Some of the short stories in this collection are very good. "Soft" by F. Paul Wilson and "Metastasis" by Dan Simmons are excellent examples. Others like "The Vaults of Yoh Vombis" and "The man with a thousand legs" (sorry last reviewer) are exceedingly bad. My advice: if you find it on sale or used, pick it up and read a story or two in your spare time between novels.

Most of the stories that were chosen for this anthology were masterpieces of horror and wonder, such as "Colour Out of Space" by H.P. Lovecraft, or "Orange is For Anguish, Blue For Insanity" by David Morrell, and so I must give high praise for this terrifying collection of horror's finest. But there are also some exceptionally bad stories that were included for reasons unknown, like the preposterous "The Man With a Thousand Legs," by Frank Belknap Long, and a so-called Sci-fi story that excludes any real science called "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis," by Clark Ashton Smith. The inclusion of these two leaves me no choice but to deduct a star from what would otherwise have been a perfect rating. Four Stars. A must read, nonetheless.

I just got done reviewing the "Sceince Fiction Hall of Fame" which I think is the first best anthology of all time. But this even though it's quite a bit newer is a close second. Don't Listen to the first reviwer "man with a thousand legs" was a great storey and "vault of Yoh Vombis" was even better. Most of the stories in this anthology are spectacular including "Hell-fire" which in my opinion is one of the best short fiction storey's I have ever ever ever read. "Nightmare Gang" was another great storey especially since I have NO respect for Koontz but with this storey credit and quite a lot is due to him, a very good piece.

Definitly a must buy!!!

This collection was put together shortly after the Year One reboot. The good stories ignore it, paying at most a one-line token reference to Selina having a dubious past (now mercifully retconned - AMEN!). Still, the best stories are not able to present the smart, classy, sophisticated character true Cat-fans (not to mention Bat-fans) expect.

This book is a must have for any true Catwoman fan, and it couldnt hurt for Bat fans to give it a spin as well. One of the very few existing collections of Catwoman stories in book form instead of comic-book (sequential art) form, and provides wonderful variety. I agree with above in that not all of the stories are my favorite, and there was a few I intensely disliked; however also included are a few gems - what I feel are some of the best Catwoman/Batman tales written,in ANY media. Try "A Knight at the Opera", "Catwomen", "Creatures of Habit", and "The City that could not Breathe"...you wont regret it. This book is worth searching for. Meow!

I read this book about 7-10 years ago. I thought that it was a really good book and I still do. It's stories are inticing and exciting. I think that every Batman and Catwoman fan should read it.

You have to try pretty hard to convince me that anything new or interesting can be done with vampires.

SISTERS OF THE NIGHT is a collection of fifteen stories concerning female vampires, and for the most part, it doesn't try hard enough. Contained within are stories of vampires among the homeless, a dying elderly man who is visited by the vampire lover who left him decades before, a couple old world vampire tales and a detective story. There is also an excerpt from one of Larry Niven's RINGWORLD novels -- a questionable practice, as it invariably ends up looking like an advertisement for another book, as well as making it seem like the editor couldn't find enough new material to fill the page count.

There may be variety to an extent, but few of the stories are original enough or good enough to be memorable afterward. I often found myself bored as I paged through most of them. One exception is Tanith Lee's "La Dame," which offers something truly different by broadening the definitions of both "vampire" and "female." The other is Steve and Melanie Tem's "Mama," which is the type of perverse familial horror story at which both authors always excel.

If vampires in any form still fascinate you, you'll probably want to pick up this volume as you'll surely enjoy it. If, like me, you think the vampire subgenre should be laid to rest at last, pass on it or check out the above mentioned entries only. Note: Lee's story also appears in Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling's YEAR'S BEST anthology for 1995. Unfortunately, the Tems didn't make it.

