contains two of his classics "Slime" and "Canavan's Backyard" which King praises as the literary equal to Faulkner's "A Rose For Emily". Brennan's work is full of ancient Egyptian curses, things that crawl from the swamp, eyes under the bed, and the collision of reality and nightmare in the mundaness of every day life. Brennan is an author to seek out if you care about horror fiction and enjoy reading under the covers with a flashlight. His work is also great for reading out loud to your significant other late at night, shivering under the covers.

Even if we had only this one book by which to assess J.P. Brennan, there would be no doubt that he is one of the modern masters of the horror short story. "Canavan's Back Yard" is probably one of the top horror stories of the century. Almost as effective are "Slime", "The Green Parrot", and "On the Elevator". Brennan's style is lean and unpretentious, and his evocation of a chilly atmosphere is excellent. His chilly plots are even better. Highly recommended.

I have been a fan of Mr Howard for nearly 12 years now, which in my opinion, makes me a bit of a connoisseur, and frankly this book was a bit of a disappointment. Undoubtedly the contributing writers are well-respected and immensely able but their writing lacked the Howardian flavour I have come to love. Ghor's sudden personality shifts are hard to follow and the various ideas in the story lack sufficient depth. This book is not the way Mr Howard would have written it. Nevertheless, this should be read because the original idea belonged to the great REH.

Ghor is a nice blend of Conan and the Cthulhu Mythos together. Abandoned as a child because of a deformity, Ghor is adopted by a pack of wolves. Raised by them, he adopts the ways of the wolf, yet when he meets up with humanity joins them. Constantly struggling with his wolf upbringing and his human surroundings, Ghor becomes a mighty war hero wherever he goes.

This is an excellent adventure book that takes a Conan like hero and plots him against all sorts of evil (and good), including some Cthulhu creations as well.

Originally Ghor was an unfinished story by Conan creator Robert Howard. Upon finding this unfinished story, a magazine decided to finish it. What they did was have a different chapter every month written by a different top fantasy writer. It made the reading interesting.

While most of the chapters were great. Some were excellent. Unfortunately there were a couple chapters that I just wanted to get through to reach the next writers' chapter. Overall a really good read.

I WAS VERY SUPRISED ABOUT HOW WELL THIS STORY CAME OFF. THE VARIUOS WRITERS DID AN EXCELLENT JOB IN WRITING AN EXCITING BOOK THAT FLOWED SMOOTHLY. IT DID NOT COME OFF AS A SERIES OF SHORT STORIES. THIS IS AN EXCELLENT BOOK FOR ROBERT E. HOWARD FANS, AND FANS OF FANTASY IN GENERAL.

this book opens with blackwood's great story: the wendigo. B is the master of the setting, noone can create the background and atmosphere like him. a very well written story from Brennan here. and Meloff's story is also an interesting read. derleth is at his best here. i don''t care that much for the guy, have never considered him to be HPL's great successor or anything, but he knows how to write, and i have always considered his story about Ithaqua to be his best contribution. the rest of the stories are well written. i don't think any of chaosium's anthologies contains of so much good writing than this. but good is not great. and the rest of the stories never turns out to be really good. the suspence killed by irrelevant writing going on for too long, mostly. sad. but the book is still wort reading