If you are one of the vast number of people who are fascinated by vampire fiction, and do not have a particular prejudice against female lead characters, you will almost certainly find this an excellent read. There are a wide range of different concepts here, from the relatively traditional vampire in Barbara Hambly's "Madeline" and M. John Harrison's "Empty", to the very offbeat and high-tech "Song of the Night People" by Larry Niven. Along the way, we meet tormented souls struggling against their nature ("In the Blood", by Michael Kurland), kind and loving immortals little different from humans save for the fact that they don't age ("Tumbling Down The Nighttime", by Dean Wesley Smith), a light-hearted spoof ("Survival Skills", by Deborah Wheeler), and even a vampiric ship ("La Dame", by Tanith Lee). All of the stories are extremely well-written, and the collection as a whole is well-edited (I found only one copyediting mistake in the entire book, almost unheard-of these days).

Highly recommended for anyone with a liking (or even a lack of antipathy) for the subject matter. Some of the best vampire fiction I've read.

Fourteen original short stories by award-winning authors such as Tanith Lee, Jane Yolen, Larry Niven and Barbara Hambly explore a dark sisterhood of blood. The past, the present and the future are all stalking grounds for these women who hunt the night. Hambly and Greenberg have taken a rather simple subject - female vampires - and collected fourteen tales from a diverse group of authors, which seek to illuminate the life, if it can be called life, of the female of a deadly, and sensual species.

As Hambly says in her introduction, there was no way to know in advance what she would find. Would the stories sent by men be dramatically different in focus and treatment from those of the women writers? And in the end, it seems to me that for the most part, there is a kind of unity of thought expressed in these stories which are at the same time, all quite different from each other. That unity - a real sense of what it means to be female first and foremost - is the thread that truly makes this volume fascinating. These creatures are women first, and vampires second.

In this volume you'll find all manner of vampire. Michael Kurland checks in with the most familiar take on the subject in his old-world, but deliciously perverse "In the Blood." Diana Paxson gives us a myth with the feel of a Norse saga and Pat Cadigan scrapes nerve endings raw with a contemporary tale of life and death on the trash-heap in "Sometimes Salvation." Tanith Lee offers her special brand of slow, languid, gorgeous horror in "La Dame" and George Alec Effinger even manages to work in a little cyberpunk with "Marid and the Trail of Blood. To my way of thinking, though, the true stand-out in this book is the last, shortest story, a powerful, stark, wrenching piece entitled "Sister Death" by Jane Yolen. If any of the stories have you in tears by the end, it will be this one.

If you're a fan of vampires or of horror, this book is a good bet. There's something for every taste here, and the over-all theme is well served by the editorial choices. Buy it.

The title is quite clever, although a little misleading. There isn't a lot of Christmas involved -- of course, with Holmes, there wouldn't be. Some stories are, as usual, better than others. Some are downright bad. A few have the distressing tendency that some Holmes "fans" have to glorify, or at least "redeem" Watson. Let's face it, true Holmes fans don't read the stories to hear about Watson! Despite a few clinkers, this is a pretty good book -- but I wish it had been available in paperback!

My comments are organized by author, rather than in order of appearance. For some of the best stories, I haven't said much, since they're hard to praise without giving away pieces of the plot.

Two of the stories tackle the same theme: the person who inherited the firm of Scrooge & Marley begins having ghostly visitations and consults Holmes. (A priori, they're not ghosts but something else, so that Holmes works out how the trick was done.) Crider's version of the story strikes me as being the stronger of the two.

Breen, Jon L. "The Adventure of the Canine Ventriloquist" - A VERY long-winded client (a professional writer customarily paid by the word) is the victim of either supernatural events, or a tortuous scheme of persecution. Unfortunately, the client blathers on SO long when engaging Holmes that I lost interest, despite Watson's (unspoken and derogatory) opinions of professional vs. amateur writers.

Crider, Bill "The Adventure of the Christmas Ghosts" - One of two variations on a theme; this one seems the stronger of the two. Franklin Scrooge, who inherited the firm of Scrooge & Marley, has begun having experiences like those of his uncle 40 years before. His description of Scrooge's meeting with Marley for the skeptic Holmes and Watson deliberately mimics Dickens' setting of the early scene. S: "Marley was dead. There can be no doubt about that." H: "And how did he die?" (Interesting line of thought, that.) There is a continuity error - Scrooge's great-nephew, as his *sister's* grandson, would not have the same surname - but other than that, the story is well-handled.

DeAndrea, William L. "The Adventure of the Christmas Tree" - Why did someone steal, then return, the tree being shipped from the Duke's Scottish estate while in transit? (The client isn't the Duke, but his forester, who can't rest until the matter is cleared up.)

Douglas, Carole Nelson "The Thief of Twelfth Night" - I recommend this to any fan of Douglas' Irene Adler novels.

Estleman, Loren D. "The Adventure of the Three Ghosts" - Lord Chislehurst (born "Tiny" Tim Cratchit) acquired Scrooge's old firm a decade ago, when Scrooge's generosity brought it to the brink of ruin. (His business acumen grew as Scrooge's declined, buying him into the Peerage.) Now ghostly visitations have begun appearing to *him*. Weaker than Crider's version; the characters, for one thing, seem less realistic.

Hill, Reginald "The Italian Sherlock Holmes" - At the conclusion of a case in Italy, Holmes suffers a nervous collapse, which keeps him and Watson in Rome over Christmas. A would-be imitator, scraping acquaintance with him, is taught a lesson.

Hoch, Edward D. "The Christmas Client" - Charles Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll) is being blackmailed by a fellow mathematics professor - one James Moriarty. Enough to interest Holmes even on Christmas Day...

Linscott, Gillian "A Scandal in Winter" - The only story not narrated by Watson. After a sudden death at the ski resort the previous year, rumor condemned the widow of murder - one Irene MacAvoy. Upon her defiant reappearance this year, two older gentlemen at the resort seek to find out what really happened, by questioning the only witness - the narrator, a child. Stylistically, of course, it isn't like the Holmes canon, but if one doesn't insist on that, it's a rather good story.

Moffat, Gwen "The Adventure in Border Country" Clement Daw's neighbour, Mrs. Aubrey, seeks Holmes' help in discovering what happened to her husband, who went out to the stables on a snowy night and hasn't been seen since. Some of Watson's commentary regarding Mrs. Aubrey's family may seem rather disturbing, incidentally.

Paul, Barbara "The Sleuth of Christmas Past" At first, this story may remind the reader of 'The Solitary Cyclist': high praise, to sound like Doyle's original. The death of Amy Stoddard's father, a spice importer, has left her an heiress, in a modest way, but she hasn't come to Holmes about that; she's familiar with the business, having served as her father's transcriber due to his horrible handwriting. Now some of his old friends are behaving suspiciously, and her fiance may be no better. But who is lying to whom?

Perry, Anne "The Watch Night Bell" - This doesn't have the usual trappings that accompany Perry's Victorian-era detective stories; she's adapted her tone to fit Doyle's work. On this occasion, poor Holmes has to cope with the worst type of female client: a fluffbrained, pretty young woman who can't seem to think straight long enough to get to the point. She fears that her sister may be plotting to murder their father. Some very clever plot twists in this one.

Stroessel, John "The Yuletide Affair" - Lestrade and his merry men, seeking Watson's medical help while Holmes is out on another case, give him a chance to shine on his own. Holmes has only a bit part in this, at the end.

Wheat, Carolyn "The Adventure of the Angel's Trumpet" - A barrister who once persuaded a jury to disregard Holmes' evidence now seeks his help for a client on trial for poisoning her grandfather. Since Holmes appears so long after the event, there's a lot of "tell" as opposed to "show".

Williamson, J. N. "The Adventure of the Man Who Never Laughed" (Contains an entertaining digression about Holmes' proposed image of Father Christmas for the artist Thomas Nast, and another about Charles Fort.) The sister of the title character seeks Holmes' services to find out what's wrong.

Most of these pastiches range from good to very good. And I personally loved "The Yuletide Affair," which is a Watson case. Most of the others were enjoyable also. Unfortunately, two writers decided to incorporate "A Christmas Carol" into their stories which got redundant quickly. "A Scandal in Winter" was also a demerit to this book. If not for those three stories, I would have given five stars instead of four.

I came to the anthology Miskatonic University with the expectation of finding some bad pastiche. What I found instead were some interesting stories that brought a fresh approach to Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Mort Castle's story, "Teachers," was a moving tribute to the late Robert Bloch. "Her Misbeggon Son" by Alan Rodgers was the more interesting of the two sequels to Lovecraft's "Dreams in the Witch House" and an interesting take on Mythos fatalism. "The Smile of a Mime" was a horrific portrait of just what sort of students might want to attend Miskatonic. All in all, a well-above-average effort for people following in Lovecraft's footsteps

I think I was drawn to this book because I wish that such a place as Miskatonic University really existed. Think of it, a place where both conventional science and the occult could be seriously studied side-by-side. Now that's an interdisciplinary approach to education....

I ordinarily do not read "theme" collections of short stories, especially when I have never heard of most of the contributors. However, in this case it works. The theme seems to have inspired the writers to do some exceptional work. It may not be Lovecraft, but for the most part it is in the spirit of the master by people who understand and appreciate his work.

There are thirteen stories (how appropriate) to this collection, plus an introduction from the President of the university. This intro in briefly describing the mission, history, and facilities of Miskatonic really sets the tone and atmosphere for the rest.
Heck, I'm tempted to mail out a transcript to Miskantoic University, Arkham, Massachusetts- if I only had the zip code....

Even though these stories were not written by H.P. Lovecraft. They are definitely worth reading. Pure fright and fun.

In this new anthology Martin H. Greenberg uses a gimmick that I've seen before, but one which still has legs. He has selected several prominent SF writers of the present day, and asked them to choose one favorite SF story. Their choices form this anthology.

Ideally, an anthology of this nature should have two aims: one, simply to present a collection of outstanding stories, to participated, if you will, in the process of SF canon-forming. Secondarily, the anthology might throw light on the influences on the selecting writers. It might suggest what stories appeal to writers, as possibly opposed to readers (something in the way that the Nebula Awards do), and it might illustrate the development process of the field. It doesn't really appear that Greenberg had any special intent to reinforce this secondary aim, however. For one thing, the authors chosen to select stories are not a particularly homogeneous group, either in age or in being members of any identifiable "school" or "movement". In addition, the stories chosen seem for the most part to be chosen as favorite reads, not so much as influences. This is not really a complaint, just an observation: what we are left with, thus, is mostly an anthology of the first type, a canon-building anthology.

I've been reading SF for quite some time now, and I've always liked short fiction, so the bulk of these stories are familiar to me. I was pleased to reread Theodore Sturgeon's "The Man Who Lost the Sea" for the umpteenth time: this story, Clarke's selection, may well have been mine if I were eligible to choose a story for a similar anthology. This is one of the most moving of all SF stories, and its theme lies at the heart of SF: the desire to keep exploring, the value of exploration for its own sake.

Other prominent selections include Frederick Pohl's brilliant story of what humans might become in the very far future, "Day Million" (chosen by Haldeman); C. M. Kornbluth's mordant SF Hall of Fame tale, "The Little Black Bag" (Pohl's choice), about a present day doctor discovering medical tools from the future, and the bitter misuse to which they are put; and Howard Waldrop's Nebula-winning tale of the fate of the last dodos, "The Ugly Chickens", (chosen by Turtledove). Also from the SF Hall of Fame are Lester del Rey's "Nerves", "A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley Weinbaum, and "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" by Cordwainer Smith. Each of these stories is famous, thus familiar. But at the same time each is famous for good reason, and I was happy to reread them. Certainly there is no harm in reprinting them again.

The other selections are by and large fine stories as well. I was happy to see a couple of choice I wasn't familiar with, and which were pretty good: Ward Moore's "Lot" and Gordon Dickson's "Black Charlie". I felt that the second Kornbluth story ("The Only Thing We Learn", chosen by David Drake) was a bit obvious, and nowhere near the quality of his best work, and the pieces by Eric Frank Russell ("Diabologic") and Robert Sheckley ("Untouched by Human Hands") were also somewhat slight, to my taste. Again, both writers have certainly produced stories that belong in anthologies like this. And Norman Kagan's "The Mathenauts" (Greg Bear's choice), while full of fascinating ideas, doesn't really work as a story. But four merely minor stories out of a collection like this is no great weakness, especially as I'm sure the next reader will feel differently than I do. And any collection that includes the stories I've mentioned, as well as "Common Time" by James Blish, Keith Laumer's early Bolo story "The Last Command", Barry Malzberg's metafictional "A Galaxy Called Rome", and Roger Zelazny's moving "The Engine at Heartspring's Center", is well worth your seven dollars.

This book is the kind which should be judged not only for the value of its content, but also for the underlying message that it contains as a whole. In other words, it is more than just a collection of stories. As the reader finishes each tale, he or she should ask the question, "Besides whether or not I myself enjoyed this story, what about it could have inspired someone to make the decision to become a writer of science fiction?" Although some might make more critical evaluations, most people should find that each entry has a common answer: the author loved his work and wanted to convey that to the reader. "Favorite" is a very subjective word, and this book is absolutely subjective. No one will agree on every story being high quality, but everyone will agree that, somewhere, we all hold a science fiction story dear to our heart. This book is good reading, if only for the joyful presentation of the genre.

This is a spectacular anthology. The selection ranges from terrific to good to awful, but the terrific and good stories far outweigh the three substandard stories. I suggest skipping over the bad stories, which are: "The Mathenauts" by Norman Kagan (selected by Greg Bear), "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" by Cordwainer Smith (selected by Lois McMaster Bujold), and -- quite unexpectedly -- "A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley G. Weinbaum (selected by L. Sprague de Camp). Actually, the low quality of an occasional story is understandable, since the writer making the selection might be choosing based not on any inherent quality but on the impact it made on him/her. (In fact, Greg Bear suggests as much in his introduction to "The Mathenauts", and even admits the story's lack in that which is usually defined as quality.)

But aside from those three, the rest of the anthology is amazing. My personal recommendations are... too long to list here without lapsing into monotony, but here are are a few hints: Theodore Sturgeon's "The Man Who Lost the Sea" (selected by Arthur C. Clarke), Eric Frank Russell's "Diabologic" (selected by Andre Norton), Ward Moore's "Lot" (selected by Connie Willis), and Roger Zelazny's "The Engine at Heartspring's Center" (selected by Gregory Benford). Oops: listed more than I meant to. Just goes to show how many of the stories in this volume I enjoyed immensely.

And since not nearly all of the "name authors" available in SF have been exhausted, I look forward to future volumes constructed along the same scheme. I can't wait.

There is no end to the mediocrity in this book. The stories are half-baked, the plots badly executed. A couple stories are okay, except that they ought to have been longer. Perhaps they were forced into short stories rather than taking on their natural form. Do not waste your money on this. If you are a fan of one of the authors in this book, go read something better written by them somewhere else.

Courage comes in many forms, and the women in these wonderful short stories display every possible manifestation. This is a brilliant collection of warrior-woman/fantasy tales. Do yourself a favor women, read this book and not only be entertained, but be inspired.

I can't even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this anthology. Best bet is for all Xena and Buffy fans out there(and the wonderful Annie Scarborough is one too!) to buy it.. read it..GIRL POWER!! yeah!

I bought this book because I love fantacy novels. Although, the stories are well written and classics. The book reminded me of assigned literature from english class, a bit dry. I did find a couple of stories cute, but not great. This book is easy to put down. If you wish to know the evolution of fanticy novels then you would enjoy this book.

This book has a variety of well chosen stories, with the exception of "Stealing God" which I did not like. The writers have chosen works that are classic yet show a great variety. Must reads include the two Vance stories, the Harrison, and the Zelazny. This book is a good safe bet for the fantasy fan.

This is a very good fantasy anthology. It's got excellent stories like 'Troll Bridge' by Pratchett, 'Stealing God' by Doyle & Macdonald, 'Liane the Wayfarer' by Vance, 'More Spinned Against' by Wyndham, and the classic 'Unicorn Variations' by Zelazny.

Not all of the stories are excellent. I didn't enjoy the older ones (I always have a difficult time with pre-1900 fantasy) by Ingelow, Dickens, or M.R. James. The Harrison story had so much information in it that it was difficult to follow.

What makes this anthology stand out from others are the short introductions given by other authors in which they explain why they enjoy that particular story. They don't always go into great detail (Marion Zimmer Bradley and Tanya Huff wrote very short pieces, but the intros by Donaldson and George R.R. Martin were particularly interesting.

This anthology brought several good stories to my attention that I likely would never have otherwise read, notably the Wyndham and Doyle/Macdonald pieces. There's a lot of good fiction in here for a low price. Check it out.

I am a Twilight Zone fan. However, I am a fan of the original Zone with Rod Serling at the helm. This book is a collection of stories from the TZ aired in the 1980s. Unfortunately, in my opinion, these stories are NOT Twilight Zone stories. They are stories of the supernatural with the name Twilight zone attached to them.
If you enjoyed the new TZ from the 1980s, this will be well worth your money. However, if you only think of the Twilight zone as the original show with Mr. Serling, you will probably be disappointed.

The problem with this book is that while you think your're getting 21 short stories, you're really short stories that were made for tv scripts. For instance, "I of Newton" is only four pages long, and you wonder how they got an hour of programming out of some of these short stories. Also, if you are a fan of sci fi, you've probably read some of these stories before, like "Nightcrawlers" by Robert McCammon. But overall I like the stories I hadn't read. "Examination Day" ought to be standard reading in school, if for nothing less than to scare the bejeezus out of school children.

For fans of the show (which ran from 1985-88) the best thing about this book is definitely the Introduction "Two Years in the Twilight Zone" by Alan Brennert. On about 16 pages he describes how he came to work on the show, what working for it was like, what happened when it finally got cancelled and most interestingly he makes some remarks about the dreaded third season, which was done for half the budget by completely different people and he talks about the editing process of the first two seasons. After the introduction you get 21 stories from the show, which are interesting in their own right since sometimes they differ a lot from the final product.

The Ultimate Dinosaur is an ambitious book, one that seeks to alternate sections on the latest theories on the origin, lives, and deaths of dinosaurs as well as pterosaurs and prehistoric marine reptiles, all written by such noted experts as George Olshevsky, Sankar Chatterjee, and others, with dinosaur-themed science fiction short stories by such authors as Charles Sheffield, Gregory Benford, and Harry Turtledove. A great concept.

Unfortunately it was rather unevenly carried out. The non-fiction sections are quite good, though a few are relatively dry to read. I did learn a few things reading these sections, and alone they just about make the book worthwhile. There were some interesting discussions over the relationship of prosauropods and sauropods for instance, and there was a great article on migrating dinosaurs.

However the short stories vary alot in style and quality, some quite good, other more moderately decent, and a few frankly terrible and hard to get through. The short stories and non-fictions are paired together, and it looks like they found it difficult to find a short story to put with some of the non-fiction sections.

Though this may only apply to the hard-cover edition which I have, I feel I must point out the book was either poorly edited, which I find suprising, or poorly published. The book was replete with words that were run together, misplaced punctuation, odd gaps in sentences, and even misspelled words. They were so common at times that it was jarring and irritating. While many books have one or two such errors, there were many of them in this work. Hopefully the paperback version cleared this up.

Having said that though this was still not a bad book and a worthwhile one to get, though frankly I would not place at the top of the list of books to fill your dinosaur needs. Still, wouldn't be bad to have either.

I have always been a big dinosaur lover, and in this book, Silverberg, Dobson, and Zimmerman really bring these creatures to life. I loved every page. This is a book for both kids and the paleontologist.

big names in science and sf coupled with top paleoartists!